Meditation for Children

By Shelley Wilson

Author and meditation tutor Shelley Wilson takes you on a magical journey to a calm and happy place that you and your child will love.
Children of all ages can learn and enjoy the benefits of meditation.

Designed to help access creative abilities through relaxation and imagination, these stories help develop the necessary tools needed at a young age for lifelong healthy habits of managing stress and anxiety while also improving learning skills.

Meditation for Children is a simple way to introduce children to mindfulness through guided visualization. Includes a handy reference guide and instructions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BHC Press
• Release date: Aug 22, 2019
• ISBN: 9781948540551

Book preview

Edited by Susan Cunningham

Meditation for Children

Copyright © 2019 Shelley Wilson

Artwork Copyright © 2019 Phaedra Elson

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, please write to the publisher.

Published by BHC Press

Library of Congress Control Number:

2018930791

Softcover: 978-1-947727-40-3

Ebook: 978-1-948540-55-1

For information, write:

BHC Press

885 Penniman #5505

Plymouth, MI 48170

Visit the publisher at:

www.bhcpress.com

Introduction

How-To Guide for Parents,

Guardians, and Teachers

The Meditations:

The Fairy Tree

A Magic Carpet Ride

Hello, Mr. Dragon

The Wizard’s Spell Book

Teddy Bears’ Picnic

Helicopter Fun

Dancing Shoes

Meet the Astronaut

Let’s Fly a Kite

The Sailboat

Creating Your Own Meditations

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Without your open mind and curiosity

this book would never have been born.

Meditation has played a huge part in my life for many years, and I shared this with my own children when they were dealing with exam stress, friendship worries, and other anxieties that crop up day to day. My only regret is that I didn’t meditate with them when they were much younger as I know it would have helped them through some of the tough times they’ve experienced.

My children are all approaching adulthood now, but they fully understand the importance of having a timeout, whether that’s to be quiet, contemplative, or still, or to engage in being creative and productive. I hope that when they go on to have children of their own, they will remember the wonderful benefits they experienced and share meditation with their families.

* * * * *

The value of meditation has been written about many times, but this is predominantly targeted at adults. I wanted to share something that could be enjoyed as a family, or

Reviews for Meditation for Children

[deldevries · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Beautiful artwork on the cover and for several of the stories. Because this is focused on stories as meditations, the introduction and how-to guide are valuable additions. I really enjoyed the opportunity to not just read a story, but through meditation techniques to subtly involve more senses than just hearing and sight. Immersive. Part of this is just the attitude of mindfulness in approaching the story. Beautiful book.

[panopticon2_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I've been using this with my seven-year old son at bedtime, to try to help him wind down from the day and prepare for sleep. The stories are just the right length for short attention spans and are very engaging. Our only issue is that sometimes the stories are a little too engaging - the pauses for visualisation sometimes provoke excited chatter from my son about what is happening next in his mind...great for stimulating the imagination, but not always to encourage calmness. ;-)

[psolarz-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

A short book with ten stories that can be read aloud to your child aged 3-7 at bed time or in school. They allow the child to imagine the story because it is told with vivid description and built-in pauses for visualization and prediction. It would have received a higher rating if it had more stories, better activities that could be done after reading (even if most people might skip them), and if the stories might be of more interest to boys (I think girls will love the stories). (I was provided a free copy of this book from LibraryThing, but it in no way affected my review.)

[wenestvedt_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book contains very short guided meditations, presumably to be read aloud by an adult to children. The scenes are thus pretty simple imagery, and should be accessible to younger kids. I will give it to my daughter to use in the classroom when she wants to add a little mental health to the schoolday.

[mypennameonly · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I received an ARC [Advanced Reader’s Copy] uncorrected proof PDF copy of this book from the publisher through a giveaway they had on LibraryThing and the following is my honest opinion.In reading/reviewing this book I had the assistance of my inner-child. This book deals with the meditation of children; it is not a book of religious meditation; it is the kind of meditation that we as adults use so we are able to have some time in which we can silently engage in being quietly inner-reflective, creative and more productive. For our children, it presents with the opportunity to expand their creative imagination. In either case, our meditation begins by us breathing slowly in through our noses and out through our mouths several times until we feel totally relaxed. While my inner-child can be quite imaginative with what it’s able to come up with on its own; my inner-child found being directed with what it needs to include in the image being created in its mind to be quite soothing and peaceful by allowing an increase in its creativity. If this meditation is done at bedtime, my inner-child is ready to go to bed, like its just been read a bedtime story; if it’s done during the day, out comes the materials with which my inner-child can draw/paint the picture its mind has just produced.All-in-all, as an adult, reading this book through the eyes of my inner-child I could sense the calming effect this visualization can bring to its young readers, which is why I’ve enjoyed reading this book myself. For wanting to have her young readers become more relaxed and creative, I and my inner-child have given this book by its author, Shelley Wilson, the 5 STARS it has gotten from us.

[lin_k-431834 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a lovely concept written through experience by the author.It is exactly as the title suggests. Each visualisation story is wonderfully written and will appeal to both boys and girls alike. There is a lot of scope for the child's imaginative input making this concept even more appealing.The stories are all short enough just to keep a child engaged for the right amount of time before they would want to fidget.I would recommend this book to anyone with children in their lives.

[finndragon · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Short meditations, easy to read to your child, providing them with many opportunities to use their imaginations and send them off to bed with sweet dreams.Best for children over 5, or an advanced toddler.

[sunielevin8 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Meditation for Children: A Book of MindfulnessAn exciting way to teach young children about meditation at an early age. The charming illustrations and encouraging children to interpret their own stories can give them the tools they need to relax and deal with the stress they may encounter in the classroom. Teachers, parents and grandparents should have a copy of this book.Sunie LevinEducator