cuddle cards
MER 95400111
Regular price $25.00 Sale price $16.50 Save 34%A personal favourite at Nest!
The cuddle journal is wonderful for families to read aloud, listen to the answers without comment if you like. A great oral journalling experience for little ones and people of all ages. To think, to feel, and to discover together. Judgement does not feel present in the questions. All of the emotions are given sunlight and air in this way.
Purchase just the journal, just the cards, or both together. In our home, our littlest one liked to play with the cards, while we read the questions aloud. Whomever liked could comment aloud, with little good, good pauses in between. Rare moments of calm and quiet overtook our household with this thoughtful and special journal.
Educating the Will
ISBN 9781936367788
Regular price $30.00by Michael Howard
This is an in-depth study of the important educational topic of developing the 'will' of our children, as well as developing their bodies and minds.
Explores the nature of the 'will' in children, and offers practical exercises based on sculpture to help develop the will in a healthy, positive way.
After exploring the nature of the will, Michael Howard then offers some practical exercises and activities for teachers and parents. Projects include indoor sandboxes, form modelling, seed drawing, sand modelling, modelling human and animal forms, stone carving, wooden spoons and bowls, and working with platonic solids.
Comprehensively illustrated, this is a challenging and thought-provoking book for all educators.
Includes advice and practical ideas and guidelines for modelling, woodworking, carving, for Grades 1 and up.
Softcover. 228 x 152 mm. 124 pages.
Floris books, 2015.
About the Author
Michael Howard was born in Vancouver, Canada, in 1946. He has taught sculpture to adults and children for over 30 years. He edited a collection of lectures entitled Art as Spiritual Activity: Rudolf Steiner's Contribution to the Visual Arts. He lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Play The Forest School Way
ISBN 9781780289298
Regular price $18.95The ultimate guide to woodland fun with kids!
Forest School is founded on a philosophy of nature-based play and learning that encourages children to develop confidence and self-esteem. This book will get your kids outside, making and building in the real world. Whether your local woodland is a forest or a strip of trees along the edge of an urban park, these activities provide fantastic opportunities for family time and will encourage your children to fall in love with outdoor play. This is the first book to share Forest School games, crafts and skill-building activities with families and friends, its magical illustrations and simple instructions drawing children easily into a world of wonder.
- Be a fox tracking its prey, a moth evading a bat, a rabbit fleeing a forest fire!
- Make a working bow and arrow, spectacular headdresses, beautiful woodland jewellery, magic wands, all with materials gathered from the forest floor.
- Learn wilderness survival skills: build a shelter, make fire, forage and cook wild food.
Softcover.
Watkins publishing.
A Year of Forest School
ISBN 978-1-78678-131-4
Regular price $25.95 Sale price $20.95 Save 19%Outdoor Play and Skill-building Fun for Every Season
by Jane Worroll & Peter Houghton
Following on from the bestselling Play the Forest School Way, here is a brilliant selection of brand-new games, crafts and activities to get kids developing new skills and exploring the natural world all year round. Structured around the four seasons of the year, each chapter is packed full of step-by-step Forest School games and activities that harmonize with the weather and what’s happening in nature at that time of year, with a nod to seasonal festivals such as Easter and Christmas. In spring, for example, you could make a mud birthday cake to celebrate Earth Day on 22 April, or (inspired by bird song) craft sistrums from sticks and bottle tops, or make a clay hare and enjoy dandelion tea and a chocolate egg hunt at a spring day out. At Forest School, children return to the same location again and again, building a lasting connection with a specific part of the natural world, and this book in its year-round approach will bring this aspect of Forest School play to the fore. Each of the four seasonal chapters includes a description of an extended session (combining active and quieter activities plus, for some, an idea for foraging/cooking) to guide Forest School leaders planning themed days and parents looking for party inspiration or nature days out.
The Forest School ethos of nature-based play and learning that encourages children to develop confidence, self-esteem and emotional intelligence is exactly what’s needed in an era when childhood problems such as obesity and anxiety are on the rise. Woven through the year are stories from the authors’ own Forest School classes, as they make a passionate case for the importance of ensuring children’s access to nature and the incredible benefits they will gain from being outside, even in the heart of a city.
