Resources

Interesting Tidbits in the Media
 

• March 2012 - Maggie Dent on Building Resilience in Children - I (Julia) was lucky enough to see Maggie Dent talk at a Connecting with our Children Conference in Perth in March and WOW, what a lady. I loved every minute of her talk. I value resilience so very much and I took it all on board! The attached is a bit of a summary of her talk about resilience. She made us all giggle with her question to the audience... "So why do all kids get a present at pass the parcel these days? That's just silly - kids need to learn they can't always win, that's life, bounce back and carry on"... Food for thought isn't it!!!
   
• January 2012 - Nurturing Moms May Help Their Child's Brain Develop - Preschool children whose mums are loving and nurturing have a larger hippocampus, an area of the brain involved in learning, memory and stress response, when they reach school age, a new study finds.
   
• December 2011 - Stuff, NZ - How to make a brainer baby - What to eat...
   
• December 2011 - Kindergarten math skills key to later success, researchers say - Recent research by a UC Irvine education professor shows that math skills among kindergartners turn out to be a key predictor for future academic success.
   
• October 2011 - Stuff, NZ - Warning on Screen Time for youngsters - Got an iPad or Tablet in your house that the kids monopolise? This article has had input from Sue Wright from the Brainwave Trust and it also has other interesting statistcs.
   
• August 2011 - Naughty 5 year olds - behaviour of 5 and 6 year olds in school is becoming more of a problem! Child pyschologists and industry leaders are blaming it on a number of different things including poor parenting, alcohol/drugs during pregnancy and todays pressures of life. Read the article for more information. We believe more and more so that it's up to Parents to really help their kids out (especially when teachers are having to spend more time dealing with naughty kids which takes them away from teaching the rest!). Parents can make the biggest difference to their kids learning and the sooner you start the better prepared they'll be for school so they can handle being in todays class environments. Follow our Programme to see how you can prepare your kids for school.
   
• August 2011 - Early Childhood Sector - What's happening? The ECE Taskforce Report is out. There is some startling findings about the state of Early Childhood Centres and the recommendations on how to improve the sector. However we think there are some gaps... Read more here.
   
• July 2011 - 3 hrs exercise a day - new study out of the UK recommends under 5's have 3hrs exercise a day to combat obesity and poor brain development and social interaction! And by exercise they mean our kids should be "active" as much as possible and not left sitting or restrained for periods of time. See the attached article for more info. Our Activity Cards have lots of fun ideas for getting your kids moving!
   
• August 2007 - Parents tricked by Baby Einstein - Stuff, NZ - Baby development videos like Baby Einstein and Brainy Baby are little more than snake oil and can actually slow a toddler's learning...