Customer Reviews

Proud Parents' Guide to Raising Athletic, Balanced, and Coordinated Kids: A Lifetime of Benefit in Just 10 Minutes a Day

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I was a little sceptical at first thinking the author is a tennis coach, but where are the tennis guidelines for raising those balanced and coordinated kids? Then I realized, it doesn't matter what kind of ballsport your kids are interested in, the guidance this book offers is universally applicable. But I'm kind of into tennis a lot and was particularly pleased that a lot of those subjects direct relate to how kids can become good tennis athletes. The two areas I found most fascinating were sidedness (never heard of that term) and hand-eye coordination. After realizing what's behind those terms and how kids can actually learn how to get better hand-eye coordination, soooo important in tennis, I say this book is not only great for parents, but should be standard material for all tennis coaches who are serious about their mission.

Simply put this book makes it simple. The first half of the book gives a good overview, in layman's terms, of child development. The second half has copious game outlines and suggestions in a game appendix with explanations on how each game helps the child's mental and physical development. Nothing in the book should come as a surprise but the book offers a steady resource to turn towards. The outlines and information it offers puts everything into perspective to a point where you grow beyond even "needing" the book. In addition it contains good notes on why and how not to push a child into sports. It argues against specialization as compared to generalization. Meaning it says not to try and turn your kid into Tiger Woods but rather to try and give your child the opportunity to be well rounded.

I was exited when I found this book. Eight yeas ago nothing like this was available when I had my first child. Some of the books I read outlined "normal" milestones and what my child was probably doing by certain ages, but there was nothing that provided such a comprehensive look into children physical development. When I was concerned about something, my pediatrician would remind me that children develop at their own rate and that he (my son) would eventually catch-up, or that his clumsiness was normal at his age (he said that at 2, 3, 4, he started getting a little bit better once he started playing sports at 5, 6, 7,and 8)

Karen Ronney pushes the envelope by not letting us accept that athleticism is a gift that children are either born with or without, but instead insists that parents can influence negatively or positively such gift. The games are fun, even for my son, who is now eight (by adjusting some of the games to make them more challenging). We've been able to see some improvement with his mixed-sideness (term I didn't know until I read the book).

With my super kinetic 9 month-old daughter this book has become a great guide. She could only play pick-a-boo for so long. She likes the special playing time she gets with Dad, crawling, standing, twisting, searching... My husband only has to give 10 minutes and they both have a thrill, which is great because sometimes he doesn't have more time than that. And I know what to do to make blanket time funner for both of us.

Coordination is not a gift only for the super athlete, but for raising kids who feel confident about themselves and are competent to use their bodies for what they can do.

This is an excellent book. It promotes you encouraging physical activity for the sake of encouraging a child that can build off their learning styles and developmental capacity. It discourages you from being unrealistic with your child and gives you the tools to develop a plan that can help your child be healthy, active, happy, and athletic.

This book, Proud Parents' Guide ..., is such a great help for parents to understand the whys and wherefores of doing simple things like pat-a-cake that build into bigger and better things, like eye-hand coordination. All the game choices in the book, separated into age categories, provide quick, simple fun that my kids love, and now I know they're getting more benefits than I ever imagined.

I bought this book to give as a gift for a new mom. It has so much fun things to do with your child in their early years. Its easy to read and I totally plan on giving this book to my "new mom" friends and family.
I wish I had this book when my kids were little!

Author/coach/teacher Karen Ronney's book, "Proud Parents' Guide to Raising Athletic, Balanced, and Coordinated Kids; A Lifetime of Benefit in Just 10 Minutes a Day" is a must-read for anyone interested in a child's future. This extremely helpful compilation of information for parents (and caregivers) of young kids is a book that i wish had been written when my parents were raising ME so they could use it and learn from it! Ronney's easy-to-understand language and easy-to-implement skills/ideas make helping a child become the best he/she can be much less challenging and a lot more fun! I have recommended this book to many of my friends and will continue to sing the praises of this book. It fills a much-needed void.

All I can say is WOW! My 18month old son was diagnosed with delayed motor skills which I was sending him to physical therapy for, when I came across this book. The activities are extremely easy to do and after 10 minutes a day for 2 weeks myself and the physical therapist couldn't get over his progress!! I then started doing the drills with my 5 year old daughter who has no motor skills problems and her agility and balance has improved dramatically. This book is a must for children of all ages!!!!!!!!!