https://www.scmp.com/rss/316169/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Until recently I equated tutoring with cheating or laziness. I reasoned that if I was paying for my children to attend great schools, they should be able to do the work and should turn to the teacher for help if they encountered any difficulty. An outside tutor was a lazy indulgence of the well-heeled and antithetical to the effort to cultivate grit and perseverance in children. I was confounded and exasperated by the parenting approach of hiring tutors to do the work for children or to help... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/families/article/1923111/why-good-tutor-improves-childs-mindset-not-their-grades?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/families/article/1923111/why-good-tutor-improves-childs-mindset-not-their-grades?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 13 Mar 2016 00:00:30 +0000 Have you ever heard a parenting expert say push your kids to breaking point, sign them up for multiple extracurricular activities, make them take all honours classes, allow technology in their bedrooms to keep in touch with friends all night, eating on the run is fine, and free time is a waste? Neither have I. Yet this is precisely what our generation of parents is doing, and it’s not serving anyone well. Why don’t we follow the evidence-based advice we receive? SEE ALSO: ‘Benign neglect’ –... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/families/article/1912370/how-cut-through-chatter-and-cultivate-your-childs-most-important?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/families/article/1912370/how-cut-through-chatter-and-cultivate-your-childs-most-important?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 15 Feb 2016 22:01:28 +0000 “Benign neglect” is the phrase that best describes my parents’ approach to parenting in the 1970s. What today might be called “free-range parenting” or actual neglect, back then was just childhood. I grew up in a rural part of the American state of Pennsylvania; our home bordered a cornfield and a nature preserve with a creek running through it. My sister and I were friends with two girls who lived beyond the woods on one side and another girl across a barely paved street that we were free to... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/families/article/1889720/benign-neglect-giving-kids-scope-learn-make-mistakes-and-grow?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/families/article/1889720/benign-neglect-giving-kids-scope-learn-make-mistakes-and-grow?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 14 Dec 2015 13:00:45 +0000 Schools should not promote religion, but they should teach it. Understanding history is impossible without an understanding of the religious traditions that helped shape the world. From a purely secular standpoint, even atheists should know and understand what they choose not to believe in. Schools have very different approaches to the question of religious education. In my experience, Hong Kong International School does a relatively good job at weaving religious education into the curriculum.... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/families/article/1881984/religion-hong-kong-schools-teach-it-dont-preach-it?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/families/article/1881984/religion-hong-kong-schools-teach-it-dont-preach-it?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 23 Nov 2015 10:00:00 +0000 If your evening routine includes arguments, incentives and timers in order to cajole your children to practise an instrument, you might want to rethink your approach. While creating music should be a joyful lifelong experience, the path towards mastery of an instrument can be tempestuous if the motivation is wrong. Music, like competitive sports, Advanced Placement (AP) classes and volunteering has become another near chimera in the desperate sprint towards collage acceptance. For some, music is... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/families/article/1874953/let-children-play-musical-instruments-their-way?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/families/article/1874953/let-children-play-musical-instruments-their-way?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 02 Nov 2015 20:30:54 +0000 Financial literacy is as important to teach our children as any other kind of literacy, and yet many of us shy away from candid conversations about money with our children. In so doing, we miss an opportunity to instil family values and to cultivate positive traits such as generosity, patience and perseverance. When I lived in California 10 years ago and had young children, I was pleased to see many teenagers in my neighbourhood who could babysit. Talking to their parents, however, I was told... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/families/article/1848250/why-we-find-it-hard-be-straight-our-kids-about-money?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/families/article/1848250/why-we-find-it-hard-be-straight-our-kids-about-money?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 10 Aug 2015 15:18:07 +0000 Over the summer, every student, administrator and teacher at my son's high school will read Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi. Carefully selected, I suspect, for the themes of race and identity, this book should ignite conversations and spark debates around the campus. Curious, I decided to read the book, too, and it prompted me to consider further the value of a common literature reading experience among a large group of people. I have had the pleasure of being a member of an active book group... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/families/article/1843994/why-we-should-be-encouraging-everyone-read-pleasure?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/families/article/1843994/why-we-should-be-encouraging-everyone-read-pleasure?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 27 Jul 2015 15:15:14 +0000 What book lover among us has not wished that they could get paid to read? For professional audiobook narrator Karen White, the dream came true when she was expecting her first child 16 years ago. Now, with more than 200 books recorded, she says her theatre training, experience working with directors in studios, and her voice training have been key to her success. "Changes in technology have made it possible for me to work entirely from home. When I started out, I had to go to a studio and work... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/families/article/1802337/why-audiobooks-are-good-multitaskers-travellers-and-young-readers?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/families/article/1802337/why-audiobooks-are-good-multitaskers-travellers-and-young-readers?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 18 May 2015 22:03:04 +0000 "Use your imagination," was my mother's exasperated reply to my whiny claims of boredom one day when I was little. "I don't have any," I exclaimed. But the truth is, my childhood was replete with unstructured time and full of imaginative play. I fear, however, that for this generation of students who are intensely scheduled, pressured and expected to excel in all areas of life except free time, that answer might just be true. We all want what's best for our children, but determining what that is... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/family-education/article/1721677/imagination-just-important-children-books?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/family-education/article/1721677/imagination-just-important-children-books?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 23 Feb 2015 22:00:45 +0000 Standing in the packed library of the Hong Kong International School, visiting poet Naomi Shihab Nye closes her eyes, takes a breath and begins. "You can't order a poem like you order a taco …," she says, reciting the opening line of one of her most recognised poems, Valentine for Ernest Mann, and the room is silent. It's hard to know what these teenagers think as they sit, cross-legged, heads lowered, listening. But their thoughtful questions and reflections after the talk show clearly that... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/family-education/article/1692319/how-authors-can-make-books-come-alive-hong-kong-readers?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/family-education/article/1692319/how-authors-can-make-books-come-alive-hong-kong-readers?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 26 Jan 2015 22:00:47 +0000 When children are little, part of the process of learning to read involves finding "just right" books. A just right book is one that interests a child and that can be read fluently without struggling over more than a few words on a page. This is an important step toward reading fluency, and the process is relatively straightforward. But once children are older, finding these books becomes trickier. When children begin to read fluently, parents often encourage more advanced books, but sometimes... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/family-education/article/1670477/young-readers-benefit-curated-selection-books?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/family-education/article/1670477/young-readers-benefit-curated-selection-books?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 29 Dec 2014 09:15:55 +0000 Most parents worry about the safety of their children more than just about anything else. But according to visiting US occupational therapist Cris Rowan, keeping them quietly entertained indoors, where they are disconnected from nature and attached to video games and other technology, is an illusion of safety that is causing real problems in their physical and mental health. Rowan began to see significant changes in her clients about 15 years ago. An increase in attention problems, poor academic... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/family-education/article/1610670/steer-children-adopt-healthy-tech-habits?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/family-education/article/1610670/steer-children-adopt-healthy-tech-habits?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 07 Oct 2014 02:30:15 +0000