siobhangrace14's review against another edition

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informative fast-paced

4.5

katrinadreamer's review against another edition

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5.0

Fantastic. Short and simple but excellent. I look forward to using many of the exercises with my students.

emiged's review against another edition

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4.0

Life with three young boys is rarely calm and quiet. More often than not, their waking hours are filled with hollering, yelling, whoops of joy, cries of "It's not fair!" and lots of ambient noise. Sometimes it seems that their default volume is LOUD and escalates to REALLY LOUD without much effort at all.

On top of that, one of my boys has been diagnosed with ADHD, though I wouldn't be surprised if at least one more ended up with the same diagnosis down the road. All three have had trouble falling asleep at one time or another during their lives, sometimes for an extended period of months, with the resulting sleep deprivation affecting their personality, school work, and exacerbating the aforementioned ADHD symptoms. Anxiety also runs in the family and I've seen it take its toll on my kids already - "Mom, my head is never quiet!" one of them told me - so I'm constantly looking for ways to help them draw strength from within themselves, calm their over-active brains, and deal with the world around them.

After seeing Sitting Still Like a Frog recommended by a friend, I thought it was worth a shot. I've dabbled in meditation off and on for a few years and have appreciated the benefits; maybe, I thought, it'd work for my kids, too.

The book itself is short, and addresses basic mindfulness lessons in simple language that children, or beginners, can easily grasp. Snel quotes scientific studies and her own experience to show that after participating in a pattern of mindfulness exercises at school, "students and teachers...noticed positive changes, such as a calmer atmosphere in the classroom, better concentration, and more openness. The kids became kinder to themselves and others, more confident, and less judgmental." Who couldn't use that?...

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puzumaki's review against another edition

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4.0

Picked this up mostly for me, since if it's geared towards children the content would be more brief. At just under a hundred pages, it met that criteria. Not overfly fluffy in its content, the exercises in the book seemed worth trying. I did not listen to the accompanying CD. The book is recommended for parents with children slightly older (five and up), but I would think it is beneficial to read earlier and to reference it later for the exercises.

jcouwenberg's review against another edition

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informative medium-paced

3.0

ssejig's review against another edition

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3.0

Get this as a physical book. I got it as an ebook ARC from NetGalley and loading the pages was So Slow. It took up to 5 minutes to load a page and it crashed by reading app several times.
Other than that, this was an okay book. The stories were fairly preachy. It reminded me more of an 1800s primer more than anything else.
An interesting book that really shoots at making mindfulness accessible to our younger generations. There are exercises and and accompanying music. A bit repetitive in places but a good place to start.

mbrevesz's review against another edition

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4.0

This book will be helpful to some of my anxious students.

leaflibrary's review against another edition

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informative reflective relaxing medium-paced

3.5

A good introduction to mindfulness for parents and kids. I was a little frustrated by the way the practices were separated from their descriptions, and how hard that was to navigate. It seems like the ebook would be incomplete if not actually obsolete without the audio CD, when, with a little more effort, they could have typed up the mindfulness exercises and included them in the text!

sarahjo's review against another edition

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4.0

"You cannot control the sea. You cannot stop the waves, but you can learn to surf on them."

Presence- simply be here
Understanding- better relate to your kids, put yourself in their shoes
Acceptance- the willingness to accept yur child's thoughts and feelinsg they way uou recognize your own. withoutwanting to change/manipulate/reject. Acceptance is not the same thinga as "putting up withe verythibnng" it is knowing that you do not have to have an opionion on their thoughts/feelings

pay more attention to the breath

bethmarch's review against another edition

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This book was recommended to me by my kids' Infant and Child Development program to help with their hyperactivity, restlessness, high emotions and difficulty sleeping. I just finished reading it last night and I am eager to try out the practical applications. My kids are still a bit young, just turned 5, but hopefully there will be some things that they will follow.