We come from a country where educational opportunities and resources are bountiful. So bountiful in fact, that 'old' books are often considered worthless and are recycled or trashed!

Books 4 PNG Kids are helping to turn 'trash' into treasure by collecting spare books for 0-14-year-olds from schools and libraries and transporting them all the way to Papua New Guinea.

At this time of year you might be cleaning out the books in your library, and if you are in Melbourne or QLD, please think of Books 4 PNG Kids.

As an island, Papua New Guinea is isolated and relies on people to bring in resources- many areas remain remote with no roads, and schools might have little to no books to teach with. School is not compulsory, and fewer girls attend than boys. T.V and internet are rare, so books are precious.

I grew up with a book stockroom at my house so I can't even imagine suffering a lack of books! Books are a window into possibilities. By providing a wonderful variety of resources, Books 4 PNG Kids are helping to create an engaging educational experience for kids who might have no other knowledge of the world outside their villages. These kids are strong and independent and there is no limit to what they can do!

If you can help, there are fun Friday packing days (pictured here are the girls, including the CEO of Books 4 PNG Kids and the CEO of Enlighten Press, celebrating a new shipment ready to go!) 👏

You can also help by donating books.

These are the kinds of resources suitable for donation:

✔Early Readers (numbers, alphabet, picture books, animals and cardboard books)

✔Primary school fiction and non-fiction

✔Basic School Supplies

✔Atlases and world maps

✔Dictionaries and thesauruses

✔Bibles

✔Education games and wooden puzzles

✔Medical, nursing and midwifery textbooks

✔Musical instruments

If you would like to know more, visit this page-

Happy holidays!

We can't draw from an empty well and self-care for educators is essential. Doing a job that requires you to be constantly aware of the needs of others can lead to occupational burnout. It's common for people to speak about being selfish as an insult. But there's a reason why you're instructed to give oxygen to yourself before giving it to others on the plane. You need to be a fully functioning person to be of any use to others. Let's change this idea of being selfish and choose to be self-full. Take the time to nourish yourself and develop a good regenerative practice.

I believe it's crazy important to do this. You wouldn't learn to spell from someone who didn't know how to write. Ultimately we would like our children to have a strong sense of wellbeing, and it's so much easier to teach what you really know for yourself.

What can we do to nourish ourselves?

Self-care tends to be a very personal thing. If you don't know already then try lots of different things and see what works for you. Understand that what you need may change depending on your energy levels and it's a good idea to have some active options as well as relaxed ones. The real trick will be setting aside the time to care for yourself as a priority!

Some ideas to try-

Positive self-talk.

Firstly we must speak kindly to ourselves. Congratulate yourself for the little wins. Even when things don't go well, acknowledge that you've done your best and move on.

Get outside.

Nature has a soothing influence on our physiology. Try walking mindfully, focus on the feel of the wind on your skin, the colours and smells that surround you. Be purposeful to really get into the moment.

Enjoy funny books or t.v.

This is an easy way to change your focus as well as creating lots of lovely happy brain chemicals to make you feel good!

Hang out with friends

Connecting with others is a great way to recharge. Be conscious about your intentions and keep it light- it won't make anyone feel nourished if it's just a forum to complain about problems.

Dance and physical activity

So many emotions can be released through expressive movement. Put your soul into whatever you do and feel how your thoughts transform. Your body will love it too!

Food & drink

Listen to your body. There's no one diet that works for everyone all the time, and your body will tell you what it needs. Water is vital for cell communication so always keep a bottle on hand.

Make something.

Drawing, knitting, baking, gardening, music, building etc. There are endless creative activities we can engage in to help to release tension and stimulate inspiration. There's no need to create a masterpiece it's just for a bit of fun.

Quiet time.

Call it meditation, relaxing or whatever. Just take 15 mins a day to give yourself a 'thinking holiday'. Give yourself permission to put all your concerns aside and feel how refreshing it is to think nothing and do nothing.

There must be as many ways to nourish as there are people in the world. Finding what works for you can be an adventure. And remember, being self-full is not just a gift to yourself- it's a gift for everyone you come in to contact with when you're feeling at your best!

