Educating your children is like a subject and an art that everyone must study. So now, in order to educate their children well, in both mind and personality, it’s essential that many parents have to read many kinds of books to teach their angles better.
However, speaking of books on how to teach children, there’s an avalanche of titles and publications from various authors, which is admittedly overwhelmed. That’s why here, in this article, I would like to introduce you to the 16 best parenting books you should read.
Not only guide you to teaching your children math, science or many other aspects in life like how to think independently and solve the problem on their own. There are some books talking about bullying and school violence for those who concern. So, let’s get started!
01. Teaching Kids to Think: Raising Confident, Independent, and Thoughtful Children in an Age of Instant Gratification
I’d love training my children to live independently even though they are still small and young. Of course, it’s not something like allowing them driving my car to primary school (just kidding!). But I mean here is letting them think about the solution before their parents help them out.
If you have the same desire as me, pick this book. That message is across its 13 chapters.
Read it and you’ll find out that only when parents we change, which mean we do not meet our children’s needs immediately, do not do everything and accept their failure, then they have the opportunity to solve the problems and self-manage in all situations.
The advice as well as experience from this book is contributed from the experience of therapy to children and families for more than 20 years of two psychiatrists who have helped many parents avoid the common pitfalls in child education and have additional ways to build them self-confident, independent and how to tell out their thoughts.
The articles focus on a variety of practical issues such as school, homework, examinations, friendship, relationships with people, shopping and consumption, using technology, sports, using stimulants, etc. Thanks to the detail and clear writing as well as convincing evidence of psychological treatment for many families that two American doctors – Darlene Sweetland and Ron Stolberg – have experienced, studied and summarized, I assure you this is a very easy-to-read book.
02. The Artist’s Way for Parents: Raising Creative Children
Have you ever listened to your children “effectively”?
Have you ever respected their interests yet, or you just want to “mound” them to become a person with interests and dreams of yours? Have you not applauded the idea or ambition of your child because you think it’s very “nonsense” yet?
Have you ever thought about entrusting the task of training your children to their school where they only values archetypes and accomplishments? However, to the bottom of your heart, you want you to become a person who has the ability to think independently, solving problems creatively, effectively as well as capable of mastering work and life without stereotyping?
Do you find yourself conflicting? Then this is the book for you.
“The Artist’s Way for Parents” is a golden key for those who want to explore their own creativity and their children’s through practical and easy exercises. It brings positive changes to the family. Believe me that now, the boredom has given way to the exciting new journey.
Parents you will learn to relax with your children, forget self-made pressure for themselves as well as their children, together feel comfortable to positively think and to begin the journey of creative discovery, self-confidence, self-learning, etc. Through this, your children will master their own lives.
03. Parents, Teens and Boundaries: How to Draw the Line
A very common matter when children start their puberty is changes, not only from their body, but also their attitude and characteristics. The little angle who used to be very obedient is now always against you.
I know that might do some parents feel overwhelmed in this period while the others think it’s normal as an inevitable fact of life. However, have you ever think about what has caused unreasonable rifts in your family relationships or do you really understand their child?
We always want to give the best for our children! And obviously, we do not want an invisible “boundary” between our family members. If you’re in such situation, stay calm and read this book. After reading it, you will probably change that thought. How does that “boundary” exist and why?
This book, it not only talks about the relationship of parents to their children in puberty, but also discuss about twenty components that make a healthy parent-child relationship. You should have it!
04. Permission to Parent: How to Raise Your Child with Love and Limits
I have a little bit sad childhood when my parents were always too busy to have time for me. It was full of loneliness and unhappiness. I guess that some of you used to be in the similar situation like me, right?
But instead of keeping sadness or even cry for that sad childhood stories, have you ever thought about changing your own to become the parents that you once dreamed of? I am! And it’s a big thank you to this book – Permission to Parent.
It talks about how I and other adults out there who suffered an unhappy childhood under the view of a psychiatrist – Robin Berman. He has witnessed a lot of such cases and how negative they have impacted on their lives at the present.
