For the next few months, I am going to do a brief recap of some powerful parenting (with educational topics) books I’ve read.
Sometimes reading quotes from books helps shift my mindset on certain topics and gets me focused on what’s really important when raising children.
Book Title: Teach Your Children Well
Author: Madeline Levine PhD
Book Synopsis:
Psychologist Madeline Levine brings together cutting-edge research and thirty years of clinical experience to explode once and for all the myth that good grades, high test scores, and college acceptances should define the parenting endgame.
Parents, educators, and the media wring their hands about the escalating rates of emotional problems and lack of real engagement with learning found so frequently among America’s children and teens. Yet there are ways to reverse these disheartening trends. Until we are clearer about our core values and the parenting choices that are most likely to lead to authentic, and not superficial, success, we will continue to raise exhausted, externally driven, and emotionally impaired children who believe they are only as good as their last performance.
Confronting the real issues behind why we push some of our kids to the breaking point while dismissing the talents and interests of many others, Levine shows us how to shift our focus from the excesses of hyperparenting and the unhealthy reliance on our children for status and meaning to a parenting style that concentrates on both enabling academic success and developing a sense of purpose, well-being, and connection in our children’s lives.
My Review:
Another parenting book review. If you are following along in this summer series and reading the top ten quotes and takeaways from these books, you are probably seeing similarities in what the experts are saying: Allow our children to be kids without over scheduling them.
Top Ten Quotes:
- “Until they enter elementary school most youngsters are motivated by the challenge itself, not by stars or grades or rewards. This is called mastery motivation and is the form of learning most likely to lead to both engagement and persistence, and ultimately to expertise.”
- “Remember, our very first job is to appropriately monitor our teen’s safety. After all, if we’re not successful at that, then any discussion of cognitive skills is irrelevant.”
- “Remember, our very first job is to appropriately monitor our teen’s safety. After all, if we’re not successful at that, then any discussion of cognitive skills is irrelevant.”
― Madeline Levine, Teach Your Children Well: Why Values and Coping Skills Matter More Than Grades, Trophies, or “Fat Envelopes”
“The best way we can help our children welcome challenges is to encourage them to work just outside their comfort zone, stand by to lend a hand when needed, and model enthusiasm for challenging tasks.” - “Many leading educators and psychologists believe that it is the ability to ask good questions that characterizes both intelligence and creativity.”
- “And it is unstructured play that provides the greatest opportunities for kids to be curious, creative, spontaneous, and collaborative.”
- “Experts recommend two hours of unstructured play for every hour of structured play. While your child is playing take half that time for your own play—a craft project, a good novel (or a bad one), looking at catalogs, sitting outside, dancing. If the very idea of “playing” as an adult confuses you, think back to your own childhood and the things that you spent time on and enjoyed doing. Try them again. As with everything else about children’s behavior, there’s nothing like a good role model. If you value play, your child will, too.”
- “Empathy is the accurate understanding of another person’s internal experience. It has nothing to do with agreeing or disagreeing with that experience. Unlike sympathy, it makes no assumptions about how the other person is feeling.”
- “There is no parent more vulnerable to the excesses of overparenting than an unhappy parent. One of the most important things we do for our children is to present them with a version of adult life that is appealing and worth striving for.”
- “There is no parent more vulnerable to the excesses of overparenting than an unhappy parent. One of the most important things we do for our children is to present them with a version of adult life that is appealing and worth striving for.”
- “We need to always deal with the child in front of us, not the child of our fantasies.”
Join our private Facebook Group: Empowering Kids with Character. You don’t want to miss the amazing and awesome tips and tricks that is being shared by parents and educators alike!