Family Learning

Paula Lillard, director of a Montessori school ranging in age from 18 months to 15 years, provides a clear and cogent introduction to the Montessori program for the elementary and later years. In detailed accounts, Lillard shows how children acquire the skills to answer their own questions, learn to manage freedom with responsibility, and maintain a high level of intellectual stimulation by using the Montessori method. This is an essential handbook for parents and teachers who have chosen the Montessori alternative for the older child.

Cutting. It’s become a buzzword lately, but very few books address it from the perspective of a youth worker or concerned friend. Marv Penner has lived in this world for the past few years, talking with teenagers online and meeting with them to understand what drives them and why they self-injure. In this timely and helpful book, youth workers, coaches, teachers, and others will get the information they need to begin to understand and help (or point to help) kids who cut.

Nine-year-old David has recently lost his mother to a freak accident, his salesman father is constantly on the road, and he is letting his anger out on his grandmother. Sarcastic and bossy 13-year-old Primrose lives with her childlike, fortuneteller mother, and a framed picture is the only evidence of the father she never knew. Despite their differences, David and Primrose forge a tight yet tumultuous friendship.

Is school for your kids a resounding success? For most of us, education was an uncomfortable process of sitting in stifling classrooms, listening to tedious lectures, struggling over stressful exams, and feeling like we were wasting our time and energy. There were class clowns, ruthless bullies, teacher’s pets, popular kids, and students no one wanted to be around.

When both Eddie's parents catch a disease that makes them turn yellow, go a bit crinkly around the edges, and smell of old hot-water bottles, it's agreed he should go and stay with relatives at their house, Awful End. Unfortunately for Eddie, those relatives are Mad Uncle Jack and Even Madder Aunt Maud...

Elizabeth, a member of the "sandwich generation", people caught in the middle of simultaneously caring for their children and for their aging parents, is the mother of Ava and the daughter of Daddy, and responsible for both. Hers is the story of a woman's struggle to keep her family whole, to raise her child in a house of laughter and love, and to keep her father from hiding the house keys in his slippers.

Kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk! Sal and her mother are picking blueberries to can for the winter. But when Sal wanders to the other side of Blueberry Hill, she discovers a mama bear preparing for her own long winter. Meanwhile Sal's mother is being followed by a small bear with a big appetite for berries! Will each mother go home with the right little one?

Homeschooling isn't always easy. There are hiccups and bumps, and there will be plenty of times that we doubt if we are really capable of teaching our kids well. In More than Enough, unexpected homeschooler of 12 years Kara Stephenson Anderson shares with warmth and honesty about real-life homeschooling. Written for any parent - those brand new to homeschooling and those who have been at this for years, More than Enough is a guide for putting connection ahead of perfection, letting go of standards and expectations, and living a life of learning and love together.

From first dates and successful relationships to friends, colleagues, and new acquaintances, unlock the hidden secrets to successful communication with anyone and learn to flourish in any environment. Guaranteed to change the way you think about relationships forever, The Science of Interpersonal Relations empowers you to identify those communication skills you need to work on and develop powerful techniques that will ensure your interpersonal relations thrive.

Karen Fine always knew that she wanted to be a vet and wasn't going to let anything stop her: not her allergy to cats, and not the fact that in the '80s veterinary medicine was still a mostly male profession. Inspired by her grandfather, a compassionate doctor who paid house calls to all his (human) patients, Dr. Fine persevered, and brought her Oupa's principles into her own practice, which emphasizes the need to understand her patients’ stories to provide the best possible care.

Radical Unschooling is a progressive parenting philosophy, which includes children learning at home. It is different from homeschooling in that children are not forced to follow curriculum lessons and tests. Radical Unschooling philosophy focuses on trust of a child's innate ability to learn without coercion and invites children to explore their passions. The parent's role is to facilitate their interests and curiosity. Radical Unschooling - the book - focuses also on the evolutionary aspect of parenting and human consciousness....

No time to learn French? Want to teach your children but don't speak French yourself? Lightning-Fast French helps you incorporate French into your everyday activities, so you learn while doing the things you already do. You'll teach your children French the same way you taught them English - by interacting with them as you do daily activities. No need to set aside extra time in your busy schedule, and no need to speak French yourself - with this unique program, you both learn as you go.

When Stephen, raised as an orphan, learns that he has inherited an estate in the Cornish countryside, he has no idea what to expect. And when he arrives at Lansbury Hall, there is no one to greet him...or so he thinks. But waiting for Stephen are his great uncle's diary of a journey long ago up the Amazon with a native guide...and a hidden valley filled with creatures from the Amazon rainforest.

Through the alternating voices of 12-year-old Morning Girl and her younger brother Star Boy, we step into the extraordinarily rich lives of an indigenous family on a Bahamian Island in 1492, just as their paradise is about to be discovered and a new world order begins to take shape.

The mother of a bullied first grader, popular blogger Carrie Goldman's inspiring true story triggered an outpouring of support from online communities around the world. In Bullied, she gives us a guide to the crucial lessons and actionable guidance she's learned about how to stop bullying before it starts. It is a book born from Goldman's post about the ridicule her daughter suffered from bringing a Star Wars thermos to school.

One of the greatest of French novelists, Balzac, trained as a lawyer, was a great judge of human nature. In 1833 he conceived the idea of linking together his novels so that they would comprehend the whole society in a series of books. This plan eventually led to 90 novels and novellas (including more than 2,000 characters) that he called "The Human Comedy". Balzac's huge and ambitious plan drew a picture of the customs, atmosphere, and habits of the bourgeois France.

Kids are naturally curious, but when it comes to school it seems like their minds are turned off. Why is it that they can remember the smallest details from their favorite television programs, yet miss the most obvious questions on their history test? Cognitive scientist Dan Willingham has focused his acclaimed research on the biological and cognitive basis of learning and has a deep understanding of the daily challenges faced by classroom teachers.

The law of attraction is based on the idea that everything in the universe has a polarity, meaning that everything - from the food you eat to the people you talk to, from the things you say to the things you think - contains either a positive or a negative kind of energy. Notice that being with people who complain or rant a lot tends to make you feel bad, even though you're not exactly experiencing what they're going through - that's the law of attraction working its magic.

Meggie Dillon's life has been turned upside down by World War II. Her older brother Eddie enlisted and was shipped off to fight in Europe. And people say that anywhere else Grandpa would be turned in because he's German, and people might think he's a spy. Is it true? Could Grandpa be taken away?

Peter Pan, the mischievous imp who refuses to grow up, lands in the Darling's proper middle-class home to look for his shadow. He befriends Wendy, John, and Michael and teaches them to fly (with a little help from fairy dust). He and Tinker Bell whisk them off to Neverland where they encounter the Red Indians, the Little Lost Boys, pirates, and the dastardly Captain Hook.