Many times, I wish I had the magic wand to go back in time and transform such sad moments – before they affected the present me, the way I perceived myself and the world around me. I think this book is your magic wand to change and become your wishful parents.
05. The Power of Validation: Arming Your Child Against Bullying, Peer Pressure, Addiction, Self-Harm, and Out-of-Control Emotions
Bullying – every time mentioning to that matter, I always sign anxiously. Aside from worrying about the impact on my children’s physical aspects if they were suffered bullying, what I truly lose sleep about their mentality.
If you have the same concern as me, this book will provide a road map to help build the right emotional foundation for your child’s successful life. The awareness and emotional acceptance of your child is a simple addition to parenting skills. Meanwhile, it’s also a solution for raising good and successful kids.
“The Power of Validation” is a necessary map for parents with the goal of creating healthy, self-reliant children capable of dealing with obstacles in everyday life. Parents will benefit from spending time on this great book.
06. My Secret Bully
Speaking of bullying and school violence, it’s shameful that many parents ignore what their children try to talk to them as well as need your help.
I used to be bullied at school and of course, I understand how terrible it is if my children were suffering the same things. Parents we are always busy earning money to give better life to our angles. However, sometimes, right because of our busyness, we ignore many clear signs for help from our children.
Or, after getting the problem, what to do next to help them feel better in school and in life? That’s when you need this book.
07. The Survival Guide to Bullying: Written by a Teen
Another good book which talks more about bullying is “The Survival Guide to Bullying”.
Right now, there are thousands of children being bullied all over the world. It is possible that amongst them, there are some who will become the world’s greatest figure in the future, and many others may later become doctors, actors, scientists, writers, politicians, composers, musicians, or anyone else.
Right now, the path to the destination seems difficult and painful. But believe me and believe in this book, such difficulties and obstacles do not last forever. I’m sorry if your children are suffering such bad stuff, but it’s best to stay beside them and together get through everything with them.
08. How to Teach Your Baby Math (The Gentle Revolution Series)
As parents, we love our children to the bottom of our heart and always desire to give them the best goodness. We always wonder and anxious about not only their meal and nutrition to help them develop physically, but also care about which educational method is the best to our children to unpack their intellectual potential.
In recent times, I believe that any child-loving parent knows very well that children develop and grow quickly in both physically and mentally, especially in the first year. At birth, the brain of an infant weighs only 350g. Up to 1 year, it’s 900g and in 2-year old kid, their brain is developed by 80% an adult brain. Importantly, a 6-year-old brain reaches 100% adult human size (1.300g).
So, the first six years of your children’s life are the golden period to help them discover everything about the world. It’s also time that you should maximize your child’s potential.
This book is all about that issue!
No one can deny the child’s ability to learn since their birth. Before the age 6, children can learn basic information about themselves and their families, relationships with neighbors and relatives, and know a lot of things around.
Importantly, they can learn one language or even more. So, according to Glenn Doman – author of How to Teach Your Baby Math, this is the golden age to teach anything, and obviously as soon as possible.
There are possibilities for young children only in the first 3 years of life. In addition to age 3, that ability will be lost. Glenn insists in his books that, under age 6, whatever we introduce, children are able to comprehend.
This series includes 5 books, which I highly recommend you to read them all to get the best method of education from Glenn Doman. Because each field, Glenn will give you step by step instructions, with teaching materials, study space, psychological preparation and you will surely succeed with this method if you correctly implement the advice given.
“How to Teach Your Baby Math” provides a program of visual stimulation designed to help your child harness the natural potential to learn anything. The book just shows you how easy and fun it is to teach your child about the arts, math and the natural sciences.
Your child will recognize the bugs in the garden, know about many countries in the world, discover the beauty of Van Gogh paintings and many other things. Help children develop more fully in their own ability.
Let your child stand on your own shoulder, give them a starting point from your knowledge and the ability to learn from the moment they were born. Wish you will succeed with Glenn Doman’s method – the one that has been practiced by all American mothers.
