Little Renegades Founder Blake Beers Teaches Mindfulness to Kids in a Creative Way
TisBest is on a mission to #RedefineGifting by replacing gifts of stuff with gifts of good. In that spirit, we like to feature heartwarming stories of special people, who are also doing good in this world. We hope it inspires you to spread some kindness and love in your communities.
Like many moms, Blake Beers, mother of two boys, knows firsthand the challenge of getting kids to sit still. Rather than distracting children with screen time, which often leads to sensory overload, she promotes sensory awareness. Blake Beers designed a set of 40 activity cards called Little Renegades, teaching mindfulness through creative play. Each flash card is illustrated with a watercolor animal or object that guides the child through breath work, meditation, and confidence-building skills.
How Does She Do It? It’s All in the Cards
One card, for example, has a picture of a fox. The card instructs the child to pretend to have fox ears and think about what the ears hear. Another card has a picture of a raccoon leading the child to wiggle around as fast as they can and then freeze to find the stillness. After about six months of using the Little Renegades cards with her then 3-year-old son, Henry, Beers witnessed something really cool. “I noticed he [Henry] was getting super revved up about something and he said, ‘Mommy, I just took a deep breath.’ If this whole project was only for that moment, it was worth it.”
A Daily Dose of Mindfulness Yields Lifelong Results
Beers said she has struggled with anxiety most of her life – especially during her 15 years in the high-paced corporate world. Consequently, she spent several years in therapy learning mindfulness tools and ways to find inner peace. Once she became a mother, she wanted to find a way to introduce these topics to children early in life. And, that was the inspiration for Little Renegades. Beers believes teaching mindfulness techniques early on will give children the skills to self-regulate for the rest of their lives.
The Ellen DeGeneres Show Garners National Attention for Little Renegades
Pre-Covid, Beers was featured on the first season of the Ellen Original series Fempire. As a result, the Little Renegades deck was included in the show’s Be Kind box. This gave Beers the financial boost to launch her business, and at just the perfect time. A couple of months later, the nation was thrust into a pandemic. Parents were looking for ways to keep their children grounded during an uncertain time. With national coverage, Beers distributed the Little Renegades deck to over 200,000 families.
Recently, Beers was invited as a guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Then, she was given an opportunity to take her business to the next level. The Ellen DeGeneres Show presented Beers with a $10,000 TisBest check to make her cards accessible to even more families. Beers also received a $5,000 TisBest Charity Gift Card to support the charities that are most meaningful to her. It is a great reminder that we should all be mindful of others’ needs and do our part to make this world a better place. Click here to learn more about Little Renegades, or purchase the deck for the little ones in your life.
Create More Warm Fuzzies!
Join us in the movement to #RedefineGifting by replacing gifts of stuff with gifts of good. If you feel inspired by this heartwarming story, spread a little more love in our world. Send a TisBest Charity Gift Card to those close to your heart so they can pay it forward to a charity that is close to theirs. Or give a card to a stranger as a random act of kindness. Together, you’ll do a world of good.
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