Parents lack the skills to bring up children and the Government is palming off the responsibility to schools, teachers warned today.

He said many children live with “no functioning parent” in the home. “There is no food in the house, no one washes your clothes, you don’t get taken to the GP, the dentist or the optician,” he said.

Mr Parkin said the commercialisation of childhood made it much more difficult to be a parent than it was 30 years ago and he had “sympathy” for parents coping with these pressures.

A spokesman for the Department for Children Schools and Families said new plans mean that “Parents will get more support and schools will have more services around them so that teachers are free to teach.”

Source: Times Online, UK
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/education/article4429867.ece

It often seems that certain aspects of our personalities are influenced by events that occurred in our childhoods. A recent study by Dr. Akaysha Tang’s research team from the University of New Mexico Psychology Department and collaborators at Rockefeller University examined how early life experience influences social skills and ability to handle stressful situations using a rat model. The study will be published on July 30th in the online, open-access journal PLoS ONE.

In this study, Dr. Tang and colleagues examined whether rats that experienced greater novelty by spending three minutes a day away from their familiar home environment during infancy had a greater ability to compete against other rats for exclusive access to chocolate reward compared to their siblings that stayed in the home environment during infancy. They found that novelty-exposed rats were able to “beat out” their competitors more often than their home-staying siblings. They also found that across repeated sessions of competition, novelty-exposed rats decreased their release of stress hormones into the bloodstream, suggesting that they adapted faster to the stressful situation.

In translating possible significance of these findings to the human species, although it is sometimes assumed that the overall amount of care from the mother is one of the most important influences on her children’s development, this study by Dr. Tang and colleagues provides a different view—that the consistency of maternal care may be more important than the amount of maternal care and that other sources of influences, such as environmental novelty can play an important role in shaping a child’s development.

Source: Science Daily
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080729234254.htm

Save the males! A new book says society is biased AGAINST men. Ridiculous? Hardly, says Amanda Platell

Every once in a while, a book not so much lands on your desk as lobs itself like a hand grenade, exploding preconceived wisdoms and shattering the bones of the status quo. Save The Males is such a book.

It is the fiercest and most fearless defence of men, fatherhood and ultimately the family I have read in many years.

American author Kathleen Parker’s courageous thesis is that initially, through extreme feminism, then via its craven implementation into society, women have demonised men and trivialised their contribution, especially to family life.

I say courageous because, in the eyes of many women and of the liberal establishment, suggesting men have had a rough deal is nothing short of heresy.

Parker should be burnt at the stake, they cry. But isn’t it ironic that only a woman could make such a plea for men?

She argues: ‘As long as men feel marginalised by the women whose favour and approval they seek, as long as they are alienated from their children and treated as criminals by family courts, as long as they are disrespected by a culture that no longer values masculinity tied to honour, as long as boys are bereft of strong fathers and our young men and women wage sexual war, then we risk cultural suicide.’

It’s enough to set a feminist’s hair on end. Parker argues that in trying to make the world fairer for women, an adjustment most agree was vital, we have made it unfair for men. In our attempt to honour women, we have dishonoured men.

By bending over backwards to make single mothers feel good about themselves, by diminishing the role of fathers, by elevating women as the superior parents, we have gone a considerable way to destroying one of the basic tenets of a successful society - family life.

Apart from the effects of this seismic social shift on society, it is also grossly unfair. Can you imagine a world where men demanded women be more like them - dress like them, act like them, even look like them. Because that is effectively what our post-feminist society has done, but with the genders switched.

The traditional male values, what Parker almost poetically calls ‘masculinity tied to honour’, are now seen as nothing more than a direct assault on women.

Unless men are like us, the thinking goes, they insult us and threaten our existence: hence the feminisation of men, or as we so disingenuously describe it, getting in touch with your feminine side.

