Child Development – A parent’s perspective

My learnings on child development as a parent of five gorgeous kids.

Back To School – Parent Resources

January 31, 2012

Our eldest heads back to school today and the primary school kids start back at the end of this week. Quite sad to see the end of summer holidays. So as the kids head back to school, in today’s post I have a collection of resources that parents can use to help support their kids [...]

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Starting Preschool

January 14, 2012

Our youngest child starts preschool this year. When I come back from my online holiday, I will be work with our three year old to create a preschool morning routine for him. These routine charts really help the child to become responsible for getting themselves organised in the morning. I have found the more you [...]

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Sun Safety and Kids + Hamilton Sunscreen Give Away

December 7, 2011

This give away has now closed. The winner was Lioness Lady – “I have very fond memories of laying out on the banana lounges with my sisters slathered in coconut oil… not hat, shade or sunscreen in sight! Can you imagine doing that these days??!! My kids aren’t allowed out without hats, rashies and repeated [...]

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10 Things I Have Learnt About Year 7 And Year 7 Boys This Year

December 6, 2011

{Image} Our son started secondary school this year, which in Victoria starts at year 7. This year has seen as big of a learning curve for me, as it has been for my son. I very much feel I am at a new stage in parenting – one where I don’t have lots of the [...]

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Getting Ready For School

November 8, 2011

Recently I have had a few emails asking about getting kids ready for school. I have written about it a number of times on the blog, so thought I would collate all the posts in the one spot, to make it easier to find the information. My overall philosophy with getting kids ready for school [...]

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10 Strategies For Our Soon To Be Teen

November 1, 2011

A little while ago Nathalie from Easy Peasy Kids lent me the book The Blessing Of A Skinned Knee: Using Jewish Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children by Wendy Mogel, Ph.D. It is a New York Times best seller and a book I had been wanting to read for sometime. There is so much sane, calming [...]

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Talking To Children About Sex

October 11, 2011

Today’s guest post is from Mary Flo Ridley. Since 1986, Mary Flo Ridley has encouraged and equipped parents of young children to be successful in the daunting task of starting a conversation with their children about sex. Armed with humor, personal stories, and medical research, Mary Flo walks parents through very specific ways to answer [...]

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Teens and Social Media

September 30, 2011

{If you are reading this via email you may need to click through to see the actual video of Tagged.} Tagged is a relatively long You Tube video at just over 18 minutes. I don’t tend to watch long videos on the computer, I often get distracted by something half way through! But this was [...]

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10 Tips to Prevent Pint-Sized Pester Power

September 26, 2011

Today’s guest post is by Kathy Chapman. Kathy is the Health Strategies Director for Cancer Council NSW and is responsible for leading cancer prevention work, focusing on encouraging healthy living. She is passionate about making healthy choice the easy choice for Australians, young and old and she is one of the leading Australian researchers on [...]

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Food Colouring Survey Makes The Channel 7 News!

August 26, 2011

Thanks to the over 350 readers who completed the food colouring survey on Planning With Kids! You helped bring the issue of artificial colours and their impact they have on our kids to the main stream. I was interviewed for an investigative report that ran on Wednesday night’s evening news and repeated through out the [...]

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Challenging Behaviour

August 18, 2011

Today’s post is answering a question from a reader. I will note first that I am not a child behaviour specialist. My suggestions come from the reading I have done and the practical experience of being a parent over the last 12 years. ***** We are experiencing some unusual difficulties with our four year old. [...]

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Synthetic Food Colouring – We Need More Info!

August 3, 2011

This post is sponsored by Nuffnang. {Image by gadl} There were over 350 responses to the food colouring survey conducted last month on the blog, which was a fantastic result. Thank you to everyone who took the time to complete it. The overwhelming message in the results was there needs to be more more information [...]