Dr Susan White looks at why young children ask so many questions — and why do they so often catch us off guard at the worst possible times? As it turns out, their constant curiosity is more than a phase. It’s how they learn, grow, and...
Even after they can read themselves, writes Robyn Cox, because reading aloud to your children is a parental superpower Is reading to your kids a bedtime ritual in your home? For many of us, it will be a visceral memory of our own childhoods. Or of...
Students are neither left nor right-brained, writes Kate E. Williams. How some early childhood educators get this ‘neuromyth’ and others wrong. Many teachers and parents know that neuroscience, studying how the brain functions and develops, is important for children’s education. Brain development is recommended as part of...
Marian O’Connell finds that her response to her son’s bedtime demands turns from severe frustration to serene reflection. There is an almost imperceptible change in breathing and a certain weightlessness that overcomes a child when they finally fall asleep. This is detectable only to the indulgent...
Experts, Gabrielle Meagher and Marianne Fenech, investigate why many Australian childcare centres are not meeting regulatory standards for early childhood education services. Recently, an ABC’s Four Corners investigation reported shocking cases of abuse and neglect in Australian childcare centres. This included examples of children being sexually...
Emma Viskic swears off swearing when her daughter starts using some colourful language. I have a confession to make: I was a bad mother. Or, at least, a foul-mouthed mother. I tried, I really did, and most of the time my language would have delighted the...
We tried a different preschool curriculum to prevent youth crime. Checking in 20 years later, it worked, report researchers Jacqueline Allen, Kate Freiberg and Ross Homel Shutterstock There’s been an increased political and media focus recently on so-called youth crime waves, particularly in Queensland and the Northern...
It’s so stressful hearing my children constantly fighting with each other. How do I cope and get them to stop? Nigel Latta has some suggestion Take a firm and non-negotiable line. I don’t favour the UN approach of endless negotiations and hollow pleas; I think tactical...
Cathy Watson swore that she would never deflect her children’s questions, but lately they have become increasingly complicated. I think I am a victim of deflective parenting. As a child, I found it hard to understand why, at times, my mother sometimes looked tired and absent...
How to help kids open up and say more than ‘fine’, Madeleine Fraser has some great 'chat' tips for parents One of the first things parents want to ask their children after school is “how was your day?” We simply want to know how they are...
