illustration by Anni Betts
Coming your way this December—PEACEFUL LIKE A PANDA!
I’m so excited about this book! It’s chock full of NEW mindful exercises for kids—easy, fun techniques that will help children learn to manage their bodies, breath, and emotions.
Mindfulness is proven to help children calm themselves down, let go of stress, and focus their energy. But there are three key elements to success: keep mindfulness practice short, fun, and consistent. Peaceful Like a Panda was written with exactly this in mind.
As in my first book, Breathe Like a Bear, the exercises here are concise; each takes about a minute to do. And like that book, the concepts are playful, written to capture the imaginations of young children.
For Peaceful Like a Panda, though, I made the consistency part a no-brainer—the book is organized by times of day, so it’s incredibly easy to fit an exercise (or two or three) into even the busiest of days. You can make mindfulness a part of your daily routine by attaching it to something you do regularly, like traveling to school, eating together, homework, or reading a story at bedtime.
There are five fun choices in each of the six chapters—Rise and Shine, Are We There Yet?, Brain Boosters, Playtime, Let’s Eat, and Good Night. (Check out the Table of Contents here!)
Mindfulness is also an incredible vehicle for teaching social-emotional skills, and the exercises in this book are designed to help children develop self-awareness, practice optimism and gratitude, improve self-esteem, and make positive choices.
Happily, the wonderfully talented illustrator Anni Betts worked her magic on Peaceful Like a Panda (as on all my books). Her whimsical, gorgeous drawings make the entire book an absolute delight to look through.
(Now you know what I’ve been doing, quarantine-wise.)
If you’re a fan of Breathe Like a Bear, you will be FIRED UP for this one. You can pre-order it RIGHT THIS MINUTE!