The Life and Faith Field Guide for Parents: Help Your Kids Learn Practical Life Skills, Develop Essential Faith Habits, and Embrace a Biblical Worldview

by Joe Carter

Learn How to Teach Your Kids the Skills They Need
 
“Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.”
Proverbs 22:6
 
As a Christian parent, you want your children to develop good character and godly wisdom. But how do you go beyond hoping and praying to teaching them ethical knowledge, practical skills, and virtuous habits?  
 
This innovative guide provides practical, effective ideas you can use to help your children build their faith and character in 50 ways, including... Once you grasp these concepts and discover how to teach them, you will be able to successfully shape the character and worldview of your child or teenager.  

Genres: Parenting, Christian, Nonfiction, Christian Non Fiction, Christian Living

304 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2019

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Joe Carter is an editor for The Gospel Coalition, a senior editor at the Acton Institute, a communications specialist for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, and an adjunct professor of journalism at Patrick Henry College. He is the co-author of How to Argue like Jesus: Learning Persuasion from History's Greatest Communicator (Crossway, 2009).

Reviews

[Kristin Murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

It felt like a chore to listen to this book on audio at first but then grew to become more helpful to the point where now I want to buy this to have as a reference for my home.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I had had this book as my guide, rather than Dr. Spock and James Dobson. You might think there is nothing new written on the field of parenting, this fine book by Joe Carter would have been underlined and used as my mentor and counsellor.
All parents want our children to develop good characters and have ethical knowledge, practical skill and virtuous habits, but Christian parents especially want to do more than just pray that the methods and skills they are using are working. Although most of the habits that are taught will be given by the parents; educators, siblings, and grandparents often working with children from an early age can benefit. This book contains 50 skills and habits grouped into broad categories, for instance learning how to focus and study might be core skills for developing a Christian character and worldview. The Feynman Technique is used. Briefly, follow these steps on one of the 50 skills. 1 Pick a concept and start studying it. 2. Prepare to teach your topic to a child, with notes and maybe of voice recordings. 3. Locate your knowledge gap, where examples are too complex, incomplete, etc. 4. Use Analogies 5. Explain the concept to the child. I loved the Biblical examples as well as the secular teaching books he used in the notes chapter.
The author likened his book to the Boy scout master handbook, rather than the Boy scout manual. Its methods could be used with very young children and reinforced as they mature. It is not a lecture series but a participatory guide that both the adult and child will grow with. In our church we have two separate libraries, this book would be best used in the family library with it’s strong parenting section. While the child is looking for their books, they parents can find aids to their understanding of different stages in the child’s development. This library also serves the Christian School up to 6th grade so it would be a wish guide for all teachers.

[Arielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is so much to unpack here that I’ll need to read it again. It’s a great book to have on the shelf, and not just for parents.

[Patrick O'Keefe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is appropriately titled a "field guide." When I first began reading, I had a little buyer's remorse because it's divided into extremely short chapters that don't go into deep depth. I'd go long periods without reading it, and it's certainly not a page-turner by any stretch. However, the more I read, the more I considered it a worthy read. Each chapter is a great outline of how to think about a discrete issue related to parenting. Some of them were more general, such as, "How to Pray," or, "How to Handle Conflict." Some were more specific and unexpected, such as "How to Sleep," or, "How to Look at Art." I came to really respect the issues Joe Carter thought worthy to include.

I really appreciated this book, and I'm hopeful it continues to be a good resource as we raise our children into adulthood.

[Jody Bennon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Practical and well-researched, this book is helpful to parents in it's breadth more than it's depth. The author has selected 50 topics in which parents should provide explicit instruction to children, done the work of researching current and biblical literature on these topics and presented that data in a brief chapter pertaining to instructing a child. I've appreciated Joe Carter's writings in the past; he is thoroughly biblical and doesn't shrink back from boldness in critiquing the folly of culture and worldview void of God. A good book to have on your shelf!

[Doug Glenning · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent information and guides for helping children develop life skills, as well as reminding grownups about them!

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I read it cover to cover, but it’s probably best used as a resource for specific questions or skills you want to teach your kids.

[Nancy Larimer · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Life and Faith Field Guide for Parents " by Joe Carter is an excellent resource for parents. This book is broken down into categories: Skills and habits for Bible engagement,skills and habits for interacting with God, skills and habits for interacting with other people, skills and habits for discernment and decision making, skills and habits for mental and physical health, skills and habits for character development, skills and habits for engaging the culture, skills and habits for managing conflict,skills and habits for evangelism. The book teaches the parent how to teach your child each aspect of the Christian life. It goes step by step. It also shows how to read the Bible and breaks down the Bible in categories. It show the parent and the Christian how to have a daily quiet time and how to memorize God's word. There is a step by step guide now how to make decisions, how to forgive, how to handle criticism. In addition it explains how to study and the best ways to learn and prepare for tests. It addresses also how to choose good TV shows and movies. The last section ends with how to evangelize. This book is a good resource for the youth and elementary areas in the church. They can use these principles with the children, youth and also refer parents to this book. Pastors can even use it for counseling and teaching. This book is excellent for teaching life skills and guiding parents to mentor their children. I appreciate the publisher Harvest House for allowing me to read and review this book . I will post my review on facebook, my blog, Amazon, for pastors and friends, on Goodreads.
'