Thus Hybrid Man was born. An acceptable male model now is more likely to be of the David Beckham variety, wearing more make-up than the missus, hairless, perfumed, varnished, emasculated by his bossy wife and perhaps fond of wearing her undies.

Good dads, loving husbands, supportive male role models, they’re few and far between even in the fictional world of TV.

But in the real world it wasn’t enough that we demanded they be more like us, we superior human beings. We had to traduce men as well, treating them in almost all forms of popular culture as useless, ineffectual, even comic characters, or as violent, cheating and untrustworthy.

And so Sitcom Man was born. Parker challenges us to try to think of a wholesome, reliable role model in myriad ‘dads’ created on TV or in movies. Fathers are always portrayed as incompetent or inconsequential, mindless or mean, comic or cruel. If you relentlessly portrayed any ethnic or minority group in such a biased way, you’d be pilloried on air.

Parker cites many reasons for the dereliction of men. First, there has been the institutionalisation of motherhood at the expense of fatherhood.

‘We seem to accept that children shouldn’t be raised without mothers, but we regard the contributions of fathers as optional,’ Parker says.

Just last week, Nicola Brewer, the chief executive of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said: ‘Fathers are being marginalised to the extent of simply “seasoning” in their children’s upbringing.’

And the state reinforces the ‘Mum best, Dad dodgy’ myth. ‘The family courts effectively make fathers a slave to the state, his wages become state property, his time with his children is determined by a family court judge, and he faces jail if for whatever reason he fails to pay his child support on time.’

Family courts in America increasingly approve of ‘virtual parenting’, which means Mum can take the kids and live wherever she likes and Dad can do it long distance, via the phone or internet.

‘Thanks to divorce, unwed motherhood, and policies that unfairly penalise and marginalise fathers, 30-40 per cent of all American children sleep in a home where their father doesn’t,’ she writes.

Parker believes that perhaps the biggest blow to men’s roles in families has come with the explosion and normalisation of single motherhood.

‘By elevating single motherhood from an unfortunate consequence of poor planning to a sophisticated act of self-fulfilment, we’ve helped to fashion a world not just in which fathers are scarce, but in which men are superfluous,’ she says.

It’s enough to set a feminist’s hair on end

Single professional women shopping for donor sperm on the internet has become the equivalent of buying designer shoes online. The number of babies born to unmarried mothers aged between 30 and 44 increased by a staggering 17 per cent from 1999 to 2003.

In short, slowly but surely, men are being made obsolete as society embraces single motherhood as the equivalent of the nuclear family for fear of not offending the sisterhood.

And so, hey presto, the marginalisation of men marches on.

And if the child is born of a normal sexual encounter, the consequences for men can be equally dire, as they have no rights, only duties.

‘If a woman gets pregnant she can abort - even without her husband’s consent. If she chooses to have the child, she gets a baby and the man gets an invoice.

‘Inarguably, a man should support his offspring, but by the same logic, shouldn’t he have a say in whether his child is born or aborted?’

The number of children living in fatherless homes has tripled since 1960, from eight million to 24 million in the U.S.. So it comes as no surprise that 21st-century man feels isolated and increasingly obsolete.

‘At the same time that men have been ridiculed in the public sphere, the importance of fatherhood has been diminished, along with other traditionally male roles of father, protector and provider, which are incredibly viewed as regressive manifestations of an outmoded patriarchy,’ Parker writes.

She also examines the feminisation of education. There is overwhelming evidence now that boys’ and girls’ brains are wired differently, but over 20 years both in America and in the UK we have made learning harder for boys and more suitable for girls. The result, Parker says, is that the gap between young men’s and women’s academic achievements is widening.

In 2005, 133 women graduated from college in the U.S. for every 100 men. By the end of this decade that gap is expected to be 142 females for every 100 males.

And as ever the poorest and most deprived are the hardest hit. Among African Americans, the figures are far worse. Twice as many women as men graduate. Parker blames the achievement gap on the absence of fathers.

