Parenting Book Club | Parenting strategies, the latest new parent books, and philosophy for moms and dads

A Child's Introduction to the Night Sky

By Michael Driscoll

Six-year-old Aioden has one overriding obsession. We can trace it back to when he was just a baby first discovering his world. It is the sky. Space, stars, planets, even airplanes catch his imagination and ignite his passion like nothing else. He can stare through a pair of binoculars at his current favorite, the Orion Nebula, for an hour. So naturally I sought out reading material to help feed his insatiable curiosity.

By far the best book on the subject I have found is “A Child's Introduction to the Night Sky” (2004). It's aimed at children eight and older, but Aioden has had no issues absorbing the information it contains. Author Michael Driscoll tackles the difficult and diverse subject of astronomy in such a way that both children and adults can easily grasp the information. Although the book is aimed at children, it isn't written so simply as to be insulting to a child's intelligence, a common issue with complex subjects.

Aioden is just a beginning reader, but the beautiful illustrations throughout the book keep him entertained and impart plenty of information when I can sit with him to read through it. Children ill be thrilled at the in depth depictions of a comet's tail or the illustrations of the constellations.

After reading this book your child will be quite familiar with the night sky and what it contains. They will also understand the stories of the constellations and have a basic grasp of the history of astronomy through the years. Astronomy is a science that bridges many things, from history and art to science and mathematics. I consider this book the first step on a path to lifelong learning and a love for the skies.

Raising Freethinkers: A Practical Guide for Parenting Beyond Belief

By McGowan, Matsumura, Metskas, and Devor

My family is not a religious family. My husband and I are Zen Buddhist students, but we do not follow a god or deity in our studies and practice. Although we have introduced our children to Buddhist philosophy, we do not require them to be Buddhist and we strive to keep them open minded. While we will guide and encourage their spiritual choices, we will not force ours on them.

“Raising Freethinkers” is the ultimate guidebook for parents such as ourselves and even more completely secular parents. As homeschoolers, my family often feels in the minority because many of the home schooled families in our neck of the woods are Christian. I'm often asked how I plan to teach my children good morals and ethics. Yes, a silly question, but thanks to this book I have thoughtful answers at my fingertips.

Handling religious family member's and friend's questions are just the tip of the iceburg. McGowan provides thoughtful tips and advice on handling all those little life moments that religion often covers for. Death, life, lying, stealing, and all the moral quandaries children face every day. Advice on handle religious references around them and how to educate children about other belief systems is also appreciated.

Ideas for making secular celebrations deep and meaningful are also included, a very important aspect in our rhythm and celebration based, Waldorf-inspired education home. An extensive resource list is icing on the cake. Educational toys, curriculum, book recommendations and online resources round out a very thoughtful and enlightening book for raising intelligent, freethinking children.

The Ultimate Parenting Map to Money Smart Kids

By Linda Lietz

Money is on most people's minds much of the time. Whether you have enough or not quite what you need, it's something that we adults think about often. Unfortunately, too many of us forget to teach our children good money habits or we just feel plain uncomfortable about it. We are doing are kids a disservice when we avoid money topics. Our kids are never to young to begin developing good financial habits.

“The Ultimate Parenting Map to Money Smart Kids” (2005) provides an exceptional guide to raising financially savvy youngsters. Adults may even learn a few things. Modeling responsible money habits is only one part of the equation for raising money savvy children, as I recently learned when it became apparent that my tween only had a shaky grasp of what a family budget entailed.

Author Linda Leitz, a certified financial planner, begins by giving an overview to approaching money education in children. She covers allowances, budgeting and spending advice. In later chapters she offers advice on approaching more adult money topics, including credit, college savings and debt.

While I don't agree with all of Leitz's advice, most of it is quite solid and will work well for most families. She stresses the importance of earning money and tying money to work, something I whole heartedly agree with. She also advises parents to set some parameters on spending choices, something else I agree with. Overall, this book is an excellent guide for teaching your children and yourself smart spending and saving habits.

