We have an affluent society which is educated, has the social ability, educational research to find out how we grow and develop and it is scandalous that we let so many young lives go to waste, fail to flower, go wrong and end up stunted, damaging themselves or perhaps the rest of society ... We have got further and further away from common sense - our innate ability to nurture, to care and eventually to educate each other. We are nervous of common sense because everything around us has become more specialised and less personal and human. Right from the Start touches on what is common to us all - basic humanity in this very, very pressurised world.
Kate Adie OBE - British Journalist and BBC News Presenter

Children really are the key to unlocking so much that is wrong in our world ... We face the loss of innocence - the loss of childhood but more importantly [these children] will end up the sort of people who will not contribute to society because they are damaged, abused and betrayed ... This is why the rights of the child are so important ... There is a good way in which to be a parent, a good way in which to bring up children, a good way in which to enjoy and learn from children - and there are not such good ways. What Right from the Start is striving to do is part of that goodness. We need these kinds of books. Bringing up children is the most difficult task of our lives for which we have no preparation.
George Alagiah OBE - British Journalist and BBC News Presenter

Sound Sleep is the first book in an inspired series called Right from the Start. This exceptionally readable and well-researched guide is for parents with babies, toddlers or older children. It offers a wealth of helpful advice and information on how to overcome the problems of children's sleeplessness and the crying and screaming that creates such anxiety and exhaustion for parents and can so easily lead into child abuse.
Schumacher UK Newsletter

I feel a great affinity with your approach, based as it is on such great respect for both parents and children ... This book is written from the heart and will appeal to parents on an emotional level. It is as concerned with creating loving relationships between parents and babies as it is with advice for sleep problems. It also brings together a great selection of lullabies, which many young parents may never have heard.
Eileen Hayes, Parenting Adviser to the NSPCC

By far the best book I've come across on children and sleep is Sound Sleep... Woodhouse is thoroughly child-centred in her approach, but also sensitive to the dreadful effects of long-term sleep deprivation on parents. Her methods for establishing good sleep patterns don't involve draconian treatment ... and are highly effective for babies and children.
Rebecca Abrams, Daily Telegraph

I found such a sense of peace and tenderness in this book - it makes me feel completely balanced and able.
Diana, a new mother

Very detailed advice, clearly written, with many helpful and real stories from parents.
Heather Riseborough, Team Leader, Health Visiting, North Norfolk

I wish I had seen this book when I first became pregnant. I would have been prepared for anything - even the worst! The best thing about it is that it helps you stay calm and try out new ways of coping. Some of the ideas did wonders for me.
Ruth, a 29-year-old mother

Whether you have a baby who cries more than you can bear, or an endlessly waking-and-wailing child in the night, get this book! It's fantastic. It paints so many useful pictures and tells stories you'll never forget. It gave me hope and got me smiling again.
Single mother with a two-year-old

The importance of Right from the Start is that it goes beyond prevention to promotion, from stopping the worst to planning the best ... Reading the wonderful warm tone in which Sound Sleep is written with its non-prescriptive attitude, the variety of different approaches that are considered in the book and the way it is written make this book exceptional. The author allies herself with the suffering parent. The most courageous aspect of Right from the Start is to bring together a whole range of different dimensions of life. It is a holistic project. It dares to talk about spirituality.
Hetty Einzig, Research and Development Director of the Parenting Education and Support Forum

I found Sound Sleep sensitive, caring, well-written and researched, immensely reassuring and I love the illustrations - they spoke volumes.
Rita Marchant, Founder of the Coram Family Centre

It is so full of love and kindness and the very elusive common senses
A grandmother

... beautifully presented and very readable ...
Dr Luci Wiggs, Dept of Psychiatry, University of Oxford

This book is unbelievable ... it's wonderful ... there's nothing else like it ...
Members of the Bounty Advisory Team

From my own experience, I can recommend the practice of Yoga with all my heart. It reaches our innermost parts and furthers our well-being. It deepens the breath, strengthens the heart, relaxes the body, co-ordinates our movements and lightens our step. It steadies our spirit. It is my fervent hope that this beautifully prepared book about teaching yoga practice to children will be taken up by teachers, by parents and by leaders of children's clubs, and used widely and well. They will find in it nothing but inspiration, satisfaction and an abiding source of energy and calm both for their own lives as well as for the children with whom they share it. I can see how particularly valuable it will be for those many overactive or out-of-control or anxious and lonely children that there are in every class and in many of our homes. The presentation is imaginative in ways entirely appropriate to childhood - that transitory stage of human development. This is a beautiful and enticing introduction to one of the world's most perfectly crafted disciplines.
Preface by Yehudi Menuhin written just before he died

This is a fantastic book. Children are natural yogis and with the guidance given in this book, they will quickly rediscover what they already know. In my own experience of practising yoga with children I have often asked the question 'who is teaching who here?'. The title of the book, Helping Children with Yoga, shows humility and heart on the part of the authors. Using their experience of working with children they gently guide the parent, carer, teacher through a wide range of yoga practices, clearly and simply explained, presented easily to children. The book includes an introduction of yoga, some safety guidelines, a balanced selection of asana, pranayama relaxation and meditation hinged on the framework of yoga philosophy. There are lots of creative ideas, some inspiring quotes from teachers and children. The photos and drawings are beautiful and there is a useful glossary and available resources section at the end. Full would be a word to describe this book. I think it could help the child in us all and I wish this book the success it merits.
Sw. Vedantananda Saraswati (a Satyananda yoga teacher)