What is especially refreshing is that Parker’s quest to Save The Males is not just about fairness to men. We need to do it, she says, not only ‘because we love our sons but because we love our daughters’.

And because she believes, as many of us do, that the best building block for a stable and peaceful society is the traditional nuclear family.

‘Part of our nation’s strength has always been a function of its families. Restoring the family is critical to our survival in these untidy and dangerous times.’ So, too, is ‘respecting men and the important contribution they make to children’s lives and society’.

Fathers are always portrayed as incompetent

Parker writes almost poetically about the ultimate beauty of men’s innate character. When she looks at her own father and fathers around her, she concludes that being a dad is, in fact, the manliest thing a man can do.

It encourages responsibility, sacrifice and the ability to put others before yourself - all essential qualities to a functioning society, let alone a home.

‘When we take away a man’s central purpose in life and marginalise him from society’s most important institution (the family), we strip him of his manhood.’

And it’s not all we strip away, as studies have discovered here. We reduce a child’s chance of a successful and happy life.

‘Growing up without a father is the most reliable indicator of poverty and all the familiar social pathologies affecting children, including drug abuse, truancy, delinquency and sexual promiscuity. Yet some feminists and other progressives still insist that men are non-essential‘

The powerful argument Parker constructs is that unless we wake up, and wake up quickly, to the importance of men in family life, society as we know it is doomed. In the creation of a more femalefriendly world, we have unwittingly created a culture hostile to men, not in the workplace, but the most important place, the home.

How refreshingly honest, how devoid of political correctness or feminist dogma for a woman to argue for and ultimately celebrate the necessity and the goodness of men.

She rightly warns of the dangers to our society of a world without manliness. It’s all very well for the armed forces to affect an equality between men and women, she says, but when the chips are down and a child or a society needs rescuing, it will not fall on the shoulders of our womenfolk.

And in an increasingly hostile world, we will need our men and we’ll need them to be men, to display unashamedly the sheer physical strength and courage that even after a century of feminist intervention still dwarfs women’s.

‘In the coming years, we will need men who are not confused about their responsibilities to family and country.

‘We need boys who have acquired the virtues of honour, courage, valour and loyalty. We need women willing to let men be men - and boys be boys.‘

And we will need women like Kathleen Parker with the courage to fight for men. Saving the males, she argues, will also save women and children as we all ’stand to benefit from a society in which men feel respected and thus responsible’.

By engaging men’s nobility and recognising their unique talents, we all benefit. And the process could start with us just being a bit nicer to them.

‘It wouldn’t hurt to fix a guy a burger now and then without the woman acting as though she’s just established democracy in the Sunni Triangle.’

Chastened, I’m off to buy some burgers and a few buns.

• Save The Males: Why Men Matter, Why Women Should Care by Kathleen Parker, published by Random House

Source: Daily Mail, UK
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1038469/Save-males-A-new-book-says-society-biased-AGAINST-men-Ridiculous-Hardly-says-Amanda-Platell.html

Being born underweight leads to a shy and cautious wallflower-type personality, a McMaster University researcher has found.

People who feel inhibited in social situations, aren’t as talkative and are more anxious about taking risks, may not get these traits from their upbringing, said Louis Schmidt, lead author of the recent study and a professor of psychology, neuroscience and behaviour.

Such timidness potentially affects a person’s future and could lead to “delays in occupational obtainment, delays marrying and having children,” he added.

The study, which was published in the July issue of Pediatrics, harks back to the nature versus nurture debate about how someone’s personality gets developed.

“What plays a bigger role?” he asked. “We’re looking at how early life events and early experiences impact brain development.”

Schmidt hypothesized these personality traits could be because the underweight babies spent so much time in a neonatal unit - some for months at a time - and didn’t get the same chance to bond with their parents as normal-weight babies.

Underweight babies also are at risk for other medical problems, like compromised immune systems, and tend to face a higher rate of diabetes and heart disease as adults.

