As a Mom, a future homeschooling parent, and someone who’s always been interested in learning and intelligence theories, I found Your Child’s Strengths by Jenifer Fox an engaging and thought-provoking read.

While not groundbreaking per se, Your Child’s Strengths is a well-organized resource worth delving into if you are involved with children in any way.  For, as Fox herself points out, “Everyone who has a role in raising children has an important part to play…”

Defining strengths as “the things that we do that make us feel energized and alive when we do them,” Fox suggests choosing to see the strengths in each child instead of the weaknesses.  Like Mel Levine’s A Mind At A Time (that I read a couple of years ago) this book’s underlying premise is that we should bolster each child’s self-esteem through “positive psychology.”

In the first half of Your Child’s Strengths, Fox explores and explains the negatives of the current educational system.  But her discussion is not limited to a critique; she then goes on to provide tangible and realistic recommendations to transform the methods of modern schooling.

The latter half of the book is full of real-life examples and detailed practical application, which I always appreciate.  Mere abstract philosophy is sometimes difficult to translate into daily curriculum, especially when one doesn’t have much time for pensive reflection (as is the case with most parents and teachers). 

In the section on assessing children’s strengths, Fox provides several examples for those working with children too young to accurately self-assess.  For instance, older children can write about which activity is most appealing, but for younger children:  “Find three pictures of characters engaged in a variety of different activites…. ask her several times if she would like to do the activity the characters are doing.”

Fox also includes an enlightening section entitled “13 Moments in History:  A Brief History of Educational Theory,” a survey of educational philosophies from different eras and cultures.  Likewise, Appendix C – a list of web sites, schools, and companies – is another valuable resource for philosophy and curriculum development.

While I don’t completely agree with the premise and goals of Positive Psychology, there are several useful and thought-provoking concepts that make Your Child’s Strengths worthwhile reading for any educator.  Personally, I connect more with the Charlotte Mason approach to education – which is not mentioned in this book – but I plan to research and incorporate several ideas/approaches mentioned here as well.

Thanks to Parent Bloggers for providing the book for this review.