When Packing Your Suitcase, Pack a Good Book

Bunnies on the Go:  Getting from Place to Place by Rick Walton

The bunny family loads up the car and sets off for vacation.  The bunnies explore many types of travel during their adventure: car, train, wagon, tractor, hot air balloon, boat, bikes, truck, bus, ferry, cab, and plane.  Each page has a rhyme that allows the reader to guess the next mode of transport!  The family has a pleasant surprise upon their arrival home.  To extend the story, have kiddos move like how the bunnies travel.  Students can make up rhymes about others ways to get from place to place too. Bon voyage!    

How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman

Travel to Italy, France, Sri Lanka, England, Jamaica, and Vermont to collect the ingredients to make a delicious apple pie!  Readers learn where ingredients originate as they travel by boat, train, car, plane, parachute and bus!  There is a map included to chart the trip as well as a recipe for apple pie.  I’m thinking it would be fun to do a yoga posture when you visit each place.  You could play a matching game to review the story afterwards and move through the postures again, i.e. tree pose for the kurundu tree in Sri Lanka.  It would be even more fun to have an appley dessert at the end of the story and conclusion of class?!  Is your mouth watering as you read about this tasty story?  YUM!

Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney

Miss Rumphius, as a child, longs to see the faraway places! She also wants to live by the sea.  Her grandfather encourages one more life goal:  she must find a way to make the world more beautiful too.  Alice Rumphius grows up and accomplishes her dreams.  She explores faraway places, settles in by the sea, and now folks call Miss Rumphius “The Lupine Lady.”  How will YOU make the world more beautiful?  Barbara Cooney’s illustrations are soft and delicate, capturing the journey of a life well lived.  

Oh, the Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss

This book would make a great graduation gift or a present for anyone embarking on the next phase of life!  With tongue twisting rhymes and imaginative illustrations, Dr. Seuss includes the ups and the downs, the fears and celebrations of the places you’ll go.  This book opens the door for discussions of the good times and the not-so-good ones too.  Bangups and hangups can happen to you .  . .  but with patience and perseverance, you’ll find balance.  You’ll move mountains!  This story inspires and builds confidence for the road to be traveled!  With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, in ALL the places you’ll go, you’ll learn and you’ll GROW!

The Smile That Went Around the World by Patrice Karst

This is a story about a smile that is shared from one face to another ‘til it comes full circle!  It is a powerful thought to know one kindness can circumnavigate the globe!  It is also a little reminder how the small choices we make each day may impact the lives of others in a BIG way!  It is a kiddo that shares the first smile .  .  . a smile works in all languages and for all ages.  Turn up the corners of your mouth today!  Your countenance has the power to make the world a brighter, happier place.  :-)

Give the Gift of YOGA

Give the gift of YOGA this holiday! Need an idea for those on your Christmas list?  Give the gift of yoga!  I'm offering a special on private sessions between now and December 31st--a 30 minute or 1 hour session of yoga, in the comfort of home,  personalized to meet the needs of the yogi.  We'll develop a personal practice to strengthen, s-t-r-e-t-c-h and balance!  A gift of yoga not only helps the gift receiver, but the whole world will be a better place!  :-)  Maybe the gift of yoga should be in your own stocking?!

Package 1 -- "Untangle Your Tinsel" -- $150

30 minute sessions for $30 ea - buy 5 get 1 free!

Package 2 --  "Shine like Rudolph’s Schnozz" -- $250

1 hour sessions for $50 ea - buy 5 get one free!

Package 3 -- “Believe in YoursELF” -- $100

Four 30 minute sessions

Package 4 -- “Frosty Improved--No More MELTDOWNS” -- $165

Four 1 hour sessions

Package 5 -- Family Yoga -- “WHOs can Soothe Grinch!”

30 minute sessions for $30 ea - buy 5 get 1 free!--$150

1 hour sessions for $50 ea - buy 5 get one free!--$250

Four 30 minute sessions--$100

Four 1 hour sessions--$165

Over the MOON about these books!

