WINNER ANNOUNCED HERE.
When Jenifer Fox asked me to review her new book, Your Child’s Strengths: Discover Them, Develop Them, Use Them
Jenifer has spent twenty-five years as an educator and throughout that time, she has always been a champion for the underdog. She says, “Where others saw weaknesses in people, I sought out the strengths and was able to find them.”
Her premise in Your Child’s Strengths is that when adults focus on developing and utilizing children’s strengths — rather than trying to fix, or remediate weaknesses — children grow up to be happier, healthier and more productive citizens. And if you’ve been reading this blog for any period of time, you know that I completely agree!
Your Child’s Strengths provides parents, teachers and schools clear and practical direction for building upon children’s strengths. It’s not just a “feel-good story,” or about mere praise and self-esteem building. She writes, “It’s about igniting each child’s individual potential and preparing them for successful, fulfilled lives in school and beyond.”
Your Child’s Strengths
To be eligible for the giveaway, please visit Jenifer’s blog and come back here to leave a comment about it. (Scroll to the very bottom of this post to find the comment form.) I’ll randomly choose the winner on March 7.
Also, I host regular giveaways for parents and educators. Please consider signing up for updates in the box below. I will never spam you or give out your address.
Strength Movement Series:
Your Child’s Strengths Review and Giveaway
Passing the Torch by Focusing Strengths
Positively Speaking – Your Child’s Strengths
You can join me each week to share a time kids make you proud, or a way adults are passing the torch. Blog your story or share it in comments. Former PTT posts.
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9:21 am
Count me in! How cool that her presentations count for CEU’s!
10:35 am
Okay, I’m in.
I absolutely loved the post from February 9 on Jenifers blog.
This post from Kahlil Gibran resonated with me
“Your children are not your children. / They come through
you but not from you, / And though they are with you yet they belong not
to you. / You may give them your love but not your thoughts, / For they
have their own thoughts.”
I know that my children are all extremely independent spirits and they all have their own thoughts!
10:55 am
This is so consistent with Developmental Assets — which is what my work is based on! Thanks for sharing a great resource!
Lisa
11:51 am
The Strength Movement really resonates well with me. As a professional in youth development, I always recognized the power in highlighting and reinforcing strengths, especially in those who are commonly marginalized or negatively labeled. Thanks!
Amal
11:55 am
As a trained counselor and administrator in the career development field, I am pleased to see this partnership between the corporate world and the strengths based approach. I am impresed with Best Buy’s sponsorship of “Your Child’s Strengths” and hope that these worlds can continue to collaborate and even celebrate such partnerships and accomplishments through recognition and additional special events. I hope that the students I serve at the college level can find a career path that allows them to thrive and use their strengths. I beleive it takes corporate leadership to ensure a strengths based culture in the workplace. I especially like how Best Buy is taking the strengths based perspective and promoting a book that focuses on a constructive approach for families. I wonder if there are established organizations that develop corporate culture to promote strengths… I’ve heard of a few but am always looking for more. Thanks!
1:11 pm
This book looks great! I want to read it and spread the word about it through out our community. I am working with the assets and also involved with our schools PTA. This is something that the PTA could purchase and give to parents. We are always looking for ways to have parents more involved and aware. And this looks like a great resource.
Thanks!!
2:20 pm
We are re-introducing the Developmental Assets into our community and are getting great response to it. Helping youth focus on their strengths is what our program is all about and was happy to hear about this new resource. Thanks!
2:20 pm
A strength is an activity that energizes you. Only the person doing the activity will know whether or not it is energizing to them.
This lept out at me. Thanks for the insight!
4:49 pm
Hey friend!
Thanks for letting me know about this giveaway…I’ll be back TOMORROW to catch up in complete…today? My day’s been slap insane :/.
C’est la vie!
11:08 pm
This sounds like something I could really use! Thanks for the chance.
1:20 pm
I was impressed and intrigued with her post about cynicism being something found only in adults, and the suggestion that we should look for strengths in others. I’m interested in learning, as she grows, what my own child’s strengths are.
3:23 pm
I really liked the line – you can give them your love but not your thoughts. Good thing to think about and have in the back of your head while raising your kids.
