A Slow Childhood


Book Description

‘We are blessed to have Helen Hayward as our guide, confidante and explorer through the tumultuous, intensely familiar and yet entirely uncharted lands of children and parenting. Her achievement is to have written a book about the most ordinary things and to have located therein the most extraordinary insights and ideas.’ So writes Alain de Botton in his foreword to A Slow Childhood, a book he describes as “a triumph” having at its heart the greatest, founding philosophical question, a question parenting ineluctably demands that one address: what is a good life? If you’ve ever struggled to balance a desire for personal fulfilment with a yearning to the best parent you can be, Helen Hayward’s journey will resonate with you. Part-memoir, part-existential musings, part-guidebook, A Slow Childhood is based on the former academic and psychotherapist’s personal experience of transitioning from a life focused on career to a life focused on family. Hayward’s discussion of how to make parenting work best for mothers, fathers and their children is thoughtful, honest, refreshing and challenging. It may be the book that changes your life, and the lives of your children, forever.




Under Pressure


Book Description

"Why do grown-ups have to take over everything?" This innocent question from acclaimed journalist and international bestselling author Carl Honoré’s son sparked a two-year investigation into how our culture of speed, efficiency, and success at all costs is damaging both parents and children. When the impulse to give children the best of everything runs rampant, parents, schools, communities, and corporations unwittingly combine forces to create over-scheduled, over-stimulated, and overindulged kids. The mere mention of potty-training, ballet classes, preschool, ADD, or overeating is enough to spark a heated debate about the right way to raise our children. The problem is that despite the best intentions of all involved, the pressure to manage every detail of our children’s lives from in utero through college is overwhelming. Delivering much more than a wake-up call, international bestselling author Carl Honoré interviews experts in Europe, North America, and the Far East, talks to families around the world and sifts through the latest scientific research. Not only do we see the real dangers of micromanaging children, but Honoré also shows us an emerging new movement inspiring many to slow down and find the natural balance between too little and too much. Blending the finest reportage, intellectual inquiry, and extraordinary true stories, Under Pressure is the first book to challenge the status quo by mapping out an alternative to the culture of hyperparenting that is presently pushing children and their parents to the brink.




Bright Kids Who Can't Keep Up


Book Description

Do you find yourself constantly asking your child to "pick up the pace"? Does he or she seem to take longer than others to get stuff done--whether completing homework, responding when spoken to, or getting dressed and ready in the morning? Drs. Ellen Braaten and Brian Willoughby have worked with thousands of kids and teens who struggle with an area of cognitive functioning called "processing speed," and who are often mislabeled as lazy or unmotivated. Filled with vivid stories and examples, this crucial resource demystifies processing speed and shows how to help kids (ages 5 to 18) catch up in this key area of development. Helpful practical tools can be downloaded and printed in a convenient 8 1/2" x 11" size. Learn how to obtain needed support at school, what to expect from a professional evaluation, and how you can make daily routines more efficient--while promoting your child's social and emotional well-being.




Slow Family Living


Book Description

Have you ever wished you could slow down the daily grind—and even find a way to enjoy it? All too often, the hectic pace of modern life turns our households into a blur, leaving many parents—and kids—feeling depleted and disconnected. Enter Slow Family Living, an inspiring guide for parents who want to rediscover the meaning, comfort, and contentment found in the day to day of family life. Offering 75 simple ideas for reconnecting, this upbeat and invaluable resource can help turn even the most bustling of times into an opportunity to create a moment of calm—and a connection that will last a lifetime. From holidays and other stressful occasions to bedtime, vacations, and everything in between, Slow Family Living will help even the most harried parents and kids pause, reflect, and find joy, satisfaction, and inspiration in each other.




Slow Parenting


Book Description




When Slow Is Fast Enough


Book Description

"Fascinating, lively, well-documented, and challenging....Both timely and necessary....An ideal resource for professionals who work with delayed children. It is so readable, it will also be valued by parents of these children." --Lee Combrinck-Graham, M.D. In matters of education, are all children created equal? Despite reforms that champion the rights of handicapped youngsters, are we really punishing such children with the very systems that are supposed to help them? Joan Goodman's bold and controversial book asks what we are accomplishing in early intervention programs that attempt to accelerate development in delayed young children. She questions the value of such programs on educational, psychological, and moral grounds, suggesting that in pressuring these children to perform more, and sooner, we undermine their capacity for independent development and deprive them of the freedom we insist upon for the nondelayed. Goodman argues that we need a more tolerant, less directive model of instruction in which the aim is to support the child's natural and spontaneous, albeit slow, development and to stimulate individual processes of discovery and self-expression. The elements of this more supportive model are then described in detail. Raising fundamental questions about our ambitions for children and how we fulfill them, this lively and provocative book is bound to stir controversy. It is especially timely as early intervention programs rapidly gear up to serve all handicapped children from ages 0 to 5.




Mothering Our Boys (US Edition)


Book Description

"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.




Slow Down World


Book Description

Sometimes life can seem so busy. Quick! Hurry! Faster! With the world whizzing past, how often do we stop, look and appreciate what's around us? From a fast-paced metropolis to the greener, magical places of a young girl's imagination, Slow Down, World is a whimsical journey towards mindfulness. Charmingly illustrated and written from the heart, Tai Snaith captures the beauty of the slower things in life.




In My Heart


Book Description

Celebrate feelings in all their shapes and sizes in this New York Times bestselling picture book from the Growing Hearts series! Happiness, sadness, bravery, anger, shyness . . . our hearts can feel so many feelings! Some make us feel as light as a balloon, others as heavy as an elephant. In My Heart explores a full range of emotions, describing how they feel physically, inside, with language that is lyrical but also direct to empower readers to practice articulating and identifying their own emotions. With whimsical illustrations and an irresistible die-cut heart that extends through each spread, this gorgeously packaged and unique feelings book is sure to become a storytime favorite.




Learning to Slow Down and Pay Attention


Book Description

Written especially for kids, this fun, friendly workbook is packed with cartoons and activity pages, offering children a wealth of helpful tips for every situation--at home, at school, and among friends. Illustrations.