The Sacred Urge To Play

The living and learning that happen through play offers each child their best chance for health, happiness, and success in education and living both now and in the future. There is no hurry for school learning. Study after study shows that leaving formal cognitively-based learning until after the brain has laid down firm foundations gives our children a head start when it comes to higher learning.

According to Roger Caillois, play is an occasion of pure waste. In spite of this - or because of it - play constitutes an essential element of human social and spiritual development. In this study, the author defines play as a free and voluntary activity that occurs in a pure space, isolated and protected from the rest of life.

Magic Places presents parents and teachers with information about the nature of creativity, along with easy-to-follow suggestions for fostering the natural unfolding of each child's creativity. This popular book has been re written in 2007.

The daughter of a king in Cornwall, Juniper enjoys the luxurious life of a medieval princess. But when presented with the opportunity to learn the magic of nature and its healing powers, Juniper opts for the tough route and becomes an apprentice to nature's wisdom. Upon completion of her training and returning home, she discovers her power-mad aunt, Meroot, using black magic to usurp the throne. With the kingdom in peril, the young healer must use her untested powers to stop her mad aunt before the kingdom is destroyed! A prequel to Monica Furlong's Wise Child, this enthralling fantasy is a highly reviewed reader favorite. Juniper has been placed near the top of nearly 100 Goodreads.com "Best of" lists, including Best YA Fiction, Best Fantasy Books, and YA Books with Strong Female Characters. Find out why this is such a beloved book!

Following on from the sell-out success of their book FEED ME RIGHT, mother and daughter team Dee and Tamarin Pigneguy now bring you GROW ME WELL, which takes you further on your journey towards understanding the link between healthy food and a healthy body. GROW ME WELL reveals all you ever wanted to know - and more - about the inner workings of your body. Designed to appeal to teenagers, GROW ME WELL actually makes the whole idea of nutrition and body science interesting to all age groups.

Explore the Book is not a commentary with verse-by-verse annotations. Neither is it just a series of analyses and outlines. Rather, it is a complete Bible survey course. No one can finish this series of studies and remain unchanged. The reader will receive lifelong benefit and be enriched by these practical and understandable studies. Exposition, commentary, and practical application of the meaning and message of the Bible will be found throughout this giant volume. Bible students without any background in Bible study will find this book of immense help as will those who have spent much time studying the Scriptures, including pastors and teachers. Explore the Book is the result and culmination of a lifetime of dedicated Bible study and exposition on the part of Dr. Baxter. It shows throughout a deep awareness and appreciation of the grand themes of the gospel, as found from the opening book of the Bible through Revelation.

The legendary creator of iconic television programs All in the Family, Sanford and Son, Maude, Good Times, The Jeffersons, and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Norman Lear remade our television culture, while leading a life of unparalleled political, civic, and social involvement. Sharing the wealth of Lear's ninety years, this is a memoir as touching and remarkable as the life he has led.

In this moving, wry, and candid novel, widely acclaimed novelist Ayelet Waldman takes us through one woman’s passage through love, loss, and the strange absurdities of modern life.Emilia Greenleaf believed that she had found her soulmate, the man she was meant to spend her life with. But life seems a lot less rosy when Emilia has to deal with the most neurotic and sheltered five-year-old in New York City: her new stepson William. Now Emilia finds herself trying to flag down taxis with a giant, industrial-strength car seat, looking for perfect, strawberry-flavored, lactose-free cupcakes, receiving corrections on her French pronunciation from her supercilious stepson – and attempting to find balance in a new family that’s both larger, and smaller, than she bargained for. In Love and Other Impossible Pursuits Ayelet Waldman has created a novel rich with humor and truth, perfectly characterizing one woman’s search for answers in a crazily uncertain world.

The power of running to alleviate our suffering and frailties Whether you’re a novice runner making your way from the couch to your first 5K race, or an elite runner toeing the line at the start of the Olympic marathon, you soon discover that within the beauty of movement, there comes a point where you arrive at a mysterious boundary—the border where one valiantly tries to quiet the mind, while allaying incapacitating doubts and fears. This subtle negotiation, this dance with discomfort, is the birthplace of an inner fortitude, and it demands we keep moving when everything inside us is screaming for us to quit. Jean-Paul Bédard explores running’s ability to nurture inner resilience and build community, and how it can help us work through the traumas of addiction, depression, abuse, or anxiety. This book is a message strength and hope.