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Building on such inherent qualities as openheartedness and trust, parents and teachers can help children develop empathy and integrity as they grow and mature. From nature activities to conscious quiet time to tips on daily routines, CALM AND COMPASSIONATE CHILDREN provides practical guidance to help grown-ups model behavior and suggests dozens of activities to foster children's joy, wonder, kindness, and love. A parents' and teachers' guide to developing children's concentration, self-discipline, and compassion, as well as heartfelt qualities like openness and enthusiasm.Includes more than 90 techniques and exercises drawn from the author's experiences as a teacher and director of the Living Wisdom School, a nonprofit elementary school that emphasizes nonsectarian spiritual principles and practical skills for living.Recommends books, music, games, and other resources to help grown-ups nurture calm and compassionate kids.… (more)
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One of the best features of this book are the activity lists at the end of each chapter that give the reader specific ways to implement the author's guidelines. Like many books of its ilk, however, the narrative voice often suffers from a bit of smugness. Yes, the author seems to have discovered a method of parenting/teaching that is mindful and loving, but when its described, sounds self-satisfied and a bit precious.
All that said, there are a number of foibles, although I think they are worth looking past. First, there is a strong new age spirituality bias to this, although this doesn't mean non-Christian. Sometimes this leads the author to make rationalizations and theoretical claims that seem dubious if you don't already buy into the world view. Of these, quite a few don't undermine other compelling evidence or common sense arguments if the reader doesn't let it get in the way. Other times, it is easy enough to drop one of the suggestions in a chpter while still having many good ideas left.
The other matter that is a bit problematic is that the author sometimes takes a fairly straight forward idea and overdraws a conclusion from it. For instance, she contends that all matter is really energy [not exactly true], & therefore musical vibrations with certain qualities can calm. This is a really big leap (although I'm oversimplifying the author a little). Like the new agisms, the reader can often overlook many of these problems as they were unnecessary to convince the reader (in this example) that certain types of musics can calm and other kinds might disturb or increase anxiety.
Despite some flaws, I highly recommend this book to parents and teachers.