An attentive canine can boost a shy reader’s confidence reports Helen Lewis Since COVID-19 hit British shores, 3.2 million pets have reportedly been purchased. Animals provide a valuable sense of companionship and a wide variety of species, including dogs, cats, fish, birds and horses have helped...
The arrival of two guinea pigs marks the end of Jodie McEwen’s pet procrastination. I’m just not an animal person; love of creatures is not in my nature. My dad tried to pass on his love of animals, so we had rabbits, guinea pigs, fish, birds,...
Starting behind: more than half of young Australian kids living in adversity don't have the skills they need to learn to read, report Sharon Goldfeld, Hannah Bryson, and Jodie Smith Around one in three (36%) Australian children grow up in families experiencing adversity. These include families...
Parents, your kids are watching you, writes Katy Thomas Recently, Prime Minister Scott Morrison told Australians the treatment of women is not “of a scale that any government can simply change, it is something we must change as a society”. And as a society, we are in...
We know that quality early childhood education is critical, writes Dr Jan Deans and Professor Collette Tayler but what is actually happening in kindergartens, childcare and homes across Australia? Over five years, dozens of researchers from the University of Melbourne and Queensland University of Technology have...
Kate Noble and Sarah Pilcher report that many families in Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales have been paying around double what families in other states and territories pay for preschool. Median out of pocket costs for preschool, per hour, range from A$2.82 to $3.82 in...
Karen Ford, Andrea Middleton and Steven Campbell asked children around the world what they knew about COVID. This is what they said. During the pandemic, children have been separated from family and friends, schools have been closed and there have been limitations on important activities, such...
Nicholas Gamble, Christine Grové, Emily Berger, and Kelly-Ann Allen, suggest there are 5 things to consider! Homeschooling registrations for children in Victoria in 2020 grew by almost four times the rate of the previous year, recent reports show. Some families who had children learning from home during...
The effects of mobiles phones and other technology at school is a hotly debated topic in many countries, writes Louis-Philippe Belan. Some advocate for a complete ban to limit distractions, while others suggest using technology as a teaching tool. Kids in public South Australian primary schools...
When the children’s digital game Roblox launched on the New York Stock Exchange earlier in March, the company’s share price rapidly took off. By the end of the day, it was valued at US$38 billion. How can a game for kids be worth so much?...
