Did you know that one of the best ways to improve your child’s thought life is to improve your own?
When you demonstrate your own love of learning, you model for them what it could look like to love learning themselves. When you show them how to unwind with a great book at the end of the day, they learn to to value the written word and enjoy the process of reading and learning from good books.
Teachers, professors, instructors, and coaches typically receive ongoing training in their areas of expertise to help them be the best possible influence on their students and athletes.
The idea here is similar…you can improve your child’s mental game by improving your own.
Reading and learning for yourself, as a parent, increases your own thinking skills and is a low cost and high impact way for you to improve your child’s thinking skills. It’s a win-win.
Here is the list of 5 books I highly recommend for raising thriving little thinkers:
1. The Whole Brain Child by Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson
- A great book about brain basics with specific strategies for promoting cognitive integration (using your whole brain). This book is written by the same authors as The Yes Brain. It is research based, well written, easy to understand, and clearly organized.
- One favorite quote: “As parents become more aware and emotionally healthy, their children reap the rewards and move toward health as well. That means that integrating and cultivating your own brain is one of the most loving and generous gifts you can give your children.”
2. The Yes Brain by Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson
- Another great book about brain basics. This book is helpful for providing specific strategies in building resilience and curiosity in kids. I don’t want my children to fear failure, or avoid mistakes. This book explains how to cultivate the right environment as the parent to promote the mindset we want our children to master. This book is written by the same authors as The Whole Brain Child and similarly research based, well written, easy to understand, and clearly organized.
- One favorite quote: “What you do and don’t value, and what you do and don’t give attention to, will impact who your child becomes.”
3. The Read Aloud Family by Sarah Mackenzie
- A great book about academic thinking and family culture, this one is helpful no matter what age your children are. Sarah Mackenzie crafts compelling arguments for cultivating a read-aloud environment in your home. She explains the academic benefits and the deepened relationships resulting from reading books together as a family.
- One favorite quote: “When we read aloud, we give our kids practice living as heroes. Practice dealing with life-and-death situations, practice living with virtue, practice failing at virtue. As the characters in our favorite books struggle through hardship, we struggle with them. We consider whether we would be as brave, as bold, as fully human as our favorite heroes. And then we grasp—on a deeper, more meaningful level—the story we are living ourselves as well as the kind of character we will become as that story unfolds.”
4. Teaching from Rest: A Homeschooler’s Guide to Unshakable Peace by Sarah Mackenzie
- Don’t let the word “homeschooler” lead you away from this book–replace the word “teaching” with “mothering” and you can quickly summarize the contents and apply it to your home. Sarah Mackenzie, the same author as The Read Aloud Family, writes beautiful words of encouragement for a mother who feels too much rests on your shoulders. While it is written from a homeschooling perspective, the concept of parenting and teaching from rest is applicable to any parent wanting to raise thriving little thinkers.
- A favorite quote: “It’s easy to forget that teaching is holy work. We forget that building up the intellect- teaching our children to really think- does not happen by the might of human reason, but rather by the grace of God. On an ordinary day, you and I likely have a set of tasks we’ve scheduled for our kids. But it’s more than math. It’s more than history. It’s the building up of our children’s minds and hearts, and we can only do that if we realize that this is how we thank Him for the graces He so lavishly pours out on us.”
5. Awakening Wonder: Opening Your Child’s Heart to the Beauty of Learning by Sally Clarkson
- I found this book to be more inspirational and beautifully written than practical. But the vivid picture of a child who loves learning has stuck with me and encourages me as I teach and train my children. Sally Clarkson describes her experiences teaching her own four children and how she created a culture of “wonder” and tried to create a “wonder-filled life.” It’s an excellent source of inspiration for those seeking to instill a love of learning in their families.
- One favorite quote: “Education is not about enacting a prescriptive, boxed sort of curriculum-based classroom, but instead is about passing on a legacy of a love for learning, an independent joy in discovery, a motivation to bring light, beauty, and goodness back into the world of our children.”
A Note on Cost: While I’ve personally read all of the books listed, I borrowed them before I purchased them. My local library has excellent apps like Libby or Hoopla that allow me to listen to the audiobook for free or I can request hardcopies from within our local library system. I encourage you to utilize resources near you and get creative! If you prefer to purchase your own hardcopies to take notes or keep as reference, great! Just know that it isn’t required.
