This practical and inspiring book introduces 'conscious parenting' as a new way of helping any family home become more harmonious. Lou Harvey-Zahra, an experienced parenting coach and teacher, wants to help parents develop calm and happy children. Drawing her inspiration from a Steiner-Waldorf background, she offers candid, relevant and funny tips and advice for taking a clear look at family life, identifying what's not working, and exploring new ideas for improving parent-child relationships. The book addresses issues such as rhythm and routine, children's play, storytelling and crafts, as well as delving beneath the surface to discuss children's twelve senses, and four temperaments. In addition there is a sure-to-be popular section on creative discipline, plus tips from Dad and wonderful suggestions for making ordinary family moments extraordinary. This uplifting parenting guide teaches how to raise happy children and create happy homes. An accessible, readable book which parents will appreciate for its down-to-earth, realistic approach and insightful counsel.

One of the country's leading researchers updates his revolutionary approach to solving--and preventing--your children's sleep problems Here Dr. Marc Weissbluth, a distinguished pediatrician and father of four, offers his groundbreaking program to ensure the best sleep for your child. In Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, he explains with authority and reassurance his step-by-step regime for instituting beneficial habits within the framework of your child's natural sleep cycles. This valuable sourcebook contains brand new research that - Pinpoints the way daytime sleep differs from night sleep and why both are important to your child - Helps you cope with and stop the crybaby syndrome, nightmares, bedwetting, and more - Analyzes ways to get your baby to fall asleep according to his internal clock--naturally - Reveals the common mistakes parents make to get their children to sleep--including the inclination to rock and feed - Explores the different sleep cycle needs for different temperaments--from quiet babies to hyperactive toddlers - Emphasizes the significance of a nap schedule - Rest is vital to your child's health growth and development. Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child outlines proven strategies that ensure good, healthy sleep for every age. Advises parents dealing with teenagers and their unique sleep problems

An insightful and powerful look at the magic of summer camp—and why it is so important for children to be away from home . . . if only for a little while. In an age when it’s the rare child who walks to school on his own, the thought of sending your “little ones” off to sleep-away camp can be overwhelming—for you and for them. But parents’ first instinct—to shelter their offspring above all else—is actually depriving kids of the major developmental milestones that occur through letting them go—and watching them come back transformed. In Homesick and Happy, renowned child psychologist Michael Thompson, PhD, shares a strong argument for, and a vital guide to, this brief loosening of ties. A great champion of summer camp, he explains how camp ushers your children into a thrilling world offering an environment that most of us at home cannot: an electronics-free zone, a multigenerational community, meaningful daily rituals like group meals and cabin clean-up, and a place where time simply slows down. In the buggy woods, icy swims, campfire sing-alongs, and daring adventures, children have emotionally significant and character-building experiences; they often grow in ways that surprise even themselves; they make lifelong memories and cherished friends. Thompson shows how children who are away from their parents can be both homesick and happy, scared and successful, anxious and exuberant. When kids go to camp—for a week, a month, or the whole summer—they can experience some of the greatest maturation of their lives, and return more independent, strong, and healthy.

A groundbreaking guide to raising responsible, capable, happy kids Based on the latest research on brain development and extensive clinical experience with parents, Dr. Laura Markham’s approach is as simple as it is effective. Her message: Fostering emotional connection with your child creates real and lasting change. When you have that vital connection, you don’t need to threaten, nag, plead, bribe—or even punish. This remarkable guide will help parents better understand their own emotions—and get them in check—so they can parent with healthy limits, empathy, and clear communication to raise a self-disciplined child. Step-by-step examples give solutions and kid-tested phrasing for parents of toddlers right through the elementary years. If you’re tired of power struggles, tantrums, and searching for the right “consequence,” look no further. You’re about to discover the practical tools you need to transform your parenting in a positive, proven way.

A young man reexamines his childhood memories of strange visions and erratic behavior to answer disturbing questions that continue to haunt him and his new family in this psychological thriller named a Washington Post best book of 2007. Thirty-year-old George Davies can’t bring himself to hold his newborn son. After months of accepting his lame excuses and strange behavior, his wife has had enough. She demands that he see a therapist, and George, desperate to save his unraveling marriage and redeem himself as a father and husband, reluctantly agrees. As he delves into his childhood memories, he begins to recall things he hasn’t thought of in twenty years. Events, people, and strange situations come rushing back. The odd, rambling letters his father sent home before he died. The jovial mother who started dating too soon after his father’s death. A boy who appeared one night when George was lonely, then told him secrets he didn’t want to know. How no one believed this new friend was real and that he was responsible for the bad things that were happening. Terrified by all that he has forgotten, George struggles to remember what really happened in the months following his father’s death. Were his ominous visions and erratic behavior the product of a grief-stricken child’s overactive imagination? Or were his father’s colleagues, who blamed a darker, more malevolent force, right to look to the supernatural as a means to end George’s suffering? Twenty years later, George still does not know. But when a mysterious murder is revealed, remembering the past becomes the only way George can protect himself--and his young family. A psychological thriller in the tradition of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History--with shades of The Exorcist--A Good and Happy Child leaves you questioning the things you remember and frightened of the things you’ve forgotten. “Beautifully written and perfectly structured. . . . This novel is much more than The Omen for the latte generation, and Evans cleverly subverts expectations at every turn.” –Washington Post “[A] satisfying, suspenseful first novel. . . . Young George’s intriguing story unbalances the reader right up to the book’s deliciously chilling end.” —People “A scary, grown-up ghost story that combines Southern gothic with more than a twist of The Exorcist. . . . Combine[s] mind-bending storytelling with excellent prose.” —Portland Tribune “Think Rosemary’s Baby—plus . . . told in the kind of prose that mesmerizes, sweeping the reader along so fast that there’s no time to ask questions.” —Hartford Courant “[A] dazzling debut . . . part psychological thriller, part horror story.” —Chicago Tribune “Relat[es] his otherworldly suspense story with the cool, calm eye of a skeptic.” —Entertainment Weekly (A—)

