Brain Boosters and Play Time: the next installment of Peaceful Like a Panda!
Hello again! I’m here with the next look at Peaceful Like a Panda, the great new kids mindfulness book written by youth yoga guru Kira Willey, published by Rodale Kids, and illustrated by yours truly. This week I’m going to share pictures from the third and fourth sections of the book, titled Brain Boosters and Play Time, respectively.
The Brain Boosters section is all about focusing that brain power and using your imagination. Kids get to pretend they’re various animals, and also think about their brains!
In I Am Smart, you are asked to think about your smart brains, and say it out loud: “I Am Smart!” It’s a great reminder for kids to remember they have great minds and that they can use those minds to do anything. I drew a raccoon for this one, because they’re pretty smart little animals.
I had a fun time illustrating Flamingo, because I always like to draw flamingos, they’re just so hot pink. This exercise has kids pretend to be a flamingo balancing on one leg, getting a little yoga in there!
Owl Breath has you pretend to be another feathered friend, this time an owl in a tree, puffing up his feathers and saying a few gentle “Hooo”s, which helps you get focused and calm. I also always love drawing owls, probably because my mom had a big owl collection growing up. Our bathroom was even covered floor to ceiling in this great wallpaper that was all black and white drawings of owls. I’ll never forget those owls.
The fourth section of the book is Play Time, which features more fun pretending and active exercises that bring in poses and actions.
Butterfly Breath brings in a bit of yoga again, sitting with your feet together and flapping your knees like butterfly wings, which is so great for flexibility and is sure to help loosen kids up before an active day.
Ha Ha Hyena has kids pretending to be a hyena, with big belly laughs to get their energy going!
And the last one I’ll share today is Let’s Go Swimming, where kids get down on the ground and pretend to swim! I had a fun time drawing otters and ducks for this one, because so many kids love watching ducks on the water and otters are just so darn cute.
Well that’s all for today! Next week I’ll post my last entry focusing on Peaceful Like a Panda, where I’ll share illustrations from the last two sections. I hope everyone out there has a good week, and thank you for reading! (If you want to read more about the book, see my last two posts here and here!)
