Alluring and captivating, they capture children's curiosity, give free reign to their imagination, and motivate learning.The hundreds of inspiring photographs showcase an array of loose parts in real early childhood settings. And the overviews of concepts children can learn when using loose parts provide the foundation for incorporating loose parts into your teaching to enhance play and empower children. The possibilities are truly endless.

    Based on survey responses from over 900 adult readers and classroom feedback, Reading in the Wild offers solid advice and strategies on how to develop, encourage and assess key lifelong reading habits, including dedicating time for reading, planning for future reading, and defining oneself as a reader.Includes advice for supporting the love of reading by explicitly teaching lifelong reading habits. Contains accessible strategies, ideas, tips, lesson plans and management tools along with lists of recommended books co-published with Editorial Projects in Education, publisher of "Education Week" and "Teacher Magazine"Packed with ideas for helping students choose their own reading material, respond to text, and build capacity for lifelong reading.

    Such learning tools should be simple, easy, and have plenty of colorful images to help young minds remember the concepts introduced. This book helps introduce children to their ABCs but it also introduces some basic Pagan concepts as well. Besides having bright and colorful images of things that are represented by each letter of the alphabet, the text and pictures also introduce young children to ideas such as the eight Sabbats, the four Elements, the four quarters (or directions), male and female deities, and the pentagram. Other important learning tools are stressed as well including shapes, colors, and numbers. Letters from some different alphabets have also been added to the book to promote an acceptance of other systems of communicating through language. The end of the book includes fun and interesting activities based on the concepts introduced throughout. With this book, young Pagans can learn and have fun.

    The "good mother myth" an ideal that parents create for themselves says psychotherapist and parent coach Alyson Sch fer, is the sort of widely held misconception that ultimately sabotages people's efforts at becoming the best parents they can be. In her eye-opening account of how moms, the media, and our current culture foster this condition, Breaking the Good Mom Myth shows readers, through personal stories, anecdotes, and timely lessons, how to become a more empowered and confident person and parent. Alyson Sch fer (Toronto, ON, Canada) is a psychotherapist, parent educator, and media expert in parenting. She has been a guest on a number of Canadian television programs and has been featured in articles in Reader's Digest and Today's Parent.

    I don't want him to be ostracized for not having one, but I worry that it's addictive. What do you think?Our two sons are eleven and fourteen, and they are fiercely competitive. The tension around our house is awful. How can we help them get along better?We've worked very hard to keep our ten-year-old son in touch with his feelings. Sometimes it seems as if we've put him at a disadvantage, surrounded by tougher boys who can be pretty cruel with teasing. How can we help him protect himself when other boys start to tease?With his bestselling book Raising Cain, Michael Thompson, Ph.D., at last broke the silence surrounding the emotional life of boys and spearheaded an important national debate. His warmth and humor quickly made him a popular and respected international speaker and consultant. Now he directs his authority, insight, and eloquence to answering your questions about raising a son. With candid questions and thoughtful, detailed responses, Speaking of Boys covers hot-button topics such as peer pressure, ADHD/ADD, and body image as well as traditional issues such as friendship, divorce, and college and career development. This perceptive, informative, and passionate book will leave you not only with useful, practical advice but also with the comforting knowledge that other parents share the same concerns you do when it comes to raising our boys into well-adjusted, responsible men.

    There is absolutely nothing as great, challenging, or rewarding as raising a child." So says Über-mom Rose Rock, who has raised 10 children in addition to caring for 17 foster children in her 40-plus years as a mother.As a mother who does not shy away from the hard conversations, Rose isn't afraid to present strong ideas about boundaries, discipline, choices, and consequences—and she tells it like it is. In Mama Rock's Rules, Rose shares the funny and highly practical lessons she learned both as a parent and an educator, while offering strategies for teaching a child to be self-reliant in this world.Written with a kicky blend of maternal spirituality and a "don't mess with me or you won't get old" sense of authority, the book spotlights 10 vital rules, each tackling a specific parenting issue. From "I Am Your Mama, Not Your Friend," which helps parents regain their authority and establish respectful relationships with their children, to "Don't Lie Down with Anything You Don't Want to Live with Forever," which takes a different approach to the often tricky conversation about sex, each topic is lovingly explained and bolstered by stories from Rose Rock's own childhood and parenting experiences. We will also hear from her own kids, as they share memories and anecdotes about what it was like to grow up in the Rock household.Rose's heartfelt and no-nonsense advice—delivered with a dose of wit and homespun humor—will resonate with thousands of parents and will inspire them to teach their kids right, whether their brood is one child or ten.

    Based on his popular blog of the same name, this is a "Best Of..." collection. Ranging from outrageously funny to touchingly poignant, these collected vignettes into the lives of high school students are an inspiring peek into the connection one teacher has with his students.

    But in this fast-paced world in which young girls are exposed to negative behaviors on TV and social media from the moment they enter school, they are also becoming caught up in social hierarchies much earlier. No More Mean Girls is a guide for parents to help their young daughters navigate tricky territories such as friendship building, creating an authentic self, standing up for themselves and others, and expressing themselves in a healthy way. The need to be liked by others certainly isn't new, but this generation of girls is growing up in an age when the like button shows the world just how well-liked they are. When girls acknowledge that they possess positive traits that make them interesting, strong, and likeable, however, the focus shifts and their self-confidence soars; likes lose their importance. This book offers actionable steps to help parents empower young girls to be kind, confident leaders who work together and build each other up.

