Late January our youngest started secondary school. For those of you who have been reading this blog since the beginning, you might even remember his arrival. He came along a year into …
Is my child ready for school after this COVID-19 interrupted year?
Determining whether your child is ready for school can be a very stressful and challenging decision. With our kids, we have made our decision based on each individual child as opposed to …
Back to school 2019 – a collection of tips to help parents
I am not one to wish away school holidays. I love them and love having the kids around more. Yes at times they can drive me a bit bonkers, but on the …
Managing new stages with older kids
Today’s post answers a reader question. You can read previous answers to readers’ questions here. How do you handle the next phase of life ie kids getting older and transitioning from Primary to …
Monthly review – allowing space for growth
Having a single goal focused on parenting, has meant I have learnt much about myself as a parent this year. In the middle of this year, I wrote a newsletter titled Under …
Getting ready for year 7
Next year I will have more kids in secondary school than I do in primary school. This blows my mind (and makes me feel old!). Yesterday I saw a mum with a …
Monthly review – letting go
If you read my newsletter, you would have read the following a few weeks ago in relation to our eldest teenager: Restrictions on technology is by far the biggest issue we have. …
E-book review: Parenting in a Digital World: Stop fighting, start connecting
Parenting in a Digital World: Stop fighting, start connecting: The E-book is written by Martine Oglethorpe who blogs at The Modern Parent. Martine has a background in secondary education and is a qualified …
Managing technology with teenagers – what other families do
I recently shared how we manage technology with the teenagers in our house. I received lots of great feedback from readers on the post, via email and on facebook. I have collated …
Managing technology with teenagers
This post is really looking at how we manage technology with our 15 year old. I have learnt that managing technology with teenagers is so much harder than younger kids for two …
Developing kids’ independence
If you listen to my kids I am the only parent in the world who makes them do tasks around the house or do things for themselves! Of course I am aware …
May monthly review – learning to say less
Each month I review my progress (or lack of!) towards my personal goals for 2014. You can see my full goal list in this post here – Goal Setting For 2014 And …
Making it through a bad day
In many ways I think I prefer the tantrum of a toddler than that of a teenager! The teenager version is louder, often goes for longer and upsets the balance of the …
April monthly review – catch them doing the right thing
Each month I review my progress (or lack of!) towards my personal goals for 2014. You can see my full goal list in this post here – Goal Setting For 2014 And …
Supporting kids’ learning – study skills and prioritising
This week on the blog I will be featuring posts on the theme of supporting kids’ learning. Once you have kids in school it is often difficult to know: how much to …
7 tips for first time year 7 parents
Our second son enters year 7 this year. In Victoria, this is the first year of secondary / high school. When my first son went into year 7, I found the year …
Tips For New School Starters – Primary and Secondary
As I mentioned in a recent post, 2014 holds lots of new things for our family with regards to school. Our youngest is starting school, our daughter in year five is changing …
Parenting Teenagers – End Of Year Wrap
This is part of my monthly series on Parenting Teenagers. 2013 has provided a very big learning curve for me as a parent. I had heard that Year 9 was a challenging year …