Having been a pre-school teacher for twenty-five years and a mother for eleven, I am convinced that in the end, communication and God’s love are the keys to a successful relationship with your children. The catch is – how do we successfully communicate this love to our children?
With all eyes directed at 2020’s first-year students as they start their journeys at various tertiary and higher education institutions across South Africa, it is also important to remember those tens of thousands of students who are starting out on a learning journey of another kind — studying from home via distance learning, an education expert says.
As parents we always want the best for our children and so we strive to do the right thing to ensure our children grow and develop into well rounded little humans. Experts say toys are one thing parents could use to improve brain development, but do we really know what kind toys to use for this purpose?
“You strike the women, you strike the rock” – inspiring words from the famous resistance song have come to symbolise
Instead of going into a decline about load shedding and feeling unable to cope, show your teenager how to manage load shedding to her advantage. Our load shedding can be used as a practical and hands-on way to teach our kids to plan ahead and be prepared for any eventuality. Instead of moaning about it and considering emigrating, embrace load shedding to demonstrate valuable life lessons.
An amazing study done by Loewy J et al. [1] in 2013 showed that soothing music may encourage premature babies to feed better, as well as improve their vital signs (like their O2 saturation levels as well as heart rate). It is speculated that this is one of the reasons why singing lullabies to babies comes so naturally to parents and carers.
It’s no exposé that the breakup of your marriage is tough on your kids. It can be stressful, sad, and confusing. At any age, kids may feel uncertain or angry at the prospect of mom and dad splitting up. Yet as a parent, you can make the process and its effects less painful for your children. Helping your kids cope with divorce means providing stability in your home and attending to your children’s needs with a reassuring, positive attitude. It won’t be a seamless process, but let us show you how to lend comfort — not confusion — to an already difficult situation.
Most parents will agree that teaching children about money is important, but there’s more to it than telling them that saving is good or to be careful of debt.
TikTok is taking over the world, or so it seems! It’s an app that allows users to share short videos. It enables the user to be incredibly creative with the use of stickers, music tracks, filters and augmented reality. As a result, so people find the creative side really enjoyable and because videos are only 15 – 60 seconds long, they’re incredibly consumable from a viewers perspective. This is why it rocketed to being the most downloaded app worldwide at the end of 2019.
The human baby is born with an innate curiosity and a seemingly insatiable need to learn. Toddlers and young children seem to find anything and everything interesting and they never run out of questions! Why is that…? How does…? Where is the…? What is…..? They are also determined to ‘do- it-by-myself!’ In fact, they insist on it!
When my beautiful baby girl arrived, I was determined to breast feed, but, as many new moms will agree, it was far more complicated than I expected.
According to Cindy Glass, Co-Founder and Owner of Step Up Education Centres, “Teaching is one of the most under-rated and under-appreciated professions in our country! Most teachers do not recognise the value of their skills and even less so, the possibility of becoming financially well-off business owners! Teachers have been scraping the bottom of the barrel for so long that the idea of using their skills to achieve business success may seem quite impossible!” Why is this? Cindy offers the following reasons:
Most pregnant moms find it hard to get comfortable in bed. Contrary to popular belief it is possible to get a comfortable night’s sleep when you’re pregnant.
With South Africa’s Matric pass rate at an historical high, many thousands of learners are in the unexpectedly happy position of having received a Bachelor’s pass, and therefore qualifying for further study. Those who didn’t make provision for this eventuality, may now find themselves in a situation where they no longer need to settle for their Plan B, but can in fact go for Plan A – realising their dreams of pursuing a degree – but with no place at university yet.
Kodak recently launched the CHERISH C525 Baby Monitor in South Africa and as I was looking for a video monitor for my new little baby, so I decided to give it a go. Although the Kodak brand is new to the baby monitor market in South Africa, Kodak has a proven record when producing quality cameras for many years. This gave me a sense of reassurance when purchasing a new product on the market.
Preschool and prep-school teachers are modern day superheroes. They gently introduce our little ones to a love of learning and creativity, yet they are also tough enough to manage anything that could affect their little charges. Even the horror of head lice in the classroom.