    In this truly groundbreaking book, nationally respected educator Alfie Kohn begins instead by asking "What do kids need — and how can we meet those needs?" What follows from that question are ideas for working with children rather than doing things to them. One basic need all children have, Kohn argues, is to be loved unconditionally, to know that they will be accepted even if they screw up or fall short. Yet conventional approaches to parenting such as punishments (including "time-outs"), rewards (including positive reinforcement), and other forms of control teach children that they are loved only when they please us or impress us. Kohn cites a body of powerful, and largely unknown, research detailing the damage caused by leading children to believe they must earn our approval. That's precisely the message children derive from common discipline techniques, even though it's not the message most parents intend to send. More than just another book about discipline, though, Unconditional Parenting addresses the ways parents think about, feel about, and act with their children. It invites them to question their most basic assumptions about raising kids while offering a wealth of practical strategies for shifting from "doing to" to "working with" parenting — including how to replace praise with the unconditional support that children need to grow into healthy, caring, responsible people. This is an eye-opening, paradigm-shattering book that will reconnect readers to their own best instincts and inspire them to become better parents.

    In "Lighting Their Fires," Esquith translates the inspiring methods from "Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire" for parents. Using lessons framed by a class trip to a Dodgers game, he moves inning by inning through concepts that explain how to teach children to be thoughtful and honorable peopleas well as successful studentsand to have fun in the process.

    Scott W. Cohen’s first year as a father, this book is the only one to combine two invaluable “on the job” perspectives—the doctor’s and the new parent’s.The result is a refreshingly engaging and informative guide that includes all you need to know at each age and stage of your child’s first year. Drawing on the latest medical recommendations and his experiences at home and in the office, Dr. Cohen covers everything from preparing for your baby’s arrival to introducing her to a new sibling, to those three basic functions that will come to dominate a new parent’s life. Eat, Sleep, Poop addresses questions, strategies, myths, and all aspects of your child’s development. In each instance, Dr. Cohen provides a thorough overview and a simple answer or explanation: a “common sense bottom line,” yet he doesn’t dictate. The emphasis is on doing what is medically sound and what works best for you and your baby. He also includes fact sheets, easy-to-follow diagnosis and treatment guides, and humorous daddy vs. doctor sidebars that reveal the learning curve during his fi rst year as a dad.Lively, practical, and reassuring, Eat, Sleep, Poop provides the knowledge you need to parent with confidence, to relax and enjoy baby’s fi rst year, and to raise your child with the best tool a parent can have: informed common sense.

    For white people who are committed to equity and justice, living in a nation that remains racially unjust and deeply segregated creates unique conundrums.These conundrums begin early in life and impact the racial development of white children in powerful ways. What can we do within our homes, communities and schools? Should we teach our children to be “colorblind”? Or, should we teach them to notice race? What roles do we want to equip them to play in addressing racism when they encounter it? What strategies will help our children learn to function well in a diverse nation?Talking about race means naming the reality of white privilege and hierarchy. How do we talk about race honestly, then, without making our children feel bad about being white? Most importantly, how do we do any of this in age-appropriate ways?While a great deal of public discussion exists in regard to the impact of race and racism on children of color, meaningful dialogue about and resources for understanding the impact of race on white children are woefully absent. Raising White Kids steps into that void.

    She struggled with how she could raise her children with a sense of adventure, self-confidence, manners, faith, and the ability to utilize technology wisely.Let Them Be Kids is Jessica’s offering of grace and confidence to moms, giving them practical ideas to meet these challenges. Her well-researched, tested methods, woven together with her personal stories and witty humor, deliver wisdom on the tough topics of life, such asfamily time vs. outside activities,being “cool” or not,boredom,technology usagesexual purity, andshowing grace when kids disobey.Part story and part guidebook, every chapter includes doable strategies and encouragement for the journey.Let Them Be Kids helps moms feel confident and equipped with ways to provide a safe, healthy, Christ-centered childhood for their children. It leads them to conquer fear and find truth that transforms them and their families as it reminds them how to enjoy and cherish the special memory-making moments of building family values together.

    Martha Heineman Pieper and Dr. William J. Pieper. It replaces the old rewards-and-punishments style of parenting as behavior modification which turns parents into disciplinarians, which they don t want to be, and which treats children as miniature adults, which they aren't. Smart Love enables parents to understand the world through the eyes of their child at each stage of development and offers effective responses for every age and stage. To Smart Love is to cultivate children's inner happiness while managing their behavior in age-appropriate ways, which ensures that children will grow up well behaved, responsible, self-confident, and able to reach their full potentials.

    Each lesson offers easy strategies for helping students focus their attention, improve their self-regulation skills, build resilience to stress, and develop a positive mind-set in both school and life. The lessons fit easily into any schedule and require minimal preparation. Classroom management tips and content-area activities help you extend the benefits of MindUP throughout your day, week, and year!Includes a full-color, innovative teaching poster with fascinating facts about the brain!