The author of The Shimmering World proposes allowing children to follow their own educational path, thus enabling their curiosity to fuel their learning. In this thought-provoking new book, bestselling author Steven Harrison ventures far outside the box of traditional thinking about education. His radical proposal? Children naturally want to learn, he asserts, so let them direct their own education in democratic learning communities where they can interact seamlessly with their neighborhoods, their towns, and the world at large. Most learning systems apply external motivation through grades, rankings, teacher direction, and approval. The Happy Child suggests that a self-motivated child who is interdependent within a community can develop the full human potential to live a creative and fulfilling life. Harrison focuses on the integration of the whole child, the learning environment, and the non-coercive spirit of curiosity-driven education. Part social-critic, part humanistic visionary, Harrison not only focuses on a reorientation of education, but the possibility of rethinking our families, communities and workplaces, and ultimately what gives our children, and all of us, real happiness. Harrison adds his voice to those of A. S. Neil, John Holt, and John Gatto, all who believe that contemporary schools can never be reformed sufficiently, but must be abandoned entirely for something new and vital to emerge. Praise for The Happy Child “A clarion call for our culture to wise up and re-think what education—and the soul of a child—are really all about. Steven Harrison offers us something sorely lacking in today’s educational policy: a vision of true human potential and a practical philosophy for attaining it. Read this book and envision possibility.” —Jane M. Healy, Ph, author of Failure to Connect: How Computers Affect Our Children’s Minds “Harrison's hard-biting social critique of the plight children and education are in should wake us up to our atrocious treatment of our young, that we might actually address their critical needs rather than simply ignoring them as usual.” —Joseph Chilton Pearce, author of The Crack in the Cosmic Egg “Such a nobly simple idea, that the true purpose of education should be happiness, and so clearly reasoned.” —Chris Mercogliano, author of Making It Up As We Go Along

Raising a happy, well-adjusted child is probably the biggest challenge any of us will face, so it is understandable that parents worry endlessly about this aspect of their child's development. In this practical, reassuring book, clinical psychologist and parenting expert Linda Blair helps parents understand what their child is experiencing physically and emotionally at various stages of development and how they can use this knowledge to develop their child's strengths, communicate with them more effectively and tackle common problems. In THE HAPPY CHILD, Blair divides early childhood into three key stages of development - infancy, preschool and starting school - and shows parents how they can help their child adjust and thrive during these stages. This is a book that provides parenting guidelines, as well as encouraging parents to trust their own instincts. Above all it does not underestimate the challenges parents face. The foreword is being written by Ellen Winner, professor of child psychology at Boston College, specialising in gifted children and author of GIFTED CHILDREN (Basic Books).

Children can be easily lazy when they have too much freedom. But if they are loaded with stress to have duty for study from a very young age, they must stay at the stage to explore their senses. -JENNY LEE Using techniques and learning skills from my post graduate degree in Early Childhood, I try to show how children can achieve their independent learning. For my efforts to run my children centre around 16 years in Sydney, I found children not only enhance their academic skills same like in Korea but also develop their thinking process with exposing senses as emphasized in Australia. The book helps you understand as much with case studies and theoretical backgrounds. I was encouraged with cheer me up to publish my book. Now I hope to the parents with young children will have encourage like me.

How to Raise Joyful Children in a Stressful World. Parenting today has become more complicated than it ever has before. As our world becomes more and more connected, we become overwhelmed with the amount of parenting advice that seems to be taking over at every corner. Parenting in the past seems to have been much simpler, all you had to worry about was getting dinner on the table and making sure everyone survived without anything catching on fire. Today, however, everybody has an opinion on how to parent and there are countless techniques, like attachment parenting, free-range parenting, mindful parenting. How do you know which one is best? How can you choose? In the end, all that matters is one thing: that your kids are happy. This is where psychotherapist and parenting expert Katie Hurley comes in. Throughout The Happy Kid Handbook, Hurley shows parents how happiness is the key to raising confident, capable children. This doesn’t mean giving in to every child’s desire; instead, it means parenting to your individual child. After all, every child is different. When you listen to your children and encourage them to explore and express their emotions, you’ll teach them how to live happy, fulfilled lives while navigating the stresses of life. As you read, you’ll learn how to parent to your child’s unique needs, why allowing them to be scared is healthy, and why giving your child the freedom to play can help with more than just social skills. Do you want more free book summaries like this? Download our app for free at https://www.QuickRead.com/App and get access to hundreds of free book and audiobook summaries. DISCLAIMER: This book summary is meant as a preview and not a replacement for the original work. If you like this summary please consider purchasing the original book to get the full experience as the original author intended it to be. If you are the original author of any book on QuickRead and want us to remove it, please contact us at hello@quickread.com.

A groundbreaking guide to raising responsible, capable, happy kids Based on the latest research on brain development and extensive clinical experience with parents, Dr. Laura Markham’s approach is as simple as it is effective. Her message: Fostering emotional connection with your child creates real and lasting change. When you have that vital connection, you don’t need to threaten, nag, plead, bribe—or even punish. This remarkable guide will help parents better understand their own emotions—and get them in check—so they can parent with healthy limits, empathy, and clear communication to raise a self-disciplined child. Step-by-step examples give solutions and kid-tested phrasing for parents of toddlers right through the elementary years. If you’re tired of power struggles, tantrums, and searching for the right “consequence,” look no further. You’re about to discover the practical tools you need to transform your parenting in a positive, proven way.

This book explores representations of child autonomy and self-governance in children’s literature.The idea of child rule and child realms is central to children’s literature, and childhood is frequently represented as a state of being, with children seen as aliens in need of passports to Adultland (and vice versa). In a sense all children’s literature depends on the idea that children are different, separate, and in command of their own imaginative spaces and places. Although the idea of child rule is a persistent theme in discussions of children’s literature (or about children and childhood) the metaphor itself has never been properly unpacked with critical reference to examples from those many texts that are contingent on the authority and/or power of children. Child governance and autonomy can be seen as natural or perverse; it can be displayed as a threat or as a promise. Accordingly, the "child rule"-motif can be seen in Robinsonades and horror films, in philosophical treatises and in series fiction. The representations of self-ruling children are manifold and ambivalent, and range from the idyllic to the nightmarish. Contributors to this volume visit a range of texts in which children are, in various ways, empowered, discussing whether childhood itself may be thought of as a nationality, and what that may imply. This collection shows how representations of child governance have been used for different ideological, aesthetic, and pedagogical reasons, and will appeal to scholars of children’s literature, childhood studies, and cultural studies.

Each day brings new tests and challenges - and incredible happiness as we watch our children grow from helpless newborn to independent teen. "THE ART OF RAISING HAPPY KIDS" can't provide all the answers, but it can help resolve some often biggest issues facing parents, from coping with the sniffles to navigating social media. Whether you're cradling an infant or getting ready to send you child off to college, the most important things is to enjoy the ride! Every parent wants their child to be happy, healthy and well adjusted. But in an ever-changing world, how do we do just that? In this book, experts in child development, pediatrics, psychology and social work provide simple, straightforward advice on how to help your child grow up to be a strong, caring individual. It includes information on what it takes to keep a child healthy, including the newest research on nutrition, sleep, exercise and development. It illustrates how to build strong family ties, including bolstering emotional intelligence, effective communication strategies, and why it’s okay to let your child occasionally fail. Plus: Advice on navigating the world at large, from finding a balance with social media to coping with bullies and overcoming depression. Finally, developmental guidelines for every age, from newborns to teens, help the reader navigate the changes a child will face. Parenting can be a challenge, and this book is here to make the journey a little bit easier.