3:59 pm
The book looks exciting to me. I’m a Trainer for a well-known child abuse prevention curriculum, and am involved locally with a strengths-focused collaborative of organizations. People I work with – such as educators, school counselors, school nurses -all work with children, to help them thrive and succeed in the world. Looking for the strengths to build on in both adults and kids helps us develop responsible, creative adults who can make capable, effective decisions about the world in which they live. It makes good sense for corporate America to get involved!
5:20 pm
I love this quote from Jennifer’s blog “So, Here is the idea…it seems so simple really.Why don’t we all look for what is right about the people in the world? Why don’t we believe we can make a difference and then, by god, go out there and make one?”
I totally agree.
6:27 pm
All I can say is, “It’s about time!” That is what I hope my parenting style is! My two sons are as different as night and day! They each have their own distinct strengths. My husband and I try to emphasize that to each boy! I loved Jennifer’s blog. The schools had better make it part of their curriculum. Thanks,Cindi
9:39 pm
I read through the category called “Advise to Parents” and everything she said there reinforced the reasons I chose to homeschool. I plan to go back and read more in the other categories.
8:43 am
I’ve been using the strength-based model for 15 years. Still, I am surprised at how difficult it is for young people to think of their strengths. They can’t name them, but they can quickly name what they are not good at. How can they build on their strenths, or assets, if they don’t know what they are? This book is a “must” for educators and parents. I am a counselor at the middle-school level.
9:15 am
Wow, I would love to send a link of her site to our school board…our public schools in this district are really going downhill, her site definately could bring some talking points to the table!
9:50 am
The organization with which I work has a long history of developing assets in girls.
10:46 am
Okay, I can’t wait to read this book. I am SO delighted to hear of such a broad focus being given to such an important topic!! How WONDERFUL!
Hugs,
Holly
12:45 pm
I’m a middle school teacher, and I want to get all my parents this book! (not that it would be possible). I need to read it first tho. We are trying to change our school over to a positive behavior support system instead of punishment based, and I think this ties right in with focusing on the positives instead of the weaknesses.
thanks for hosting!
nifferjeno at gmail dot com
1:28 pm
I am a 4th year PsyD student working on my dissertation. I am conducting my research using E5 groups (Milleren and Wingett)with the juvenile incarcerated population. The strength-strength based approach has been so effective. Kids don’t realize that they have strengths! Helping them identify strengths and helping develop social interest through identification of others’ strengths is essential to the beginning of change for these kids. Do people get what they expect? Absolutely. It begins with education and support of parents and kids. I commend you for this gift to all of us!
3:05 pm
I liked Jennifer’s blog. I enjoyed a poem on the blog so much I wrote it down and I’m going to make a copy to hang up on the wall. Children are our future, let’s give them all the strength we may not have gotten as children. And always focus on the positive.
Thanks, abby
4:40 pm
[...] You can read Kelly’s review and get instructions about the giveaway at her blog. [...]
7:20 am
[...] giving away a copy of Your Child’s Strengths on my blog this week – please stop by and sign [...]
7:40 am
It was interesting to read Jennifer’s take on building up our children. I agree that too often we try to change our kids, rather than work toward helping them based on their positive points.
I would love to win and read her book and help my own children.
Thank you for the awesome giveaway!
mnatherson(at)comcast(dot)net
10:07 am
Strengths movement looks like an interesting site. I’m clicking links in the Resources for Parents page. And looks like I’m going to learn something tonight. Your giveaway is interesting too. I’d love to have a copy of it.
zamblogspot at gmail dot com
10:50 am
I really found the Strengths Lens helpful and eye opening.
Thanks for the giveaway.
11:25 am
[...] Book Giveaway – Your Child’s Strengths [...]
1:57 pm
This really hit home, as my DD is disabled, and within the daily struggle of daily therapy (every 2 hours!) multiple doctor appointments, meds, therapists, and speech therapists…..I tend to focus on the can’t instead on the cans…..I would realyl love to get a copy of the book, for my DD’s sake.
3:53 pm
I would LOVE this book. Count me in. My girls are only 6 and 8 and I know I still have time to help them grow up to be amazing young ladies and eventually women, wives, and mothers.
9:25 pm
As a homeschool mom of seven, this sounds like a great book.
I liked, “Parents can begin developing strengths in children between birth and eleven years by providing them with rich memories and a variety of activities to explore and by celebrating their innate personality traits.”
9:30 pm
I like the way her site was laid out. It was easy to find info that I wanted to read.