09. Teach Your Child How to Think
It would be even better if they added: “I have a mindset and I like to think.”
This book also provides the opportunity to develop such thinking for children and parents in general.
Thinking is not difficult nor boring. You do not have to be a genius or to be a good thinker.
The future of prosperity in the world will need people who have good thinking. Although the needs of everyday life have always required us to have good thinking, we must even think better when the needs and opportunities become more complex in the future.
Therefore, good thinking is vital to survive, to succeed and to be competitive in the workplace as well as in daily life
10. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens
I bet that parents we all want our children to be raised in the culture that is based on universal principles and lasts forever. Through “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens”, with these hilarious and animated stories, they will inspire and inspire such that culture.
In fact, this book has helped children around the world access seven habits effectively. In addition, the tips at the end of each story will help parents guide their children to learn about the key principles for a successful life. This book is not only for young readers but also for parents!
11. The Happiest Toddler on the Block: The New Way to Stop the Daily Battle of Wills and Raise a Secure and Well-Behaved One- to Four-Year-Old
You try to explain. You get anger.
You distract the child. You get anger.
You give a warning. You get anger.
You isolate the child (time-out). You get anger.
You soon become angry too.
What happened?
Where is your little angle? Someday ago, you were still holding your baby in your arms, the road to parents is in front of. But before you realize it, you are living with a whole new creature – ever more lovable, but also hyperactive, stubborn and hard to say. Welcome to the world of toddlers!
The toddler’s period is one of the climax stages of the parenting journey. Children at this stage will help you see the world in a completely different way – miraculously! Insects on the lawn … shapes the clouds … the “castles” built on the sand … Toddlers are always full of curiosity, enthusiasm and lovable compassion.
But toddler time is not a time of endless joy. It’s like a three-part party mixed up: two parts are wrestling matches while the other is an expedition to a jungle. Why is this period so “wild”? That’s because all of the greatest, most explosive developments in a person’s life, such as walking, talking, making friends, solving problems, are all happening within three short years.
This! It’s no exaggeration to say that in the period from 1 to 4 years old, our children are from a lovely baby, staggering like a little monkey to a young girl/boy who is always eager about this world.
All of these advances are worth it – mostly to wear down your limits, patience and clarity.
Everyone who lives with a toddler knows that mood is unpredictable, that it can change very quickly at any time. A minute ago, all was happy. And then …! Grumbling, crying, screaming and bursting into a scurvy (usually in places that make you the most embarrassed). You may have very good intentions, but by then, all you can say is “No!”, “Stop it!” Or “Do not touch it!” And this is not fun at all.
To understand your child, take a long step… backwards
To help your child understand what you are saying, try to learn the language of the child
But how to discover the secret to successfully communicate with your toddlers? “The Happiest Toddler on the Block” will give you information and advice related to caring for children from 1 to 4 years of age. It gives you new ways to say goodbye for the ejaculation, stop the euphoria and raise a 1-to-4 -year-old lovely baby.
The first part of this book will explain the interesting connections between modern toddlers and prehistoric people. Of course, even the youngest toddler is not necessarily a child of the Stone Age, but the general idea is like a window frame through which you can see your child in a totally new way.
Once you know what your child looks like at the beginning of the XXI century, your real mission will become clearer – you need to consider yourself as an ambassador from the twenty-first century to reach out to those who are prehistoric people!
Part two will show you tips for effective performance, setting limits and setting discipline for your child. You will learn how to communicate the message through the “niche” of the young, understand the importance of helping your child feel strong as well as the art of negotiating successfully with your child.
However, the purpose of the book is not to substitute for medical advice, which should be used to supplement the usual pediatrician’s advice and care. Because every child is different, you should consult your pediatrician about specific issues related to your baby.
Remember that the journey of discovery is not really about finding new lands, but about owning new perspectives.
12. Parent Effectiveness Training: The Proven Program for Raising Responsible Children
A child who wants to swim, he/she must take many months to practice. An adult who wants to learn to drive a car must also learn the theory and practice many sessions.
