Cover Image: 365 Ways to Love Your Child

365 Ways to Love Your Child

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Member Reviews

A fun way to spend time with kids, especially when you want to help them develop the daily habit of seeking and spending time with the Lord. I have to wait a few years to read this with my nephew, but can't wait to spend this type of quality time with him.

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Lavender’s goal with this book is clear: to show children tangible expressions of love and in doing so, help them see “the unfathomable love of our heavenly Father.” Although I’m not a parent yet, I am a school teacher and an aunt, so I can appreciate how important communicating love and appreciation is to children.

The book is organized into twelve sections by location, such as “when we’re outside” and “when we’re in the kitchen.” Lavender shares practical, creative, and fun ways to show children we care on a daily basis in the ordinary acts of life. One of them made me smile: “Exercise together.” I remember when I was growing up that my parents and us kids would walk the dog together, and neighbors would often remark, “The family that walks together stays together.” There might be some truth in that!

Even if you’re not a parent, this book makes a great gift for friends with kids or foster families. I’ve already given away one copy and hope to do so again.

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Julie Lavender not only gives doable ideas for showing love to children, she adds the passion and motivation needed. Fun filled activities in 365 Ways to Love Your Child brings delight to the hard job of parenting and helps build a secure foundation of love for your child. Julie's writing is inspiring, practical and encouraging.

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It's an okay book! But I could never be so cheesy - and honestly, I feel like about half of kids could never be so cheesy, either. :P For the other half, though, this is great.

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What a cute idea! I am really enjoying paging through this one and getting some new ideas or just enjoying revisiting things we have already done as a family. What a helpful idea!

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This delightful book is a fun guide to creating some intentional moments between a parent or guardian and a child. Every child deserves to know just how much they are loved by both their family, caretakers and our Heavenly Father. What better way to feed into their innocence and youth, then expressing what deep and true love is by demonstrating it daily!

With quick reference sections like “when we’re in the kitchen” or “when we’re reading and playing”, author Julie Lavendar, breaks down this book with ideas to kickstart your creativity while sharing ways to express love and affirmations to your child. She makes it easy for parents to see how simple it is to use a daily activity like running errands to be intentional with your time and create meaningful gestures to express love. There were so many ideas that made me smile; I know I’ll be referencing this book for years to come! I even highlighted some I want to use with my daughter this week.

As I was reading, I thought what a great book this is for foster or adoptive parents who want to extend their outreach and find new, creative ways to express love to children who are coming into their homes.

One of my favorite features of this book is that some of the noted ways to express love for your child included sharing God’s Word and love with them in an easy-to-understand, love-in-action way! The ideas listed throughout the book are simple, sweet and meaningful. Overall, I highly recommend 365 Ways to Love Your Child!

*I voluntarily received a complimentary e-copy of this book from Revell at Baker Publishing Group via NetGalley. All thoughts below are my own and I was not required to post a positive review.

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365 Ways to Love Your Child by Jennifer Lavender is one of my very favorite parenting books these days. It’s is absolutely stuffed with simple yet powerful and tangible ways to show your love to your children. I tried a number of them and was so pleased with my child’s eyes response. I can’t wait to try more of them! I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher with no obligations. These opinions are entirely my own.

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This was a quick read full of fun ideas to spend with your child and tell them you loved them. From games to play outside, indoors, while shopping, and driving this book gives simple ideas how to make the most of every moment. Most of these ideas don't cost a dime or you can find ways to improvise. There were so many times when I was like "Why didn't think of that!" I wish this book was out when the kids were on lock down during the pandemic. But still useful and when got the wheels turning for other ideas. Totally recommend. This book was given to me by net galley. The review is my honest opinion.

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Little things mean a lot, especially when it comes to loving your children. In 365 Ways to Love Your Child, Lavender encourages parents, grandparents, teachers, and anyone with young ones in their lives to actively love and encourage those children every day. And, as the title suggests, she offers 365 ways to do just that—simple, thoughtful, practical, sometimes silly, yet always oh-so-meaningful. Divided into ideas for when you’re outside, in the kitchen, celebrating the seasons, and more, this book is a must-read for anyone with littles in their life.
*I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

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This is a sweet faith-based book that's filled with simple ways to show your children that you love them. It's broken down into chapters like outside and in the kitchen. Most of them are very simple, like rubbing lotion on your child's legs and arms, putting their robe in the dryer so it's warm for after their bath, calling ahead and asking the pizza place to arrange pepperoni on your pizza in a heart shape for when you come to eat, walking in the rain together, rolling down hills together, making confetti pancakes for breakfast (pancake mix with sprinkles, covered in frosting and more sprinkles), painting rocks together, walking along the beach and saying "I shore love you (there are lots of pun-related things to say here), and putting a sign in the yard saying Welcome Back for when they come home from school or a playdate.

Most of the activities are for younger kids, though there are some that will work for older ones. This is a faith-based book and there is a lot of talk about praying together and thanking God for various things, but it is not the main focus of the book. I appreciated that one of the chapters is on acts of service you can do together. Most of these are still very simple, like holding doors open for people or picking up litter. The book is basically a long checklist of suggestions, each about one short paragraph, with no illustrations. It will be a great way to think of some new ways to spend special time with your children and let them know they're loved.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.

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I love this book! Planning to re-read it so I can take more of the ideas to heart over the next few weeks.
Upon first glance, parents might think that 365 Ways to Love Your Child is designed for parents of small children. While it's true that many of the ideas are suited for young ones, there are so many great suggestions that can be adapted for older kids. Some of them are really best for older kids (tweens and teens). For example, how many parents teach their kids how to mail a letter?

Most of the ideas are completely free, easy to do, yet the tiny bit of extra effort it takes can go a LONG way with kids. With so many families staying at home during these long pandemic days, this book can be a real inspiration for busy parents.

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This book has lots of ideas of how to show love to your children and most of them are relatively inexpensive. The main goal is to spend time with your children in the everyday mundane and turn those days into memories. Most of the ideas are for younger kids but can be modified for any age kid.
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book for my honest opinion and review.

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I expected this to be more like The 5 Love Languages of Children - explaining how children receive love & different ways to show that. Most of these “examples of love” are more like activities/crafts to do with your child. Which don’t get me wrong, are good things to do, but that’s not what this book’s synopsis said it was about. If I wanted a book listing fun things to do (like digging in dirt or wearing fuzzy socks?) I would have gotten a book with those things. This isn’t what I expected it to be about and was not helpful for me.

Thank you to NetGalley & Julie Lavender for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

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