Parenting is a wonderful journey filled with challenges, happiness, and endless learning opportunities. In today’s world, all parents are looking to communicate well and build a strong bond within the family to create a loving and secure environment for their children. Connective parenting is a good approach that focuses on the development of a healthy and strong emotional connection between parents and children, it’s a powerful way for a child’s emotional well-being and overall development.
Table of Contents
Connective parenting helps to Create a nurturing environment that encourages children to develop socially, emotionally, and academically. It involves being responsive to a child’s physical and emotional or mental needs by performing positive discipline techniques, honest communication, and open fostering. Bonding between child and parents plays a vital role, it lays the foundation of a healthy and trusting relationship on the other hand effective communication leads to a better understanding of thoughts and feelings to solve the problem and express the needs openly. In this guide, we will explore the 5 Books that can help you deepen your understanding and give practical strategies to implement in your daily life:
Book 1: There’s A Happy Moon in My Side
This Book is written by Richard Black, a coach, counselor, and founder of Mind Health, and illustrated by Tepene Marsden. In today’s world mental illness increases more in children and youth, This book contributes to building a solid emotional connection between parents and children. The book is about the journey of a young girl, Lucy, who wakes up one morning to discover a Happy Moon by her side. Lucy finds the Moon is a best friend of hers who helps her in fun and difficult times.
The Happy Moon helps her to understand her feelings to see things differently and helps her to take useful action on them. At the back of the book, some tools are mentioned for parents, carers, and educators to develop children’s emotional awareness, resilience, and well-being. This book has been designed for readers who want to provide something for their children to read on their own and then discuss
Book 2: Finding My Calm
Children have a high tendency to feel the upside and downside of life emotions at a young age. This book helps connective parents to teach their children how to build confidence cope with stress and realize they can overcome challenging situations. It covers a fun ‘Five, Four, Three, Two, One’ rhyme which is an easy way for children to remember to use their senses to find their way back to calm. It is about stopping and remembering the count 5,4,3,2,1.
• Five things I can see,
• Four things I can feel,
• Three things I can hear,
• Two things I can smell and
• One thing I can taste
The book is written by Rebekah Lipp who authors the best-selling range of books about emotions including Aroha’s Way, and illustrated by Craig Phillips. This book helps to create a strong bond between children and parents by lowering emotional literacy.
Book 3: My First Book Of Feelings
This book is inspired by Montessori methods, which show the five basic emotions of young children. It is designed as a first exploration of feelings for toddlers and grown-ups, especially for 3 years ages. This book allows children to identify, imagine, mimic, and learn about the feelings that they feel in the world around them. The color associations in this book are silly relatable examples that help children to learn emotional literacy at a younger age. This book uses the Montessori method which promotes self-motivation and promotes a drive for knowledge in the children.
Book 4: My Calm Me Down
My Calm Me Down is written by Trace Moroney, she is an internationally acclaimed children’s author and illustrator. She is a passionate writer and creates beautiful children’s books with meaningful content that helps children face any situation with positive emotions in their lives. Every parent and carer who wants to calm the tantrum of their young children should get help from this book. The book describes the situations and feelings that create tantrum behavior in a child. It involves physical activities like positive self-talk, breathing, and mindfulness practices that help to control emotions at a young age, also has supportive and experimental guidance for the parents and caregivers who want to control the emotional rollercoaster of a child.
Book 5: When I’m Feeling Happy
We know it’s hard to hard to cope with difficult emotions for everyone, especially with small children. This book is designed for the purpose of building strong emotional strength for children 3+ years of age. It describes how feeling happy can make you bouncy and full of joy. This book shows a bunny character who plays humous activities in different situations, it helps children to understand their feelings and make a stronger bond with their friends and family. This involves some activities that build confidence, and self-esteem and contribute to a healthy emotional foundation in the children’s life. Parents can read it while spending time with their children like helping in doing their homework and before a good night’s sleep.
Connective parenting is an invaluable approach that creates a strong bond and enhances effective communication between parents and children. By exploring these 5 books on connective parenting, such as “There’s A Happy Moon In My Side”, “Finding My Calm”, “My First Book Of Feelings”, “My Calm Me Down”, and “When I’m Feeling Happy”, parents can gain, practical tips, and strategies to enhance their parenting journey. Adopting connective parenting principles can lead to better communication and a deeper connection, nurturing a healthy environment for both parents and children.
FAQs
- What age group are these books suitable for?
- These books offer valuable insights and strategies for parents of children from infants to teenagers.
- Are these books applicable to single parents?
- Absolutely! The principles and strategies discussed in these books are relevant and beneficial for all parents, including single parents.
- Can I implement the strategies mentioned in these books with multiple children?
- Yes, the strategies can be applied to families with multiple children. They provide guidance on fostering connection and communication within the family unit.
- Are there any practical exercises or activities included in these books?
- Yes, many of these books include practical exercises, activities, and examples that allow parents to apply the concepts in real-life situations.
- Can these books help improve my relationship with my teenager?
- Yes, these books offer valuable insights into building strong relationships with teenagers. They provide guidance on effective communication and understanding adolescent development.
