Hively Children’s Book Club

Wednesday, 1 September 2022

The Hively team believes that every child deserves a great start in life. We believe that every child is entitled to a safe and nurturing family.

We provide support to ensure that children get the best start possible.

This includes Hively’s Children's Book Club! Every Thursday from 4:00-4:30pm, Hively offers an online space for children where they are taught and guided through deep breathing exercises, movement, and exciting songs…all while being introduced to a new book.

Hosted by our Community Services Coordinator, Hively’s Children's Book Club introduces a range of diverse topics including self-care, advocacy, leadership, emotions, representation, meditation/mindfulness and more!

Check out our movement song we started with today!

We followed our movement song with a breathing exercise. You can practice the breathing exercise along with us below!

At the end of the month Hively provides children in the Tri-Valley (Pleasanton, Livermore, Dublin, Sunol and Oakland) with a copy of their favorite book to help them build their own book collection and continue growing their literacy skills.

This week we presented When Sadness is At Your Door by Eva Eland.

The content of this book is as follows: “Sadness can be scary and confusing at any age! When we feel sad, especially for long periods of time, it can seem as if the sadness is a part of who we are–an overwhelming, invisible, and scary sensation.

In When Sadness Is at Your Door, Eva Eland brilliantly approaches this feeling as if it is a visitor.

She gives it a shape and a face, and encourages the reader to give it a name, all of which helps to demystify it and distinguish it from ourselves. She suggests activities to do with it, like sitting quietly, drawing, and going outside for a walk.

The beauty of this approach is in the respect the book has for the feeling, and the absence of a narrative that encourages the reader to ‘get over’ it or indicates that it's ‘bad,’ both of which are anxiety-producing notions.”

Our Community Services Coordinator utilizes a variety of puppets to engage children during our Children's Book Club. Can you guess who read our book today?

After reading our chosen children's book, we ask children a few questions to reflect on the theme of the book. Today's discussion questions included the following:

• What is something you do to understand your sadness?
• What is something you would like to try to do to help with sadness?

Lastly, we said goodbye to all our friends with this goodbye song:

If you are a childcare provider and would like to join Hively’s Children’s Book Club, please contact cmadrigal@behively.org for further information.

About Our Community Services Coordinator

Hello, my name is Cassi! I am the Community Services Coordinator at Hively! One of my roles at Hively includes facilitating Hively’s Children's Book Club.

In addition to the Children's Book Club, I help and support children, families and child care providers in Oakland and Tri-Valley region (Pleasanton, Dublin, Livermore, Sunol) with educational programs, curriculums, our resource diaper pantry and community closet.

If you would like more information regarding programs for children, license exempt providers, and/or our diaper pantry/community closet please don’t hesitate to reach out to hello@behively.org Thank you!