Harriet Heath on Radio March 12 on Values

Philadelphia-area parent educator Harriet Heath, the author of Using Your Values to Raise Your Child to Be an Adult You Admire, will discuss “Teaching Children and Teens Values” on “Parents Tool Talk” on March 12 at noon EST on www.blogtalkradio.com/parentstooltalk. Some of the points she’ll cover in the hour-long program (which will be archived on that web site, if you miss it):

• How does every parent teach values, whether intentional or not?
• How do parents use their values in raising children?
• How does effective value teaching change as children get older?
• What if a child has been exposed to contrary values? How can parents respond?

(March 4, 2010)

Active Alert Author Receives Praise

Linda Budd, the psychologist author of Living with the Active Alert Child, now in its third edition, is often praised for her practical and innovative approaches to parenting the extremely creative, extremely intense child. . .but seldom do the compliments come two decades later! Recently, however, she received this praise from parents who had consulted her regarding their child in 1989:

“We met with you in 1989 regarding our son, who is now very successful due to your ideas for raising an active alert child. Thank you for helping us appreciate our son who I truly believe would have been a totally different child were it not for your book.”

(March 4, 2010)

Yes, You Can Get Your Child to Sleep!

If you can’t believe that your baby will ever sleep through the night, or that your child will ever climb into bed cheerfully, you’ll want a copy of our newest printable QWIK Sheet, Establishing Sleep Routines. Available free in March to those who have registered for our Parent Educator Corner, it retails for $2. Full of information you can use right now to develop bedtime rituals, routines. . .and responses to the inevitable, “Just one more. . .” requests.

You’ll find this and many other valuable and easy-to-read QWIK Sheets listed at qwik-sheets.html. Just $2 each, and available 24/7!

(March 4, 2010)

Brain Styles Author on March 23 Webinar

Susie Leonard Weller, author of the Why Don't You Understand? Improve Family Communication with the 4 Thinking Styles, will co-host a webinar March 23 that covers:

• The challenges to balancing our personal and professional lives
• How each quadrant can contribute to a higher quality of life
• How a logical rational thinker at work can show empathy and understanding at home
• How the creative conceptual thinker can cope with the discipline needed to get the family to school
• How we can reduce the stress and be more flexible

For more information, see Weller’s web site, www.susieweller.com, or the webinar registration page, https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/373167841.

(March 1, 2010)

What About Me? Helps Anger Management Group

New Jersey school counselor Kathy Jensen reports that Eileen Kennedy-Moore’s advice is “spreading like wildfire,” even to Jensen’s elementary school anger management group. Her students, using Kennedy-Moore’s What About Me? 12 Ways to Get Your Parents’ Attention (Without Hitting Your Sister) as a guide, created What About Me? 12 Ways to Get Your Teacher’s Attention (Without Hitting Your Classmate). Tactics included:

• “Give her a compliment.”
• “Be a classroom helper.”
• “Tell your teacher about something extraordinary you can do.”

(March 1, 2010)

Need Parenting Help? Need Content for Your Newsletter?

Then click on through to the March issue of “News for Parents,” our complimentary newsletter. You’ll find an in-depth look at bullying and tips on squelching biting. Plus,

• What Courses Should College-Bound Teenagers Take?
• Party Prep as a Learning Opp
• Use Eco-Guide for Saving Time, Money and the Planet
• Revisiting Our Resolution to Reuse, Recycle, Re-purpose and Repair
• Read Across America with Recipes
• World Water Week

If you write for a newspaper or school, extension, or child care newsletter, you’re welcome to excerpt or reprint our information, as long as you credit us and send us a copy.

(March 1, 2010)

Note to e-mail subscribers: Several copies of the e-mail edition are rejected by bulk mail (“spam”) filters each month. If you subscribe to the e-mail edition and did not receive your copy, this may be the reason. If your mail server permits, put “ezine@ParentingPress.com” on the list of senders you will always accept.

Susie Weller Quoted in Spokane Paper

Susie Leonard Weller, author of What About Me?, is the subject of a lengthy article in the Spokane Spokesman-Review for her emphasis on peace in the home, especially during this “Season for Nonviolence,” a grass roots, 64-day campaign to demonstrate the power of nonviolence which began Jan. 30.

