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Title details for It's OK to Go Up the Slide by Heather Shumaker - Available

It's OK to Go Up the Slide

Renegade Rules for Raising Confident and Creative Kids

by Heather Shumaker
Laurel Lefkow
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available
Heather Shumaker has sparked much discussion with her 'renegade rules for raising competent and compassionate kids.' In this follow-up book, she takes on new hot-button issues like banning homework, technology use, and skipping kindergarten. Shumaker offers broader guidance on how parents can control their own anger and move from an overscheduled life to one of more free play. Parenting can too often be reduced to shuttling kids between enrichment classes, but Shumaker challenges parents to reevaluate how they're spending their precious family time. This book helps parents help their kids develop important life skills in an age-appropriate way. Sometimes being a good parent means breaking the rules.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    March 22, 2016

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781666594829
      • File size: 284565 KB
      • Duration: 09:52:50

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      What narrator Laurel Lefkow does best is thoroughly express the author's appealing wisdom and homespun respect for the challenges of being a parent. She clearly enjoys reading this material and connecting with her listeners. Not your traditional parenting advice, it's a softly argued manifesto that shows parents how to avoid overcontrolling risks and complying blindly with prevailing cultural norms. Let children try new things, she says, so they can stay curious, develop resiliency, cope with difficult emotions, judge danger, and gain pride in learning what they can do. Shumacher is at her best discussing interpersonal risks: Let kids learn from their social experiences instead of overwhelming them with rules. Though some of this advice will face resistance from parents and educators in many communities, Lefkow's spontaneous reading makes it sound appropriate and worth considering. T.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      December 21, 2015
      Journalist Shumaker takes up where she left off with It’s OK Not to Share, this time addressing “tricky topics” relating to school-age kids. Shumaker advocates taking a close look at the expectations attached to such practices as kindergarten (it’s not mandatory under U.S. law), recess (it should never be used as punishment), and homework, urging parents to bend (and possibly break) the rules according to what works best for their particular family. Shumaker, for instance, has banned homework for her two elementary-aged sons, based on research showing it doesn’t benefit children. She also weighs in on parents “signing off” on school papers, asserting that this practice degrades trust and places parents in the role of cop. Should teachers prove resistant to her suggestions, she suggests modeling “respectful disagreement” and provides a collection of sample letters and scripts parents can use. Interspersing her own experiences with advice from experts, Shumaker also presents a convincing case for letting kids take reasonable risks in order to build confidence and independence. Though “going up the slide” (i.e., bucking the system) may be more difficult in some school districts than others, Shumaker does a thorough job of arming parents with the facts they’ll need to begin their ascent. Agent: Joëlle Delbourgo, Joëlle Delbourgo Associates.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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