How can simple activities help us connect more fully with our children and live more happily together? What types of games will encourage children to be kind to others? How can crafting and outdoor play build respect for the natural world? The Connected Family Handbook offers empowering advice and practical activities to answer these questions and many more. Experienced parenting coach and popular author Lou Harvey-Zahra and successful parenting blogger Danielle Harbison have created a unique and inspiring book for carers of toddlers to ten year olds. Each of the ten chapters tackles an important theme for families -- Home, Kindness, Mealtimes, Move, Warmth, Teamwork, Adventure, Nature, Wonder and Celebration -- and suggests ways to nurture these qualities in children. Every chapter is illustrated with beautiful photographs and includes easy crafts and fun recipes to create with children, stories and verses to share, as well as tips on creative discipline, positive play and establishing family rhythms and routines. Engage with NATURE by crafting toys from sticks, nurture WONDER by sharing a story about toadstools and fairy folk, encourage KINDNESS by creating a toy medical kit and make MEALTIMES fun with frozen fruit pizza. All of Lou and Danielle's ideas and advice come from a background of holistic child development, and celebrate values including eco-friendly living, connected family life, healthy and fun food choices and the importance of imaginative play.

Many parents struggle with finding effective ways to manage their children's behaviour. Can you discipline without punishing? How do you set limits while maintaining closeness and trust? Lou Harvey-Zahra, an experienced parenting coach and teacher, has developed a method that really works: creative discipline. Offering new perspectives on children's so-called 'bad behaviour', she helps parents solve immediate problems while fostering positive, lifelong family connections. This book is full of ideas for overcoming everyday issues like fussy eating, bedtime struggles and sibling squabbles. It also offers inspiration for addressing larger concerns, such as lying, anger and bereavement. With numerous examples, real-life stories and commonly asked questions, this is an encouraging, helpful guide for parenting children from toddler to twelve years old from the author of the bestselling Happy Child, Happy Home.

This practical and inspiring book introduces 'conscious parenting' as a new way of helping any family home become more harmonious. Lou Harvey-Zahra, an experienced parenting coach and teacher, wants to help parents develop calm and happy children. Drawing her inspiration from a Steiner-Waldorf background, she offers candid, relevant and funny tips and advice for taking a clear look at family life, identifying what's not working, and exploring new ideas for improving parent-child relationships. The book addresses issues such as rhythm and routine, children's play, storytelling and crafts, as well as delving beneath the surface to discuss children's twelve senses, and four temperaments. In addition there is a sure-to-be popular section on creative discipline, plus tips from Dad and wonderful suggestions for making ordinary family moments extraordinary. This uplifting parenting guide teaches how to raise happy children and create happy homes. An accessible, readable book which parents will appreciate for its down-to-earth, realistic approach and insightful counsel.

Children's birthdays are a time of reflection to look back over the last year, and remember the day they arrived in the world. The Waldorf tradition is to tell the birthday story -- the tale of a little soul who crossed the rainbow bridge, came to earth, found a loving family and became the birthday boy or girl. The birthday story has been told for generations and holds a unique place in the hearts and memories of thousands of families. Through the Rainbow is a faithful and inspiring retelling of the most well-known version of the story by parenting coach and Waldorf parent Lou Harvey-Zahra, and is accompanied by soft, ethereal illustrations by Waldorf artist and teacher Sara Parrilli. This beautiful picture book can become part of a family's traditions, read every year to celebrate a child's special day. Through the Rainbow can be personalised, making it unique for each birthday child.

No longer little children, but not yet teenagers, children in the primary school years (between seven and twelve) face big emotional, social, psychological and physical changes. How can parents best support their children whilst also embracing their growing independence? Inspired by the Waldorf approach to child development, Lou Harvey-Zahra explains the three major transitions, or 'rubicons', of middle childhood at ages seven, nine and twelve. She offers practical tips and guidance to help parents through the challenges of the middle years, including: -- Creative solutions for common discipline issues -- Helpful routines for busy households to strengthen family bonds -- Suggested responses to tricky childhood questions -- Sensitive advice to help children manage anger and anxiety Growing Children, Thriving Children empowers parents to navigate the middle years with confidence.