12:27 am
[...] Pass The Torch – Your Child’s Strength by Jenifer Fox (March 7th) [...]
1:38 am
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7:50 am
[...] Where: Pass the Torch [...]
2:18 pm
[...] shares Book Giveaway – Your Child’s Strengths from Pass the Torch. Kelly is giving away the new book, “Your Child’s Strengths,” set [...]
2:33 pm
Thanks so much for contributing this post to The Seventh Day: Tenth Edition blog carnival at On the Horizon! Stop by and check out the other excellent submissions!
3:04 pm
I would love to win this as finding one of my child’s strength is something i’m struggling with right now.
re: the strength movement. I’m impressed that Jennifer has such a strong initiative to reach out with the book through the progams she’s trying to get into the school as well as how to pin point your own strength!
3:34 pm
This book looks really impressive as well as her website. I think it is sadly true that schools are spending all their time and resources on remediating weaknesses and not developing strengths. I think this would be a very educational book.
4:23 pm
I hav two young boys and would love to have this book, thank you for the opportunity!
5:10 pm
This looks like an interesting book – The website looks helpful as well, I’ve bookmarked it.
9:19 pm
I love this quote from her site: “We have all been conditioned to see weaknesses and mine for deficits.” It’s so true! What a huge gift to give our children the blessing of knowing their strengths! Looks like a must read for parents and teachers!
9:54 pm
This makes so much sense. I have been struggling a little with my oldest daughter and I think I have focused too much on her weaknesses. I’d love to read this book and hopefully start applying some of it’s wisdom to my parenting. The blog looks like it has looks of great info. and I plan to read more of it this week.
10:30 pm
I just took Reliable Strengths training to help out in my local junior high. I would love this book to help round out what I have learned.
10:37 pm
What a great book. The Strengths Movement strongly speaks to me…my husband runs a non-profit for inner city high school kids (teens who people would rather not invest their time with b/c they’re so hardened by the streets). They’ve been beaten down so much for generations…
11:17 pm
I found this line on her Parents page:
“Parents can begin developing strengths in children between birth and eleven years by providing them with rich memories and a variety of activities to explore and by celebrating their innate personality traits.”
Rich memories and a variety of activities– what more could anyone ask for from their childhood? I’d love to read this book– thanks for the chance to win it.
9:38 am
[...] Book Giveaway – Your Child’s Strengths [...]
10:39 am
I like the sound of this book and would like to investigate it further. How true that parents and educators often focus greatly on the weaknesses of children rather than their strengths. This is something that should change.
10:54 am
I really believe we spend too much of our and a childs energy on remediating weaknesses instead of channeling it into their strengthd where the gains are so much greater and fullfilling to the child.
1:50 pm
Wow! I have never stopped by one of these give-aways, but was intriqued by the title of “Your Child’s Strengths”. I went to J. Fox’s website and love the thought process behind all of this. It is something that my husband and I have always tried to do- but now to have a resource! Yeahhh!
Thanks for sharing the info with me!
2:27 pm
I used to homeschool my children and I was at a conference a few years ago that had a similiar theme as the new book, “Your Child’s Strengths.” The keynote gave an illustration that went something like this – every child is like a block of untouched marble. We, as parents, could start chipping away the layers and find a child inside that have their own special strengths and weeknesses. The marble is not a mold so that the child will turn out just like us but it is an unscuplted piece of marble that would break any mold we tried to fit it into. The only way to make that marble into everything is can be is to let it’s inner beauty (strength) shine out.
2:45 pm
I am really excited about this being a homeschooler. I am currently schooling 2 children and love to see something so positive out there! I love the effects that you see when you are doing things in a positive way. Even discipline, school etc. How exciting is this!!! I would love to get the book!!! This intrigues me and motivates me as well, to be the mom I was intended to be.
2:58 pm
As a elementary guidance counselor – helping kiddos find their strengths is one of the best ways to help them be successful. Far too often the corrections we often need to make in a child’s academic realm overshadow opportunities to help them find the strengths they have in their toolbox to fix mistakes and move forward. Looking forward to reading the book and sharing it with others – this is a great reminder and inspiration this time of year – as we work to overcome the length and severity of winter and the intensity and seriousness of the curriculum.
6:53 pm
I’m so pleased to hear about Jennifer’s book, as I think she gives formal voice to a concept that so many of us parents and teachers have known intuitively for so long.
