The magazine for parents
CHiLD ISSUE 47, May 23, 2015
Determination of
a dancer mum HARNESS YOU TUBE’S TEACHING POWER
how to massage your baby Essential safety advice
CHiLD ISSUE 47 May 23, 2015
Contents
Qualities we like
Features 6 Bonding: Baby massage 12 Safety: Essential tips for all parents 30 Everyday Heroes: A tough dancer mum 34 Childhood Fears: Fight them with more imagination 41 Collecting: Toys from yesteryear 44 Money: Financial wisdom for you and your child 51 Schooling: Why kids drop out
Regulars 21 News You Can Use: Sleep and speech, bonding and breast-feeding. 38 Top Tips: Spotting behaviour issues early in school life. 49 Top Tips: Cyber safety. 54 Shop Window: Great products and services.
Correspondence to the editor may be sent to: The Executive Editor, Child Magazine, Allied Newspapers Limited, Strickland House, 341, St Paul Street, Valletta VLT 1211 or send an e-mail to child@timesofmalta.com Executive Editor Mark Wood Publisher Allied Newspapers Limited Printing Progress Press Limited Production Allied Newspapers Limited Contributors Coryse Borg, Faye Camilleri Preziosi, Joy Campbell, Luca Caruana, Gary Direnfeld, Coleen McMahon, Mark Said Photography Jason Borg Design Holger Camilleri Advertising Sales Martina Bonello (tel: 2559 4707; e-mail: martina.bonello@timesofmalta.com). This publication is being distributed as part of the Times of Malta. All rights reserved. © 2015 Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publishers is prohibited.
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Everyone loves a hero or heroine. We admire their courage, resilience, principles, character, determination and reactions under pressure. Those very qualities, however, are often demonstrated by people in everyday life and they deserve recognition too. Child is today embarking on a new series that provides a glimpse of the endurance and dedication of parents who face difficulties of one sort or another and do their best to overcome them, starting with Coryse Borg’s interview with dance teacher Kristina Bianco. Another major feature in this edition is part two of an extensive article on child safety by Faye Camilleri Preziosi. It’s probably every parent’s number one priority in life to see that their children do not get in harm’s way, and she provides some highly useful advice in this regard. Talking of safety and protection, these are two feelings a baby has in the warm and tender embrace of a loving parent - and those feelings are probably magnified through massage. Colleen MacMahon shows you how to do it. For long term safety of another sort, Luca Caruana urges parents to start a savings plan for their children as early as possible while teaching them the value of saving that starts with putting some pocket money aside. On the subject of teaching in the home, yours truly has a review of some excellent YouTube education channels… with the internet, it’s never been easier to boost your child’s learning. Finally, when you look at your children’s toys do you tend to see rubbish or money down the drain? Well, a well-looked after plaything could become a highly sought-after item some time in the future, so think twice before chucking them away. In the meantime, however, you could start a collection now if you like – Marika Azzopardi has some tips about the collectible toys from yesteryear. Wishing readers an enlightening read.
BONDING
HOW TO
MASSAGE YOUR BABY It’s relaxing for both your little one and you, and it helps build a beautiful bond between you. By Colleen McMahon. f you have had a massage, you know how wonderful it can be to spend time in a soothing environment with dim lighting and soft music or nature sounds, experiencing the touch of a skilled massage therapist who can work out the knots and relax your entire body. The stresses and strains of your everyday life melt away and you can return to your world with a completely changed outlook. Babies have stress in their lives too! They are coping with a universe full of images and noises they have never experienced before. They have times of discomfort that they don’t understand and can’t do anything themselves to change. Like us, babies can find the experience of massage to be beneficial. They don’t need the pressure and vigour of deep tissue or Swedish massage, but some time spent feeling their parent’s gentle touch can relax and renew them as it does us. Baby massage is great for the parent as well! To do it right, you too have to put aside time to spend in a soothing environment. Creating a relaxing experience for your baby is also relaxing for you. Moreover, the sensations of touch, sound and smell will help you and your baby bond together. Beyond that, it can help your baby sleep better, improve digestion and reduce colic, all of which make your life better and less stressful as well.
