Nurturing Strangers

Nurturing Strangers focuses on loving nonviolent re-parenting of children in foster care. This book is a jargon-free mix of narrative and real-life case studies, together with the theory and practice of nonviolence. Nurturing Strangers and the authors’ previous book, Welcoming Strangers, are the first books to apply philosophies of nonviolence directly to the care of children in the foster care system. One of their strengths is that the books are not merely theoretical, but rooted in the practice of nonviolence with children for over thirty years. Nurturing Strangers is for foster carers, caseworkers, case managers, social work students, and parents, as well as the general reader interested in children who have been victims of violence in and out of the foster care system.

"Foreward by Beth Kanter"--Cover

We strive to do what is best for our family, but there are lots of opinions on how to be a good parent. Truly successful parenting begins with focusing on God and making him the center of all we do. The Once-A-Day Devotional for Nurturing Great Kids helps you to bring God into your parenting by providing 365 daily devotionals written specifically for parents who are seeking to build a stronger relationship with their kids and put God first in their family. These devotionals will inspire you as a parent to embrace the role that God has given you, while equipping you with the tools you need to be a strong Christian role model for your children.

Self-Help.

Despite often simplistic, black-and-white portrayals of good and evil, children and adolescents face complicated moral issues that can raise more questions than answers. Becoming aware of what constitutes morality is only the first step in determining a course of action, identifying and avoiding problems, and building communities that nurture morality. Young people learn to define and respond to moral dilemmas by interacting with and observing numerous sources. They acquire knowledge from family members, teachers, church leaders, peers, and members of neighborhood organizations. Raising themes of cultural pluralism, responsibility, complexity, affectivity, and practicality, Nurturing Morality addresses such issues as: - Definitions of morality that link past and current debates, enabling a more thorough understanding of moral functioning. - Personal responsibilities and impediments to moral functioning. - How societal structures can facilitate or inhibit moral agency and development. - The importance of acknowledging the common good as well as individual accomplishments. - Nurturing morality through wisdom. Drawing from a wide range of independent research programs, Nurturing Morality makes clear that most forms of human interaction are laden with moral content. It highlights thorny and complex moral questions that cannot be resolved by simple adherence to moral rules. And on the basis of empirically grounded findings, contributors to this volume provide recommendations for how adults can offer valuable guidance to young people learning to negotiate life in a global society. For clinicians, researchers, and students, Nurturing Morality provides much-needed insight and advice on young people’s moral development.

Combining archival research, oral history and long-term ethnography, this book studies relations between Amerindians and outsiders, such as American missionaries, through a series of contact expeditions that led to the 'pacification' of three native Amazonian groups in Suriname and French Guiana. The author examines and contrasts Amerindian and non-Amerindian views on this process of social transformation through the lens of the body, notions of peacefulness and kinship, as well as native warfare and shamanism. The book addresses questions of change and continuity, and the little explored links between first contacts, capture and native conversion to Christianity in contemporary indigenous Amazonia.

This new edition of the bestselling text, Nurturing Natures, provides an indispensable synthesis of the latest scientific knowledge about children’s emotional development. Integrating a wealth of both up-to-date and classical research from areas such as attachment theory, neuroscience, developmental psychology and cross-cultural studies, it weaves these into an accessible, enjoyable text that always keeps in mind children recognisable to academics, practitioners and parents. New to this edition, the book considers transgender issues, same-sex parenting, experiences of black and minority ethnic groups, well-being and the impact of mental health in relation to climate change anxiety. It looks at key developmental stages from life in the womb to the preschool years and right up until adolescence, examining how children develop language, play and memory and moral capacities. Issues of nature and nurture are addressed and the effects of different kinds of early experiences are unpicked, creating a coherent and balanced view of the developing child in context. Nurturing Natures is written by an experienced child therapist who has used a wide array of research from different disciplines to create a highly readable and scientifically trustworthy text. Equipped with key points, questions for consideration, further reading and online video chapter introductions, this book is essential reading for childcare students, teachers, social workers, health visitors, early years practitioners and those training or working in child counselling, psychiatry and mental health. Full of fascinating findings, it provides answers to many of the questions people really want to ask about the human journey from conception into adulthood.

Nurturing Attachments Training Resource is a complete group-work programme containing everything you need to run training and support sessions for adoptive parents and foster or kinship carers. Based on attachment theory and developed by expert author and trainer Kim Golding, this rich resource provides an authoritative set of ideas for therapeutically parenting children along with all the guidance you will need to implement the training. The training resource includes theoretical content and process notes for facilitators, and a range of activities supported by online downloadable content with photocopiable reflective diary sheets, activity sheets and handouts. It is structured into 3 modules with 6 sessions per module. Module 1: Provides an understanding of attachment theory, patterns of attachment and an introduction to therapeutic parenting. Module 2: Introduces the House Model of Parenting, providing guidance on how to help the children experience the family as a secure base. Module 3: Continues exploring the House Model of Parenting, with consideration of how parents can both build a relationship with the children and manage their behaviour. This will be an invaluable resource and one-stop guide for any professionals involved in training foster carers and adoptive parents, as well as residential child care workers and kinship carers.

A groundbreaking approach to parenting by nationally-respected educator Alfie Kohn that gives parents “powerful alternatives to help children become their most caring, responsible selves” (Adele Faber, New York Times bestselling author) by switching the dynamic from doing things to children to working with them in order to understand their needs and how to meet them. Most parenting guides begin with the question “How can we get kids to do what they're told?” and then proceed to offer various techniques for controlling them. In this truly groundbreaking book, nationally respected educator Alfie Kohn begins instead by asking, “What do kids need—and how can we meet those needs?” What follows from that question are ideas for working with children rather than doing things to them. One basic need all children have, Kohn argues, is to be loved unconditionally, to know that they will be accepted even if they screw up or fall short. Yet conventional approaches to parenting such as punishments (including “time-outs”), rewards (including positive reinforcement), and other forms of control teach children that they are loved only when they please us or impress us. Kohn cites a body of powerful, and largely unknown, research detailing the damage caused by leading children to believe they must earn our approval. That's precisely the message children derive from common discipline techniques, even though it's not the message most parents intend to send. More than just another book about discipline, though, Unconditional Parenting addresses the ways parents think about, feel about, and act with their children. It invites them to question their most basic assumptions about raising kids while offering a wealth of practical strategies for shifting from “doing to” to “working with” parenting—including how to replace praise with the unconditional support that children need to grow into healthy, caring, responsible people. This is an eye-opening, paradigm-shattering book that will reconnect readers to their own best instincts and inspire them to become better parents.