Confidence is Not Everything - Encouraging My Child
My daughter had an audition for a local youth orchestra and, not surprisingly, she was nervous. "You are playing your pieces beautifully," I told her after a particularly trying practice that ended in hot angry tears. No I'm not. I sound terrible." Yes she was looking for reassurance but it was more than that. Read full article
Teacher Resource for Young Children Learning Emotional Intelligence
The Bear Cards ® are designed to be an easy and fun way of building emotional intelligence in children. An effective and entertaining teacher and resource, also for parenting, the eye catching set of 48 cards depicts Bear experiencing a wide range of emotions, and invites conversations about feelings that children sometimes don’t have the language or opportunity to discuss. Could a set of cards with a bear on them really build emotional intelligence, you ask? Read full article
Teens, Study and Lost Sleep - The Link with Academic Success
A new longitudinal study out of the U.S. finds that if teens give up sleep in order to do extra study, they are more likely to have academic performance problems the following day. Read full article
Using Sport to Teach Children about Human Rights
As a daughter of a migrant, whose father fled Croatia in the 1950s to settle in Melbourne, I was always conscious that my Dad’s boat story made me different in the school yard. At recess and lunch, to avoid the jibes, I hung out with other migrant kids; first-generation Asians; second-generation Italians and Greeks; kids from Madagascar, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka and Spain. I had the United Nations of mates...Sport made us winners. This is why it is such joy to champion a program fusing sport with human rights. Read full article
Understanding Children Who Bully
We are in the midst of an epidemic. One in seven kids suffer from it. It destroys lives and can have fatal consequences...As a community, there are things we can all do to decrease the likelihood that children will become bullies...Teens, although highly vulnerable to slights, are quick to dish them out. Testing each other and the world, their expressions are often uncensored... Read full article
UNICEF Day for Children - Is Your School Involved?
Share this with your children and their schools. On UNICEF Day for Children, kids can help make a difference to children all over the world. It's also a great way of educating children about human rights. Video features children's author, Morris Gleitzman.UNICEF Day for Children is on 24th October 2012. Read full article
Back Me Up - Anti Cyberbullying Campaign & Competition
The message of the BackMeUp campaign is that young people can take positive and safe action if they witness cyberbullying, and can support those whose rights have been violated. It’s a call to action to the friends, peers and colleagues on the sidelines, because being a witness, and doing nothing, is wrong.In Australia, at least one in ten students say they’ve experienced cyberbullying. The Australian Human Rights Commission is inviting 13 – 17 year olds to make a short two minute video about how they can back-up someone who has been cyberbullied. Read full article
We're Backing Back Me Up - Cyberbullying Must Stop
There's more to come on this, but we are backing the "Back Me Up" campaign from the Australian Human Rights Commission - focusing on the role of the bystander in cyberbullying. Teenagers are invited to enter a video competition and win fantastic prizes. Please share this video via social media with all the teens you know. Now, watch the video with Ruby Rose. Read full article
School's Play with No Contact Policy Upsets Students and Parents
A primary school principal in Victoria, Australia has told children to "play with no contact"; the Principal explained that this direction came "directly from a safety perspective". In setting the background to this rule, Principal Ms Beckworth said the school had "a broken collarbone, broken wrist and concussion" . Children were so upset with this ban that Year 6 students are reported to have protested with some kind of 'sit in' on the oval at lunch time. It is reported that the school put a stop to the protest and that the students were called into the school hall to be spoken to about that behaviour. Parents are also reported to be upset by the ban and because the school did not consult the parent community first. Read full article
Why BFFs - Best Friends 'Forever' - are Good for Children
Anyone helped through hard times by a close friend knows how much that support meant to them, but do close childhood friendships play an important role in long-term emotional development? Dr William Bukowski, Professor in the Department of Psychology at Concordia University, Canada, has researched how experiences with close peers affect a child’s social competence and wellbeing. His research indicates that friendships have a protective impact on our children’s emotional wellbeing by affecting how a child’s brain deals with stress immediately after a negative event. Read full article
