Recommended reading
"Teaching with the Brain in Mind"
By Eric Jensen. (Association for Supervision & Curriculum Deve; Revised 2nd edition, $27.95) The author explains how the brain and its various systems affect how children learn, how parents can get children's brains in shape for school, and explores motivation, critical thinking skills, environmental factors, the "social brain," emotions, and memory and recall.
"All Kids Are Our Kids: What Communities Must Do to Raise Caring and Responsible Children and Adolescents"
By Peter L. Bensen. (Jossey-Bass; second edition, $24.95). Dr. Peter L. Benson, director of the Search Institute, presents a vision of how to harness the power of community to build developmental assets in children and adolescents.
"Everyday Blessings: The Inner Work of Mindful Parenting"
By Jon Kabat-Zinn and Myla Kabat-Zinn. (Hyperion, $16.99) The couple discuss how important it is for parents to slow down from the Zen Buddhist position of moment-to-moment awareness.
"The Heart of Parenting: Raising An Emotionally Intelligent Child"
By John Gottman and Joan DeClaire with a foreward by Daniel Goleman. (Simon & Schuster, $15) Concerned with the quality of emotional interactions, the authors recommend a five-step process to coach children on expressing and managing emotions.
"Building Emotional Intelligence: Techniques to Cultivate Inner Strength in Children"
By Linda Lantieri and Daniel Goleman. (Sounds True, Incorporated, $22.95) The authors offer age-appropriate techniques to help children quiet their minds, calm their bodies, and identify and manage their emotions.
"Parenting From the Inside Out"
By Daniel Siegel and Mary Hartzell. (Tarcher, $14.95) Developed from a series of parents' workshops exploring Siegel's cutting-edge research on neurobiology and attachment research, the authors present a step-by-step model of parenting. The authors show how parental childhood experiences affect their parenting styles and discuss how interpersonal relationships affect brain development.
"Taking Back Childhood: Helping Your Kids Thrive in a Fast-Paced, Media-Saturated, Violence-Filled World"
By Nancy Carlsson-Paige. (Hudson Street Press, $23.95) A professor of early childhood education and conflict resolution, Carlsson-Paige offers advice on how parents can build nonviolent, caring and creative relationships with their children.
"A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future"
By Daniel H. Pink. (Riverhead Trade, $15.) The author believes the future will be ruled by creative right-brained thinkers – designers, inventors, teachers, storytellers – and he outlines six fundamental human abilities that will be needed for personal success.
"The Absorbent Mind"
By Maria Montessori. (Holt Paperbacks, $18) Written by the Italian doctor whose work became the cornerstone of Montessori education with a new foreward by John Chattin-McNichols, Ph.D, president of the American Montessori Society.
"Our Peaceful Classroom"
By Aline D. Wolf. (Parent Child, $15) Illustrated by Montessori children around the world, Wolf's book examines the order, serenity, respect for others, care of the environment and appreciation of many cultures that is the hallmark of the Montessori experience.
"The Blessing Of A Skinned Knee: Using Jewish Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children"
By Wendy Mogel. (Scribner, $15) A clinical phychologist, the author draws on lessons from her heritage to help parents maintain their values to raise children who are self-reliant, compassionate and ethical.
"A Mind at a Time"
By Mel Levine. (Simon & Schuster, $15) Levine, professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina Medical School and director of the university's Clinical Center for the Study of Development and Learning, advocates teaching to "a mind at a time" by recognizing each child's intellectual, emotional, and physical strengths. Levine details the mental processes involved in eight mind systems -- attention, memory, language, spatial ordering, sequential ordering, motor, higher thinking, and social thinking – and discusses how to harness them to help children learn.
"The Price of Privilege: How Parental Pressure and Material Advantage Are Creating a Generation of Disconnected and Unhappy Kids"
By Madeline Levine. (Harper Paperbacks, $13.99) A practicing psychologist, the author shows apparent health and success can hide anxiety and anger among affluent children who have been given a wealth of enriching opportunities. Levine believes consumer toys can result in teens who are disconnected and avoid working on deeper issues.
