Rating: Summary: A Toddler Owner's Manual! Review: "Discipline" offers practical advice on how to solve a variety of authors tell you *what to say*, *what to do* and *what not to do*. In a genre dominated by philosophical meandering, this book is an oasis of solutions. It is the Owner's Manual that parents never get with their two year old. Finally, someone took the terrible out of the two's
Rating: Summary: A Toddler Owner's Manual! Review: "Discipline" offers practical advice on how to solve a variety of authors tell you *what to say*, *what to do* and *what not to do*. In a genre dominated by philosophical meandering, this book is an oasis of solutions. It is the Owner's Manual that parents never get with their two year old. Finally, someone took the terrible out of the two's
Rating: Summary: Disciplining your Preschooler Review: 'Discipline without Shouting or Spanking', 'How to Behave So Your Preschooler Will, too!' and 'Positive Discipline for Preschoolers' are three different books with almost identical messages. All believe that shouting and spanking are counterproductive and that successful discipline requires a parent or caregiver to calmly teach and reinforce the rules of good behavior. 'How to Behave So Your Preschooler Will, too!' and 'Positive Discipline for Preschoolers' are both 300 plus page books and are arranged similarly. They begin by explaining what is typical preschooler behavior and what developmental factors are at play during this stage. This information encourages parents to make a paradigm shift and see "bad" behavior as developmentally appropriate behavior that needs the gentle hand of an adult to help channel it. They then follow with in depth discussions of good discipline strategies and how they differ from our natural knee-jerk responses. Both books end with practical examples of how to apply these discipline strategies to common behavioral problems. I would recommend either of these books to anyone who has come to see that shouting and spanking doesn't work and wants to learn what does. 'How to Behave so Your Preschooler Will, too! is written in an organized, succinct, clean style and will appeal to those who enjoy a "textbook-like" book. 'Positive Discipline for Preschoolers', on the other hand, has a more friendly, meandering tone and is written in a "chatting over a cup of coffee" style with tons of first hand accounts thrown in. "Discipline without Shouting or Spanking' is half the size of the previous two books and confines itself to practical applications. An outline format is used to discuss 37 common behavior problems. For each behavior problem it offers several suggestions to prevent the problem, solve the problem and even what not to do. Each discussion ends with an illustrative story. I would recommend this book to those already convinced that "positive discipline" works and looking for an easy to read, "in the trenches" handbook. All three books are excellent resources for the parents and caregivers of preschoolers but as their content is so similar, I'd strongly urge a potential buyer to take advantage of Amazon's Look Inside! feature and purchase the one whose format and writing style most suits your literary taste.
Rating: Summary: A quick reference for the harried parent Review: As a person who works with families, this book put some great techniques in a down-to-earth simple format that is easy to explain and understand. It offers a "flash card" type approach that with additional information is a great starting places for parents with discipline issues.
Rating: Summary: Great Flashcards for parents Review: As a person who works with families, this book put some great techniques in a down-to-earth simple format that is easy to explain and understand. It offers a "flash card" type approach that with additional information is a great starting places for parents with discipline issues.
Rating: Summary: yeah right Review: Hmmm, well, I guess my kid didn't read this book. Some advice was useful (the timer advice), but only until he heard me talking about the timer to someone else. Offering positive rewards though ... what do you do when the kid ups the ante every time you try to offer him something nice? He takes everything to an impossible level, doesn't want what I'm offering (though if it weren't offered as a reward, he would want it), and magnifies it to something he does want. Something I am unable/unwilling to provide. And it's 10:00 PM and he's still up. Again. And now I'm in a position where I have to deny him things I want to give him or do for him because he refuses to do the things I offered them as rewards for.
Rating: Summary: Good information but some not-so-helpful tips Review: I am a teacher so I thought it would be a great thing if I read up on the subject of child discipline as much as I read up on classroom management!! I bought this book when my son was one-and-a-half as a reference for up-and-coming issues. I did like the outline format but found that some of the ways suggested to solve or deal with the problem were strange and, frankly, stupid. For instance, one of the tips for dealing with a child "talking back" was to pick the offensive word (if one was used), set a timer for one minute per year of age, and have the child use that word non-stop until the timer goes off. I do not want my child practicing a word he's not supposed to use! Also, a discipline technique for whining is to have a "whining place" where you send the child to whine when he feels like he needs to. I don't feel a "whining place" is necessary and that there are other ways to deal with whining. This book tends to dance around the issue rather than deal with the issue iteself and teach the child how to correctly exhibit behaviors for certain situations or needs that need to be met. I would not have bought this book if I knew then what I know now. There are other positive discipline books out there that seem to be better-suited!
Rating: Summary: Tips, Compassion, and Humor for Parents of Preschoolers Review: I do like the quick read format and friendly tone of this reference book; I continue to find a number of helpful tips to try that I forget are options to use with my children when I am having a really tough day. However, I feel some of the anecdotes seem contrived by the author to make his point. Additionally, I think the advice about offering positive rewards (...to me, a euphemism for bribing) will often get a parent in trouble as the child tries to up the ante. I have found giving an occasional UNEXPECTED reward AFTER good behavior, to let them know that you noticed (their kindness to a sibling, for example) is far more effective in my family. I also would like to recommend another newer quick-read A-Z book called 'The Pocket Parent'. The anecdotes in this book are from real parents and are right on...as if the author has been peering in my windows! It too is written exclusively for parents of 2- to 5-year-olds. I have found that since I have been re-reading parts of both of these books as handy reference guides, I find myself more able to pause and think before I speak. I am proud of that, because my communication with my children has become more respectful as well as more effective in gaining their cooperation...and I am not yelling as much! Although Wycoff's book is a keeper, I prefer the compassion, humor and variety of short bulleted sanity savers in 'The Pocket Parent'. There are many suggestions in both books for parents to choose from that will make life with your 2, 3, 4, and 5 year old less stressful.
Rating: Summary: Spare the Rod! Review: It's been said 'Spare the Rod, Spoil the child' these days with the new Gen kids! Sorry, not very true but no Spanking! Playing pranks and making mischief as a child is really tons of fun but every kid needs a code of conduct - a Discipline to adopt behavior patterns and possess self control. Children need to be taught to pause and think of the consequences that may result from their various behaviors. It is critical for educators to model self discipline. Younger children tend to throw tantrums, be rigid, stubborn, have sibling rivalry, be possessive, etc and these are the trial times for the parent to tackle firm where situations demand disciplinary action. In this book, instead of spanking,the authors effectively provide measures to cope up in situations when its hard to draw the line with their loving kids. The flash card approach is a plus point. Verbal spanking is an option to spank the kid. Words said in loving way, clear and firm voice would have its effect than abusing word war. The book says all about practical suggestions to adopt and check those flaws in kids for their own good without spanking the child. By controlling own words and actions, parents demonstrate to their kids, a healthy way to react to stress. A good pick for young parents, should say!
Rating: Summary: Screaming examples Review: The author of this book uses "fictionalized" stories to give examples of how spanking is wrong and timeouts are right. The problem with these stories is that parents are always portrayed as "screaming" as they spank their child. This gives the impression that a parent who spanks is always out of control. Then the "fictionalized" account tells us that spanking never works and timeouts always work. I had a hard time believing the "fictionalized" accounts, they are just not believable!
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