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Summary: ALLL TO GETHER GREATNESS
Review: This Book is EYE opening I personally like alot of parents out there Look for Parenting books and READ ALOT ALOT ALOT of them.. I have so many when i buy one now i have to sell one.. but because i have too many..
This book touches on teaches and shows everything you can think of when you think of Playful Parenting Its one of the first books i have bought on Amazon.com and i have started buying more..
I know that you will INJOY THIS BOOK as i did and as you can see ALOT more Parents have also.
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Summary: A refreshing change from the usual parenting books
Review: This is a great book! It provides a refreshingly new look at how to connect with your children and have fun while you're doing it.After reading numerous parenting books, I can recite the usual themes - set realistic limits, provide praise when merited, focus criticism on behavior and keep it brief, be honest, offer choices, blah, blah, blah. They're all good points, but being a responsible parent should not be all there is. Most parenting books ignore the importance of having fun with your children. It's something we're all supposed to just HAVE in our relationships with our children, and then we're disappointed when it's not there as often as we would like. PLAYFUL PARENTING transcends these usual parenting shibboleths and supplies lessons on how to accomplish something we all yearn for - connection and fun! This book provides simple, easy to use techniques for connecting with your children and having fun while you do it. Like Dr. Doolittle with animals, Dr. Cohen understands the different language that children speak. That language is play. He explains that we need to learn to speak that language if we're going to connect with our children and be truly effective. As adults, we too often lapse into lectures and explanations (sound familiar?) when a playful approach will make us a more effective teacher. Typical of strategies provided in the book is one I now use with my children. Whenever they use some provocative word like "poopyhead" (or something much worse), I respond by saying in a conspiratorial tone "Well, you can say that if you want, but don't ever, EVER, say zoogililoo". Of course, they immediately say it, we all laugh, they get over the need to provoke, and we've connected in a knowing way. PLAYFUL PARENTING also recognizes that children are often powerless in their relationships with parents and it provides excellent strategies for giving children more control. One strategy described in the book is called "Playtime", which is one on one time a parent sets aside with a child, in which the child gets to make all the decisions about what to do and the parent can not say "no" (basic safety considerations still apply, of course). I tried Playtime with my five year old son one Sunday afternoon and had a wonderful bonding experience with him - doing things such as swimming on a cold day (though I would have rather stayed warm and dry) and letting him hold the train ticket (though I was afraid he'd lose it). For Dr. Cohen understands parents, too, and knows that we all too often say "no" for the wrong reasons - we're tired, bored, or lacking energy. The strategies in this book, like Playtime, will challenge you to stretch yourself as a parent - but with bigtime payback! My son now asks for Playtime every weekend. I was fortunate to be able to read a prepublication manuscript of PLAYFUL PARENTING last summer. I have employed many of its strategies to great effect with my two boys, ages 5 and 3. I have expanded my repertoire of skills for handling difficult situations, and have a more proactive approach to bonding with my children in ways that we all enjoy. I highly recommend this book to any and all parents. It would make a great gift, especially for those just getting started with the parenting challenge.
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Summary: 4.5 stars, fills important gap in attachment parenting lit.
Review: Wow! I hadn't thought about thumbwrestling in years. If the joy has gone out of parenting, or the stress and hard work aspects of it simply rear their ugly heads a little too often, try some of the ideas in this book. The author knows what it's like in our society and understands without judging parents' stress. Most importantly I appreciated that this book offers advice on how to continue--or since humans always love to play, begin-- "attachment" parenting *after* infancy. We did lean heavily on William Sears and Martha Sears' advice (_The Baby Book_), and realized by family reactions that we were not going to have many models to follow to keep this up. Maybe one grandmother brags that she never lets a child "win;" maybe the other is an expert at supressing feelings. Have you wondered how to avoid a power struggle in the first place? Did you have your own feelings stuffed and now wonder how to help your children learn to express their own? In a very pleasant, often self-deprecating, tone the author provides numerous anecdotes and examples from his play therapy practice. I found these to be great for inductive, implicit, creative learning. Maybe because I read so much academic stuff, however, I did feel the book could have been more organized. All in all, it's a loving message lovingly delivered: connect at a deep level and enjoy your child(ren)!!
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Summary: The only parenting book anyone needs past age 1.
Review: Wow. There's no real way to describe how deep and rich this book is. The basic concept is so simple, and even just reading the first chapter changed my attitude toward interacting with and disciplining my toddler. But then the more you read the more you really understand just how desperately kids need and want our connection, and that many of the traditional ways of disciplining kids (even "positive parenting" methods like time-outs) just create distance and can backfire. So, of course it works with a toddler. I mean, the biggest problems with toddlers are changing their diapers without fits and getting them to stop throwing food off the high chair. But it also works with older kids. I've been trying the tips out on all the bigger kids at the playground and have been amazed at the results. It's basically just reframing the way you see kids and what their motivations are. Some reviewers have commented that Cohen talks too much about what he's done. Well, of course he has! He's a therapist who uses play. By telling his own stories about what he's done with clients and with his own daughter, it gives you examples of how to think on your feet and figure out what a kid needs without being a therapist yourself. I have been recommendiing this book to every I know, even people who aren't parents but just interact with kids. I just think that if everyone who deals with kids could read this book it would make everything so much easier and more fun for the adults *and* the kids. And that we'd all have closer connections with our family members. So this is going to be my standard gift for people having children from now on. It's definitely worth the money.
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