Simplicity Parenting- Book Review

This book is amazing! Absolutely amazing. I have been reading parenting books for years (27 years to be exact!). The first one that I have a distinct memory of, released the year my oldest daughter was born, is A Mother's Touch by Elise Arndt.

I tend to stick to Christian parenting books and have read many from popular authors- and I love them all. But, with the disclaimer that this book is not from a Christian viewpoint, this just might be my favorite parenting book yet.




This is one of those rare books that inspires you to act- right away. It does not just introduce a concept- it explains it, gives examples, and makes the possibility of enacting change seem manageable! Whether it is decluttering your child's environment, creating routine, managing a schedule, or reducing media in your child's life, this book gives you the information to deal with it and solid reasons to want to deal with it.

I think I may be more moved by this book than a newer parent would be. Had I read it years ago (it was not written then), I really believe that Simplicity Parenting would have had a huge impact on my daughter's life. Even still, this book has given me a greater understanding of what life might have looked like to her as a little one, and it has given my husband (who is also super impressed with this book) and me some great tools for the parenting journey that we still have ahead of us.

The examples in this book seem to be from traditionally schooled families. In some ways, I think this book has even more to offer homeschool families. Our children are with us all day long; the flow and rhythm of our at home day is ongoing - making the environment we provide possibly even more important. And, the outside offerings that can keep us overstressed and over-scheduled (addressed in this book) are even more tempting for us as we try to make sure to "not leave any gaps" in our children's education.

I am tempted to take it step by step and explain in even greater detail, but the book has done that. You can view a fairly large excerpt on Amazon.com to get an idea of whether this a book you want to purchase. I did check my local library and Simplicity Parenting is on the shelves there, so that is another option for you to check (caution- I did want to underline a lot in this book).

Thank you, Jen, for your review/recommendation of this book! I am so glad you blogged about it.


Comments

  1. UnknownAugust 16, 2010 at 3:27 AM

    great review! I too highlighted quite a bit of this book, it really is a gem!

    ReplyDelete
  2. lAugust 16, 2010 at 5:01 AM

    This book sounds perfect to me! Our library has it on order, so now I am off to read the excerpt online. Thanks for the link and the review.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Paula (Belgium)August 18, 2010 at 3:55 AM

    Thank you for this review. I check it on the mentioned website and Amazon. I like the idea of scaling down stuff, information, choices and filtering our adult-life and so bringing back childhood enchantment.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Our Morning Time

Image
Look at me writing 2 posts so close together!! So... I have loved listening to the podcasts on morning time called "Your Morning Basket". I have listened to all of them. Very inspiring! They are all worthwhile to listen to, but I have to tell you that episode #2 with Andrew Pudewa is a game changer (in the homeschool sense). We have had our own variations on morning time in our house. When my girls were younger (they are now 31, 30, 28 and 22 years old), we had "seat work time" and "couch time". I'd say that couch time was our version of what is now being called morning time. For the most part, we read historical fiction, discussed history (I would either read from or discuss from a text), learned a little geography, read the bible, had prayer time, and had some pretty fun discussions. There was a transition when my now 28 year old became sort of a teachers helper for her younger sister. I remember working on art appreciation with her at the h...
Read more

Week in Review: February 1-5 2016

Image
Lots of baby care around here as the boys' big sister (our second daughter, Jessica) was having her fifth baby. It was a week full of sword fighting, cuddles, disney movies, books, and coloring. It's also been a week full of colds. The 2 year old twins had a cold, which I assume James caught from them (although every one in the world seems to have it, so not necessarily). The problem is that no matter how many times I caution the boys, who can resist cuddling with a sweet little toddler who does not feel well? I guess germs are meant to be shared. In the way of school, we have been in "keep up" mode. Paul's strongest focus is on his Dave Ramsey finance class (which I highly recommend), his Spanish class, and his economics course. http://www.daveramsey.com/store/search.ep?keyWords=homeschool http://www.livinglanguage.com/languagelab/spanish  (I cannot recommend this highly enough. The books and cds make it easy to open and go. Additionally, the...
Read more

Din-spiration Part 6

Image
This is sort of a lighthearted post, but I am going to start by saying that all those in Paris and the World are in my prayers. There are never words when something so unspeakable happens. As it has been pointed out, it happens far more often that we usually hear about in places that are more obscure to most of us. I'm going to continue with this planned post as most of us still have "normal life" to attend to and families to feed amidst this very stressful backdrop. To keep myself accountable, I was going to keep up posting about my crusade to eat at home. I have failed the last few weeks, but the resolve to eat at home has not! The great thing is that on the days when resolve wanes in me, my husband picks it up. He is often the one to encourage me that he can stop by and pick up an ingredient I forgot, or to step in and create a dish himself. He chose make us a Lasagna last week- for me, that is a more involved dinner than I will take on a week day. Rather than...
Read more