No Longer Little: Parenting Tweens with Grace and Hope - Book Review

I have been a parent for 15 almost 16 years and I can still remember when I was pregnant with my first child all the warnings I got about the baby keeping you up at night, or the "terrible twos" and even the sassiness of girls, and roughness of boys.  I made it through those stages with flying colors all 4 of our children were great babies and toddlers.  I remember thinking "wheew" we made it.  However, what everyone forgot to warn me about were the tween and teen stages, so my husband and I walked right into them unprepared. You know what? Come to think of it maybe they did, but we just ignored it because we made it through the other stages clear of disaster.  As parents of 4 children, we pretty much thought we had this parenting thing down to a science.  I mean love them, discipline them, feed them, teach and train them, provide for them, nurture them, and most importantly share the Word of God with.  We thought it would only get easier the older they get. LOL  If I can be honest for a second, well I'm always honest, but it seem like the right thing to say in this sentence, ok back to what I was saying the tween years of 10-14 has been the most challenging for us in our home for both the child and us so I am glad I had some help from Great Waters Press with their newest title No Longer Little: Parenting Tweens with Grace and Hope.  I received this book in exchange for my honest review and I will start by saying it is amazing!!

First, I would like to say when I say these years have been the most challenging I mean that as in we were not prepared for the territory that comes with raising tweens and teens.  We have some pretty amazing kids overall, but just like us, they are not perfect.

What we Received

I received a physical, autographed, copy of No Longer Little: Parenting Tweens With Grace and Hope written by Hal and Melanie Young.

About the Book and Authors

No Longer Little, in a nutshell, is about parenting through the tween years.  How to understand what is going on with your child(ren) physically, mentally, and spiritually.  The authors cover a plethora of things that blessed me and I will be sharing them with you in a little bit.

The book's 204 pages cover the following

Introduction

Chapter 1: Getting Bigger: Hormones and Body Changes

2: The Rollercoaster: Emotional Upheaval

3: Brains Turn to Mush: Why School Goes Awry

4: Many A Conflict, Many A Doubt: Spiritual Questioning

5: The Awakening: Sexuality and Virtue 

6: Social Struggles: Overcoming Awkwardness

7: Media, Gaming, and Discernment: More Than Amusement

8: Conflict At Home: Family Relationships

9: Transitioning: Youth in the Bible

10: Celebrating Growth: Coming of Age Ceremonies

11: Producers, Not Consumers: Work and Stewardship

12: The Next Big Thing: High School and Beyond

References

Scripture Referenced

Index

Colophon

The authors Hal and Melanie Young are the authors of Raising Real Men, My Beloved and My Friend, and Love, Honor, and Virtue.  They have 8 children of their own and speak from years of experience.

How I Made Time to Read

I hear people say all the time that they don't have time to read anymore now that they have children.  I will say this you can make time for what you want to make time for.   As for me, I wake up before kids,  I like to go out on my porch with a cup of coffee or tea and read my bible and then my book after I have my time with the Lord.  My kids have a scheduled 30 minutes of quiet reading time each day and if my chores are good I will read during that time.  If you have small kids this may be during their nap time.  I also sometimes sit in my bed, at night, after everyone is in bed and read until I get tired.  

Reading on the porch as my son plays with his toys.

My Thoughts

Parenting is one of those things that no matter how many books, podcast, youtube videos, magazines, or advice you indulge in you really only learn by going through it.  So going into this book or any other parenting book I always know that what may be a perfect fit for one family or one child may not work at all for our home.  So I always pray and discuss with my husband any outside advice or tips I receive and I suggest you do the same.  

With that being said I will say that Hal and Melanie Young did a phenomenal job sharing how to make it through the tween and teen years.  
In chapter 1 I love how they broke down how that as our children get older we need to not only prepare them for the physical changes their body will go through but also the hormonal changes as well. Brains turn to Mush was another good one that I think most parents will appreciate.  They discussed how our children may seem brilliant in their younger ages, I mean they pick up counting, math facts, memory verses, etc. so easily and then all of sudden they reach an age and as the parent, you are like what happened to my kid?!?  You ask why are you acting clueless?  Why have I had to remind you about the same thing 50 times?  Well, they explain the changes that happen within the brain as they start going through puberty.  They also remind us to give our children and ourselves grace <--- this is a wonderful reminder!  Chapter 5 will be an eye-opener for most parents.  They discuss the importance of discussing sex and porn with your children and why you should do so, even when you feel you do a very good job at keeping them shelter.  I love the way gave statistics of the ages of puberty way back then compared to now describing how long most people are waiting to marry so the length of time teens and young adults fight the flesh of sexual temptation is longer now than it was back in the day. 

I could go on and on about the fantastic points and discussions throughout the book, but I will just leave you with a few more.  Most families don't discuss finances with their children.  In fact, most young adults have no idea how to manage money until they are out on their own and by then they have made so many bad decisions with the money they turn to credit cards just to stay afloat.  In chapter 11 it talks about the advantages of letting your kids in on the family finances.  Not giving them all the details but letting them have a small part in it so at least they know money doesn't grow from trees and that it is not unlimited.  The authors even discuss entrepreneurship.  
As you can see and like I stated above Hal and Mel cover so many areas of parenting you will walk away with at least one great blessing from reading this book.  In all their advice they were sure to provide Scripture where it was needed and the sources, if it was obtained, from somewhere else.  In the world we are living in it is very important to raise our children with a solid biblical foundation and raise them to be aware of the sinful world around them and how to deal with it.  The authors did a wonderful job of advising parents how to do that.  I would definitely recommend this book to parents with children of all ages! 

 I can't wait to read some of their other titles especially Love, Honor, and Virtue, which is another book some of the Homeschool Review Crew read. Be sure to click the banner below so that you can check out what other moms gained from these books.





You can find Hal and Mel on all Social Media as Raising Real Men

Facebook: http://facebook.com/raisingrealmen @raisingrealmen
Instagram: http://instagram.com/raisingrealmen
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/raisingrealmen @raisingrealmen
Twitter: http://twitter.com/raisingrealmen @raisingrealmen

Do you have a favorite book by Hal and Melanie?  If so, please share with us so we can check it out.  I hope you have a wonderful, blessed day.