Raise the topic of homework with parents of school age children and watch the sparks fly. Parent opinion on homework ranges from those who’d like to see it eliminated altogether to those who set extra work for their children to make up for what they see as an overly relaxed approach. Teachers are caught in the middle – not to mention kids - and even education experts are unable to present a united front about the value of homework. This article looks at the research about the value of homework in primary school and high school. Read full article
This is an excerpt from a longer public forum on sleep deficit and health. Professor of Sleep Medicine, Susan Redline M/D. discusses school start times and whether schools should start later. Do current school start times force children to go to school at times when, according to their natural, biological rhythms, they should be asleep? Dr Redline says this problem leads to mood problems and poorer academic performance. Read full article
An academic paper released in 2012 suggested that teenagers may in fact need only just more than seven hours sleep to perform well in standardised tests. The article was not written by sleep researchers but by economics researchers who used statistical analysis to come up with this proposal. However the paediatric sleep community has refuted this suggestion. Read full article
It’s common for parents to worry about their teenagers getting enough sleep. Like adults, teenagers’ sleep requirements vary between individuals, depending on how well they function on a certain amount of sleep. But as a general guideline, most teenagers function well on about nine hours sleep per day, says Dr Sarah Blunden, founder of the Australian Centre for Education in Sleep and Director of the Paediatric Sleep Clinic in South Australia. This article covers how much sleep teenagers need and some tips to help them get more of it. Read full article
I do wonder who is raising whom, sometimes. My elder child is a night owl (or "night hour", as she would say). Sleep has never come easily for her; she seems to fight it, and we’ve wrestled through many long evenings with her bouncing out of bed and up the hallway time and time again. This time I decided to bring the message home with a role play ... One afternoon I sat them down on the sofa. Read full article
I have not had a good night’s sleep for close to five years. It’s pretty easy to work out why. I have three children under the age of five. I've had to deal with many different reasons for not getting sleep. Here are just some of them ... Tell me it gets better ... Read full article
Video - must watch. Not sure we'd like to be the parents of this baby through the night - but this is ultra cute. She's asleep, but not, and then awake laughing, but not ... Read full article
In this one hour webinar Beth Macgregor, co-author of "Helping Your Baby to Sleep, Why Gentle Techniques Work Best" shares information on approaches to your child's ( 0 to 3 years) sleeping that help with your child's emotional development. She explains why responsive parenting is good for your child's sleep and emotional wellbeing. Beth also answers common questions about young children's and babies' sleep habits and sleeping patterns. Read full article
This book is about responsive parenting. It is about how babies thrive when parents are sensitive to their needs - during the day and the night. It looks at baby sleep and shows that babies wake up at night and need help to settle for many good reasons, as frustrating as this may be to their parents. Read full article
Thursday 27 January 2011 - Bully-proofing Your Child ~ Schools Children Would Like ~ Children in Care & Education ~ Sleep & Childhood Obesity ~ Terminations & Mental Health ~ The Smile ~ Divorce Effects on Girls & Boys Read full article
