Raising Critical Thinkers


Book Description

A guide for parents to help children of all ages process the onslaught of unfiltered information in the digital age. Education is not solely about acquiring information and skills across subject areas, but also about understanding how and why we believe what we do. At a time when online media has created a virtual firehose of information and opinions, parents and teachers worry how students will interpret what they read and see. Amid the noise, it has become increasingly important to examine different perspectives with both curiosity and discernment. But how do parents teach these skills to their children? Drawing on more than twenty years’ experience homeschooling and developing curricula, Julie Bogart offers practical tools to help children at every stage of development to grow in their ability to explore the world around them, examine how their loyalties and biases affect their beliefs, and generate fresh insight rather than simply recycling what they’ve been taught. Full of accessible stories and activities for children of all ages, Raising Critical Thinkers helps parents to nurture passionate learners with thoughtful minds and empathetic hearts.




Raising Freethinkers


Book Description

Raising Freethinkers offers solutions to the unique challenges secular parents face and provides specific answers to common questions, as well as over 100 activities for both parents and their children. Covers every important topic nonreligious parents need to know to help their children with their own moral and intellectual development.




The Brave Learner


Book Description

Publishers Weekly bestseller · A joyful and accessible homeschool guide to making learning a part of everyday life Parents who are deeply invested in their children's education can be hard on themselves and their kids. When exhausted parents are living the day-to-day grind, it can seem impossible to muster enough energy to make learning fun or interesting. How do parents nurture a love of learning amid childhood chaos, parental self-doubt, the flu, and state academic standards? In this book, Julie Bogart distills decades of experience--homeschooling her five now grown children, developing curricula, and training homeschooling families around the world--to show parents how to make education an exciting, even enchanting, experience for their kids, whether they're in elementary or high school. Enchantment is about ease, not striving. Bogart shows parents how to make room for surprise, mystery, risk, and adventure in their family's routine, so they can create an environment that naturally moves learning forward. If a child wants to pick up a new hobby or explore a subject area that the parent knows little about, it's easy to simply say "no" to end the discussion and the parental discomfort, while dousing their child's curious spark. Bogart gently invites parents to model brave learning for their kids so they, too, can approach life with curiosity, joy, and the courage to take learning risks.




Becoming Brilliant


Book Description

In just a few years, today’s children and teens will forge careers that look nothing like those that were available to their parents or grandparents. While the U.S. economy becomes ever more information-driven, our system of education seems stuck on the idea that “content is king,” neglecting other skills that 21st century citizens sorely need. Becoming Brilliant offers solutions that parents can implement right now. Backed by the latest scientific evidence and illustrated with examples of what’s being done right in schools today, this book introduces the 6Cs—collaboration, communication, content, critical thinking, creative innovation, and confidence—along with ways parents can nurture their children’s development in each area.




Thinking Like a Lawyer


Book Description

"Critical thinking is the essential tool for ensuring that students fulfill their promise. But, in reality, critical thinking is still a luxury good, and students with the greatest potential are too often challenged the least. This bestselling book introduces a powerful but practical framework to close the critical thinking gap, gives teachers the tools and knowledge to teach critical thinking to all students, empowers students to tackle 21st-century problems, and teaches students how to compete in a rapidly changing global marketplace. Colin Seale, a teacher-turned-attorney-turned-education-innovator and founder of thinkLaw, uses his unique experience to introduce a wide variety of concrete instructional strategies and examples that teachers can use in all grade levels. Individual chapters address underachievement, the value of nuance, evidence-based reasoning, social-emotional learning, equitable education, and leveraging families to close the critical thinking gap. In addition to offering examples for Math, Science, ELA, and Social Studies, this timely, updated second edition adds a variety of new examples and applications for Physical Education, Fine Arts, Foreign Language, and Career and Technical Education"--




Raising Thinkers: Preparing Your Child for the Journey of Life


Book Description

The skills in shortest supply for the future workplace are not technical, but behavioural – creativity, problem-solving and critical thinking. Raising Thinkers begins with an exploration of this skills gap in developed countries across the East and West from a national, corporate and educational perspective. In Asia there is growing unhappiness with a school system that is too narrowly focused on rote learning and teaching to test. In the West there is much debate about the efficacy of school systems that either cater largely to the lowest levels of ability or that too blindly strive to top global education rankings. Raising Thinkers provides insight into the future that today’s children will inhabit as adults and what public school systems are currently serving up. It covers the mechanics of high-level, critical and creative thinking, problem solving and decision making and proposes a curiosity-based approach to problems that should be taught right from school-going years. School reform will always lag behind the ever evolving needs of the corporate world. For current scholars and parents, change will come too late – therefore Raising Thinkers is also a guide aimed at helping parents and caregivers bridge the skills gap in fun, useful and practical ways.




