Is it ever possible to be properly prepared for parenthood, asks Sarah Cameron. “Gotta go – can’t talk now – Emily’s screaming again. Honestly, she’s SO relentless!” That was the last line of an email I received recently from my sister, Nikki, who was talking about...
Some online platforms are starting to measure ‘student engagement’ at school, writes Chris Zomer. Here’s what you need to know. There is increasing concern children are less focused in school. This is often blamed on smartphones and social media. At the same time, there is significant pressure...
Evelyn Lewin is dedicated to documenting her offspring’s exploits. I have a feeling that my daughter is going to grow up thinking that she is famous. Either that or her mother has a camera in the place where her nose should be. This is because, and...
'No mullets, no mohawks, no ‘awkwardly contrasting colours’. Researcher Kayla Mildren looks at disputes over school uniform policies and why they often involve hair. A Queensland dad recently took his four-year-old son out of the Gold Coast’s A.B. Paterson College because the school had ordered the...
We all enjoy a good party, and Ruth Wajnryb reminds us of their primary purposes. Nostalgia is a funny thing—funny-peculiar, not funny, ha-ha. Once you’re on a jaunt down memory lane, it’s easy to get carried away. Take children’s birthday parties, for instance. When I was raising...
Taking her children to the hairdresser is no longer a hair-raising experience for children's author Katrina Germein My sister-in-law recently told me a story about taking her three-year-old daughter to the hairdresser. Her daughter was perched on the stool, ready for a haircut, while she fussed...
Research by Anabela Malpique, Deborah Pino Pasternak and Susan Ledger, shows children produce better pieces of writing by hand. But they need keyboard skills too Children today are growing up surrounded by technology. So it’s easy to assume they will be able to write effectively using a...
Body dissatisfaction is stopping nearly half of young people in Australia from going to school. The Butterfly Foundation's recent Body Kind Youth Survey has highlighted a troubling trend in body dissatisfaction among young people in Australia. The survey, involving nearly 3,000 respondents, revealed that over half...
Every parent has likely faced the challenge (or is still facing) of keeping the family home clean amid disruption, disorganisation and overall messy children. However, Simone Tsigolis believes maintaining a clean and organised home—and encouraging the kids to help out—can be a simple undertaking. In the...
Many schools say yes, but the answer is not so simple, writes Catherine E. Wood Should my twins be in the same class at school? As a clinical psychologist specialising in twins, this is one of the most frequent questions parents ask me. Many schools continue to separate...
