GUIDING YOUR CHILD TO A MORE CREATIVE LIFE

by Fredelle Maynard ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 24, 1973

Parents chiefly interested in keeping the little bastards quiet for a while can reach instead for one of the countless guides to turning egg cartons into castles. Maynard takes children's creativity seriously, cites at the outset studies indicating that it can be trained, and insists that this impulse should not be subordinated to their parents' ultimately more prosaic or ""trivial"" concerns, e.g. getting the shopping done. Her advice ranges from general exhortations to ""help him observe,"" ""encourage questions,"" etc. to recipes for granola and poster paints, suggestions for family outings, and even (this isa bit much) a list of 41 masterpiece reproductions suitable for hanging in a child's room. The chapter on children's reading (which contains a list of 100 recommended books) is surprisingly good, emphasizing on the one hand that a child's own taste should never be criticized and on the other properly dismissive of the highly touted products of Eric Carle (""paper toys""), Madelaine L'Engle (""the voice of my grade-school teacher""), Tasha Tudor (""aimed straight at mothers"") and all those examples of ""psychological engineering."" Maynard's book will be useful to the readership of Family Circle and Woman's Day (where parts of it first appeared); it offers handy specifics, a sound perspective, and extensive lists of further readings (from Maslow and Carl Rogers to The Complete Crayon Book).

Pub Date: Aug. 24, 1973

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1973

Categories: NONFICTION