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When to massage your baby
“It can help your baby sleep better, improve digestion and reduce colic, all of which make your life better and less stressful as well”
The best time to massage your baby is when he is already somewhat relaxed. Don’t attempt to do this when your baby is upset, as he may associate the routine with discomfort and distress. Good times to try massage are after feeding, at bedtime or just after waking, and after bathing. Make sure you have enough time to spend on this and that you are in a good place as well. If you are frazzled and rushing, you will transmit this to your baby and it won’t be a rewarding experience for either of you. Try to spend 15-20 minutes on this process, and take it slowly and gently. 6 CHILD MAY 2015
BONDING
“That feels so good!”
CHILD MAY 2015 7
BONDING and massage from the palm down the fingers. Repeat this process two or three times then repeat on the opposite arm. Return to having both hands on the shoulders and stroke both hands down to his hips. Move one hand to the opposite hip so both hands are at the top of the same leg. Massage each leg and foot using the same process as you did with his arms.
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“Bit to the right. Oooooh…” How to give a baby massage Wear loose, comfortable, non-binding clothing. Choose a location that is warm, without drafts. Adjust the lighting in the room to dim it. You may wish to play some classical or instrumental music or nature sounds at low volume.
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Sit in a cross-legged position and spread a towel on the surface in front of you. Since your baby will be undressed, the towel should be thick enough to protect the surface from anything that might come out of him or her, as well as from the lotion or oil. Good locations for your massage are on your bed, on a carpeted floor, or on a sofa or a chair with ottoman. Have a baby blanket and baby lotion or baby oil within reach.
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Lay your baby on the towel in front of you, face up, and put his legs over yours. Remove your baby’s clothing and rub your hands together to warm them. As you do this, talk in low tones to him and explain what you are going to do.
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Once you begin touching your baby, try not to break contact throughout the process. Place one hand, palm up, on her chest and belly and pour about a euro-sized squeeze of lotion or oil into your palm. Keeping your hand on your baby, rub the oil or lotion with your other hand to warm it and spread it over both hands.
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Begin by placing your hands on his shoulders, and move them slowly down to his feet. Watch for indications that he is becoming uncomfortable or agitated, and don’t continue if the experience seems to be upsetting rather than relaxing him. If at any point he appears to be chilly, cover him with the baby blanket and reach under the blanket to maintain skin contact.
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Go through this series of touches and strokes slowly and deliberately, repeating each several times. Start by moving your hands up to your baby’s belly and chest and stroke slowly in a circular motion, bringing your hands toward each other. Press very gently, not enough to be uncomfortable but enough so that your touch is not tickling him.
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Move your hands to the center of her chest and stroke outward with flat fingers. Move from the center of the chest to her sides and shoulders. Stroke from shoulders down her sides to her hips. Do one side and then the other, so that one hand can remain in contact as you move back to the shoulder with the other to repeat the stroke. Keep strokes in the same direction rather than up and down. Finish with both hands at her shoulders.
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Massage your baby’s arms, doing one arm at a time. Move both hands to one of her shoulders, and stroke down the arm. Cup your hands around her hand and gently open it out
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Move your hands back to the center of her body and gently turn her over onto her front.
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Move your hands up and down your baby’s back in a back and forth motion. Massage from his neck to bottom with both hands making a zigzag or wave pattern. Keep hands moving in parallel rather than touching or crossing over each other.
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Return your hands to her shoulders on either side of her spine and massage downward using small circular motions.
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Finish by using your fingertips to go down your baby’s back in a rake-like motion. Then roll your baby over and put a diaper and clothes back on.
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At this point your baby and you should both be feeling relaxed and happy! As you go through the process, watch for any cues of discomfort. If your baby gets chilly, cover him with a blanket. If he begins to fuss or become agitated, then stop. Keep the massage as something that is soothing for both of you and helps build your bond as parent and child. By doing this massage regularly, following the same steps, you will create a ritual together. The towel, sounds, oil or lotion, and your series of touches signal to her that this is a time of feeling safe and loved and relaxed. If both of you continue to enjoy this process, this is something you can do throughout her baby, toddler, and childhood years as a familiar and loving relaxation ritual.
