The founder of Safe-T-Child, America's foremost child safety organization, offers 30 quick and simple lessons for teaching children how to protect themselves, covering everything from eluding dangerous strangers to playing safe on the Internet. Based on extensive psychological research, conversations with parents, law enforcement and child experts, this book makes personal safety fun and empowering for children.
Identifies critical pollutants in today's environment, including lead, asbestos, PCBs, and pesticides, and explains how to minimize children's exposure, evaluate risks, and ensure community compliance with cleanup laws.
A dynamic program for empowering children to protect themselves In Raising Kids Who Can Protect Themselves, Debbie and Mike Gardner share their decades of self-defense experience to show parents how to teach their children courage—the trait needed to make brave, smart, and safe choices, no matter what their age, no matter what the situation. Raising Kids Who Can Protect Themselves helps families foster courage in their children at an early age so that it becomes an inherent trait, rather than a situational need. The book features: Age-appropriate methods to instill courage in children without creating fear Courage coaching as a way to create a “family” defense system Lifesaving skills, such as quality eye contact, voice control, breathing, control of inappropriate crying, development of positive self-talk, and space awareness Ways to reduce children’s vulnerability Site-specific survival strategies, from parties to the mall to sports practice Every time I watch the nightly news, I thank God my wife and children have been trained by Debbie and Mike Gardner. Please, please, please read this book as a family. You will learn how to avoid the most dangerous situations and fight your way out of the rest. We live in a very different world today—arm your family with the power of this book. -Cris Collinsworth, Sports Commentator for Fox/HBO Sports This book is brave, bold and one of the most important books I’ve read in a long time. A must for parents everywhere. -Doug Hall, Author of Jump Start Your Business Brain
In his ten years of medical experience, including working on the front lines of Ground Zero during the weeks after the World Trade Center tragedy, Dr. David Marks has witnessed today's children having to cope with stresses that their parents never had. The statistics are disturbing - one out of three American children suffers from stress-related illnesses such as headaches, stomachaches, chest pains, dizziness, sleep and eating disorders and depression. In this groundbreaking book, Dr. David Marks shows how much of this suffering can be avoided, and treated without medication. In today's mobile and global society children experience stresses resulting from an overload of organized activities, excessive pressure to succeed, ongoing exposure to violence, and perhaps the most stressful event of all: the catastrophic day of September 11, 2001, that forever changed the lives of American youth. In this practical and informative book, Dr. Marks explains how parents and care-givers can help children of all ages cope with different types of stresses that, if not released or resolved, will result in harmful behaviors and illnesses. He explores the mind/body connection offering an engaging look at what can be done to treat and prevent stress reactions and suggests practical ways for parents to ease the stress level on their children. Dr. Marks' findings are supported by the latest medical and psychological research and humanized by anecdotes of his experiences dealing with children as a physician and as a father.
Featuring Forewords by both Deepak Chopra and John Gray, "Think Safe, Be Safe" shows readers how a chronic lack of inner safety can be a major and often overlooked cause of emotional distress, broken relationships, and physical illness.
From psychologist and children's friendships expert Eileen Kennedy-Moore and parenting and health writer Christine McLaughlin comes a social development primer that gives kids the answers they need to make and keep friends. Friendship is complicated for kids. Almost every child struggles socially at some time, in some way. Having an argument with a friend, getting teased, or even trying to find a buddy in a new classroom...although these are typical problems, they can be very painful. And friendships are never about just one thing. With research-based practical solutions and plenty of true-to-life examples--presented in more than 200 lighthearted cartoons--Growing Friendships is a toolkit for both girls and boys as they make sense of the social order around them. Children everywhere want to fit in with a group, resist peer pressure, and be good sports--but even the most socially adept children struggle at times. But after reading this highly illustrated guide on their own or with a caring adult, kids everywhere will be well equipped to face any friendship challenges that come their way.
