PALS

Casual PALS sessions now available.
Fridays 9-11.15am during term time. No need to book.
$10 per session (plus $35 Playgroup WA membership)
Crafts, stories, songs, and show and tell.

This is a crucial issue, particularly in Western Australia where they don’t tend to allow a later start when parents don’t feel their child is ready. WA tried to rectify this in the 90s by pushing the start date for children back by six months but then took two steps backwards by making pre-primary compulsory and pushing the curriculum down a year, so now children are 6 months younger when starting formal learning than they were a decade ago.
If you have school children and feel they are being pressured at school, it’s difficult as a parent to feel like you can do anything, but one way is not to add to the pressure. The philosophy I have taken with my children is if they want to do their homework, great, if they don’t then I’m not going to force it. My non-negotiable is reading though, they have to do that, but it helps to find something they enjoy reading, sometimes it may not be the book they bring home from school; particularly with boys, if they get turned off early by being forced to read ‘boring’ books, it’s almost impossible to get them to enjoy reading again.

At PALS we can help ease the pressure of formal schooling by introducing children to routine without forcing, and providing a play-based wnvironment where children are not pressured to take part in things that they are not comfortable doing.

As an aside, Dr Whitebread was one of my lecturers at Cambridge, I am very lucky to have had incredible scholars to learn from at my time at University.

Natalie



https://www.maggiedent.com/blog/still-stealing-childhood/?fbclid=IwAR0v7r4KoHoiq4Gc44KlAZnQfgUmVVsKoe2nQPj6QaPHqLlH6kiNpEMbhuI

Why are we STILL stealing childhood? | Maggie Dent As one of Australia’s leading parenting educators I regularly travel the length and breadth of this country including cities, remote communities, rural communities and of course the digital world. Everywhere I go I hear about the distress of many young children who are struggling — kids struggli...

When children are having a tantrum they can’t reason. Use the Three Rs to help them through.