SAFETY
duty to
PROTECT (PART 2)
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SAFETY
In the last edition of Child, Faye Camilleri Preziosi looked at the major causes of accidental death and injury among children, making clear some of the real hazards they face both around the home and outside it. In the second part of her article on child safety, she looks at what parents can do to minimise the risks. RISKS OF THE ROAD Roads are better, vehicles are faster and there are increasing numbers of them on the roads, which puts our children at ever greater risk as pedestrians, cyclists, and vehicle passengers. When it comes to road traffic injuries children are far more vulnerable than adults because of their smaller size. As pedestrians and cyclists their inability to accurately judge both speed and distance, particularly those under 11 years, also means they are more likely to make crucial mistakes. I learnt this personally last summer. My son had just been given a new scooter and asked if he could show me
something quickly. Before I could finish the words, “but you don’t have your helmet on” he was off down a steep ramp. He gathered speed much faster than he had anticipated and as he tried to jump off before he crashed, I was powerless to stop him hurtling off his scooter and landing on his side, smashing his hip, shoulder and head against the concrete floor. That day we were extremely fortunate – other than some awful purple bruises and an egg-sized lump on his head, he had not done any permanent damage and he had learnt a painful, but important lesson about the value of helmets.
SAFETY CHECKLIST • Use the correct child restraint for your child’s weight and height and be aware of the laws regarding their use – children under 11 years or under 150cm are legally required to use an appropriate child restraint. • Teach children to identify the safest place to cross and to STOP, LOOK, and LISTEN before they do – even on zebra crossings. • Explain to children that although they may be able to see cars on the roads, that does not necessarily mean the cars can see them. • Teach children to choose a well-lit area to cross when using the roads after dark – wearing light/bright/reflective clothing whenever possible. • Ensure your children understand the traffic laws and regulations – be a good role model. • Ensure your children understand the importance of wearing helmets when cycling, using scooters, or any other two-wheel vehicles even when going only short distances – no matter how uncool they think it might look.
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SAfETY WATER TRAGEDIES Swimming is both a wonderful pastime and great exercise, but children should always be taught to respect the water and know their limitations. A child can drown or suffer irreparable brain damage in just three to five minutes underwater – in the time it takes you to answer the phone. And there only needs to be two centimetres of water – enough to cover their nose and mouth – for them to drown. Dr HM Lenicker, consultant paediatrician, who has been practicing for 53 years including a number of those in hospital practice, recounts how an eightyear-old able-bodied girl who was a good swimmer almost drowned in her family pool.
“She dived to the bottom of the pool and was held there by the powerful suction force of the [drain] system, unable to resurface for air. If her mother had not noticed immediately and turned the system off, she would have drowned. “Her mother’s quick thinking saved her life,” he said. On another more tragic occasion “a fouryear-old girl fell off a yacht in Ta’ Xbiex into the water and was revived, but suffered permanent brain damage”. You can never be too careful around water both at the beach and around swimming pools, where most drowning incidents in high-income countries such as Malta occur.
“A four-year-old girl fell off a yacht in Ta’ Xbiex into the water and was revived, but suffered permanent brain damage” SAFETY CHECKLIST • Baby bath seats will not protect an infant from drowning – young children should never be left unattended in a bath. • Do not rely on swimming aids such as flotation jackets, armbands, rubber rings, or noodles to keep your child safe. • Even if your young child has had swimming lessons, never leave them near water without an adult present. • Cover or remove all water hazards in and around the house: wells, ponds, hot tubs, inflatable pools, swimming pools and even buckets, particularly if there are small children around. • Ensure pool drains and pump systems have the correct safety covers in place and be aware of these dangers in any pools that are not your own, such as in hotels and public pools. • Install fencing around your home swimming-pool and keep pool covers free of standing water – a pool cover is not necessarily a drowning prevention device. • Always ensure you and your children wear a life jacket or safety harness when on a boat or yacht – it is extremely hard to spot a person who has fallen overboard, particularly in open bodies of water. • Be aware drowning often occurs silently because most children do not automatically shout for help. • At the beach be aware of underwater currents, particularly at beaches such as Għajn Tuffieħa and Golden Sands, and always ensure your children swim within the designated safe boundaries. • Ensure teenagers are aware of the dangers of mixing alcohol and drugs with swimming.
