When Christine Choong delivered her first two babies about 30 years ago, she was confined to hospital beds, each time with drips to induce and accelerate labour. The drips, she recalls, were very painful. With her third baby, she went through most of the labour at home, which enabled her to remain upright, comfortable...
Mid-Week Links ABC News’ Nightline earlier this month profiled an unschooling family from New Hampshire. The Martins (who appear in our blogroll as The Sparkling Martins) threw open their doors and showed the world how they unschool. While watching the video, however, I could not help but feel that the network seemed to have...
Wouldn’t it be nice if all babies came with an operating manual? That way—just as with electronic gadgets—we need not worry about whether or not we are doing the right thing for our babies, especially when faced with dissenting voices. Here are four books that come close to being manuals for bringing up baby...
Mid-Week Links For homeschoolers in Malaysia, a big question is which route to take to get a place in college or university. David Tan speaks with the CEO of Life College in Malaysia and explains the different options available to homeschoolers here. David also looks at the way homeschooling has gained in popularity and...
When it comes to learning life lessons, nothing beats personal experience. Sometimes it is not enough to tell a child not to do something. Elaborate explanations don’t work and there are times when the wealth of our experience does not mean much to them. Sometimes, children just need to experience it for themselves. Here...
“You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.” It’s much the same way with babies and toddlers when it comes to sleeping through the night and going to the toilet. You just can’t force them. Still, there is no shortage of expert advice on the how-tos and the whens...
Mid-Week Links In my experience, people have generally been very supportive of breastfeeding in public here in Malaysia. Still we’ve heard stories from different parts of the world of mums being harassed when breastfeeding their babies in public places. Here is a collection of notes about attitudes towards public breastfeeding in different countries around...
Children are very much digital natives who tend to gravitate towards the computer and all things digital. What better way, then, to sneak in some learning than on the computer. There are many good software available that entertain and teach at the same time. Here are four that young children will love. My First...
Mid-Week Links Last month we broached the subject of why it’s not a good idea to hit your child. This week, Time Magazine reports on a new study that provides the strongest evidence yet that children’s short-term response to spanking may make them act out more in the long run. When it comes to...
Did you give your child a hug today just because…? Did you take the time to understand his need to go on the computer for another hour? Did you listen and look her in the eye when she was talking to you? Did you tell him that you still loved him when he told...
One day when Sophie and her mummy were having tea in their kitchen, there was a knock on the door. It was a big, furry, stripy tiger that happened to be famished. So Sophie’s mummy invited him to tea and he ended up eating everything that was edible in their house. He ate all...
Mid-Week Links Childcare expert Penelope Leach says that recent brain research proves that babies who are left to cry for prolonged periods are at risk of suffering damage to their developing brains, which reduces their capacity to learn. Young babies do not have the mental equipment to “learn” to go to sleep at the...
Too many parents still believe in corporal punishment as an effective way to ensure that their children are well-behaved and disciplined. Even though it is now illegal to hit children in 25 countries, the debate continues to rage, among parents, over whether or not to whack their kids. Parents want to know whether it...
Mid-Week Links Great news for homeschoolers this week. Not only do homeschoolers outperform their school-going peers, homeschooled adults are more socially-engaged, have higher incomes and are happier than their contemporaries who went to school, according to a new study titled Fifteen Years Later: Home-Educated Canadian Adults from the Canadian Centre for Home Education. The...
Balakrishna, 15, is a math and science prodigy. At age two, he was already a confident reader. When he turned four, he started reading National Geographic and Popular Science magazines. By the time he was seven, he was filling his days with textbooks on Trigonometry, Calculus and Algebra. Two months ago, we talked to...
