by Margaret Sgouros, Ifkids     A student’s well-being, ie, how happy and successful a child is at school is dependant on more than IQ. A happy child usually outperforms a miserable child. Children who are extremely bright academically often do not achieve as well as they should and parents wonder why?

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by C.J. Simister, Future-Smart    In this, the second of three short articles, education expert C. J. Simister describes a selection of fun, family-friendly ways in which parents can help their children to develop a positive and healthy attitude to risk-taking.  While success at school is obviously very helpful, she argues that a total reliance on this may mean we are missing part of the picture. 

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by C.J. Simister, Future-Smart     Last month on YourKidsEd, education expert C. J. Simister described some of the magic ingredients that can make all the difference to a child’s future – things like persistence, initiative, resilience, an innovative spirit and the ability to sort sense from nonsense .

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by C.J. Simister, Future-Smart     Is your child ‘future-smart™’?  It’s one of those lurking, back-of-the-mind issues that most parents will have felt at least a little uneasy about at some point or other: How can we be sure that when the time comes our children are going to be ready not only to face but also to flourish in the big, bad (but tremendously exciting) world?

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By Michael Grose     Does your child act before he thinks?  Does your child pat a dog, even though you warn him not to?  Would your child ignore a 'wet paint, don't touch' sign and check it out for themselves?  If you're busy nodding your head then chances are your child likes to learn through trial and error.

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February 2010     A University of Sydney study has found children with well below average language skills performed almost as well as their normally developing peers just four months after their parents made a few simple changes in the way they interacted with them.  ...read more »

by Tahlia Mandie, Direction Exploring     With the school year beginning, students and parents are most probably gearing up for the year ahead. Students beginning their VCE or final years may be thinking about the journey ahead, possible challenges and even maybe career and life decisions. Achieving a sense of success is on everyone’s mind.

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January 2010     Children who are heavy users of mobile phone text abbreviations such as LOL (laughing out loud), plz (please), l8ter (later) and xxx (kisses), are unlikely to be problem spellers and readers, a new study funded by the British Academy has found.  ...read more »

November 2009    Many parents like to meddle in their children's lives. Sometimes this can be beneficial, if the meddling is in the form of parental guidance or setting rules.  ...read more »

6 August 2009     A University of Michigan researcher provides some useful advice for parents who want to increase their children's academic success.  ...read more »