Some of the questions in the book are presented in a somewhat academic way, i.e., they contain, rather, an answer to the question of what education is. And other sections are more able to give an answer to the question of how to educate, how to do what is necessary, what you think is right. And this is natural, it reflects the objectively existing unevenness of scientific psychological knowledge about upbringing.

Thirdly, we involved a large number of authors in the creation of the book, each of whom is a high-class specialist in his chosen field of psychology, each wrote about what he knows well, and knows not only in theory, but also in practice, working with living people.

And the last thing. All chapters are devoted to various stages in the formation of the family, marital and parental relations, stages of development and upbringing of children. For the benefit of the cause, we decided to focus on the so-called critical periods, the periods of transition from stage to stage, i.e., on what is really objectively difficult, on how to build one's relationship with the child at each of these stages.

Therefore, each chapter consists of two sections. The first section is a story about the most important psychological features of each period in the life of the family. And the second is a psychological consultation, answers to the most typical questions and difficulties of parents that are often encountered in psychological practice.

There is no conclusion in the book. Instead, there is a separate chapter that answers the question of why parents need knowledge of psychology.

So, dear like-minded people, we wish you joyful and creative work on the study of the psychology of education. If you understand and, most importantly, more interesting the spiritual world of your child, if you want to get to know yourself better, if you learn to listen, sympathize, understand and observe, i.e. feel like psychologists, we will consider the task completed.

What mother, what father does not want their children to be happy in life, to fulfill their dreams, to enjoy the respect and love of others! And each of them, relying on their understanding, life experience, as well as on the knowledge gained from the books they have read, watched TV programs, performances, films, which deal with the modeling of characters, the formation of the child's personality, try not to repeat other people's mistakes and bring up their own children as best as possible.

Determined to bring up their children only well, parents suddenly discover that their pedagogical system fails: the child grows up selfish, learning does not arouse any interest in him, he is constantly drawn to an empty pastime, he has difficulty developing relationships with friends. Parents begin to find out why this happens. And often, not being able to identify the real causes, they see the roots of the defects that bother them in bad heredity, in a bad teacher, in bad friends, and so on.

But in reality, everything turns out to be, as a rule, much more complicated. The actions and deeds of a growing person that are incomprehensible to parents are only a consequence of interrelated and influencing factors. The inherited and innate characteristics of the child's body, the constant, numerous and disordered influences of the natural and social environment, the directed educational influences on the growing person, and finally, the personality of the child himself, which can never be likened to soft clay, on which reality can write any kind of writing—all this, taken together, necessarily affects the way the child reflects the world around him, how he relates to it and why he has this and not other behavior.

Naturally, it is impossible to turn a blind eye to the effect of all factors. But it should always be borne in mind that the whole of the above-mentioned set of reasons, while preserving its essence, changes its face from child to child, since each has only his own inherent features of the organism and nervous system, his experience of activity and communication.

And this always makes it more interesting, but at the same time more difficult for parents and teachers to solve three interrelated tasks: finding out what a child is, why he is like this and what should be done with him to make him better. A certain and undoubted help in the implementation of all this everyday mandatory work in the organization of children's upbringing can be provided by the constant reliance of parents and teachers on psychology, which reveals the patterns and mechanisms of the formation of the child's cognitive sphere, his emotions, will, and attitude to various aspects of reality.

They say that those who have no ideas do not see the facts. Acquaintance with the knowledge brought together in a system, revealing the main manifestations of the human psyche, showing the changes that characterize their development, will help to more successfully manifest ourselves as a "natural psychologist" in the upbringing of children, and therefore to achieve the goals that we set for ourselves faster and better.

Therefore, in the book offered to the reader, in the creation of which, along with well-known specialists in developmental and educational psychology, in the sociology of the family and social psychology, in school and family psychotherapy, young psychologists took part, an attempt was made to give the most important psychological information on which a young family should rely when giving birth to children and organizing their upbringing at different ages.

Now it is clear to all those who are seriously thinking about ways to improve the education of the child's personality that a full-fledged psyche cannot be formed outside of a meaningful activity that involves overcoming difficulties, awakens creativity, arouses interest and ultimately brings success. This applies equally to play, to learning, to social work, and to productive labor. But at the same time, another thing is clear: one object-practical activity, even if it is very diverse, is not enough for the formation of a spiritually rich, comprehensively developed personality.