Gina's Blog

So, the Education Secretary has declared that children should read fifty books a year, and that schools should issue a challenge to pupils to achieve that as part of a drive to improve standards of literacy.  Apparently, children should be required to start the fifty books a year challenge from the end of primary school and continue right through secondary school.

A new report has suggested that childminders and nurseries should be given detailed guidance on what to feed young children because apparently some are confused about what under fives should be eating.  The report even sets out a sample menu, which certainly makes interesting reading

If you’ve ever felt under pressure to be a perfect parent, you’ll be pleased to know that 2011 has been named as the year of the Real Parenting Revolution by the popular parenting website Netmums.

I know many of you have been very worried about recent reports that the current advice on when to start weaning babies might not be correct. When advice like this is questioned, it always causes alarm for mothers who don’t know what they should believe or whose advice they should follow. The confusion in this case arose after an article was published in the British Medical Journal reviewing the scientific research on feeding babies. 

It’s worrying to read that a recent Ofsted report found that chaotic and noisy home lives mean that children are starting nursery school unable to speak or listen properly.

As an only child myself, I can both agree and disagree with the findings of a study by researchers from Essex University suggesting that ‘an only child is a happy child’

From toddlers to teenagers, more and more children are subjecting their parents to terrifying violence.

I was concerned to read that children aged four and under who get less than 10 hours of sleep a night are nearly twice as likely to be overweight five years later – this is according to a U.S. study. Researchers from the University of California and University of Washington looked at the relationship between sleep and weight in nearly 2000 children. 

Researchers from West Virginia University followed a group of new mothers and found that, on average, the women were getting enough sleep, but that it wasn’t sufficiently restorative, being frequently disturbed. The normal advice is to nap when your baby naps; but this is not always possible when a new mother has other children – and, even if she manages an hour of snatched sleep, it doesn’t make up for consistent, poor quality, night-time sleep. It has been accepted for a while that sleep problems and exhaustion can contribute to post-natal depression. And it's not just women who get post-natal depression – men suffer as well. 

I grew up on a farm, where there was always time for playing outside with my lively cousins. We created our own adventures and, as a result, I was a bit of a tomboy. Childhood inevitably meant scrapes and grazes, and there was no better badge of honour than a bandaged knee. Yet nowadays children are often prevented from "rough and tumble" play, not only because of increasingly structured lives, but because schools are too worried about health and safety.

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