Raising a Happy Child Book Review

Disclosure: I got this product as part of an advertorial.

Details: How to Raise a Happy Child, and be happy too) by Heather Criswell and Taryn Voget.  Simply genius parenting strategies that work.  Includes many "How to" videos via QR scanner codes.  Heather Criswell is a kid whisperer, and has spent 25 years working with over 30,000 children.  She  is a parent coach, a keynote speaker, and an author, sharing her unique approach and wisdom with the world.  Taryn Voget is the co-founder of the Everyday Genius Institute.  She too is a keynote speaker, a consultant, and the author of 6 strategy books of genius, and a thought leader on genius and human potential.  Together they bring you simple strategies that bring out the best in you as a parent/ guardian, and the best in your child.  What they cover in this book is: bedtime, manners, homework, sharing, mealtime, back-talking, disrespect, fighting, grades, lying, swearing, public temper tantrums.  You will get the chance to question your parenting assumptions, and learn step-by-step, refreshing new techniques to get the results you want.  "You will discover how to raise capable, self-reliant, truly happy kids in a stress-free environment."

Disclaimer: I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Video links

Favorite poster

My Review:  I am so happy to be chosen to be a reviewer of this book.  My husband and I love our kids, and know that our kids are really good.  However, we also know we're not perfect, we make many mistakes daily, and some if not most of those mistakes affect our children, their happiness, their self-confidence, and how they feel about themselves.  So as we are personally on a journey to better our selves as parents, to improve our parenting and discipline, this landed in my lap as a blessing from the Lord, because what I have read so far is really helping us!  Let me just say, I love the QR scan codes for the videos, because me husband isn't going to sit down and read this, or let me read it to him.  He just doesn't get anything out of big thick books.  However, with these videos, he can watch them and learn from them as I learn from this book.  He totally loves this idea!  So thank you Heather and Taryn for thinking of busy dads, not just us moms here.  The picture of the favorite poster is one that was used in the preschool mentioned in the book.  We have printed up this poster for our kid's rooms so they can see it and learn to read it daily!

Was I successful?

parenting list of Q's

Okay, to start off with, this book does take time and energy, and you may want to write down notes or highlight things that apply to you, and your children.  The book is broken up into 5 sections.  Part 1 covers "Deciding who you are as a parent", meaning what you want to get out of parenting, and how you define yourself now as a parent.  Part 2 covers "5 ingredients for parenting success" a great section for notes and high lighting.  Part 3 covers 1 chapter "Put Happiness into Action" you could technically stop reading after this chapter, but Part 4 is the stock of this stew; and without it you wouldn't really know how to make those changes you've just read about, want to instigate, and plan on using.  So Part 4 covers "Feel like a Parenting Pro with these Proven Scripts", 22 scenarios that you can master, learn, and use for your every day parenting challenges.  Part 5 covers the closing thoughts, and the list of videos pertaining to this book.

The list of scenarios include: team sports (which would have been helpful while our kids were in soccer, but will help us when they play baseball this spring), "I hate you!" towards parents or siblings (which is unfortunately used by our 4 year old way more than we like at all, "I'm not tired" (which at our house means they'll play for hours once in bed, and no amount of threatening, ginger powder on their tongues, or time outs do anything for this issue).

scenarios

Let me tell you, our 6 year old now learns the names of those kids whom he plays with, where otherwise he wouldn't have even cared to know their names.  Our 4 year old gets after me and Daddy now any time he hears us use the "H" word (hate) even if we're referring to that stupid dog who barks all the time, or the crazy drivers on the road.  And now for bedtime our kids fall asleep within 10 minutes of going to bed, with no playing or crying, where as it used to take HOURS for them to fall asleep.  And this is just the tip of the ice berg for us.  We still have so much to practice with our kids from this book!  And each time they present us with a whole new playing field we can still review and go over what we know and adjust it to each child and their personal situations.  I think every young couple ready to have kids should read this and start memorizing what to do, so when they come to those situations their bases are already covered!  I highly recommend this book.

Pros: AMAZING!, it works great, easy to read, makes sense, applies to so many people and situations

Cons: none

Contest: There is a contest for you to win 1 free printed copy of this book.  All the details are on our facebook page for this contest.  Must be 18 years or older, open to US only, must be a friend on facebook.

My Rating: THUMBS UP