June 2020

Advice Column, Child, Education, Mainstream Education, Parenting, Tech, Tween & Teen

Four ways to boost your academic portfolio during lockdown

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Schools across South Africa opened on June 1 in a phased approach, starting with grades 12 and 7. However, strict social distancing measures will prevent most sporting and cultural extracurricular activities from taking place, and some parents may decide to keep their children at home altogether. Students who have set their sights on top universities, both locally and overseas, must demonstrate innovation in order to stand out and build impressive application portfolios.

Advice Column, Baby, Parenting, Pregnancy & Baby

How do I moisturise my baby’s skin?

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Those early weeks with a new baby can be magical… and exhausting. You’re still working out how to hold a slippery baby while you wash their delicate skin, and you’re learning what they like and don’t like (clue: they’ll definitely let you know). You don’t need to use moisturiser at this stage, but as you start taking your baby out and about more, their skin is exposed to more toxins from the outside world and might start getting dry.

Advice Column, Education, Mainstream Education, Parenting, Tech, Tween & Teen

Managing Matric in a time of turmoil

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For the majority or learners, Matric is the most challenging year of their school careers – even under normal circumstances. The current circumstances facing the Class of 2020 are unprecedented, and have caused massive upheaval and uncertainty on top of the challenges they would ordinarily have faced. Even so, there are ways learners can adjust and respond to ensure they still make a success of the year, an education expert says.

Advice Column, Baby, Health, Lifestyle, Nutrition, Parenting, Pregnancy & Baby

How to incorporate yoghurt into your child’s diet by Happy Family Organics

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The yoghurt section in the grocery store seems to be expanding every year, and it’s no wonder why! Yoghurt is a versatile food that can be eaten as part of a meal or snack, and can be incorporated into many recipes from dips to dressings to desserts. Yoghurt contains protein, fat and carbohydrates, as well as the nutrients calcium, potassium, phosphorus and is often enriched with vitamin D.

Advice Column, Child, Education, Home Education, Parenting, Tween & Teen

Why sleep is important for better academic results

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When we think of a learner getting good results in tests and examinations, we usually picture that learner cramming until the early hours of the morning, or “burning the midnight oil”. Many people think that sleepless nights are the way to achieve good academic results, because sacrificing sleep means working hard, right? Well, no, not at all – research has shown that depriving one’s self of sleep to cram information the night before a test is not a good way to achieve better academic results. In fact, the opposite is true – sleep is essential for a student to get good results in tests and examinations for a variety of reasons. Let’s have a look at a couple below:

Advice Column, Baby, Lifestyle, Motor safety, Parenting, Pregnancy & Baby

5 tips to distract baby in the car

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Hands up if your boobs leak when you hear a crying baby? If your mind goes blank? You grit your teeth while trying to talk sweetly, over the loud screams? Your breath quickens, and little creatures feel like they are moving around under your clothes? While you try aimlessly to distract baby, whose eyes are probably closed anyway. (You can put your hands down now.)

Advice Column, Education, Mainstream Education, Parenting, Study Tips, Tween & Teen

Matric mid-year exams: create your own lockdown stimulation

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Under normal circumstances, Matric mid-year exams provide a valuable benchmark from which to launch the final push towards the finals. Because of the Covid-19 lockdown, there will be no official mid-year exams this year, but learners should still aim to re-create their own exam experience at home as this provides valuable practise and insights, and an opportunity to improve their performance later this year, an education expert says.

Advice Column, Parenting, Tech, Tween & Teen

Equipping your child for the 4th industrial revolution

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It has been estimated that globally 50% of jobs currently in existence will not exist by 2030 and our children are not immune to this. The global transformation currently underway, called the Fourth Industrial Revolution, entails the convergence of all digital, physical and biological technologies. It is predicted, that by 2020, the Fourth Industrial Revolution will have brought us advances in robotics, artificial intelligence and machine learning, genetic engineering and virtual reality.

Advice Column, Parenting

Finding joy in the simple, everyday tasks

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Now that families are spending their time working, learning and playing from home, parents are juggling an overwhelming amount of responsibility, and finding time to engage in structured playtime with the kids is more challenging than ever. But, while playtime as a family is crucial for building strong family ties and developing a variety of important skills in children, there are other ways that parents can achieve all of this without adding any more stress to their day.

Advice Column, Education, Mainstream Education, Parenting

Lockdown learning: how to maintain a positive environment

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South African families are going through tremendously challenging times as most continue to stay at home during the country’s extended lockdown. While it is not yet clear when schools will start to re-open, thousands upon thousands of learners are working hard to stay on top of their educational journeys, while those parents who can do so are still working from home. External pressures combined with fear and anxiety about the future are taking their toll on parents who are, at the same time, tasked with ensuring their children don’t fall behind. These, and other factors, are exacting an undeniable emotional toll in homes during this time, an educational expert says.

Advice Column, Education, Home Education, Parenting, Tween & Teen

Five tips on how to motivate your teen during lockdown

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Many teenagers are stereotyped as lazy and unmotivated children who want nothing more than to sleep in, socialise with friends and entertain themselves with their smartphones, laptops, and gaming consoles. But this stereotype isn’t really fair at all. It’s an understandable stereotype because this behaviour is what parents see, but it’s ultimately misguided. Teenagers can be, and are, motivated when they have reason to be, and when this motivation is properly instilled. Here we discuss five tips on how to motivate your teenager.

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