This study looked at 71 young adults, born in southern Ontario in the late 1970s and early 1980s who were underweight at birth, and compared them to 83 people who were born around the same time and region at a normal weight.

The young adults were asked a series of questions about how social they are and how likely they are to take risks.

Underweight babies typically weigh less than 2,500 grams (5.5 pounds). In Canada, one of every 16 babies are born underweight.

Schmidt’s study found the lower the birth weight, the more shy and inhibited the person is as an adult.

They have also been studying brain activity and hormones in these young adults, both those who were born underweight and at a normal weight.

The findings, which are currently under review, show being born underweight could also lead to an inability to handle stress, Schmidt said.

Source: Hamilton Spectator, Canada
http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/410333

New parents should be able to share an 18-month leave from work after their baby is born, says a just- released report by renowned early childhood expert Dr. Fraser Mustard.

The report, for the South Australia government where Mustard was appointed a thinker-in-residence, recommends 39 improvements and sweeping changes the state can make in early childhood development, which it has deemed a priority.

Those changes equally apply to Canada, where parental leave is currently one year, says Mustard, considered a world leader in the area.

Key among his proposals is that the South Australian government continue to create a network of early childhood development and parenting centres, linked to schools, to provide families from pregnancy onward with nutrition, health and parenting — including programs for parents to “learn parenting by doing” as well as programming for children, as well as provide child-care where needed. Such centres would also “reduce isolation for parents and young children,” the report says.

“Their society buys that this is important,” said Mustard. “In South Australia, they’ve been working at this for some time.”

Mustard is perhaps best known in Canada for the 1999 Early Years study he co-authored with Margaret Norrie McCain for the Ontario government, and last year’s follow-up that detailed how Canada is last in spending among industrialized nations when it comes to early childhood development programs.

Those reports also urged a national framework for universal “hubs,” with trained staff providing community-based help to parents, activities for children as well as access to health professionals.

Research shows that literacy, school performance and lifelong health and behaviour are largely determined by the brain development in the early years.

Because parents are the main caregivers for children, Mustard says it’s essential they have strong skills.

He estimates the cost of behavioural and mental health problems to be more than $30 billion a year in Ontario alone. The price tag of providing these hubs and extended maternity leave? About $18 billion.

Among the highlights of his South Australian report:

* Implement parental leave: The first six months of parental leave should be for the mother, the remaining 12 to be divided between parents as they see fit. Income support, provided by the government, should be at least 80 per cent of earnings. Currently, there are no statewide maternity leave provisions.

* Assess young students: The government should assess all students in kindergarten given 25 per cent currently are already behind when they begin school; that assessment should be used to monitor communities on an ongoing basis to make sure programs address needs.

Source: Hamilton Spectator, Canada
http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/410234

Address reading and speaking concerns early to prevent damage to a child’s academic career, say developmental experts at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

Drs. Sherry Vinson and Adiana Spinks-Franklin, both assistant professors of pediatrics - developmental pediatrics at BCM, said concerned parents should enroll their infants in an early intervention program if they suspect their child is behind on core developmental milestones such as speech and language.

“Children should meet three key milestones by their first birthday,” said Spinks-Franklin. “They should say one recognizable word, walk one step and follow a one-step command with gesture.”

Behaviors to Watch

Vinson and Spinks-Franklin outlined alarming behavioral characteristics to watch for in children:

- Not responsive to the parent’s command (”sit down”).

- Not self-initiating (saying “mama”) and not following a one-step command given with a gesture (e.g., handing the parent what the child has in his/her hand when the parent holds out a hand and says a command “give that to me”) at one year.

- Not self-initiating conversation, saying approximately 50 words, and spontaneously putting two words together (”go home”) plus following two simple commands put together without gesture (”touch your nose then clap your hands”) at two years.

- Following directions appropriately at one and two years, but not self-initiating the words.

