You can find lots of great parenting tips on the Internet. But the problem is only if you know how and where to find. It’s like finding a needle in a haystack.
When we decided to take on this project, we thought it would be easy. Boy, how wrong we were! This project took more time than we originally thought.
After a few rounds of searching online, we have found some excellent parenting ebooks. And they are free. It’s impossible to cover every parenting topic but we did our best to find ebooks that cover the most important topics.
Now we have done the legwork for you and the only thing you need to do is to enjoy the ebooks while sipping your favorite drink.
General Parenting Tips
1. Speaking So Kids Will Listen – 25 simple ways to get your message across to kids – By Michael Grose. Ever said this to your kid: “I have told you a million times can you just turn that TV down!” If so, this ebook will show you a better to get cooperation from kids without saying this. Plus other great tips like building confidence and self-esteem in children, talking about sex, drug and violence, and more. PDF file. 18 pages.
2. Raising Children Network: Make a Book – You can select and make your own books. Select from various stages of development and individual chapters, then the book appears as you requested. Very cool! However, only Baby & Child Books available now:
- Newborns (0-3 months) – Essential information on caring for a newborn baby
- Babies (3-12 months) – What to expect during the sitting and crawling phase
- Toddlers (1-3 years) – A guide to parenting when your child discovers her own two feet
- Preschoolers (3-5 years) – The basics on helping your child thrive during the preschool years
- School age (5-8 years) – Essential information to help your child make the most of the early school years
3. Backpack Buddies Fact Sheet Index – By Ohio State University Extension. PDF files. Topics include:
Kindergarten:
- Get Off To a Good Start
- Nurturing Your Child’s Self-Esteem
- Helping Your Child Succeed In School
- Holiday Stress Busters for Big and Little People
- Discipline and Your Child
- Nutrition and Fitness
- Reading Skills and Journal-Keeping
- Caution–Is Your Home Safe?
- Summer Activities for Fun and Learning
First Grade:
- Dealing With Morning Madness
- Understanding Sibling Rivarly
- Good Study Habits and Homework
- Holidays–What A Great Time!
- Keeping Our Children Safe
- Setting Limits with Your Children
- Nutritious Food For Cool Kids
- Children’s Friendships
- Fun Summer Time Activities and Games
4. Monitoring your child’s growth and development – A quick run down of what to monitor from birth to 4 years old. PDF file. 3 pages.
5. The Bully – Make Sure Your Child Knows How to Handle Bullies – An interactive book with nice pictures on what to do for bully victims and parents. A bully quiz for children as well as for parents and educators. EXE file. 46 pages.
6. Tantrums – By Parenting SA. What parents can do when tantrums happen? Big and small. PDF file. 4 pages.
7. Understanding Children: Disciplining your preschooler – By Iowa State University. This books discusses topics like what a toddler wants, communicating with a toddler, time-out and spanking. PDF file. 4 pages.
8. Understanding Children: Sibling Rivalry – By Iowa State University. 9 awesome tips on handling conflict between siblings. One of the tips is to leave your kids alone and let them work it out for themselves. PDF file. 4 pages.
9. Discipline: Help your children develop feelings of self-esteem – By New Mexico State University. “Children develop feelings of self-esteem, competence, independence, cooperation and responsibility when they grow up with guidelines. Two effective ways to discipline children and create sensible guidelines are through rewards and punishment.” The ebook includes ten rules of discipline and how to handle parenting differences. PDF file. 4 pages.
10. How to Get Your Baby to Sleep Through the Night
– By Permanente Medical Group. 4 strategies on getting your baby to sleep uninterrupted and its pros and cons respectively. PDF file. 4 pages.
11. Balance Your Life: The Complete Guide to Managing Work and Family – By Golden Goose Ventures. From the page: How would you like to get control of your life? Stop working those 80 hour weeks. Get to know your family again. Get some FUN and FREE TIME into your life. Excellent advice. PDF file. 51 pages.
12. The Kids Are Driving Me Crazy – By Lisa Barker. An ebook excerpt from Just Because Your Kids Drive You Insane…Doesn’t Mean You Are A Bad Parent! Not quite a how-to book but a funny tale of how kids can really mess things up and challenges a mother faces. Lisa has a great sense of humor. PDF file. 60 pages.
Teen Parenting
13. The Parent-Teen Relationship: How Parents Can Make the Most of It – By The National Clearinghouse on Family Violence. This ebook touches on family relationship, handling anger and the ‘dos‘ and ‘don’t‘s of parent-teen communication. PDF file. 9 pages.
14. The Parent-Teen Relationship: Life through a Teenager’s Eyes – By The National Clearinghouse on Family Violence. Find out myths and realities about teenagers, challenges teenagers need to cope and what teenagers need from parents. PDF file. 9 pages.
15. How to Be a Better Parent To Your Teen in One Hour or Less – By Peter J. Favaro, Ph.D. Peter says that raising a teen is a “race against time.” This ebook is written to help parents get an edge in “the race:” how to apply discipline by natural consequence, problems that are too big for parents to handle alone (eg: criminal behavior, drug abuse, gang/cult involvement), should parents use “tough love” parenting when all else fails? PDF file. 51 pages.
