Every day I discover more and more beautiful things. It’s enough to drive one mad. I have such a desire to do everything, my head is bursting with it.
- Claude Monet
Dad Suggests was created to share with others the many different things that we have loved sharing with our own children.
Our hope is that - by reading or visiting our children’s bookstore - you will find something special to enjoy with your own family.
- Ryan
Bedtime for Frances is perfect because it does so many things well - primarily humor, fear, and a display of loving, patient parenting. It’s very hard to argue with the credentials of a book that legitimately shines in all three of these categories.
From my experience, it’s clear to see that no matter what the medium, being given a choice during a story fires up our 6-year-old’s imagination and sucks him into the action like nothing else. I really think Prospero Hall and Z-Man knocked it out of the park with House of Danger. It’s like the perfect storm of imagination for a family activity.
I think that spreading happiness is just about as noble a cause as you can come across these days. So I’m very excited to begin a series of articles titled How to Teach Empathy to Kids. The first book in this series is The Happy Book by Andy Rash - a very appropriately-named starting place.
Discover the best gifts for Chess players. If someone is obsessed and in love with something - it tends to make shopping for them easy. But what if you know absolutely nothing about their interest? Well, fear not, if that interest happens to be chess, I’m here to help.
I think there’s a very strong argument to be made that the entire birthday wish ritual is the coolest thing about a kid’s birthday party - because it’s certainly the most imaginative and magical part. And you know I’m all about a magical and imaginative childhood. That’s why I think it’s a fantastic idea to write a picture book entirely about the birthday wish.
The 10 books on this list make us very happy in our family - as can probably be expected with books about love. They are all a celebration of the peaceful and perfect feelings we feel when we are with the people that we love - and when we feel like we belong.
The newest addition to our collection of family games is Gnomes at Night - a cooperative maze game. But this time when I say cooperative, I really mean it. Cooperation is not a choice in Gnomes at Night, and that’s what makes it special.
The two pillars of Dad Suggests are kids books and family games - and Rory’s Story Cubes combines both in a very satisfying way. Because this game basically pushes all of our buttons, we couldn’t be more excited to give some away to you this month.
We’ve been playing a lot of card games in our house recently. Perhaps it’s because our 6-year-old has recently graduated to really holding his own in competitive card games. Check out our list of the best card games for families and let us know your favorite!
Even if science somehow definitively proves that screen time actually makes us measurably dumber, even more important than that is what we could have been doing with our time instead. There’s nothing more important than the time we spend with our family, after all.
I really love it when the meaning you’re slowly uncovering in a picture book coincides with powerful feelings and emotions. I’m talking about meaning of life kind of stuff - love and loss and what it’s all about. The Fan Brothers recently came out with a picture book that does just that - Ocean Meets Sky.
Thanks to the new series of Harry Potter illustrated editions - illustrated by Jim Kay - we’ve actually hatched the perfect plan for introducing Harry Potter to our children.
The fact that my son was so enamored with the idea of booby trapping the entire house has definitely endeared this classic movie to me - even more than the power of my own nostalgia. I simply had to buy this board game when I saw it.
There’s a very good chance you’ve said this line to your own kids at one time or another: “You need to apologize right this instant!” Apologizing, after all, is important in our relationships. But did you know that not everybody believes forced apologies are good for kids? And if forced apologies aren’t effective, how are we supposed to pass on the empathy we want to teach?
We gathered together all of our favorite picture books from 2018 for the first annual Dad Suggests Kids Book Awards. We reminisced, we argued, we threw things, and we created the ultimate list to wrap up the year - The Top 10 Picture Books of 2018.
As a father of kids ages 6 and 2, junior versions of board games are a trend I greatly appreciate. In case you’re unaware, junior versions of board games are basically simplified versions of their better-known adult versions. Whether they say “junior”, “for kids”, or “my first”, they all mean the same thing - better access to the fun for the young ones.
You’ve likely noticed us mention Peaceable Kingdom more than once. They specialize in publishing cooperative games for young kids, and we absolutely love them. So, to spread the love, this month we are giving away 2 copies of our favorite Peaceable Kingdom game - Race to the Treasure!.
These are the best picture books to read on a snowy day. I have very vivid memories of books that we read as children that perfectly capture those feelings of snowy adventure and magic. This list contains several of those books, as well as many new ones that I hope will stay with my children for the rest of their lives.
