Smart Families

Blended families face unique challenges, and sadly, good intentions aren’t always enough. With so many complex relationships involved, all the normal rules for family life change, even how you apply something as simple as the five love languages. That’s why Gary Chapman, the best-selling author of The Five Love Languages and national expert on stepfamilies, Ron Deal, join together in this book to teach you how the five love languages can help your blended family.

Leading stepfamily expert Ron Deal offers a revised and expanded edition of his signature resource, which addresses key concerns and practical issues facing every stepfamily.

Whether you're a young adult who is stalled on the journey to independence or a concerned parent still sharing the family nest, this compassionate book is for you. Providing a fresh perspective on the causes of failure to launch, the expert authors present a 10-step plan that helps grown kids and parents work together to achieve liftoff.

"Smart" is a power word. Children who believe they’re smart excel more in school and approach life with greater confidence. But children who don’t can struggle to apply themselves. Do you wish your child could see how smart he or she is? Find hope in Eight Great Smarts. You’ll be empowered and equipped with new language and creative ideas. Dr. Kathy Koch loves seeing children flourish and helping parents make it happen—and it’s never too late to start. Now is the time to help your child be all that God designed him or her to be.

If you are considering remarriage and want to do everything you can to ensure a happy and fulfilling union, turn to Ron Deal and the Smart Stepfamily series. This is the ideal book for engaged or pre-engaged couples who have at least one child from a previous relationship, offering premarital counsel about how to prepare to blend family relationships, parenting, finances, rituals, and daily routines for your new life together.

Being the parent of a smart child is great - until your son or daughter starts asking whether global warming is real, if you are going to die, and what will happen if they don't get into college. Kids who are advanced intellectually often let their imaginations run wild and experience fears beyond their years. So what can you do to help? In Why Smart Kids Worry, Allison Edwards guides you through the mental and emotional process of where your child's fears come from and why they are so hard to move past. Edwards focuses on how to parent a child who is both smart and anxious.

In Smart Money Smart Kids, financial expert and best-selling author Dave Ramsey and his daughter Rachel Cruze equip parents to teach their children how to win with money. Starting with the basics like working, spending, saving, and giving, and moving into more challenging issues like avoiding debt for life, paying cash for college, and battling discontentment, Dave and Rachel present a no-nonsense, common-sense approach for changing your family tree.

If you're the parent of a "smart but scattered" teen, trying to help him or her grow into a self-sufficient, responsible adult may feel like a never-ending battle. Now you have an alternative to micromanaging, cajoling, or ineffective punishments. This positive guide provides a science-based program for promoting teens' independence by building their executive skills - the fundamental brain-based abilities needed to get organized, stay focused, and control impulses and emotions.

Smart Mom, Rich Mom explores how women today are navigating the financially challenging career/parenting years. Written by a national money columnist and mom of two, the book chronicles people who have stayed in the game - full-time, freelance, self-employed, and more - and emerged more prosperous and empowered. Kids change our lives, adding joy but draining bank accounts. Smart Mom, Rich Mom helps you adopt healthy habits - and make hard decisions - that pay off in abundance.

"Smart Family Finances" serves as a comprehensive guide for families looking to take control of their financial situation. It outlines practical steps for budgeting, expense management, and increasing income, all while fostering financial literacy within the family.

Rich Kid Smart Kid is written for parents who value education, want to give their children a financial head start in life, and are willing to take an active role to make that happen. In the Information Age, a good education is more important than ever. But the current educational system may not be providing all the information a child needs to thrive in today’s fast-paced, ever-changing world. This book was designed to fill in the gaps and to give your child the same inspiring and practical knowledge that Robert’s rich dad gave him.

You could have a Harvard degree or a lifetime’s experience as a librarian, and you still wouldn’t have come across some of the facts found in Interesting Facts for Smart Kids. But after a few rounds of listening to some of the most bizarre things you’ll ever learn about the world, you’ll have a family of experts in, well, everything!

In Brain Rules for Baby, Dr. John Medina shares what the latest science says about how to raise smart and happy children from zero to five. This book is destined to revolutionize parenting. Just one of the surprises: The best way to get your children into the college of their choice? Teach them impulse control. Brain Rules for Baby bridges the gap between what scientists know and what parents practice.

We may not realize it, but children are hyperaware of money. They have scores of questions about its nuances that parents often don't answer, or know how to answer well. But for Ron Lieber, a personal finance columnist and father, good parenting means talking about money with our kids much more often. When parents avoid these conversations, they lose a tremendous opportunity—not just to model important financial behaviors, but also to imprint lessons about what their family cares about most.

Murder, Magic, and Midlife Mayhem—Faith Bracken’s new beginning is about to get downright deadly! Faith Bracken thought her fifties would be all about pruning bad habits and planting fresh starts—not dodging detectives, discovering magic, and digging up murder suspects. As a high-end Feng Shui consultant in L.A., Faith had mastered the art of balance—until a high-profile client turned up dead, her career wilted overnight, and the FBI’s most persistent agent, Harvey Wallbanger, started sniffing around. With no other choice, she uproots her life and returns home to Abracadabra, ...

Money issues are a frequent source of conflict in any marriage. But blended families are a monetary minefield. Debts, bills, and child support payments from previous relationships often influence the finances of a blended family. And planning for college expenses, retirement, and inheritance gets even more complicated in stepfamilies.

For children with sensory difficulties - those who struggle to process everyday sensations and exhibit unusual behaviors such as avoiding or seeking out touch, movement, sounds, and sights - this groundbreaking audiobook is an invaluable resource. Sensory processing challenges affect all kinds of kids - from those with developmental delays, learning and attenion issues, or autism spectrum disorder to those without any other issues. Now in its third edition, Raising a Sensory Smart Child is even more comprehensive and helpful than ever.

The Social Security program touches the lives of Americans young and old. Almost everyone has a Social Security number and a job that deducts Social Security taxes from his or her paycheck. And more than 60 million Americans, 1 out of every 6 people in the country, collect a monthly Social Security check. Social Security spending makes up about one-fourth of the entire federal budget.A program this big is bound to have complex laws and regulations. Tom Margenau has been helping people understand Social Security for almost 50 years, both as a Social Security Administration employee and as a ...

One of the benefits of a home education is a curriculum designed to fit each student. But that means knowing how your child learns. Not every child receives knowledge the same way. It’s up to the teacher to figure out the best way to reach each one. Based on the 8 Smarts identified by Kathy Koch - word, logic, picture, music, body, nature, people, and self - 8 Great Smarts for Homeschooling Families tailors these ideas to the unique setting of the home classroom.

t’s no secret that addictive digital technologies like smartphones and social media apps are harming a generation of kids socially, mentally, and even physically. But a workable solution seems elusive. After all, don’t kids need phones, and won’t they be vulnerable or socially isolated without tech? Clare Morell, fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and director of its Technology and Human Flourishing Project, argues that the answer is no.