June is on the horizon, folks! Before you know it, the kids will be out of school and it will be time to relax into summer vacation. After a year of rush-rush-rush and go-go-go, we can all finally take a collective breath and slow it down. 

As we relax into the rhythm of summer, I thought it would be fun to have a Mindful Month of Books over at the {virtual} Family Book Club at My Little Poppies.

A Mindful Month of Books

Week of June 1st:

Have You Filled a Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud is one of my favorite books for children. I can honestly tell you that this book changed my parenting. Prior to reading this book, we would emphasize being kind and using kind words, however, the concept of bucket fillers and bucket dippers is so easy for  young children to understand. I think it will be a great intoduction to mindfulness.

Week of June 8th:

Peaceful Piggy Meditation by Kerry Lee MacLean is a wonderful introduction to meditation. It explains the benefits of mindfulness in a way that children will understand.

Week of June 15th:

Zen Shorts by Jon J. Muth is one of my family’s favorite books. Your kids will fall in love with the adorable Stillwater and his stories! Stillwater’s tales are easy for children to understand and yet they carry big messages that parents will appreciate.

Week of June 22nd:

This book is new to our family and we have had a lot of fun with it. Good Night Yoga: A Pose-by-Pose Bedtime Story by Mariam Gates is a bedtime story that incorporates yoga in a way that children can understand and appreciate. Calm those kiddos down at bedtime with this sweet book.

Week of June 29th:

The Three Questions by John J. Muth is based on a story by Leo Tolstoy. Your child will fall in love with Muth’s gorgeous watercolor illustrations while you’ll love talking about life’s important questions, at the developmental level of your child.

It was tough to choose this month…

As a school psychologist, I have oodles of books on mindfulness, coping, and worry (and I talked about some of them in my Worry Basket post). If not, here are some of our favorite mindfulness and worry-reducing books:

• A Pebble for Your Pocket by Thich Nhat Hanh
• Have You Filled a Bucket Today? A Guide to Daily Happiness for Kids by Carol McCloud
• Kindness: A Treasury of Buddhist Wisdom for Children and Parents by Sarah Conover
• You Are a Lion! And Other Fun Yoga Poses by Tae-Eun You
• Peaceful Piggy Yoga by Kerry Lee Maclean
• Planting Seeds: Practicing Mindfulness with Children by Thich Nhat Hanh
• The Buddha’s Apprentice at Bedtime: Tales of Compassion and Kindness for You to Read with Your Child – to Delight and Inspire by Dharmachari Nagaraja
• Calm-Down Time (Toddler Tools) by Elizabeth Verdick
• David and the Worry Beast: Helping Children Cope with Anxiety by Anne Marie Guanci
• Dharma Delight: A Visionary Post Pop Comic Guide to Buddhism and Zen by Musho Rodney Alan Greenblat
• Don’t Feed the Worry Bug (A Children’s Book About Worry) by Andi Green
• Don’t Panic, Annika by Juliet Clare Bell
• From Worrier to Warrior: A Guide to Conquering Your Fears by Daniel B. Peters
• Is a Worry Worrying You? by Ferida Wollf
• What to Do When You Worry Too Much: A Kid’s Guide To Overcoming Anxiety by Dawn Huebner
• Why Does Izzy Cover Her Ears? Dealing with Sensory Overload by Jennifer Veenendall

Want to take the above books a bit further?

Like I said, this is a topic that I’m passionate about, and so I thought I’d share some other resources that we love.

Our family has been a bit zentangle-obsessed for over a year now. We even got Schizz to do some one afternoon! This book is one of our favorite zentangle books. The wonderful thing about zentangle is that you honestly don’t need to be artistic. It’s just repeating patterns and doodles and it’s incredibly relaxing. We love to zentangle with these pens and these paper tiles. Trust me, you’ll get a bit obsessed yourself if you try it!

As a school psychologist, I have many anxiety-related holdovers from my working days. It’s fun to dust off these materials and put them to use. Yoga Pretzels is a beautifully illustrated deck of cards, and each card has a yoga pose depicted on it. Children will find these poses easy to follow and fun. They won’t even know that they are relaxing!

 

 Leo has several guided relaxation CDs in his Worry Basket including the following: Indigo Dreams Relaxation and Stress Management for Children, Indigo Ocean Dreams, Indigo Ocean Dreams, I Can Relax!, and Dreaming of Ponies. In addition, I’m planning on making my own guided relaxation CD for the kids (just like how I made audiobooks for the kids). It will not only save some cash but I also think it will be comforting for the kids to hear my voice when they are afraid at night.

Yoga Garden is a board game that we recently acquired. It’s a wonderful way to introduce yoga poses to your children. The game is appropriate for ages 4 and up and it is a cooperative learning game that all kids can benefit from. You even get the chance to invent your own yoga poses. This game is perfect to calm kids down before bath and bed!

Are you looking to take your family’s read alouds to the next level? Join the {virtual} Family Book Club at My Little Poppies:

 

All of the books (and more!) from the {virtual} Family Book Club at My Little Poppies can be found here:

 

All of the lessons, crafts, and activities based on each book can be found here, listed by title and author:

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