Sophie Ellis-Bextor and other stars have got involved with a wonderful new series of mindfulness stories specially designed for toddlers
You might know Sophie Ellis-Bextor for her 2001 hit Murder on the Dancefloor, but at the moment she’s hitting for the mic for an entirely different reason.
Working with Decca Records and musician Lotte Mullan, she’s now playing a part in a new mindfulness project aimed at taming busy-minded and energetic toddlers.
Calm Kids is a new series of stories that aims to combat the typical nightly struggles associated with bedtime routines, and Sophie – alongside a list of other well-known faces – says she jumped at the chance to get involved.
The singer-songwriter, who can be heard voicing ‘Dezzy The Grumpy Dragon’, revealed that her children adored listening to her read the story: “With five children in our home, bedtime can be madness. You never know what an evening might bring and it can be so different from one day to the next.”
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“Calm Kids is such an amazing project! To be part of [something] that can help make bedtime routines that little bit calmer has been fantastic. I knew I had to be involved.”
Alongside Sophie Ellis-Bextor, other narrators in the series include Tom Cox, the founder of Unlikely Dad, who voiced ‘The Cranky Cactus and The Crying Owl’, and actress Victoria Grove, who had a small part in BBC’s The Bodyguard.
Speaking about the inspiration behind her project, Calm Kids founder Lotte said that the idea came about as a means to calm her ‘feral toddler’.
“I tried more traditional mindful exercises, but as a wild three-year-old he couldn’t have been less interested in sitting still and concentrating on breathing in and out. I had to find a way in with humour and the kind of slapstick silliness that appeals to toddlers.”
“Dezzy The Grumpy Dragon, The Cranky Cactus, and The Greedy Unicorn are fun characters who captured my son’s imagination enough for him to be oblivious to the fact he was being lulled into a light hypnosis for slumber,” Lotte adds.
“I’m happy to report that said feral toddler is now somewhat tamed and goes to sleep at 7pm for 12 hours… and I just about have my sanity back!”
There’s a total of six stories in the series, including Sophie Ellis Bextor’s ‘Dezzy The Grumpy Dragon’, with episodes released weekly on Apple Music, Google Play, Spotify, YouTube and other outlets. Listen here.
Read More:
- The Terrible Twos: How to Tackle Your Toddler’s Tricky Behaviour
- The Best Parenting Podcasts to Listen to Right Now
- Check out Giovanna Fletcher’s new CBeebies Show
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