Rock Painting - Make Your Own Affirmation Stones

Creating Your Own Affirmation Stones 

Are you looking to combine those amazing creative talents alongside positivity with your children?

If so then affirmation stones are pretty much the perfect Mindfulness Activity!

Why Positive Affirmations?

So, why use positive affirmations on stones? Well, for more details on the

power of affirmations

check out my blog all about why they are so useful as part of what I like to call the Mindful Parent Toolbox.

Choosing words that affirm a sense of self and positivity has been used for thousands of years. It is now well documented that when you say words out loud they reinforce in our brains.

Embedding that positive thought or idea into our very being! Powerful stuff. We know from all the research on growth mindset that these positive affirmations and positive language are important at ALL ages.

So, for you guys with the younger kids, now is the time to get those positive thoughts flowing. 

How To Find Your Own Affirmation Stones

I love this mindful activity with my kids.

The photos below are all of the stones that the girls and I created one afternoon. We had the best time, we were there for hours! Stones are readily available, from the beach, garden or country walks. Making a mindfulness walk out of the event, makes this is a mindful activity all of its own. The collecting of the stones becomes its own thing. Try it, when you are next out and about.

Set every one a mission of finding at least 2 stones that they can use. 

Finding them is great fun, everyone is involved and they can choose whatever size, shape or colour they like. The joy is in looking and sharing with each other. It is a free, achievable kids mindfulness activity for any age. 

Your affirmation stones will stand the test of time ff you use the techniques I describe below. You can place your stone outside or inside, rain or shine. How lovely to have that reminder on a cold, wet winter's day, when you head outside and see one of the stones your child made.

It really will put a smile on your face. 

Steps To Create Affirmation Rocks With Your Family

Collect together your supplies. I have a list of equipment that I use and find works really well:

• Paints - Acyclic will give you great coverage.
• Brushes- A mix of brush types 
• Acrylic Pens - Ones with a fine nib are needed otherwise it is really hard to write clearly, or you can get a pack with mixed-size nibs, perfect for colouring and then writing 
• Varnish - Get a good one, as a little goes a long way.
• Stones - You can spend some happy hours collecting your own - it is part of the joy!

Find some positive affirmations you like - again I would use this as a separate activity. Letting every child choose what they want to say is what holds the power.

You can also download my

FREE PRINTABLE AFFIRMATIONS

A4 sheets of positive affirmations for children.

This is a FREE resource that you can use not only for creating affirmation stones, but also to add in some all important daily positivity. 

How To Make Your Affirmation Stones

You need to decide beforehand how long you want to spend on 'getting ready', with preparing the equipment and researching ideas. 

• Wash your stones and ensure that they are fully dried before painting.
• Each person gets the stones that they collected. Along with the affirmations that they have chosen.
• Have a discussion on how they want their affirmation stone to look - you can again make this an activity on its own. Researching through Pinterest is one of our family favourites. I have got lots of ideas on my Mindful Parenting Board if you need inspiration. Or, you can just have a chat about it, maybe they can draw something out on paper first. The process is all part of the fun, some kids love to plan, others just like to get stuck in! This is a great kids craft idea, especially for a rainy day craft session.
  
• You can use plain poster paint, and I would recommend that you varnish your finished affirmation stone after. Even if it is staying indoors, the artwork just lasts longer. I used acrylic paints as they go on better but really just feel free to use what you have at. 
• Pick your chosen design, get each child ready with brushes and always put paper or a tablecloth underneath. This can be a messy process! 
• You can then either paint your stone a specific colour, or write directly onto the bare stone. Either way looks fab. Again you can see in the photo above, we use a mix of styles. 
• Use proper pens for writing. It is much harder than it looks to actually paint words onto the stone. So unless you have that skill, I would suggest you let your kids use pens. I've listed above the ones that we use. Getting special pens then allows you to use them for other creative projects. These can be used on glass, porcelain, tiles and all sort of other surfaces. They look so much better than a simple felt tip! Loads of different ways you can then create more kids mindfulness activities.
• Help out where you need to, but let your kids creativity flow. It does not matter if the words are hard to read, or the paintwork is messy. Just let them enjoy the art of making. 
• Allow your stones to dry thoroughly before coating in a layer of varnish. Leave to dry again and then they are good to go! 
• Place in the garden, by a door, in a bedroom, give as gifts or even leave somewhere for someone to find. I love the idea of the Kindness Rocks - where stones are left for others to find, to cheer up their day. 
• You can always chat with your pre-school or school and see if the class wants to also participate. Having class kindness stones that are left around the school or community is a great project.

The ideas are endless - but it will certainly start you off on getting creative with your rock painting ideas. This is just one way you can get your kids rock painting, and building your own collection of painted affirmation stones. For more ideas on mindfulness crafts for you kids, you can also check out the blog on making your own all

natural toilet bombs

A great mini science experiment that pleases all ages and is super fun. 

Affirmations For Tweens & Teens

For the older kids, although they will still LOVE to create their own stones, their needs are slightly different. As they face the transition through these years, they need more adult language and less childlike. I have a

list of 20 Affirmations for tweens & teens

and you can also purchase printable affirmations with an Affirmation Pack For Tweens in the shop. These are printables that are designed for those kids aged 9-12 who are no longer little kids, but not teens either. Or the pack for Teenagers, you can even print them out and decoupage the rocks! 

Don't be scared to get the older kids involved.

We ALL love to be able to release our creativity.

The joy of the affirmation stones, there is no right or wrong. If it does not go to plan, you just paint it again! My girls even went through an emoji stage (so these ended up on some stones!).

It is about giving them the space to let ideas flow, which this simple rock painting does every time. 

Share Your Affirmation Stones

If you go out and about and create your own kindness rocks, that maybe you leave outside for someone else. Or, paint some for the classroom, or to give a a gift, do share your pictures.

Come over to the Mindful Parenting Facebook Group and let us all see what you have been busy creating with your kids.

There are affiliate links in this blog, I will make a few pennies for any item listed but this in no way affects the price you pay. I only ever endorse products that I use. 

I would love to see what you create - so you can share on the group or over on my Instagram account @rachelhawkes.

Happy creating

x

Rachel 

Rachel Hawkes is a mum to twin teenagers and teaches baby and kids yoga & mindfulness classes, alongside running a business Wellbeing Centre. She is a published author of 2 books relating to Mindful Parenting and loves to share her tips and ideas wherever she can.

How Can I Help You Further?

Have you grabbed the FREE AFFIRMATIONS? 12 glorious, full-colour printables for you to keep. 

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x

Rachel