What do you do to nourish and flourish?

Hi, I’m Melissa, the author of our wellbeing collection, made with the help of my daughter Ayla. The role of wellbeing in education is becoming more of a focus. Life skills such as emotional intelligence, resilience and stress management are now recognised as essential to our communities.

Wellbeing education is also very personal to me. The last research papers of my degree explored a branch of art therapy known as art-based research, leading me to study positive psychology. I had imagined working with adults until I had my child and watched her form her perception of the world as she approached every new experience, navigated her transition from home to kindergarten to school, coped with testing, social interactions, and the pressure to be “good” and do things “right”. This caused me to question, why wait until we are adults seeking therapy or cruising the self-help section to develop our emotional strategies? Let’s make wellbeing an intrinsic part of early education.

These books are a direct result of conversations Ayla and I have together, sharing our opinions of how our perception creates our experience and the ways we can reframe our thoughts and choose our feelings to feel better. We observed the people around us struggling with a lack of self-belief, and Ayla expressed her wish to write with me to “help other kids to feel better”. Her love of learning is a direct result of her love of books and wellbeing is a natural part of her vocabulary.

This collection was created with the idea that growing up having a wellbeing toolkit could give you the confidence and self-belief to view life, with all it’s ups and downs, as a grand adventure.

To support teaching wellbeing in early education, I have created some value pack options. Included are a range of wellbeing posters such as ‘how to make a friend’ and ‘choose a greeting’ posters along with teachers’ notes to help put positive engagement strategies into practice.

These packs are available for a limited time via the link below-

Have you have heard of the psychological phenomenon called the Pygmalion Effect? With such great influence on the children you interact with, for educators, this effect could be of particular interest in supporting positive learning behaviours.

In 1964 Harvard psychologist Robert Rosenthal worked with an elementary school principal, devising a test that was administered to students to help predict academic blooming. Teachers in each classroom were told that a small group of students were set to experience a bloom of intelligence over the coming year. At the end of the year, those students identified by the test did, in fact, increase their performance significantly in comparison to the other students.

However, what the teachers did not know was that the test was false and the students were merely randomly selected. Even though the teachers never told the students of their predictions to smarten up, the teachers naturally approached these students with higher expectations. This led these children to think differently about themselves leading to better performance.

Many have attempted to replicate the results of this experiment, finding that higher expectations of students were only effective when they were subconsciously driven. Teachers who knew they were taking part in an experiment did not get the transformative results. It seems that if we believe the ‘truth’ of a students potential is really less than the expectations were are attempting to cultivate, the results cannot be effective.

Early education has a strong emphasis on cognitive development for school readiness. I cannot forget the desperate post of a loving mother in an online support group who was seeking ideas to help her child who did not seem to be speaking in complete sentences as fast as her peers. While only three years old, the child had already seen a multitude of specialist tutors (after ruling out any medical or developmental complications), at the cost of thousands of dollars. The child was coached daily in rigorous drills and activities to increase her performance with no results. The mother was at her wit's end, sure that the slow development predicted a lifetime of difficulties ahead.

I can empathise with her concern. I remember when my friend’s child (then two years old) pointed to the moon saying clearly “Look, mummy, it’s a half a moon.” My child, (then three years old) could not speak like that, saying simply “ook ook moon!” But I was unworried, believing that she possessed her own kind of intelligence and that everyone develops at their own pace. I continued to speak to her as I would any other person without watering down my language for her comprehension. My expectation was that I could support her wherever she was and that she would flourish in her own time. Now just a few years later she has a vocabulary and contextual understanding to rival many adults and is performing well in advance of the expected levels for her age in reading and writing.

I wonder, what would have been the result of her development had I been concerned? If I had worried and taken her to specialists, focusing on the issues rather than acknowledging her natural abilities? I have the feeling that, no matter how well-intentioned, my concern would have affected her expectations of her abilities and her sense of self. Subjective wellbeing, positive learning behaviours and cognitive development are intrinsically linked, and we often equate our academic performance with our feelings of self-worth.