There are significant challenges children with language and speech delays will have later in life if parents do not address the situation, they say. “Language allows them to become strong in so many important areas including academics, reading and social skills,” said Spinks-Franklin. “Children with well-developed language skills are overall more productive and perform much better in school.”

Reading, they say, can be a huge hurdle for these children but it is crucial for them to master. “If you cannot talk, then you cannot read,” said Spinks-Franklin. “These children will have significant reading disorders that will damage their academic career if they are not appropriately addressed at an early age.”

Early Intervention

Many states have resourceful, funded programs that evaluate a child’s strengths and weaknesses and devise a plan for enhancing their skills.

Vinson and Spinks-Franklin, who are also pediatricians at the Meyer Center for Developmental Pediatrics at Texas Children’s Hospital, refer parents to early childhood education programs available to children from birth to three years-old. The programs help children improve all developmental skills in a natural setting. Kids work with a variety of specialists including, speech pathologists, physical and occupational therapists and social workers and also provide psychological, educational and family support.

“The earlier the parents contact a program, the earlier the child can receive services,” said Spinks-Franklin. She also added that children do not have to be referred by a doctor to qualify for the services. “Concerned parents should call to have their children evaluated by an educational program.”

Clear Benefits

The benefits from evaluation programs are clear, say researchers who have followed the program for years. “Children with developmental delays who are enrolled in an evaluation program perform much better in school than those who are not,” said Spinks-Franklin. “We continue to follow them through elementary school, and they continue to do well when compared to children with developmental delays who do not receive early intervention services.”

Children involved in early intervention programs are more likely to live independently and graduate from high school, said Spinks-Franklin.

Risk Factors

A variety of factors may cause a child’s developmental delay, including genetics, prenatal environment (exposure to tobacco, alcohol or drugs) and premature birth (neurological development occurring outside the womb), they say.

The time it takes to overcome delays depends on the severity of the case. “If a child is challenged in several areas–language, speech, social and motor skills–it is going to take longer to develop language skills than for a child simply dealing with a speech delay,” said Spinks-Franklin.

Parental Participation

Most significant is parental participation. “Most programs make house calls only once or twice a week,” said Spinks-Franklin. “It is the parent’s duty to continue working with their children the rest of the time.”

Spinks-Franklin said parents should actively label their child’s environment by pointing out objects and colors to help develop certain areas of the brain. Another vital exercise for parents is reading to your child, Spinks-Franklin said.

Children over the age of three can be placed in preschool programs before kindergarten and if they continue to need services after preschool, they should receive special education services from the school system. Private speech and language disabilities programs are also available, including a variety of programs from Texas Children’s.

“Early intervention is very beneficial for these children’s overall development and quality of life,” said Spinks-Franklin. “The involvement and commitment from the parents makes this happen.”

Source: BCM News, TX
http://www.bcm.edu/news/item.cfm?newsID=1171

My 9-year-old son recently declared that he wanted to get rid of his little-kid toys.

For years, our house has been cluttered with hundreds of small objects scattered about by my son.

Picking them up, and using all kinds of incentives and/or punishments to get him to collect them, has been mostly a losing battle.

“Don’t worry,” our friends told us. “It won’t always be like this. He’ll lose interest in all those toys and he’ll have just a few things.”

Well, it finally happened. My son announced the big decision and my wife, a dedicated if not entirely successful anti-clutter activist, was thrilled. We put the air conditioner on high and spent hours sorting through all his stuff.

It was a sad moment. Another vestige of his early childhood was going the way of the, well, dinosaur (he tossed many of those in the giveaway bin). But with all that space suddenly opened up, it was hard to stay gloomy for long.

He said good-bye to hundreds of little cars and blocks and dozens of plastic animals and dragons. The most surprising things he dumped were his Legos, which were his favorite toy until a few months ago.

He announced, “I’m too old to play with Legos.”

