Title: Smart but Scattered
Author: Peg Dawson and Richard Guare
Publication Year: 2009
Website: www.smartbutscatteredkids.com
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Review: I noticed that this book had a lot of positive reviews on Amazon, but I didn’t find it incredibly useful. Basically, what it boiled down to in my opinion was: If your child is having a habitual problem, make a plan and follow it. Their solutions involve a lot of checklists and “incentives”. So for example, if the child is having trouble getting ready for school in the morning, make a checklist of all the steps he needs to complete so he can stay on task. Eventually he should not need the checklist anymore. If they are having trouble completing their homework, maybe offer them an incentive like a cell phone or cell phone privileges so they will be motivated to remember to get things done.

I completely agree that executive skills (self-control, self-regulation, self-discipline) are extremely important. I also don’t have a problem with checklists at all. Before reading this book, I made a picture checklist for my 5 year old to help him learn to get ready for school in the morning and bed at night and it served its purpose beautifully. I referred him to his lists when he got off track for a couple weeks and then he didn’t need them anymore. However, I don’t think using a checklist requires an entire book to explain and their incentives sound a lot like bribes to me.

If your child is having a lot of trouble regulating himself, then maybe it is worth resorting to the techniques described in this book to try and make sure they have a handle on these skills. The authors do describe a lot of step-by-step solutions for a variety of problems. I have no doubt this book would be useful to some parents. However, this is not a general parenting book for everyone, in my opinion, though I think the authors believe it is. These are not techniques I would start with, but rather techniques I would give a shot if I was really concerned and felt nothing else was working. (Personal Rating: 6/10)

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Review: I grew up watching the Cosby Show with my family and loved it. I saw this book on my in-law’s shelf and thought it would be a fun read. It was fun, at times. I learned that I shouldn’t read this book while I was sitting next to my son in bed as he went to sleep, because I would occasionally shake the bed from quiet laughing. Not exactly conducive to the relaxing bedtime atmosphere I was trying to create.

Like Cosby’s stand-up routines, parts of this book were really funny, especially if you pictured Bill Cosby himself delivering the lines. However, overall, this is not a book I would really recommend to someone. While it made me laugh at parts, in my opinion the overall tone was somewhat depressing, as much of the humor came from his learning to accept disappointment.

He seemed greatly disappointed and overly-critical of his son in particular. While I appreciate other parents sharing their embarrassing parenting stories with me and love to commiserate, I feel like generally it still comes across that, above all, we deeply love our children. My kids are young, so maybe I’m just naïve and not jaded enough by parenthood yet, but overall this left me feeling a little sad. I certainly hope this isn’t an accurate depiction of the emotions that come with fatherhood. (Personal Rating: 6/10)

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Review: In my opinion, there are much better resources of great children’s literature, not that there’s anything wrong with this work in particular. This book is a thorough resource of books to read at different ages and for different reasons. The work is divided up into three parts. The first part covers the motivation for reading to children.

If you’re interested in this book in the first place, you probably don’t need to be convinced, but I still think it’s important this section be there. The second part is called “What to Read Aloud at Every Age” and divides the first 10 years of a child’s life into 8 age ranges, so it’s pretty specific to each age, which is nice.

The third section is what the author calls “The Emotional ‘When’: Fifty Essential Themes” and covers topic ranging from “Bath Time” and “Feeling Silly” to “Death” and “Divorce”. What I didn’t really love about this book is that to me it seems completely indiscriminating. Instead of just including the books which the author felt were of the highest quality, it seems like she included EVERY book she’s ever read.

They’re just handed out like candy, the greats along with the ones that make you think “Really? That’s what you’re passing out?” I much prefer The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease or Valerie and Walter’s Best Books for Children by Valerie Lewis and Walter Mayes, since in those books you get the impression that the authors really tried out and stood behind the books they chose to include on their lists. (Personal Rating: 6/10)

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Review: I think this book has a really important message, namely, that flash cards, work sheets and other methods of unnatural learning are not necessary for a young child to learn academic skills (language, literacy, math, etc.). Contextual learning is more fun, more interesting, and ultimately a much better way to learn while preserving a child’s natural curiosity and enthusiasm for discovery.

However, I have to admit that I skimmed a great deal of this book. It was just too dry for my taste and not engaging enough for me to read every word. If I hadn’t skimmed it, I probably would have never finished it. However, I should also point out that I already don’t use flashcards and worksheets with my kids, I don’t buy fancy learning toys, and I don’t sign my toddler and preschooler up for special “educational” classes.

I have absolutely no guilt about my unstructured, carefree, “lazy” style of parenting. If you are someone who feels like you aren’t doing enough for your kids and you need someone to tell you to calm down and relax, maybe this book is for you. (Personal Rating: 6/10)

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Review: I wanted to like this book. I paid $8 for a used copy on Amazon since my library has a shockingly nonexistent collection of Waldorf reference material, a subject which I would like to learn more about. The basis for the book is fascinating. A class of twenty plus students has the same teacher for 8 years. The story of how the children and teacher both grow and develop in relation to each other and as individuals seems like it would be extremely interesting.

However, that’s not really what this book is about. The most glaring and frustrating absence from this book is the teacher’s relationship with his students. Sure he talks about his students and having to observe them and get to know them and treat them as individuals, and he does mention that every summer they collectively change, but the reader is not really given any of the details.

How the individual children grew over the 8 years or whether they developed an attachment with the author, who was a constant presence in their life, is unclear. Even though the book is written well after graduation, what became of the students in this experiment is also a mystery. Despite lacking in that area, the main reason I purchased this book was because I wanted to know more about the Waldorf teaching style, and I think I do, somewhat.

