Review: Best Summer Ever - A Summer's Worth of Fun, Inexpensive Art & Learning Projects.

Best Summer Ever - A Summer's Worth of Fun, Inexpensive Art and Learning Projects To Occupy Kids 6-11 At Home For Hours At A Time. By Leila Kalmbach

Review by Stacy Toten and Carol Lawrence

As any of our readers know, the past four years we have been huge advocates for bringing out the inner creativity of your child and the great benefits of connecting them with nature.

How does one help their children succeed in life? Guest Article By Kathleen Boucher

Congratulations to Kathleen Boucher. She recently was awarded the 2014 Book Of The Year award for her book A Simple Idea To Empower Kids: Teen's Edition and 2014 Preferred Choice Award (Kids Category) for A Simple Idea To Empower Kids: based on the power of love, choice and belief.

How does one help their children succeed in life? By teaching them to have a strong work ethic.

Wouldn’t it be great if each child born on earth came with their own unique instruction manual? How valuable would that be? And yet for all the books written to help parents, I have not found any that discuss work ethic. But hold on. I can hear you saying,” Wait a minute we are doing the best job that we can. We raise our children to believe in themselves, to take care of their bodies and their minds. We teach them to value their family, their friends and their community. We teach them to understand that to live in a country that is free is a gift not to be taken lightly.

Inside Every Dad Is A Little Boy ~ Happy Fathers Day!

(Randy Lawrence and Ed Toten skipping rocks.)

Happy Father's Day From Intentional Conscious Parenting 

Dad, fathers, pops, pa, step dad. Whatever name you call them they are essential to our families, societies, work force, etc.

We just could not exist without our precious dads. They bring and teach so much to our children and their families. The masculine energy vibrates through out our world in such a precise way whether it be chaos or untainted calmness it is a very welcomed energy.

Remember inside every dad is a little boy.

A real life, inspiring, engaging, emotionally involved, deliberate, well-informed-highly intuitive book.

Click on book to go directly to Amazon!

Three weeks ago I came across a photo meme (picture with a quote) on Facebook that someone I followed had shared. It was a meme by Annie Kagan author of The Afterlife of Billy Fingers. How My Bad-Boy Brother Proved To Me There Is Life After Death.  I immediately liked her page. All her quotes where fully resonating with me. I knew I wanted to read her book. I'm a huge believer in source energy, the afterlife and have had many conversations with the spirit world myself. During this time my dad's health took a turn for the worse. On the night of May 14th I dreamed all night long a continuous dream. I was sitting with a counsel of beings and Billy. They showed me I would be reading Annie's book during my weekend camping trip. I was in fact prepping to go camping to try and find some balance in nature after our long winter. When in reality it was to prepare me for my father's passing.  When I woke up the following morning I told the Universe or Billy, whomever was prompting me to read The Afterlife Of Billy Fingers, if you want me to read it then our local used book store must have a copy. I'm heading out to go camping and I don't have time to order it. I was leaving to go camping within hours. Sure enough when I called The Book Exchange they had one copy in stock. It was brand spanking new. 

I read The Afterlife Of Billy Fingers in two days during my hiatus in the forest. I cried, I laughed and breathed it all in. I came home Sunday afternoon on May 18th and received a call about my dad. Your dad is dying, you need to call him right away. I called him and told him it's ok to go and how much I love him. He passed a half hour later that evening.  Even though I know there's life after death and that we are so much more than we think we are, Annie's book  brought me to a calmness as I work through the loss of my father. I'm awaiting his messages from across the veil.  I soon passed my copy onto Stacy. I couldn't wait for her to read it. She couldn't put the book down either! ~ Carol

Here is our full review. If what we have to say resonates with you we encourage you to read The Afterlife Of Billy Fingers. How My Bad-Boy Brother Proved To Me There Is Life After Death.  

The Afterlife of Billy Fingers will draw you in and keep you engaged until the very last word.

It is a real life, inspiring, engaging, emotionally involved, deliberate, well-informed-highly intuitive book. This book will expand your minds and take you to places some of you may have never gone before. And this is a good thing. Annie Kagan will illuminate life and death by taking you on a vivid, colorful ride of her life through the impactful messages received from her brother in the after life.

Children Don't Need Fixing - A Conscious Parenting Approach

Here are two short videos with Dr. Shefali with Oprah on Own. Both of them are really good and we wanted to make sure you had a chance to see them. Enjoy!!


A full on parenting approach. Parenting from a place of intunement.

Dr. Shefali Tsabary: Children Don't Need Fixing - Super Soul Sunday - OWN

The One Thing Children Want (That Money Can't Buy) - Super Soul Sunday - OWN

Children's Book Review: A Simple Idea To Empower Kids

A Simple Idea To Empower Kids By Kathleen Boucher.

