No parent is perfect, but all of us can do better! Child raising is one day at a time – best done with love’s constancy and wisdom drawn from experience and research. Essentials include food for healthy growth, abiding love for nurture and self-confidence, stimulation of mind for learning gain, and emotional support to develop social skills that are so critical for friendships, formal learning, and purposeful living. The following themes run through the POWERFUL POTENTIAL of PARENT(S): Parent impact is greatest in childhood; parent potential continues throughout life. Each life stage builds upon the previous one; early childhood home experiences are foundational. Every adult is a unique mentor and role model; two parent(s) double the messages to offspring. Body, mind, emotion, and spirit interact; internal and external forces affect all humans. Child rearing works on probability theory; positive outcomes increase when brought up right. Each generation sets the course for the next one; this ongoing cycle bridges past to present and to future. Practical recommendations are laid out in handbook format (61 pages) for every stage of human growth; they can serve as a referent “checklist”. Also, each chapter ends with reflective questions that encourage introspection and promote meaningful dialogue. The writing is an easy read. In sum, this book is filled with wisdom of the ages as well as what recent research confirms as sound parenting practices. This truth holds throughout: A child’s parent is the first, best, and only lifelong teacher.

Arguing against the tougher standards rhetoric that marks the current education debate, the author of No Contest and Punished by Rewards writes that such tactics squeeze the pleasure out of learning. Reprint.

A modern parenting classic—a guide to a new and gentle way of understanding the care and nurture of infants, by the internationally renowned childcare expert, podcaster, and author of No Bad Kids “An absolute go-to for all parents, therapists, anyone who works with, is, or knows parents of young children.”—Wendy Denham, PhD A Resources for Infant Educarers (RIE) teacher and student of pioneering child specialist Magda Gerber, Janet Lansbury helps parents look at the world through the eyes of their infants and relate to them as whole people who have natural abilities to learn without being taught. Once we are able to view our children in this light, even the most common daily parenting experiences become stimulating opportunities to learn, discover, and connect with our child. A collection of the most-read articles from Janet’s popular and long-running blog, Elevating Child Care focuses on common infant issues, including: • Nourishing our babies’ healthy eating habits • Calming your clingy, fearful child • How to build your child’s focus and attention span • Developing routines that promote restful sleep Eschewing the quick-fix tips and tricks of popular parenting culture, Lansbury’s gentle, insightful guidance lays the foundation for a closer, more fulfilling parent-child relationship, and children who grow up to be authentic, confident, successful adults.

Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.

Make your everyday interactions with children intentional and purposeful with these steps: Be Present, Connect, and Extend Learning.

The partnership between families and teachers in education has been overlooked in the past to the detriment of students of all ages. This relationship can have a huge impact on the success of learners and must be examined further to ensure students receive the best education possible. The Research Anthology on Balancing Family-Teacher Partnerships for Student Success examines the best practices and challenges of establishing and maintaining a successful relationship between teachers and families. It discusses the history of this relationship as well as future directions that must be considered. Covering key topics such as early childhood education, work habits, assessments, and mentorship, this major reference work is ideal for administrators, principals, industry professionals, researchers, scholars, academicians, practitioners, instructors, and students.

Children are already learning at birth, and they develop and learn at a rapid pace in their early years. This provides a critical foundation for lifelong progress, and the adults who provide for the care and the education of young children bear a great responsibility for their health, development, and learning. Despite the fact that they share the same objective - to nurture young children and secure their future success - the various practitioners who contribute to the care and the education of children from birth through age 8 are not acknowledged as a workforce unified by the common knowledge and competencies needed to do their jobs well. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 explores the science of child development, particularly looking at implications for the professionals who work with children. This report examines the current capacities and practices of the workforce, the settings in which they work, the policies and infrastructure that set qualifications and provide professional learning, and the government agencies and other funders who support and oversee these systems. This book then makes recommendations to improve the quality of professional practice and the practice environment for care and education professionals. These detailed recommendations create a blueprint for action that builds on a unifying foundation of child development and early learning, shared knowledge and competencies for care and education professionals, and principles for effective professional learning. Young children thrive and learn best when they have secure, positive relationships with adults who are knowledgeable about how to support their development and learning and are responsive to their individual progress. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 offers guidance on system changes to improve the quality of professional practice, specific actions to improve professional learning systems and workforce development, and research to continue to build the knowledge base in ways that will directly advance and inform future actions. The recommendations of this book provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the care and the education that children receive, and ultimately improve outcomes for children.

For ages 3 months to 5 years. This revolutionary early-reading program encourages infants and toddlers to NATURALLY learn the written word AT THE SAME TIME as they learn the spoken word. This systems introduces children to the wonderful world of words using Titzer's fun, multi-sensory reading approach. Babies and toddlers do not just watch this DVD. They interact with it! Volume 2 introduces approximately 50 new key words. After 3 months your child will be ready for this volume. Set includes: Interactive DVD; 5 double-sided word and picture cards; 1 wipe-clean word card and non-toxic pen.

My father had thirteen wives and more than fifty children . . . This is the haunting memoir of Anna LeBaron, daughter of the notorious polygamist and murderer Ervil LeBaron. Ervil’s criminal activity kept Anna and her siblings constantly on the run from the FBI. Often starving, the children lived in a perpetual state of fear—and despite their numbers, Anna always felt alone. Would she ever find a place she truly belonged? Would she ever be anything other than the polygamist’s daughter? Filled with murder, fear, and betrayal, The Polygamist’s Daughter is the harrowing, heart-wrenching story of a fatherless girl and her unwavering search for love, faith, and a place to call home.

The author, a computer science professor diagnosed with terminal cancer, explores his life, the lessons that he has learned, how he has worked to achieve his childhood dreams, and the effect of his diagnosis on him and his family.