There is a curriculum (I wasn’t sure), but it seems to focus more on art and hands on creative endeavors and critical thinking skills than text book reading and worksheets. Also, instead of teaching all the subjects simultaneously, at least this author seemed to teach all the subjects in 3 or 4 week blocks. The author does describe some of the interesting and inventive things he does with the children, such as having them build forts in a forest before they learn about historical shelters or draw circles in the dirt before they are given compasses.

However, other parts of his instruction are surprisingly and unnecessarily detailed in my opinion. For a book that is supposed to focus on an 8 year journey, there are an astonishing number of pages spent re-telling ancient myths and historical events. The one really positive endorsement for Waldorf education that I took from this book was the children’s work. Their descriptions and poetry, of which he documents a great deal, is astonishing. I’m sure he choose the best pieces to include in his book, but still, their work definitely does not seem like it originated from someone under the age of 13. (Personal Rating: 6/10)

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Review: If this book had just been a quick statement about each of her 10 tips (understand your value as a mother, maintain key friendships, value and practice faith, say no to competition, create a healthier relationship with money, make time for solitude, give and get love in healthy ways, find ways to simplify, let go of fear, and hope is a decision – so make it!), followed by the anecdotes she’s accumulated over her years as a pediatrician, mother, and friend, I think I would have really liked this book.

This is definitely a Christian book, but the author seems to focus on spirituality in general as opposed to pushing her own personal beliefs. The author is a very good storyteller and I liked all the personal accounts she used to illustrate her points. What I didn’t enjoy much was all the fluff that she used to back up each of her points.

The problem is that most of her habits don’t need explanation. She doesn’t need to convince people why they should (fill-in-the-blank). For the most part, everyone already knows that her ideas are good ideas, they just might need to be reminded of them, which I think she does quite well with her stories. I also didn’t really like the action plan type sections called “how to make the habit stick”, but I’ve never really been a fan of books that give me “how-to” instructions for raising my kids, so I don’t know why I’d like it anymore applied to myself.

Overall it wasn’t a book I got a lot out of, but again I did like some of the stories, such as the mother who refused to give up hope on her comatose daughter or the grown woman who lived a happy simple childhood never knowing her parents were multimillionaires. For the upbeat, positive stories alone, I recommend it. For making life-changes, not so much. (Personal Rating: 6/10)

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Review: I bought this book because I loved the Toddler’s Busy Book so much. However, I didn’t find this one anywhere near as useful. When I purchased it, my son was 2 and I thought he would like many of the ideas more when he was older. Now he’s older, almost 4, and bouncing off the walls some afternoons, so I recently pulled it out again to see if it had ideas to help him burn some energy. It did have good ideas, but out of the 365 listed, I probably found 20 that I thought might entertain him for more than a couple minutes. Also, a lot of the best ideas are really just classics (hopscotch, jump rope, red light-green light, dribbling a ball, etc.). While I didn’t find many of the original ideas very exciting, this book is good for reminding you of ideas you already know. (Personal Rating: 6/10)

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Review: I was really expecting to fully support this book, as I’m a big proponent of positive discipline. However, I had several issues with this book. 1) It’s pretty dull. 2) I feel like the authors probably had kids under the age of three a long time ago, as many of their scenarios seem like distant memories or stereotypical TV scripts. 3) They support a version of the cry-it-out method for older babies and suggest that co-sleeping can lead to more demanding behavior during the day, an opinion with which I personally disagree. 4) Many of the suggestions seem fairly obvious.

I still support positive discipline techniques above time-outs, yelling, threats, spanking, and other punitive methods. If these are the methods one finds oneself relying on in general, I might consider recommending this book, as I agree with over 90% of the content. However, it just wasn’t that helpful or enjoyable for me. The authors frequently reference the work of Rudolf Dreikurs, and I found his book, Children: The Challenge, to be far more readable and useful.
(Personal Rating: 6/10)

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Review: I think this is a good introductory book about the Montessori Method specifically applied to the preschool years. I especially liked the first chapter on the historical aspects of the Montessori approach and the chapter on “Montessori and Parents” since as the parent of a newly Montessori preschooler, I’m still trying to understand my role.

The book did not really explain explicitly what I should do to help my child excel in school as I was hoping. Rather it more re-iterated the general philosophy of giving the child freedom to explore and grow in their home environment. While I think the book is very thorough and useful, I did find some of the material in the middle chapters a bit overwhelming long and tedious. However, if one has never heard of the Montessori Method before, this is an okay starting place, though I would instead recommend her daughter’s book, Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius, by Angeline Stoll Lillard. (Personal Rating: 6/10)

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Review: I was really excited to get this book, since it’s all about preschoolers and I have a brand new preschooler and lots of questions. Specifically, I’m having trouble with my preschooler crying when I drop him off and this book has an entire chapter called “Separation: Easing the Way”. However, while they had a lot to say and definitely seem to think that separation problems are common and normal, there really wasn’t anything more helpful than saying that the child will probably adjust within a month. My son has been in school 3 weeks and I was really looking for something more concrete that I could do or say to make the moment of separation easier. (Update: It’s been a month and my kid has stopped crying, so they were right, if not helpful.)

Really, this is not a bad book. It covers literally everything that one might wonder about with a preschooler and the authors are thoroughly qualified to offer advice. However, if one has been around any preschooler or feels fairly confident with their own child up to this preschool period, I don’t think any of the advice is very new or interesting. (Personal Rating: 6/10)

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