THREE SUMMER READING TIPS
Read with Your Kids - Depending on their ages and interests, you could read aloud, listen to them read aloud, take turns reading aloud, or read the same book independently and discuss periodically.
Let Reading Be Fun - Kids who love what they’re reading will read more and learn more from what they’re reading. Be sure they have opportunities to select their own books (e-books, magazines, and comics, too!). (McClung, Barry, Neebe, et al., 2019).
Participate in Memphis Public Library’s Explore Memphis - Be sure to sign up for summer reading and fun activities through our local public library.
The Art of Screen time
Anya Kamenetz
Many have been quick to declare this the dawn of a neurological and emotional crisis, but solid science on the subject is surprisingly hard to come by. In The Art of Screen Time, Anya Kamenetz--an expert on education and technology, as well as a mother of two young children--takes a refreshingly practical look at the subject. She hones a simple message, a riff on Michael Pollan's well-known "food rules": Enjoy Screens. Not too much. Mostly with others. This brief but powerful dictum forms the backbone of a philosophy that will help parents moderate technology in their children's lives, curb their own anxiety, and create room for a happy, healthy family life with and without screens.
Hold On To Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More than Peers
Gordon Neufeld & Gabor Maté
Hold On to Your Kids explains the causes of thebreakdown of parental influence—and demonstrates ways to “reattach” to sons and daughters, establish the proper hierarchy in the home, make kids feel safe and understood, and earn back your children’s loyalty and love. This updated edition also specifically addresses the unprecedented parenting challenges posed by the rise of digital devices and social media. By helping to reawaken instincts innate to us all, Neufeld and Maté will empower parents to be what nature intended: a true source of contact, security, and warmth for their children.
The Child in the Family
Dr. Maria Montessori
This book explains the Montessori philosophy. Emphasizing that children from birth on should be treated with respect, the same respect we would have when we have a guest in the house. She talks about the newborn period and one wishes our kids doctors would read it, then she writes about kids and teens and their relationship with their parents. [Summary from Goodreads.]
ONLINE RESOURCES
Guidepost montessori free webinar series
Guidepost Montessori has been hosting a series of free webinars on Montessori, child development, relevant research, and parenting topics.
Common Sense Media
With a vision of supporting families taking charge of their digital choices, Common Sense Media provides reviews of books, films, video games, & apps for parents. This large library of independent age-based ratings and reviews is a helpful resource for parents.
Embrace Race
A multiracial community working to meet the challenges that race poses to our children, families, and communities.
2019-2020 MMS COMMUNITY BOOK CLUB SELECTIONS
If you missed any of our book club reads this year, they would make great summer reading.
Selections from To Educate the Human Potential
Maria Montessori
Selections from this book, which is intended to help teachers to envisage the child’s needs after the age of six, will help parents gain a better understanding of Montessori for elementary-aged children. The AMI claims that “the average boy or girl of twelve years who has been educated till then at one of our schools knows at least as much as the finished high school product of several years’ seniority, and the achievement has been at no cost of pain or distortion to body or mind.”
The Collapse of Parenting: How We Hurt Our Kids When We Treat them Like Grown-ups
Leonard Sax, PhD
Leonard Sax argues that rising levels of obesity, depression, and anxiety among young people can be traced to parents abdicating their authority. The result is children who have no standard of right and wrong, who lack discipline, and who look to their peers and the Internet for direction. Sax shows how parents must reassert their authority - by limiting time with screens, by encouraging better habits at the dinner table, and by teaching humility and perspective - to renew their relationships with their children. Drawing on nearly thirty years of experience as a family physician and psychologist, along with hundreds of interviews with children, parents, and teachers, Sax offers a blueprint parents can use to help their children thrive in an increasingly complicated world.
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Race
Robin DiAngelo, PhD
Antiracist educator Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of white fragility and “allows us to understand racism as a practice not restricted to ‘bad people.’ Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue. In this in-depth exploration, DiAngelo examines how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively.
The Happiness Advantage
Shawn Achor
Research shows that happy employees are more productive, more creative, and better problem solvers than their unhappy peers. And positive people are significantly healthier and less stressed and enjoy deeper social interaction than the less positive people around them. Drawing on his original research—including one of the largest studies of happiness ever conducted—and work in boardrooms and classrooms across forty-two countries, Achor shows us how to rewire our brains for positivity and optimism to reap the happiness advantage in our lives, our careers, and even our health.
CHAPTER BOOKS TO READ ALOUD WITH YOUR KIDS
These are good for reading to multiple ages at the same time.
Primary & Older
Abel’s Island- William Steig
All-of-a-Kind Family - Sidney Taylor
The Borrowers - Mary Norton
Farmer Boy- Laura Ingalls Wilder
Fortunately the Milk - Neil Gaiman
James & the Giant Peach- Roald Dahl
The Wizard of Oz- L. Frank Baum
Magnolia I & Older
Because of Winn Dixie - Kate DiCamillo
Beedle the Bard - J.K. Rowling
The Girl Who Circumnavigated the Earth in a Ship of Her Own Making - Catherynne Valente
The Mysterious Benedict Society-Trenton Lee Stewart
Ruby Holler Sharon Creech
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon - Grace Lin