122 of 123 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Delightful, insightful and simply FULL of ideas, Mar 23 2009
By Laura Crowley - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Raising Freethinkers: A Practical Guide for Parenting Beyond Belief (Paperback)
I read extensively, including many parenting books, and although I do nearly all of my reading from library books, I am very glad I purchased Raising Freethinkers, as I know I will be referring to it repeatedly over the years I'll be raising my children.
As a nonreligious parent among a largely religious extended family, I both appreciated the sense of community I felt (I'm not the only one!), but also the sense of respectfulness for religious folks evident in the book's tone. All the chapters come from a place of deep regard for children's capacity to learn and think for themselves, and highlight how exciting an adventure it can be to raise kids free from indoctrination. I love the ideas for encouraging scientific reasoning and critical thinking, as well as ethical living.
Since reading this book, we've modeled the scale of our solar system, read creation stories from around the world, found a way to support our daughter in her quandary with the Girl Scout pledge, discovered new ways to answer questions about death, found ways to handle interactions with religious family members, and uncovered a vast new list of kids' books we plan to read as a family. And this is just what I can remember off the top of my head. There are extensive resource lists and activity ideas at the end of each section.
Raising Freethinkers is simply fantastic, and unlike anything else I've found out there. I most strongly recommend it.
46 of 49 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful compliment to Parenting Beyond Belief!, Feb 10 2009
By Kelly W. - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Raising Freethinkers: A Practical Guide for Parenting Beyond Belief (Paperback)
I cannot say enough good things about Dale McGowan and the books he has written for nonreligious parents. This book didn't disappoint. The extensive list of resources and suggestions in Raising Freethinkers is invaluable. How to really give your child religious literacy without indoctrination, how to deal with death, handling the stages of moral development-it's all here.
This and Parenting Beyond Belief will now be in every baby shower gift I buy for my nonreligious friends.
37 of 41 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Where has this been all my life as a parent?, Jan 29 2009
By Katharine Miller - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Raising Freethinkers: A Practical Guide for Parenting Beyond Belief (Paperback)
This book is fantastic! Like many nonreligious parents, I'm always on the lookout for resources and activities for my kids that reflect my world view. They are so rare! Now these resources are collected, arranged, and sorted through in this very handy book.
And it's much more than just a listing. The resources are buttressed by practical, thoughtful writing on navigating kids through a religious world with grace, humanity, kindness and respect. What's not to like?
I recommend it as highly as possible. Get it for yourself, get it for your local atheist grandma, get it for that lonesome nonreligious parent in a religious family, get it for your local humanist society! Just get it, you'll love it.