Guest Post: Thinking Organized for Parents and Children

Guest Reviewer: Lettie Kirkpatrick Burress, www.writingforhim.com.

Thinking Organized for Parents and Children: Helping Kids get ORGANIZED for Home, School and Play by Rhona M. Gordon. Thinking Organized, 2007. 195 pp.

Thinking Organized for Parents and Children was published “to make it possible for parents to help disorganized students”. Author Rhona Gordon brings 30 years of professional experience to this task of “thinking organized.”

This book encourages parents to assist their children in developing “executive functioning skills” that will allow them to set, organize, and accomplish goals. Emphasis is placed on teaching time management skills, setting up a system for organizing paperwork, assignment completion strategies, and the identification of learning styles.

Ms. Gordon recommends the use of tools such as a calendar, a watch, and an assignment notebook, as well as using charts and rewards. The book includes a helpful learning styles assessment questionnaire and good suggestions for improving memory skills. There are also recommendations for building lifestyle organizing skills into younger children.

More information on Web site: http://www.thinkingorganized.com/.

Find Your Strongest Life by Marcus Buckingham

Subtitle is What the Happiest and Most Successful Women Do Differently.

Author Marcus Buckingham starts out by revealing that modern women, although they have more choices than their mothers and grandmothers, are not happy. In fact, the older they get, the less happy they are. He says it’s because women try to do everything well, and that’s just not possible. Buckingham's Strong Life plan emphasizes playing to your strengths rather than spending so much energy trying to fix your weaknesses. There’s an associated test to help you identify your “strong” role in life. It's not so much "put yourself first" approach as it is a tool to help women find fulfillment and not just "busyness" in their lives.

At first, I thought, “Oh, no. Not another personality test.” But it’s not like that at all. You don’t get pigeon-holed as a certain type. You might be strong in more than one role. It is a fresh approach to discovering your gifts and maximizing them.

What a refreshing message! Women don’t have to, or rather shouldn’t, expect to excel at everything. I’ve often objected to the idea that a woman can “have it all.” Something has to give, either the career, the family, or the social life.

Visit the Thomas Nelson product page here. Look over a portion of the book here. See introductory video on YouTube.

I’m going to do something I rarely do. I’m going to read it again. And, after that, I want to share it with every woman I know. Borrow it, buy it---just be sure you read it and take the information to heart.