--Lily Horseman, Chair of the Forest School Association
by Watkins Publishing.
Softcover, 168 pages. 2018.
Forest School Wild Play
ISBN 9781786784209
Regular price $19.95Outdoor Fun with Earth, Air, Fire & Water
by Jane Worroll & illustrated by Peter Houghton
Aimed at parents, teachers and Forest School leaders, this new book from Jane Worroll & Peter Houghton is packed full of fantastic new Forest School activities. It has a special focus on the elements and on making children feel connected to the natural world through imagination and storytelling.
This is the third book in the brilliant Jane Worroll & Peter Houghton Forest School series, containing all-new games, crafts and skill-building activities for fun woodland time with kids. The theme is the four Western elements – air, fire, earth and water – with the overall message being one of sustainability and the amazing web of life of which we are all part.
The activities are designed to help children to get a sense of their place in nature and understand what they can to do help protect it. For air, make kites and whistles out of sticks, or learn to how to predict the weather by reading the clouds. For fire, build a rocket stove, trace the sun's path with a homemade sun dial, or craft a collecting basket, fill it with firewood and then make a fire. For earth, make a mud slide, try mud painting on cloth or sculpt a forest troll. For water, make natural dye and potions, or build dams in a stream to see how the water course changes.
Softcover, 168 pages.
Watkins Publishing, 2021.
Born to Be Wild
ISBN 9781472915337
Regular price $35.99 Sale price $35.25 Save 2%Hundreds of free nature activities for families
by Hattie Garlick, with photographs by Nancy Honey
Packed with great photos of real families in the outdoors, Born to Be Wild contains easy-to-follow instructions for activities that require nothing more sophisticated than a small person's imagination and access to a little outdoor space.
Nature lays on magical materials for free each season, from fallen leaves and twigs, moulted feathers, sand and shells, to mud, puddles and rain. Everything else you'll need for these activities is already hiding in your cupboards at home. No expensive art supplies of outward-bound kit required. All you need are the toolkit items at the front of the book - ordinary household essentials like scraps of paper, string, glue, recycled food containers and an empty jar or two.
Along the way Hattie talks to families, organisations, and communities who have rebuilt their relationships with nature with extreme or inspiring results, and she introduces scientists, psychologists and other experts who explain why, as modern families, we should revive our waning relationships with nature, whatever age or stage we're at.
6.68 x 8.65" · 256 pages. Softcover.
Printed by Bloomsbury, 2016.
Hattie Garlick is a former journalist for the Times and now contributes to the Guardian, the Telegraph, the Sunday Times, and Mother and Baby magazine. Hattie also interviewed all of the 100 Leading Ladies, photographed by Nancy Honey for her 2014 exhibition.
Nancy Honey has been a professional photographer for over thirty-five years. Her work has been widely published and exhibited. Her monographs include Woman to Woman, Entering the Masquerade, Poodle Parlour, and 100 Leading Ladies.
The Gutsy Girl
ISBN 9781632861238
Regular price $22.00 Sale price $19.80 Save 10%Escapades for Your Life of Epic Adventure
by Caroline Paul; Illustrated by Wendy MacNaughton
A New York Times Bestseller
From the author of You Are Mighty, a real-life derring-do woman, a collection of exhilarating stories, activities, and tips to inspire girls to pursue a life of adventure and excitement.
Why should girls miss out on the joy of adventure? They can jump off rocks, swing on ropes, and climb trees just as well as boys can. But girls often allow fear to stand in their way.
In The Gutsy Girl, author Caroline Paul emboldens girls to seek out a life of exhilaration. Once a young scaredy-cat herself, Caroline decided that fear got in the way of the life she wanted--of excitement, confidence, self-reliance, friendship, and fun. She has since flown planes, rafted big rivers, climbed tall mountains, and fought fires as one of the first female firefighters in San Francisco. In The Gutsy Girl, she shares her greatest escapades as well as those of other girls and women from throughout history, and offers engaging activities such as confidence-building stances, creating a compass, positive self-talk, and using crickets to estimate outside temperatures. Each section includes a place for girls to “journal” their adventures, thus encouraging a new generation to develop a zest for challenges and a healthy relationship to risk. The Gutsy Girl is Lean In for young girls, a book about the glorious things that happen when you unshackle from fear and open up to exhilaration. Fully illustrated and enlivened throughout by bestselling illustrator Wendy MacNaughton's whimsical pen-and-ink drawings.
