Mindfulness matters at Indigo youth camps

Sophia Cardoza, Chloe Braun and Tavgun Haus try a yoga breathing exercise Friday during the March Break camp at Indigo Lounge. (Chris Abbott Photo)

Chris Abbott, Grant Haven Media

It was another good week for March Break camps in Tillsonburg.

At Indigo Lounge Wellness & Eatery, they annually host week-long camps for March Break and Winter Break, and they run a series of summer camps.

“I think our camps are just a little bit different,” said Kelly Spencer, owner of Indigo Lounge, Friday during the 2026 March Break. “All camps do arts, crafts, games, activities… we focus on themes that are character building and we do activities that enhance mindfulness – yoga and meditation.”

Camp ages are 4-11, consistent with their weekly Young Kids Yoga mindful programs/classes, which includes yoga, meditation, breathing, singing, dancing and crafts.

Children respond ‘naturally,’ she said, to the yoga/meditation programs.

“Mindfulness, in general, I think is becoming part of school curriculums. It has been proven to assist kids to focus, to be more compassionate, to have better inter-personal skills, better emotional regulations and stress management. They love it.

“With the mindfulness and kids, we’ll talk about ‘what stresses you out?’ Because everybody feels stress. What stresses a kid? Getting up in front of the class and talking. When my friend gets mad a me and won’t talk to me. My sibling. Whatever it is, we say ‘OK, those things create stress… let’s talk about the effects stress might have on you.’ They make me sad or I can’t clear my mind and I have trouble sleeping.”

The kids learn breathing techniques or things to do to calm their nervous system.

Classes, indoors, are typically limited to 12. In the summer, usually they’ll have 18-20 participants daily.

“About half of them booked the entire (March Break) week, and the other half selected specific days.

“We keep all of the kids together, no matter what age they are, and we give the older kids a leadership role. So we teach them about setting an example and being a leader. Sometimes we even give them a title (group leader) and they love it.”

At the Indigo Lounge camps, they also try to get the kids outside when the weather is good. It wasn’t ideal Friday with off-and-on rain.

“Today it’ll be tough,” she smiled, “but we watch the hourly (forecasts). It’s one of our focuses, fresh air, because you just don’t see kids outside like they used to.”

During summer camps, they spend a lot of time in shade under trees, unless it’s exceptionally hot when they go indoors.

Arts, games and crafts are still featured in their camps with themes like Beach Party or St. Patrick’s Day or Pajama Day.

“We’ll also do themes of nature and connection to being outside – why it is good. With a nature theme, we’ll try to do a craft accordingly. Like that one,” she said, nodding toward art in her office, flowers hammered on a wax sheet. “Those are real flowers with ink parts. That one, we painted the leaves white, then pressed them.

“A lot of the colouring might be something like a yoga pose.”

The camps, especially summer camps, have been a ‘go-to’ program at Indigo Lounge since it opened 15 years ago, and Spencer plans to continue that tradition.