The observance started in 1997 on the 50th and 30th memorial anniversaries of the deaths of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.

In the parenting classes she teaches at the Community Colleges of Spokane’s Institute for Extended Learning, Weller invites her students to read her reflections and create their own “Top 10 Tips” of how they want to promote peace in their own homes.

In her reflection, she wrote: “It’s often easier to love those unrelated to me. Somehow, the most intimate relationships trigger reactions no one else does — or at least not as intensely. Yet, peace begins in the home. This is where I learn to practice forgiveness, acceptance and reconciliation.”

(February 8, 2010)

Free 4-year-old Info Sheet for Parent Educators

If you’re a parent educator, register on the Parent Educators Corner to receive your complimentary copy of Perfectly Normal (if Challenging) Four-Year-Olds. This easy-to-read information sheet is packed with information about the intellectual and emotional development of the pre-K crowd, and why these children can be the proverbial “handful” to understand and manage. Regular price: $2.

Not a parent educator? You’ll find this and many other valuable and easy-to-read QWIK Sheets listed at qwik-sheets.html. Just $2 each, and available 24/7!

(February 7, 2010)

What About Me? Author Quoted in Moms Like Me

“Wake Up to Happy Kids” is the title of the article in the January issue of Moms Like Me that quotes Eileen Kennedy-Moore, clinical psychologist, mother of four and Parenting Press author.

Kennedy-Moore is quoted about the fact that having little sense of urgency is one luxury of being a kid.

“When we say ‘Come on! Hurry up, we’re late!’ we might as well say, ‘Higgledy piggledy pop!’ because those comments have absolutely no meaning to them,” says Eileen Kennedy-Moore, author of What About Me? 12 Ways to Get Your Parents’ Attention (Without Hitting Your Sister). As adults, we live by the clock and naturally want to teach kids to respect timeliness. So focusing on just that—the clock—can make time the grumpy messenger, not you.”

The article continues: “Test out this theory by letting kids set a timer and try completing tasks before the chime rings. Toss in rewards, like an extra cookie for lunch or adding mini-marshmallows to their morning cereal. Challenge older kids to a race against Mom, such as getting washed and dressed before breakfast is on the table.”

(January 26, 2010)

Parenting Press Titles at Texas Conference

Two Parenting Press books, Así me siento yo and Mi Cuerpo Es MIO, will be among the door prizes at the 12th annual Academy for Teachers of Young Children in July in Amarillo TX. The several hundred teachers expected to attend will come from such cities as Wichita Falls, Abilene, San Angelo, Lubbock, Midland and El Paso. (Not attending but want more information about the books? Just click on the images.)

(January 26, 2010)

Make History Come Alive with 101 Activities

You can have lots of fun, and teach kids a little about history, when you open History Comes Alive: 101 Activities for the Classroom and pick a project like making silhouettes, or a taffy pull or a puppet show.

Because they’ve been on display, copies of this 116-page guide are now available for $5. That’s about a nickel for each of the activities, which include crossword puzzles, the music and lyrics for early day songs and spirituals, cooking and such science projects as studying the constellations and physical vital signs.

Ideal for preschool, school, home-schooling, after-school care programs and youth groups, History Comes Alive is complete with patterns, recipes, handouts and material lists. For more information or to order, call (800) 992-6657, Ext. 101 (not available online). Supplies of the specially-priced copies are limited.

(January 26, 2010)

Parenting Press Web Site Recommended to Military

ParentingPress.com is one of the few corporate web sites listed in two publications for military families created by Military & Family Life Consultants, who provide counseling and resources through on-base programs. These publications discuss physical, psychological and intellectual development in the 10–12-year-old, and how to help children with “reintegration,” when a parent returns from deployment.

If you are part of a military family or work with the children of deployed troops, you’ll find helpful information in back issues of our professional quarterly, PEP Talk, and in the Instant Help section of this web site. Our books about emotions can also help your children identify, discuss and learn to cope with feelings like fear, loneliness and disappointment.

(January 13, 2010)

Parenting Press Books Recommended for Stressful Times

Choices for Children, a California nonprofit, headlines its Winter newsletter with “Caring for Children in Stressful Times,” which concludes with a list of pertinent materials in its resource libraries. These include three Parenting Press titles: The Way I Feel by Janan Cain, and Mommy, Don’t Go and I’m Scared, both by Elizabeth Crary.

