Preschool Lending Library

Including real life stories, this newly revised third edition of the award-winning bestseller—voted one of the top twenty parenting books—provides parents with the most up-to-date research, effective discipline tips, and practical strategies for raising spirited children.

Do you ever wonder why your child acts the way he or she does? Are you at a loss regarding your child’s emotional intelligence and how to prevent meltdowns? Do you find yourself getting frustrated and feeling like you’re at the end of your rope?

You are not alone! Many parents are dealing with the same challenges.

In Raising Your Spirited Child, Third Edition, parenting expert Mary Sheedy Kurcinka, Ed.D, offers ALL parents a glimpse into what makes their children behave the way they do. Through vivid examples and a refreshingly positive viewpoint, this invaluable guide offers parents emotional support and proven strategies for handling the toughest times. Dr. Kurcinka has devised a plan for success with a simple, four-step program that will help you discover the power of positive—rather than negative—labels, understand your child's and your own temperamental traits, cope with tantrums and blowups when they do occur, develop strategies for handling mealtimes, bedtimes, holidays, school, and many other situations.

In this third revised edition, you will find:

• More practical strategies to help you manage your own intensity (keep your cool)
• Effective discipline tips—including how to win cooperation and establish clear expectations and limits
• New strategies for managing the meltdowns—including how to prevent them in the future
• Revised tips for helping your spirited child fall asleep and stay asleep
• Revised tips for finding the school that “fits” your child
• Ideas for working with your child when he or she does not want to talk about emotions
• Steps to teaching your child how to be “problem solvers,” work well with others, and be more flexible
• … and more!

Including charts and quick tips for today’s time-challenged parents, this newly updated edition of Raising Your Spirited Child will help you foster a supportive, encouraging, and loving environment for your children.

Say goodbye to the daily frustration of picky eating with these effective child-tested, parent-approved, No-Cry solutions plus healthy family-friendly recipes
Are you convinced your child will only eat pasta and chicken nuggets for the rest of her life? Worried your son is not getting adequate nutrition? Tired of vegetables being cast as the villain during mealtime battles? Nearly all parents experience a finicky eater at their table, but finding solutions can be difficult. That's why Elizabeth Pantley, author of the bestselling No-Cry series--the most trusted name in parenting guides--developed gentle, effective and easy solutions for dealing with picky eaters.

Full of tips and tricks, The No-Cry Picky Eater Solution helps you to:

• Get your child to eat--and enjoy!--vegetables, grains and other healthy food
• Reduce the sugar, fat, and junk food without your child noticing the change.
• Make subtle, healthy improvements in favorite recipes to boost nutrition for the whole family
• Relax and enjoy mealtime and snack time at your home
• Instill good eating habits that your children can take into adulthood

To make your picky eater and the whole family happy, Elizabeth has tapped her culinary friends to share delicious recipes that are not just healthy but kid-friendly, too. The No-Cry Picky Eater Solution features recipe contributions from:

Missy Chase Lapine (The Sneaky Chef);
Jennifer Carden (Toddler Café);
Kim Lutz and Megan Hart (Welcoming Kitchen);
Lisa Barnes (The Petit Appetit);
Barbara Beery (Green Princess Cookbook);
Cheryl Tallman and Joan Ahlers (So Easy Toddler Food); and
Janice Bissex and Liz Weiss (No Whine with Dinner).

Armed with Elizabeth's proven advice and these tasty recipes, you'll be able to serve healthy meals and snacks along with peace and happiness.

