Whole-Brain Book Resources

We hope you guys have gotten some useful insight and strategies as we worked our way through The Whole-Brain Approach. The original book, The Whole-Brain Child, was published in 2011 and has been translated into dozens of languages.

Since then, authors Dan Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson have written several books on implementing Whole-Brain principles, as well as new neuroscience-based research on child development and parenting.

Here is a list of other titles you can pick up:

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Child(ish) Reads: Adventuring Together

Adventuring Together: How to Create Connections and Make Lasting Memories with Your Kids
By Greta Eskridge
224 pages.
Audiobook is 3 hrs and 54 mins.
This book is published by a Christian publisher; however, the content is not faith specific.
Chapters include personal stories as well as idea lists for kid adventures.

I first learned about Adventuring Together from the Minimalist Moms Podcast. It was three months into COVID and I was trying to rebuild my girls’ summer plans, which now no longer included our public park and splashpad. What could we do to make sure our toddlers weren’t spending the entire summer bored and indoors?

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The Girlfriends’ Guide to Surviving Multiples

Full disclosure: I’ve wanted twins since I first saw Full House in 2nd grade. I thought that having a twin was the most special thing ever. I will always stop and watch The Parent Trap (both versions). But even though I got my life-long wish after 18 months of infertility, I still cried with worry when I found out. How the f*** are we going to do this?

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Patti’s New Year’s Resolutions

Mary and I were in Las Vegas in February 2019 when she told me she wanted to start an OT blog. We talked about content and social media, and how the blog would combine her love of science with her training and with modern parenting. By November, she was ready to pull the trigger. 

I was happy to join her on the project behind the scenes, but becoming a contributor in July has been an awesome collaboration. I knew I approached parenting in a different way, but this blog has helped me explore how being a good parent also helps me be a stronger partner and a better role model for my kids. 

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Child(ish) Reads: Unselfie

There are a ton of articles about the major differences between Boomers, Millennials, Gen X and Gen Z; and how social media and screen time have driven huge cultural and sociological shifts. Now that Millennials are becoming parents, we have a very real fear: Fear that our kids could grow up to be really self-centered a**holes.

I think our most recent election is a prime example of how empathy influences our actions, our representatives, and our policies moving forward.

Here are some quick facts:

  1. Empathy means a person can recognize, understand and express their own emotions, as well as be attune to the emotions of others. Not just having touchy-feely feelings.
  2. Girls are more likely to be empathetic because parents talk about feelings more openly with daughters than with sons.
  3. Many people blame social media and screens for creating narcissistic zombie kids, but there is much, much more to the rising empathy gap.

Unselfie: Why Empathetic Kids Succeed in Our All-About-Me World
By Michele Borba, Ed.D.

Instead of giving you a play-by-play review of this great book, I want to talk about the things that stuck with me; the great content that not only will help me raise my daughters for the future, but also can shed light on many adults in the present.

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