Only a few were spared. “These are cooler than the other ones,” he said, holding a few cylinder-shaped attachments. “They hold more weaponry.”

That was a little out of character, given that my son is generally a pacifist, even if he does like watching the Military Channel. But who could argue?

Finally, he revealed the real motivation for the purge. It gave me a jolt, because it shows he’s seriously anticipating the new demands placed on a fourth-grader.

“I need more space on my desk to do homework,” he said.

Indeed, the top of his desk is now cleared off and ready for action. The Legos went to a friend who still plays with them, and other bins went to a grateful new mom.

Now, my son says, his play will focus on a few areas. He has three Nintendo game players and he’s begun organizing his Yu-Gi-Oh! cards, his Pokemon cards and his baseball cards.

We have yet to trip over those. And they don’t get stuck in the vacuum.

Source: The Star-Ledger - NJ.com, NJ
http://blog.nj.com/parentalguidance/2008/07/my_tweener_son_gets_rid_of_his.html

According to a new report, nine out of 10 food products aimed at children provide poor nutritional quality, with more than half making health claims.

Obesity Reviews, a UK-based journal, researched 367 food items in Canadian supermarkets (excluding confectionary, soft drinks and bakery items), and found that about 89 per cent, aimed specifically at children, had a poor nutritional content — because of high levels of sugar, fat and sodium.

The products included in the study were bought from a national supermarket chain in 2005 and had to meet very specific criteria.

Each item had to be clearly targeted towards children. Included in the study were products that promoted fun and play, had a cartoon image on the front of the box, or were linked to children’s films, TV programs and merchandise.

The study found that 70 per cent of these products had higher than recommended sugar levels, 23 per cent had higher than recommended fat levels, and 17 per cent contained higher than recommended salt levels.

Despite this, 62 per cent of them made positive claims about their nutritional value on the front of the packet.

According to University of Calgary professor Charlene Elliott, these are alarming figures.

While caregivers are likely to purchase products that they hope their children will like, it clearly can result in a less nutritious diet than they may realize, Elliott said in a release. Having a healthy diet is especially important given the current rates of childhood obesity, she added.

Around 35 per cent of children in Canada suffer from excess body weight, which is linked to a range of health concerns including Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and some forms of cancer.

If a parent sees a product that makes specific nutritional claims, they may assume that the whole product is nutritious, Elliott said, noting that the study showed that this is definitely not true in the vast majority of cases.

Elliott, who is a trustee of the Canadian Council of Food and Nutrition, believes added confusion can have bad results on the health of children.

Parents may have questions about which packaged foods are good for their children, she said. Yet certain nutritional claims may add to the confusion, as they can mislead people into thinking the whole product is nutritious.

Only 11 per cent of the tested products provided good nutritional value, the report showed.

North Shore News, Canada
http://www.canada.com/northshorenews/news/parenting/story.html?id=e553cdce-65e8-4cc4-84fc-38a7c2cdff0c

Suppose you were a baby who was handed over to a stranger for several days. You would probably cry, cling and despair over the loss of your parents. You would have a difficult time sleeping, and perhaps refuse to eat. When you were returned to your parents, you would be afraid to trust them, worried that they would hand you over to someone else again.

NBC’s new series, The Baby Borrowers, asks five teen couples to set up a home, get a job and care for a baby. A nanny stands by, but the nanny isn’t any more familiar with the babies than the teens are. Parents observe and “score” the teens’ parenting skills.

In the episode that aired July 2, one child cried constantly in the arms of the teen “father”; the teen mother couldn’t handle the crying and refused to care for the child. The couple argued over who would diaper the child, and who would pick him up when he cried. One of the real parents became angry over her child’s treatment but not enough to withdraw him from the show.

The show is meant to help the young participants see if they can handle the responsibilities of parenting and to test their relationships. Nonetheless, this is a shocking way to treat babies. Zero To Three, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting the healthy development of infants, toddlers and their families, has stated that The Baby Borrowers “exploits young children with potential harmful consequences.”

