After church one Sunday, I watched an elderly lady donate $50 to sponsor a teenager on youth camp. "What else can we do for our young people?" she asked, "And how can we get to know them?". Despite a large contingent of teenagers in our church, I am sorry to say that 'getting to know them' is no easy task - the older members of the congregation would be lucky to even come in contact with one.
Topics: Parenting, Teens, High School, Primary School, Community
I have the school number programmed into my contacts so that when the school calls I know it’s them. Since my children are humans and not robots, I will probably get a call from one of their teachers at some stage to chat about some behaviour that needs addressing.
Topics: Parenting, Teens, Teachers, High School, Behaviour, Primary School
When I was at Primary School, one of my favourite times of the week was ‘project time’. It was when we were all given a chance to explore a topic of interest, in greater depth and to write and draw about it in our project book. I loved the planning, the reading up on a topic, drawing or finding pictures and then laying it all out nicely with my best handwriting. Sometimes we even took our project books home so that we could continue our work at home before bringing it back to present to the class.
Topics: Teens, High School, Primary School, Homework
I recently read Enid Blyton's 'Magic Faraway Tree' series with my sons and they were astonished. Not so much by the exciting adventures of Silky, Moon Face et al but more by the volume and complexity of chores the young protagonists were expected to do. Barely school-age children were chopping wood, preparing meals, darning socks and cleaning houses.
Topics: Parenting, Teens, Primary School, Preschool, Prep, Toddlers
Worry is a normal feeling that happens to all of us from time to time. As an emotion, it is our natural response to real and anticipated or imagined situations. We worry about something because we perceive it as a threat and worry causes us to focus on the issue or situation at hand. A little worry can in fact be good for us as it gears us towards taking precautionary measures such as checking the road before we cross or putting on our seatbelt when we get in a car.
Topics: Parenting, Teens, High School, Behaviour, Primary School, Preschool, Prep, Toddlers
Yesterday, I helped four Year 1 boys research 'toys and games from the past'. Last week I got very competitive playing maths games with Year 4 students. Next week I will be doing some one-on-one work , listening to young children read. I have little friends all over Primary who wave to me and share stories of their weekends, and a sneaky insider's knowledge of day-to-day school life.
Topics: Parenting, Teachers, Primary School, Prep
