Think play dough is just for pre-schoolers?
I am always amazed at how much time older children and even adults will spend happily squidging and modelling if they get their hands on it.
I have used play dough to divert teenagers at youth groups, as an ice-breaker at grown-up parties and as a medium for imaginative play and learning.
Topics: High School, School Holidays, Primary School, Preschool, Prep, Toddlers, Craft
I don’t think it matters if it’s the makeup on your daughter in Year 11 or the ice blocks with your Prep child, sooner or later your child will try and convince you that you are the ONLY parent drawing a line in the sand on any given issue.
Topics: Parenting, High School, Behaviour, Primary School, Preschool, Prep, Toddlers
We love our kids. We want to provide for them, do our best for them and protect them. But sometimes our desire to make them happy and our dedication to looking after them can lead to ‘over-parenting’. With the best intentions in the world, we can over-praise, over-indulge and over-protect our little darlings ... and risk raising self-centred, entitled dependents, unable to think for themselves.
Here are some red flags that indicate you might be raising a spoilt child:
Topics: Parenting, Teens, High School, Behaviour, Primary School, Social Skills, Preschool, Toddlers
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.
“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.
Topics: Parenting, Literacy, Primary School, Preschool
“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.
Topics: Parenting, Literacy, Primary School, Preschool, Toddlers
