Child(ish) Reads

Child(ish) Reads: The Learning Game

| Patti Webb

Obviously for #backtoschool, we’re going to review a learning title. I requested The Learning Game from NetGalley earlier this year.

Personally, I may have gotten to a point where parenting books are starting to be redundant. I don’t usually post bad reviews, preferring to just skip over them and share something better. However, I think I’m due for a little rant…

The Learning Game: Teaching Kids to Think for Themselves, Embrace Challenge, and Love Learning by Ana Lorena Fábrega.

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Child(ish) Reads: Underestimated: The Power and Wisdom of Teenage Girls

| Patti Webb

I jumped on this book so fast.

Luckily, it has a nice little fit for Tuesday’s Throwback post on kids developing Autonomy.  So let’s connect the two, while I share my review and takeaways.

Underestimated: The Wisdom and Power of Teenage Girls by Chelsey Goodan.

Chelsey Goodan has been an academic tutor and mentor for sixteen years, with a particular emphasis on the empowerment of teenage girls. She speaks regularly to audiences about gender justice, conducts workshops, and coaches parents on how to better understand and connect with their daughters. For this book, she compiles years of working with girls one-on-one and the common threads she has seen in their experience.

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Child(ish) Review: Inside Out 2

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

When we first saw the trailer for Inside Out 2, we knew we had to get it on the blog ASAP. From the Whole-Brain Child to executive function, our posts cover a lot of a child’s emotional development as well as physical development. So we made it a movie night and now are bringing you our first actual Child(ish) movie review.

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Child(ish) Reads: The Book of Mothers

| Patti Webb

The Book of Mothers by Carrie Mullins is pretty much the dissertation paper I’ve always wanted to write.

Millennial moms characteristically have done a lot of emotional work: reflecting back on their childhood trying to understand the context of how they were parented, and trying to figure out exactly what type of mom they want to be. A large percentage of our parenting is going to come from our own parents and experience, but TV, movies, books, and pop culture give us plenty of model moms to take note of.

So put on your AP Lit hat, and let’s get some close textual analysis.

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Child(ish) Reads: How to Raise a Healthy Gamer

| Patti Webb

I usually don’t have two book reviews this close…

I received an advance copy of How to Raise a Healthy Gamer and was planning on saving it for May when we have a whole week talking only about video games. I’m only about 70% done with this book, but I think the psychology and framework can be applied to other things besides gaming.

Author Dr. Alok Kanojia introduces himself as a former video game-addicted undergrad who got kicked out of UT Austin for skipping nearly all of his classes. Kanojia then went to a monastery in India when he realized he did indeed have a problem. There, he learned the power of the mind to control his own thoughts (in addition to yoga, meditation and Reiki) and returned to college. He now has a medical degree in Psychiatry.

In addition to being a therapist, Kanojia owns a mental health coaching company called Healthy Gamer that provides resources to overcome video game addiction. The book, How to Raise a Healthy Gamer: End Power Struggles, Break Bad Screen Habits, and Transform Your Relationship with Your Kids, helps parents understand modern video game addiction and work with their kids to create a plan to establish healthy gaming boundaries. It publishes March 12 and is available for pre-order.

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