It can be difficult, as a parent or an educator, to ignore the ‘markers’ that would set our attention on alert for potential issues. It even seems sensible to do so, feeling that we cannot even help before identifying and admitting there may be a problem. But ironically, this is far more likely to solidify the issues we have determined. Our expectations become a self-fulfilling prophecy. And this applies to all our relationships in life. Studies have shown this effect to apply in business, at home and in our communities.

Some expectations are bred into us in the name of safety. Not allowing children to navigate their own way outdoors, using only plastic cutlery and dishes, cautioning them from carrying or holding younger siblings. There are a million little ways we subconsciously undermine children's expectations of themselves 'for their own protection'. Then we are surprised when these children grow up and seem to be incapable of basic life skills.

So if our expectations are so easily biased and influenced then how can we use the Pygmalion Effect to our benefit?

What we can do is educate ourselves on the possibilities. In the past experts operated under the idea that I.Q, academic and even behavioural potential are determined by factors such as genetics or economic status and tend to remain fixed throughout life. Our expectations can, therefore, remain low and we are far less likely to behave in ways that support the flourishing of others.

However, new research into science and psychology are consistently revealing that conditions we had once believed were fixed limitations are now known to be open to transformation.

Neuroplasticity means the brain has the ability to form new connections. The influence of our expectations can help shape the development of others. Brain scans have shown that decreased brain function can be purposefully regenerated. Change is possible, and that is an overarching expectation that we can use to influence our expectations of others.

Perhaps when relating to others, we can ask ourselves- what expectations do I have for this person? Am I influenced by my preconceived notions of gender, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status? Can I intentionally open myself to higher expectations when interacting and would I behave differently to this person if I did so?

Emotional and cognitive development is fluid and can be influenced by positive relationships. The way we engage with children, our attentiveness and focus, our non-verbal cues and our patience in hearing their opinions all send the same message: you are intelligent, capable and what you think is worth sharing.

“The bottom line is that if we expect certain behaviours from people, we treat them differently — and that treatment is likely to affect their behaviour.” - Robert Rosenthal.

We hear a lot about the wonderful physical, mental, and emotional benefits of meditating, but actually managing to get kids to meditate can be hard work.

After loads of trial and error, I've found a couple of things that work for me that I'd like to share.

Firstly, timing is key.

We don't want to break into the full swing of the day with a period of forced quiet. Natural transition times work best; such as after a meal, between daily activities or before napping or sleeping. Find a time that works well for you and then make it a ritual. Kids begin settling down in meditation more easily when it becomes a natural part of the rhythm of the days. Take advantage of good weather when you can and meditate outside.

Next, find a good segue into getting comfortable.

Going from running around to sitting quietly goes more smoothly with a movement to take you into it. A few simple "Simon Says" moves can get a whole group focused and down into seated position.

Make meditation an adventure.

All children are different, and all children are different on different days. Make it clear to your kids from the outset that each time we meditate, we are going to try something new. Explain how it is new every time for both adults and kids and that it will be a kind of adventure for everyone. It's not a pass/fail kind of activity, and it's an experiment for everyone. Try new varieties of meditation all the time; you can even try moving meditations if necessary.

What works one day might not work the next, I find that even as an adult I am constantly adapting and changing my meditation practice depending on my mood at the time.

Exercise your imagination, or find an app to do it for you.

There are no rules to meditation, it's all about quieting the mind and releasing habitual thinking. There are so many ways you can do that. Focus on a sight or sound, listen to your breathing, make up a visualisation.

But... if you're not feeling particularly imaginative or you simply want to join in too, use an app to help out. I've tried YouTube (ads are a problem), and various apps as Sleepo, Smiling Mind and Headspace. These can all be great, but for sheer variety, nothing beats Insight Timer.

Insight Timer is free and can be used on phones or online. What I like best about this app is you can choose from meditations based on the amount of time you have... So when you're reading the room, and you know full-length meditation isn't going to fly- there are plenty of 1-3 minute options available.

You can find Insight Timer here: https://insighttimer.com

Have a discussion of your experience after each meditation.

