Calm Kids

​The subtitle of this book is ‘help children relax with mindful activities’; combine this with a cover featuring a soft focus shot of a solitary, barefooted preschooler serenely contemplating an apple whilst sitting on a log – and you could be forgiven for thinking that clearly, it’s not aimed at readers whose main preoccupation is getting to the end of the teaching week without actually throttling a teenager or two. It’s true that the author is often directing her thoughts at parents, particularly those with younger children (and who are open to theories that include chakras, crystals, and aromatherapy); however, she also has solid experience of working in educational settings, including secondary schools, and is very good at differentiating her topics in order to enable effective filtering of the advice. Her meditation techniques are simple, sound, and cleverly age appropriate; whether you try them on your Y10 tutor group, or yourself, you could see some rather astonishing results.