Boyhood used to be a time of liberation and fun -- of catching bullfrogs, playing tackle football, and roaming the woods -- but not any more. Rambunctious, spirited boys (healthy boys) nowadays face an increasingly hostile world that doesn't value the unique gifts of boys, that discounts their masculine virtues, and that undermines what boys need to become mature, confident, thoughtful men.
. . . full of old-fashioned fun and friendship and virtue. No wonder that for 60 years young girls have been reading and rereading these four delightful Betsy-Tacy stories. Now your daughters can do the same. But don’t forget yourself. Did you miss these way back when? Is it time to revive some old memories? Reading these stories aloud to your girls could be the perfect way. In fact, that’s how the series got started. read more
Over the past few decades, as our nation's divorce rate has skyrocketed (almost one in two first marriages now end in divorce), a divorce "happy talk" industry has sprung up to stress the alleged positive effects of divorce on all involved. But rarely do we hear about the real and lasting negative effects divorce has, especially on the approximately one million children whose parents divorce each year. Now, in Between Two Worlds: The Inner Lives of Children of Divorce, Elizabeth Marquardt draws on the findings of her own pioneering nationwide study of children of divorce to reveal, in shocking detail, how divorce dramatically warps the inner lives of children.
Ever since Walter R. Brooks created Freddy back in 1927, this resourceful pig has been beloved by kids and parents alike. In Brooks' series of wry and winsome adventures, Freddy assumes an amazing number of vocations and avocations, leads his band of talking animals through marvelous adventures, and always provides hours of good fun for young readers read more
Ever since Walter R. Brooks created Freddy back in 1927, this resourceful pig has been beloved by kids and parents alike. In Brooks’ series of wry and winsome adventures, Freddy assumes an amazing number of vocations and avocations, leads his band of talking animals through marvelous adventures, and always provides hours of good fun for young readers. read more
More needed than ever in these times of war and liberal self-doubt, Lynne Cheney's America: A Patriotic Primer is an alphabet primer in which A is for America and B is for "the Birthday of this country of ours"! Exuberantly illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser, this book takes your kids on a whirlwind tour through the alphabet to teach them the history, values, tenacity, and faith of the American people. read more
The facts are disturbing, to say the least: Fully one-third of men ages 22-34 are still living at home with their parents -- about a 100 percent increase in the past twenty years. For the first time in history, American men in their 30s earn about 12% less than their fathers did at the same age. Meanwhile, boys nationwide are conspicuously absent from the top 10% of graduating high-school classes; fewer are going to college; and women are already outnumbering men at undergraduate institutions three to two. What is happening to our young men?
In these days when even the dolls in suburban toy stores are dressed like strippers ... when mainstream clothing retailers market thongs to pre-teen girls ... when homemade sex tapes have become star-making vehicles for the likes of Paris Hilton ... it might seem that the powerful forces arrayed against the chastity and innocence of American girls have finally and irreversibly triumphed. But, just when all seems bleakest, resistance is coming
from an unexpected quarter: the girls themselves. Now, in Wendy Shalit's Girls Gone Mild: Young Women Reclaim Self-Respect and Find It's Not Bad to Be Good, you can hear the voices at the frontlines of this emerging new
movement.
A dark figure stood behind the bale. A flare of light crossed the corner and I saw who it was. It was Jotham and there was something with him, something small that was clinging to him and trying to hide. One of the guards was coming to the corner. I turned toward him, my body shielding Jotham and the child from his sight. I felt the point of the knife at the back of my neck.
Is there a better way to show your children their faith than through the lives of the saints? Written especially for parents to read to pre-schoolers and lower grade children, this newly republished book of saints easily engages youngsters in the stories of the men and women and, yes, even children whose lives embody both great faith and virtue. Each of the 14 stories is told with an eye to capturing a young child's interest and imagination -- and showing them virtues in practice. Not to mention introducing them to places and times they should know about. read more
In this handy guide you’ll find all you need to know to make a scientific expedition to the beach (or to a rocky shore, a salt marsh, and more). The author, science professor Elizabeth Lawlor, is completely practical: along with guidelines about what to take along in order to perform mini-scientific experiments right at the beach, she includes advice about how to dress and other ways you can be prepared for anything that might arise.
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A generation ago Americans undertook a revolutionary experiment to redefine marriage. Where historically men and women had sought a permanent bond centered on the rearing of children,the new arrangement called for a provisional union of two adults centered on themselves. Now,as Kay Hymowitz argues in Marriage and Caste in America,the results of this experiment separating marriage from child-rearing are in,and they turn out to be bad news not only for children but also,in ways little understood,for the country as a whole -- playing a central role in high rates of poverty,crime,and other social pathologies. read more
Morning had fallen on a modest stable just outside Jerusalem, where Hannibal and his friends live. Suddenly, excitement fills the place as a kindly stranger arrives. read more
First published over fifty years ago, How to Raise Good Catholic Children is an enduringly wise and readable book on child care that derives its wisdom from the Catholic home rather than from psychologists. Author Mary Reed Newland here draws on her own experiences as the mother of seven to show how the classic Christian principles of sanctity can be translated into terms easily applied to children --- even to the very young! And because it's rooted in experience, not in theory, nothing that Mrs. Newland suggests is impossible or extraordinary. read more
Today's parents: intimidated by "experts." Afraid to make moral judgments on their children's behavior. Desperate to praise and "affirm" their children no matter what they do. Criticism? Discipline? Forget it. Exercising a guiding role in their kids' lives? Inconceivable. Parents do this because they have accepted the dogma that this is the only way to make their kids happy. But in It Takes A Parent, syndicated columnist and veteran mom Betsy Hart argues that this all-pervasive hands-off approach to our nation's children has been an unmitigated disaster. She proves here that all it has done is create legions of helpless, wayward, and often violent children and teens -- as well as untold numbers of miserable moms and dads.
After more than twenty years of counseling girls, she knows that fathers, more than anyone else, set the course for their daughters' lives. Now, she shows you how to strengthen -- or rebuild - your bond with your daughter, and use it to shape her life, and yours, for the better.
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In these days of astonishing confusion about what it means to be a man, Brad Miner has gone back into the riches of our Western cultural heritage to recover the oldest and best ideal of manhood: the gentleman. In The Compleat Gentleman: The Modern Man's Guide to Chivalry, he revives a thousand-year tradition of chivalry, honor, and heroism, providing a model for modern masculinity that our fractious culture needs more than ever.
Did you know that 8,000 American teens are diagnosed with a sexually-transmitted disease (STD) every day? That 46% of girls are likely to become infected with a disease after their very first sexual encounter. That, right now, one out of every five adolescents is living with an STD? Your Kids at Risk breaks the story that STDs among adolescents has indeed reached epidemic proportions, and is leaving our kids open to deadly infections, infertility and cancer. Dr. Meeker, who has spent the past 20 years practicing pediatric and adolescent medicine and counseling teens, uncovers the facts about this grave health crisis, and the powerful political and other interests that continue to make it worse.
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Demolishing dozens of liberal half-truths, myths, and fabrications, full-time mom Suzanne Venker proves in 7 Myths of Working Mothers: Why Children and (Most) Careers Just Don't Mix that women simply can't be successful in the workplace and at home at the same time. She demonstrates that the only option that doesn't lead to ruined families and destroyed lives is for women to plan their careers around motherhood, rather than planning motherhood around their careers.
