Unstructured, unsupervised fun could be more beneficial for your child's future than you realise. Parents are feeling they need to provide an array of structured and adult-directed activities to raise smarter children...but it is also backfiring as children are not being given the freedom to develop their own interests and creativity. Read full article
A 12 year old boy in UK entertains his village with "Naughty Nora" character. He does it for fun and his friends think it's cool. Is there really any harm in this? I don't think so as long as it is entertainment and satire and he is not being dressed up seriously in an overly provocative way. I discuss this with Suzanne Mostyn on The Morning Show and share some tips on raising resilient children. Read full article
Are safe playgrounds depriving our children of important emotional development opportunities? By making playgrounds safer and reducing physical risk, are we increasing the risk that children will be more anxious and deprived of chances to master their physical world? The value of a safety-first playground was recently questioned in the New York Times - “Can a Playground be Too Safe?”. The writer referred to comments by Norwegian psychologist, Professor Ellen Sandseter who said that it is best for children to encounter certain physical challenges from an early age so that they learn to master them through play. Read full article
“I don’t like big erfquakes, They’re stupid!!” exclaims almost three year old Marco, now a veteran of two major earthquakes and living with his parents and older brother in Christchurch, New Zealand. Since September 2010 when the first major earthquake hit the ‘Garden City’ of New Zealand, Marco has labelled every run down building or scaffolding in the street as “Look at that big erfquake” and on the day prior to the February 2011 earthquake in Christchurch, his house was burgled – his first reaction “an erfquake.” Read full article
Last week was a quiet week for blogging and writing on happychild. I was distracted. My brother, his wife and their two little boys live in Christchurch New Zealand. They are fortunate and we are relieved – they are safe and their house has only minor damage. ... Since September, many people in Christchurch have continued to feel anxious and stressed and this has been compounded by the frequent aftershocks that jolt them out of temporary distraction, and remind them that they’re living with risk. Read full article
Interviews with children about how they view their lives and the world around them. Elizabeth Gould, conducted wide-ranging interviews and now tells the children's stories and reveals four distinct patterns of how these happy children think. Even though these happy children face all the usual ups and downs of childhood, including bullying and family issues, they have found a way to be happy and stay happy. Read full article
Friday 21 January 2011 - Links to Latest Parenting and Education news: Homophobia Program NSW Schools ~ Depression and Video Games ~ Language and Surrogacy ~ University Skills ~ British National Curriculum ~ Children Process Flood Trauma Queensland Read full article
Michael Grose is an Australian parenting educator and author. In this one hour recording, he speaks with Yvette Vignando about how to raise a resilient child; how to build your own resilience as a parent; the main ingredients of a resilient family; how to develop resourcefulness, independence and persistence in your children and how to help your children cope with change, failure or conflict. Read full article
I am the mother of two young boys (2 and 5) and currently living through the aftermath of a 7.1 magnitude earthquake in Christchurch New Zealand. The earthquake hit at around 4:35am on Saturday 4th September 2010. My husband and I woke up with a most horrendous bang and our first instinct was getting to our two boys Read full article