(January 13, 2010)

Bullies and Extra-Bright Kids among PEP Talk Topics

A teaching plan on recognizing and preventing bullying and a look at why extra-bright kids need special help are only two of the articles in the Winter issue of Parenting Press’s quarterly for professionals, Parenting Education Practitioner Talk.

How to spot child molesters and predators, and understanding how children’s mental illness affects family members are among the other topics covered.

Sources include Judith Wynn Halsted, author of Some of My Best Friends Are Books (Great Potential Press), Robin Sax, author of Predators and Child Molesters: What Every Parent Needs to Know to Keep Kids Safe (Prometheus Books), Diane T. Marsh and Melissa J. Marks, How to Talk to Families about Child and Adolescent Mental Illness, and Allan L. Beane, author of Bullying Prevention for Schools (Jossey-Bass).

You can subscribe to the electronic edition of this newsletter. Single issues, current and back, are $5 each. For more information, call (800) 992-6657.

(January 7, 2010)

Waiting for “Wimpy Kid” in Theaters?

Waiting to see the movie version of “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”? So are we! One of our books, Kids to the Rescue! First Aid Techniques for Kids, by Maribeth and Darwin Boelts, was purchased for use as a prop in the movie, and we’re excited to see if it shows on screen.

In the meantime, we invite you to practice some of the first aid techniques recommended by the Boeltses, and use the free downloadable activity plan to create skits or your own short films about accidents and how to treat injuries.

(January 7, 2010)

Facts on 5-Year-Olds

Fantastic at 5, a new downloadable QWIK Sheet about 5-year-olds’ abilities and interests poses several questions parents can use to determine readiness for kindergarten. You’ll find this and many other valuable and easy-to-read QWIK Sheets listed at qwik-sheets.html. Just $2 each, and available 24/7!

(January 5, 2010; updated February 7, 2010)

School Newsletters Feature Our Titles

Looking for practical and well-written text for your school newsletter? Consider a brief excerpt from a Parenting Press publication. That’s what the Parent Institute of Fairfax Station, Virginia does for the newsletter content it creates for schools and preschools. In November, the Institute’s “Helping Children Learn,” a publication for early childhood, quoted Elizabeth Crary’s 365 Wacky, Wonderful Ways to Get Your Children to Do What You Want in an article titled “Avoid Preschool Power Struggles.”

The January issue features advice from Shari Steelsmith’s Go to Your Room!: Consequences That Teach in an excerpt entitled “Make Consequences Make Sense.”

Besides books, Parenting Press allows material from “News for Parents,” the monthly newsletter, and “Parenting Education Practitioner Talk” to be reprinted or excerpted at no charge if the Press is credited.

(December 14, 2009)

Blog for Teachers Praises The Way I Feel

A first grade teacher posting to Teachers’ Favorite Children’s Books at teachersfavoritechildrensbooks.blogspot.com is full of praise for Janan Cain’s The Way I Feel, our best-selling children’s book.

“This colorful picture book is one of the best to help young children learn about emotions and how to deal with them. . .Explains the many different and complex emotions we feel. . .and enables children to understand that emotions are okay. . .In addition to the great pictures, this book gives children a handle on some very useful vocabulary.”

Both The Way I Feel and the new Spanish edition, Así me siento yo, have been approved for use in California public schools.

(December 10, 2009)

Available Now: QWIK Sheet on Toddlers

Exciting! Exhausting! Emotional! Yes, that’s toddlers! In Rapid Development: 18 Months–3 Years, you’ll read why the months from toddlerhood to preschool are filled with such outbursts and frustration (for parents and caregivers as well as children). Based on Helen F. Neville’s Is This a Phase? Child Development & Parent Strategies, Birth to 6 Years, this QWIK Sheet explains tantrums, meltdowns, the value of playing with your child, and what signals a red flag. Retail value: $2.

(December 1, 2009; updated Jan. 5, 2010)

Así me siento yo OK’ed for California schools

The Spanish edition of The Way I Feel, Así me siento yo, has been approved for use in California schools, grades K–8. Classroom instructors anywhere can order the teachers’ guides for these books. The three-page guide for The Way I Feel, PPTG200607, is $5, or free if ordered from Parenting Press with 20 copies of the book. The guide for Así me siento yo, PPTG200901, is two pages, and $5 if ordered alone, free if ordered with 20 copies of the book. Both teaching guides are in English and include large group, small group and individual activities.

