Hively Provider Book Club

Wednesday, 10 August 2022

Hively offers regular workshops, classes, and training to help child care providers develop their skills as small business owners, child development experts, and compassionate caregivers.

This includes Hively’s Childcare Provider Book Club! Every Wednesday from 1:00-1:30pm, Hively has a guest reader who reads a children’s book to a group of child care providers and we discuss the book together. Providers discuss their thoughts, how they can implement the book into their centers, and what they can teach their children in connection with each book.

Hosted by our Training and Inclusion Coordinator, Hively’s Childcare Provider Book Club introduces a range of diverse topics including inclusion, emotions, representation, disability, meditation/mindfulness and more!

At the end of the month, Hively provides childcare providers with a copy of their favorite children's book to help providers build their children's library while also providing them with the tools to implement the book into their child care program.

This week Valerie Arkin, Hively’s Program Manager, read Zoo Zen A Yoga Story For Kids by Kristen Fischer.

The content of this book is as follows, “What could be more fun for kids than to hop like a frog, slither like a snake, and roar like a lion—all while learning an empowering, healthy life skill?

Zoo Zen: A Yoga Story for Kids is a delightful pose-along adventure for children ages four to eight. Young readers will join our heroine Lyla as she learns ten yoga poses from her friends at the zoo, receiving helpful tips along the way from each animal she encounters.

Using rhyming and counting to make memorization easier, here is an imaginative book that combines the benefits of yoga with kids’ natural love for animals to create a magical learning journey that parents and kids can enjoy together.”

Key takeaways from our Provider Book Club discussion included the following:

• The book shows animals as well as the main character engaging in the yoga poses.
• The yoga poses in the book correlate with what Lyla is doing (e.g., eagles flying high, camels and bending her back).
• Children are able to count the animals in the book. This can be used as a grounding technique for kids in order to focus their attention on the animals and how many there are throughout the book.
• The language included in the book expresses the importance of yoga and being mindful (e.g., balancing, relaxing, making time to pause).
• Throughout the book Lyla is going through a journey. Yoga can be seen in this way, as you take time to slow down, focus on your body, your breathing and your thoughts, you take time to pause and go through a journey.
• The book emphasizes “Use yoga when you want to calm down and feel strong… Remember to breathe… Always be present right here and right now. Show that you’re thankful…”
• The end of the book provides different yoga poses that can be used with children (E.g., bear pose, cobra pose, eagle pose, etc…)
• The illustrations are bright colored, beautiful, and uplifting.

Check out a read aloud of the book below:

To learn more about Yoga and what it does to your body and brain, check out the video below.

Here are also a few videos to try yoga with kids!

Lastly, here is a yoga poster for Toddlers!

• Yoga Poster for Toddlers

If you are a childcare provider in the Tri-Valley (Pleasanton, Dublin, Livermore, Sunol) and would like to join Hively’s Provider Book Club, please contact hello@behively.org for further information.

About the Author:

Hello, my name is Karely! I am the Training and Inclusion Coordinator at Hively. One of my roles at Hively includes facilitating and sharing resources for Hively’s Provider Book Club.

In addition to the Provider Book Club, I help and support childcare providers in the Tri-Valley (Pleasanton, Dublin, Livermore, Sunol) with inclusion services for their child care programs.

If you are a childcare provider in the Tri-Valley and are interested in inclusion services for your childcare program and/or you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to hello@behively.org Thank you!