Paula Spencer offers candid, commonsense perspectives on family life, covering everything from baby care to senior care and self-care. Her writing is characterized by a direct and practical approach to the challenges and joys of parenting and family living. Through her work, she provides readers with useful advice and support.
Sourcebook covering pregnancy and childbirth from conception through the first weeks of a baby's life. Includes information on physical and emotional changes during pregnancy, fetal development, eating and fitness, special situations, work concerns, and newborn basics.
Lose the Guilt, Love Your InstinctsIf the latest “breakthrough” child-development theory, parenting technique, or child-appropriate diet makes you worry or groan (or just want to lie down for a nap), it’s time to make way for Momfidence! Paula Spencer, parenting expert and mother of four, provides refreshing, down-to-earth proof that most of the business of raising confident, healthy children involves nothing more complicated that trusting your instincts, using common sense, and above all, hanging on to your humor.Momfidence! •Using “perfect” only to describe such wonders as a ripe peach, a cloudless day at the beach, or a husband who does diapers and dinner. . . It has no application whatsoever in describing motherhood.•Recognizing that there are appropriate times and places for lying, yelling, threatening, bribing, and saying “I told you so”•Sending yourself to time-out—preferably with chocolate and/or your spouse•Being completely amnesiac about the day’s exasperating transgressions when you peek in your children’s bedrooms at night and watch them sleepBased on her popular Woman’s Day and Parenting columns, Momfidence! explains how obsessing less and winging it more can keep you sane—and your kids healthy and happy. It’s a hilarious look at “perfect motherhood” that cuts parents a long-overdue break by reminding us that we’re not the amateurs here—we’re all experts, too.
How to eliminate tantrums and raise a patient, respectful and cooperative one- to four-year-old
Filled with stage-by-stage tips, strategies, and exercises, this book will help readers manage all the major challenges parents face, including tantrums, bedtime struggles, separation anxiety, toilet training, and aggression
ARTHUR RACKHAM emerged in the early 1900's as one of the world's preeminent artists and illustrators, and his unique style quickly made him famous. Acclaimed for his beautiful and detailed color paintings and the imaginative pen-and-ink drawings that he created for contemporary children's stories, he also depicted grim scenes from the books of Edgar Allan Poe. MyCOLORArt Color & Draw books are intended for adults and older children, and are always interesting, entertaining, and fun to do. They're filled with dozens of ready-made images for you to color, and scores of blank pages on which you can write, doodle, and draw. With their complex designs and intricate details, these books are sure to challenge and hold the interest of any recreational artist. They are a great way to express your inner creative self and will reward you with many hours of relaxation and enjoyment.
An etiquette guide for pregnant women offers answers to questions concerning maternity clothes, baby showers, birth announcements, naming the baby, adoption, birth ceremonies, and maternity leave.
The New Way to Stop the Daily Battle of Wills and Raise a Secure and Well-Behaved One- to Four-Year-Old
Perfect for expecting parents who want to prepare themselves for the challenging toddler years (which starts around eight months of age), this essential guide, a national bestseller by respected pediatrician and child development expert Dr. Harvey Karp, not only helps reduce tantrums but makes happy kids even happier by boosting patience, cooperation, and self-confidence.Toddlers can drive you bonkers…so adorable and fun one minute…so stubborn and demanding the next! Yet, as unbelievable as it sounds, there is a way to turn the daily stream of “nos” and “don’ts” into “yeses” and hugs…if you know how to speak your toddler’ s language. In one of the most useful advances in parenting techniques of the past twenty-five years, Dr. Karp reveals that toddlers, with their immature brains and stormy outbursts, should be thought of not as pint-size people but as pintsize…cavemen.Having noticed that the usual techniques often failed to calm crying toddlers, Dr. Karp discovered that the key to effective communication was to speak to them in their own primitive language. When he did, suddenly he was able to soothe their outbursts almost every time! This amazing success led him to the realization that children between the ages of one and four go through four stages of “evolutionary” growth, each linked to the development of the brain, and each echoing a step in prehistoric humankind’s journey to civilization:• The “Charming Chimp-Child” (12 to 18 months): Wobbles around on two legs, grabs everything in reach, plays a nonstop game of “monkey see monkey do.”• The “Knee-High Neanderthal” (18 to 24 months): Strong-willed, fun-loving, messy, with a vocabulary of about thirty words, the favorites being “no” and “mine.”• The “Clever Caveman” (24 to 36 months):Just beginning to learn how to share, make friends, take turns, and use the potty.• The “Versatile Villager” (36 to 48 months): Loves to tell stories, sing songs and dance, while trying hard to behave.To speak to these children, Dr. Karp has developed two extraordinarily effective techniques:1) The “fast food” rule—restating what your child has said to make sure you got it right;2) The four-step rule—using gesture, repetition, simplicity, and tone to help yourirate Stone-Ager be happy again.Once you’ve mastered “toddler-ese,” you will be ready to apply behavioral techniques specific to each stage of your child’ s development, such as teaching patience and calm, doing time-outs (and time-ins), praise through “gossiping,” and many other strategies. Then all the major challenges of the toddler years—including separation anxiety, sibling rivalry, toilet training, night fears, sleep problems, picky eating, biting and hitting, medicine taking — can be handled in a way that will make your toddler feel understood. The result: fewer tantrums, less yelling, and, best of all, more happy, loving time for you and your child.