Daniel Rechtschaffen

In Alphabreaths Too, children learn the alphabet through playful breathing exercises and colourful illustrations. Each letter of the alphabet has a simple mindfulness or compassion-based practice to help kids relax, focus their thoughts, hold positive feelings for others, express gratitude, and more. It’s as easy as A-B-C! Children will pose like a statue in Museum Breath, shake like an earthquake in Quake Breath, and roar like a dinosaur in Jurassic Breath. With Kite Breath and Gift Breath, they will send out good wishes to others and fill their hearts with gratitude.

Children will learn the basics of mindful breathing along with their ABCs in this playful and interactive board book. In Alphabreaths, children learn their ABCs along with the basics of mindfulness through fun exercises and illustrations they'll want to come back to again and again. Each letter of the alphabet teaches a simple mindfulness or compassion-based practice to help kids focus their thoughts, hold positive feelings for others, express gratitude, and more. It's as easy as ABC Kids will open their arms wide like jaws on Alligator Breath, take a big breath and sing "Laaa" on Voice Breath, and imagine blowing out birthday candles on Cake Breath. With Heart Breath and Wish Breath, they will remember to fill their heart with gratitude and send good wishes to others. Alphabreaths offers a meaningful introduction to mindfulness for children, all while keeping them delighted with imaginative inspiration and hours of fun.

In Alphabreaths, children will learn their ABCs and the basics of mindfulness through playful breathing exercises. Breaths like Mountain Breath and Redwood Breath will connect them with nature, while breaths like Heart Breath and Wish Breath will help them remember to fill their heart with gratitude and send good wishes to others. Simple, playful, and with delightful illustrations, Alphabreaths is the perfect introduction to mindfulness and breath awareness.

Teachers and administrators can use this workbook—rich with simple, effective lessons, tips, charts, checklists and worksheets developed through Daniel Rechtschaffen’s extensive work with students and teachers in schools worldwide—to support the implementation of mindfulness-based lessons at school and cultivate mindful attributes like attention, compassion and well-being in students.

With attention spans waning and stress on the rise, many teachers are looking for new ways to help students concentrate, learn, and thrive. The powerful new educational paradigm of student mindfulness opens the doors for teachers to cultivate attention, compassion, and well-being in their classrooms. Having taught mindfulness in schools and communities around the world, psychologist Daniel Rechtschaffen offers practical mindfulness tools for teachers in his Mindful Education series, collected here for the first time in this two-book set. Students are told to pay attention a thousand times in school, but rarely are they taught how. The Way of Mindful Education is a practical guide for exercising students' attention muscles and building stress relief and self-compassion both in students and in teachers themselves. Packed with lesson plans, exercises, and considerations for specific age groups and students with special needs, this working manual demonstrates the real world application of mindfulness practices in K-12 classrooms. The Mindful Education Workbook provides a structured curriculum for implementing mindful education in the classroom. Teachers and administrators can use this workbook--rich with simple, effective lessons, tips, charts, checklists, and worksheets--to bring mindfulness-based lessons into their schools and support the health and well-being of both students and teachers.

“If you are a teacher, or an educator, or involved in school administration and curriculum development, the book you hold in your hands has the potential to transform your life, the lives of your students, and the life of the school itself, as well as education in America.”—Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, from the Foreword With attention spans waning and stress on the rise, many teachers are looking for new ways to help students concentrate, learn, and thrive. The Way of Mindful Education is a practical guide for cultivating attention, compassion, and well-being not only in these students, but also in teachers themselves. Packed with lesson plans, exercises, and considerations for specific age groups and students with special needs, this working manual demonstrates the real world application of mindfulness practices in K-12 classrooms. Part I, Why Mindful Education Matters, explains what mindfulness is, the science behind its benefits for students and educators, and the inspiring work that is already underway in the Mindful Education movement. In Part II, Begin with Yourself, we are reminded that in order to teach mindfully, we need to be mindful. Here teachers will learn the when, where, and how of mindfulness so they can effectively embody its practices with their students. Mindfulness practices offer teachers self-care and attention skills that prepare them to teach with greater energy and mastery. Discover how simple exercises can help manage stress, focus attention, develop compassion, and savor positive experiences in everyday life. Part III, Cultivating a Mindful Classroom, explores the qualities of a mindful teacher, the ingredients of a mindful learning environment, and helpful skills for appropriate, supportive work with cultural diversity, student stress and trauma, and varying age groups and developmental stages. Finally, in Part IV, Mindful Education Curriculum, we learn eighteen ready-to-use mindfulness lessons for use in schools. These practical exercises, designed to foster skills like embodiment, attention, heartfulness, and interconnectedness, can be readily adapted for any age group and population, and the author draws from his extensive personal experience to offer a wealth of tips for introducing them to students in real-time. Decades of research indicate the impressive benefits of mindfulness in social, emotional, and cognitive development, and as an antidote to emotional dysregulation, attention deficits, and social difficulties. This book invites teachers, administrators, and anyone else involved in education to take advantage of this vital tool and become purveyors of a mindful, compassionate, ethical, and effective way of teaching.