Has Technology Taken Over Your Home? In this digital age, children spend more time interacting with screens and less time playing outside, reading a book, or interacting with family. Though technology has its benefits, it also has its harms. In Screen Kids Gary Chapman and Arlene Pellicane will empower you with the tools you need to make positive changes. Through stories, science, and wisdom, you’ll discover how to take back your home from an overdependence on screens. Plus, you’ll learn to teach the five A+ skills that every child needs to master: affection, appreciation, anger management, apology, and attention. Learn how to: Protect and nurture your child’s growing brain Establish simple boundaries that make a huge difference Recognize the warning signs of gaming too much Raise a child who won’t gauge success through social media Teach your child to be safe online This newly revised edition features the latest research and interactive assessments, so you can best confront the issues technology create in your home. Now is the time to equip your child with a healthy relationship with screens and an even healthier relationship with others.

What do we wish most for our children? Next to being healthy, we want them to be happy, of course! Fortunately, a wide array of scientific studies show that happiness is a learned behavior, a muscle we can help our children build and maintain. Drawing on what psychology, sociology, and neuroscience have proven about confidence, gratefulness, and optimism, and using her own chaotic and often hilarious real-world adventures as a mom to demonstrate do’s and don’ts in action, Christine Carter, Ph.D, executive director of UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, boils the process down to 10 simple happiness-inducing steps. With great wit, wisdom, and compassion, Carter covers the day-to-day pressure points of parenting—how best to discipline, get kids to school and activities on time, and get dinner on the table—as well as the more elusive issues of helping children build healthy friendships and develop emotional intelligence. In these 10 key steps, she helps you interact confidently and consistently with your kids to foster the skills, habits, and mindsets that will set the stage for positive emotions now and into their adolescence and beyond. Inside you will discover • the best way avoid raising a brat—changing bad habits into good ones • tips on how to change your kids’ attitude into gratitude • the trap of trying to be perfect—and how to stay clear of its pitfalls • the right way to praise kids—and why too much of the wrong kind can be just as bad as not enough • the spirit of kindness—how to raise kind, compassionate, and loving children • strategies for inspiring kids to do boring (but necessary) tasks—and become more self-motivated in the process Complete with a series of “try this” tips, secrets, and strategies, Raising Happiness is a one-of-a-kind resource that will help you instill joy in your kids—and, in the process, become more joyful yourself.

You want to be a loving parent who guides your kids towards a life of happiness and success. But the chaos of parenting life leaves you feeling overwhelmed, stressed, or just vaguely annoyed all the time. (Or maybe it's not so vague.)With this practical guide for busy parents and a bonus printable workbook, you'll know how to: * Stop feeling overwhelmed. Get a handle on the swirling chaos of to-do items and appointments and "should"s in your head.* Set yourself up for a happy day, every day. Find out the ingredients you need in your day in order to become your happiest self.* Catch yourself before you lose your cool. Learn what to do when you lose your patience with a temper-taming toolkit of proven tools to get you back on track.* Heal after the storm. For the days when you do lose your cool, you'll get the exact steps to flush the bad mojo from your body and repair the relationship with your child (or your partner).This book gives you the best science-backed tools that you need as a busy parent to become your happiest self.

As heard on BBC R4's Woman's Hour 'A must-read for any parent who feels stressed out and living in an environment often rife with tension and anxiety.' Evening Standard An essential 10-step plan for a stress-free family life. We all know that raising happy, confident and resilient children can be a tough job in this fast-paced world – and there’s never any shortage of well-meaning advice on how to be a better parent. So, if you’re anxious and struggling to cope with the pressures of school and family life – or if you worry that you’re not doing enough to support your child through their problems – give yourself a break: this book really can help you. Clinical psychologist Dr Genevieve von Lob draws on her extensive experience working with hundreds of families to provide a simple 10-step plan for a stress-free family life. As she helps you to tackle the dilemmas every parent faces and defuse tension and anxiety in the home, Genevieve also aims to bring a sense of confidence, calm and balance both to you and your child. This is a practical, down-to-earth guide – and essential reading for every parent.

Kid whisperer Criswell shares simple strategies parents can put into action in order to raise amazing childrenNin a much easier and more fun way than they thought possible.