Mindfulness for Children:

from toddlers to adolescents

This is the best explanation of mindfulness for children that I have yet to find. It's taken from The Mindfulness in Schools Project:

"One of the most succinct and compelling ways of explaining mindfulness to a class full of children is to show them a short clip from Kung Fu Panda.

Po (our hero panda) is feeling very low, his anguished monologue touching on many a 21st century anxiety. He thinks he is rubbish at everything (low self-esteem), he knows he eats too much (eating disorders), he worries a great deal (stress/anxiety), and is now on the verge of giving up his dream of kung-fu glory. Thankfully, the wise old turtle Oogway arrives and gently reprimands the troubled panda:

You are too concerned about what was and what will be. There is a saying: yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the ‘present’.

A look of realisation dawns on Po as he understands that he is worrying about what has happened and what might happen rather than simply being in the present moment, itself a gift that we rarely appreciate.

Not only do kids understand this, it is not a million miles away from definitions of mindfulness that you will find in the books."