Review: Raising A Successful Child:: Discover and Nurture Your Child's Talents

Raising a Successful Child:Discover and Nurture Your Child's Talents by Sandra Burt and Linda Perlis

(Hosts of Parents' Perspective Radio Show)

Description: This book is based on the belief that all children have talent and potential — and so do all parents. To the familiar four talents that most parents try to bring out in their children — artistic, musical, athletic, and academic — Raising a Successful Child adds six more: empathic listening, idea generation, natural leadership, natural comic ability, spatial aptitude, and negotiation skills.

The authors teach parents how children function so the parents themselves can identify their children's strengths. The activities and exercises guide parents on a journey that leads to discovering each child's many innate talents. Raising a Successful Child shows parents how to support their children's interests and nurture their strengths while opening them to new experiences and avoiding unhealthy parental pressure.

This is a book that I received from Mini Book Expo and Ulysses Press . I was interested in reading this book as a parent of a 10 year old child and was hoping to learn a thing or two. Raising a Successful Child is a book that is presented in a simple format that is parent friendly and filled with good advice and suggestions. To get the most out of the book, the authors explain in the introduction that the first 3 chapters give a foundation for the rest of the book. It is a good idea to read those chapters first. Then the other chapters are arranged by subjects and can be read in any order as the subject applies to your needs at the time. Each chapter then has an "In Short" section that gives helpful ideas that apply to that subject. Some of the subjects the authors address are: Alone time and Creativity, Learning Tools, Teamwork, Partnership between Parent and School, Overscheduling Activities, Teamwork, Value of Family and More. There is also an appendix of resources and a significant Bibliography to reference at the end of the book. This book would be a good resource to new parents and parents of young school aged children. For me, I didn't find that much new information in this book. It could be that because my child is older I have already dealt with some of the issues addressed. Also, I found that some things didn't apply to my family. The nice thing about this book is that it does have chapters on different subjects that you can refer to as they apply to your child and family situation. I did like the positive attitude and ideas that it reminded parents to think about. The authors encourage being a nurturing parent and that this would empower your child to be successful. They remind parents that we grow and learn from our mistakes and should try to enjoy the adventure of parenting!

The authors, Sandra Burt and Linda Perlis are the producers and hosts of the award-winning weekly radio program, Parents’ Perspective, interviewing guest experts on a different child rearing issue each week. You can find more information about the authors and their radio program at their website Parents' Perspective.