Children’s Books | TouchstoneZ

Posts Tagged ‘Children’s Books’

Babars Yoga for Elephants Childrens Book Review

Posted in Book Review, Yoga, tagged Babar's Yoga for Elephants, children's book review, Children's Books, childrens yoga, Kid Lit, kids yoga, Yoga on December 5, 2011 | 2 Comments »

It’s Book Sharing Monday from Smiling Like Sunshine! We read a lot of books in this family and I love hearing from other parents when they come across a book that their kids liked. So, I’m going to be adding weekly posts about books that my kids recommend. Feel free to share any you’ve come across that might be a nice complement to the one I’m reviewing
***

Babar’s Yoga for Elephants

This book begins with the “discovery” of ancient drawings depicting elephants doing yoga. It goes through a short, cute history of elephant Yogis, then dives into Babar doing sun salutations. On the next two double pages, there’s a point by point description of the sequences on the left pages and illustrations of the poses on the right pages. My kids were able to follow along easily and enjoyed making elephant noises while doing sun salutations.

Then there are about 10 more double pages highlighting various poses with instructions and elephant illustrations. My smartypants ds1 noted that the elephant’s pelvis can’t do the poses, but since they were drawings it was okay.

Elephant Yoga

There’s one page about breathing and a short walkthrough of alternate nostril pranayama, which an elephant can do simply by twisting his trunk. There are several funny illustrations of elephants popping into yoga poses in various places (“like you, mama!”) and then the elephants travel around the world demonstrating yoga poses and why they are important to practice during times of stress like delayed planes, traffic, and in using the body to connect with the place you are. For example, Warrior pose at the Eiffel Tower and cobra pose near the Golden Gate Bridge.

We looked up all the places on the map and practiced the poses when we found them. It actually got them interested in learning more about the places, so we spent several hours looking at photos on the computer and discussing what were man-made and what were natural formations. Our discussions touched on architecture, art, engineering, geology, geography, weathering, pollution, travel, and patience.

It has been quite a rewarding book. Above all though, this book reinforces the idea that Yoga is a way to calm and center yourself. Through breathing, postures, and meditation, you can connect to yourself and to the world around you in a more pleasant, connected way. My kids got this message more clearly, I think, because it was shown through elephants, instead of people.

Review of Little Yoga and Sleepy Little Yoga Books (touchstonez.com)
Namaste! Book Review (touchstonez.com)
Tiger, Tiger, Is It True? Book Review (touchstonez.com)
All Children’s Book Reviews on TouchstoneZ (touchstonez.com)

Have you read any good books lately? I’d love to hear from you.

Read Full Post »

Mean Soup Children’s Book Review

Posted in Book Review, tagged Book, book review, Child, Children, Children's Books, Children's literature, Emotion, Home, Horace, kidlit, Mean Soup, Parent, Sark, Smiling Like Sunshine, Soup, Tantrum on October 17, 2011 | 4 Comments »

Cover of Mean Soup

Mean Soup

by Betsey Everitt

One of the things I try to support with my children is that feelings are okay. Feelings are neither good nor bad. They just are. It is up to each person to decide how to be when they feel something.

I try to avoid phrases like, “That made me [feeling]” or “I am [this feeling]” in favor of phrases like, “I like/did not like [that action]” or “I feel [feeling].” It’s pretty ingrained in me to say the former and I have to practice the latter. But, it is an important difference in empowering my kids to manage their feelings as they are able. The point is that even when someone reacts to a feeling, there is nothing wrong with that. Every moment is another chance to choose how to react or not react to something. If the current moment is missed. There will be another one.

Since my children are children, I try to access the idea of feelings as being okay through roleplaying, imaginative play and games, empathy and modeling, just acting silly, and lots of reading. This book, Mean Soup, covers all of these areas nicely.

The little boy in this book, Horace, comes home after a bad day. He’s feeling so mean that he hisses at his mother then throws a temper tantrum. So, his mom puts a pot of water on the stove and proceeds to make soup. She tosses some salt over her shoulder then playacts anger into the pot, inviting an intrigued Horace to join her. Together they scream and act out their anger into the pot.

I pulled this book out when my 3 year old was really mad and we read it together. We hissed, screamed and blew dragon breath into the book to get all the mean out. It was a safe, playful place for him to handle the mean feelings that we threatening to overwhelm his preschooler mind. And I didn’t lose my patience with his emotional outburst.

My 5 year was entranced. So, we immediately read it again. And again. And again. This time with my 15 month old latched on and giggling at us all while we made mean sounds into the book. Mean Soup has turned out to be a go to favorite for my kids.

If I am ever at a loss to use play to handle big emotions, having this book on hand is going to be a useful tool. This is one I’m buying instead of borrowing from the library.

