17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Raising Real Men - a book review, March 24, 2010
This review is from: Raising Real Men: Surviving, Teaching and Appreciating Boys (Paperback)
The only problem with the book Raising Real Men: Surviving, Teaching and Appreciating Boys, is that I regret not having had the opportunity to read it earlier. Just published this January, this 253 page volume (including the detailed index) not only helps us answer those frustrated mommy questions like "WHY did you do that?" when your feisty sons behave oh, so differently than your dutiful daughters.
(The event I was recollecting as I said that was when my now-17 year old son was about seven, and wondered what would happen if he squirted the light bulb in his dresser lamp with a water pistol. The resulting minor explosion was just one of many `experiments' conducted by my now-not-so-little explorer.)
We have only been blessed with one boy, but he has made quite an impact on our family. The authors of Raising Real Men have six, so they are more than qualified to write this book; actually, they are not qualified just because they have six sons; they qualify because they understand that boys - just like little girls - are a picture of the image of God, tragically marred by sin. And that our focus must be on leading our sons into godly manhood, not just trying to manage them to make our lives convenient and more pleasant. p. 25
Hal and Melanie Young, the authors of this book, clearly speak the truth as they describe our culture's desire to feminize men and our misguided attempts to `change' our boys, rather than understand them. The Youngs not only exhort us to celebrate the uniqueness of our boys, they give us very practical suggestions for how to train and ready them to use those special God-given characteristics to be the men God created them to be.
Listen to some of these intriguing chapter titles/subtitles from Part One - Virtues in the Rough:
* Resisting Feminization
* Boys Need Heroes
* Visual Media
* Heroes from History
* Bring on the Boldness
* When to Comfort, When to Encourage
* Standing Alone
* Responsibility, Then Freedom
* Learning to Stand
* What the bible Says about Leadership
* Developing the Next Generation's Leaders
* The Biblical View of Competition
* The Puritan View of Games and Competition
* What the Bible Says about Manners
In Part Two - Civilization for the Tough, the Youngs discuss that raising manly men doesn't mean raising barbarians. Men can and should be civilized. p. 126 :) Part Two is concerned with preparing a young man to interact appropriately with a world that so desperately needs his godly leadership.
How can we teach our sons the things they will need to interact in society, to lead their families, to serve God? Step by step, suiting the way God made them, in an intentional, thoughtful way... just the way we teach them everything. p. 126
Sometimes - many times - homeschooling seems overwhelming; homeschooling boys can be, especially. I loved the above quote because it is in accord with the old Puritan saying, "Do the next thing." Let's make a plan and just take one step at a time. This book will help you make that plan for raising your boys to be the men they were created to be.
One of my favorite chapters in Part Two is called "Your Own School for Boys." This chapter may well be your favorite chapter, too, if you have been pulling your hair out trying to home school your boys! Melanie Young has home schooled six boys at a time and has obviously done some reading on the subject, offering us an explanation why and how boys are different than girls in the learning arena as well as many practical suggestions to get the most out of your boys. Chapter subtitles:
* Developmental Differences
* Developmental "Delays"
* Gender Differences in Learning
* Louder, Mom
* "I Think He Must Be Hyperactive..."
* "Why Do I Have to Learn This, Anyway?"
* What's Your Goal, Son?
* The Benefit of Stress
This is great stuff! Additionally, chapters include end notes with scriptural back up!
Other very useful information in this book pertains to teaching boys how to be faithful stewards of their money, why we need to teach them to have good manners, how the Bible looks at work roles and how to deal with male/female relationships. It even aids with considerations about choosing a college, for the college bound, and describes the counselor role we move into as our children leave the nest.
Imminently readable, warm and biblical, Raising Real Men will help you learn how to train and shape your noisy, dirty, rambunctious boys into real men who can stand on their own two feet and face the world, lead their families, and fulfill the purpose for which they were created.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Biblical insight on raising boys to be the men God wants them to be, October 20, 2010
This review is from: Raising Real Men: Surviving, Teaching and Appreciating Boys (Paperback)
According to the back cover, this book is a "practical guide to equipping the hearts and minds of boys without breaking or losing your own." This book, written from a Christian perspective by the parents of six boys (and two girls), explores the differences in how God made boys and girls and in what He intends for them to grow up to become.
I found this book to offer new insights to me as a homeschooling mother. I quite understandably view the world from a woman's perspective, and I see that I've had a tendency at times to try to stifle my nine-year-old son's masculine tendencies rather than to encourage them or to appropriately redirect them. The son who bounds about the house endangering any breakable items (not to mention his family) does indeed need to learn self-control and thoughtfulness to others, but he also needs that energy rechanneled into something productive. It also made me recognize areas in which I believe my son needs further direction in order to grow up to be the man that God wants him to be.
Some of the topics covered in this book include.... A boy's tendency to look for heroes to emulate. Adventure and recklessness. Responsibility and then freedom. Violence and scripture. Learning to obey before learning to lead. Games and competition. Teaching financial responsibility. Developmental differences between the genders. Manners and chivalry. "Women's work" (with the authors disagreeing with the idea that boys shouldn't cook or clean). Sexual temptation. Cinding a wife. College. And more.
The book is filled with Scripture references (NASB for those interested). But, it is not a dry theological treatise. The book is written in an engaging, conversational style and is replete with examples from the author's own lives. The authors are on the conservative side, not only on their views of headship, but also courtship, television/movie viewing, etc. I happen to agree with them on these matters, but even if the reader will not follow them in these matters, there is still plenty of other profitable material in this book.
While I didn't agree with the authors on every topic (we differ in our opinions of competition), I felt that they approached the topic of raising boys to be men quite Biblically. The book was filled with many rich insights. I profited from it, and have recommended to my husband that he read it as well. I would not hesitate to recommend this book to Christian parents of boys.
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