The Book List - June

I am thankful to have been raised in a family of readers and to now have my own family of readers.  Just this afternoon, Tabby read a 288 page book.

Solomon has taken to swiping Frank's reading glasses lately.  Tabby and I usually make a run for the camera when he does.

After reading French Kids Eat Everything by Karen LeBillon several months ago (see my blog post about the book here), I kept encountering the book Bringing Up Bebe, a book on French parenting, in things I was reading.  I finally bought a copy and found it fascinating.  So first on my list of books I read last month:

JUNE:

Bringing Up Bebe: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting by Pamela Druckerman - This book was written by an American journalist who is living in Paris with her family. The book was so interesting as it was a glimpse into child raising norms in France.  There are some major difference between French and American parenting for sure, though parents in both countries love their children.  If I ever have another baby, I plan to follow the French parenting method of helping babies sleep through the night by 3-4 months old - done without letting babies "cry it out."  (Tabby slept through the night early on but neither of my sons did.)  I also like the way French parents teach their little children to "wait."  They intentionally "frustrate" their little children - teaching them to how to wait - and guess what.  It is apparently rare to ever see a French child have a tantrum in public.  (It's the American or English children having the tantrums there, not the French kids!)  There are a number of other things I learned from the book that I am using with my kids.  But there are also some things, just like the author, that I just don't understand.  One example is that French mothers stop nursing after only a few months.  This seems so strange since so much research shows the enormous benefits of nursing through a baby's first year.  There are a couple other things that I would never choose to do, as a homeschooling Christian mama.  But from what I understand, Christianity continues to decline in France.  And I'm not sure homeschooling exists.  (As an interesting aside, I recently learned that there are only 2 countries in the world that have a huge homeschooling population - the United States and India.)  Aside from the things I didn't agree with, there is quite a bit of French parenting that really is very wise.

Bebe Day By Day: 100 Keys to French Parenting by Pamela Druckerman - I liked the above so much that I read the author's other book on French parenting.  This is a shorter book that is a summary of Bringing Up Bebe.  It's a good review if you've already read the other book and it's a good, concise "just the facts ma'am" type book for those that want to read something quick.  I liked it but I liked Bringing Up Bebe best because it had all the details and the full story.

The Mood Cure: The 4-Step Program to Take Charge of Your Emotions -- Today by Julia Ross, M.A. - After Tabby took "The Mood Cure Questionnaire" online (see here), I got this book to see about giving her some supplements to help her in some health/emotional areas.  The book was interesting and was similar to Female Brain Gone Insane, a book that prescribed amino acid supplements that REALLY helped me to feel better when I was dealing with depression over Lilly's death and postpartum issues with Solomon.  (You can read my blog post about that here.)  I think The Mood Cure had a lot of useful information in a lot of areas of health.

Montessori From the Start: The Child at Home, From Birth to Age Three by Paula Polk Lillard and Lynn Lillard Jessen - In looking for activities for Solomon on Pinterest, I kept coming across some labeled "Montessori."  (See my Montessori Pinterest board here.)  I knew very little about Montessori so I checked out this book at the library to learn more.  What I read was so intriguing that I've been reading more and more about Maria Montessori's methods.  (I will share some things in a future blog post, as Solomon is loving the Montessori type activities I've been giving him to do.)   The authors quickly dispelled a common misconception that I believed (and they once believed):  children in Montessori programs are not "free to do as they like" but "they are free to 'work': to engage in sustained and productive activity while, at the same time, learning how to behave in a community of others." (p. xi)  Though this book was rated well within the Montessori community, I've read a number of people saying this probably isn't the best book to start with.  It is rather heavy at times.  But I did learn a lot.

(If you have a Montessori background, I would love to hear from you.  What did you like?  Not like?)

Happy reading!