Hardcover, 160 pages. Black and white illustrations throughout.
Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2016.
Reviews
From Nest Owner, Lisa Di Lorenzo: "After signing this book out of the library the third time, I decided that I just had to carry it in the shop. I read aloud to my son, 6 yrs at the time, the story of how she collected 2L milk cartons, made a large, layered, duct-taped milk carton raft with her father, and convinced other kids to sail it down river with her. There's the call to abandon ship as it's starting to sink after not too long, but it's absolutely hilarious and like all her stories, we felt in an adventurous and very free state of mind, and we had some great laughs while reading. This is a wonderful book to have in the home for all children, in my opinion! I do think that as a young girl, I'd have especially appreciated it, and I wonder if having books like these in our home library opens up the world a bit and the paradigms that we tend to think in. Overall, the book is very well-written, illustrated, edited, and printed. It's chockfull, and a great book to gift/ own for inspiration and laughs."
"A Modern Manifesto for Bravery, Perseverance, and Breaking the Tyranny of Perfection. A former firefighter and lifelong adventurer’s clarion call for the joy of adventure in a culture obsessed with risk-averse achievement." -Maria Popova, BrainPickings.org
“The perfect book for young feminists, or really any woman who needs a dose of inspiration in her life . . . Viva la Gutsy Girl!” – Buzzfeed
“Part high-energy how-to guide, part hilarious memoir, and part interactive adventure journal designed to help girls of all ages build confidence, pluck, and bravery by venturing outside.” – Outside Magazine
“Delightful . . . There's a lot here that will thrill any girl--or boy--of any age.” – San Francisco Chronicle
“Caroline Paul's inspiring and sometimes astonishing stories of the adventures that she and other great women have undertaken, alongside Wendy MacNaughton's beautiful illustrations, make The Gutsy Girl the book of the year for daredevils, doers, and dreamers of all ages.” – Cheryl Strayed, author of WILD
“Paul encourages readers--girls, specifically--to pursue lives of excitement in a book that blends elements of memoir, guidebook, and journal.” – Publishers Weekly
“If Pippi Longstocking and Sheryl Sandberg got together and penned a book for tween girls, this brilliantly written and illustrated gem would be it.” – Parent.co
“An incredible book for raising 'gutsy' girls and a must-read for adventurous women . . . Paul's book will convince any woman that she, too, is destined for a life of epic adventure--whether it's in the woods or in the boardroom.” – Quartz.com
“A must for inspiring girls of all ages--young and young at heart.” – Stanford Magazine
“Paul's exuberant prose is made even better by Wendy MacNaughton's charming illustrations, which help place us in the adrenaline-fueled scenes . . . An adventure tome, field manual, journal, and self-help book all in one, Gutsy makes an excellent gift for girls graduating elementary school, though it's a good read for anyone. The book aims to help young women widen their comfort zone, face fear, and manage insecurity.” – Sierra
“[Lost Cat] is revelatory . . . it moves easily and hilariously from one sentence and chapter to the next . . . it's ingeniously crafted . . . a fiercely charming narrative that sneaks up on a reader, just as the best fantastical books do . . . Lost Cat is an incredibly endearing work, a snapshot of the madness of loving and agonizing over and chasing after animals.” – Jillian Steinhauer, The Los Angeles Review of Books, on LOST CAT
“An uncommonly charming and wise tale.” – Alexis Madrigal, The Atlantic, on LOST CAT
“This playful, quirky book is like a cat that climbs into your lap and purrs; it's impossible not to love it.” – Gayle Brandeis, San Francisco Chronicle, on LOST CAT
“A tender, imaginative memoir infused with equal parts humor and humanity . . . an absolute treat from cover to cover.” – Maria Popova, Brain Pickings, on LOST CAT
Siblings Without Rivalry
ISBN 9780393342215
Regular price $22.95How to Help Your Children Live Together So You Can Live Too
By Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish
This wise, groundbreaking book gives parents the practical tools they need to cope with conflict, encourage cooperation, reduce competition, and make it possible for children to experience the joys of their special relationship. With humour and understanding—much gained from raising their own children—Faber and Mazlish explain how and when to intervene in fights, provide suggestions on how to help children channel their hostility into creative outlets, and demonstrate how to treat children unequally and still be fair. Updated to incorporate fresh thoughts after years of conducting workshops for parents and professionals, this edition also includes a new afterword.
