Name: Playful parenting
ISBN: 9780345442864

Playful parenting

Have you ever stepped back to watch what really goes on when your children play? As psychologist Lawrence J. Cohen points out, play is children's way of exploring the world, communicating deep feelings, getting close to those they care about, working through stressful situations, and simply blowing off steam. That's why "playful parenting" is so important and so successful in building strong, close bonds between parents and children. Through play we join our kids in theirworld-and help them to • Express and understand complex emotions • Break through shyness, anger, and fear • Empower themselves and respect diversity • Play their way through sibling rivalry • Cooperate without power struggles From eliciting a giggle during baby's first game of peekaboo to cracking jokes with a teenager while hanging out at the mall, Playful Parenting is a complete guide to using play to raise confident children. Written with love and humor, brimming with good advice and revealing anecdotes, and grounded in the latest research, this bookwill make you laugh even as it makes you wise in the ways of being an effective, enthusiastic parent.

What Hacker News says

andrei_says_Nov 2024

Playful Parenting; Raising sour Children, Raising Ourself; Unconditional Parenting.

Three books I feel I can recommend.

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chrisgdJun 2015

Very exciting to see this. This book [1] argues for more play from both parents as it is how children learn and develop. If you are a parent, you will probably notice that when a child plays by himself, he will use phrases you use with him, pretend to be the parent in situations with his dolls / toys, act out situations he didn't understand previously. After reading this book, it gave both my wife and I new ideas on how to interact with our son (now 3). Is he afraid of something, have his dolls act it out and one of them is afraid of the same thing, for example.

The book has really helped us as well if anyone is looking for new avenues to teach, mentor, discipline their kids.

[1](http://www.amazon.com/Playful-Parenting-Lawrence-J-Cohen/dp/...)

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simonhMay 2012

A few to start with. To be honest, even one good book is a great start.

Raising Happy Children - Jan Parker, Jan Stimpson, Dorothy Rowe

Playful Parenting - Lawrence J. Cohen

The Well-Trained Mind - Jessie Wise, Susan Wise Wise Bauer

I don't agree with everything they say, but they are pointed in the right direction. I don't home school our kids, but we do homework with them and I go out of my way to talk to them about anything they're interested in and look things up with them.

It does help that my mother was head teacher of a primary school and did an Open University degree in child psychology when I was a teenager.

We're engineers, right? When you've got a new piece of equipment or software or a new language to get to grips with we read the manuals and find out about best practices. It's the same with kids.

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