The time our children spend doing homework has skyrocketed in recent years. Parents spend countless hours cajoling their kids to complete such assignments—often without considering whether they serve any worthwhile purpose. Even many teachers are in the dark: Only one of the hundreds the authors interviewed and surveyed had ever taken a course specifically on homework during training. The truth, according to Sara Bennett and Nancy Kalish, is that there is almost no evidence that homework helps elementary school students achieve academic success and little more that it helps older students. Read full article
Best Start by Lynn Jenkins, clinical psychologist, is for parents who want to understand their baby's or toddler's emotional needs. This book explains the importance of the quality of your baby's early experiences and interactions and how these influence how your child develops. Read full article
A book containing simple tools to help your child be happier, confident and more resilient. Written by Naomi Richards, a life coach for children in the UK, sharing tools to help you parent your child through the ten most challenging issues all children face. Includes topics such as confidence, cooperation, school, communication, friendships and handling emotions. Read full article
Growing Great Girls is the must-have parenting book for those with daughters. It contains a wealth of excellent, practical advice on bringing up girls from babies, preschoolers, tweens and right through to teenagers. Read full article
Authentic Happiness is the first book to examine the mechanisms by which mentally healthy people become happy, and how happy people become very happy. Martin E. Seligman is the international leader of the Positive Psychology Movement. His first trade book, the international bestseller Learned Optimism greatly influenced the way people thought about mental health by bringing the concepts of cognitive psychology to a mass audience. Read full article
From the bestselling author, Academy Award-winning actress and founder of the Hawn Foundation, a practical guide for parents to help children cope with stress, improve concentration and lead happier lives. Goldie Hawn offers parents a practical guide for helping their children to learn better and live more happily. Based on the MindUP programme, supported by the Hawn Foundation, 10 Mindful Minutes outlines short, practical exercises for parents and children - taking less than 10 minutes - to help young children and teenagers. Read full article
Beyond the Baby Blues is the first comprehensive Australian resource guide to perinatal depression and anxiety (PND). Readers receive solid scientific advice combined with the experiences of individuals and families affected and the professionals who treat them. The book includes the scientific explanation for PND that will come as a relief to many and an exploration of perinatal screening. Caring professionals, family members and friends explain how they helped PND sufferers, as well as how their involvement affected their own lives, while self-care strategies will help parents take care of themselves and their families throughout life. Read full article
Overloaded? Overwhelmed? Overtired? Not enough time to enjoy life? Need to change but feel too busy to make a change? Read on...Are you the type of person who starts a new sentence before finishing the old one? Who can't sleep at night because the brain is ticking away with unfinished tasks? Who keeps working harder and harder only to have less and less spare time? Who is so busy 'doing' you have no time for 'living'? Then you may be suffering from life overload! If you are interested in regaining your sanity and living a happier, less stressful life then "Life Overload" is for you. Read full article
While checking that her party outfit for her ninth birthday is in order, Edie Amelia Sparks discovers that one of her most treasured possessions - a red monkey shoe with a crimson tassel on the toe - is missing. With the help of her unusual dog Mr Pants, and her arch nemesis/best friend Cheesy Chompster, Edie Amelia sets out to solve the mystery of the missing shoe. A fantastically imaginative story from the well-known actor turned author and columnist, Sophie Lee. Read full article
A mysterious illness with very strange symptoms is spreading through Runcible, throwing the townsfolk into a panic. Edie Amelia Sparks, nine-year-old detective extraordinaire, sets out to investigate. Together with her new best friend Cheesy Chompster and Mr Pants, her French bulldog, Edie begins the hunt for a cure. The adventurers encounter some rather unusual things along the way, including: a flan-eating dog people in colourful jumpsuits a dastardly theft a motorised pram some very distressed alpacas and a solution that's right before their eyes Read full article
