This is Small family fun

  I travelled alone for the first time to Ipswich for the Children and Childhoods Conference, hosted by the University of Suffolk. The Open University provided me with a scholarship to attend. This post will provide a synopsis of Professor Helen Lomax's and Professor Alison Clark's keynote addresses for each day. Playful arts-based methods for child-centred research and knowledge exchange during times of global crisis Professor Helen Lomax's presentation, 'Playful arts-based methods for child-centred research and knowledge exchange during times of global crisis,' was discussed. Morgan Jones et al. (2020) suggested that policymaking is limited when children are excluded. When researching this topic, Helen came to the conclusion that using a creative method would allow children to express themselves and that their voices would be plural rather than singular, and that these voices would contain the experiences of those around them. Given the covid-19 pandemic, the ques

 The aim of this work is to outline why community is important to children and young people by discussing the idea of community and how it has evolved over time. It will look at how adults view children and the spaces they occupy, and how this makes children and young people feel. It will discuss social capital and how relationships are intertwined with communities. It also looks at the skills and values that practitioners will need when working in multi-agency settings. When thinking about why community is important to children, we need to first assess what a community means to children and their lives. Community To begin with, the idea of community has changed over time. Changes in the social structure over time have meant that children’s opinions and voices are being sought out in regard to policymaking; however, this has not always been the case. In the past, children were usually "seen but not heard." This has meant that children have specific spaces they are allowed to

Home Education Making the decision to home educating your child can be a huge step for parents. The reasons can vary from family to family. with my own family, we got a taste of home education during the covid-19 lockdown and I found it to be fantastic and stressful at varying times. It was fantastic as I could monitor what my son learnt and could fully see the extent of his own knowledge. It was great seeing how he absorbed anything put in front of him, however, it was also stressful when work needed to be completed for the teacher by a certain deadline and Jamie didn't want to do it.  What is great about home education is that there are no deadlines you and your child can learn at your own pace and base your curriculum around their developing interests. This concept of following the child's interests is in line with the Montessori Method. What is the Montessori Method? The aim of the method is to enable you to raise your child as a whole person, not to develop one specific pa

  The importance of emotional intelligence. Many researchers over the years have emphasised the importance of emotional interactions in the parent-child dyad and the great impact it has on a child's well-being. Parents need to take an active role in teaching their children key skills in developing emotional intelligence. The consequences of failing to learn the basics are intermingling dire, for example, an inability to handle anxiety or depression can increase the chance of children abusing drugs or alcohol later on in life. However, children who are taught by their parents to be emotionally intelligent are more able to regulate their own emotions. They were better at focusing their attention, and could relate more to other people and performed better academically in school. Parents who offered empathy in the face of their child showing negative feelings such as anger, sadness or fear, actually built bridges of loyalty and affection between themselves and their child. For years th

When a person or couple decide to try for a baby they usually have a basic idea of how they will parent their child and how they will be as parents. These thoughts are usually based around their own experiences with their parents and how they were raised. Some will have had a positive childhood and the parent will want to raise their child as they were. However, some experiences may have been negative and the parent will then express that they do not want their child to have to go through what they did.  The strategies parents use can fall into categories or ‘styles’. There are four main styles and there are some that are more modern. I will give a brief summary of the main ones and how these styles may affect the outcomes for the children.  Authoritative This style is characterised by reasonable demands that are combined with high responsiveness to their child’s needs. The parents that use this style will have high expectations for their children but will also give the

  This post will be about resilience and how children can use it to help them when they face adversity. Gilligan, 2009 cited in Leverett, 2016 says that resilience is used to describe the capacity of someone to prevent, minimise or overcome any damaging effects of adversity.  Adversity can be anything challenging in a child's life, for example, the death or illness of a family member. How they react and adapt to these events is based on how resilient they are. Resilience can be built up through supportive relationships. A child’s feeling of security and the quality of the parent-child relationship and so a positive and engaging parenting approach can help promote your child’s resilience from birth. Werner and Smith, 1982 cited in Punch, 2013 show how risk factors affect children differently, they found that the group of resilient children were securely attached to their main caregivers. There was also a larger support network of adults who they trusted. Positive role modelling can