CONNECTION PARENTING is based on the parenting series Pam Leo has taught for nearly 20 years. Pam’s premise is that every child’s greatest emotional need is to have a strong emotional bond with at least one adult. When we have a bond with a child we have influence with a child. Pam teaches us that when we strengthen our parent-child bond we meet the child’s need for connection and our need for influence.
“...here is a concise, simple, eminently readable and instructive summary of the knowledge Pam has gained through these years of devoted service. I can’t recommend this book highly enough and will surely promote it at every opportunity.” ~ Joseph Chilton Pearce, author, Magical Child
"Connection Parenting is utterly transformational. If all new (and seasoned) parents and grandparents read and applied its wisdom, the world would be transformed. Bravo!" - Christiane Northrup, MD, Author of Mother- Daughter Wisdom
"Among the hundreds of parenting books available today, Pam Leo's handbook, Connection Parenting, is like a breath of fresh air. Don't be deceived by its simplicity. She has captured the essence of good parenting with profound and compassionate advice." - Aletha Solter, Ph.D., Director of the Aware Parenting Institute, Author of The Aware Baby
Pam Leo's audiotape, "Healing the Feeling Child," is a great resource for parents and anyone who spends time with children. It explains many deep mysteries about childhood, such as why young children look around for their mom at the playground before bursting into tears. Children's strong feelings are confusing and painful for parents to watch, and often leave us feeling helpless. This tape and Pam's classes help parents know just what to do to encourage and nurture children. - Lawrence J. Cohen, Ph.D. , Author of Playful Parenting
"Connection Parenting is the book we will all wish our parents had read when we were born, and had passed on to us when our children were born. For parents and grandparents who want the best for their children of any age, Connection Parenting contains the Sacred Grandmother Wisdom that will reconnect us with our children." - Suzanne Arms, Founder of Birthing The Future
Author of The Immaculate Deception
After my first child was born in 1972, it became my passion to understand human behavior. I began to study child development, psychology, sociology, and anthropology. I wanted to learn why we are each born as a tiny innocent being, and some of us grow up to be a Mahatma Gandhi while others become an Adolf Hitler. What determines the difference? I was determined to find out.
My journey has been and continues to be a wondrous one. While raising my two daughters, I supported us by being a family child care provider for children ages two to ten, fifty hours a week, fifty weeks a year, for twenty-two years. During that time I homeschooled my daughters and continued my own independent study of human development. In 1989 I developed the seven-session parenting series, "Meeting the Needs of Children" which I teach publicly and in the prison system with inmate parents.
The feedback I most often get from parents is, "I wish I'd had this information from the beginning." In response to this feedback I created a prenatal parenting class. I became certified as a childbirth educator and as a doula as preparation to teach my new class. The "Bonding with Your Baby" class draws from the works of Joseph Chilton Pearce, Jean Liedloff, Ashley Montagu, and James Prescott. The class focuses on supporting expectant parents in creating the best possible foundation for a strong parent-child bond.
If I had to put into one sentence all that I have learned about optimal human development and parenting it would be this: our effectiveness as parents is in direct proportion to the strength of the bond we have with our child. Securing and maintaining that bond is our primary work as parents and is the key to optimal human development.
My passion to learn how to support optimal human development grew into a mission to share all I had learned. In addition to teaching my classes, I have been sharing this information through my "Empowered Parents" column in the Parent & Family paper here in Maine since 1994. When one of my articles was reprinted in the Empathic Parenting Journal I was invited to work with the group of people who have now become the Alliance for Transforming the Lives of Children.
It's been a dream come true to have the opportunity to work in person with many of the people who have unknowingly been my mentors. Our common bond is our passion for and dedication to working together to make this information available to all people who either raise children or impact the lives of children.
I can think of no work more worthy of my time, energy, resources and love.
Pam Leo
Here is my collection of book titles to support your parenting journey.
Here are the cultural support networks that support connection parenting.
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