The two books, Storytime Yoga and The Treasure in Your Heart, both by Sydney Solis, are new additions to our yoga collection. These two books are by far the best out there IMO. Especially if you are looking for enriching, life-affirming, confidence-boosting, and unique yoga practice ideas for preschoolers to age 12. With-in their pages, there may be not be enough information for the newbie-to-yoga parent/teacher, but it's perfect for the seasoned yoga teacher/parent wanting something with more "substance" with just going through the poses. The premise is teaching the yoga postures while presenting a story before and during practicing the poses. Also, the second book, The Treasure in Your Heart, goes through meditation, yoga nidra, visualizations, and techniques for teaching yoga philosophy to children. Both books are full of amazing stories with suggested corresponding postures, I highly recommend getting both.

The two books, Storytime Yoga and The Treasure in Your Heart, both by Sydney Solis, are new additions to our yoga collection. These two books are by far the best out there IMO. Especially if you are looking for enriching, life-affirming, confidence-boosting, and unique yoga practice ideas for preschoolers to age 12. With-in their pages, there may be not be enough information for the newbie-to-yoga parent/teacher, but it's perfect for the seasoned yoga teacher/parent wanting something with more "substance" with just going through the poses. The premise is teaching the yoga postures while presenting a story before and during practicing the poses. Also, the second book, The Treasure in Your Heart, goes through meditation, yoga nidra, visualizations, and techniques for teaching yoga philosophy to children. Both books are full of amazing stories with suggested corresponding postures, I highly recommend getting both.

Oooh, now this is a lovely book!

Tibetan Tales For Little Buddhas is a collection of three tales rich with Tibetan culture. Each story shares a little of their wisdom. Perfect for Buddhist parents. But also for any parent wanting to expose their children to other cultures, especially as beautifully peaceful as the Tibetan culture.

The three stories are Yeshi's Luck, Jomo and the Dakini Queen, and Chunda's Wisdom Quest. Yeshi's Luck is about letting things go, not attaching to whether some event is good or bad. Jomo and the Dakini Queen is about fear, and showing another way to view your fear to become free of it. Chunda's Wisdom Quest is about helping those that you may not want to help, and how healing that could be.

The illustrations are just so lovely! The stories are the perfect length for my 4-yr-old and 6-yr-old. This book is a definite keeper! I highly recommend!!

I just didn't like this book...which is pretty rare.

I guess the introduction set my mood...it writes about how "the hidden folk" came into being. According to The Hidden Folk's intro Eve (from Adam and Eve) was a horrible housekeeper. Poor thing, she gets such a bad rap, first for the downfall of all "man"kind and now for feeling overwhelmed with the task to care for her large family. She, apparently, neglected her children, as when God came over to visit one day, Eve hid all but two of her many children, as the rest were "unkept". God was upset and proclaimed that all the children will remain hidden and so, according to The Hidden Folk intro, they became fairies and dwarves.

I was reading this aloud to my oldest two and was just cringing inside! Just ridiculous. I'm not Christian, but as a woman and mother, I was insulted of how incapable Eve was portrayed in this story.

Also, I found most of the stories to be slightly negative in tone. And one of the stories was full of war and guns. No thanks. I returned it this evening.

The illustrations were interesting, and very colourful, and some of the stories were okay, which is why I gave this two stars and not one.

I've really enjoyed this 2-disc CD set. With-in the first CD Jon defines mindfulness and its benefits (living moment to moment, awareness as a sixth sense, non-judging, non-striving, letting go, etc), while the second CD consists of six fairly short (10-18min) guided meditations.

There's a certain style of how Jon speaks (and writes, as I'm currently reading his book called Everyday Blessings)...he has these run-on sentences that work for him, as each sentence has such wonderful prose and clarity. And he's personable, and humorous, and thought-provoking. There's a lot of talk during the guided meditations, which can slightly distract the mediator, but for beginners I think this "chatting" may be beneficial to help focus the mind to stay present.

