A New Resource for Parents

My friend and editor, Heather Kempskie, and her twin sister Lisa Hanson have a new book out this week, and I think it's going to be a corker. It's called The Busy Siblings Book, the newest in "The Busy..." series. I don't know if you've read any of these, but we have both The Busy Toddlers Book and The Busy Preschoolers Book; I turn to both again and again for fun, spontaneous ideas with my guys. I have no doubt that, when my copy of The Busy Siblings Book arrives next week, I'll do the same!

I'm going to have the pleasure of interviewing Heather in this space in the next few weeks, but today I wanted to highlight their book blog, which I visited last week and was very impressed with.

One page that caught my interest right away was a link to an article by Thomas Haller and Chick Moorman. Called 10 Ways to Create Sibling Rivalry, the article has had me thinking ever since I read it. My favorite way to create sibling rivalry is "Buy and play many competitive games where there is one winner and many losers."

When Luke was younger, we played lots of those kind of games, reasoning that he needed to learn early that you don't always win. But now I realize that we would have been better off playing games with Luke where we all worked together to achieve a common goal.

I don't really know how it happened, but since Owen has been able to 'play' games, we've cut down on the comptitive ones, opting far more often to read, or build blocks, play with play dough or throw a ball together. The end result is more of an inclination for the boys to work together, in games and life. It's really nice - and nice to have it validated by Haller and Moorman.