Our Simple Mindful Breathing Strategy Explained
On this webpage you’ll find easy-to-read information, for both kids and adults, that explains the My Friend Breath say-and-do game. This is the core strategy we use to teach the skills of emotional-regulation and resilience through mindful breathing.
You’ll discover how our books and resources make it easy for kids to learn and practice these important life skills!
Section #1 - For Kids
Share this flipbook or PDF with a child to help them understand when, why, what, and how to play the say-and-do game with their friend Breath to help change the way they feel.
Share this flipbook or PDF with a child to showcase ways they can play say-and-do with their friend Breath by using our books and resources.
Important!
Watch the demonstrations videos to learn how to do each of the breathing patterns in the My Friend Breath Picture Book.
Click on a picture to visit our superhero breathing patterns demonstrations & variations page.
Section #2 - For Adults
View this flipbook or PDF to learn about the say-and-do game, which is the core emotional-regulation and resilience strategy we use at My Friend Breath.
View this flipbook or PDF to discover how our books and resources make teaching the skill of emotional-regulation through mindful breathing easy for adults and fun for kids!
Learn more about each of our books & resources
My Friend Breath Picture Book
This beautifully illustrated picture book teaches children how to use mindful breathing to regulate their emotions and develop their resilience.
Using a simple strategy, children are empowered with the words and actions they need to navigate their emotions, so they can change the way they feel, anytime, anywhere.
All digital versions of this book are included in our Superhero Club Membership.
Important!
Watch the demonstrations videos to learn how to do each of the breathing patterns in the My Friend Breath Picture Book BEFORE sharing with a child.
Click on a picture to visit our superhero breathing patterns demonstrations & variations page.
• Hardcover or Paperback
Our physical books provide a tactile reading experience that adults and kids are both sure to enjoy. The book includes a scannable QR code for each access to the superhero breathing pattern demonstration videos and suggested variations. Both the paperback and the hardcover books are letter size - 8.5 x 11 inc / 22 x 28 cm.
• Flipbook with audio, read by Ash
This is a fun way to introduce the picture book, especially to a group of children. If it is the first time you share the book, it is important that you are familiar with the four breathing patterns before beginning. You can do this by reading the instructions, or watching the demonstration videos, with or without your child.
Then in the flipbook when Ash practices each of the superhero breathing patterns you will be able to teach your child how to do it, or if they are familiar with the pattern, join Ash and breathe along together.
• Flipbook without audio
If you would prefer to read the story aloud, this option is for you. Please read the notes above if it is the first time you are sharing the flipbook with a child.
• Audiobook only versions - with or without chimes
We suggest using the audio:
With chimes along with a physical copy of the picture book, as the chimes help a non reader know when to turn the page.
Without chimes whilst resting, travelling, or during other mindful activities.
These symbols will help a child recognize the different options available:
▶️ - the section contains videos
🗣 - the resource contains audio.
🔔 - the audio includes a chime.
🔕 - the audio does not include a chime.
While sharing this book always encourage a child to repeat the catch cry 'When I change the way I'm breathing, I change the way I'm feeling.'
Introduce the My Friend Breath picture book using the script in the free Learning Guide #1 of our SEL Superhero Training.
1. Download the learning guide for free at this link.
2. Familiarize yourself with the read-along script found inside the guide. This will help you take the foundational information about mindful breathing and teach it to your child during a reading of the book.
3. Share the My Friend Breath book with your child as you follow the read-along script. Pause to ask questions and make comments as instructed in the script.
4. At the end of the book check your child's understanding of the story using the three forms of comprehension questions found in the Superhero Training guide.
5. To help make learning fun allow time for your child to play the accompanying interactive games and complete the colouring in printable activity.
Practice creates skill!
Every practice session will help your child improve their ability to regulate their emotions through mindful breathing. Use these ideas as a basis for practice using the My Friend Breath Picture Book.
Practice breath awareness by playing a game of “Ah-ha! What’s that?” Role model / or have your child do a breathing pattern to show how their friend Breath sounds when they feel an emotion (e.g. sad, mad, scared, etc). Then name the feeling and play say-and-do together to practice how to calm this emotion.
Discuss what is happening in one scenario e.g., the beach scene illustration. Ask your child to share a time when they have felt this emotion. Ask them how they can use their friend Breath to calm this emotion. Practice playing say-and-do together.
Focus on the last page of the book and discuss with your child how each child is feeling and why. Choose one scenario and ask them how the child could change the way they feel. Then practice playing say-and-do together.
Listen to the audio flipbook regularly and pause to practice each superhero breathing pattern along with Ash. Set your child up for independent practice by saving the webpage on their tablet for easy access.
We recommend using the companion guide, the SEL Superhero Training lessons, along with a read-along of this picture book. This will help extend a child’s understanding of mindful breathing, as well as how develop other social emotional skills.
