Inspirational stories from mums juggling it all by Steph Adams and Samantha Brett. (Penguin Random House Australia, softback $39.99) The expensive cover of this softback coffee-table style book looked promising, covered with the head shots of some of the interviewees the authors canvassed about their life juggling...
Victorian barrister Celia Conlan, advocates for separated parents to take a conciliatory approach when dealing with arrangements relating to their children. In our society, in which almost everything has a price, most of us cling tightly to our investments. Some parents even view their children as...
A synopsis of the story The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part is the sequel to the original 2014 film The Lego Movie. Five years after the events of the first movie, the persistently cheerful Emmet (voiced by Chris Pratt) and his brooding best friend Lucy/Wyldstyle (voiced...
Amazing Evolution: The Journey of Life by Anna Claybourne & Wesley Robins, Illustrator (Ivy Press, Murdoch Children’s Books, HB, RRP$29.99) Age Group 9-12 years This book is fascinating—clearly organised and illustrated in a very informative way. From Chapter 1: What is Evolution to Chapter 4: Evolution in...
Anne Fitzsimmons’ children may not be great athletes, but they are good sports. I was never good at sport. Any sport. Even the ubiquitous tunnel ball and captain ball. So I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise to find my children have all followed in...
Mary Pearl recalls seeking sweet relief from her toddler’s supermarket tantrums. There was a toddler having a tantrum in my local supermarket. He gulped and he sobbed. He took deep hiccoughing breaths and he shrieked. The shrieks became howls of rage. His cheeks puffed and his...
Four-year-old Lucy Deerborn has survived two malignant tumours and lives with neurofibromatosis, a congenital condition that has no cure, writes Jane Reid. The first time I talked to Kristy Deerborn*, her daughter Lucy* had been in remission from a malignant tumour for two years. The tumour...
Nicole Thompson considers how we teach our children that manners matter. A single voice pierced the muffled sounds of the airport terminal, and my ears pricked up instinctively. “Lucy, no! Remember your manners,” the voice shouted. “Say, ‘Please, Mummy’.” My son and I turned to fix...
Discipline does not have to be hardline to be effective, writes Mary Pearl. My husband is a primary school teacher who uses a piano accordion (“A creature lives and breathes in a big grey box, can you guess what it is?”) and three monkeys to capture...
Kris Bordessa’s sons have a tendency towards truncation in their communication The bright, bold colours of billboards and street signs intrigued my oldest son, Brad, long before he could read. “What does that say, Mum?” he’d ask from the back seat as we whizzed down the...
