Many children stuck at home during the pandemic are watching more YouTube videos than ever, for both entertainment and education.
Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Choosing child care when returning to paid work can be hard and to the uninitiated the terms can be confusing. One alternative to long day care in a larger centre is known as family day care.
Screen time can benefit children over age two if it’s the right kinds of programming.
(Vidmir Raic/Pixabay)
With parents trying to work from home while schools and daycare services are closed, some children may get more screen time than usual during COVID-19 social distancing.
Quality preschool can deliver $2 for every $1 from government. But families are paying more for it than if they sent their child to private primary school. Some forego quality for affordability.
Be mindful of what you get excited about, as children will model your lead.
(Shutterstock)
Hide the credit cards and instead build traditions with your kids. Supporting a child through gift disappointment is important to their emotional, cognitive and social development.
What might be achieved from the proposed walkout is difficult to predict.
Shutterstock
Research shows early childhood educators are among the lowest-paid Australians, with some finding better pay in other fields such as night-time retail work.
Parents can use everyday tasks and routines to encourage learning maths in early childhood.
OnlyZoia/Shutterstock
Supporting early childhood literacy is not just about reading to your child. Research has found there are many and varied ways to increase literacy in early learning.
Enrolling children in in pre-school is essential for their development.
Flickr
Child support grants are an income resource that enables caregivers to make healthier food choices and provide the means to send their children to school earlier.
Having good, well-trained teachers in their early lives benefits children enormously.
Reuters
Many people look down on foundation phase teachers, believing it requires little training or expertise. This couldn't be further from the truth.
The number of children with flat head has risen in recent years in part due to SIDS guidelines, which recommend placing babies on their backs to sleep.
from www.shutterstock.com
Parents who notice their child has a flat head should talk to a GP or specialist to see if any treatment is needed.
Children with at least two years of preschool achieve much higher scores than those who attend no preschool or only one year.
from www.shutterstock.com
Two years of high-quality preschool is one of the most effective strategies we have to change the trajectories of children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Children who attend preschool are more likely to be ready to learn when they start school.
from www.shutterstock.com
Government funding of childcare is seen as something that helps get mums back into work, instead of setting children up for learning before they start school.
Research has found a relationship between pretend play and a child's developing creativity, understanding of others and social competence with peers.
The shadow minister for early education, Kate Ellis, said child care costs had undergone a ‘massive increase’ since the last federal election.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
Labor's shadow minister for early education, Kate Ellis, said there has been a massive increase in child care costs under the Coalition government. Is that an accurate reflection of the data?
A boy in the Ivory Coast practises reading his letters. Children can learn a lot about reading from each other during the “School Game”.
EPA/Legnan Koula
The benefits of learning through play are well documented. In rural communities in South Africa, "playing school" produces passionate lifelong readers.
What children learn in their first 2000 days of life is the most vital, so early learning shouldn’t be dismissed as babysitting.
Lukas Coch/AAP
The reorganisation of federal ministerial portfolios this week moved early childhood education and care from social services to education. This is a good thing.
Children need to get involved in classroom decisions that affect them, rather than just answering questions when prompted to do so.
Thomas Mukoya /Reuters
Naseema Shaik, Cape Peninsula University of Technology
At its simplest, participation is about allowing children to get involved in making decisions that affect their own lives and their own learning experiences.
The Productivity Commission’s report on childcare will help inform the Abbott government’s soon-to-be-unveiled ‘families package’.
AAP/Paul Miller
Many of the Productivity Commission's proposals derive from assumptions that the funding of these services should ensure minimal interference, with a classic, market-based model for meeting "demand".
Research shows children in early learning benefit from having a stable relationship with one teacher, but with 180 qualified early learning teachers leaving every week, that can be difficult to maintain.
Shutterstock
Last year in an open letter to the prime minister and the leader of the opposition, early childhood employers and peak bodies joined forces to ask for a commitment to early learning. They warned the political…