SEL Superhero Training Guides
Our seven lesson, SEL Superhero Training, empowers parents and educators to turn each 10 - 20 minute read-along of My Friend Breath, into an impactful social-emotional learning experience.
Helping to create a world where more children feel confident to manage their emotions and handle anything that comes their way, like true superheroes!
All 7 learning guides included in our Superhero Club Membership.
Social-Emotional Learning Creates Confidence!
By presenting a read-along as “Superhero Training” you will instantly engage your child and maximize their focus and participation. With a range of comprehensive activities, and interactive online games, these lessons make social-emotional learning fun and enjoyable for adults and children alike!
Our Superhero Training has seven lessons, each focusing on a specific social-emotional skill:
Across the seven Superhero Training guides you will find:
Fact sheets for each social-emotional skill:
These provide foundational knowledge to help you understand what the focus skill is, why it matters, and how the skill is demonstrated throughout the My Friend Breath picture book.This information empowers you to confidently share each concept with your child during the conversations you have together, before, during and after a read-along of the story.
Read-along scripts:
To help you take the foundational information about each skill and teach it to your child. This turns a reading of My Friend Breath into a powerful learning experience.Each script gives you clear and concise instructions on:
What to say, using kid-friendly language,
What to ask, with suggested answers given, and
What to do to teach each social-emotional skill.
Check for understanding sections:
Each guide includes three resources that assess your child's comprehension of the specific focus skill. These are a fun way for your child to showcase and celebrate their learning. The activities include:A set of comprehension questions and answers.
Six online question/answer flipcards.
An interactive listening activity.
64 engaging and educational interactive games and puzzles:
These online activities actively engage your child in learning each specific social-emotional skill through the process of play.Catering for different ability levels and featuring illustrations from the My Friend Breath Picture Book, these games are an enjoyable and meaningful way to focus your child's attention while enhancing their learning.
They are also a fun and easy way to disguise learning for reluctant participants!
28 printable activities:
With games, puzzles, mazes, crosswords, drawings, colouring in, and more. All which provide hours of engaging activities that will help to balance out your child's screen time.The activities cater for different ability levels and also help to embed the social-emotional learning focus of each superhero learning guide. They are great to use with a child one-on-one or in a group setting.
A superhero quiz and training certificate:
To formally complete the Superhero Training your child is presented with the Superhero Quiz.The quiz questions give your child the opportunity to showcase the knowledge and skills they have developed throughout the lessons.
Celebrate this accomplishment, and their transformation into a superhero, by awarding them with the official ‘My Friend Breath Superhero Certificate’. The certificate is both editable & printable and officially welcomes your child to the My Friend Breath Superhero Club!
Teaching social-emotional skills is a priority for parents, carers, teachers, child-care educators, special education teachers, and home schoolers who are invested in a child’s well-being.
Yet we understand that finding the time to do this can be difficult, especially in an already crowded curriculum, or during a busy day.
Which is why we’ve designed these guides as an easy to use resource to help you multitask and teach each social-emotional skill during a read-along of My Friend Breath.
You know that mindful breathing is important but you’re not sure how to teach it?
This resource has everything you need to make teaching mindful breathing easy for adults and fun for kids during a read-along of My Friend Breath!
Playtime with My Friend Breath
Practice is the key to strengthening your child's emotional-regulation and resilience skills.
The more your child practices mindful breathing, the more confident they will become to use their breath to help manage their emotions and behavior in challenging situations.
This book makes playtime fun, with a range of activities and interactive online games that help your child to enjoy practicing their superhero breathing.
Generalized version with Ash included in our Superhero Club Membership.
This social-emotional learning resource helps your child to embed the skills of emotional-regulation and resilience through a regular mindful breathing practice.
It is available in the following formats:
Generalized with Ash
This format is suggested for practicing with groups of children in an educational or community setting, e.g. a school, homeschooling group, child care, or pre-school.
It’s also great for emerging readers, children with a visual impairment, or to share with multiple children in a family.
When you purchase this playtime practice book you will receive:
Two digital flipbook versions - one without audio and one with audio. The practice videos of each breathing pattern are directly embedded in the flipbooks.
A downloadable PDF of the book with 6 printable activities.
Four interactive online games with easy access via direct links and QR codes to the MFB games page.
★ Buy individually, or get access as part of our Superhero Club Membership! Learn more below.
Personalized for your child
Make your child the superhero of their own story with a personalized playtime practice book.
Seeing the photographs of themselves in a variety of emotional states will help engage your child in their practice, and deepen their understanding of mindful breathing.
With this version you receive:
Two digital formats - a printable PDF and interactive flipbook. The practice videos of each breathing pattern are directly embedded in the flipbook.