Playful Parenting

By Lawrence Cohen

I bucked the trend amongst my friends when my children were born. While all the mamas I knew were rushing to get their children on preschool waiting lists, I was enjoying the quiet days at home watching my little ones coo and learn to manage solid foods. While they were pushing their preschoolers academically, we were at home making cookies, finger painting and spending hour upon hour outdoors. My mom had raised us at home, not at daycare or preschool, and I wanted the same for my littles. Above all, I wanted them to have time to play.

“Playful Parenting” (2002) provided a guide for these early years. As a new parent in my late twenties, I had forgotten some of the ways that children play, and I definitely needed to learn how to play with my own children. Lawrence Cohen's easy read not only helped me relearn these playful skills, he also reinforced my belief that I was doing the right thing by allowing my children to remain kids through their preschool years.

Play is vital to a young child's development. Through play they explore their world and learn how to interact with others. Play is important to emotional development and develop the skills they need to function well in the world around them. These are not things a child learns through reading, but through playing.

Cohen takes his treatise on play a step further and provides plenty of hints and ideas for the parent to use. Using play properly, parents can learn how to help their children through sibling rivalry issues, confront complex emotions and deal with life changing events. Play is the most powerful skill we can impart to our young children.

Simplicity Parenting

By Kim John Payne and Lisa Ross

My husband is a digital artist, which is a tech heavy field that requires quite a bit of time on computers. I'm a writer and dabble in web design. We were both raised on the pop culture of the 80s, can quote certain cartoons by memory and fondly remember when movies and toy tie-ins were in their infancy. Yet, we were both sure that the consumerism and tube addictions of our childhood had morphed into something much more severe, so we mindfully decided to unplug the kids.

I stumbled onto “Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids” (2010) nearly a decade after I had begun my own journey as a parent and nearly 5 years since we began willingly scaling back our lives. It was with relief that I found my family wasn't alone in its slow-down maxim.

Even if you are an old hat at parenting, there are still great tips for raising your children more simply. The authors focus on screen time thoroughly. Whether it's TV, video games or the computer, tips for minimizing screen time are fully covered. This doesn't mean tossing the TV, but minimizing how much our children watch and what they watch.

The book also includes ideas for reducing toys, establishing a daily and seasonal rhythm for your family, and ideas to help you avoid the bane of over scheduled, stressed-out kids and parents. In our fast paced world, we can give our children the gift of a true childhood. Room to discover, play, create and truly live.

Made to Play!: Handmade Toys and Crafts for Growing Imaginations

When you have small children, keeping them occupied can be a full-time job in and of itself. During the winter or on rainy days, that task gets even more difficult, so craft time can become a very important part of your daily activities.

Made to Play is an excellent book to help you find creative play ideas for those small children in your life. All of the thirty-five crafts are handmade, and many feature scraps or items that are low or no cost, allowing you to get back to basics with your children.

No cheap plastic toys here – with this book you can make dolls from wire, portable zoo animals, a shadow puppet theater, wooden nature scene and much more.

Made to Play has full-color photographs, along with templates, to help you create the projects that range from simple sewing to drawing and even some woodworking. Most projects can be completed with simple tools already on hand, but you will need tools such as a saw, wood burner and sewing needle.

Written by Joel Henriques, author of the Made by Joel blog, this book has received perfect five-star ratings on Amazon, with reviewers complimenting how easy the projects are to complete, the quality of the instructions and the variety of the projects.

If you have young children and need more ideas to help keep them occupied, Made to Play is a great choice, filled with fun projects that encourage creative play while helping your child get back to basics and away from loud electronic gadgets and toys.

Good Parenting: It All Revolves Around Respect

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that the one single answer to being a good parent is to respect your children. While there are many other aspects of good parenting, I think if you have this one basic principle down, you will go far as a parent and have kids who are confident and happy, despite the hurdles life may throw at them.

If you look at families whose children seem to exhibit those traits we so desire in our kids, such as confidence, happiness and good manners, the parents are usually very respectful of their kids and treat them as human beings, not serfs who are lower on the food chain.

Conversely, kids who seem to be insecure, unhappy or displaying poor behavior often seem to have parents who treat them disrespectfully. It breaks my heart to see a kid joyfully present a new discovery or exciting event to their parents, only to be treated with disdain and dismissed.