The sixth edition of the 1.8 million-copy bestseller 1-2-3 Magic by internationally acclaimed parenting expert Thomas W. Phelan, Ph.D. compiles two decades of research and experience into an easy-to-use program designed for parents striving to connect more deeply with their children and help them develop into healthy, capable teenagers and adults. Dr. Phelan breaks down the complex task of parenting into three straightforward steps:

1. Helping your children learn how to control their emotions and refrain from negative behavior, including tantrums, whining, and sibling rivalry
2. Encouraging good behavior in your children and providing positive feedback
3. Strengthening your relationships with your children to reinforce the natural parent-child bond

You'll find tools to use in virtually every situation, as well as real-life stories from parents who have successfully navigated common parenting challenges such as reluctance to do chores, talking back, and refusing to go to bed or getting up in the middle of the night. For years, millions of parents from all over the world have used the award-winning 1-2-3 Magic program to help their children develop emotional intelligence, raise healthier, happier families, and put the fun back into parenting.

Along with other highly-respected parenting classics such as How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk, Parenting with Love and Logic, The 5 Love Languages of Children, No Drama Discipline, and The Whole Brain Child, 1-2-3 Magic is an essential tool for parents hoping to connect more deeply with their children.

You know you love your child. But how can you make sure your child knows it?

The #1 New York Times bestselling The 5 Love Languages® has helped millions of couples learn the secret to building a love that lasts. Now discover how to speak your child’s love language in a way that he or she understands. Dr. Gary Chapman and Dr. Ross Campbell help you:

• Discover your child’s love language
• Assist your child in successful learning
• Use the love languages to correct and discipline more effectively
• Build a foundation of unconditional love for your child

Plus: Find dozens of tips for practical ways to speak your child’s love language.

Discover your child's primary language—then speak it—and you will be well on your way to a stronger relationship with your flourishing child.

Discover why playing is school readiness with this updated guide. Timely research and new stories highlight how play is vital to the social, physical, cognitive, and spiritual development of children. Learn the seven meaningful experiences we should provide children with every day and why they are so important.

The groundbreaking book that explains Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD)--and presents a drug-free approach that offers hope for parents--now revised and updated.

Does your child exhibit...

Over-responsivity--or under-responsivity--to touch or movement? A child with SPD may be a "sensory avoider," withdrawing from touch, refusing to wear certain clothing, avoiding active games--or he may be a "sensory disregarder," needing a jump start to get moving.

Over-responsivity--or under-responsivity--to sounds, sights taste, or smell? She may cover her ears or eyes, be a picky eater, or seem oblivious to sensory cues.

Cravings for sensation? The "sensory craver" never gets enough of certain sensations, e.g., messy play, spicy food, noisy action, and perpetual movement.

Poor sensory discrimination? She may not sense the difference between objects or experiences--unaware of what she's holding unless she looks, and unable to sense when she's falling or how to catch herself.

Unusually high or low activity level? The child may be constantly on the go--wearing out everyone around him--or move slowly and tire easily, showing little interest in the world.

Problems with posture or motor coordination? He may slouch, move awkwardly, seem careless or accident-prone.

These are often the first clues to Sensory Processing Disorder--a common but frequently misdiagnosed problem in which the central nervous system misinterprets messages from the senses. The Out-of-Sync Child offers comprehensive, clear information for parents and professionals--and a drug-free treatment approach for children.

This revised edition includes new sections on vision and hearing, picky eaters, and coexisting disorders such as autism and ADHD, among other topics.

The New York Times bestseller that provides a bold challenge to the conventional wisdom about early childhood, with a pragmatic program to encourage parents and teachers to rethink how and where young children learn best by taking the child’s eye view of the learning environment

To a four-year-old watching bulldozers at a construction site or chasing butterflies in flight, the world is awash with promise. Little children come into the world hardwired to learn in virtually any setting and about any matter. Yet in today’s preschool and kindergarten classrooms, learning has been reduced to scripted lessons and suspect metrics that too often undervalue a child’s intelligence while overtaxing the child’s growing brain. These mismatched expectations wreak havoc on the family: parents fear that if they choose the “wrong” program, their child won’t get into the “right” college. But Yale early childhood expert Erika Christakis says our fears are wildly misplaced. Our anxiety about preparing and safeguarding our children’s future seems to have reached a fever pitch at a time when, ironically, science gives us more certainty than ever before that young children are exceptionally strong thinkers.