Finding Natural and Organic snacks for our precious toddlers can be a hard task. With so many options available for
Munchkin, the award-winning global baby lifestyle company expands its commitment to animal conservation organisations through a new line of its #1 selling Miracle® 360° cup, called “Wild Love,” designed to feature at-risk animals. The cups, now available at Baby City, help families teach children empathy and respect for animals at a time when more than one million species are threatened with extinction. Inspired by the important work these organizations are doing, Munchkin is making a substantial donation to both the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and The Whale Sanctuary Project.
Navigating life without following our passions can be like pushing a cart with square wheels uphill says Cindy Glass, Owner and Co-Founder of Step Up Education Centres, “With so many learners getting ready to leave school and make their way in the world, it is essential to consider the role that passion has in guaranteeing success in their lives!”
Holidays are like cats! They creep into your lap for a cuddle and just when you start feeling all warm and fuzzy inside, they jet off to some unknown place, leaving you feeling disappointed and perhaps a little cold! Is this not true of these school holidays? They crept in, had a cuddle and left – just like that!
Once your baby can sit up and bring their hands to their mouth you can start with the Boon Pulp. Munching and crunching, all require lots of practice for babies who are just learning to self-feed, and the results can be messy. The Boon Pulp Silicone Feeder is a tidy solution: it works like a mesh feeder, but it’s sturdier and keeps the mess more contained, so your child can use her brand-new teeth to gnaw away at healthy snacks without requiring an entire roll of paper towels for clean up afterwards. Self-feeding offers a great way to teach babies dexterity and hand-eye co-ordination.
The South African Breastmilk Reserve (SABR) has issued an urgent call for breastmilk donations as reserves run critically low.
As December rolls around, many parents get to breathe a momentary sigh of relief that a monthly school fee payment won’t be going off this month. That is until you remember that you’ll be expected to re-start payments again in January and this time it will come with new text books, school stationery, uniforms and for the bigger “kids”, you might even be paying boarding school or accommodation fees.
We all tell ourselves stories about who we believe ourselves to be and what we believe we are capable of achieving! “The trouble with these stories is that we accept them to be true, even when they are not!” says Cindy Glass, Owner and Co-Founder of Step Up Education Centres. She adds, “We make decisions and choices based on what we think we deserve, so if our stories comes from a fixed mindset, we are unlikely to achieve the successes that we dream of. If, however, the stories we tell ourselves are based on a growth mindset, we are going to be set-for-success.”
Travelling with babies and toddlers can be stressful, whether it is navigating public transport, such as the underground in London or simply a domestic flight in South Africa – you are bound to find a pram a mission to contend with. That why I have always chosen to travel with my baby carrier. There are a few good reasons for this:
Thinking processes,I define as the manipulation of information. Problem solving requires reflective thinking; reflective thinking encourages critical thinking and develops
Early introduction of technology in schools is important to close the gap between our current situation and where we need our future graduates to be. It is predicted that by 2031 all repetitive tasks will be replaced by robots, so it is no longer enough to merely teach a child how to use a computer. Children need to be taught those skills that robots cannot do. According to Michelle Lissoos, Managing Director of Think Ahead, these skills include empathy, creativity, and higher cognitive thinking. Using technology to teach these human characteristics might seem contradictory, but technology can open doors for children which would otherwise be impossible in certain home situations.
As a father of two boys, I am constantly inspired and challenged, to expose my children to the variety of cultural avenues available to them. For those who are not aware, I am both a music educator and performer and have spent many years collaborating with, or working alongside, artists of many kinds. Being involved in the cultural department here at Crawford La Lucia, I have to been exposed to the various arts disciplines on offer and have been privileged to work alongside colleagues who invest in their pupils with determination, creativity, and excellence.
With Christmas only a month away, we asked Chicco South Africa to put together a Toy Guide for Christmas. CHICCO
Although the focus is firmly on the Matric Class of 2019 currently writing their NSC exams, their successors in Grade
