Why don’t children from the inner city speak more clearly in high school? Why don’t football players, even those who are attending major colleges, speak better? Why does it appear to have become the norm in England to say ‘wiv’ instead of ‘with’. Why is it that children from many middle class homes AREN’T learning […]
I’m not just referring to cheap childcare. Even childcare that is expensive and purports to offer ‘special’ methods can still be mediocre. Parental care can be mediocre even when the parent is otherwise well qualified in their professional field like elementary school teachers, or when the parent titles themselves an ‘at home mother’ or an […]
In the light of women’s so-called liberation I have been perturbed by the overwhelming number of fantasmagorical films that very young girls watch – those under 10 for sure, and often under 5 years of age! Marriage, romance (handsome prince) and even sex are idealised. Even to the point that for Halloween the father dresses as […]
On being around tropical plants, young people, delicious French pastries and history — all combined in one fine day! Several months ago I was talking to my neighbour’s 20-something daughter about orchids. A friend at work has been giving her cuttings from his orchids – how lucky is she? So, with her sister, she is learning to […]
Hardly a day goes by when I don’t put two and two together and come up with – it’s the parents, stupid! Earlier this year it was reported in the press that a 12-year-old boy was left in charge of a 17-month-old and another child, aged about 10. Newspaper reports have yet to state whether […]
When special people die it’s the end of an era. That person need not be a close family member or friend, it can simply be a favourite author, as happened to me the other week. The diversity of authors and books (especially non-American would you believe?!), the topics, fiction but mostly non-fiction, I have read in […]
This phrase comes to my mind almost every day, with my own family and with the families of the children I know and I care for. The father of the little girl who came to my house virtually 5 days a week until she was 4 years old, told me, very casually, years ago “isn’t that […]
You might even say ‘thinking takes time’ too. I’m now really grateful that I wasn’t working last year and had the time to focus my attention on this blog on a regular basis and getting my years of thoughts somewhat organised and some of them in print. Now that ‘regular writing’ isn’t the norm in my […]
I’ve fantasized since I started posting over a year ago about having a ‘blog of note’, at least when it came to its design. Whether the posts match up to the complete redesign is up for debate! Dan Rubin is my designer of note. This Christmas present from him three months ago was something totally […]
The major missing link for any child in daycare is a loving and long-term relationship with a specific carer (obviously not the mother). The secondary missing link is the artificial nature of almost everything a child learns and the words they hear. Thus the impoverished nature of the speech and comprehension of so many children under […]