(November 16, 2009)

What About Me? Is Grand’s Book of Week

Grand Magazine, a publication for grandparents, has selected What About Me? 12 Ways to Get Your Parents’ Attention (Without Hitting Your Sister) as its book of the week for the first week of November. Written by Eileen Kennedy-Moore, this children’s book was illustrated by Mits Katayama. See Grand’s entire story on Dr. Kennedy-Moore and the book at www.grandmagazine.com/article.asp?id=228.

(November 4, 2009)

Now Available: QWIK Sheet on Toddlers

This downloadable information sheet, usually sold for $2, is ideal for discussing with new parents. As author Lyndall Shick points out, this time period brings a huge transition in a child’s life, from helpless dependence to self-directed mobility. “Life has changed forever for him—and for you,” she reminds parents as she provides tips on child-proofing, toy selection and the all-important parent-child bonding.

(November 4, 2009; updated Dec. 2)

Jean Illsley Clarke on Radio Nov. 4 on Overindulgence

Tune in to “Real Parents, Real Solutions” on the VoiceAmerica Variety Channel to hear the Nov. 4 interview with Jean Illsley Clarke about overindulgence.

Catch the comments by the author of How Much Is Enough and its Leader’s Guide by selecting the November episode listing.

(November 2, 2009; updated Nov. 4)

Hear Janan Cain on Army Wife Radio Web Site

If you and your children enjoy our best-selling The Way I Feel, you’ll enjoy hearing author/illustrator Janan Cain in the archived story from her recent Army Wife Network interview. She describes what inspired her to start the book, and the heartwarming comments she’s received about it from parents and teachers. “When someone tells me that a child requests the book every day—well, it doesn’t get any better than that!”she says.

To hear Cain, visit www.armywifenetwork.com/playerwindow.html and select Show #236. To get directly to Cain’s comments, move the slider to 65 minutes.

Army Wife Network, created by two military wives, offers programs that are designed to motivate, inspire and empower spouses of troops.

(October 20, 2009)

Now Available: It’s A Baby

How can we nourish the minds and bodies of babies? Based on Helen F. Neville’s Is This a Phase? Child Development & Parent Strategies, Birth to 6 Years, It’s a Baby: 2 to 9 Months is a Qwik Sheet that explains how babies develop as they move past the newborn stage. You’ll read about what babies perceive, how to play with them, what to expect in terms of attention spans and growth spurts, and how to introduce solid foods.

(October 7, 2009; updated Nov. 3, 2009)

Now Available: Staying Safe in Cyberspace

Even if your family is not on the Internet (and these days, who isn’t?), you can still be at risk for electronic bullying, identity theft and stalking. Now, as a new school year is underway, see how to protect your family with Parenting Press’s new Staying Safe in Cyberspace. This easy-to-read information sheet is ideal for distribution in schools, too.

(October 7, 2009)

CD Now Available for How Much is Enough? Leader’s Guide

You can now add a CD with all 365 pages of the How Much is Enough? Leader’s Guide to your order for the downloadable or hard copy edition—for just $15. Not available as a separate purchase, this CD makes it especially easy to print out copies of the 74 handouts and posters and 43 interactive exercises for class use created by author Jean Illsley Clarke.

The guide has received such praise from parent educators as:

“Well organized by session, master handouts and posters, so facilitators spend most of their preparation time on becoming familiar with the curriculum content rather than logistical details. This is one of the most balanced, easy-to-follow parenting curriculums available.”

—Debi Beagle, Director of Operations, and Karin Ganz, mental health specialist, Sound to Harbor Head Start/ECEAP, ESD 113, Olympia, WA

 

“I taught many classes a week and had to tailor this content to the time constraints of my course. Because of the guide’s organization, tailoring was a breeze. I knew I would find what I needed, where I needed it and in the format I needed it.”

