Summer Reading List: What I’m Reading Now
Summer Reading List: What I’m Reading Now
As you might imagine, I spend a lot of time reading books, listening to podcasts and watching videos, all in an effort to keep up with current thinking and new strategies for helping young children succeed in our challenging world. Summertime is often a great time to catch up on reading. So while you enjoy the latest fiction poolside, you might also check these great reads to empower children (and adults for that matter):
Good Inside by Dr. Becky Kennedy
I was first introduced to psychologist, Becky Kennedy on The Huberman Lab podcast. You can listen to the episode here It was so good I had to buy the book. While it is geared toward parents, there is a lot here that school counselors can use in relating to kids. In addition, it provides a great framework for guiding parents through the challenges that they face.
Parenting: Getting It Right by Andy and Sandra Stanley
This is a Christian based book, but the principles are universal. As parents of three grown children and cofounders of North Point Ministries, Andy and Sandra Stanley are seasoned experts on faith and parenting. Together they have spent decades counseling countless families, mentoring others, and learning from mentors of their own, all while raising their own family as well being foster parents.
In Parenting: Getting It Right, Andy and Sandra combine their experience and wisdom into a guide that helps readers understand and live by essential parenting principles. In an inviting, conversational approach that is both informative and accessible, the Stanleys help readers understand the most important goal in parenting and learn the steps to pursue it.
Meditation for the Modern Family by Kelly Smith
I love this book and have used many of the suggested practices myself. As a certified yoga teacher, meditation teacher, and host of the chart-topping podcast Mindful in Minutes, Kelly Smith is no stranger to the wide-ranging health benefits of meditation. And she discovered she needed them more than ever when she became a mom for the first time. Suddenly finding herself coping with sleepless nights, disheartening physical changes, uncontrollable worries, and near constant sensory overload, Kelly found solace in the same thing she always had: her daily meditation practice. In doing so, she discovered how meditation could help not only moms cope with common family challenges, but every other member of the family as well.
Covering topics ranging from quieting the mind and managing stress to handling resentment and cultivating compassion, this book offers specialized practices for each family member by age—adults, teens and older kids, and small children.
The Worry Free Parent by Sissy Goff
I love all of Sissy Goff’s books and this one is especially good and relevant for today. Anxiety has an amazing ability to spread. Time and time again, when veteran counselor and parenting expert Sissy Goff has an anxious child or teen in her office, she’s found they have at least one very well-intentioned but anxious parent. Anxiety is contagious, and it’s likely affecting you in more ways that just the students you counsel.
With over 30 years of experience helping both children and adults, Sissy offers practical, well-researched tools that will make a difference in your life–and the lives of your students.