Softcover, 2012.
Published by WW Norton.
Tell Me: What Children Really Want to Know about Bodies, Sex, and Emotions
ISBN 9781776572328
Regular price $23.99 Sale price $21.60 Save 10%Written by Katharina von der Gathen and illustrated by Anke Kuhl. Translated by Shelley Tanaka.
Tell me is a book for children that really want to know about bodies, sex and emotions—and aren’t afraid to ask.
How much sex education do children need? As much as they ask for, say the experts. And exactly what do children want to know? Ask them!
This book collects real questions asked by children in classes about the human body, love, and sexuality. The answers are both direct and warmhearted, giving children the information they really want to know in a form they can relate to. This is a book for both boys and girls that is relevant to today's conversations about sexuality. It brings humor and lightness to help families comfortably approach this topic that many find awkward.
Recommended for ages 8-12 years old.
Hardcover, 208 pages. 19.05 x 2.54 x 14.22 cm
Gecko Press.
Reviews:
"As the subtitle indicates, this German import answers a whole host of questions kids curious about sex want the answers to. There are 99 in all, covering anatomy, puberty, reproduction, sexual and gender identity, and, of course, sex. The book opens vertically, with the page below the gutter displaying both the handwritten question and a cartoon drawing, frequently humorous. The second question, 'Are there different penises,' is illustrated with a double lineup of 10 unengorged penises complete with hair and scrota, some circumcised, some not, all verifiably different. Its placement so early in the book ensures readers know what they're getting into in terms of both tone and frankness. Sex educator von der Gathen's answers appear on the flip side; all employ appropriate vocabulary that's respectful of the capabilities of their audience and are calmly inclusive of variations in human and cultural experience. While the book early on establishes the fact that there are 'people who identify as a different gender than the one they are born with,' it often uses gendered language to describe experiences: 'Girls get their periods for the first time and boys have their first ejaculation' during puberty, for instance. When discussing sexual intimacy, the importance of consent is ever present. Kuhl's cartoons depict adults and children of different racial presentations and include several same-sex couples. Funny and frank, this will be an important resource for many kids."―Kirkus Reviews Journal
"Tell Me provides a wonderful way for children to address their curiosity safely on their own, or begin a more in-depth conversation with a parent or teacher. There is lots of nonjudgmental information about consent, identity, puberty and more, and sweetly humorous cartoon illustrations accompany each question (including naked genitals, so be prepared for some giggles as children learn)." ~ Ako Journal
"This is the sort of book that compels me to make the Astonishingly Unconventional list every year. It’s about a topic that most wouldn’t expect a children’s book to cover, featuring unexpected illustrations and a unique design (spine on top). It also happens to be one of the best books on the topics of bodies, sex, and emotions that I’ve encountered." ~Travis Jonkers, School Library Journal
"The illustrations are gentle and often humorous without being childish or silly. They add another layer of understanding to the questions and answers and help take some of the potential awkwardness out of the content matter." ~ The Sapling
"The author is a sex educator, and this book is the result of a project she did with students around nine and ten years of age. She asked them to write down their questions about “their bodies, puberty, love and sexuality and anonymously put them into a box with the promise that I would answer every question.” There are 99 of them in this book — with illustrations that are funny and tender all at once — and always anatomically correct, of course. Von der Gathen takes their answers very seriously, never engaging in a patronizing tone. She is refreshingly honest. Unflinching even, with an economy of information; she answers many of these questions in two to three paragraphs." ~ Julie Danielson, Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
About the Author
Anke Kuhl, born in 1970, is one of Germany's leading children’s book illustrators, whose awards include the German Youth Literature Award. She lives in Frankfurt.