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HAZARDOUS HEIGHTS Anyone who has children will know falls are extremely commonplace, but not all falls are an inevitable part of childhood. According to the WHO report, “falls are the most common type of childhood injury presenting at emergency departments, accounting for between 20-25 per cent of such visits.” Dr Lenicker has seen his fair share of falls during his years in both hospital and private practice. “Windows, staircases, shafts, wells and skylights are all dangers people do not take enough precautions with.” He also recommends special care be taken on playground swings and roundabouts, and unfinished buildings, which are another source of many falls and injuries.
SAFETY CHECKLIST • Ensure your baby equipment meets current safety standards. • Install gates in your home to prevent young children using stairs unmonitored. • If you use a baby-walker ensure there are no stairs, obstacles, or heavy objects in the vicinity, as they can result in children being thrown out of them if they hit an object in their path at speed. • Use guards or locks on windows and balconies. • Ensure handrails and guardrails on stairs, balconies, and roofs are high enough to prevent children toppling over and narrow enough that children cannot slip through them or get their heads stuck. • Teach your children to play safely around playground equipment – to use the straps provided on swings for younger children and to give swings and roundabouts a wide berth. • Ensure you children use the correct protective gear when participating in sports or riding bicycles, scooters or horses. • Be aware of dangers in the countryside such as uncovered wells, precarious rubble walls and unstable terrain, such as the clay slopes at Għajn Tuffieħa. • Ensure teenagers are aware of the dangers of mixing alcohol and drugs with heights.
SAFETY PLAYING WITH FIRE Burns can happen easily around the home and the younger a child, the more susceptible they are to the effects of a burn due to their smaller body size and their thinner skin. Burns are the only type of injury in which girls have higher injury rates than boys.
“The younger a child, the more susceptible”
SAFETY CHECKLIST • Keep hot liquids well away from young children and turn hot water heaters down to a maximum of 50°C to keep children safe from hot water burns. • When cooking keep pots away from the edge and the handles turned inwards. • Make children aware of the dangers of fireplaces, heaters, heated towel rails, steam irons, kitchen appliances and anything else around the house that may be hot. • Teach your children the danger of lighters and matches and keep these out of young children’s reach at all times. • Smoke inhalation, not just burns, can be deadly – in Malta building codes require the use of smoke detectors in all private and public dwellings – so install smoke detectors at home. • Fires are often caused by faulty electrical equipment, so ensure
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you maintain and store electrical items safely and cover up electrical sockets around the house when not in use. Teach your children to STOP, DROP and ROLL in the event their clothes catch fire. Keep a fire extinguisher and fire blanket in easily accessible places at home, particularly in the kitchen. Ensure your children’s school carries out regular fire drills and teach your children what to do in the event of a fire in your own home. When visiting public places or staying in hotels, point out the nearest exits to your children. Minor burns can be treated at home – the best immediate treatment is to hold the burn under cold running water for 15–20 minutes and then dress the wound to keep it clean and free from infection.
POISONOUS SUBSTANCES SAFETY CHECKLIST • Keep all household cleaners, heater fuel, pesticides, poisonous plants and medications out of reach – preferably behind locked cabinets. • Do not store any poisonous substances or liquids in bottles or containers that might be confused with edible/ingestible items and clearly label anything you do store.
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• Do not rely solely on safety caps or lids to keep your children safe. • Ensure other family members, such as grandparents, are also aware of the need to remove or store poisonous/toxic substances properly and to not leave medicines accessible when children visit. • Use natural cleaning products that contain less chemicals where possible. • Know what to do in the event your child swallows something toxic. • Ensure your teenagers understand the dangers of alcohol poisoning and drugs.
Although poisoning is at the bottom of our list of leading causes, it is likely to be a more common problem than current data suggests, as data is not readily available or comparable across many countries. Younger children explore the world with their hands and their mouths, and are unaware of the risks and consequences, so are more likely to ingest dangerous substances than older children. Poisoning incidents are also more likely to be fatal – since their bodies are smaller, young children will experience higher toxicity levels from poisonous substances. Dr Lenicker advises to never leave children thirsty, as this encourages them to search out liquids to ingest, and to never store poisonous liquids in bottles meant for other liquids. He recalls an incident where “a 7 year old girl was given corrosive hydrochloric acid (toilet cleaner) by her brother by mistake because it was being stored in a 7UP bottle. The girl survived, but required major surgery abroad.”
