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Summary: Trees Make the Best Mobiles
Review:
This lovely book contains calming and spot-on advise for the new parent. No "tricks to get your kid to do what you want," just insightful and straightforward thoughts on how to interact with your child so that they feel loved, respected, happy and supported, enabling them to flourish. A pleasure to read.
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Summary: Invaluable advice for modern parenting.
Review: As a facilitator of Mommy & Me classes and a professional psychologist, this book has always been there when I've needed inspiration. Personally, I love this book and my children have benefited, through me, from the wisdom and thoughtful insights of Jessica Teich and Brandel France de Bravo for almost four years. My copy is truly on my night table as a constant reminder to slow down and make each interaction with my children an opportunity to connect with them in ways that will forever bond us. It has helped me to realize that being present for my child is the greatest gift I can continually give. Babies and toddlers are always curious and often entertained with things found in both nature and in the house...I have bought the latest toys, cars, gadgets, noise makers, et al, and yet I'm constantly amazed by the simple joy they find in noisy pots and pans, big colorful crayons and beautiful flowers hanging from trees. As the book says, keep it simple. I have to agree.
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Summary: Serious Fun
Review: As a health professional, I've read Magda's books and other material related to RIE. TREES tops them all in making simple, even intuitive ideas accessible and hip. It's fun to read! (Magda's books are pretty dry.) More importantly, it's filled with ideas, not just based on RIE, about ways for parents to enjoy their kids, while honoring their own instincts. My work in New York and the former Soviet republics is focused on helping local populations participate more directly in their own well-being. TREES, in its own way, does the same thing, not just for parents, but for their babies. It says that we can participate in our lives, fully and with great fun and feeling, even as newborns, that brand-new babies aren't scary, and aren't incapacitated, either. They're aware, sentient, and ready to take part in everything that's happening to them.That's a very new idea...
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Summary: TOP-NOTCH BOOK ON PARENTING!
Review: As both a counsellor in behavioural psychology and a mother who has raised three daughters to adulthood, this will be a highly recommended book for those seeking information on parenting. This book could more aptly be called, "Simplifying Parenting and Getting Back to the Basics," for really, that is the theme of the book. It is a natural reaction to want to give children the best of everything; however, many parents (particularly in two-parent households where both parents work outside the home) are overly caught up in a materialistic world. Baby has an ornately designed, expensive bed; toddlers with relatively short attention spans play among brand name, state-of-the-art play centres, and young children start school in designer jeans and jackets. All that is fine if one can afford it, but as a counsellor, I have seen far too many parents sit in front of my desk and say, "How do I keep up? We can't afford this stuff but, you know, the kids need to have it." Well, there is a big difference in the world between what one "wants" and what one actually "needs." This book is an excellent example of setting priorities when it comes to effective parenting. It spells out what a child needs most in life: quality time, love and acceptance. No where does it say that designer jeans rate among the priorities. New parents, particularly, will find this book well worth reading. By getting your child off to a solid start in life, you could be saving you and your child a world of heartache and frustration (not to mention financial difficulties) down the road. It is not the young child who lives in a materialistic world; it is the parent(s), and children learn from examples. This book is highly recommended and worth far more than a five-star rating. Even those parents who truly do live a simplistic life style will have their current ideas reinforced and find plenty of new ideas to contemplate.
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Summary: Starting the Lifelong Relationship the Right Way
Review: Based on the idea that you can begin a respectful, communicative, and loving relationship from day one, this insightful book offers wise advice in a light and even poetic way. If you have questions about "old wives/mothers" admonishments and mainstream assumptions about how to interact with and handle your baby-to-toddler, this book offers excellent alternative suggestions with good reasoning to back them up. Affirms the intuition and good instincts of any mindful parent.
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Summary: Not that informative
Review: Enjoyable reading, good writer, content is lacking. Found some humor in it, but mostly just alot of "well, duh" stuff. Occasionally there were some interesting comments or clever thoughts, but not what I expected. The title sounded so inviting and just up my alley, but I was disappointed in the content. Was much like listening to an opinionated friend who was an entertaining speaker, but you didnt really agree with much said. I especially disagreed with the chapter that touted thumbsucking over pacifier use. Said pacifier gets dirty and often found in the bottom of the purse fuzz, but what about all the dirty things toddlers and babies get into? How often are parents able to wash their thumbs before it gets into their mouth? And they dont even mention how much more pressure the thumb puts on the hard palate of the mouth vs. a collapsable pacifier nipple thus posing more of a dental threat. I was expecting much more from reading the title and it succeeded in convincing me to buy it, but I was disappointed overall.
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Summary: The parenting bible--or it should be
Review: Finally, a book that helps parents with the concrete questions, joys and frustrations of parenting--everything from dealing with temper tantrums to how to get kids to put on clothes or participate in solving their own problems. It's never condescending nor preachy, assuming instead that both parents and children are feeling, intelligent people who can be treated as such. What a pleasure. I'm giving this book to every new parent I know--it's spiritual and practical, smart and poetic, easy to read (sometimes I just have time for a page or two, but am never disappointed) but never simplistic. I wish I'd had it earlier!
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Summary: Prioritizing Simpler, More Effective Family Connections
Review: Full of wisdom, warmth, clarity, humor, and respect. This book and one other called "The Pocket Parent" have reminded me of the many simple, common sense things that I already knew but forgot are options to do and say to my young children. I am very consciously no longer on automatic (often hysterical) parenting pilot 24/7 (yelling, nagging, obsessing, bribing, competing, rushing, criticizing and punishing). Thanks to these 2 books teaching the many communication and discipline skills that work, there is more peace and joy in our home and more happy quality time spent with our children. Our priorities are changing and we are deciding what we need to do differently to reach our short and long term goals. If you have young children, check out both of these supportive helpful books chockful of suggestions that can change your life.
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Summary: A nice philosophy
Review: I bought this book looking for fresh ideas on simplifying parenting. What I got was an uneven mix on watered down RIE, using common sense, and not taking everyhting so seriously. It also seemed that the authors offer conflicting advice in different sections of the book. While parts of it were thought provoking, I felt like most of it was just a big "well duh" for me.
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Summary: Disappointing, if you've read Magda Gerber
Review: I discovered the RIE philosophy recently, and found Gerber's book "Your Self-Confident Baby" in a bookstore. The book is very clear in her thoughts and philosophies on how to treat and raise children. While the authors of this book are explicit in their participation in Gerber's programs, they still are pretty obviously using her ideas and putting them in "layman's terms." I found it really quite boring to read, since I had read Gerber's book. BUT if you haven't, this is a watered-down version. Another thing that was disappointing was how small the book was and the very short chapters. I would say it is not worth the money - read Gerber instead (she's the source of all their ideas, anyway).
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