Raising Antiracist Children


Book Description

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A must-have guide to raising inclusive, antiracist children from educator and advocate, Britt Hawthorne. Raising antiracist children is a noble goal for any parent, caregiver, or educator, but it can be hard to know where to start. Let Britt Hawthorne—a nationally recognized teacher and advocate—be your guide. Raising Antiracist Children acts as an interactive guide for strategically incorporating the tools of inclusivity into everyday life and parenting. Hawthorne breaks down antiracist parenting into four comprehensive sections: -Healthy bodies—Establishing a safe and body-positive home environment to combat stereotypes and create boundaries. -Radical minds—Encouraging children to be agents of change, accompanied by scripts for teaching advocacy, giving and taking productive feedback, and becoming a coconspirator for change. -Conscious shopping—Raising awareness of how local shopping can empower or hinder a community’s ability to thrive, and teaching readers of all ages how to create shopping habits that support their values. -Thriving communities—Acknowledging the personal power we have to shape our schools, towns, and worlds, accompanied by exercises for instigating change. Full of questionnaires, stories, activities, tips, and tools, Raising Antiracist Children is a must-have, practical guide essential for parents and caregivers everywhere.




Parent Like It Matters


Book Description

An accessible blueprint to embolden our daughters to be critical thinkers, fearless doers, and joyful change agents for our future—from the proud mother of teen activist Marley Dias, founder of 1000BLACKGIRLBOOKS. “A powerful resource for caregivers trying to raise courageous girls . . . It’s my go-to and my how-to.”—Kwame Alexander, New York Times bestselling author of Light for the World to See Renowned sociologist Dr. Janice Johnson Dias has devoted her life to nurturing and training girls to become change-makers—whether through her investment in her daughter Marley’s humanitarian projects or through her work with the GrassROOTS Community Foundation’s “SuperCamp.” In these unprecedented times, her work has never been more urgent, as parents find themselves asking: How do we teach our children to change the world? Dr. Johnson Dias knows that self-realized girls are created through intentional parenting. And so she asks parents to make deliberate choices—from babyhood through adolescence—that will give their girls the resources and foundation to take hold of their own futures and to create sustainable social change. Unlike other parenting experts, Dr. Johnson Dias doesn’t urge parents to focus solely on their children. Instead, she tasks them with a personal challenge: to find their own joy. Just as Dr. Johnson Dias brings her own jubilant passion to parenting, mentoring, and teaching, she inspires caregivers to do the same. Using cutting-edge research and Dr. Johnson Dias’s own experiences, Parent Like It Matters offers information and strategies for making discussions of racism and sexism a daily practice, identifying heroes and mentors, educating yourselves together, and uncovering your girl’s passions and what issues drive her the most. Parenting is enormous work; it can be as overwhelming as it is fulfilling. Within the pages of Parent Like It Matters, parents will find the invaluable tools they need to raise resilient, optimistic girls who determine for themselves what their world will look like.




Motherhood Unstressed


Book Description

Motherhood Unstressed: Meditations on Self-Care, Motherhood, and the Art of Living a Life You Love by Liz Carlile is a brilliant nonfiction book rich with meditations, poetic musings and journaling opportunities - all elegantly exploring ways the natural world and our own still small voice inside tries to teach us, over and over, to breathe, get quiet, and tap into the deep well of inner knowing and strength within. Carlile draws lessons from nature, faith, philosophy, and literature, woven with her own charming and unexpectedly fortifying life stories. Her personal take on motherhood and the greater lessons it teaches about the meaning of life is one any mother or mother-to-be can draw strength from and use as a daily source of inspiration and comfort. In light of the past year, there may be no better balm to our collective consciousness.




Tangible Equity


Book Description

Move beyond the "why" of equity and learn what it actually looks like in the classroom. This powerful book by bestselling author Colin Seale shows how you can overcome barriers and create sustainable pathways to realizing equity for your students. Part I of the book explains why all education stakeholders should not just prioritize equity, but go beyond the buzzwords. Part II looks at why good intentions aren’t enough, and provides six ways you can leverage your power to really start doing something about equity. Part III discusses the five classroom-level philosophical shifts needed to make real change, including how to think differently about gifted education and achievement gaps. Finally, Part IV offers a variety of practical strategies for making equity real in your classrooms, no matter what grade level or subject area you teach. Throughout each chapter, you’ll find stories, examples, and research to bring the ideas to life. With the concrete suggestions in this book, you’ll be able to overcome deficit models, focus on opportunities for academic success and educational justice, and make equity tangible for each of your students.