King's Blog

The Brisbane Courier and Mail recently reported that Queensland children as young as four are receiving private tutoring to improve their literacy and numeracy skills, in advance of starting school.

On the Gold Coast, a number of private tutors are advertising ‘school readiness training’ for pre-schoolers, while the Readiness Academy (Robina) and Begin Bright (Burleigh, Sorrento and Tugan) offer small group ‘school readiness’ tuition to four to six year-olds: 45-60 minute lessons on the alphabet, counting, letter-sound recognition and fine motor skills (writing, cutting, drawing etc) for around $25 an hour.  Homework is also provided.

You know how important it is to read to your child and you've diligently read bed time stories to your kids since they were tiny. But now they're reading The Chronicles of Narnia on their own, do you really need to keep reading to them? At what point do you draw the line and just let them get on with it?

Ah, teenagers!

Loveable, happy, engaging kids one minute; snarling, moody whirlwinds the next. 

As your children move closer to adulthood, their hormones rage and their thought processes become more sophisticated, it is inevitable that conflict will arise in the home.  It goes with the territory of parenthood.

Short of growing a thick skin or hiding away for a few years till the worst is over, how do you survive these difficult years of teenage confrontation?

“Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin …”

So began the famous BBC radio program, 'Listen With Mother', which broadcast stories read by women to children (and their mothers) from 1950 to 1982.

Reading to children has always been associated with mothers.  Think of any image in the media depicting 'story time' and chances are it will be of a mother snuggled up with one or two children and a huge book.

“The single most significant factor influencing a child’s early educational success is an introduction to books and being read to at home prior to beginning school.”
National Commission on Reading (USA), 1985

Research shows that children who read proficiently in the early school years generally perform better at every stage of their education.

So its the school holidays and the weather sucks.  The sound of the TV is ever-present and, despite your best intentions, the kids have been on their iPods/PlayStation/Xbox/Wii far longer than you know is healthy.  We all know too much screen time is damaging for kids but policing it is an eternal challenge.  We hear you!

Here are some strategies for controlling screen time in your house: