Planting Seeds: Practicing Mindfulness with Children

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 covers a wide range of contemplative and fun activities parents and educators can do with their children or students. They 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 reinforce the key teachings, as well as a chapter on dealing effectively with conflict in the classroom or difficult group.

Born in Hue, Vietnam, Thich Nhat Hanh is a Buddhist monk, poet, scholar, and human rights activist. In 1967, he was nominated by Martin Luther King, Jr., for the Nobel Peace Prize. He is author of more than one hundred books, sixty in English. His previous books for children include, A Pebble for Your Pocket, The Coconut Monk and The Hermit and the Well. He lives at Plum Village, his meditation center in France, and travels worldwide, leading retreats on “the art of mindful living.”

Wietske Vriezen was born in Wassenaar, The Netherlands. She met Thich Nhat Hanh during a retreat in Holland in 2000 and was touched deeply by the practice. Since then, she has illustrated a number of books based on the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh most recently Mindful Movements and A Basket of Plums. She lives in Rotterdam, The Netherlands where she works as a psychologist with gifted children.