Susan K. Greenland

A playful approach for cultivating mindfulness in kids, with sixty simple games to develop attention and focus, and identify and regulate emotions--by the author of The Mindful Child.

Playing games is a great way for kids to develop their focusing and attention skills and to become more mindful. Susan Kaiser Greenland has had a lot of success bringing mindfulness to the classroom, and in this book she shares her experience, showing how parents, caregivers, and teachers can cultivate these qualities at home or in a school setting. She includes fifty mindfulness games that develop what Greenland calls the "new A, B, C's" for learning and for a happy and successful life: Attention, Balance, and Compassion. In a playful way, the games introduce kids to breathing practices and techniques for developing focus, concentration, and sensory awareness, and identifying and self-regulating emotions, among others skills. They include "anchor" games that develop concentration; visualization games that encourage kindness and focus; analytical games that cultivate clear thinking; and awareness games that develop all of these qualities and give greater insight into ourselves, others, and relationships. Greenland contextualizes each game and offers guidance for the parents/caregivers throughout.
Even though the games are written for kids, they can be just as fun and transformative for adults. Greenland encourages parents and caregivers to develop their own attention, balance, and compassion and explore the universal concepts that she presents. She points out that as caregivers, our own mindfulness has a powerful effect on everyone in our lives, especially our children. They notice when we're calmer, more composed, and more joyful, and learn by our example.… (lisätietoja)

A delightful book on how to teach mindfulness to children!

Susan Greenland supplies time-tested ideas for teaching children mindfulness to achieve the same sort of benefits that adults do. Her "bag-of-techniques" include using stuffed animals to help preschoolers learn about breathing, to memory and imagination games for teens. As Dr. Daniel J. Siegel writes, mindfulness promotes "integration" in the brain, which includes a host of additional benefits.

Without doubt, adults will learn something from this book; even if you don't have children, YOU can apply these same techniques to yourself and gain a new and "fun" perspective.

I tried a few suggestions on my preschoolers and we all had a delightful time!

With stories of years of practical hands-on experience, and briefly interjecting references to well-known experts' and neuroscientists' research, this book provides solid advice, but in a way that is easy-to-read, fun, and particularly well-suited way for children.… (lisätietoja)