Make it a group discussion. What worked for you? What did you like/not like about that style? What kind of thoughts and feelings came up for us?

This is often the best part of the experience, and the things kids can tell you about what they are learning is gold! Not only is it empowering and a great way to share and bond, it does what mindfulness and meditation aim to do. To be aware of your thoughts and feelings and make choices for yourself about what works for you.

I'm late to the meditation game myself and have always found it hard to take time to stop and be still. But developing a meditation practice with my child has taught me a lot about the many different ways we can create an exciting and nourishing meditation practice.

If you would like some free meditation music follow the link below. Scroll down the page to download the music we made to go with our Yoga adventure book. The music is still free even if you don't own the book!

We are all aware of the increasing experience of anxiety in children, but what are its causes and what can we do about it?

(Just want the remedy? See the mindfulness exercise at the bottom of the page.)

I will be authoring a short series of blogs that explore some of the contributing factors to anxiety and exaggerated fear responses in children, and what we can do to support wellbeing as both a treatment and a preventative measure.

Let's start by learning a bit about the science behind anxious reactions. Our brains are hardwired to be able to respond quickly and without thinking in a dangerous situation. It's not often we meet a lion in our everyday life these days, yet the same physiological reaction can take over when the comparatively insignificant events of modern life occur!

Our brains are divided into parts, each dedicated to manage and respond to stimuli, using chemical messengers to communicate information around the brain and body. When we are calm, and our brains are functioning well, we create the positive neurotransmitters responsible for forming new connections and passing information between the thinking brain and our emotional brain. We call this communication emotional- intelligence.

When we encounter stress, the ancient part of our brain responsible for keeping us safe is triggered, flooding our system with adrenaline and cortisol and shutting down other brain processes in order to drain all the fuel required to power our reactions. It's this response that prevents rational thinking and empathy in a fearful moment, and its overuse can become a well-worn track in the brain.

You might recognise this effect in yourself and others, in our fast-paced world it has become all too common. For children, this kind of persistent stress can lead to this part of the brain becoming overdeveloped and as a result other higher emotional and reasoning processes may not develop as fully. We see this show up in the behavior of children as anxiety, hyperactivity, poor impulse control, lack of empathy, and less ability to problem-solve.

So what can we do?

As seemingly complicated as this situation and it's causes are, the solution actually lies in how the problem was created. Repeated experiences create brain connections. Our brain is plastic, and over time we can as easily create one well-worn track as another!

We can start making better connections right now, with simple, everyday practices to stimulate those positive neurotransmitters. We know with kids it's got to be fast, fun and engaging, so let's begin with a small and informal mindfulness exercise that can help bridge the gap from anxiety to curiosity.

***

The 5 Senses exercise

(This can be done in any way that is appropriate for the time of day and the surroundings.)

*Begin by taking a moment to be still and notice your breathing.

*Now look around slowly and notice 5 things that catch your eye. Are they bright, shiny or colourful? Are they big, small or in between? What kinds of shapes and textures can you see? Count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 things to see.

*Now close your eyes and listen. Can you hear four different kinds of sounds? You might hear your own breath. You might hear the sound of a bird or the wind. Can you hear sounds that are close? Can you hear sounds that are far away? Count 1, 2, 3, 4 sounds.

*Open your eyes and now see if we can feel 3 things. Put your hands on your knees, can you feel your skin or the fabric of your clothing? You can hold your own hand or pick up an object. Do you feel things that are rough or smooth, strong or soft? Count 1, 2, 3 things that you can feel.

*Next, we're going to find 2 things to smell. Try sniffing the air, what can you smell? You can lift your hand to your nose to smell your skin. Can you think of words to describe the things you can smell? Count 1, 2 things to smell.

*Last thing we're going to do is find one thing we can taste. What was the last thing we ate? Can we still taste it on our tongue? Is it sweet or sour or salty? Can we taste anything on the air?

*Now that we have finished exploring our senses let's take a deep breath and take our curious minds into whatever we do next!

***

Look out for my next blog post where we are going to explore the question-

How many of us are transported back to those magic moments of childhood just thinking about our old favourite books?

