Planting Seeds: Practicing Mindfulness with Children is the fruit of decades of development and innovation in the Plum Village community’s collective practice with children. Based on Thich Nhat Hanh’s thirty years of teaching mindfulness and compassion to parents, teachers, and children, the book and enclosed CD cover a wide range of contemplative and fun activities parents and educators can do with their children or students. The activities are designed to help relieve stress, increase concentration, nourish gratitude and confidence, deal with difficult emotions, touch our interconnection with nature, and improve communication.

Planting Seeds offers insight, concrete activities, and curricula that parents and educators can apply in school settings, in their local communities or at home, in a way that is meaningful and inviting to children. The key practices presented include mindful breathing and walking, inviting the bell, pebble meditation, the Two Promises or ethical guidelines for children, children’s versions of Touching the Earth and Deep Relaxation, eating meditation and dealing with conflict and strong emotions. Also included, are the lyrics to the songs on the enclosed CD that summarize and highlight the key teachings, as well as a chapter on dealing effectively with conflict in the classroom or difficult group dynamics, based on a conference with Thich Nhat Hanh, teachers and students.

The accompanying CD has inspiring recordings of all the songs in the book as well as a guided pebble meditation, total relaxation, and children’s touching the earth. Beautiful, colour illustrations by Wietske Vriezen.

Author Bio:

Thich Nhat Hanh is a Buddhist monk, poet, scholar, and human rights activist. In 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize. He is author of more than one hundred books, and is one of the best known Buddhist teachers in the world today. He lives at Plum Village, his meditation center in France, and travels worldwide, leading retreats on the art of mindful living.