It's OK to Go Up the Slide

In this episode, I speak with Heather Shumaker, the author of It’s OK to Go Up the Slide: Renegade Rules for Raising Confident and Creative Kids (TarcherPerigee, 2016). Her book offers advice to parents looking for new approaches to common problems facing their school-age children. We discuss how our perception of childhood has changed over time, the importance of acknowledging dilemmas and desires that may seem trivial from an adult perspective, and the role of modeling in teaching behaviors.

She recommends the following books for listeners interested in her work and our conversation:

• The End of Homework: How Homework Disrupts Families, Overburdens Children, and Limits Learning by Etta Kralovec and John Buell
• The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing by Alfie Kohn
• The Case Against Homework: How Homework Is Hurting Children and What Parents Can Do About It by Sara Bennett and Nancy Kalish
• How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Maslish
• Miseducation: Preschoolers at Risk by David Elkind
• Becoming the Parent You Want to Be: A Sourcebook of Strategies for the First Five Years by Laura Davis

Listen to the interview on New Books in Education.