As a homeschooling mom, Children’s ministry director, and now, GAPS coach, finding resources to teach kids all about gut health was a natural progression for me.

Take your new friend “Min” the microbe on a ride and see microscopic pictures of common things like your shirt, and your skin.

I wanted to find a variety of books and activities that would appeal to a lot of different learning styles and ages.

This book is great at establishing the principle that microbes are like an army!

There are so many fun books that are out there that you can read to your kids!

Ok, cool. But when does anyone actually teach about gut health? And why?

“Microbiome” is a big word.
“Hotel” is a concept kids can understand.

I could find a lot of statistics and charts to show the increase in disease. I think anyone over the age of 40 can understand that there are more allergies, asthma, and overall sicknesses in kids than what we ever had as children.

I can also speak from experience.

Focusing on gut health has been the answer for our family after years of epilepsy medications and daily fear. We lived day to day avoiding social activities “in case” we had an emergency.

After 10 years of doing GAPS with our daughter, and the past 5 years of no seizure medications, I have confidence that gut health is imperative to be teaching to the next generation!

And now that we are no longer living in this fear with our daughter’s health, I continue to have conversations with my kids about eating for health, avoiding damaging foods and lifestyles, and honoring their bodies to give them the best opportunity for a foundation of long-term health.

Why books?

Reading together gives us a shared experience and common language that we can use whenever the topic comes up.

Wait, a book about poop?!

When has anyone ever taught YOU about identifying poop? We have scientists that study animal scat. And we don’t find that weird. Yet, chronic constipation or diarrhea is one of the red flags for bad gut health. And so many kids suffer from these symptoms, not knowing to tell anyone about it!

Chronic constipation was one of the symptoms our daughter had, but we never associated it with any of her mental conditions. Yet, Dr. Natasha, the creator of GAPS, teaches in her books that chronic constipation is seen 100% of the time if there is mental health conditions. When we addressed the constipation and healed her leaky gut, the seizures stopped. For the first several years of her life, our daughter never smiled or laughed. Never. And now, smiling and laughing is a DAILY experience for her!

Let’s equip our kids for a healthy future!

Belly Buddies is a recommended book list of GAPS-aligned books that I personally have purchased and read to my kids and a classroom of kids. I have also done each activity in the packet, so they are all kid-tested! Some of the activities will need to be purchased through teachers pay teachers, but are very affordable and high quality.

I have also included my compost in a jar experiment we did over the course of several months, a few podcast links for kids, and engaging video links.

I hope this packet serves as a great tool to help you and your kids discover the amazing world of microbes and the impact on your microbiome!

Belly Buddies

6 x 6 Planning

Circadian Rhythms & gut health