Great Early Childhood Parenting Books to Read
Caring for and Raising Infants, Toddlers and Preschoolers
May 8, 2009
When investing in parenting books, you will want to get ones that will be a great read and filled with practical information the first time you go through them, but also something with enough substance and insight that you will be able to refer back to them throughout your years of caregiving for infants, toddlers and preschoolers.
Physical Care and Milestones for the First Twelve Months
What to Expect the First Year, by Heidi Murkoff, Arlene Eisenberg, and Sandee Hathaway [Workman Publishing Company, 2008] provides information regarding the physical care of babies for each month of the first year. The book delivers viewpoints on topics parents often wrestle with, like letting a baby cry it out during the night. You can read parenting questions asked and answered. Even if you do not agree with the opinions given, your insight into parenting will increase.
Understanding the Child You are Raising
In Your Baby and Child: From Birth to Age Five, by Penelope Leach [Knopf, 1997], physical care is covered, but the real gem in this book is the psychosocial information regarding infants, toddlers and preschoolers. Kids have fears and worries. It is easy to forget how much children must learn about themselves and interacting with others in just a short time. This book provides insight to why children sometimes say or do what they do.
The Key to Having Respectful and Informative Conversations
How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk, by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish, [Collins Living, 1999] is full of realistic exercises to practice, learn and improve respectful communication skills. Cartoons get the point across regarding the importance of how you choose and use your words. Reading this book will be one of those “ahem” moments where the skills seem so obvious but are overlooked in the sometimes frantic moments of parenting.
Society and its Impact on Raising Children
Children First: What Society Must Do – and is Not Doing – for Children Today, by Penelope Leach [Vintage, 1995], is a look at society and raising children. Society does not encourage steps that need taking to be able to give children what they need in their lives. Yet there are alternatives that could be embraces. It is not light reading but rather than just filled with personal opinion, studies are referred to that validate information given.
Reading these early childhood parenting books will provide valuable and insightful information from helping to guide you through the first weeks of caring for a newborn baby, to skills for talking to your child. For better understanding your child and to gain an insight as a parent about the society in which you are raising children, these books are definitely worth reading.
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