—Karen Zimmerman, M. Ed. CFLE, early childhood content coach, St. Paul (MN) Public Schools

(September 24, 2009)

“Childhood Matters” and “Nuestros Niños” Promote Our Books

Two San Francisco Bay area radio programs, Rona Renner’s “Childhood Matters” and Dr. Marisol Muñoz-Kiehne’s Spanish language “Nuestros Niños,” are promoting Parenting Press books with giveaways.

“Childhood Matters,” which frequently features nurse, parent educator and temperament specialist Helen F. Neville, is publicizing Neville’s three books: Temperament Tools, Is This a Phase? and Mommy! I Have to Go Potty!.

“Nuestros Niños” is promoting Así me siento yo, the new Spanish language edition of our best-selling The Way I Feel, by Janan Cain. The translation was done by Yanitzia Canetti, the Boston-area translator who has created the Spanish language text for all of the Dr. Seuss books.

(September 16, 2009)

Act Out Emotions in The Way I Feel

Kids learn what the words for emotions mean when they express themselves through drama, writes preschool teacher Tandy Jurgensen in her blog, Preschool Playhouse. That’s why she’s having her groups use costumes and props to act out the emotions in The Way I Feel.

“I intend to use music to act these feelings out so that while we dress silly, we also act silly to silly music,” she explains, citing one of the emotions in the book, now available in both English and Spanish editions.

(August 12, 2009)

“Win the Chore Wars” Is Crary’s Radio Topic

Walk the dog, dump the garbage, set the table: how do you get kids to help out around the house? Tune into “Real Parents. Real Solutions” on Wednesday, Aug. 12 at 10 a.m. Pacific time/noon Central for Elizabeth Crary’s explanation of the importance of chores—and how to get kids to actually do them, and do them right. To listen, click through to “Real Parents, Real Solutions”; when the show is playing, click on the "Live Show" button. Listeners will be offered a free Qwik Sheet, a two-page informational sheet with dozens of tips on kids and chores.

If you miss the broadcast, you haven’t missed the chance to hear Crary: the show archives will have her program.

(August 8, 2009; updated August 11)

Neville on Radio Aug. 23

Helen F. Neville, author of the newly revised and expanded Mommy! I Have to Go Potty! (2nd ed.), will discuss “Setting Limits and Adapting to Transition and Change” with host Rona Renner on “Childhood Matters” Sunday, Aug. 23 on several California radio stations and at childhoodmatters.org.

If you live in northern California, you can listen from 7 to 8 a.m. on KISS 98.1 FM, K-OCEAN 105.1 FM, La Nuestra KBBF 89.1 FM, or streaming at childhoodmatters.org. The program also airs between 10 and 11 a.m. on KGOE 1480 AM in Eureka.

All “Childhood Matters” programs are archived at childhoodmatters.org, so you can click through to Neville’s new program or to her earlier presentations. These include “Is this a Phase?,” Dec. 27, 2008.

(August 4, 2009)

Is This a Phase? Being Translated into Simplified Chinese

Is This a Phase? Child Development & Parent Strategies, Birth to 6 Years, written by San Francisco Bay area parent educator and temperament specialist Helen F. Neville, R.N., is being translated into Simplified Chinese by a Beijing publisher.

Published by Parenting Press in 2007, Is This a Phase? was created to answer the common parenting questions that Neville had heard over and over again as a pediatric advice nurse. It received a silver medal in Foreword Magazine’s Book of the Year program, and an honor award in the National Parenting Publications Awards program. Library Journal called it “An authoritative reference covering a broad range of topics in health, behavior, and human needs” and commented, “Accurate, reliable, and practical, with many charts and graphs that render the information accessible.”

(August 1, 2009)

What People Say about Así me siento yo

The Spanish edition of Janan Cain’s award-winning The Way I Feel has been praised for its careful translation and it’s winning kudos from parents, too! As a bilingual mother of three and day care provider tells us:

“It is very important to me that I have engaging books during Circle/Story Times. Así me siento yo discusses feelings with great illustrations and stories to accompany the feeling at hand. It is a great book that also gives children who are bilingual, Spanish speaking or in the process learning the Spanish language a chance to hear a great story in either their native tongue or the language that they are trying to master. The best part to me are the illustrations—bright, comical pictures that catch your eye and explain the story even if you are not Spanish-speaking. They make the feelings so easy to comprehend!”

