Wishing you a healthy and happy winter

Here's a story of synchronicity (or simply coincidence). On the second day of our current cold snap, I noticed how foolish many people are about keeping warm.  There seems to be some unwritten understanding that because we live in Queensland, the weather is warm.  Most of the time this is true, but when the temperature is 12 degrees celsius, clearly it is reasonably cold. And one should dress appropriately.  But this is how the townsfolk of my regional centre were dressing: jeans with T-shirt and thongs (that's flip-flops for the Americans, and jandals for the New Zealanders); shorts and singlets; bare feet.  And everyone was exclaiming about how cold it was! Madness!  And the same day, our local paper's lead story was about our hospitals' emergency departments having treated over 64,000 people in the past year.  Many of them for simple colds and coughs.

  I saw red. I was fuming. I almost wrote a smarmy letter to the editor. Our health system is overstretched as it is. A popular sport around here is telling horror stories about waiting times at the hospital, and the poor treatment people receive there. Maybe if people looked after themselves, all through the year, but especially in winter, the peak of the cold and flu season, the figures would not be so high, and the overworked, underpaid doctors and nurses at the hospital would be able to give better and more efficient help to those who genuinely need it.

I know I'm probably preaching to the converted. But it won't hurt any of us to do a quick mental check that we are doing our best to keep ourselves and our families healthy and happy this winter. I have had a quick surf to find some sites which may help:

• Wendy Blume from Vegie Smugglers has a guest post, 5 ways to keep kids healthy in winter at Body and Soul . 

And since cabin fever can sometimes be just as bad as real fever....

• Christie Burnett, at Childhood 101 has come up with a great list of ideas for keeping kids active when it is too cold to go outside.
• Here are some craft ideas for entertaining tweens and some other rainy day ideas for kids of all ages.
• Lists of the best books for teenage boys and girls
• American Library Association's (ALA) list of best contemporary young adult fiction (some of which looks great - I will have to have a closer look at this list!) And here is the list of the ALA's award winners including the Newbery and Caldecott medals.

What do you do to stay happy and healthy in winter? Have you found any gems or germs online?

http://www.parentingideas.com.au/newsletter/pdf/HK2_ebook.pdf

I know that in the quest for an easy pun I was a bit of a meanie about Michael Grose in an earlier post. In fact, I opened my first can of blogging worms....but 'tis the season of good will, and he has a lot of practical, straightforward, and positive ideas.

Please enjoy this "Best Of" compilation which I received via email today. Also, if your appetite is whetted, he's now on Facebook (for those of us who indulge in that guilty pleasure....)

http://www.mnwd-hosting.com/emanager/members/link.php?M=2264334&N=14962&L=11448&F=H

Reading Rockets: What teachers say, what parents hear

This link goes to the heart of Parent Teacher Kinight's initial purpose. I wonder if we can think of some more "What teachers say - What parents hear" scenarios? What have been your experiences of parent teacher interviews? I've now had the opportunity of sitting on both sides of the table, and trust me both seats can be very uncomfortable!
Reading Rockets: What teachers say, what parents hear

My Favourite Childcare Book

The Australian Baby and Child Care Handbook, by Carol Fallows, is the book I keep coming back to.  It is full of commonsense and pragmatic information and advice.  It isn't filled with silly, overexaggerated, attempting to be funny anecdotes about one person's pregnancy experiences (a la Kaz Cooke's Up the Duff, which I acknowledge is very amusing).

This handbook does deal briefly with pregnancy and birth,however, as its title suggests, its main focus is on childcare.  Topics covered include preparing for babies on a budget, (and how refreshing to read a book that does not encourage you to buy all sorts of unnecessary gadgets and gear for the newborn!), stages of development and how to play with your baby, (again, without encouraging parents to buy heaps of things - Fallows is adamant that for the first six months, a baby's favourite toy is his or her parents.)  There are also  lots of ideas about what sort of games children at different ages like to play.  I often dip into it for inspiration about activities to play outdoors, or using music, or ways children can help with household tasks.  (I have also found it invaluable for ideas about dealing with behaviour issues like whinging, sibling rivalry and dawdling!)

Some of the features I like in The Australian Baby and Child Care Handbook are the developmental tables which indicate what most children should be able to do by ages in terms of motor skills, language and cognitive development.  There is a comprehensive and easily understaood section about first aid and common childhood ailments, as well as a long appendix of support services available state by state. (Although because I have the second edition, which was published in 1998, many of these resources don't have a website listed - it may be time for an updated edition....).  There are brief but unobtrusive anecdotes from real parents on the sides of most pages, which you can read if you want to.  They do help the reader gain perspective and realise that raising children is a 'the same but different' for everyone.

Breastfeeding and weaning are covered, as is preparing first foods and dealing with fussy eaters.  There is some very sensible advice about adjusting to new parental roles and relationships, as well as organising one's time and home, and creating a safe environment for babies and toddlers.

I love this book's comprehensiveness and its sensible, friendly and supportive language.  I would recommend it to all new and expectant parents as an invaluable family resource. (I just wish it had a sequel that dealt with school aged children!)

Buy or Borrow?  Buy buy buy! Worth its weight in gold!