As a children’s author and teacher, this is a concept that I constantly work to build upon, and this book will be a fantastic resource. Thanks!
10:50 pm
My husband and I were discussing this very topic on Saturday(I feel he focuses too much on our Kindergartener’s mistakes) I have signed up for Jennifer’s mailings and loved all the info on School Curriculum! Our daughter is lucky enough to go to a charter that does “inclusion” lessons and she is thriving, but,like with all things, I know I could do better with the possitive responses!!! I would love this book not only for me, but to pass along to the other mom’s I know and love!
10:55 pm
Love the quote on her blog “hard work was more important than genetic high intellect in achieving” so true!
11:11 pm
I have two little ones and hope this is the approach the schools in my area take when its time for them to enroll. Thanks for this information. I will be back!
11:16 pm
This sounds like a great book and I have saved the blog in my faves. I am a teachers aide and a mother of 2 (a son with a form of autism). How true it is that we need to focus on the positve and encourage our children, not discourage! Thanks for the chance to win this!
12:13 am
Interesting site! Very engaging!
12:15 am
Very inspiring! Thanks for the chance!
dansan826 at yahoo
2:01 am
I would love the opportunity to explore this topic further. I usually try to build up my daughter’s strenghths, but I know there have been times when I have pointed out her faults too. Jennifer’s website is interesting and I have saved it in my favorites.
Artful Blessings,
Kathryn
5:32 am
looks like a great book
7:55 am
I think this is great. in today’s society, people in the educational system are anxious to tell you what your child is doing wrong and what they need to work on but few of them stop to realize that with some understanding of the great things they do they could get them to do teh little things better.
9:46 am
Sounds like a wonderful book I could certainly use for my 3 “very different from each other” children.
Thanks,
11:06 am
It’s hard to point out strengths sometimes, when all we can see is the negative. I would love to read up on this, as it would be a great reminder of how special each of my children really is.
11:36 am
I love the whole idea of the strengths movement. The Strengths Movement Tip Sheet would be an easy way to introduce the idea to my husband!
2:00 pm
I Love that site and am looking forward to really delving into it more! I love enriching my childrens lives and love to have new ideas to do so! I can’t wait to read this book!
Oh quick question my friend had the same problem on her blog with up the computer uploading increadibly slowly and crunching bites..or closing the link…..she had her post at 500 and didn’t archive them…
If this little glitch is resolved you will have tons more comments and participation! I am going to bookmark you so I can look into your site later..I need to go Check on the little ones they are too quiet!
Warmly,
Stacy~Creativemuse
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5023227
http://www.flickr.com/photos/52895107@N00/
4:23 pm
This looks like a much needed book. I read through her resources for parents and have enjoyed many of the books on schooling (and unschooling) that she mentions. I’ll have to add this one to my reading list!
5:07 pm
Thanks for highlighting this book. I am a counselor and mom of 3 daughters, and I agree with what many others have written about the need to focus on strengths. I am definitely bookmarking her site and going to look into this movement more! It’s interesting that she has already received corporate support as well.
6:00 pm
i have a 3 year old son. i would definitely love to check this book out. thank you!
7:11 pm
This would be an amazing book that I would love to read — and I’m not a parent who reads every parenting book.
8:57 pm
I was intrigued with her post about cynicism being something found only in adults, and the suggestion that we should look for strengths in others. This book may develop me as well as my child, making me the person i’d want my daughter to be.
Thanks!
12:44 am
Id love to have a copy.
I blogged you too
http://www.prizeatron.com
11:08 pm
I would love to check this out. Mine is still pretty young, so there’s still time!
1:23 pm
Looks like a fantastic site and I will be back to join the network and get more involved. I am the part of the PTA of a small school in Placencia, Belize. Would love to read the book and learn more about how to build on the strengths of our kids.
2:19 pm
If it helps my kids I’m all for it
4:45 pm
I like her blog and am now really interested in her book. I am always fascinated by the juvenile justice system and her post was compelling. I live in a very low income area where NCLB is destroying the self esteem of our kids. I hope that the Strengths Movement gains momentum. I’ll certainly spread the word.
7:55 am
[...] Book Giveaway – Your Child’s Strengths [...]
11:59 am
I do hope I win this book! Thanks for directing me to Jennifer’s website. It is full of valuable information I didn’t know was out there!