Recently, on a visit to mum's, I found myself digging around in the space under the stairs late one night, on a quest to find my childhood picture books. Although it seemed to me the perfect place for spiders, even the threat of Redbacks popping out of the forgotten space couldn't stop me from finding those books! Then came the satisfaction of unearthing all my old friends, my books, flipping through well-worn pages to inhale the pleasantly familiar musty scent of old paper. It's amazing how the power of a good book endures. These were the tales that remind me of special moments shared with mum, tucked up cosy in bed, and these books that instilled in me the love of reading and learning. These were the stories that helped to shape who I am and the way I think. To this day, whether happy, sad, interested or bored - I turn to a book. For entertainment, for solace and for knowledge- I can't think of any situation where a book couldn't help! And now I get to share my treasured favourites with my child. My daughter, whom despite seeming fairly confident learning to read, to this point hadn't shown a particular interest in reading on her own. Oh, she would insist on her two book minimum each night before bed, but the somewhat bland first readers she would bring home from school to read for homework were a bit of a chore, for everyone. Working in education I am aware of the rippling effect of issues that can arise from a lack of interest in reading. There is an entire industry within publishing dedicated to creating material to combat the reticence of the ever-growing population of reluctant readers! This was, until, the visit to Grandma's. Now, at this point, it would pay to mention that with the publishing and book distribution home business, grandma's house literally has a stock room. (Well, it is meant to be just a stockroom, but in reality, books overflow onto every surface and into every corner!) Think of a library, in your house, with only the latest books on just about every subject you can imagine. Yup, it's a book-lovers dream. However, it had seemed that my child was merely a book-liker. She didn't seem overly impressed at the inability to eat dinner on the table, smothered to the point of disuse by the latest shipment of books. But then, grandma pointed out that these books were early readers. Rainbow Fairy, Horrid Henry, funny books about magical kittens and trendy kids having grand adventures. And a book-lover was born.

Soon she was not to be seen without a book in hand. She could move around the house accomplishing tasks one-handed while her eyes remained glued to the page. Voraciously devouring book after book, it became clear that it wasn't reading that had failed to pique her interest. It was the lack of choice in reading material. So, before long I'm back at school and attending the year two parent-teacher interview. Was taking her out of school for two weeks to visit grandma detrimental to her progress? Not even close. When last assessed before leaving for our trip, Ayla was at reading level 13. Two weeks after returning she is at level 21! Her teacher tells me this is phenomenal progress and she is now free to choose her own reading material. Ayla is at the stage where she is no longer learning to read, but reading to learn. (See above, Ayla reading her rescue kitten a bedtime story;) Now the announcement of a trip to the library elicits cheering (cheering!), and Ayla can often be found curled up with a new book or rereading a favourite for the 5th time over. She has also become a wonderful conversationalist, sharing facts of which even I was unaware! She is not only becoming an exceptional reader but an exceptional thinker. This experience confirms for me what I have always known for myself. Books are powerful. They are the ultimate gateway obsession, leading to a hunger for knowledge that will never be quenched. Books are the keys to the kingdom, that for anyone, no matter who you are or where you come from, the world will open up for you.

But freedom and choice in education are paramount. Because learning is a life skill that can only be embraced when we can be truly inspired tolove the adventure of discovery.

I’m Melissa from Enlighten Press. I’m an author, artist and a student of positive psychology. I’m also a big believer in education, but I don’t believe that means telling kids what we think they need to know...

Real learning is about developing an empowered mindset. You don’t need to have all the answers; you only need to believe you have the capacity to discover them.

I believe education is letting children know they already possess the intelligence, the creativity and the choice to make their own way in the world.

Technology now means that we cannot even imagine how the future might look. We can't teach children how to work with technology that doesn't exist or to how to navigate a changing world, and we don't need to. Our only task is to assist children in developing the mindset to create their own futures, and love and appreciation for others and the world around them. Learning is about training your mind into seeing opportunities wherever you go.

