An early childhood development expert shows how to craft a nurturing childhood for your sons and daughters, while minimizing negative societal influences. Based on early-childhood development expert Nancy Carlsson-Paige’s thirty years of researching young children, this groundbreaking book helps parents navigate the cultural currents shaping, and too often harming, kids today—and restore childhood to the best of what it can be. As Carlsson-Paige explains, there are three attributes critical to kids’ healthy development: time and space for creative play, a feeling of safety in today’s often frightening world, and strong, meaningful relationships with both adults and other children—attributes that we, as a society, are failing to protect and nurture. From advising parents on which toys foster creativity (and which stifle it) to guiding them in how to use “power-sharing” techniques to resolve conflicts and generate empathy, Carlsson-Paige offers hands-on steps parents can take to create a safe, open, and imaginative environment in which kids can relish childhood and flourish as human beings. “Dr. Carlsson-Paige explains the many ways our culture and media are threatening our children’s healthy development. She gives adults concrete strategies for fighting back. Today’s parents need this book.”—Marian Wright Edelman, Children’s Defense Fund

Have you ever stopped what you were doing as an aroma transported you back to your grandmother’s kitchen or took you to a time and place so special from your childhood that you treasure it in your heart for ever? In Giving Back Childhood, celebrities from the world of sport, music, media, academia, business, politics, literature, food and entertainment, as well as unsung heroes at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital, share some of their own personal memories of food and childhood, as well as the recipes that are the on-going connection to those memories. To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital in Cape Town, this book of memories and recipes offers you the opportunity to contribute to the outstanding and life-saving medical treatment that the Hospital provides on a daily basis to the children of Southern Africa and many other countries on the African continent. Without the generosity of donors and the general public, much of this work would simply not be possible. All children need to dream, they need hope for the future – and for that they need good health. By purchasing this book, you can help to give the young patients of this Hospital their childhood back.

The Poetics of Childhood investigates the sensibility of childhood and the ways writers try to recapture it. It explores the earliest conceptions of innocence and the development of literature about children through contemporary times. It encompasses the pastoral, the dark pastoral, the anti-pastoral; it addresses picture books, fantasy, and realism. It looks with originality at the literature of childhood, inclusive of children's literature and literature about childhood, so that the child and adult can be seen reflexively--the child in the adult and the various stages of childhood as they are remembered and retained in adulthood. It confronts issues of primal and socially constructed desire adn the use of childhood to talk about desire. It is a poetics, a way of imagining the experience of childhood and explores childhood as a particulary fluid and porous time, it also addresses issues of creativity. This is an essential reference for teachers, parents, artists, and writers.

Bringing up a special child can leave parents feeling deskilled, disarmed, and worn down. A resilient child has the ability to cope with challenging situations, and the capacity to bounce back from trauma and gain long-term strength from these life experiences. Resilient Therapy TM is an innovative way of strengthening children with complex needs. This is a tried-and-tested handbook for parents to read from cover to cover, or dip in and out of as needed. Accessible and fun, Helping Children with Complex Needs Bounce Back includes exercises and worksheets, as well as breaking down the principles of the latest research, making them easy to apply to everyday situations. This 'magic box' of ideas and remedies is perfect for parents and carers, friends and families of children with disabilities, special educational needs, and mental or physical health needs, as well as professionals working with these children.

Theorists in the UK have offered a new perspective through which to understand the interrelationship of the individual within the structure of the family. This volume's desire is to re-apply such thinking in the context of children’s lives in the family.

Minister Deon Glover pens down the exact words sentimental to issues of today's fathers. He offers inspiration, hope, and spiritual insight to fathers who feel misheard and misunderstood. This book reaches out to fathers across ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds and creates an atmosphere of fellowship. Many fathers struggle with understanding their God-given role and purpose in the family. This book acknowledges this deficiency and emphasizes the inherent and innate authority God has given the man. Minister Glover also engages in the ongoing and provocative issues of child support and how they relate to manipulation so prevalent in today's families and society. He is open in his life experience and transparent regarding his personal struggles and triumphs. Read and be encouraged by the ministry in this book! Discover the Father within the man Expel inadequate and unreliable ideologies Develop deep-seated, fathering techniques Deon H. Glover is a Minister of the Gospel. He is the Executive Director of "Turning Point Fatherhood Development, Inc." a non-profit organization. He counsels' inner city youth and is a panel member of a weekly radio talk show "Church Talk in the Barbershop". Deon and his wife, Cynthia reside in Norfolk, Virginia, and have six children.