Click here to purchase at Amazon.

Here is another conscious parenting book to add to your spiritual tool box. A Simple Idea To Empower Kids is a simplistic, unique, transparent, loving and multi-cultural children's and preteen book.

One thing that makes this book so unique is it is available in two formats. There is a children's edition and a teen edition. In the children's edition the delightful colors and illustrations will speak to your children and engage them as you read this book to them. The teen edition has the exact same verbage but has more mature illustrations that will relate to your tweens.

Click here to purchase on Amazon. 

A Simple Idea To Empower Kids lays a foundation for children and teens on how to be happy, powerful and filled with gratitude with three simple ideas that they can carry with them through-out the rest of their lives. When a child grows up strong on the inside and out this usually produces a healthy adult.

"What are the three things I could teach kids? What is the most powerful force on earth? I believe it is the power of love. What do countries go to war over when this is taken away? I believe it is the power of choice. The third most powerful force is the power of belief" ~ Kathleen Boucher

These are powerful messages Kathleen wants to spread to the children of the world. We feel the hidden message here is the law of attraction is always at work.

Kathleen Boucher has been a registered nurse for the past 37 years. She currently lives in Canada. She loves people, especially kids since she gets to actively help them realize that there is 'greatness' in each one of them.

"My goal has always been to do something that brought value to the entire world. It is my hope and intention that this great book ‘A Simple Idea to Empower Kids’, empowers kids around the world. John F, Kennedy had the right idea when he said "Children are the World's most valuable resource and its best hope for the future." Let us empower our kids to help them find their purpose and live their lives authentically doing something they love. Let us teach them early that they can do, be, or have anything they desire. The sky is the limit!"

Visit her website to learn more and download free motivational posters! Posters available in several languages. 

Carol Lawrence is an energetic practitioner, blogger, children's author, social media manager, author interviewer, book reviewer, and co-host of The Intentional Conscious Parenting Show. She has been happily married for twenty-eight years, a mother of two Indigo sons, has several animals and loves nature, exploring the human mind, spirituality, reading, writing, mother earth, walking around in the forests of Montana and doing her part to make the world a better place.

Stacy Toten is a doctor of Metaphysics. She has been a practitioner for over twenty-five years, blogger, children's author, book reviewer, author interviewer, co-author of M.A.S.S. 101 Man Approaching Simple Soulutions, children's behavioral management coach, artist and co-host of The Intentional Conscious Parenting Show. She is happily married for 32 years, she has two Indigo daughters, 2 cats and 2 dogs. Her passions are writing, reading, mother earth, swimming in the ocean, movies and sharing her spiritual gifts with the world and working with parents and children.

Together intuitively Carol and Stacy are fulfilling a calling and a passion to write children's picture books. They are assistant editors for the family and parenting community at All Things Healing. They provide nurturing tips and encouragement for parents walking an intentional spiritual conscious parenting path by supplying an inviting platform for their established parenting community. Visit Intentional Conscious Parenting for author interviews, book reviews, and conscious parenting articles.

The Most Profound Children's Poem We Have Ever Heard!

This is the most profound video we have shared with our parenting audience. This video is narrated by Oprah Winfrey. Watch as many times as you want and allow it to soak in.
Kahlil Gibran camptures how interconnected we are with our children and yet how individual they truly are. They are their own free thinking growing evolving spirits. Enjoy!

"On Children" by Kahlil Gibran 

What did you think? Did this move you as much as it did us? Please leave a comment and tell us about it.

P.S. Sign up for our newsletter and receive 10 Tips For Parenting Consciously!

Shefali Tsabary will be on Super Soul Sunday on OWN to discuss her three time award winning book The Conscious Parent.

Hey everyone, a few of you may remember in December of 2010 we reviewed and had a live chat with Dr. Shefali Tsabary about her book The Conscious Parent. 

Back then the words "conscious parenting" was relatively unknown. Now thanks to Shefali Tsabary, her readers, readers like you who value parenting and other parenting authors, conscious parenting has caught the attention of Oprah. Yeah, you read that right. Oprah!

Happy Mother's Day To All You Beautiful Goddesses!

There is no path where no one has gone so stop looking for one.

I was thinking how amazing it was that 25 years have passed since my husband and I wrote our vision of what was at that time and how the future was uncertain. With all that has changed in our social structure I decided to ask my husband Ed to give me a summary of where we had began and where we are now. I hope you enjoy his response. ~ Stacy Toten

There is no path where no one has gone so stop looking for one.