And why would kids want to learn? Irrespective of an often overly rigid education system, learning is our natural state of being. We learn because we are curious, we learn because we are passionate. We don’t all love the same things, but we all have something that excites us that makes us interested in life. And the key to living a satisfying life is to find the things that ignite our passions.

And that is what books have done for me, and why I love what I do. I make books that I enjoy reading and that I believe in. I make books of what I want to know and what I want my child to know.

Books on multiculturalism because seeing the ways other people live is transformative to my own worldview.

Books on science because my world expands delightfully when I find out about the vastness of the universe or the infinitesimal world of minibeasts.

Social-emotional and inclusive learning because kindness is not something I should do to make others happy but something I get to do because it feels good for me.

Books on mindful practice because the most important thing I can learn is how my thoughts and feelings create my experience of the world, and that’s something I have the power to change.

Books can be a window into another world for children. Regardless of your learning style, capacity or history, there will be something you can learn that will light up the world for you.... What more could be better than that?

Words are delicious - so why are we afraid of big words?

I was shocked when reading the original Grimm's fairy tales- there were words in those stories that I hadn't even heard of before! I had to confirm that these books were actually written for children because I have never seen anything so advanced on any modern kids library shelf.

So what happened? Why is it that now we have such low expectations of our children? Or do we feel that big words are some sort of imposition, laid upon a child only to steal away their precious childhoods?

My personal approach to language with my own child has been to speak to her as though I would with any other intelligent and engaged being. I figure that if she doesn't understand and wants to know more she will ask. And if she's more interested in something else, then the big words will be filed away in context and be added subconsciously to her greater understanding.

Personally, there's nothing I love more than reading a book where I have to look up a meaning of a new word in a dictionary. A new word- what a treasure! Given my 2-5 (minimum!) book a week habit, it can be a rare occurrence...

Big words are not work; they're fun. Words are delicious and lyrical. Language is an art form, a kind of creativity we can enjoy at any time with little effort.

I do find the choosing of age appropriate language a common challenge when writing a book for little ones. How do I condense an entire concept into a sentence or two and have it be universally understandable?

I had a fun moment the other day when Ayla read the Enlighten Press book 'Caring for Animals'. She is just starting to read on her own, and she especially loves reading the books she features in (not surprising!). At the page where I describe the benefits of toys for dogs, she asks me for some further information about my word choices and what I really meant by them. I told her my intentions, she thought about it for a moment, then offered me some helpful advice.

"Umm, mummy- I think instead of using the word 'fun' you should've used the word 'entertainment'."

Well, I've been told then! Because she was right, that is a far more accurate description of what I meant. This from a child with only one year of school under her belt. A child whom despite being read to copiously, by the age of 4 and a half had only just begun to string words together into proper sentences...

So where do we want children's literature to go from here? I want books to have more faith in a child's understanding, despite their inability (yet) to translate what they know! Children are incredibly perceptive and capable, and I feel like the best way to honor this is to share my love of deliciously large words...

So, a little while since my first blog post. I started with the best of intentions- right before school holidays and now I have a little one demanding attention ;)

Which brings me to a point many find rather amusing- I work from home, on my hand-crafted treadmill desk... Yes, that's right, a treadmill desk. I am in fact walking right now as I type!

Writing books is more a computer job these days than anything else and while I adore making the books I found the sedentary nature of the work not to my taste. So I drew up some plans, went to the hardware store and built myself a desk to go over a treadmill. I plan to add designs along the line with my wood burning tool- because I firmly believe that everything in life can have beauty...

Well that's a little insight into how our Enlighten Press books are made and why our approach is unique!

Hello everyone & welcome to the Enlighten Press blog!

It is my intention in the coming posts to share inspirations, book progress and just generally what we are all about.

I would also love to hear your opinions, as we consider Enlighten Press books to be a community project; with all our collective questions and answers becoming the subject matter of our titles. Consider us your personal request publisher :)

So this is me... I may have grown up a little since this picture was taken, but only on the outside- I promise!

I am an artist, a student of positive psychology, a mother and obsessive reader. And as of 2016, a writer for Enlighten Press.

More soon, Melissa