Four interactive online games featuring images of your child.
A personalized webpage and QR code for easy access to your resources.
Also available to purchase as a softcover and hardcover version for Australian, New Zealand, Canadian, and American customers.
★ Purchase 2 or more personalized books and save! Discounts are automatically applied at checkout.
Remember - Practice Creates Skill!
Every practice session will help your child improve their ability to regulate their emotions through mindful breathing. Use these ideas as a basis for practice using the Playtime with My Friend Breath Practice Book.
Please remember - it’s hard for a child (and adults too) to learn something new whilst having a meltdown, so prioritize practicing the breathing patterns when they are calm.
Focus on one emotion in Playtime with My Friend Breath. Listen to the instructions on how to do the breathing pattern then watch the practice video and breathe along with Ash and Kelsey.
Have some fun tracing a maze to find your way back to calm, or find your way to happy!
Repeat the Superhero Pledge.
Print and play one of the offline activities.
Play one (or more) of the online interactive superhero games.
Superhero Club Playground
Inside our virtual playground we offer 16 different superhero breathing patterns, each designed to support your child when they experience a particular emotion.
Connecting a breathing pattern to a specific emotion empowers adults and children with a common strategy they can use to help change the way they are feeling, anytime, anywhere.
All-Access Playground Pass included in our Superhero Club Membership.
Emotional-regulation and resilience are key skills needed to navigate and thrive throughout life. Our Superhero Club Playground provides an enging way for children to develop these skills through play.
The 16 focus emotional states that our breathing patterns are created to support are:
• Sad
• Mad
• Scared
• Happy
• Frustrated
• Anxious & afraid
• Upset
• Confused
• Joyful
• Worried
• Shy & nervous
• Furious
• Excited or silly
• Low energy or tired
• Grateful
• Overwhelmed
Join us as we build our Superhero Club Playground!
Inside the playground you will find the 4 foundational breathing patterns from our picture book, with a new superhero breathing pattern added each month.
By the end of 2024 there will be a total of 16 impactful superhero breathing patterns available for your playtime fun.
Each breathing pattern has its own webpage and includes:
• A kid-friendly definition of the focus emotion.
• Explanation for WHEN and WHY to do the breathing pattern.
• Videos and text that explains WHAT and HOW to do the breathing pattern.
• Fun and engaging printable activities.
• Interactive online games to help embed learning.
Bringing an awareness to their current emotional state, by naming how they feel, helps a child to recognize when they need to regulate their feelings.
Calling the emotion by its name helps a child to make the connection between the feeling they are experiencing, and the breathing pattern they can use to change their emotional state.
Through proactive playtime practice children become empowered to manage any emotionally challenging situation that comes their way. The more they practice playing say-and-do in the MFB Playground and embed these connections the easier it will be for them to to use their breath to change the way they feel.
Remember - Practice Creates Skill!
Every practice session will help your child improve their ability to regulate their emotions through mindful breathing. Use these ideas as a basis for practicing playing say-and-do inside the playground:
• Please remember - it’s hard for a child (and adults too) to learn something new whilst having a meltdown, so prioritize practicing the breathing patterns when they are calm.
• Spin the wheel - this is a fun and engaging way to choose which say-and-do game to practice.
• Use the superhero breathing pattern tracker as a motivation to record each practice session.
• Focus on practicing the breathing pattern of the month. This will help to embed the link between the newly introduced breathing pattern and the emotion that it supports.
• Ask a child to choose a breathing pattern to practice. If they keep choosing the same one, turn it into a game together, saying you’ll choose one and then they can choose one. Including others in a practice sessions, can help to make playing with their breath fun.
• Allow time for a child to play the online games.
• Print an activity for a child to complete offline.
Superhero Club Membership
A Superhero Club Membership gives multiple users access to all of the My Friend Breath digital and printable books and resources via a personalized membership webpage.
This includes:
The My Friend Breath Picture Book - PDF, flipbook & audiobook.
The Playtime with Ash Practice Book PDF, digital, and audio flipbooks.
All 7 SEL Superhero Training Guides, online games, & activities.
An All-Access Playground Pass with 16 superhero breathing patterns.
The 12-month membership is designed to support adults and children to have equal and unlimited access, so you can use a consistent approach in developing emotional-regulation and resilience skills.
We offer memberships for:
Families
Homeschool Groups
Schools & Learning Centres
Health Services & Professionals
We love our amazing community of superheroes!
It is a joy to share the magic of the breath with children, families, and communities around the world.
We are grateful to get to do so through our range of resources, as well as in-person, and virtual author visits.
Thank YOU for being a part of our amazing superhero community!
We’d love it if you shared pictures, videos, and/or a review of your MFB experience. Follow the link below to learn how :)