Recommended Reading List

Dear Parent: Caring for Infants with Respect by Magda Gerber

Distilled from Magda Gerber’s years of writing and lecturing, this book is a helpful and reassuring resource for parents of new babies and growing infants. It also includes chapters on applying Educaring® principles in group care settings. Short chapters make it easy to read and find information about life with newborns and later developmental stages of infancy.

The RIE® Manual by Magda Gerber

The original RIE® Manual is a collection of papers written by Magda Gerber, Dr. Emmi Pikler and staff of the Pikler Insitute. The RIE® Manual Expanded Edition, published in 2013, contains Magda Gerber’s original RIE® Manual in its entirety, and has over 90 pages of new material that cover key topics such as:

Baby Knows Best by Deborah Carlisle Solomon

Baby Knows Best: Raising a Confident and Resourceful Child, the RIE® Way is a comprehensive, accessible guidebook that introduces readers to Magda Gerber’s Educaring® Approach. Beginning with Gerber’s idea that infants are competent, capable individuals with ever-developing abilities to communicate, problem-solve, and self-soothe, the book illustrates how to put ideas into practice, yielding more relaxed parents and more confident, self-reliant children.

Baby Knows Best addresses infancy through toddlerhood, beginning with being home with your newborn, and continuing on with how to care for your baby respectfully, the ever-important topic of sleep, movement and motor development, play, setting limits, child care, parenting support, and continuing the practice as your family grows.

Your Self-Confident Baby by Magda Gerber

Your Self-Confident Baby is a comprehensive guide to Magda Gerber’s Educaring® Approach on a wide variety of topics, including:

• Developing your observational skills
• Learning when, and more importantly, when not to intervene with your baby
• Finding ways to connect with your baby through daily caregiving routines such as feeding, diapering, and bathing
• Ways to effectively handle common problems such as crying, discipline, sleep issues, toilet training, and more

Elevating Child Care: A Guide to Respectful Parenting by Janet Lansbury

Janet Lansbury’s advice on respectful parenting is quoted and shared by millions of readers worldwide. Inspired by the pioneering parenting philosophy of her friend and mentor, Magda Gerber, Janet’s influential voice encourages parents and child care professionals to perceive babies as unique, capable human beings with natural abilities to learn without being taught; to develop motor and cognitive skills; communicate; face age appropriate struggles; initiate and direct independent play for extended periods; and much more. Once we are able to view our children in this light, even the most common daily parenting experiences become stimulating opportunities to learn, discover, and to connect with our child.

Simple Toys Make Active Babies by Alexandra Curtis Boyer

RIE® Associate Alexandra Curtis Boyer illustrates “how unstructured play with simple toys is one of the best gifts you can give to your child; how easy it is to create your baby or toddler’s very own safe play area; and details f the first two years of development, focusing on play skills and the age-appropriate toys that help develop them.” An engaging and easy-to-read guide with wonderful photos and resource list.