SAFETY DANGEROUS TRADITIONS Apart from some of the most common types of injuries worldwide and in the EU, here in Malta we also see additional injuries related to some of our traditional pastimes, such as hunting and festas. Dr Lenicker says these incidents are more commonplace than one might think. He recalls two of the worst and most tragic accidents from his days in hospital practice. The first related to hunting:
Information for kids
“The gun went off, shooting the boy at close range and causing a fatal gaping abdominal wound” “A father took his 11-year-old son hunting. At one point the shotgun was put to rest against a rubble wall and at that moment the dog jumped up, knocking the gun down. The gun went off, shooting the boy at close range and causing a fatal gaping abdominal wound,” he recounts. The second tragedy related to fireworks: “A six-year-old boy found a little firework on the ground after his local village feast. The next day while his parents were out at Mass he lit the firework. It exploded, blowing out his eyes. This poor boy survived, but was disfigured for life.” Our children are usually a source of much pride and joy in our lives, but
they are also an enormous responsibility and as such, often a source of much worry too. No parent can watch their child 24/7 and not all accidents and injuries are preventable. We certainly cannot beat ourselves up about every minor injury they incur, but there are some things we can do to protect our children and reduce the chances of them suffering severe or fatal injuries. So be aware of the dangers, take note of the safety checklists provided, always keep a first aid kit in your home or car and be sure you know how to use it, and preferably take a first aid course.
In order to help educate not only yourselves but your children too, the WHO provides a child-friendly version of their world report on child injury prevention, to inform children aged 7 to 11 years old about various types of injuries and how these might be prevented. The report is called Have Fun, Be Safe! and is free to download at: www.who.int/violence_injury _prevention/child/injury/world_ report/child_friendly/en/. The WHO also provides fact sheets with further information on each of the main causes of child injury, including risk factors and intervention. These can be found at www.who.int/violence_injury_pr evention/child/injury/world_re port/fact_sheets/en/
TYPE OF INJURY
THE MYTH
THE TRUTH
Road Traffic Accidents
I can hold onto my child in the event of a car crash.
NO, it is physically impossible to hold onto your child – children on laps are likely to be thrown straight through the windscreen or to be crushed by your own body weight.
Drowning
If my child can swim they can’t drown.
NO, even experienced swimmers can get into difficulties and drown.
Burns
I can treat my child’s burn with butter, sugar or oil to help it heal.
NO, these remedies can cause the outer skin to fall away leaving the skin below open to infection.
Falls
Children fall all the time, I can’t protect my child from falling.
NO, falls from heights are the most dangerous and can be prevented using added caution and safety equipment.
Poisoning
My cleaning products and medications have childproof tops, so my child is safe.
NO, childproof tops are only a time delay – 20 per cent of children will eventually work out how to open them.
Source: World Health Organization (2008), What you can do to keep kids safe from injury.
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neWS YoU CAn USe
Insights from the latest research on child development BEDTIME ROUTINE BOOSTS QUALITY OF SLEEP Young children with a regular bedtime routine get to sleep earlier, fall asleep faster, wake up less at night and sleep longer, according to a major study of more than 10,000 mothers in 14 countries. Consistent bedtime routines were also linked to fewer behaviour problems in the daytime. The results, published in this month’s edition of the journal Sleep, did not depend at all on which country the children were from: it could be the US, China or India, but having that routine makes a difference. The children studied were up to six years of age. Creating a bedtime routine for a child is a simple step that every family can do, according to the researchers from Saint Joseph’s University and the Sleep Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “It can pay off to not only make bedtime easier, but also that a child is likely to sleep better throughout the entire night.” Among the things parents can do is to establish a set sequence of pleasurable
and calming activities ahead of a child’s bedtime. These could include giving your child a soothing bath, brushing teeth and reading a bedtime story. “For each additional night that a family is able to institute a bedtime routine, and
the younger that the routine is started, the better their child is likely to sleep. “It’s like other healthy practices: Doing something just one day a week is good, doing it for three days a week is better, and doing it every day is best.”
