本书的重点，是解决常见的行为问题，激发孩子内在的自信力，并重建父母与孩子间亲密沟通的桥梁。
游戏力，被很多人喻为亲子沟通的“双向翻译机”。
一方面，作者通过几十个案例告诉我们，孩子的任何行为都在表达着一份合理的内心需求，只不过表达方式有时是无理取闹，例如：事事对抗，每天在幼儿园门口粘着妈妈，遇到小挫折就大哭大闹，经常打人，不好好写作业，总是欺负弟妹，等等。与孩子有效沟通的第一步，就是及时而准确地“翻译”出隐藏在这些表面行为背后的需求。
另一方面，作者建议了大小几百种处理问题的方法，而根本目的是提醒我们：与孩子有效沟通的第二步，是将我们的关怀、爱心、赞赏、鼓励、期望和界限等等，“翻译”成让孩子更容易理解和接受的语言。游戏，是孩子的第一语言。如果我们想告诉孩子什么，那么最好的方式是“玩给他看”，而不是“说给他听”。既然我们都同意让孩子“在玩中学知识”，那么让孩子“在玩中懂道理”、“在玩中建立自信”也会同样有效。
书中深刻的分析，显然来自深厚的专业功底，然而全书几乎没有出现专业名词，轻松的阅读中处处能体会到一位游戏大师的幽默与亲和。最难得的是，书中对父母没有批评，只有体贴和建设性意见，因为作者本人也是一位父亲。
Have you ever stepped back to watch what really goes on when your children play? As psychologist Lawrence J. Cohen points out, play is children’s way of exploring the world, communicating deep feelings, getting close to those they care about, working through stressful situations, and simply blowing off steam. That’s why “playful parenting” is so important and so successful in building strong, close bonds between parents and children. Through play we join our kids in their world–and help them to
- Express and understand complex emotions
- Break through shyness, anger, and fear
- Empower themselves and respect diversity
- Play their way through sibling rivalry
- Cooperate without power struggles
From eliciting a giggle during baby’s first game of peekaboo to cracking jokes with a teenager while hanging out at the mall, Playful Parenting is a complete guide to using play to raise confident children. Written with love and humor, brimming with good advice and revealing anecdotes, and grounded in the latest research, this bookwill make you laugh even as it makes you wise in the ways of being an effective, enthusiastic parent.
相信天下父母有一个共识：每个孩子都是极度聪明的谈判专家！如何才能使孩子与家人、伙伴融洽相处，化解纷争，实现双赢呢？本书的两位作者经过大量的实践与案例分析，突破性地将博弈思维用于教育，成功打破了“争吵 — 无效调解”的死循环，找到了能灵活应对各种情境的实用而有效的策略，令孩子与家人、伙伴之间的相处更轻松、快乐！
本书有助于大人更深入地了解孩子的所思所想，给出的方法也更具针对性。书中提供的各种策略可引导孩子自己思考并解决问题，令他们以灵活的方式应对各种情境，帮他们及早建立更好的人际关系和主动学习、冷思考等行为习惯，养成一生受用的协作、利他、公正等良好的品德，快乐、健康地成长。
本书语言诙谐幽默，将博弈思维应用于教育中的方法令人耳目一新。如果你付诸行动，相信会有意想不到的收获！
“I absolutely loved this book, both as a parent and as a nerd.” —Jessica Lahey, author of The Gift of Failure
As every parent knows, kids are surprisingly clever negotiators. But how can we avoid those all-too-familiar wails of “That’s not fair!” and “You can’t make me!”? In The Game Theorist’s Guide to Parenting, the award-winning journalist and father of five Paul Raeburn and the game theorist Kevin Zollman pair up to highlight tactics from the worlds of economics and business that can help parents break the endless cycle of quarrels and ineffective solutions. Raeburn and Zollman show that some of the same strategies successfully applied to big business deals and politics—such as the Prisoner’s Dilemma and the Ultimatum Game—can be used to solve such titanic, age-old parenting problems as dividing up toys, keeping the peace on long car rides, and sticking to homework routines.
Raeburn and Zollman open each chapter with a common parenting dilemma. Then they show how carefully concocted schemes involving bargains and fair incentives can save the day. Through smart case studies of game theory in action, Raeburn and Zollman reveal how parents and children devise strategies, where those strategies go wrong, and what we can do to help raise happy and savvy kids while keeping the rest of the family happy too.
Delightfully witty, refreshingly irreverent, and just a bit Machiavellian, The Game Theorist’s Guide to Parenting looks past the fads to offer advice you can put into action today.
我们并不需要为孩子在成功和满足感之间做取舍，因为他们可以拥有全部。
——黛安娜·塔文纳
2001年，高中老师塔文纳发现，社会需要一个系统来筛选出谁适合什么样的工作，学校便成为这样的平台。而大部分学生都不知道高中毕业意味着什么，除了拼搏学业成绩之外，没有人真正为步入成人世界做好准备。
正当她感慨无力改变军备竞赛式的教育体制时，她发现自己做妈妈了，而“9·11”事件的爆发，让她开始思考，等待着她的孩子的会是一个怎样不确定的世界。
她决定做一些对孩子的人生真正有价值的事情，她选择了教育。
萨米特中学就这样从无到有创办起来，六年后，它迎来了第一届毕业班。这里既有来自吸毒家庭、父母双双入狱的不幸女孩，也有出身于中产阶级上层家庭的天才少年。在这所充满奇迹的学校，无论什么家庭背景的孩子，都学会了宝贵的自我认知，培养了自主学习和反思问题的能力，了解自己想要什么，知道未来的目标，以及如何为过上有经济保障的充足而有意义的生活做准备。
走进这所学校的孩子是幸运的，他们的人生因此改变走向，改变高度。
萨米特的毕业典礼，没有优秀学生的演讲，没有校长的冗长发言，学生们由对他们最重要的人（通常是父母）陪同进入礼堂，就像父亲挽着女儿走上婚礼的红毯。和萨米特的教育理念一样，这场典礼要让每个孩子都被看到，保证每个孩子都成功。
而每位家长最大的愿望，就是在台下看那个即将开启新旅程的年轻人自信地说：
“我准备好了！”
Diane Tavenner, founder of Summit Public Schools, offers a blueprint for a better way to educate our children, based on the revolutionary lessons, insights and methodology she and her faculty developed over 15 years at their famously successful charter schools in California and Washington, which she is now introducing to public school systems across the country that Summitt is partnering with to transform education and better prepare our children to lead fulfilled and successful lives.
Diane Tavenner founded the first Summit charter school in 2003, developing and perfecting a personalized, project-based curriculum that puts students in charge of their own learning. The school developed a personalized learning plan for every student. They engaged the students by engaging them in interdisciplinary, real-world projects, rather than passively learning and memorizing in a classroom environment. They created mentorship groups, where students would talk through their goals and help each other solve problems, as well as meet one on one with their mentor, weekly. By internalizing a sense of purpose, self-direction, self-sufficiency, collaboration, students learn the cognitive and life skills needed to navigate the next phases of their lives. Virtually 100% of Summit’s original 400 students went on to attend four year colleges. In the years that followed, Summit opened 10 more charter schools in California and Washington, to similar success, and national recognition.
Today, Tavenner, and Summit Public Schools, are partnering with 400 public schools, across 40 states, and over 3500 teachers and 80,000 students, to bring the Summit Learning Program and teaching practices to school systems everywhere. With generous support from Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg’s nonprofit organization, which calls Summit “the future of education,” and over one hundred million dollars in contributions from the Gates Foundation, Summit is revolutionizing how our children are educated.