In her pathbreaking book, Christakis explains what it’s like to be a young child in America today, in a world designed by and for adults, where we have confused schooling with learning. She offers real-life solutions to real-life issues, with nuance and direction that takes us far beyond the usual prescriptions for fewer tests, more play. She looks at children’s use of language, their artistic expressions, the way their imaginations grow, and how they build deep emotional bonds to stretch the boundaries of their small worlds. Rather than clutter their worlds with more and more stuff, sometimes the wisest course for us is to learn how to get out of their way.

Christakis’s message is energizing and reassuring: young children are inherently powerful, and they (and their parents) will flourish when we learn new ways of restoring the vital early learning environment to one that is best suited to the littlest learners. This bold and pragmatic challenge to the conventional wisdom peels back the mystery of childhood, revealing a place that’s rich with possibility.

America's foremost childcare experts present a practical, appetizing, easy-to-follow eating plan for shaping children's tastes and metabolisms toward optimal health.

Your toddler throws a tantrum in the middle of a store. Your preschooler refuses to get dressed. Your fifth-grader sulks on the bench instead of playing on the field. Do children conspire to make their parents’ lives endlessly challenging? No-it’s just their developing brain calling the shots!

In this pioneering, practical book, Daniel J. Siegel, neuropsychiatrist and author of the bestselling book Mindsight, and parenting expert Tina Payne Bryson demystify the meltdowns and aggravation, explaining the new science of how a child’s brain is wired and how it matures. The “upstairs brain,” which makes decisions and balances emotions, is under construction until the mid-twenties. And especially in young children, the right brain and its emotions tend to rule over the logic of the left brain. No wonder kids can seem-and feel-so out of control. By applying these discoveries to everyday parenting, you can turn any outburst, argument, or fear into a chance to integrate your child’s brain and foster vital growth. Raise calmer, happier children using twelve key strategies, including

• Name It to Tame It: Corral raging right-brain behavior through left-brain storytelling, appealing to the left brain's affinity for words and reasoning to calm emotional storms and bodily tension.
• Engage, Don't Enrage: Keep your child thinking and listening, instead of purely reacting.
• Move It or Lose It: Use physical activities to shift your child's emotional state.
• Let the Clouds of Emotion Roll By: Guide your children when they are stuck on a negative emotion, and help them understand that feelings come and go.
• SIFT: Help children pay attention to the Sensations, Images, Feelings, and Thoughts within them so that they can make better decisions and be more flexible.
• Connect Through Conflict: Use discord to encourage empathy and greater social success.

Complete with clear explanations, age-appropriate strategies for dealing with day-to-day struggles, and illustrations that will help you explain these concepts to your child, The Whole-Brain Child shows you how to cultivate healthy emotional and intellectual development so that your children can lead balanced, meaningful, and connected lives.

Here is the bestselling book that will give you the know-how you need to be effective with your children. Enthusiastically praised by parents and professionals around the world, the down--to--earth, respectful approach of Faber and Mazlish makes relationships with children of all ages less stressful and more rewarding.
Recently revised and updated with fresh insights and suggestions, How to Talk so Kids Will Listen & Listen so Kids Will Talk is full of practical, innovative ways to solve common problems and build foundations for lasting relationships.

Sensible advice and caring encouragement on raising boys from the nation’s most trusted parenting authority, Dr. James Dobson.
With so much confusion about the role of men in our society, it’s no wonder so many parents and teachers are asking questions about how to bring up boys. Why are so many boys in crisis? What qualities should we be trying to instill in young males? Our culture has vilified masculinity and, as a result, an entire generation of boys is growing up without a clear idea of what it means to be a man. In the runaway bestseller Bringing Up Boys, Dr. Dobson draws from his experience as a child psychologist and family counselor, as well as extensive research, to offer advice and encouragement based on a firm foundation of biblical principles. (This new edition is part of Dr. James Dobson’s Building A Family Legacy initiative.)