The development of self-esteem, positive or negative, has a significant influence on a person’s life and can be influenced from many quarters. Essentially it is related to the original meaning of the word – how do we estimate the value of ourselves?

Technology and grammar are commonly thought of as being at opposite ends of the curriculum, but in Australia’s recent national curriculum, teachers of science and mathematics are also required to teach literacy as it applies to those subjects, while teachers of English are required to teach the use of IT. The meaning of technology has done a full circle.

Bullying, historically, has been a part of the human condition. It has been recorded in literature over the ages, for example, Tom Brown’s School Days (Thomas Hughes) and Lord of the Flies (William Golding). In fiction, the bully invariably is overcome somehow and the meek survive.

Grandparents provide a different environment for play and interaction. They can be an important audience for responding to young children’s language and vocabulary development as kids re-tell their latest experiences and use those inevitable words – why, what, where, who and when.

Children have a natural curiosity about science before they know what it is. How many parents notice their children discover the word ‘why’ and plague them with questions about everything and anything? 

Many parents associate learning to read with knowing shapes and sounds of letters. Hweover, a radeer can raed wrdos eevn wehn the mdilde lterets are meixd up. This proves that you use more than phonics to understand text. You read whole words and use grammar and meaning to understand text.

Imagine yourself trying to come to grips with Chinese characters or the Greek alphabet today. You will soon discover what it is like to be a beginning reader. Then consider the English alphabet with the letters a, b, d, p and q, and you can understand a child’s confusion.