3/11/07


In my never ending quest for knowledge, wisdom and know-how for all this child raising stuff, I somehow stumbled upon the good people over at Love and Logic. I'd had their book, Love and Logic Magic for Early Childhood for quite a while, obtained during one of those frantic I must purchase every book ever written on parenting moments, you know, the moments where your credit card nearly blows up?

I read the book nearly a year and a half ago, thinking "this is great stuff", but since we were not yet into the toddler years, much of it wasn't really applicable in an everyday sense.

Fast forward a year, and I'm frantically searching for the book on my shelves and reading, re-reading, highlighting and attempting to commit whole sections to memory.

The Love and Logic philosophy created by Jim Fay, Charles Fay, Ph.D and Foster W. Cline, M.D. so far has proven to be a really practical solution for happily productive interaction here at Valhalla Mommykind. While I personally don't agree with every idea purported by the Love and Logic fellas (I have my own wacky ideas about the negative effects of timeout and using a child's room as a place for disciplinary guidance) their techniques seem to work quite beautifully.

In their own words from their extensive site, here's Love and Logic in a nutshell:

What Is Love and Logic?

Children learn the best lessons when they're given a task and allowed to make their own choices (and fail) when the cost of failure is still small. Children's failures must be coupled with love and empathy from their parents and teachers.

This practical and straightforward philosophy is backed with 20 years of experience. Parents can apply it immediately to a wide range of situations instead of struggling with difficult counseling procedures.

Why Does It Work?

  • Uses humor, hope, and empathy to build up the adult/child relationship
  • Emphasizes respect and dignity for both children and adults
  • Provides real limits in a loving way
  • Teaches consequences and healthy decision-making

What Parents and Educators Have to Say

"After studying this parenting program, 'Becoming a Love and Logic Parent,' I rave about the fact that it has helped me and other parents I know develop usable, practical skills, as opposed to just learning another theory about what I should be doing."

- Peter Burnett, parent, Portland, Ore.

"My teachers and I could see the advantages to the school of putting parents' back in control.' My job as a school administrator is much less stressful now thanks to Love and Logic."

- Judy Griswold, principal, Aurora, Colo.



Cruise on over and check them out. The website itself has a lot to offer in the way of articles, podcasts and video clips. We think they are trailblazers when it comes to sorting out the practical from the big brained theory (which I find fascinating as well, btw, I'm sure you'll be hearing from me on those topics soon) and giving parents concrete ways to cope with the frustration of not knowing how to best guide their children to happy productive lives.

3 comments:

Liz Ditz said...

Hi, it is Liz from I Speak of Dreams. Out in California, I facilitate Love & Logic parent training seminars. Some parents find it really helpful to do the seminars in addition to the books. You can call the L&L institute to see if there are facilitators near you.

There's also a L&L online discussion group,

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Becoming_a_Love_and_Logic_Parent/

Happy parenting!

JudesMommy said...

Hi Liz, Thanks for the info on Love and Logic parenting! I had actually thought of reaching out to see if there were seminars in our area.

Love your site! So much educational info packed in there!

Anonymous said...

Interesting to know.