Rating: 
Summary: Laughed out loud
Review: 3 year olds tell stories. And there are days you don't want to see them. It was refreshing to find pages here -- in the still of the night -- where we could laugh out loud at our 3 year old. Yes, she tells the stories that go on and on and make sense to her. They are delicious and this series of books is such a great help as time goes along. Just ordered four year old.
Rating: 
Summary: not useful if you look for more than just behavioral
Review: description. The book uses a lot of pages to describe different kids behaviors, I guess, from author's observation. But it defintely lacks of insights for why of those behaviors. So if you just look for what kind of behavior you would expect from your kid at that age, this might be the right book. But if you look for some information like psychological analysis on different kids hehaviors and effective ways to deal with those behaviors, look else where.
Rating: 
Summary: Compassion
Review: Finally! A book that helped me understand the turmoil my three year old is living with. I instantly became more compassioante and accepting of my little sprite. I hope more parents will read this book to learn about the challenges their growing preschooler faces and will learn compassion, discipline through gentle teaching, how to become life long mentors and support for their children.
Rating: 
Summary: Not very helpful
Review: I found this book to be completely lacking in much practical information. I was hoping for some insight into why my 3 year old acts the way she does, and some practical solutions for dealing with it, but I didn't find that. What I found was something like "some three year olds are like this, and some are like that and others are like something else entirely." That much I could have figured out on my own. Even less helpful was the section on "equilibrium". Three year olds are wonderful, but when they're three and a half, look out. But then again, not all three year olds hit these "equilibrium" points at the same time... or at all. Just not a helpful book. Don't bother.
Rating:
Summary: Not very helpful
Review: I found this book to be completely lacking in much practical information. I was hoping for some insight into why my 3 year old acts the way she does, and some practical solutions for dealing with it, but I didn't find that. What I found was something like "some three year olds are like this, and some are like that and others are like something else entirely." That much I could have figured out on my own. Even less helpful was the section on "equilibrium". Three year olds are wonderful, but when they're three and a half, look out. But then again, not all three year olds hit these "equilibrium" points at the same time... or at all. Just not a helpful book. Don't bother.
Rating: 
Summary: Unbelievable this is still in print!
Review: I read this with an eye to what parenting advice from 20-40 years ago might have looked like. The advice is out of date, the suggestion that all children develop in lockstep, such that a three year old will behave one way, a 3.5 year old a different way...much of what is in here is (as another reviewer also noted) pure hogwash. I just couldn't believe that this book is still in print, given how out of date the tone and content of its advice is.
A couple of very good alternatives to this book:
The Pre-school Years by Ellen Galinsky and Judy David
The Mighty Toddler by Robin Barker
Rating:
Summary: Good developmental info, but badly in need of an update!
Review: I'm giving this book a mixed review. I thought the developmental information was extremely helpful - it was great to know my son was behaving like a "typical" 3.5-year-old rather than a sociopath in the making. However, the solutions offered by the authors are less than stellar. They basically encourage parents to dump the kid off at the babysitter's or daycare as much as possible until they straighten up. Excuse me? The last chapter, which had supposedly "real" questions from parents, was laughable at best and mildly horrifying at worst. I'd love to see the authors update this book, because it is really outdated.
Rating:
Summary: Compassion
Review: So many of my friends have read this series and enjoyed them. I finally purchased the three year old book and I was appalled at what it said. It is very obvious that it is 20 years old and that the recommendations are extremely out of date. It has been proven over and over and over that it is beneficial for a child to be with his parents vs daycare or babysitters yet this book repeatedly says "put the kid with someone else." Recommends it as a part of everyday life. It also only mentions Dad as someone who isn't involved with child rearing with the exception of lecturing over table manners and being upset over lack of potty training. SEVERELY OUT OF DATE and I wouldn't recommend it to a single person. I didn't even find its developmental stages to be true. They certainly aren't true of my two children, nor did I recognize any of the three years I teach in Sunday School. BOSH and HOGWASH. Seems to be more dependent upon clinical studies vs real life children. DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY. I am certainly very glad I didn't read this prior to having children or prior to my kids being in these ages. I would have hated to expect them to behave in the abnormal ways mentioned in this dangerous book. I tried to give it a ZERO stars rating, but the system won't let me. I'd give it NEGATIVE stars if possible.
Rating:
Summary: What a bunch of hogwash!
Review: So many of my friends have read this series and enjoyed them. I finally purchased the three year old book and I was appalled at what it said. It is very obvious that it is 20 years old and that the recommendations are extremely out of date. It has been proven over and over and over that it is beneficial for a child to be with his parents vs daycare or babysitters yet this book repeatedly says "put the kid with someone else." Recommends it as a part of everyday life. It also only mentions Dad as someone who isn't involved with child rearing with the exception of lecturing over table manners and being upset over lack of potty training. SEVERELY OUT OF DATE and I wouldn't recommend it to a single person. I didn't even find its developmental stages to be true. They certainly aren't true of my two children, nor did I recognize any of the three years I teach in Sunday School. BOSH and HOGWASH. Seems to be more dependent upon clinical studies vs real life children. DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY. I am certainly very glad I didn't read this prior to having children or prior to my kids being in these ages. I would have hated to expect them to behave in the abnormal ways mentioned in this dangerous book. I tried to give it a ZERO stars rating, but the system won't let me. I'd give it NEGATIVE stars if possible.
Rating:
Summary: Agree with "A Reader From Texas."
Review: Some of the developmental information is helpful, but the methods described in the book (isolating children from each other, turning your child over to a baby-sitter as a method of "parenting") are archaic at best, draconian at worst. Stay far away. Try any book by Dr. Sears.
| 
