The Carnival is over!  I can’t believe how much pure awesomeness we packed into one week!  How ’bout those bloggers, huh?  I know I have food for thought, new practical approaches, and a giddy excitement and hopefullness for my parenting over the next few months that I’m walking away with.  I feel energized as a parent and reassured that Gentle is the BEST WAY.

What can you do now?

I could tell you to read all of these books (and if you can then do because they are great!) but I know we are all busy and we really need simple and not time consuming punches of re-inspiration each day.  A virtual shot of gentle discipline espresso.  If it easily fits into your life you are more likely to do it and if you do it repeatedly then gentle discipline will come more and more naturally to you.  So, with that in mind…

3 things you can do right now to continue your Gentle Parenting journey:

1.  Subscribe to all the Carnival of Gentle Discipline blogs at once with this combined RSS feed!  I’ll be adding last year’s Carnival authors soon.  With this one subscription you can quickly browse some of the best gentle parenting blogging in the world.  I use Google Reader and read mine on my iPhone with the MobileRSS app whenever I have down time (waiting rooms, for example).  You could subscribe by email and quickly browse once a day.  There are tons of ways to integrate this into your routine. Find yours.

2.  Follow the Carnival of Gentle Discipline Twitter list: @parentinggently/cargd If you are a twitter user you might prefer this to RSS.  You can follow the list and have one place where all the best gentle discipline tweeps are tweeting.  I use HootSuite on my iPhone for this.

3.  There are tons of great resources out there (including all the wonderful bloggers featured this week) but I have personally had tremendous inspiration from the following two sources. My advice is Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200, Just Get These Resources NOW!

• The Daily Groove by Scott Noelle at EnjoyParenting.com – Unless you are very zen, many of his phrases seem out there at first (“merge with your child’s flow”) but the ideas he presents – that parenting should be fun and peaceful – are excellent!  His daily emails are short and sweet and provide inspiration you can carry into your daily interactions with your kids.
• Print out Dr. Laura Markham’s Aha!Parenting Ages and Stages Game Plan and hang it on the fridge. These aren’t all in one place because you have to click on the separate age/stage but here is the Toddler Game Plan.  While all the info on this site is spectacular (and you’ll be subscribed to the RSS if you subscribe to the combined feed in #1) the Game Plans are such a succinct way of approaching your parenting goals.  Each one has that age’s developmental tasks, your parenting challenge, your parenting priorities, what that age needs, and a plan of attack. Put it somewhere that you and your spouse will see it frequently.
  

If you have another moment to spare for the cause…

You’d be surprised how thankful people are to hear about gentle discipline (when presented in a non-judgmental way)!  I have been humbly honored by comments from real life friends that had their eyes opened to another way of thinking about parenting.  That is my passion and the reason I started this new site.  If you would spread the word maybe we could change the world one parent at a time!

This is a small sidebar badge for your blog/website.  It links to this webpage and features the beautiful art of Katie M. Berggren.  That alone should make people click on it!

To add it to your blog click in the black box, copy and paste this code into a text/html widget.

art by kmberggren.com

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Or you can use last year’s badge:

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art of Erika Hastings

Or you can use the Parenting Gently Logo badge:

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Giveaways

If you missed it we are holding a giveaway for the following prizes:

• 8×10 art print by Katie M. Berggren (2 winners)
• Positive Parenting Tool Cards
• Kimochi Cloud feelings doll

I am extending the deadline for entries until midnight EST on Monday July 4th due to the holiday in the U.S. (I plan on watching fireworks and eating bar-b-que!).  To enter;

• register here at ParentingGently.com.  This is a required entry.

Additional entries:

• follow us on Facebook and Twitter (possible 2 entries)
• Ask a question and/or answer a question here on ParentingGently.com. (possible 2 entries)

There are some great questions on the homepage now!  Don’t forget you can also vote other answers up and down.  For more information about everything you can do read this.

Crème de la Crème Posts

We also have previously published posts that were nominated by readers as recommended reading.  I was going to put these all in this post but I’ve decided to feature them in their own post tomorrow.  I want to be able to really feature them and comment on them.

Finally a huge thanks to everyone for participating in this Carnival and in the launch of this new site.  I hope our impact is great on the parents who read but I must tell you that your impact has already been great on me.  I feel so fortunate to be part of such a passionate community of parents.  I wish you all lived next door so we could get together and commiserate in person.

Peace and Love, Gently,

 

 

 

 

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Welcome to the 2nd Annual Carnival of Gentle Discipline!

Please join us all week, June 27-July 1, 2011, as we explore alternatives to punitive discipline. We have collected a wonderful array of articles and essays about the negative effects of punitive discipline methods, like spanking, and a myriad of effective alternatives. Please visit our other writers each day of the Carnival. Click on the links below to see each day’s posts – new articles will be posted on the following theme days:

June 27 - Practical Tips for Getting Started with Gentle Discipline

June 28 – It’s All About Feelings: Respecting Emotions and Consensual Living

June 29 – A Fork in the Road: Turning Points in Gentle Discipline

June 30 – Gentle Discipline Recipe: Love, Patience, and Cooperation

July 1 – Gentle Discipline Resources