School Development

In The Family Firm, Brown professor of economics and mom of two Emily Oster offers a classic business school framework for data-driven parents to think more deliberately about the key issues of the elementary years: school, health, extracurricular activities, and more. Unlike the hourly challenges of infant parenting, the big questions in this age come up less frequently.

We probably went to school for what felt like a very long time. We probably took care with our homework. Along the way we surely learned intriguing things about equations, the erosion of glaciers, the history of the Middle Ages, and the tenses of foreign languages. But why, despite all the lessons we sat through, were we never taught the really important things that dominate and trouble our lives: who to start a relationship with, how to trust people, how to understand one’s psyche, how to move on from sorrow or betrayal, and how to cope with anxiety and shame?

A design process presents a series of steps, but in real life, it rarely plays out this neatly. Navigating Ambiguity underscores how the creative process isn’t formulaic. This book shows you how to surrender control by being adaptable, curious, and unbiased as well as resourceful, tenacious, and courageous.

In this groundbreaking book, parenting expert and acclaimed author of the bestselling book Simplicity Parenting Kim John Payne, M.Ed., flips the script on children’s challenging or defiant behavior and lays out an elegantly simple plan to support parents in establishing loving, age-sensitive boundaries that help children feel safe and settled. In short: What looks like misbehavior is actually your children’s signal that they’re feeling lost, that they are trying to find direction and looking to you to guide them back on course.

A charming, life-changing fable that will help you rethink your whole approach to time, priorities, and possibilities.

We live in a culture that hails motherhood as a woman's crowning achievement yet defines men first and foremost by their professional accomplishments, treating fatherhood as almost incidental - a bonus. But from her years spent as a pediatrician listening to children's needs and fears, Dr. Meeker understands just how crucial a father's role is.

Pediatrician and twin-mom, Dr. Shelly Vaziri Flais, offers expert advice for raising healthy, well-adjusted twins and triplets in this fully revised and updated third edition. Her guidance will help parents of multiples prepare for their babies' arrival, weather the first few months of infancy, manage toddlerhood, and help establish individual identities through the school-age and teenage years. The combination of sound medical advice and real-world experience will give twin-parents the direction and reassurance that they need.

It can sometimes seem a mystery why some couples stay together and thrive—while many more split up or drag on scratchily. While we might think happy love is left to chance, there are some identifiable secrets that underpin good relationships that we can learn and put into practice. The first title of a new series, The Secrets of Successful Relationships draws upon the expertise of The School of Life therapists to teach us the key ingredients of contented love.

Parents these days are under a great deal of pressure to be "perfect". From psychologists to social scientists, journalists to weekend bloggers, everyone has an opinion about the do's and don'ts for raising healthy, well-adjusted - and let's not forget polite - children in today's fast-paced world. Where does this leave parents? Too often lacking in confidence, ill equipped, and overwhelmed. Parenting expert Vicki Hoefle makes the bold claim that it's time for parents to get off the perfection path and get back to the real job of parenting: to grow a grown-up.

Make the most of your high school years by developing new social skills that help make friends, thwart enemies, and build your confidence. Does the thought of starting high school breed a mix of deep emotions–from intense excitement to mind-numbing dread? Don’t be a target for bullies and phony friends. Learn to set boundaries for yourself and use assertiveness to thrive. Avoid unnecessary conflicts, and learn to communicate effectively with parents, teachers, and even your boss.

Parenting can be such an overwhelming job that it's easy to lose track of where you stand on some of the more controversial subjects at the playground (What if my kid likes to rough house - isn't this ok as long as no one gets hurt? And what if my kid just doesn't feel like sharing?). In this inspiring and enlightening book, Heather Shumaker describes her quest to nail down "the rules" to raising smart, sensitive, and self-sufficient kids.

Whenever Amy McCready mentions the "entitlement epidemic" to a group of parents, she is inevitably met with eye rolls, nodding heads, and loaded comments about affected children. It seems everywhere one looks, there are preschoolers who only behave in the grocery store for a treat, narcissistic teenagers posting selfies across all forms of social media, and adult children living off their parents. Parenting expert Amy McCready reveals in this book that the solution is to help kids develop healthy attitudes in life.

Over the past several years, Dr Becky Kennedy—known to her followers as “Dr Becky”—has been sparking a parenting revolution. Millions of parents, tired of following advice that either doesn’t work or simply doesn’t feel good, have embraced Dr Becky’s empowering and effective approach, a model that prioritises connecting with our kids over correcting them.

Twice a year in the heart of Silicon Valley, a small investment firm called Y Combinator selects an elite group of young entrepreneurs from around the world for three months of intense work and instruction. Their brand-new two- or three-person start-ups are given a seemingly impossible challenge: to turn a raw idea into a viable business, fast.

This is a hopeful, consoling, gentle book about failure. Our societies talk a lot about success, but the reality is that no one gets through life without failing–in small and usually also in large ways. Sometimes our failures are very obvious, at other times, we feel we have to conceal them out of shame. This book encourages us to accept the role that failure plays for all of us and to feel compassion for ourselves for the messes we can’t help but make as we go through our lives.

Parents who are deeply invested in their children's education can be hard on themselves and their kids. When exhausted parents are living the day-to-day grind, it can seem impossible to muster enough energy to make learning fun or interesting. Author Julie Bogart distills decades of experience - homeschooling her five now grown children, developing curricula, and training homeschooling families around the world - to teach parents how to make education an exciting, even enchanting, experience for their kids, whether they're in elementary or high school.

Why is it so hard to change problem behavior - in our kids, our colleagues, and even ourselves? Conventional methods often backfire, creating a downward spiral of resentment and frustration, and a missed opportunity for growth. What if the thinking behind these old methods is wrong? What if people don’t misbehave because they want to, but because they lack the skills to do better? Or as renowned psychologist J. Stuart Ablon asks, what if changing problem behavior is a matter of skill, not will?

Worried about mean girls? Help your daughter respond and react to bullying where it starts - in elementary school.

Renowned speaker, parenting expert, and New York Times best-selling author of The Blessing of a Skinned Knee, Dr. Wendy Mogel offers an essential guide to the new art of talking to children and shows how a change in voice can transform conversations and ease the relationship between parents and children.

Parents everywhere are deeply concerned about the education of their children, especially now, when education has become a minefield of politics and controversy. One of the world's most influential educators, Robinson has had countless conversations with parents about the dilemmas they face. As a parent, what should you look for in your children's education? How can you tell if their school is right for them and what can you do if it isn't? In this important new book, he offers clear principles and practical advice on how to support your child through the K-12 education system.