Early childhood specialists at Children’s Institute agree. Research on infant brain development and attachment theory proves that infancy is the period when children learn to trust or mistrust the adult world. It is the time when children learn whether their feelings are important or not.

Working parents entrust their children to caregivers. However, quality child care providers know the importance of gentle transitions from parents to caregivers and of continuity of care for the child. Quality child care centers assign one caregiver to each child and family, and they make sure the caregiver-child-parent relationship is uninterrupted — optimally until the child turns 3.

At Children’s Institute, we provide research-based training and work with early care and education professionals who seek current information on how to increase the quality of care for infants and toddlers. During our sessions, we are impressed by the enthusiasm of caregivers who want to understand more deeply the links between brain development, relationships and healthy social-emotional growth.

Knowledgeable caregivers understand that babies must be protected, and not exploited in the pursuit of entertainment.

Source: Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, NY
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080724/OPINION02/807240348/1039/OPINION

My daughter will turn five years old two days before the new school year starts.

I didn’t think about this much when she entered her first year of preschool, but now as she is about to start kindergarten I suddenly started questioning whether or not she is truly ready.

It all started when I was chatting with some of the other preschool moms one day. We were comparing our children’s letter writing.

I was pretty surprised to see that many kids in my daughter’s class had much better handwriting and easily kept those letters between the lines.

Geez. Addie doesn’t really enjoy writing her “sight” words over and over. And I don’t really enjoy trying to get her to do it. I want her to have a love of learning and be excited about it, not moan over writing sight words.

After that day, the stage was set for my next worry project. (My husband thinks I purposely think of things to worry about and move from one worry to another.)

I remember getting all those birthday invitations last year for kids who were turning five in October and November. Addie had just turned four. That’s a big gap, and at this age I think it makes a big difference.

I am not worried about my daughter socially. Verbally, her vocabulary rivals mine. She uses words like “unfortunate” and “afforded” in the right context.

But she doesn’t always count to 20 perfectly. And counting beyond that is kind of a mess. Other kids in her class are counting to 100.

Her letters need some work, but I think she’s doing well.

I worry that if I make the wrong decision, Addie will struggle in school.

The Internet is full of articles about kindergarten readiness and forums where parents support both sides of “redshirting” or not.

My aunt held my cousin back and she ended up being the valedictorian of her high-school class. Impressive, but would she have had that title if she started on time?

All this worrying hasn’t really gotten me anywhere, so I turned to the U.S. Department of Education’s website.

In a survey, public school teachers ranked physical well-being, social development and curiosity as more important for kindergarten readiness than knowledge of skills.

Of the almost 1,500 teachers surveyed, more than half said it is not very important to know the alphabet or count in order to be ready for kindergarten.

Sounds good, but learning all seems to be moved up now. Many children learn to read in kindergarten, not first grade like I did. I notice one boy in my daughter’s class is doing math that seems to be on at least a first-grade level.

So what’s a parent to do? Are there any long-term effects of starting my early birthday kid in kindergarten on time? Is it better to be the oldest or the youngest in a grade?

According to Deborah Stipek, dean at the Stanford School of Education, I might be putting a little too much thought into this decision.

“It probably matters much less than parents believe. Most of the research suggests that any differences in achievement associated with age that are seen in the early grades disappear within a few years,” she said.

“‘Unless your child is very immature or is developing language unusually slowly or something like that, there is probably no harm in sending her on,” Stipek said.

OK. That makes me feel better.

Stipek added that what happens to children depends a lot of how good their teachers are at providing differentiated instruction that is appropriate for all of their students, regardless of skill levels and learning styles.

So for now I’m putting my worries aside, and next month, ready or not, it’s kindergarten here we come.

Source: The Canadian Press, LAS VEGAS
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hIf7t7_qrjR_OkFxr7-qca7hZITg