(July 15, 2009)

Promote Spanish Edition of Así me siento yo

If you are a library or bookstore, consider introducing Así me siento yo, the new Spanish edition of Janan Cain’s book, with a Fish Lips Face Photo Contest. A humorous (sometimes hilarious) way to get children and their parents through your doors, it’s an ideal program for those dreary winter months. With this contest, Parenting Press provides gift books as prizes when kids imitate the goofy face on the cover of The Way I Feel.

Rules are simple; all you have to do is publicize the contest and display a cover of the book for at least a month prior to selecting the “fishiest face.”

(July 15, 2009)

For Safety Anytime, Anywhere, Teach Kids First Aid

Quick! How do you treat a bug bite? A deep cut? A broken bone? You can teach your children simple first aid techniques with our new how-to-teach QWIK Sheet, Teaching Your Kids First Aid. In Kids to the Rescue! First Aid Techniques for Kids, Maribeth and Darwin Boelts explain how to handle several common injuries, and Marina Megale’s pictures illustrate the treatments.

(June 8, 2009; updated Jan. 26, 2010)

Education.com Recognizes Neville’s Red Flags

“Red Flags for Reading Problems” by Helen Fowler Neville, B.S., R.N., based on Is This a Phase? Child Development & Parent Strategies, Birth to 6 Years, has just been published by Education.com. If you’re concerned about a child with potential reading problems, see www.education.com/reference/article/red-flags-reading-problems/.

(April 23, 2009)

Parenting Press on Twitter.com!

Faster than a speeding Smith-Corona! Quicker than a quill pen! More rapid than. . .well, you get the idea! To read Parenting Press news even sooner than it appears on this What’s New page, check our new Twitter account, http://twitter.com/parentingpress. Better yet, follow us! We promise to not deluge you with minute-by-minute accounts of what’s arriving in the Parenting Press warehouse. Not yet receiving tweets from anyone? You can sign up at twitter.com.

(April 22, 2009)

New Toilet Training Guide Honored

The newly revised Mommy! I Have to Go Potty! (2nd ed.) has received an honor award in the annual National Parenting Publications program.

Just updated and expanded by Helen F. Neville, B.S., R.N, Mommy! now provides information on training children with special needs, working with a child care provider, and on early training. Neville, who is also the co-author of Temperament Tools: Working with Your Child’s Inborn Traits and author of Is This a Phase?, discusses how a child’s inborn traits affect the pace of the training process.

(April 7, 2009)

“Active Alert” Author Launches Web Site

Linda Budd, the psychologist author of Living with the Active Alert Child: Groundbreaking Strategies for Parents, is online. You can read about Dr. Budd’s practice, her work with unusually energetic and creative children, and her book at www.drbudd.net.

(March 10, 2009)

"Why Don’t You Understand?" Gets MORE Raves

Why Don't You Understand?, Susie Leonard Weller’s look at thinking styles, and the research on which it is based continue to receive favorable reviews.

Writing on a library consortium web site, www.worldcat.org, a conference attendee said, “It’s going to take a few more readings and a lot of practice to master the habits and techniques Susie teaches in this book, but I think the effort will really pay off. . .

“Before I went to the conference Susie led on Whole-Brain thinking, I would have described myself as a “left-brained” thinker, with a preference for the logical, linear types of thought-processes. Then I went through her exercises and discovered that actually I am split about 60/40 between quadrant “B” (Practical) and quadrant “C” (Relational), with only a tiny bit of preference for “A” (Logical), and no preference at all for quadrant “D” (Creative). . .

“What I loved most about this book were the dialogue and real-life applications/situations. But I think what is of most value is the chance to think about and respect other people’s ways of thinking and points of view. Ideally, both parents (or any adults in any situation) can learn to calm down, slow down, and make better decisions that work for everyone involved. . .

“I highly recommend this book to all adults, but especially those who have kids with opposite thinking styles.”

In The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything (Viking, 2009), Ken Robinson points out there have been various attempts to categorize thinking styles, and he is critical of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. However, about the Hermann Brain Dominance Instrument, which is the basis of Weller’s Why Don't You Understand?, Robinson says, “It doesn’t seek to put people in a box. Instead, it tries to show people which of four brain quadrants they tend to use more often. . .[it] acknowledges that everyone is capable of using each of these thinking styles, but tries to indicate which of these styles is dominant in any individual.”

