BOOK REVIEW: Your Child's Strengths by Jenifer Fox M.Ed

Your Child's Strengths Author: Jenifer Fox M.Ed Publisher: Viking Adult (February 28, 2008) ISBN-10: 0670018767 ISBN-13: 978-0670018765

Your Child's Strengths is a book about finding the niche for your child and expounding on it. Watch your child and learn what he or she likes and hone in on it.  Whether is an aptitude for math, art, music, language arts, history, etc.  Find their passion and explode it. Encourage them in what they love.

The book has three parts to help parents and teachers to build on the child's strengths and help them feed their interests as well as encourage them to succeed.

The first part of the book describes current ideas and practices that contribute feelings of weakness that a child may have. Not so much weak as how much a child can lift so to speak, but the child's learning strength. They may not be stronger in one subject as they are in another one.  I was this way in school. I was stronger in Match and History than I was in my English/Language Arts class.

The second part of the book goes deeper into the what the strengths are and explains them individually.  There are three main strengths that Ms. Fox focuses on. They are: Activity Strengths, Relationship Strengths, and Learning Strengths.

The Activity Strengths  are things that a child are both good at and feel good doing. It must have both those components to be considered an activity strength. If a child is good at soccer, basketball, or other sport and enjoy playing that sport, etc. That could be one of their activity strengths. If a child loves music and is good at either playing an instrument or singing and enjoys doing so, that could be his or her activity strength.

The Relationship Strengths are things that children do with others that make them feel competent and valued for who they are. I immediately though of "peer acceptance" here, not so much peer pressure mind you.  Friends do things for friends without being asked etc.

The Learning Strengths are the unique ways that we all learn new information and how we go about learning it.   Some of us are hands on learners while others may learn more readily by watching or hearing.

This portion of the book also gives you, as a parent or teacher, guidelines that you can do to help learn your child's strengths. They are:

1. Encourage

2. Ask Questions

3. Listen

4. Observe

Part three of the book offers a variety of practical workbook exercises that can be used to discover as well as develop a child's strengths.  This section of the book also outlines the Affinities Program which is Ms. Fox's suggestion for a four year high school curriculum which she designed to create a strengths community in schools.

Overall, this is a very interesting book that I think every parent and teacher can gleam something from.

As a homeschooling parent, I have the unique setting that I can observe my children and learn their likes and dislikes as well as "feed" their individual interest with books on the subjects, projects, etc. 

My 9 year old loves to read and I keep feeding him with new books from the library or used book store. His favorite books have to do with history. He loves history and reading about Pioneers, Pilgrims, The Revolutionary War, Christopher Columbus, etc. If it's about anything of the past, he wants to read it.  As a matter of fact, he is sitting in the floor reading the book, a Cornerstone of Freedom book ,"The Story of Ellis Island" that I bought recently at a used bookstore.  He loves the Cornerstone of Freedom books so I keep watch for them and buy the ones we don't have. They are older books but he loves them.

His 7 year old brother is equally a "lover of books" and history but his hands has to be doing something at all times while he is reading. Whether it is fidgety with something on his clothes or twirling his hair, etc.  His hands have to be moving.

Both of the above boys can be found with encyclopedias at times. They will sit in the floor and just read at random out of them.   Keeping them in reading material isn't hard but they can devour books in not time meaning I need to have a steady supply on hand.

So finding Your Child's Strengths doesn't have to be a struggle. Just watch, listen, and learn then expound on what you discover about your child.

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

An essential book for parents and teachers that explores how children’s individual strengths create success

With this groundbreaking work, educator Jenifer Fox is poised to change the conversation about education in this country. For too long, parents and teachers have focused on identifying and “fixing” kids’ weaknesses to improve academic performance. Passionately written and informed by Fox’s twenty-five years of experience, Your Child’s Strengths turns that flawed paradigm on its head. Fox’s strengths-based philosophy provides the tools to prepare kids for the future in a world that demands greater adaptability and creative thinking than ever before.

Your Child’s Strengths will give parents and teachers the tools to discover strengths in three main areas: Activity Strengths, the tasks that make you feel engaged and energized; Relationship Strengths, the things you do for and with others that make you feel valued and competent; and Learning Strengths, the unique ways we approachand understand new information. All three strengths work in tandem.

Pairing inspiring firsthand accounts of success with practical workbook tools and an outline of the award- winning Affinities Program Fox has implemented at her own school, this much-needed book is a user- friendly guide for parents, teachers, and administrators that will improve individual performance and an indispensable road map for young people and society to a future that plays to strengths

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jenifer Fox, M-Ed is the president of the Purnell School, author of the critically acclaimed book, Your Child’s Strengths, the award-winning, groundbreaking strengths-based curriculum, The Affinities Program and the leader of the Strengths Movement in Schools. View a short video about her here. Jenifer lives in New Jersey at the Purnell School with her husband and two dogs.

 

Read more about the author and the book at www.strengthsmovement.com

 

 

This post has been written for the Parent Bloggers Network.