In honor of National Physical Fitness and Sports Month, we’re reposting a piece from July 2020. It features books that get kids moving. Physical activity, whether it’s playing a sport, dancing, walking the dog, gardening, or riding a bike, can reduce stress and improve mood!
Magination Press offers books for young children and teens that encourage physical movement or exercise.
Bee Calm: The Buzz on Yoga by Frank J. Sileo, PhD, illustrated by Claire Keay, introduces kids to beginning yoga poses such as Mountain, Chair, Airplane, Cobra, and more. A note to parents and caregivers provides suggestions for introducing children to yoga and instructions for the poses in the story.
Ready to start feeling better? Move and groove your way into a better mood!
Move Your Mood! by Brenda S. Miles, PhD, and Colleen A. Patterson, MA, illustrated by Holly Clifton-Brown, invites kids to explore their emotions through movement and introduces the idea that moving our bodies affects the way we feel inside. A note to parents, caregivers, and teachers provides suggestions for how to use the book with your child, and additional ideas for teaching your child about emotions.
These books for teens provide more comprehensive guides toward self-care:
Depression: A Teen’s Guide to Survive and Thrive by Jacqueline B. Toner, PhD, and Claire A. B. Freeland, PhD, draws on Cognitive Behavior Therapy to help teens understand depression, and provides practical information on actions they can take to start feeling better.
How to Feel Good: 20 Things Teens Can Do by Tricia Mangan, MA, offers strategies for teens to use to slow down and and pay attention to how they feel and what they think about themselves. Suggestions of “ways to be kind to your whole self” explore how caring for your physical body can improve your mood.
Getting moving is a great way for kids and families to spend time together and feel better. If your child seems especially anxious or you are concerned about depression, please seek professional help. APA can help you find a psychologist near you.
Related Books from Magination Press
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Move Your Mood
Feeling blah? Here’s what to do. Move your body and your mood moves too!
Move Your Mood! invites kids and adults to twist, wiggle, shake, hop…and smile! Reading this book with your child is an active and fun way to teach your child about emotions, and introduce the idea that moving our bodies affects the way we feel inside.
Ready to start feeling better? Move and groove your way into a better mood!
Includes a Note to Parents, Caregivers, and Teachers with suggestions for how to use the book with your child, and additional ideas for teaching your child about emotions. (picture book, ages 4-8)
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Bee Calm: The Buzz on Yoga
In this companion book to Bee Still: An Invitation to Meditation, Bentley Bee loves to fly around and visit his friends in the garden. One day, he notices all of them in unusual poses. What could it bee?
Bentley’s friends teach him several beginning yoga poses including Mountain, Chair, Airplane, Cobra, and more. Readers will love to follow Bentley and try the poses themselves as he gets buzzing all about yoga in this kid-friendly introduction.
Includes a Note to Parents and Caregivers with suggestions for introducing children to yoga and instructions for the poses in the story.
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Depression: A Teen’s Guide to Survive and Thrive
If you have picked up this book, you probably want nothing more than to understand why you feel the way you do and how to feel better. You want those depressed thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to just go away, right?
Inside you’ll read about what depression is, how it can derail you, and effective ways to take care of yourself if you are depressed. Full of useful information, helpful self-reflection quizzes, and easy-to-do exercises, and based firmly on cognitive-behavioral principles, this book will provide you with a concrete plan that could make a huge difference in your health and well-being — a difference that lasts.
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How to Feel Good: 20 Things Teens Can Do
Being a teenager can be tough. It can be really hard sometimes to feel good about yourself and your abilities. New relationships and experiences are happening all around you, and that can make you insecure, overwhelmed, or stressed out.
How to Feel Good will help you slow down and pay attention to how you feel and what you think about yourself.
This book presents 20 simple, mind-healthy skills to guide you toward self-awareness and to teach you to stay calm and self-confident. You will also find additional strategies, self-reflection questions, and easy-to-do tools to help end frustration and develop patience so that you can achieve your goals.
Are you ready? Do 1 or learn all 20 skills and take charge of you. You are just a step away from feeling more confident, secure, and GREAT! (ages 13-18)
