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Summary: an inspiration to individuals of all ages and backgrounds
Review: A book everyone must read
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Summary: At Long Last the Perfect Union
Review: At long last we have the perfect union between profound wisdom and the best of modern day parenting. The lovely Mr. Keleman starts with the correct values and then gives us parenting behaviors that anyone can implement. The authour reveals the way to create a fullfilling family life. This books provides the tools necessary for those parents who want to raise children able to resist commercialism and physical, mental and spiritual malaise. The religion of TV idolatry has been exposed.
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Summary: refreshing, practical and up-to-date
Review: I found kelemen's book a change from the ordinary 'spend quality time with your kids stuff'.
Firstly it offers real practical advice. Secondly it's got a load of scientific evidence to back up the ideas presented (having said that, its the type of book your grandmother would have told you was common sense and everybody in her day knew all of it naturally). Thirdly the author brings in a lot of ancient wisdom, which i find very appealing.
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Summary: average
Review: I found this book average to disappointing. The title led me to expect an emphasis on Torah and ancient teachings, but the book was full of modern secular studies. I think there are other better parenting books available with stronger religious supporting information.
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Summary: average
Review: I found this book average to disappointing. The title led me to expect an emphasis on Torah and ancient teachings, but the book was full of modern secular studies. I think there are other better parenting books available with stronger religious supporting information.
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Summary: How To Kindle a Soul in Our Times
Review: I really like this book because Lawrence backs up his ideas with statistical analysis to prove his points. If you are interested in hearing how the Torah would tell you--how to raise children in our modern times, get this book.Zev Saftlas, Author of Motivation That Works: How to Get Motivated and Stay Motivated
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Summary: Revolutionary
Review: I work in education, and I know of 3 elementary schools and one high school that are changing their whole programs to match the prescriptions in this book. All four schools are requiring their teachers to read the book before school begins next September. I have also heard of about a half dozen parent-support groups based on the To-Kindle-a-Soul model that have sprouted up around the country. I'm using Kelemen's system at home and in my classroom, and, what can I say? It works! It works better than anything I have ever seen! It's a crime for teachers and parents not to look over this book. And anyone who looks at it - whether their politics is Right or Left, and regardless of religious or non-religious orientation - will be blown away by what Kelemen has to say. He is so sensible, clear, and practical. My friends and I see this as the beginning of a revolution.
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Summary: fun read, excellent advice
Review: Kelemen has written a wonderful guidebook for parents who want their kids to grow up physically and emotionally healthy, normal and happy. While he quotes hundreds of recent studies (footnotes section is lengthy), the book is easy to read, even a little bit at a time. The traditional Jewish angle on parenting is helpful (Jews have always been admired for the way they bring up their kids and teach their students), but the main thing is the good practical advice that comes out from the ancient principles. Definitely worth it
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Summary: fun read, excellent advice
Review: Kelemen has written a wonderful guidebook for parents who want their kids to grow up physically and emotionally healthy, normal and happy. While he quotes hundreds of recent studies (footnotes section is lengthy), the book is easy to read, even a little bit at a time. The traditional Jewish angle on parenting is helpful (Jews have always been admired for the way they bring up their kids and teach their students), but the main thing is the good practical advice that comes out from the ancient principles. Definitely worth it
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Summary: Probably R. Kelemen's best book to date
Review: Rabbi Lawrence Kelemen is also the author of two highly recommended books in defense of the historical Jewish faith: _Permission to Believe_ and _Permission to Receive_. But this extraordinary book may be his best to date. In this thoroughly researched and very sensitively written volume, R. Kelemen is concerned to bring out the pedagogical insights that have long informed Jewish tradition -- which has survived for some three thousand years, so its insights on childrearing must be worth _something_, right? The tone and approach are both well captured by the image on the cover; R. Kelemen writes with exquisite gentleness and is concerned above all with parenting by example. And in good traditional fashion (very much in accordance with the teachings of the Musar movement), he insists that there is no easy "technique" for learning to become a better parent; the thing to do is to work on becoming a better _person_. So without presuming to present an exhaustive treatise, he takes the reader on a guided tour/overview of the traditional Jewish approach to parenthood: don't yell or spank, set an example. And -- as such a subject requires -- R. Kelemen makes his case with about twenty parts compassion for each part of stern correction. But that stern correction is there, and this full-of-heart book also has a backbone of steel. In his closing chapter, for example, he takes on a topic that might at first glance seem out of place in a book on a three-thousand-year religious tradition: the hazards of television. It's actually not out of place at all; as R. Kelemen reminds us, a group of very traditional Jewish scholars reported on these hazards some thirty years ago, and they are (or should be) of direct concern to parents everywhere. The entire approach is very much in the spirit of traditional strictures to watch what one allows into one's home and make sure it's spiritually uplifting. TV, R. Kelemen argues, doesn't qualify -- and he cites the research to prove it. Even such apparently educational mainstays as "Sesame Street" have a grave downside, for example in their effects on attention span. Today, when kids are given Ritalin almost as readily as cold medicine, R. Kelemen deserves a close listen. Some parents may disagree with some of R. Kelemen's conclusions. For that matter, I myself _might_ be willing to acknowledge that his case against TV looks too much at one side and not enough at the other. But on the other hand, it's surely important that the case be made as strongly as possible -- and I don't know of anywhere else it's made at all, let alone as thoroughly as it is here. If you're a parent, get this book at once. There's plenty of excellent advice here, and it doesn't just apply to Jewish households.
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