In celebration of Vietnam Family Day (28/06/2020), KidsOnline is privileged to support the publication of MC Ninh Quang Truong’s debut book, “Choi cung Con” (Play with Your Kid). We also thank Dr Hung P. Le, the first and most enthusiastic reviewer of the book. His review is shared below, with permission.

“From the onset, I’d like to profess that I do not know Mr. Ninh Quang Truong, I have never met, spoken or have associated with him in anyway; however, after completing his book I feel like he is my best friend.

I like to congratulate Mr. Truong on this amazing journey with “Choi cung Con”. It is a testimony of love from a father to a child.  It is with “choi” that father grows in-depth about his relationship with his child; in “choi” the child has a deep psychological connection with the father, and ultimately Truong has accomplished his mission beyond expectation.

“Choi cung con” has an elegant layout with “learning outcome” for each theme, along with photos that has a touch of modernity to include technology into a hard-printed text with the QR code to demonstrate each lesson. This pedagogical layout provides for the “first-time” parents or others who may already have few children the rules of engagement with their children, and it offers educators of early childhood learning how best to simplify the lessons to young learners.

What excites me the most about “Choi Cung Con” is that it makes everyday activity into an amazing experience; it stimulates the imagination of a young mind filled with fresh neurons with all the synapses firing at full throttle to take in all the colors, sights, and sounds to his/her environment.  The author has a deep sense and sensibility into the minds of 1-4 years old and is able to “play” with the child in simple manner which for many adults is a very complicated task.

When I conducted my training in developmental psychology, there was one single book that stood out among the rest “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” by Robert Fulghum, this was considered a must read for everyone who were training in the field of early childhood education.  Ninh Quang Truong’s “Choi cung Con” sets apart from other educational and parental texts that exists in Viet Nam.  As a father of two, I find it delightful that such a book is made available in Viet Nam.

Among Asian cultures, child rearing usually falls onto the shoulders of a mother; however, numerous world-wide medical, psychological, and educational journals have concluded it takes two parents to make it work.  In our modern life and the lifestyles that we experience everyday it is critical that a male figure needs to be embedded into the lives of their children.  The quality of time, the energy that we put in, the efforts that we offer to our children now, the impact will last into adulthood and the immediate impact that we can witness is when the child goes to school and socialize in his/her the broader world.  The child will have a strong sense of self confidence, maturity, together with a profound intellectual mind with an emotional well balance individual.  In short, if you want a brilliant child in the future, “play” with him/her now!

When Truong plays with his son, it seems that he is playing with every father and guiding them through the process, in his “subliminal” messages to all fathers: “Hey guys, it’s not all that hard, don’t think too much; just sit and have eye contacts with your child, speak encouragingly to your child, and excite your child by being presence in his/her life”.

I only have one minor displeasure about this book and that is after reading this book Truong makes me feel so guilty that I haven’t played enough with my own two young children!

For me personally, every father must read and apply and every mother must get it as a gift for “Father’s Day” and be the daily enforcer of “Choi cung Con di Anh!”  I highly recommend this amazing book to every parent and grandparents too.  Truong has contributed greatly to early childhood education and offers great energies for parents, caretakers, and forced early childhood educators to pay closer attention to “Choi cung Con.”  Congratulations Truong!  Now, I must go to play with my children!”

KidsOnline team thanks Dr Hung P. Le for his thought-provoking sharing of experience!

Just like Dr Hung, KidsOnline team has high hopes that young parents all over Vietnam will find in this book a “companion” for them to express the love for their children through quality time playing with their kids, to enrich the emotional connections for happy and fulfilling family ties.