Sitting Still Like a Frog: Mindfulness Exercises for Kids (and Their Parents)

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Sitting Still Like a Frog: Mindfulness Exercises for Kids (and Their Parents) is a short and sweet book. It is written for parents and includes many concrete exercises to help children (and their parents) understand and practice mindfulness to train attention, handle difficult emotions well, reduce nonproductive worry, let go of the unchangeable, and more. Some exercises are on the included hour-long CD read by Myla Kabat-Zinn, while there are often two to four other exercises described in each very short chapter. The Little Frog is for parents and grandparents of children aged eighteen months to four years, and for professionals working with them in nurseries and childcare and healthcare facilities. 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. Sitting Still Like a Frog introduces the basics of mindfulness to children in an easy-to-understand and playful way. It guides children in the cultivation of presence: presence of mind, presence of heart, and presence in the body. This is something we are all capable of but usually don't cultivate intentionally. Why not start young in training those capacities? The world nowadays is so complex and fast-paced that knowing how to ground oneself in the present moment is an absolute necessity to make sense of the world and to continue learning, growing, and contributing what is uniquely yours to contribute in this world." —from the foreword by Jon Kabat-Zinn It is about teaching children and their parents about mindfulness and meditation through exercises and activities.

Simple mindfulness practices to help your child (ages 5-12) deal with anxiety, improve concentration, and handle difficult emotions —with a 60-minute audio CD of guided exercises Sitting Still Like a Frog is an internationally bestselling book about Mindfulness, for children aged 5 to 12 and their parents. It has been translated into many languages and published in more than 42 countries. Simple mindfulness practices to help your child (ages 5-12) deal with anxiety, improve concentration, and handle difficult emotions. The book is written in a fun and easy-to-understand style, making it accessible for children and their parents. It is designed to be read and done together, so that parents and children can have a shared experience and bond. The book has clear instructions for each exercise, and the activities are designed to be simple, yet effective. An informative Foreword by Jon Kabat-Zinn introduces this valuable guide on mindfulness and meditation for children. Eline Snel is a seasoned parent, therapist and teacher. Her book is filled with practical suggestions and examples of how mindfulness can help to cultivate attentiveness (internal and external), relieve stress, recognize moods, relax, and deal with what is happening within and around us. The CD provides eleven guided meditations. For parents, teachers and anyone ages 5 to 12 (and up).”

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This book also touches upon subjects such as self-esteem, the psychology of being trapped in behavioral patterns that don’t serve you and how long breaths can help with the fight-or-flight response. Can look at children without judging or labelling them, or saying things like: “She’s the musical one in the family, and he’s a creature of habit”

If only we had the patience of a caterpillar in a cocoon, waiting to turn itself into a butterfly,” Eline writes in one of the last chapters of Sitting Still Like a Frog. “If we still felt the confidence of a new-born child, or could let go with the wisdom of a leaf in autumn, we would certainly have it easier.” But how do you do that? As a child, a parent, or a teacher? When you’re feeling stressed, insecure, or inadequate? There are a few lessons devoted to "overeating." As in "Sometimes when we're anxious we eat too much. Can you think of times when you've felt so stressed that you ate too much? What can you do to not eat too much in the future?" Isn't this supposed to be a children's book? My seven-year old daughter is ALREADY aware of how her body compares to other girls's bodies. She's asked me why some of her friends call themselves fat. It's so sad--and not something I want my daughter obsessing about, especially in the context of meditation. Sitting Still like a Frog is for everyone, with or without children, who wants to know more about Mindfulness. It’s written in clear and simple language, and the exercises are as much fun for adults as they are for children. This book is about teaching children and their parents about mindfulness and meditation. The book provides exercises and activities that help the reader become more mindful and aware of the present moment.

Eline Snel is a Dutch mindfulness teacher, trainer, and author. She is best known for her book “Sitting Still Like a Frog: Mindfulness Exercises for Kids (and Their Parents)” which was published in 2013 by Shambhala Publications. Snel is a certified mindfulness teacher who has taught mindfulness and meditation to children, adults, and teachers in Europe and the United States. Eline Snel's concise book provides several exercises for kids and parents to practice mindfulness in their daily lives. It impressively includes an introduction from Jon Kabat-Zinn. The advice is well tailored for a young audience, although I think it would still be better filtered through a caring, thoughtful parent rather consumed directly by a child. Ha Sido un proceso pero me siento más receptiva, flexible y dispuesta a relajarme y dejar de tomar la vida " tan en serio". Now you are going to hear all kinds of sounds. Can you try to listen to them as though you were hearing them for the first time, without “judging” them and without necessarily trying to recognize them?

Sitting Still Like a Frog teaches children mindfulness through an amphibious friend who sits very still. . . . Many practices fill the book and audio CD, and all of them remind us, and our children, just how easily thoughts can move us off our lily pads." — Mindful magazine Simple mindfulness practices to help your child (ages 5-12) deal with anxiety, improve concentration, and handle difficult emotions—with a 60-minute audio CD of guided exercises read by Myla Kabat-Zinn.One of the more useful direct bits of advice I took was: You are not your feelings, you have them. This seemed to help my five year old son calm down at the end of the day when he was overly tired and frustrated. It's a novel concept to be present with your feelings without getting swept up in them; that's tough even (especially) for adults to do. This also ties well with general parenting advice about helping children attach names to their feelings, which would be the first step toward understanding your feelings and detaching yourself from them. The target audience of “Sitting Still Like a Frog” is families, particularly parents and children who are interested in learning about mindfulness and meditation. Simple mindfulness practices to help your child (ages 5-12) deal with anxiety, improve concentration, and handle difficult emotions—with a 60-minute audio CD of guided exercises