Randi C. (nordicgirl) reviewed The Christian Mama's Guide to the Grade School Years: Everything You Need to Know to Survive (and Love) Sending Your Kid Off into the Big Wide World (Christian Mama's Guide Series) on + 10 more book reviews
This is a short, easy-to-read book about being an effective Christian mom during the elementary school years. Erin MacPhersons style is informal and chatty, in a from one mom to another kind of way. I appreciated her emphasis, throughout the book, on keeping ones priorities straight. As important as it is that a child learn and grow educationally and socially during grade school, his or her spiritual development is even more important. MacPherson does a good job keeping that priority clear. She identifies fifteen attributes (for example, faith, work ethic, responsibility, self-control, discernment, etc.) that moms can nurture in their kids to help them grow into the persons God wants them to be.
The book is a part of a new Christian Mamas Guide series, all written by MacPherson. The others cover pregnancy, infancy, and the toddler years. I was rather surprised, when starting this book about the grade school years, to discover that MacPherson wrote it when her oldest child was only six. I can see that the publisher (Thomas Nelson) might consider it to be advantageous to release all 4 Christian Mama guides simultaneously, and MacPherson does explain that shes written this one in consultation with her own mother, an elementary school principal. But I think this book would have been better if MacPherson had waited a few years to write it. Although the emphasis on spiritual development certainly applies to all of grade school (and beyond), much of the advice and personal examples are more relevant to the early years. My own grade-schooler is 9 1/2, so our family is a bit beyond learning to read or the stage of what MacPherson calls The Glitter Glue Incident. I realize this is a relatively short book and not meant to be a comprehensive manual, but it still would have been nice to have at least one chapter on upper-grade-school issues (i.e., peer pressure, approaching puberty, cultural/media messages, increasingly complex relationships, etc.). (It MUST NOT be a book about the preteen years there wasnt a single mention of Justin Bieber in the ENTIRE book!) Even so, I enjoyed the book and feel that I took away some insights that made it worth reading.
Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher, Thomas Nelson, in exchange for an honest review.
The book is a part of a new Christian Mamas Guide series, all written by MacPherson. The others cover pregnancy, infancy, and the toddler years. I was rather surprised, when starting this book about the grade school years, to discover that MacPherson wrote it when her oldest child was only six. I can see that the publisher (Thomas Nelson) might consider it to be advantageous to release all 4 Christian Mama guides simultaneously, and MacPherson does explain that shes written this one in consultation with her own mother, an elementary school principal. But I think this book would have been better if MacPherson had waited a few years to write it. Although the emphasis on spiritual development certainly applies to all of grade school (and beyond), much of the advice and personal examples are more relevant to the early years. My own grade-schooler is 9 1/2, so our family is a bit beyond learning to read or the stage of what MacPherson calls The Glitter Glue Incident. I realize this is a relatively short book and not meant to be a comprehensive manual, but it still would have been nice to have at least one chapter on upper-grade-school issues (i.e., peer pressure, approaching puberty, cultural/media messages, increasingly complex relationships, etc.). (It MUST NOT be a book about the preteen years there wasnt a single mention of Justin Bieber in the ENTIRE book!) Even so, I enjoyed the book and feel that I took away some insights that made it worth reading.
Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher, Thomas Nelson, in exchange for an honest review.