This is Shiva Rea's newest DVD. It's a very lovely DVD which will help beginners build the foundations of yoga properly. It's actually the best instructional yoga DVD I've ever come across thus far. Shiva Rea's instructions are excellent. The backgrounds, which are outside on various locations of Kauai, Hawaii, are just gorgeous and relaxing. The first two practices, "Foundation Flow" and "Beginners Backbend Flow", walk through the basic moves. IMO after those beginning moves are mastered it would be nice to just do the "Beginner's Standing Pose Flow" followed by "Relaxing Flexibility Flow". Unfortunately to pick and choice your practice, you have to return to the chapter menu to pick each practice, instead of Shiva Rea's usual "matrix" selection system on her other DVDs.

This simple video is definitely for beginners and, perhaps, advanced beginners, however, more seasoned yoga practioners may also find this DVD helpful to remind themselves about proper form and to have a nice relaxing yoga program occasionally.

I have no idea about the "hit show" Workout or who Jackie Warner is, but what I do know is this workout DVD is GREAT! It consists of three individual 20min workouts, one for lower body, one for upper body, and the last is for core. You can customize your workout by just doing one or adding one or two of the others, depending on your energy level.

The workouts are TOUGH (I couldn't walk very well the day after the lower body portion). But Jackie shows how to modify for beginners, as well as, adding extra to maximize your workout. The studio looks pleasant, and Jackie is motivating and personable. Her helpers are apparently some of her trainers at her "famous" gym, and they all definitely add their own personality to make the DVD more interesting too.

Each 20min workout mixes up 1 to 3 different exercises followed by 1 to 2 min of cardio, which repeats (with different exercises, you only do the same exercise for 1min once, which keeps the whole program fresh IMO) about four times (one new set per trainer).

Ahhh, finally! A Nativity book without all the religious "stuff". Yes, I know, an oxymoron...but I want to share with my children the beautiful Nativity tale without all the dogma attached. It is, after all, a tale that (loosely) originates from pre-christian era.

The illustrations are beautiful, and I love how all the figures match their proper ethnicity. It's a simple story, with lovely rhyming verse. Great for my 2-yr-old and 4-yr-old. It's a little young for my 6-yr-old, but it's still a nice story to share at Christmas time.

One Amazon reviewer put it perfectly: "Bettoli's (illustrator) distinctive style, her mastery of colors, and the rich symbology that transcends faiths and cultures makes this a gift to be passed from generation to generation". Nicely put!

What a wonderful little guide! The first and second chapters were slightly tough reads (for motivation to continue on with the book), more about determining my goals and values, these chapters really should have been at the end of the book, after reading why we should simplify in the first place. But the rest of the chapters were excellent, great for motivating myself to finally change my over-consuming ways.

The first part of the book is about the "whys" families should practice simplicity. The second part of the book goes into the "hows". This book took an simple straightforward approach to simplifying, I learned so many easy to implement techniques to motivate myself, my husband, and my children to all simplify; tips on communicating to our kids the whys, how to teach our children money management skills from an early age, and providing examples of "simple pleasures" to reconnect with family and community.

Because, lets face it, it's not just about our pocket-book anymore. Basically due to our greed we're destroying our environment and taking away from those living in less fortunate countries.

Another great part of this book are the lists of resources for more in-depth research on those areas discussed in each chapter.

I highly recommend!!

What a beautiful story...a greedy, yet unhappy, King demands a quilt by the very generous Quiltmaker, but she refuses because she only gives her quilts to the poor. In the end, the King gives all his treasures away and realizes how much happier he is with less.

It's a great story for our over-consuming un-fulfilled society, a perfect example that living simply provides a more contented way to live. Also, shows children how giving without expecting anything in return provides happiness.

The illustrations are absolutely gorgeous, and the text just flows when read aloud. It's a longer story, perfect for my six year old.