Customer Reviews

Labyrinths for Kids

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I am very biased in reviewing this book because I know the author personally. She is in my metaphysical/paranormal discussion group in southern Oregon. I've known her for 3 years, and I have been impressed by her intellligence and kindness - she has achieved a balance between left brain and right brain abilities, and her book on labyrinths gives teachers and parents, for whom the book is written, excellent yet simple ways to develop both skills in children using the techniques she has developed and tested.

Joseph Campbell, the great mythologist, became famous posthumously for his saying, "follow your bliss." Lani's passion is labyrinths, for sure. As she states in the introduction, she "has focused her entire career trying to answer questions about how children learn, what motivates children to learn...and what makes an activity fun and successful." I can remember a number of times in our discussion group Lani discussing with infectious enthusiasm, her love of labyrinths and how she has used them in teaching children, especially children with handicaps, which she has been involved with for many years. Yet labyrinths are also very useful for children who are not handicapped. Lani also makes the important distinction between mazes, which are often a bit too challenging to figure out, vs. labyrinths, which are always well-defined, and whose destination is always easy to attain.

Lani and her husband toured the US in the summer of 2000 and if she knew there was a labyrinth in the area she was visiting, they stopped there!

The author, in a very easy to understand, thorough, and straightforward manner, shows the reader the various kinds of labyrinths as well as the skills used and developed in learning how to create them. She starts with very simple, basic patterns, and shows how to create 3-path, 7-path, 11-path, and 15-path labyrinths, as well as how to create double labyrinths. She then gives lists of many different kinds of materials that can be used to create these figures. She discusses how to "walk" a drawn labyrinth. Books and web sites are also provided at the end of the book.

Finally, there is an appendix that shows the basic patterns for labyriths, and then (of course) a second appendix with some beautiful labyrinths the author and her students have created from various materials, as well as interesting and fun drawings of labyrinths by Lani's students and not unexpectantly, her grandchildren!

If you have young children, I highly recommend Lani's book, her passion, to you!