Strong bond helps prevent later teen anxiety Shy babies can be prevented from growing up into teenagers with anxiety disorders if their parents form a strong bond with them during infancy. Studies have long shown that young children who are inhibited in new situations and also have insecure relationships with their parents have an increased risk of becoming socially anxious teenagers. But now, a new long-term study out of the University of Waterloo, in the US, suggests that if the parents are responsive and form a secure relationship with their young children, this could protect them from developing an anxietyprone nature in their teenage years. The study appears in Child Development, the journal of the Society for Re-
search in Child Development. It involved following 160 children from early childhood to adolescence and assessing them periodically for behavioural inhibitions and anxiety. The researchers found that behavioural inhibition was associated with higher anxiety when toddlers also had insecure attachment relationships, and this association was particularly strong for boys. The researchers said: “Anxiety disorders are among the most common psychiatric problems seen in children and adolescents. We can use this information about early influences to help change the developmental pathways of at-risk children before clinically-significant problems emerge.”
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neWS YoU CAn USe
BREAST-FED BABES BETTER PREPARED FOR SOLID FOODS
Bullying worse for mental health than maltreatment by adults new research from the University of Warwick in the UK has found that bullying has a worse effect on children in later life than being maltreated by an adult. The data came from two longitudinal studies, one in the UK and one in the US, that involved more than 5,000 children. The research showed that those who were bullied were more likely to suffer from mental health problems such as anxiety, depression or suicidal tendencies as they hit their late teens and twenties.
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According to the researchers, “being bullied is not a harmless rite of passage or an inevitable part of growing up; it has serious long-term consequences. It is important for schools, health services and other agencies to work together to reduce bullying and the adverse effects related to it.” Being both bullied and maltreated also increased the risk of overall mental health problems, anxiety and depression in both groups. The study was published in The Lancet Psychiatry.
Yet another advantage to breast-feeding has been revealed in a study about… gut microbes. According to the research, babies who are fed only breast milk have microbial communities in their gastrointestinal tract that seem more ready for the introduction of solid foods. not only was the transition described as “more dramatic” for babies who were not exclusively breast-fed, but these experienced more stomach aches and colic. Microbes in the gut play a major role in helping us digest food and fight pathogens, among other functions. The study was published in a recent edition of Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology. “It provides yet more support for recommendations by the World Health organization and others to breastfeed exclusively during the first six months of life,” said the lead researcher. “We can see from the data that including formula in an infant’s diet does change the gut bacteria even if you are also breastfeeding. exclusive breastfeeding seems to really smooth out the transition to solid foods.” In an analysis of babies’ stools, the microbiomes of exclusively breastfed infants tended to be less diverse and were dominated by Bifidobacterium, a type of bacteria considered beneficial for digestion. Babies fed a mixture of breast milk and formula had a lower proportion of Bifidobacterium. The ability to digest food could potentially influence long-term health. Gut microbes are suspected to play a role in obesity, allergies and gastrointestinal problems, such as irritable bowel syndrome. “The study advances our understanding of how the gut microbiome develops early in life, which is clearly a really important time period for a person’s current and future health,” the researchers said.
EDUCATION
ONLINE VIDEOS ARE A FANTASTIC WAY OF HELPING TURN THE HOME INTO AN EXTENSION OF THE CLASSROOM, AND OF COURSE, YOU TUBE IS THE MOTHER AND GRANDDADDY OF ALL INTERNET VIDEO SITES. MARK WOOD DIPS HIS TOE INTO THIS SEA OF EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES.
You Tube: your classroom in the home
o, what do you want to do? Help your child learn about important people from Malta’s past? Get them to grasp a concept they have found difficult in class? Give them some math skills practice? Improve their verbal command of a new language? Prime them for a unit still coming up in the syllabus? Encourage interest in a particular subject? Do video revisions in history, geography or science? Get them to learn coding? Make the summer a little more productive academically? Help them learn how to learn? Or simply make learning a little more fun and engaging? You can do all that and much more on You Tube. You may, however, have to spend some time searching and sampling, in order to find videos with the right fit for your child’s age, grade, level of understanding and the particular goal you might have for him. But it is well worth the time you put into it. This is especially so for those children who may need an extra boost in school or who find it difficult to sit still and focus for a length of time, or who just haven’t taken to book learning. For all the benefits of reading (and videos can’t replace the value of that habit), there are other ways to learn. Some teachers have
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taken this idea on board by introducing videos in the classroom. Videos, after all, have become our children’s natural habitat, a form of communication sure to capture their attention, at least for a few minutes. The makers of a lot of the well-produced educational videos out there recognise this and usually keep them short and snappy. Here’s a small sample of some great education channels you can tap on You Tube to get you started on this exciting educational journey you can take with your child.
