In-Person: Mindful Kids Series
with Margrit Pittman-Polletta, Gala Narezo, and Ian Sicks
Featuring the children’s book Anh’s Anger by Gail Silver
Saturday, February 7th, 2026 | 11:00am – 12:30pm ET (new time)
In-Person Location: New York Insight at 115 West 29th Street, 12th Floor
Please note: This program’s time has been updated. It will now take place from 11:00am to 12:30pm ET at New York Insight.
New York Insight Meditation Center invites you to our second 2026 INSIGHT FAMILY PROGRAM — a series of monthly gatherings for parents, caregivers and children!
We are thrilled to continue the series with storytime and sharing. After listening to a read aloud of Anh’s Anger by Gail Silver, children will have the chance to engage in a mindful art and play while parents gather to discuss meeting the joys and challenges of family life with mindfulness. There will be time for sharing and mindful snacks after the two groups come back together.
Over the next five months, we will offer monthly events for families to gather and engage mindfully with different themes, like kindness, courage and peacemaking. Each month’s gathering will feature a mix of storytelling or read-alouds by authors, as well as mindful movement, dialogue, meditation and play. We will begin in one big group for a check in, listen to storytelling, and explore the monthly theme together. Afterwards, children are invited to meet with teachers, work on an art project, experience the joy of community, spaciousness and mindful play.
Parents and caregivers will have the opportunity to meditate together and participate in a dialogue guided by a dharma teacher to explore the joys and challenges of parenting.
View our flyer for dates and details about upcoming sessions in this series:
Mindful Kids Series – January-May 2026
Anh’s Anger
This wonderful and engaging story gives children and caregivers a concrete practice for dealing with anger and other difficult emotions. In Anh’s Anger, five-year-old Anh becomes enraged when his grandfather asks him to stop playing and come to the dinner table.The story unfolds when Anh discovers what it means to sit with his anger to constructively release his thoughts and emotions and to reach resolution with his grandfather.
Gail Silver
Gail Silver, J.D., E-RYT, RCYT, is the author of Mindful Bea and The Worry Tree and the award-winning Anh’s Anger children’s book series. The trilogy includes Anh’s Anger, (winner of the Skipping Stones award for multicultural awareness), Steps and Stones, (nominated for a Bill Martin Jr. Picture Book Award), and Peace, Bugs, and Understanding. Gail currently runs Yoga Child, Inc. and The School Mindfulness Project Inc. You can follow all her news at gailsilver.com.
Registration:
The recommended child age range for this program is 4 – 15. One adult per family may attend free. For example, if two adults and two children will be attending from your family, please select 2 Child tickets and 1 Additional Adult ticket.
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Volunteering
All of our programs rely on volunteers to support our teachers and staff with various tasks and responsibilities. Volunteering allows you to participate in our programs at no cost. To inquire about volunteering opportunities, please fill out our inquiry form, and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
Teacher(s)
Margrit Pittman-Polletta
Margrit is an educator with almost two decades of teaching experience, as well as a dedicated practitioner in the Theravadan lineage of Insight Buddhism, with over 15 years of meditation practice. She finds great joy in sharing with others the path and practices that have been so transformative for her. Margrit teaches with different sanghas, and offers Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction classes. She is a trainee in the current cohort of the Spirit Rock and Insight Meditation Society Teacher Training Program. She lives with her cats in her hometown of Brooklyn, NY.
Gala Narezo
Gala Narezo is a meditation teacher, facilitator, artist, activist, and mother who has been meditating for over thirty years.
Meditation has been the one thing that has consistently helped her feel healthy and productive throughout her life.
She has studied meditation, contemplative and healing practices, breath and body work and life cycle traditions from the perspectives of Taosim, Hinduism, Buddhism, Qi Gong, Chinese martial arts, Yoga, Pranayama, and Mesoamerican cosmology. She is continually looking for ways to incorporate meditation, healing rituals and reflective practices into everyday life to thrive and grow.
She recently finished a masters degree in art education where she focused on incorporating mindfulness to expand educational frameworks and offerings. Her work in art education combines reflective practices, creativity, and social change to design transformational curricula and processes.
Her Mexican-American heritage has given her the gift of calling both New York City and Mexico City home. Much of her teaching is based in Tibetan Buddhist traditions and Mexican indigenous practices. She has learned from many teachers who she is deeply grateful to and for.
Ian Sicks
Ian Sicks has been an insight meditation practitioner for over 10 years. His principal dharma teachers are Devin Berry and Tara Mulay. He is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) specializing in anxiety and panic disorders, with a history of working with adolescents, adults, couples, and individuals who identify as LGBTQ+. Ian holds a Master’s degree in Mental Health Counseling (M.S.Ed) from Hunter College.
Ian served as an instructor for the teen program at the NYC Shambhala Center, creating a welcoming and supportive environment for young meditators for three years. He also participated in a 500-hour meditation teacher training at MNDFL Meditation, led by David Perrin.
Outside of therapy and meditation, Ian enjoys reading, playing music, and spending quality time with family and friends.