This is More Than A Yoga Book for Children

I‘m constantly on the look out for great tools that help my sons relax. I welcome activities or resources with open arms that allow them time to calm their minds and bodies – and empty their buckets. A yoga book for children is a perfect example of a bucket emptying tool. And “Anna and her Rainbow-Colored Yoga Mats” is about more than just yoga. 

“Anna and her Rainbow-Colored Yoga Mats” is a gem written by Giselle Shardlow, who writes specifically for children.

Yoga and Diversity

This is a book which is not just about yoga, which doesn’t just get children practicing yoga poses and using their imaginations, but which also gets children thinking about diversity. And that’s a wonderful theme to delve into when you are reading with highly sensitive children. Many a HSC utters, “Why can’t I be like everyone else?” at one point or another. And so a book that celebrates different is very welcome indeed in my home.

Yoga as a Tool to Combat Stress

On top of that stress is something that we, as parents of HSCs, often have to contend with in our children. It’s something we see regularly in our children because of the overwhelming world around them; the busy classrooms, the noise, the pressure to perform, the fast pace of daily life. The act of just sitting together to read in itself counteracts negative stress and in addition to that yoga is a great tool to combat how stress outs itself in our little ones.

That’s why I think yoga stories for children work so well.

Anna’s Story

And so to the story. Anna, whose hearing is impaired, uses her coloured yoga mats to escape to new worlds. And this is what she does when she starts at a new school. She makes a new friend who joins her on her yoga adventures. Together they draw a crowd – introducing others to the art of yoga.

The book is beautifully illustrated. In addition, the yoga poses are clear and explained in such a way that children are excited to give each pose a try. They flap like swimmers, they balance like surfers, they stand tall like mountains and sway like trees.

I had a very enthusiastic four year old boy around me whilst I was reading Anna’a story to him. He loved trying out the poses.

I’ll leave you with my favourite few lines from the book, which positively reinforces the message I am trying to instil in my own children:

“Every day, she remembered what her mother said. She thought about being happy inside. She tried not to worry that she didn’t fit in or that she was different.”

*For your convenience, this post includes affiliate links to products and books I find useful for the HSK community. They cost you nothing more to buy, but I may get a small commission, which goes towards costs to keep the HSK site running.*