A Baby for all Seasons
A good friend of mine was told last week that her five-year-old daughter would always be at a disadvantage educationally because she had been born in July. This advice was given to her by an experienced teacher at a well-known secondary school who said that this was such a well-known phenomenon as to almost go without saying.
I must admit that, as an August baby myself, I was slightly taken aback at the suggestion! It’s also not something that I have ever worried about in all my years of working with young children. However, five minutes with Professor Google suggests that there is at least some science to support the theory.
Are you confident when speaking in public?
Because of my background as an actress, I’ve always mixed with people who are pretty confident speaking on their own in front of large groups of people. It wasn’t until I started Perform and attended courses in Child Protection, First Aid and various other childcare-related subjects that I realised how many people find speaking in front of others frankly terrifying.
Yes, I realised that not everyone was the all singing-all dancing type like most of my friends, but it was still a bit of a shock to me that there were clever and articulate adults out there who were frightened to speak out on their own. We’d go around the circle asking for contributions and it was amazing how quietly people spoke. I remember one course when an attendee actually left half way through the session because she found it too intimidating. Read more »
Routine or relax over the summer?
I really enjoyed watching this clip the other day.
It’s about whether you stuff your children’s summer holidays with activities or just go with the flow and just chill. It’s an interesting subject and it got me thinking about where I stand on this as a mother.
As Perform provides drama holiday courses for over a thousand children every summer, I get to see first-hand the huge benefits children derive from taking part in specialised activities. And I also want my kids to have the chance to enjoy organised activities too. I believe it’s really valuable having proper time to commit to something and make non-school-related friends. Read more »
The Long & the Short of it…
Earlier this week I read with interest an article on the SchoolGate blog by Sarah Ebner.
I don’t want to re-hash the article here, but by way of giving a little background – the article detailed the experiences of another parent, Joanne Mallon who has a son who is small for his age.
She recalls a situation her son experienced at school. The class were playing a game whereby they had to describe a fellow classmate without describing them physically. One child blurted out “He’s small”. As Joanne recalls it: “The teacher came down on this like a ton of bricks, because it was outside the rules of the game…”
The article generated a number of comments and got me thinking.