Michael Grose - 'Thriving' on our insecurities...

Yes, I agree, that's a harsh title...but it serves a purpose.  Firstly it fulfils my pathological addiction to groanworthy puns; secondly it introduces Michael's most recent book; and thirdly it sums up the the discomfort I feel about the way Michael Grose appears to be utterly commercially driven.

Michael Grose is an Australian parenting guru, who has been steadily churning out books, DVDs, parenting programs, seminars, syndicated newspaper columns, school newsletter inserts and more recently a blog and e-newsletter.  He has been writing for at least the past 20 years, and his own children are now grown up, and making their own way in the world.  His books include Raising Happy Kids, Great Ideas for (Tired) Parents, One step Ahead: Raising 3-12-year-olds, and, most recently, Thriving:Raising Exceptional Kids with Confidence, Character and Resilience.  His books are available through mainstream bookshops, and his webpage, Parenting Ideas, (there's a link on the right hand side of this page).  Most libraries also have a copy or two of some of his books.

My husband heard Michael inteviewed on the Radio National Life Matters program earlier in the year, and was impressed enough to mention it to me, and to remember the title of the book.  This was a strong enough recommendation for me to go out and buy the book.  And I'm glad I did. But I wouldn't buy another one unless it was on special.  I'll explain why soon.

Thriving is acessible and enjoyable.  It sets out Michael's theories about parenting, which are fairly straightforward and uncontroversial: we should focus on nurturing a family rather than needy individuals, children should pitch in and help out from an early age, parents are boss but corporal punishment is inappropriate, etc etc.  He justifies these and gives helpful strategies for achieving them.

The book is astutely structured.  The first chapter is dedicated to explaining the importance of balance in parents' lives, as opposed to becoming a martyr to our children. (He had me onside immediately!). He suggests that our order of priority should be 1.Me  2.My marriage/partnership 3.My family. After disscussing the importance of building one's own resilience as a parent, the book is divided into sections on building confidence, developing character and promoting resilience in kids - all worthy aims.

Thriving is well written, easy to read, undogmatic, and presents some good ideas, and if I was to buy only one Michael Grose book, this would probably be a good one to choose (being the most recently published, it would also be the easiest to source too!).  But I think this one would be enough, as I am quickly discovering through my further reading of his books and online publications, the information and ideas in Thriving are not all that different from his earlier work.  I borrowed Great Ideas for (Tired) Parents from my local library, and discovered that although it was first published almost 20 years ago, all the underlying ideas and suggestions are the same as presented in Thriving.  Michael's thinking doesn't appear to have evolved or refined to any great extent in 20 years.  He is just repackaging and reselling the same ideas, which is probably very commercially astute, but I feel it is a little unethical.

His website is worth a quick look, it is divided into sections for parents and educators, and there is a sale on this week.

Verdict: Buy or Borrow? ......Borrow! (But worth reading)

Next week:  The parenting book I have found most useful during my children's 'early childhood' phase...

Fathers' Day

Yesterday was Fathers' Day in Australia, and perhaps in other countries as well. Fathers' Day and Mothers' Day leave me a bit cold, to be honest.  I don't appreciate the way shops thrust their marketing down our throats, implying that we should demonstrate our love for our parents by buying expensive gifts.  It must also be a very hard day for people who have lost parents or children, or who have been unable to have children, or who are going through complicated divorces etc.  Indeed, these celebratory days may serve to alienate and exclude more people than they include!

But I digress! The point of this blog is not for me to rave on about social issues that make me feel vaguely nauseous.

My previous post sparked some discussion about homework and how it can be best made relevant, and of best use to families.  With this in mind, and in acknowledgement of yesterday being Fathers' Day, I am reminded of a conversation I had with a student a fortnight ago.

I have recently started doing some supply/casual/substitute teaching at a local highschool.  During a recent lesson, I noticed a girl quietly finishing off some work from another subject.  When I asked her about it, her face lit up and she proceeded to tell me enthusiastically about her science assignment.  As part of a unit about electricity, the year 9 class had been set a practical assignment to build something that included electical circuitry.  They had a number of optoions to choose from, including solar powered vehicles, burglar alarms etc.  The girl I was speaking to had chosen to build a dolls' house which had electric (LED) lights in each room which could be operated in various configurations with different switches.  Instead of taking the simple way out and just poking the LED lights through a cardboard box and cutting out windows and doors, the girl and her father had worked together to build a beautiful two-storey, wooden dolls' house.  It took them many hours of work, designing, cutting, sanding and assembling the house, not to mention the electrical wiring and circuitry.  And what a lasting monument to a solid father/daughter relationship!  At a stage of life when tradition has it that parents and children are least likely to get along, here was a homework assignment that helped to bring them together! I wonder of the teacher, when he or she set the assignment, had it in mind that it could provide such pleasure to a father and daughter.

(P.S. I realise that some readers' hackles will be raised by my positioning of the apostrophe in Fathers' Day, but I see it as a time to celebrate all fathers and father-figures; fathers as a class, not as individuals.)

Frank Furedi on authority in schools - Life Matters - 2 August 2010

Frank Furedi on authority in schools - Life Matters - 2 August 2010