Full Moon at the Napping House by Audrey and Don Wood (hot off the press—September 1, 2015)

I’ve always been a fan of Audrey and Don Wood’s work!  The Napping House is one of my favorites.  I appreciate the beautiful way Don incorporates color: how the sun gently wakes the household as you turn the pages, beginning cool blue moving to bright, sunny yellow.  The use of repetition, alliteration, and rhyme is engaging for young readers, tickling their ears.  AND NOW, 30 years later, we have a sequel:  Full Moon at the Napping House.  So instead of everyone sleeping, everyone is RESTLESS!  How cool to incorporate this story with your yoga practice, targeting postures for relaxation and calm?!  On her web site http://www.audreywood.com/, Audrey and her husband share about the book.  Many of their books have “secrets” and in this new one, a character from The Napping House is missing!  Have fun comparing these two stories to discover and rediscover together.

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

This one is a classic.  With simple text and simple illustrations, this story leaves a lasting impact on the reader.  The little one puts off sleep by saying “good night” to everything, including the moon!  Connect this story with the full body scan technique!  How soothing to systematically work through your body, relaxing each part to relax the whole.  The main character’s stalling tactic at bedtime actually creates his readiness for it.

Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney

How do you describe doing something in a BIG way?! “To the moon and back!”  Perfectly capturing the BIG love of the parent-child relationship, the story is of “one-upping,” and I secretly appreciate how the parent wins, even if the child never knows .  .  . and, of course, the child ultimately wins because he or she experiences the BIG love of his or her caregiver.

I Am Yoga by Susan Verde – art by Peter Reynolds

I am COMPLETELY over the moon about this book! Peter Reynolds is another of my favorite author and illustrators!  There is a “freeness,” a sense of contentment, in his illustrations and how they compliment the writing, enveloping the essence of each posture.  The author includes detailed info about the postures in the back of the book. I appreciate the poetry as the author wraps her brain around the topic, I AM Yoga.  It’s not just something I do or moving in pretzel-like ways, it IS ME.  Yoga is how I make the world a better place like I’m uniquely designed to do! 

Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me by Eric Carle

This fantasy introduces the waning and waxing of the moon!  With lift flaps and a pop out page, little hands can explore how the dad takes a long, long ladder to reach the moon so he can retrieve for his daughter.  Try half-moon posture as you talk the phases of the moon.  Enjoy nibbling on vanilla wafers to create the crescent to the full moon (no nibbling required).  This book is a treat by the author of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, From Head to Toe, the illustrator of Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? and so many, many more! Mr. Carle has been creating books since 1967.  His body of work is amazing and prolific:  http://www.eric-carle.com/

Waiting by Kevin Henkes (also debuting September 1, 2015)

Mr. Henkes is a talented and accomplished author/illustrator of many styles of writing and illustration.  His newest creation appeals to my “sitting stillness” efforts.  Toys placed in the windowsill, watch and observe the world!  “The owl with spots is waiting on the moon.”  And although each toy is happy for particular occurrences, there’s a sense of contentment in the waiting.  There’s pleasure in not exactly knowing what will happen but the anticipation of waiting for what will.  This story is great for introducing patience and for encouraging a nonjudgmental attitude, a simple way of observing the world in which we live.

Explore Ephesians

"Get your GEAR ON!"  

This five week session begins Wednesday, 9/23.

The cost is $40.  

Please register:  http://goo.gl/forms/Lzb0ZhN8W4

Kiddos practice 4:30-5:30 and Grown Ups, 5:30-6:30.  

If you have questions, please contact D'Etta:

Stone Soup is DELISH!

We wrapped our Stone Soup Yoga Series this evening!  

The soup was DELISH with everyone contributing in their own special way.  

Our next yoga series @ Pisgah Lutheran begins Wednesday, 9/23!  "Get Your Gear ON" with us as we explore Ephesians 6:13-17.  This five week session is $40.  Please register in advance:  http://goo.gl/forms/Lzb0ZhN8W4

Kiddos practice 4:30-5:30 and Grown Ups, 5:30-6:30.  If you have questions please contact D'Etta:

Sun Fun

Tonight at pool yoga we "stoked the fire!"  Our practice zeroed in on "waking up" where the sun lives in our bodies, our solar plexus.  Here is a three pose flow by Global Family Yoga to have fun with the sun in you:

(1) Warrior 1 with Extended Arms

(2)  Warrior 1 with Cactus Arms

(3) Pyramid

We practiced each posture for three breaths, then two breaths and finally one breath each.

Stories to Celebrate the Individual

http://globalfamilyyoga.com/blog/2015/08/celebrate_the_individual/623/