Through these reflective episodes, the writer draws the reader into the real life of teachers who must move beyond the visible hopelessness and apathy that some students exhibit, and crack that veneer. In so doing, the teachers conjure up the potential that resides in those students. The narratives surrounding Ixora, John, Akeem and Victoria are developed against the backdrop of the evolution of the education system of the country. A Voice for the Children in the Back Row also represents the transformational process that the reflective educator undergoes. The author, Kathleen Robinson, has taken us along an episodic journey in order to arouse our consciousness and conscientiousness as educators. Our society needs texts like A Voice for the Children in the Back Row where the new teacher as well as the seasoned practitioner can identify with authentic experiences and see the hope that still exists in the midst of deep despair. Lynette T. Noel, reading instructor, University of Trinidad and Tobago Author, The Night Nopat was Left Out In an examination-oriented, mass education system, where one size seldom fits all, the ubiquitous drive obsession almost - to complete the syllabus conspires to ensure that some passengers are ultimately left sitting disconsolately in the back row. To get to their destination they must, invariably, either take another taxi or walk. Kathleen Robinsons A Voice for the Children in the Back Row mirrors, in many ways, my own experience in the classroom for more than three decades. The gifted and the disadvantaged suffer equally as the teacher struggles, virtually on his own, to fulfill mainstream societal expectations. In A Voice for the Children in the Back Row, I find solace in the fact that this issue has been so well articulated and documented but more importantly, I feel a renewed sense of hope that, with this latest insightful presentation, some authorized institutional engineers will finally assume the mantle to oversee meaningful, coherent and sustainable change at the systemic level. J.Baisden, educator

Imagine a childhood filled with serene smiles, playing with friends and an endless sense of joy. This is exactly what we all want for our children - a world in which they can grow, learn and flourish. However, in this ideal image comes a shadow called bullying. It is a shadow that penetrates the hearts and minds of children, leaving behind traces of pain, fear and unnecessary vulnerability. We, as parents, teachers, and members of society, cannot remain indifferent to this challenge. Our children deserve better, they deserve a safe environment where they can grow in all aspects of their personality without fear of being mentally or physically abused. This book is our attempt to bridge the gap of bullying. We invite you on a journey of understanding, empathy and action. We want to offer you not only an understanding of the nature of bullying, but also practical tools and strategies to help you raise a child free from its influence. In this book, we bring together cutting-edge research, real-life success stories, and time-tested strategies to help you create an environment in which your child can flourish in all his uniqueness. We don't claim to have the complete answer to every situation, but we are confident that with your love, patience and dedication, we can make the world a little kinder and safer for all of our children. This book is not only a guide to fighting bullying, but also a call to action. We invite you to be part of a movement to create a more caring and inclusive society where every child can find their place in the sun. This book is a voice of hope in a world where bullying sometimes seems overwhelming. We believe that with your support and the power of our collective action, we can create a world where every child can flourish in all their uniqueness, free from the dark forces of bullying. Let us together raise the torch of knowledge and empathy to light the way to a better future for all children. Prepare to be immersed in this important and exciting world where your participation can make a real difference. Thank you for choosing this path with us. Let us begin this important journey together, for within every child there is a light that deserves to shine in all its beauty and grandeur.

In the opening pages of this novel, an accident brings a young girl to the attention of the Preacher, the all-powerful leader of a religious cult secluded in the jungle. Trina has only dim memories of the life she lived with her mother before they joined the community and the closed, close society is all she knows. When she is singled out for special favour, it becomes clear that the gaze of the Preacher can be a dangerous thing. As the Preacher's behaviour and the demands he places on his followers become more extreme, Trina's mother begins to question her faith in the charismatic but fatally flawed leader and to dream of an escape from his control. In this powerful re-imagining of the infamous Jonestown tragedy, D'Aguiar writes with the lyrical intensity of a poet, examining the motivations and obsessions that lead to religious fanaticism. This is a novel about the betrayal of faith and of innocence, a story about love, devotion and mania that is a brave attempt to understand the reasoning of people who would, in the end, kill their own children in the prelude to a mass suicide that shocked the world. Although history tells us that the ending of this story can never be anything other than a tragedy, D'Aguiar's compassion, and his ability to draw the reader into the intimate and terrible reality of lives lived at the whim of a corrupt and dangerous cult leader, ensure that in the end this is a story of hope.

When I was a child living in Liverpool, England, I often stayed with my grandparents, near the docks. On those long weekends, they would tell me amazing stories about the Second World War. My grandmother was a great storyteller, sharing her memories next to the fire, smoking cigarettes and constantly drinking tea (and the occasional whiskey). She had a way of telling a story that would pull you in, and with her silhouetted against the perpetual roaring coal fire and cigarette smoke, I would let my schoolchild fantasy soar. These stories were often about the children in Liverpool who had been evacuated (including her own children, my parents), or about soldiers from families she knew who had gone off to fight and had returned home with tales of their own. One of the stories she told was that one day she was down on the docks of Liverpool. She had gone down there because the Queen Mary Cruiser had arrived and she had never seen that famous ship When she arrived at the docks, she noticed a few children from wealthy families playing on the wharf. They were enjoying a moment on land before the ship sailed for the five-day journey to New York. These children were being evacuated - but not to farmers outside the city like my parents. Instead, they would be whisked away by sea or air to glamorous and extravagant America. As she got closer to the children, my grandmother realized they were from different nationalities, and was amazed how easily they jumped from one language to another. They were the children of diplomats and European Royalty, industrialists and the famous. Even though they were young children, they were used to a life that my old grandmother could only dream about. Those tales rubbed off on me. As a child I used to write short stories about these children, how they would have adventures, and as children how they could move almost unnoticed among the rich and influential of the time.