The Breathing Circle - Learning Through the Movement of the Natural Breath

The Breathing Circle - Learning Through the Movement of the Natural Breath by Nell Smyth

Movement is fundamental to healthy child development in the early years. Nell Smyth has created a series of playful, informal excerises, verses, songs, and stories inspired by movement and the natural flow of breath.

These simple, enjoyable techniques promote physical well-being and social confidence, and are invaluable for supporting early language and literacy skills. The Breathing Circle can be used at home or in the classroom with young children ages from 18 months up to around seven years.

"A clear, imaginative, and flexible blueprint for teachers of early learning, describing how to integrate and support the child’s developing sensory systems and the movement patterns that underpin child development." — Anna Hubbard, Brain Gym® instructor and author

Early childhood educators know that children love to be part of a learning circle. "Circle time" is an essential ingredient of Waldorf education. Circles offer participation in a larger whole and can foster the development of key sensory and neuromuscular faculties.

Nell Smyth developed The Breathing Circle techniques to help develop greater learning potential, to help integrate sensory and motor activities, and to help young children venture more freely into the social world while feeling fully grounded in body and mind.

"Our breath lives in the realm of movement. The quality of our breath changes, deepening and becoming more substantial through enjoyable movement. Different qualities of movement affect intimately how we breathe. As our breath flows more freely, the breath rhythm can come into greater balance. When this starts to take place, we can become refreshed and reinvigorated, feel more integrated and more aware of the boundary between ourselves and the rest of the world in which we participate. To breathe more deeply is to be more present and to be more present is to be awake with more resources available for learning." (from the introduction)

The Breathing Circle brings practical new ways to understand how responsiveness, expression, and learning all depend on the rhythm of inhalation and exhalation, which carry children into the world and back into themselves.

Here is an essential handbook for early years educators, preschooler parents, and caregivers, as well as storytellers, drama teachers, breathwork teachers and practitioners, and those involved in the many other somatic disciplines.

Book Details:

• Number of Pages: 224
• Book Size: 7-1/2" x 9-3/4"
• Book Type: Paperback
• Recommended Ages: For use with children ages 3 and up
• ISBN 10: 1903458641