Breastfeeding
16. Breastfeeding Questions Answered: A Guide for Providers – Get answers to questions frequently asked by women on breastfeeding. Questions include “How often should a woman breastfeed her baby?” and “What if a woman does not produce enough milk for her baby?” PDF file. 8 pages.
Family Finance
17. How to Feed a Family of 4 for Less than $200 a Month – By Liss Burnell. Liss shares her own real story about how she cut down her bills. From grocery bill to Once a Month Cooking and 30-day dinner menu. And other excellent tried and tested tips and tricks. Even though the book was written a few years ago, the principles outlined in the book are still valid until today. PDF file. 37 pages.
18. Money Management Basics – By Foundation for Credit Education, Inc. From the Introduction: “Controlling your financial situation requires careful planning, realistic budgeting and use of money management techniques that anyone can learn. Knowing how to handle money properly—and developing the discipline you need to do it well—can benefit you and your family tremendously.” Remember to checkout a topic on creating a workable household budget. PDF file. 14 pages with budget worksheets.
Child Education
19. Education is an Atmosphere, a Discipline, a Life – Presented to you by Simply Charlotte Mason. Charlotte Mason’s Three-Pronged Approach to Education. The foundation to raising well balanced kids: atmosphere, discipline and life. Also used as homeschooling guideline. PDF file. 45 pages.
20. Nebraska Early Learning Guidelines – By Nebraska Health and Human Services System and Nebraska Department of Education. For ages birth to 3. It covers social and emotional development, health and physical development, language and literacy development, science, and creative arts. Very comprehensive. PDF file. 102 pages.
Single Parents
21. Single Parenting: Common Questions Parents Ask – By University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension. Get answers to 9 common questions about single parenting. PDF file. 4 pages.
22. Emotional Rescue: Coping with emotions as a single parent – By Care for the Family. Tips on dealing with single parents’ emotions: anger, rejection, loneliness. Also includes the dos and don’ts of how you can help single parents. PDF file. 4 pages.
Food and Nutrition
23. Feeding Toddlers – By Parenting SA. How to encourage toddlers to eat and what food to have. PDF file. 4 pages.
24. How to Get Kids to Eat Right – By Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Tips on how to make eating fruits and vegetables fun, quick, and easy. PDF file. 6 pages.
25. Fun Kids Recipes – 125 interesting recipes to whet your kid’s appetite. PDF file. 48 pages.
26. Encourage Kids to Eat More Fruits & Veggies – 10 ways to help kids eat more fruits & veggies and important elements of smell, texture, and color. Also included kid friendly recipes. PDF file. 4 pages.
27. Winning Over Your ‘Picky Eater’ – By Cleveland Clinic and Heinen’s. It’s about child nutrition. Sage advice on introducing children to new and nutritious foods: 10 nutritious tips to help you foster healthy eating habits in your children. PDF file. 8 pages.
28. Children’s snacks: Food for Thought – By MayoClinic.com. Food nutrition by age and what to feed. PDF file. 5 pages.
29. Infant-Child Nutrition – By NDSU Wellness Center. Feeding and child nutrition questions answered by age and stage. And a section on preventing childhood obesity. PDF file. 4 pages.
Being a Dad
30. Dads Playbook: Coaching Kids to Read – By The National Institute for Literacy. A collection of real stories of how 20 dads teach their kids to read. PDF file. 8 pages.
31. Being a Dad – By Parenting SA. It’s all about dads. What it means to be a dad, things all dads can do. Also tips on being dads in nuclear families, stepfamilies, and single dads. PDF file. 4 pages.
32. The New Baby Owner’s Manual for Dads – By Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington (KFL&A) Public Health. A handbook with suggestions for Dads on how to support their breastfeeding partner and care for their new baby. The book likens baby care to car care. An interesting way of looking at fatherhood. PDF file. 9 pages.
Kids’ Activities and Games
33. The Creative Homemaking Guide to Games and Activities for Kids – By Rachel Paxton. Full of great homemade kid’s games and activities on the cheap. PDF file. 16 pages.
34. Parents, Kids & Videogames – What’s The Score? A Parent’s Guide To Videogames – By Anthony Hetrih. The book offers a starting point from which parents can gain a better understanding of videogames and their content. It discusses the reasons why kids enjoy videogames, addresses parental concerns surrounding videogames and offers some common sense tips. PDF file. 23 pages.
Child Safety
35. Protecting Children from Internet Abuse – By Asian School of Cyber Laws. You’ll learn online risks children face, what signs parents should watch out for, guidelines for parents on what you should do and rules for online safety for children. An easy read. PDF file. 12 pages.
36. Are you using it right? – By National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Are your children correctly buckled? Find out the right ways (and wrong) of installing and using carseats. Also read the last page about general child seat use. Fully illustrated. PDF file. 24 pages.