How to Really Love a Child

Activities to create with this book:

Make the soup described in the book (pot, water, salt, spoons, etc) and act out getting mad at the soup until everyone dissolves into giggles. This one never gets old with the kids. It is a powerful emotion diffuser!
Stomp around with a grumpy look on your face and state, “I am grumpy parent. I will never eat any soup someone makes for me. No matter how much a nice person tries to make me eat soup. I will not because I am grumpy!” Chances are, you’ll be presented with soup. You can then refuse to eat it even if spoon fed, restating how grumpy you are. Eventually, the child will be able to soften even the grumpiest parent with their Mean Soup.
When someone is grumpy, I get them in water (as mentioned in the Sark poem.) We made Mean Soup in the bathtub or the shower, using various toys as ingredients and utensils. As mentioned in a previous post, my kids used MeanPinkKangaroo in the soup and reveled in delight as they ate her.
Get out the crayons and draw a big pot then invite your kids to draw “Mean” ingredients or make giant scribbles all over the page.
Grab a tissue or a feather and see if you can use your dragon breath to see who can keep them in the air the longest.

Peaceful Piggy Meditation Book Review for Book Sharing Monday (touchstonez.com)
Zen Ties Children’s Book Review for Book Sharing Monday (touchstonez.com)
Book Review: Namaste! (touchstonez.com)
Review of Little Yoga and Sleepy Little Yoga Books (touchstonez.com)
Books Blog and Buddha Bubbling Up (touchstonez.com)

Have you read any good books lately? I’d love to hear from you.

Read Full Post »

Zen Ties Children’s Book Review for Book Sharing Monday

Posted in Book Review, tagged Book, book review, Book Sharing Monday, Buddhism, Children, Children's Books, Children's literature, Giant panda, homeschool, Jon J Muth, Kid Lit, Smiling Like Sunshine, Stillwater, Zen, Zen Ties on October 10, 2011 | 6 Comments »

Cover of Zen Ties

Zen Ties

by Jon J. Muth

I have to admit, I was surprised my kids like this one. I thought they might be bored part way through as the plot and message aren’t entirely obvious. There isn’t a lot of action or definition to the book.

But, I think that is what held their attention and got them excited to pull this off the shelf repeatedly.

The giant Panda, Stillwater, is waiting at the train station for his nephew, Koo, who will be visiting him for the summer. He greets him by saying, of course, “Hi, Koo!”

We find out that Koo enjoys speaking in haiku. I enjoyed exposing the kids to this form of poetry, which they have seen a few other times, but are still a bit baffled by it. We enjoyed talking about what the words mean. Nat (5yo) said that, “the words made pictures for me.”

The message of the book is how we are all interconnected and that all we need is a little open-mindedness to care for one another. It’s subtle, but powerfully done and, while my kids miss the nuances, they did get the message. Again, I was surprised that even my 3yo was able to say that it was important to care for our neighbors after reading this book.

Stillwater tells his friends, the neighborhood kids, that he would like them to accompany him and Koo on a visit to an older woman who lives down the street. At first, the kids are unhappy about this because Miss Whitaker yells at them to stay off her lawn. But, they help Stillwater prepare some soup to share. The children notice that Miss Whitaker isn’t mean, she is just alone and not feeling well.

The oldest boy has already spoken with Stillwater about being nervous about an upcoming spelling bee. It turns out that Miss Whitaker used to be an english teacher. She helps with the spelling bee preparations while the other kids clean, paint, and hang their art around her home.

By the end of the book, everyone has done something kind for the others, and they are all pictured around a table enjoying tea, and wearing red ties together (get it?)

I am describing the plot, but really how each person changes their perspective is shown in small ways through the art and words hinting, but never speaking them directly. I think part of the reason it works so well is that the author illustrated and wrote the book, which allows it to fully express the message he is communicating. It is a different approach than most children’s books. One that I think is quite effective, made even more so by the contrast to the other “message” books we read.

Zen Ties Panda Poses

My sons’ favorite part of the book has to be inside the covers, though. They love grabbing a small stuffed animal and reenacting each of the poses. Sometimes they say they’re doing jujitsu; sometimes it’s tai chi; sometimes yoga. I’m happy no matter what they call it.

Zen Ties Panda Poses

Activities to create with this book:

Create a zen garden: Gather a shallow bin or cake pan, some sand or rice, shells, small rocks, and fork. Place the shells and rocks on the sand/rice. Use the fork to slowly smooth and create patterns in the sand/rice around the objects. Then they can destroy the designs and begin again.
Recreate one of the pages in the book by tying a balloon to a rock so that it is at mouth height. Sit in front of the balloon as use your breath to move the balloon.
Have a tea party. Put on some red ties and, if you know how, make some real or imaginary apple tea. Practice serving one another and telling stories. Or have a spelling bee over tea.
We also had fun using flashcard words to create haikus. I traced the outline of the flashcards in haiku form on a piece of paper, then they placed any words they wanted in them. We read them and talked (mostly laughed) about what the poems meant.
Some panda printables and activities to use with this book from First School

Here is a short (under 3 minute) introduction to the book by the author, Jon J. Muth

Posted with WordPress on my BlackBerry while NAK in the dark (enjoy the typos