But every year, millions of men and women take on the most difficult and time-consuming tasks of being a parent – fully responsible for the physiology of the newborn and raising them to be human – How many people are trained for that job?
Classic but friendly, “Parent Effectiveness Training” is the pioneering book that teaches parents how to communicate more effectively with their children and provides step-by-step advice to resolve family conflicts that everybody wins.
This is also a good book for all those who are about to step into the parenting journey because it will show you:
- How to avoid becoming overbearing parents?
- How to listen to your child talk and how to make your child listen to you?
- How to teach children to “own” their problems and solve them themselves?
- How to use the “No Lose” approach to resolving conflicts?
13. How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success
Many parents are protecting and overhelping their children with many things, programming everything for children from learning, playing to work, controlling their affectionate relationships and the way they live. It all comes from love and fear in the world of many hazards.
HOWEVER, this is going to have a terrible effect: When it comes to adulthood, your son/daughter will be a ” childish adult” who always wait for someone doing everything for them or at least, guide them to doing it with no ability to think or live independently.
Many young people have a high degree, good work, royal life and even famous in a certain field, but from the bottom of their heart, they feel clearly that they are living a life borrowed from parents, feel like a loser while their parents and many others see it as a success.
That fact, it does happen in America. It’s too popular and harm the youth to keep silence anymore but sound the alarm: Stop caring too much!
As head of the Office of Student Affairs and Counseling at Stanford University (USA), as well as the mother of two teenage children, Julie Lythcott-Haims has observed the fact, analyzed and researched to make a healthier, more loving, and more compassionate way to help your child grow up, as well as motivate many parents to do this noble task.
14. Parenting Teens With Love And Logic: Preparing Adolescents for Responsible Adulthood, Updated and Expanded Edition
The book by Foster Cline and Jim Fay has opened a revolution in parenting throughout the United States and around the world.
Over the years, books have been translated into many languages around the world, reaching millions of parents who are having trouble in parenting.
The combination of love and mind in this book not only helps parents find the right path in their parenting career but also creates a win-win philosophy for both parents and their children. This philosophy has been experienced by millions of parents, whereby both sides win.
Parents win because they love their children wisely, their children also win because they can live independently and have responsibility. Close and classic, practical but no less science, the book helps parents step by step build solid bricks during the process of raising their children.
Raising children with love, teaching them with mind will help parents put love in the right place, give the right thing in addition to solve all the challenge that most modern parents have to face with. Besides, it teaches you to understand situations that make your children angry, irritated and irresponsible as well as raise an independent child with high responsibility to himself.
With the goal of raising independent children, this book is like a guide for those who have not found a way to raise their children. Parents should not create a sterile environment to cover them and the independence in your children is not something coming from nature. It all takes a process for parents to change their minds, to look back on how to raise their children, and to find a suitable method.
15. The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind
All of us must have experienced those days, right? The sleepless nights, the muddy splashes, the peanut butter stuck on the jacket, the “wars” called homework, clay wax filled on the computer keyboard, or the effort to not say, “She/he’s starting again.”
And every time you face this situation, you just want time flies so fast that it’s time to lay back to sleep. In other words, what you want only seems to be just surviving.
For our children, however, we wish to sacrifice more than just that feeling of wanting to survive. Of course, you want to overcome the angry moments. But whether you are a father, a mother or someone responsible for child care, your ultimate goal is to nurture them in the ways that will help them grow better.
You want them to build meaningful relationships, caring, and compassionate so they can study well in school, work hard and then live a responsible life, building a good sense of self.
“The Whole-Brain Child” will give you 12 revolutionary strategies to help parents nurture their child’s growing brain, overcome obstacles on the way to successful parenting and build a strong family.
I believe that all parent wants their child to develop physically and emotionally as good as possible. To do that, it requires parents to equip themselves with certain knowledge in parenting. I hope that through a long list of the best parenting books, you will get more useful tips, direction and chance to change your mind and to teach your babies better.
