Books on Raising Children/toddlers

My Sunday School class is participating in a series call Proactive Parenting...I'd recommend it. Also, I'm reading Love and Logic: Early Childhood and I LOVE it!! It's giving great pointers on raising respective, responsible children in a loving manner. My little girl is 2 1/2 and responding really well to the idea that she has choices (she loves this as she's trying to exhert some of her independence). It's great for me because when it really counts I get to make the decision since I've let her make so many on her own from the choices I've given her. The library carries it if you want to look at it first.

Birdget,
I have heard of a book and it comes with CD and workbook
called "Parenting on Purpose". Not sure what it is about.
However, I have read "Strong Willed Child " by Dr. James
Dobson. And I would think any book by him would be good.
Also, the Bible is a really good resource. There is a lot
of good info in Psalm and Proverbs that are really helpful
I know for me it was very helpful. Psalm encouraged me as
a mother and as a woman. Beacuse especially in the teen years it is very difficult. Look on Breaking Christian News webstite there could be other books to help you.
God bless you and may He be with you as you parent His way.
K.(____@____.com)

B.,
You have gotten so many good ones listed, I have taught "Training up a child classes" for several years and I use Training Up A Child by Gwendolyn M Webb and my favorite is "What the Bible Says About... Child Training" by J.Richard Fugate I listen to James Dobson and he had Kevin Lehman on his radio show a few weeks ago talking about his book "Have a new Kid by Friday" and he sounded very good also, I liked his views. The KEY is consistency, consistency, and that your words are not empty threats, a child learn quickly if he/she can trust what dad/mom is saying, they need to know they can trust your word in discipline and in every thing you do. You will be rewarded in many ways and they will grow to honor you just like the Word says, and you will enjoy them more when you can trust they will obey your requests.

I just finished reading Kurt and Brenda Warner's book. It is a wonderful book filled with ideas on parenting with faith. I would highly recommend it. It gives great ideas for raising children and keeping a strong marriage. I loved it!

Highly recommend "Growing Kids God's Way" series, by the Ezzos. Took these as a class w/other Christian friends and learned so much. Good luck!

I have a book called "What the Bible says about Child Training" and I think it's good as it covers training, controlling and teaching and the difference in punishment and chastisement, etc. and teaches responsibility and covers age spans. It's an old book but still available. I don't know if you're looking for this sort of thing or not and it also has a section to the parents on what our role really is. You might look through it at a bookstore to see if you like it or not. The author was "founder of the Foundation for Biblical Research that researched Scripture in the original languages" so he knows the Scripture well, Vice president for Finance and Business manager for ACE,, Business Consultant to Alpha Omega Publications, and administered a Christian school so he's had a lot of experience with kids plus has three of his own who are grown.

We like any book by James Dobson. Two books that have helped us are

The Dare to Discipline

Complete Book of Baby & Child Care
(From pre-birth through the tenn years)

The book of baby and child care, I have had it since my son was in the womb. He is now 9 years old. It is an awesome book. I still use it as a reference.

The Dare to Discipline has some really good parenting tips.

Dr. James Dobson has many more books on the market. He is awesome.

You can also see if your library has any of these available for viewing. You can look at them before deciding to buy.

James Dobson books are always good for raising kids. One I used is: Dare to Discipline and I was thinking he had one called: Parenting is not for Cowards (but that might be a subtitle). My kids are all grown now, so hard to remember for sure, but he has written many good books since then and he may even have one that is girl specific. Also, I think books by Gary Smalley and as your girls get older you would definitely want to check out books by Josh McDowell. Hope that helps. God Bless you and your husband as you raise well-adjusted, loving girls!
~J.

I would highly recommend the "Love & Logic" book and classes (contact Parents as Teachers through USD 259 for class times). The concept behind this parenting is love. For instance, if your children try to argue with you, repeat "I love you too much to argue" each time they continue to ask. This is a tactic that will shut my kids down because they know when I say that, they will not get their way.

Another tactic that has worked for me and my family from Love&Logic is the concept of "bedroom time". With this, kids who are hard to put to bed can have bedroom time. This means that they aren't allowed to leave their room, but they may play quietly in there until they are ready to go to sleep. The catch is, they MUST get up and get moving the next morning like they are supposed to. It took ONE TIME of using this tactic for my son to decide that he would rather sleep 99% of the time when given the choice.

It's an excellent resource!

A. A.
www.wichita.citymommy.com

Hi B., I like Kevin Lehman (sp) he as a book called Have a New Kid By Friday and had written others. James Dobson is always a good one (I love that man!) and my husband and I took a class at our church called Parenting on Purpose and it was by Bob Barnes and he as an organization called Sheridan House that has a lot of good stuff on their web site. A lot of the books that I have read deal with older children (mine are 6 & 8), but the Parenting on Purpose series would still be a great one for you to look at. It's not only how to get well behaved (not perfect) kids, but teaches you how to comunicate with your spouse and be a good parent, since that's where you get good kids. Good luck and God bless!!

I really like the "Sears Library" written by Dr. William and Martha (R.N.) Sears and their pediatrician sons.

Dear B.,

there is an awesome Parent's Guide, written by Dr. Jami McManus at Shaklee's Health Sciences. this is a Guide for healthy children, healthy diets, healthy environment, etc.

However, I cannot figure our how to send it to you through this system???

I can send you the file via your email - you can download and read it at your convenience.

Just email me at ____@____.com and remind me that we have communicated through mamasource.

S. Rutledge

I don't know if they are "Christian" authors per se but I adore the 1-2-3 Magic program as well as Common Sense Parenting and Love & Logic. I felt Love & Logic was for slightly more older kids than toddlers but it was a premise from which you could base a lot on and certainly start thinking in the mindset (very clever I might add). 1-2-3 Magic is a near immediate response and turn around for bad behavior...very easy. You're local library may have the books and videos available already. Common Sense Parenting was written by the founder of Boys Town...very grounded principles and another good capstone. Frankly, I use a combination of all three on my 5 & 6 yr old.

I would also like to mention that we've been very fortunate in our community in that our Parents as Teachers coordinator has taught all of these classes for free or next to nothing...so it might be worth checking into your local PAT program to see if they too are offering the classes...sometimes local churches will sponsor them as well.

Love and Logic by Jim Fay is an awesome tool for parenting. The website has wonderful resources.

"Dare to Discipline" by James Dobson is the one book I'd recommend to EVERYONE. I raised four kids with it and I just bought one for my son, who has a little boy. I re-read it with each of my children. If kids came with an instruction book (don't we all wish!) that would be great, but in the absence of that... 'Dare to Discipline' is the choice I'd make. :o)

I am currently reading a book titled, "A Proverbs 31 Daughter: Training daughters to be Godly Women". I absolutely LOVE it! I found it on cristianbook.com, and my husband bought it for me as a surprise. It's also written by a very young girl, so it's nice to know that even at a young age, girls CAN use wisdom. Hope this helps.
M.