(February 16, 2009)

Consider Helen Neville for Your Co-op or PTA

You’re a reporter writing about potty training? Or children’s temperament? Or you’re a preschool or PTA leader, looking for a speaker for a program?

Here’s the answer: Helen F. Neville, B.S., R.N., Expert.

The author of Is This a Phase? Child Development & Parent Strategies, Birth to 6 Years, this Oakland CA author has just revised Mommy! I Have to Go Potty! (2nd ed.), which has been expanded to discuss toilet training the special needs child, working with child care providers and the influence of a child’s temperament on the training process.

Neville, who earlier co-authored Temperament Tools: Working with Your Child’s Inborn Traits for the Seattle publisher Parenting Press, can detail how a child’s temperament affects readiness for such milestones as toilet training and readiness for preschool or kindergarten. She can also describe how parents must be aware of their temperaments and how those affect their parenting.

For more information, see www.temperamenttools.com or the media kit for Is This a Phase? Child Development & Parent Strategies, Birth to 6 Years.

(February 16, 2009; revised July 15)

Weller Published in "Chicken Soup"

Susie Leonard Weller, the Spokane parent educator and author of Why Don't You Understand?, is one of the contributing authors in Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Cancer Book, 101 Stories of Courage, Support and Love, to be in bookstores in March.

Weller, who was diagnosed with colon cancer as she completed the original manuscript of Why Don't You Understand?, is the author of the 31st story, “The Cancer Triathalon.” Describing her “triathalon” as “Radiate, Medicate and Operate,” Weller says she applies the principles of her book—the different thinking styles you can use in a situation—to her experience with cancer.

(February 16, 2009)

Professional Journal Recommends Decision Is Yours Series

Professional School Counseling, in its December 2008 issue, describes how the Parenting Press Decision Is Yours books in an after-school mentoring program called CAMP. “The Cross-Age Mentoring Program: A Developmental Intervention for Promoting Children’s Connectedness across Grade Levels” was written by Michael J. Karcher.

The “Decision Is Yours” books, which describe what the journal calls such “social dilemmas” as bullying, theft, cheating and use of liquor, are all written in the “you-choose-what-happens-next” format. The CAMP curriculum is designed to help high school students develop leadership and collaboration skills while promoting connectedness, self-esteem and academic achievement among the younger students being mentored. Each mentor-mentee pair reads and discusses a different “Decision Is Yours” book and then role-plays alternate outcomes to the entire group of mentors and mentees.

(January 13, 2009)

Seattle’s Child Raves, and Raves, and Raves about Is This a Phase?

“Here’s a secret for parents of today’s infants through preschoolers: You have it made. Luckily for you, Neville, a registered nurse, shares the vast knowledge and insights she’s gleaned as a parent educator, pediatric advice nurse and infant temperament expert in the comprehensive new guide, Is This a Phase? Child Development & Parent Strategies, Birth to 6 Years, published by Seattle-based Parenting Press.”

So writes Cheryl Murfin in a new review on SeattlesChild.com.

She goes on to describe Is This a Phase? as a “jam-packed, authoritative reference guide” and says, “A book like this would have saved my husband and me a lot of time and worry and taken much of the guesswork out of divining the mysteries of child development.”

Murfin, who also praises Neville’s emphasis on temperament, how it affects a child’s development, and how it affects parenting, concludes, “When my kids were young, the phrase ‘Is this a phase?’ came to my mind at least weekly. Would they ever stop whining? Would she ever start sharing? Was this kid over-emotional? Was I crazy? Would he grow out of hitting or did I have a hoodlum in the family? If only I could have pulled Helen Neville’s book from my shelf.”

(Dec. 9, 2008)

Bloggers Full of Compliments

“Love love love [The Way I Feel],” blogged Jo's 101 in 1001, pointing out, “The pictures are excellent at characterizing the different feelings that we all go through in life.”

“When I read The Way I Feel to the children of my grandsons’ preschool, every child was fascinated,” a New Mexico reader recently said about Janan Cain’s book. “As an adult, I might not have been overly impressed, but the important impression is the one it makes on kids. The words and the art in this book give kids permission to feel their feelings—not to act on them, but to feel. I ordered several as gifts for the children in my life.”

