Don’t be fooled by the title of this book. Although Stephanie Woo is the mother of twins, hence her title, Raising Your Twins, this book applies to raising any child, whether one or many. Her real-life parenting tips, as well as advice on maintaining your relationship with your spouse (your husband even chimes in with his own section on this topic) will give you more than enough advice to keep you busy being a better parent, part of what which includes learning not to be busy finding time for yourself after teaching your children to entertain themselves.
Throughout the book, Stephanie uses her twin daughters, Brooke and Mackenzie, as her main examples, including numerous photos of them demonstrating their eating skills, playing with cell phones, and how she set up play and nap areas for them. But Raising Your Twins is about more than a mother’s parenting experiences. Stephanie comes from a family of child care educators. Her mother is a Montessori teacher, who operates five Montessori schools in Taiwan, and Stephanie is AMI Montessori certified, so Stephanie includes a lot of Montessori advice, as well as her mother’s own advice on raising children. children.
What really struck me about Raising Your Twins is the common sense, out-of-the-box, forward thinking that Stephanie displays when discussing raising her twins, especially in terms of teaching them how to entertain themselves.
Stephanie divides the book into several chapters, including: eating, sleeping, moving, and keeping babies occupied, and then these chapters are divided into sections based on the ages or developmental stages of the children, such as 0-3 months, 3- 10 months, or more than 11 months, depending on the subject. This division is useful because it allows parents to anticipate the next stage of their child. As a bonus, Stephanie includes a shopping list at the end of each chapter so parents know what they’ll need to buy as their children grow, covering ages birth to three.
All the advice in this book is tried and tested. Stephanie herself attests that “I experienced extraordinary results. My daughters began sleeping twelve hours a night at ten weeks of age. They are not and have not been afraid of water. At eight months they drank from a regular glass and could eat everything meals alone at twelve months.
The aspect of Raising Your Twins that I found most notable was its focus on helping children become self-sufficient. Pointing out that such self-reliance is the purpose of the Montessori method, Stephanie says, “If we wanted to answer the question, ‘What is Montessori?’ in a single sentence, we could look at the experience of Dr. Maria Montessori herself. One day, while working with children, a child told her: ‘Help me do it myself.’ THAT is Montessori. A Montessori child is not only taught gives fish, is taught to fish”. Stephanie goes on to explain that some parents may not want to teach their children to eat at such a young age because they believe that over time the children will learn on their own, but Stephanie says:
“Personally, I don’t want to spoon-feed my kids until they’re six years old. I had kids so I could enjoy them, not become their slave! And with twins, the point is even more relevant because there are two kids, not just one! Consequently, the attitude in our home is one that encourages independence in every way possible.”
Another point about self-reliance that I appreciated was Stephanie’s focus on teaching children to be self-occupied. Such self-occupation can be achieved through simple methods such as you, the parent, changing the mobile in the child’s room every fifteen minutes or so to keep your child entertained and have fifteen minutes to yourself. Stephanie has also learned how important it is not to interrupt children during their play time or when they are doing some independent activity.
Although I do not have children myself, I have watched many friends raise their children and have babysat many hours, so I can see how effective the tips and methods in this book are and how easily they can be implemented if a parent is willing. . spend time and be consistent. A little extra time now will free up time for parents in the long run. More importantly, it will help your children to be happier, less dependent, increase their self-confidence, and become interested in continuous learning as they grow.
Raising Your Twins is a groundbreaking book on childcare. I hope for the sake of all parents that Stephanie continues to write more books as her daughters get older. She is already blogging about her daughters as they grow up, capturing her development in words and photos on a regular basis.
