Spiritual Parenting: A Loving Guide for the New Age Parent by David Carroll

Spread the love

Stars: *****

This book was read for the Spirituality Challenge and 888 Challenge.

I wrote the review of another book, Humanism for Parents while I was just a few chapters into this one and I mentioned this book, saying that this book wasn’t as good as Humanism for Parents. However now that I’ve finished the whole book I can say without a doubt that I love this book and plan on getting a copy of my own ASAP.

What this book is really about is how to parent your child so that he or she will grow up to believe in and love a higher power, whatever or whoever that power may be. Let me go over the contents with you and that will explain better what sort of things you will find in this book.

The first chapter is an introduction to Spiritual Parenting. Then Part 1 includes Chapters 2-6 which cover Spiritual Education at birth, for toddlers and older children and how to convey lessons through stories and communicating spiritual ideas during daily activities. Part 2 which includes Chapters 7-9 talks about discipline with a spiritual twist. Part 3 is chapters 10-12 and is about teaching children how to use and understand their bodies. Part 4 is chapters 13-18 and is all about spiritualizing the child’s environment. Topics include: In My Room, Choosing Toys, Making the Home into Sacred Ground, Death Education at Home, The Television Question and the Home as Haven: Protecting a Child from Harmful Influences. Part 5, which includes Chapters 19-25 is about teaching children values and virtue. Honesty, Patience, Manners and Kindness are covered. Finally Part 6 which is just chapter 26 is about how to teach Mediation to Children.

I found Parts 2, 3 and 6 to be the most interesting, helpful and different compared to other books. Part 3 was very interesting and unlike anything I’d ever seen in any other book, Pagan Parenting books included. I think it’s a great way to teach your child about himself. This part covers not only the body and the senses but also training the body for life in the world by doing chores and jobs and stretching ourselves to new heights by teaching mindfulness, endurance and fitness. I haven’t seen much about teaching children to meditate so this chapter will come in very handy.

Being spiritual is usually defined as belief in a higher power but not necessarily following the rules and holy books of a certain religion. However in this book you will find reference to different religions and quotes from their teachings. This is in now way trying to recruit you to that specific religion. What the author is showing is that although you may not agree with enough of a religion to follow it, doesn’t mean that a story or quote or two from it’s teachings might not come in handy. In fact by reading this book I found out just how much I agree with various religions teachings. Not all of them of course, but some of them.

By the same token, I think this book would come in handy for a Pagan Parent in many different ways. It is for this reason that you’ll find the Of Interest to Pagans label on this book. I highly recommend this book and as I said, will be securing a copy of my own real soon.

This post is Copyright 2001-2012 SMS Book Reviews. Do not reproduce anything without permission.
About Kathleen

I've been a nonfiction lover for as long as I can remember. I love children's nonfiction as well and love to share my knowledge and the books I gained them from, with the world. I wish more people would give nonfiction a chance.