“Beautiful illustrations,” says kiddieliter.com, a blog created by students of children’s literature at Lander University (Greenwood, S.C.) about The Way I Feel. “Perfect for children learning about poetry,” it continues about the book, coming soon in Spanish (see our earlier post below).

Another blogger, mandeeandbrandy.blogspot.com, also praises The Way I Feel, commenting, “It’s important to teach children that it’s okay to be angry or sad. It’s okay to get excited and to be happy. . .”

When kids suffer from separation anxiety, turn to Elizabeth Crary’s Mommy, Don’t Go, recommends idaalfaiz.multiply.com, which the blogger calls among the most helpful of Crary’s problem-solving books for young children.

Two other Crary books, When When You’re Shy and You Know It, and When You’re Silly and You Know It, are also recommended on imperfectparent.com (scroll down). Reviewer Charity R. Bartley Howard reminds readers how important it is to read even to infants, and she describes how much fun it is to use these and the two other Feelings for Little Children board books to sing to the tune of “If You’re Happy and You Know It.”

(October 27, 2008; updated Nov. 10 & 19, Dec. 1)

Download Our New Book on Internet Safety

How much do you know about phishing? Spoofing? Social networking? Cyber bullies? We’ve provided an overview to all of these Internet issues in our Internet Safety and Your Family (media kit), available 24/7 from our web site as a PDF. Download now and you’ll save $5—simply type “Safety” in the “Promotional Code” box when you check out.

If you’d prefer a paperback edition of Internet Safety and Your Family, you may order through Amazon.com.

(July 14, 2008/updated July 22, 2008)

The Way I Feel Praised by Parents of Autistic Kids

Two recent online reviews by parents praise The Way I Feel can be used with autistic children.

“Teaching an autistic child the language for their emotions is a difficult task,” wrote one mother, who explained that her child could not recognize people’s emotions from their actions and facial expressions. “We pull this book out whenever I see that my daughter does not understand how someone was feeling earlier in the day.”

“This is an ideal book to have in your home,” wrote another parent, who said, “Some children may have language delays, developmental delays or any array of speech/language pathologies that make The Way I Feel a fantastic choice to provide children with the tools they need to verbalize their feelings.”

Earlier, during National Autism Awareness Month, we were told, “The Way I Feel is absolutely a treat to read and explore. . .It’s not uncommon for children on the Autism spectrum to struggle with interpreting facial expressions and body language. . .This was an area my son had a tough time with. We started out with simple line drawings. . ., we tried showing him actual photos of people making different expressions. . .But, whaddya know, The Way I Feel worked. . .No detail has been left out, from the image to the colors on the page and even the font. The text speaks the truth and isn’t heavy-handed.”

“The Way I Feel is the best book I’ve seen for helping teach children what emotions are,” commented another parent, who said her daughter had difficulty understanding emotions and expressing them appropriately. “The illustrations themselves are large and spill from one page to the next, each conveying the emotion perfectly. . .[the book] has been a wonderful conduit for getting my daughter to learn and talk about emotions.”

Many parents and educational programs have expressed interest in a Spanish edition of The Way I Feel, which Parenting Press is now working on. If you are interested in a quantity purchase of a Spanish edition, please e-mail our marketing department and we will provide information on pre-publication retail discounts for orders of 25 or more books. For quantity purchases of the 32-page hardbound edition, or the 19-page board book, both in English, contact our sales department by email or phone, (206) 364-2900, Ext. 101.

(June 21, 2008)

California Schools Approve Publications

The Way I Feel, Parenting Press’s 32-page prize-winning picture book about emotions, and Self-Calming Cards, which show and describe how to manage feelings, are two of the Parenting Press publications approved for supplemental use in California public schools.

The Feeling Elf Cards & Games and the Decision Is Yours Series—Bully on the Bus, Finders, Keepers, Under Whose Influence, Making the Grade and First Day Blues—were also determined to meet “social content” requirements of the California Department of Education’s code.

“These guidelines ensure that materials portray democratic values, cultural pluralism, and the diversity of our population by emphasizing people in a variety of positive roles,” the Press was told.

The publications will now be included on the list of California’s Legal and Social Compliance Approved Out-of-Cycle Instructional Materials.

(January 9, 2007
Updated: February 12, 2007)

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