Twenty years ago in the spring of 1994 Stacy and I committed to explaining what we had discovered in our pryor fifteen years of research into what was seen at the time as counter culture residue.

Celebrating Mother Earth on Earth Day and All Year Long.

Earth Day is upon us once again. What a wonderful day to celebrate and acknowledge our Earth planet. We should all have gratitude in leaps and bounds for without our earth we could not exist. Because of our precious planet we THRIVE.

Go outside and run barefoot, plant a tree, dig in your garden, get some new plants for your home.

Go hiking, sit on a mountain and just be!

So many choices we have to enjoy Earth Day.

In honor of mother Earth on Earth Day 2014 we would like to thank her for...

• Nourishing my soul with endless landscapes; from the mountains to the seas.
• Providing me a playground to grow, learn, expand and express myself.
• For plenty of fresh air to fill my lungs.
• Abundance of fertile ground to grow my food.
• A special thank you for all your magnificent creatures great and small.
• For the oceans, lakes and streams that provide us with a bounty of choices.
• Most of all for shaking things up a bit when we become stagnant or disconnected.

Helpful Ways To Teach Children How To Connect With Nature.

1. Take your child for a walk around your local park or out in the woods, stroll along a creek side, stream or river.
2. Collect rocks or other earthly items and encourage learning about the mineral, animal and plant kingdoms.
3. Every region has different kinds of animals. Pick up a book from your local library to explore the animals that live in your state. Learn what their tracks and scat look like.
4. Talk about the importance of insects, bees and pollination.
5. Collect wildflowers when they are in bloom. Make a wildflower book by collecting and drying flowers. Glue flowers on a blank piece of paper. Identify each flower and write notes about where you found them, possibly add a personal picture of your child picking the flower. Laminate and  place each laminated page into a plastic sleeve and them gather together in a binder for many years of use.
6. Visit a natural museum.

Earth Day Every Day Tips:

• Write congress - support clean energy and clean air initiatives. Your voice matters.
• Reduce what you buy. Think about your purchases before you shop. Is your purchase going to increase or reduce your planetary impact. Questions to ask yourself.

1. Do I really need this item? Am going to use it, pass it on or is it destined to collect dust or end up in the landfill?
2. Am I adding to the landfill or can I recycle the packaging?

• Reuse: Buy in bulk when you can to reduce the amount of packaging tossed into the trash over time ending up at the landfill. It is not out of sight out of mind. All trash must go somewhere and be disposed of. Landfills are piling up. Toxins are being washed into our creeks, streams and rivers and eventually into our water supply. 
• Recycle: We all know the traditional ways of recycling our glass, plastic, aluminum cans, tin cans and newspaper, but what about household items? One of my favorite things to recycle is empty glass candle holders. After I've used my candle up. I warm up the left over wax by placing the glass candle holder on top of the stove while I'm baking. I pour out the left over wax and then wash my empty jar a few times until the candle smell is gone. Fill up your jar with a little soapy water and vinegar and let soak a few days if need be. Once your jar is clean and dry use it to store, nuts, popcorn, barley or another kitchen item. 
• Donate your used or unused bicycle to your local free cycle group.
• Purge your closets every six months and donate to your local thrift store or Good Will. Herberger's has a yearly clothing exchange sale. You bring in a used piece of clothing in exchange for a percentage off a new purchase.
• Take your used unwanted blankets to your local homeless shelter, half way house or Humane Society.
• Use cloth napkins instead of paper. They take up very little space in the washer with your other laundry.
• Run your dishwasher with a full load to save on energy, soap and water.
• Use nontoxic cleaning products. What goes down the drain ends up in our soil and in our water supplies.
• Have you heard of Genetically Modified Organisms? The effects of GMO's can have negative effects on your families health and our environment. 

Final Tip: Spread joy around. Focus on what makes you happy. Happiness spreads like a baby's laugh permeating and dispersing negativity. When people are happy they are more connected to themselves, healthier and and in the end they become more connected to the planet.

A Fun Color Breathing Activity To Do With Your Children To Charge, Clear and Balance Their Energy Fields.

(An example of handy colored items found around the house.)

Color Breathing With Your Children.

Here is a fun simple color breathing activity to do with your child to clear, charge and balance their energy field. 

You are going to need a container to hold your colored objects. A plastic bowl, bucket or basket will work just fine. Next, gather 7-10 colored objects. Choose any color you would like such as blue, green, yellow, Indigo, purple, rose, gold or white. The colored objects can simply be colored paper, pieces of cloth, toys or handy items found around the house. Together with your children choose the colors you will be using and send everyone on a scavenger hunt to find items of these colors.