This week, on 13 July, I am delivering a paper at Play: The Conference which is organised by Cotlands and sponsored by UNICEF, the Lego Foundation and the Department of Basic Education. The title of my presentation is the The [...]
As a parenting expert, I know that homework can be a hot potato in many homes. Is homework a hot potato in your home? At the end of a busy day school going children and their parents are faced with [...]
Getting ready for exams can be a stressful business. As a parenting expert, I’ve seen many children realise that they have quite a bit of work to get through in preparation for exam season and it can lead to feelings [...]
A variety of therapists are available to assist parents and teachers with children's developmental delays, learning difficulties and learning disabilities. Having a delay, difficulty or disability does not mean there is a lack of intelligence. In fact, in many cases, [...]
The topic of working memory I discussed with Redi Tlhabi on Radio702/CapeTalk last week generated enormous interest. Listeners wanted more details about symptoms. Clinical psychologist, Gerard Finnemore who runs the Cogmed programme in South Africa, has provided the following: General [...]
When it comes to money and kids there is one fundamental lesson most of us fail to teach our children, and that is how to make money grow. Without internalising this lesson and putting it into practise, they only learn [...]
Vicarious living through one's children can be both conscious and unconscious. Many parents transfer their hopes and dreams onto their children. These may be unfulfilled childhood dreams such as dad not making it into the first rugby team or mum [...]
A lot of parenting advice is focused on how to make sure your kids grow up to be good, high performing adults. Teaching children to contribute to society is part of future-proofing them. In South Africa, grade 12's are required [...]
Every child develops their number sense and number skills at a different rate depending on how innately they are wired and by what they have been exposed to in the early years. Foundation phase teachers can tell a child has [...]
Number sense is a feeling for numbers, an awareness about numbers and knowledge of their value. It is acquired through everyday life experiences in and around the home and is augmented through specific hands-on experiences in the preschool classroom. Developing [...]