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The Field Guide to ParentingChildren's BookstoreGreat Books to Read With and About the Children in Your Life
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The New Mom's Survival Guide: How to Reclaim Your Body, Your Health, Your Sanity, and Your Sex Life After Having a Baby by Jennifer Wider, M.D., Bantam, 2008
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Book Announcements -- In Case You Missed These, Take a Look
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The Mindful Woman:
Gentle Practices for Restoring Calm, Finding Balance, & Opening Your Heart
by Sue Patton Thoele, New Harbinger
Publications, 2008
Whether you are caught in a too-stressful life, or enjoying every minute of it, the practice of mindfulness is a tool or a way of thinking or a kind of being that will help you get and/or keep peace, harmony, and acceptance of whatever life has to throw at you.
It may sound impossible, but this author takes us gently by the hand to lead us to a more present, more aware, better equipped life. It takes practice but it's not hard to get out of what she calls a default to at-fault position that women often put themselves in. You know those trick pictures that when you look at it one way it looks like a rabbit, but if you see it another way, it looks like a bird? Mindfulness encourages us to alternate thinking so we are better able to see, taste, feel, touch, hear the joy and expect it.
Each entry within a chapter offers a title that invites action, a page or two of explanation, bullets of things to practive, one or two simple suggestions to do throughout your day, and a mantra or special way of understanding the action. For example, in "Giving Grace Your Hand,"(one of my favorite sections), a page and a quarter offer a meditation-like discussion of what grace is, encouragement to accept it and believe in it, and how it will help you achieve the peace promised.
Practices can be as easy as "choose kindness," or what may be harder for some, to accept and love ourselves, the good and the not-so-good. An example of "Throughout your day..." is to find reasons to celebrate yourself and others. One of my favorite mantras is, "Being for brightens your day and lightens your heart."
If you decide to give mindfulness a go, and it is offered in a most accessible way here, consider buying this book, so you can take your time, mark it up or sticky note the pages, go back and re-read parts, and keep it as a resource for the next 100 years.
The author is personable, supportive, and really seems to care about her readers. She has found something that has helped her, and with compassion wants to pass it on to others. She gently nudges us along to the next challenge with assurance that we can achieve the calm, balance, and open heart promised in the title.
A Hands-On Activity Guide Filled with Delicious Learning
Both by Connie Liakos Evers from 24 Carrot Press.
Nutrition education is not just for educators anymore! How to Teach Nutrition to Kids is a well-researched, thorough, engaging, and extremely friendly book for parents and anyone who loves and works with children. Using everything from language, math, and science to performing arts, learning about healthful food and ways of eating has never been more fun! And that's the point.
Fun is an integral part of effective nutrition
teaching and learning, as are hands-on activities that offer kids "real
experience with food." Nutrition is not something to be learned with
answering questions at the end of the chapter. Hoagie Faces and Smiling
Burritos are just a drop in the bucket of fun things to do with and
about food, with the overall goal of helping kids learn to make healthy
choices and behavioral changes as needed.
Nutrition Fun with Brocc & Roll
expands the possibilities using
"a discovery approach to learning with a healthy dose of humor" with
over 200 more activities, reproducible activity sheets, and tips.
Parents, child care providers, as well as teachers will find the easy,
clear directions a joy to work with.
What I love most about both these books is the positive, engaging, and
enjoyable approach to a subject that can often be just the opposite.
Instead of telling kids what they shouldn't be eating and doing, show
kids what they can and should do--the possibilities for healthy, fun
eating and learning are endless. WELL DONE!
I knew I was going to like this book when the author proudly announces on the second page, " At first, we just did what we knew--being silly and thinking of kid-friendly ways to get food into the mouth..it was the parent-child relationship that worked." Kid-friendly is an understatement at the Toddler cafe. With lily pad pancakes, banana hot dogs, and tropical glop, this book is full of fresh ideas to make food really fun.
Also included are tips on creative food play, toddler-friendly tools, and pantry essentials. Engaging, colorful photographs, semi-glossy pages, clear organization, and food you will want to try for yourself, The Toddler Café is a winner that you will find yourself turning to time and time again.
by Pam Schiller Gryphon House, 2006
"Put a song in your heart and put joy in your teaching." The emphasis here is on positive, enjoyable encounters with food in every area of development. Fab Food is well-organized and thorough; early childhood teachers will appreciate the adaptations for special needs kids, home activities, the variety of things to teach and do within each activity, the interesting "Did you know?" facts, and the reproducibles in the back. Each set of activities has an acompanying song on the CD which is included. Great format and easy to use; all in all, a good early childhood classroom resource.
(Updated and Expanded) by Richard Louv, Algonquin Paperbacks, 2008
From Publishers Weekly
Today's kids are increasingly disconnected from the natural world, says
child advocacy expert Louv (Childhood's Future; Fatherlove;
etc.), even as research shows that "thoughtful exposure of youngsters to
nature can... be a powerful form of therapy for attention-deficit
disorder and other maladies." ... Gathering thoughts from parents,
teachers, researchers, environmentalists and other concerned parties,
Louv argues for a return to an awareness of and appreciation for the
natural world. Not only can nature teach kids science and nurture their
creativity, he says, nature needs its children: where else will its
future stewards come from? Louv's book is a call to action, full of
warnings—but also full of ideas for change.
Agent, James Levine. (May 20)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
All rights reserved. --This text refers
to the
Hardcover edition.
Field Guide Review coming soon
To read an interesting article by this author about the movement sometimes called Leave No Child Inside with "five actions you can take today" to reintroduce nature to your family, click here or on title below:
BEYOND NATURE-DEFICIT DISORDER It’s Time to Turn Consciousness into Action
The
Bilingual Edge: Why, When, and How to Teach Your Child a Second
Language
by Kendall King and Alison Mackey HarperCollins, 2008
In The Bilingual Edge, two professions of linguistics at Georgetown University take a strong stand that not only is it never too late to learn a second language, but it is never too early either. The "edge" is the advantages of bilingualism which are many: enhanced creativity, elf-esteem, academic ability, cross-culture understanding, and later on, a plus on job applications. The good news is that parents don't have to know a second language them self to help their child learn one. With a startling 1 of 5 households in the US speaking a language other than English, the arguments in favor of stating early are compelling.
A well organized book, it includes Quick Tips, Spotlight on Research, Points to Remember, Exercises, and Wrap Up at the end of chapters. There is much information here divided into four sections, the first of which is the argument for two languages . Then, advice on how to choose a language and when to start is followed by "how?" and a final section answering all the "what if" questions. The authors have outlined a clear and compelling case for bilingualism at an early age, and offered everything you need to know to get your child started.
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Field Guide to Parenting
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