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EDUCATION KIDSEDUC is a learning and educational channel for the younger set. The cartoon graphics are basic and far from slick but cover a wide range of topics that would be dealt with in the traditional classroom. A computer-generated voice does not aid in generating interest but the graphics alone may be enough to keep your child’s attention long enough for the lessons to be absorbed.
KHAN ACADEMY: Salman Khan used to be a fund manager until his maths revision videos for his niece proved such a hit on You Tube that he decided to go big time. Now a multi-million non-profit organisation backed by the likes of Bill Gates, the learning website he founded is free for everyone and has video tutorials for all levels in several subjects. And they’re all on You Tube. Specialising mainly in maths and science, the channel also covers economics and history, among others. On the website itself, your child can follow a course starting from his or her level. This is a learning revolution in the making.
APPLEPIPPRODUCTIONS has a bunch of math tutorials aimed at both students and those parents who may want to learn how to explain some basic principles to their children, ranging from breaking down additions to long multiplication; BIDMAS to fractions, percentages or basic algebra. 26 CHiLD MAY 2015
The English tutor uses a simple sheet of paper on which he takes you through some examples at a slow and patient pace. His accent makes every word easy to understand. These are short, extremely clear videos which serve as an excellent introduction to basic math operations and processes, useful for several levels. CRASHCOURSE describes itself as “tons of awesome courses in one awesome channel”. That’s probably quite accurate and gives a taste of the racy, humorous style in which John Green and his colleagues take their students through subjects that include World History, Chemistry, Biology, Psychology, Literature and Ecology. Content tends to be Americanised but much of it would be quite relevant to older Maltese students.
LAMMAS SCIENCE is a comprehensive set of science videos that draw heavily on top-notch BBC resources, among others. Since Malta’s science curriculum
appears to quite closely resemble the British, this can be a most useful channel for going over stuff learned in class or introducing new material even before the teacher does. This raises the level of interest and helps the child grasp the concepts more readily.
TED-ED: Short, animated, engaging… just wonderful. TED-Ed (Lessons Worth Sharing) is an offshoot of the famous TED talks (Ideas Worth Spreading). It has probably hundreds of four to six minute videos that cover quirky and offbeat questions on everything under the sun, many that you may never have thought of asking and some you have: If matter falls down, does antimatter fall up? Where did Earth’s water come from? What causes economic bubbles? What was teenage life like in Ancient Rome? What’s a good metaphor? This is outside the stuff of school syllabi but if you want a way to expand general knowledge or pique a child’s interest in little mouthfuls, there’s probably no better channel.
EDUCATION
WATCHWELLCAST: From an explanation of puberty and how to take good notes, to cyber safety and dealing with rejection, this channel has a lifeskills focus, saying it explores the “physical, mental and emotional paths to wellness”. Probably best suited to tweens and teens, these are entertaining, punchy, simple but wellproduced videos whose female narrator knows exactly how to pitch her voice for best effect.
“She’s cool and fashionable, and kids of a certain age are more likely to connect with her”
BIOGRAFIJI is a good place to go for some documentaries about some of Malta’s famous people from past and present. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to have uploaded a lot of the rich library, but worth a visit nonetheless.
HERITAGE MALTA has a channel with plenty of interesting videos about the sites they manage and which intersect with material students of Maltese history might be doing in the classroom. An excellent complement to those inevitable school outings to the temples and other heritage sites. 28 CHiLD MAY 2015
ALEXA POLIDORO: A popular channel for learning basic French, just the right pitch for kids starting out in the language. Alexa tries to make each lesson fun and varied, and she’s a likeable enough character, covering vocabulary, verbs, pronunciation and some conversational French.
