I didn’t expect Puggle to be a boy. Initally, that’s what I thought he would be, but I didn’t seriously expect that would really be the case.

What do I know about boys?

I’ve spent a lot of time teaching them (workshop classes are largely male), and in fact, in the first term this year I had two all male health classes (my principal said she was preparing me in case Puggle was a boy…) But I don’t really feel I have a clue. What books do they read?

I think that’s a big part of it. We are planning on homeschooling. I lean towards a Charlotte Mason approach–using living books. And most of the ones with which I am familiar are ‘girls books’. I will have a lot of searching to do to find the equivilent boys books (not that he won’t read any of the others, but it’s important that he can see himself in the stories).

So I’ve been doing some reading on boys.

Steve Biddulph’s ‘Raising Boys’ was really informative. I like his style of writing and it had a warm feel to it. It will bear re-reading. ‘Raising Cain’ (by Dr Dan Kindlon and another psychologist colleague of his) had it’s moments. It boiled down to ‘boys have an internal emotional life, don’t forget about it’ and ‘be sure to give boys the vocabulary to talk about their emotions’.

I feel as though I have seen so many broken boys in the last ten years in schools (there have been some that don’t appear so, but they are definitely in the minority) and I just don’t want my son to end up like that.