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Young World
Journey of awakening
PREMA SRINIVASAN
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One of the joys of bringing up children is to awaken their sense of wonder to all that is lovely in the world. There are many more, says Nancy Krulik in her latest book for young parents.
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It has become the practice in many schools today to conduct interviews for parents before considering their children as possible candidates for admission in their institutions. It is common knowledge that parental attitudes determine the behaviour of the child in school and home situations. The best kind of bonding can only be based on love and mutual trust.
Many fathers and mothers look back with nostalgia at the spring time of their lives when they too grew up into mature adults along with their children, and say "we were best friends really; our children could always confide in us." It is also the task of the parents as responsible adults to awaken the child's sense of wonder to the beauties of our planet earth and guide them on this journey of life we are all making together. This book, entitled Raise your child's self-esteem by Nancy Krulik is all about understanding children and enabling them to grow into well-adjusted humans. Low esteem is a common factor during childhood years, which needs to be rectified, and caring parents do this best at home.
The first section entitled "Grow Together" contains 25 pages of two liners offering good advice to parents, who are also evolving into mature adults. Love is the best ingredient while establishing a strong relationship and appropriately the first piece of advice is "Tell your child you love him at least once a day." Children love repetition and they delight to hear this particular affirmation from their parents. Making a mistake is no catastrophe and every attempt, whether successful or not, should be encouraged. "I can" should always take the place of "I can't" and the latter should be slowly deleted from the child's growing vocabulary. A proper goodbye is a must always, for sneaking out leaves the child feeling insecure and `distrustful.' The second section, "Children First", points out the advantages of allowing the child to take the initiative — beginning from asking the child to use the elevator button. While engrossed in "creative play" together with the parents, the child learns to regard them as companions. This is stressed in the final section "Together" where the time spent with your child yields a rich harvest as the days go by.
Author Nancy Krulik has written more than 100 books for children and young adults. Some of them are Don't Stress, How to Keep Life's Problems Little and 1001 Ways To Be A Best Friend.
Although the advice carefully garnered and presented elegantly in a slim volume is described as "easy things to do," it may require considerable effort from the adult point of view. However, keeping in mind the positive dividends that are in store the patient parent is likely to give the snippets of advice, a try.
The author's understanding of the child psyche courses down the pages of this book and touches the right chord in the reader. The artwork, by Amanda Haley complements the text and enhances the reading experience.
Raise Your Child's
Self-esteem by Nancy Krulik, Scholastic Inc.
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