"Angela Hanscom is a powerful voice for balance." —Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods In this important book, a pediatric occupational therapist and founder of TimberNook shows how outdoor play and unstructured freedom of movement are vital for children’s cognitive development and growth, and offers tons of fun, engaging ways to help ensure that kids grow into healthy, balanced, and resilient adults. Today’s kids have adopted sedentary lifestyles filled with television, video games, and computer screens. But more and more, studies show that children need “rough and tumble” outdoor play in order to develop their sensory, motor, and executive functions. Disturbingly, a lack of movement has been shown to lead to a number of health and cognitive difficulties, such as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), emotion regulation and sensory processing issues, and aggressiveness at school recess break. So, how can you ensure your child is fully engaging their body, mind, and all of their senses? Using the same philosophy that lies at the heart of her popular TimberNook program—that nature is the ultimate sensory experience, and that psychological and physical health improves for children when they spend time outside on a regular basis—author Angela Hanscom offers several strategies to help your child thrive, even if you live in an urban environment. Today it is rare to find children rolling down hills, climbing trees, or spinning in circles just for fun. We’ve taken away merry-go-rounds, shortened the length of swings, and done away with teeter-totters to keep children safe. Children have fewer opportunities for unstructured outdoor play than ever before, and recess times at school are shrinking due to demanding educational environments. With this book, you’ll discover little things you can do anytime, anywhere to help your kids achieve the movement they need to be happy and healthy in mind, body, and spirit.
An eye-opening guide to the world’s best parenting strategies Research reveals that American kids lag behind in academic achievement, happiness, and wellness. Christine Gross-Loh exposes culturally determined norms we have about “good parenting,” and asks, Are there parenting strategies other countries are getting right that we are not? This book takes us across the globe and examines how parents successfully foster resilience, creativity, independence, and academic excellence in their children. Illuminating the surprising ways in which culture shapes our parenting practices, Gross-Loh offers objective, research-based insight such as: Co-sleeping may promote independence in kids. “Hoverparenting” can damage a child’s resilience. Finnish children, who rank among the highest academic achievers, enjoy multiple recesses a day. Our obsession with self-esteem may limit a child’s potential.
Parenting isn't rocket science, it's just brain surgery. And Dr. Joshua Straub has good news for you: You can do it! You don’t need to do all the “right” things as a parent. Both science and the Bible show us that the most important thing we can provide for our kids is a place of emotional safety. In other words, the posture from which we parent matters infinitely more than the techniques of parenting. Emotional safety—more than any other factor—is scientifically linked to raising kids who live, love, and lead well. Learn how to use emotional safety as a foundation from which you parent—and make a cultural impact that could change the world! In Safe House, Dr. Straub draws from his extensive research and personal experience to help you: - Foster healthy identity and social development in children of any age - Win the war without getting overwhelmed in the daily battles - Discipline in a way that builds relationship - Understand how the culture is affecting your child and what you can do about it - Cultivate responsible, self-regulating behavior in your kids - Establish an unshakeable sense of faith, morality, and values in your home - Feel more confident and peaceful as a parent - Find a greater perspective on parenting than what you might see on a daily basis Also includes a Safe House Parenting Assessment.
"Maggie is earthy and real, full of love and knowledge, especially on raising sons." - Steve Biddulph "Maggie's perspective on raising boys is spot on. She writes with humor and depth, providing insight and strategies for many of the most important issues facing moms. There is a lovely ease to her writing and a powerful honesty. I hope every mother of a son (and everyone else!) will read this book. The future of the world, to a great extent, depends on how we raise our boys." - Michael Gurian, New York Times Bestselling Author of The Wonder of Boys and Saving Our Sons If we can see the world through boys' eyes a little better, we will make different choices in the way we mother them… and we will find them less confusing, and love them more deeply. Mothers of sons are worried about raising their boys in a world where negative images of masculinity are front and centre of our media, almost every day. Not only that, but statistically our boys are still struggling in many ways. Even though we live in a time where we recognise that nothing in gender is fixed, it remains a fact that the influence of a mother on her son is massive. A mother of four sons herself, Maggie Dent draws on her personal experience - and over four decades work as a teacher, counsellor and now author and speaker - to help build understanding, empathy and compassion for our boys. Maggie shares her five key secrets that every mum needs to know and uses the voices of men she has worked with and surveyed to reveal what really matters in a boy's relationship with his mother and other mother figures. Maggie is one of Australia's most popular parenting authors and educators, and her seminars about boys have sold out all across Australia and in the UK. She is finally sharing her insights, her reflections, and (as always) her humour around mothering boys to help you be the mum your son needs you to be.