If you are a parent or teacher contemplating undertaking a yoga teaching qualification or just wanting to let even the youngest kids join in a bit at home this book provides a wonderful resource. Its authors have managed to pack in their many years of experience in an accessible and easy to read format which manages to promote best practice, safety and be encouraging at the same time. The title of the book indicates exactly what it is all about. Yoga helps children and this book explains the how and why. It specifically acknowledges and gives support to adults who want to help children in their care to practice yoga even if they themselves are not qualified yoga teachers by giving them a set of clear and sensible guidelines to follow. The no-nonsense approach is highly laudable. With some sensible precautions and due care the benefits of yoga for children hugely outweigh any potential risks. What comes across most clearly here is a sense of creative fun. Postures and practices are well described and illustrated with attractive line drawings or black and white photographs. Some of the photographs in this book are really charming and clearly convey the pleasure the children had in creating them. There is a great deal of emphasis on safety and good teaching practice throughout the text. A great deal of common sense advice is given, particularly in relation to the teaching of headstands and handstands. Useful appendices provide further detail on philosophical teachings, useful addresses and training opportunities. A delightful book that will encourage a whole new generation of yogis.
Tara Fraser, Yoga Junction.

How pleased I was to be invited to comment on this lovely book, I have been teaching Yoga for half my life now .. so I have a long term commitment to yoga as a whole life experience. This is a wonderful, practical book that covers the basis of Yoga in a way that everyone can understand. The exercises are simply explained and beautifully illustrated. The wealth of ideas designed to focus the child positively into a spiritual frame of mind are excellent. There is also a treasure chest of resources including Mandalas and Celtic patterns to be coloured as well as recommended books, sites and groups to explore more deeply. I wish I had written the book myself and will recommend it to all our A Quiet PlaceTM schools.
Penny Moon, yoga teacher for 27 years A Quiet Place

What a wonderful book you have produced! It's as much as I can do to tear myself away from it to write this letter! I will ensure that it goes to the Menuhin Archive here at the Academy.
Kathryn Adamson, Royal Academy of Music

Our experiences in the first five years of life shape our psyche, help form the foundations of our character, determine our beliefs and can impact on the relationships we form and decisions we make much later in life. The family plays a huge role but the importance of primary years education is vital, especially for the child whose home life may be less than perfect. This remarkable new publication, The Right from the Start Handbook. Promoting Children's Well-being, acknowledges young children's well-being as paramount. It draws on the experience of teachers, educationalists, therapists and pupils offering imaginative tried and tested ideas, strategies and activities with real 'soul' which might be missing from the school curriculum. Nurturing, well-being, non-violence, finding time for reflection and contemplation - each chapter is filled with all sorts of innovative approaches that encourage children to flourish. One chapter looks at the alternative '3 Rs' - Rhythm, Repetition and Reverence - an inspiring example of the kind of cross pollination of ideas which abound in this handbook. As Professor Ted Wragg of the University of Exeter says in his foreword: 'Only when people feel confident and positive about themselves can they begin to fulfil their potential ... there are dozens of viable ideas and practices described in this book. It should make a valuable contribution to giving children what they all deserve as a fundamental human right: a flying start, so that they can be in with a chance of becoming the person that their potential promises them.'
Living Lightly on the Earth, a Positive News Publication, Summer 2005

A fabulous book - rich with wise, provocative contributions ... it deserves to be taken very seriously by all early years and primary educators. I'm very proud to be associated with this wonderful vision. Your [Right from the Start's] work is really important and will make a fantastic, much needed contribution in these fragile times.
Jenny Mosley

This is a very timely book. In an educational climate which has forced schools to focus narrowly on the 3Rs, it directs attention to the wider picture -- the overall wellbeing of children, without which learning cannot flourish. It offers sound, accessible, practical advice from a wide range of experts to help schools cater for the needs of children (and teachers and parents), reasserting education as a life-enhancing process, rather than the mere pursuit of 'standards'
Sue Palmer, author of Toxic Childhood and Detoxing Childhood

This is a book with something of use and interest for anyone involved in education. I suggest that a teacher picking this up and opening it at random would find on any page something that would not only enhance their teaching but their own well-being, as well as the well-being of the children they teach. Within each section are a number of chapters with themes including, 'Well-being for staff and pupils.' 'Gardening with children' and 'Tai chi in the playground' (to select just a small sample). Generally there is background information written in bite-sized chunks, often with a case study and suggested activities, further reading, references and a list of useful resources. A book well worth buying and reading!
Kathy Alcock, Child Education

This book offers a holistic approach to giving primary-aged children the best possible start. It serves as a useful background to Children's Rights education. As well as promoting emotional literacy in children it offers practical suggestions for improving teachers' own self-esteem and emotional health. The book suggests ways to promoting children's well-being through play, interaction with nature, building friendships, meditation and storytelling. There is a further section on enhancing children's learning. Throughout the book there are several useful case studies. Altogether this is an inspiring book that will be welcomed by teachers who are seeking to improve their practice and are looking for something a bit different.
Hampshire Development Education Centre News