“Teach Your Kids to Think: Simple Tools You Can Use Every Day” by Maria Chesley, Ph.D., is a guidebook on helping parents help their children to be able to succeed in the world. Ms. Chelsey points out in the beginning that children need more than just the basic reading, writing and arithmetic, but also need “logical and analytical thinking, resourcefulness, adaptability, and creativity.” The author draws on her experience as a teacher and as a parent. She talks about multiple intelligences and that intelligence isn’t just a high IQ score.

In this book, the author focuses on giving parents the tools to teach:
Thinking skills
Analytical thinking skills
Creative thinking skills
Social & emotional thinking skills
Practical thinking skills

I really liked the way the author gave examples on how to talk to your children in a way that encourages communication. Instead of asking a yes/no question about whether a child likes a watch, a parent can ask “You prefer this watch. What did you think about when deciding?” Asking open-ended questions helps you connect more with your child because it shows that you are interested in him/her and what he/she is thinking. It also helps the child to think more about how they came to conclusions.

This book is a great book for a parent to carry around and open on occasion to remind themselves how they can help their children become more successful and to use their multiple intelligences. Oftentimes parents get stuck in a rut and forget about ways to communicate. This book is a gentle reminder on how parents can facilitate thinking in their children. It gives a lot of information but does not overwhelm the reader. Definitely a book I would recommend to parents and even teachers! ( )

Working as a compilation of strategies to help parents and other caregivers of children. To have and to offer the tools children will need to become independent thinkers. Teaching this to kids falls on the parents just as much as it does on the teachers at school. Learning the difference between analytical thinking, creative thinking, social and emotional thinking or practical thinking is the start to understanding how to help our children think for themselves. The approach used to help children learn all these aspects only slightly differ from each other. For any person to have the thoughtful intelligence that it takes to truly succeed, one needs to have use of all theses skills in combination with each other. Learning that helps the child and the caregiver too.

The author has compiled a vast amount of skills and tools into a concise and easy to comprehend book. The background as a teacher comes through with the adaptability of each lesson. This book is filled with definitions of these thinking patterns as well as suggestions for conversation starters and examples. I was startled by the abrupt ending. So much effort was put into an introduction and each of the sections. I expected a wrap up but it never came, just bounced right into notes and references. The reference guide in the back gives you locations for further information.

Seems to be great information, and so easy to implement. Some of the suggestions are commonly used with out even realizing that it is a thinking strategy. Other are more obviously a learning opportunity but all of them are fun to think about. That is the point, to get your mind thinking and the children’s minds around you. I am eager to start using a few that I haven’t used before and to re-assess the ones I use on a regular basis. ( )

Oh, how I wish this book was available 35 years ago when I was encouraging my children to "think." Attempting to come up with activities to promote thinking is challenging enough let alone keep their interest peaked and fun enough to continue and not get bored. Well, for those that have children, or an educator wanting to come up with new activities, Dr. Maria Chesley Fisk has made it easy.

As I perused the activities I realized that each one has a deeper purpose than just to think. For example, the "Would you prefer...?" activity asks a series of questions such as "Would you prefer to go for a walk or play a game this afternoon? What are reasons you would want to walk and reasons you would want to play a game?" Another activity has the child close his or her eyes and focus on what is the hand. The child is to guess what it is and describe how it feels. Some of the items could be flour, vegetable oil, ice, and pine cones.

This book is excellent for teaching children to develop life skills which include thinking and making choices. Learning through the series of tools at an early age paves the road for being able to make decisions based on their learned thinking skills as an adult. Stretching and expanding the brain is crucial and Dr. Fisk certainly gives the tools to help the child do so. ( )