If you need more impetus to indulge those pleas for one more bedtime story – more than the chance to cultivate a super-brain and capitalise on extra snuggles in the process, that is – check out this recent study claiming reading to be the literal font of youth…
Tag Archives: children
Dads Are Better at Bedtime Stories – Here’s Why
I’ve always thought my husband was better equipped for reading bedtime stories.
For one thing, dads just seem to be genetically more fun (or perhaps just more adept at playing the fool); an inborn ability which lends itself well to the theatrics necessary for captivating narration – like their well-honed cache of character impressions, aided by a sonorous, comically varied, vocal range.
(Or it might simply be that come 7pm, after an entire day spent appealing to a toddler’s non-existent better judgement, assuaging bad tempers and mediating tantrums, mum’s not so much in the joking mood.) Continue reading
Survey Reveals Parents Can’t Answer Why the Sky is Blue…Can You?
As soon as the word ‘why’ assimilates itself into a little one’s vocabulary, mum and dad are promptly expected to morph into walking, talking encyclopaedias.
But according to a new survey, when our kids ask us those typical, first few questions about the world – What is photosynthesis? Why doesn’t the moon fall down? Why is the sky blue? – we don’t have the answers. Or worse; we’re giving the wrong answers. Continue reading
Easy-Peasy (Sugar-Free!) Hazelnut Chocolate Spread
Children may be born with a sweet tooth, but it’s obviously not a smart idea to cultivate a sugar-addict. Still, playing food-policeman is not necessarily healthy for kids, either.
The balancing act is made easier with recipes like this one; it indulges our palates’ predilection for the saccharine, and totally tastes like a treat – yet does only good things on the way down. Continue reading
10 Gifts to Give that aren’t Toys
The distribution of toys is totally disproportionate; the privileged first-worlder few have way too many, while the majority of other children have, well, nothing. It’s no wonder parents are resorting to the rationing of presents in an effort to curb this culture of excess before our budding materialists know little more than…more.
The thing is, plastic playthings and other superfluous tat are easy. It requires imagination to think outside of the giftbox and come up with a tangible gesture that’s meaningful, lasting, and enriching — and really, why would we want to give our kids anything less? Continue reading