When you begin to consider your children as the small human beings they are, and accept the fact that their feelings and opinions should matter too, you open the door to honest communication and create feelings of worth and confidence in your kids.

This doesn’t mean that you need to cave to your child’s opinions or allow them to manipulate their way through a situation in the guise of getting answers, but you should accept that, immature though their thoughts and feelings may yet be, they are still valid and should be given some consideration.

Kids who experience respect learn to give respect as well, and when they learn from an early age that all people are deserving of respect and compassion, it will help them grow into successful, caring adults who can’t help but do well in our world.

Welcome to Your Child's Brain

As parents, we are constantly inundated with instructions and warnings about what our kids are exposed to, how every little action has long-term effects, and an ever-growing list of what not to do when it comes to raising our kids. It can be a little overwhelming, to say the least. None of us wants to do permanent damage to our kids by exposing them to the wrong TV program or by not getting the proper help for a developmental issue, but it is difficult to know just what is important.

Welcome to Your Child's Brain aims to help parents out with some of the tricky questions surrounding brain development, sleep problems, language, ADHD, and other worrisome topics. Based on scientific research, this book offers concrete facts to help parents know when something is a serious issue and when it can be left alone.

Covering your child’s life from birth to college, it goes into detail about how brains develop through childhood, allaying some of the common fears parents have about development, and explaining neurological changes in a way a layman can understand.

Welcome to Your Child's Brain has an average of 4.5 stars on Amazon, with 18 reviews such as “Fantastic! A wonderful, intelligent, thought-provoking read” and “Required reading - an instruction manual for parents.” There is no paperback edition available, so it is a bit pricey, at $17.16 for the hardcover and $14.30 for the Kindle edition, but the information it provides seems to be well worth the investment. It is definitely going on my wish list.

All About Vaccines

One of the most debated topics among parents these days is whether or not to vaccinate. There are compelling arguments on both sides of the fence. None of us wants to risk the health or safety of our children, which is what makes this argument so difficult. When it comes to intentions, both sides are absolutely correct. The following books about vaccinations may help shed some light on this tough subject.

The Vaccine Book: Making the Right Decision for Your Child
Written by famed parenting author Robert W. Sears, The Vaccine Book breaks down each vaccine and its corresponding disease to help us understand the disease itself, the frequency of it, known risks with the vaccine and other important information to decide about each vaccine on an individual basis.

Make an Informed Vaccine Decision for the Health of Your Child: A Parent's Guide to Childhood Shots
This book covers the same information as the previous book, but for those who prefer a different style to Dr. Sears, this will help you make the same decisions. Both books are rated about the same and are top sellers on the topic.

The Vaccine Guide: Risks and Benefits for Children and Adults
The Vaccine Guide adds more information to the topic by including legal requirements, alternatives to traditional vaccinations, and information on bioterrorism.

Whether you already vaccinate your children (or yourself), or are trying to get the facts before you begin a vaccination schedule, these books can help you understand the risks versus benefits for each vaccine. When it comes to the health of our children, more knowledge is always a good thing to have.

The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers

by author Meg Meeker, M.D.

Being a mom is one of the most satisfying achievements a woman can be. It can also be the most difficult, least glamorous and most stressful endeavor a woman can undertake. Our society today puts so much pressure on women, both in the home and out of it. Not only are we expected to keep the house clean, cook the meals and raise the kids, but also work a job, be a wife and countless other tasks. It can be exhausting and overwhelming, sapping the joy out of every task because there are just too many.

In The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers, author Meg Meeker, M.D. gives us 10 habits that will improve our happiness and health while restoring our passion for motherhood and life. Meeker teaches us that we can let some things go, and we do not have to shoulder the burden alone. By focusing on doing less more often, we can achieve our goals and maintain a balance that allows time for the things that are truly important to us, like family and self.

Some of the 10 habits include making true friends, discerning the true value money has in our lives, lightening our workload, discovering faith, and taking time for restoration and healing.

As a busy mother, I know I am certainly guilty of juggling too many tasks. The burden of guilt that I am not devoting enough time to my kids can sometimes get the best of me. The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers lets us know that it is okay to let things slide in order to go after our true priorities.

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