As children at this age continue to assert their independence and spend more time alone, it is also an important time for your child to have friends and feel as though he is part of a group. 

What to expect

• Physically, intellectually, socially and emotionally
• By ages 9 and 10
• By ages 11 and 12

Tips

• Advocating for Your Child
• Age Appropriate Tasks and Chores
• Discipline
• Early Childhood Special Education
• Encouraging Good Eating Habits
• Finding the Right After-Hours Program
• Helping Your Child Manage His or Her Anger
• Preparing Your Child for a Sibling
• Single Parent Success Strategies
• Successful Stepfamilies
• Teaching Your Child Tolerance for Others 

Suggested Books

• Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
• The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson
• The BFG by Roald Dahl
• Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
• The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
• Charlotte's Web by E. B. White
• The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis
• The Giver by Lois Lowry
• The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
• Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
• Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
• Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks
• Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
• James and the Giant Peach: A Children's Story by Roald Dahl
• A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis
• Little House on the Prarie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
• Matilda by Roald Dahl
• Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard Atwater
• Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh by Robert C. O'Brien
• My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett
• Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
• The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
  Ramona Quimby by Beverly Cleary
  Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
  Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan
  The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
  Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
  Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar
  Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner
  Stuart Little by E. B. White
  Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume
  The Trumpet of the Swan by E. B. White
  Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
  Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
  The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis
  The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
  A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle 

Parent Education
Information on parenting classes.