Personally I prefer the young woman in THE FRENCH FORMULA though: she’s cool and fashionable, and kids of a certain age are more likely to connect with her. The only drawback is that there’s aren’t too many videos uploaded yet, although she’s promised more.
EVERYDAY HEROES
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EVERYDAY HEROES
CHILD starts a new series focusing on ordinary parents with extraordinary qualities. Photography by Jason Borg
Strength OF A
dancer The resilience of mother-of-two Kristina Bianco, whose slip discs, miscarriages and long-distance relationship have not prevented her from pursuing her passion for dance and her desire to have another child. By Coryse Borg. hen I met Kristina Bianco she was heavily pregnant with her third child (a boy) and exhausted because her two children – Naomi, 14, and Sienna, nearly four – had both just been sick at the same time. Plus she was organising a concert which was to feature 300 of her dance students. But her face immediately lit up at the mere mention of the loves of her life – her husband Matthew and her kids. “When I met Matt, I was rehearsing for a show with YADA at the time… it was around 2002,” she says. “After one very late rehearsal – it was a Tuesday, I remember – a friend of mine randomly messaged me and asked to meet for a drink. So off I went, wearing jeans and with stagey teased hair. When I got there, my friend introduced me to Matt. And we just clicked.” Matthew asked her for her number, ostensibly to be able to contact her for tickets to the show (she says that he still sticks to his guns even now, that that was the sole reason he asked for her number!) “We went out for a coffee and ended up spending eight hours together, deep in conversation. And that was it. Matt was only 21 when we started dating. He is six years younger than me, but I have
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always believed that age doesn’t really matter,” she smiles. Two years before Kristina met Matthew, she had become a mum to her first-born, Naomi. She had got pregnant when she was just 23 and gave birth to Naomi at 24. “I was only seven to eight months into the relationship with Naomi’s dad when I got pregnant,” she says, “I always wanted to be a young mum, but didn’t really think it would actually happen. I was a dancer; I was focusing on my career. I knew that this was what I wanted to do with my life. And then, suddenly I was expecting a child.” When she found out that she was pregnant, Kristina had just come back from a six-month scholarship at the London Studio Centre, a prominent theatre dance school. They wanted her to stay on but she could not afford it at the time. “So I was here in Malta, figuring out what to do next. I had sent in an application to be considered for the prestigious Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre company. The letter from them announcing whether or not I had been accepted arrived after I found out I was going to be a mum. I’ve never opened it.” As for Naomi’s dad, the relationship did not last. However, he has been a constant presence in his daughter’s life.
Kristina says that her immediate family made up of her parents and her two sisters was her rock at this time. And it was her passion for dance that kept her going. “I taught dance until two weeks before I gave birth, I think it was a coping mechanism. I knew that, even though I had help, it was up to me to financially support this child. Apart from dance, I had another three or four jobs,” she says. “I never for one moment thought of giving up; I don’t think the words have ever been in my vocabulary.” In fact, Kristina has always been quite the fighter. She was born with a hole in her heart which was, however not detected until she was 13. “I was horsing around at the beach with some friends when they threw me into the sea. I started feeling ill and got tonsillitis. After six weeks, the infection went to my kidneys and I was hospitalized for two months. It was there that they found out about the hole in my heart, which was about the size of an old 50 cent coin. Had I not fallen ill, it would not have been detected,” she says. Kristina, who has a Canadian passport, finished up having open heart surgery in Canada later that year. “We were on holiday there when the surgery became available,” she recalls. CHiLD MAY 2015 31
EVERYDAY HEROES
“My parents flew back to Malta, packed up, sorted out the cat and came back.” Luckily, the surgery was a success. But she would need her resilience to come to the fore again quite a few times during her life. When she met Matthew, he was in his second year at university, studying engineering. After he graduated, he ended up getting a job in an American company and was initially based in Germany. “I won’t say it was easy, the thought of him living abroad for years on end,” confesses Kristina. “He has always been very present in Naomi’s life, and by that time, she was six and a half years old. We didn’t have the finances to fly up that often, so we would Skype a lot. But I had to cope with a lot of things on my own when he was away.” Thankfully, the long-distance relationship only made them stronger. In 2007, Kristina set up her own dance school, Dance Project Studios, and three years later embarked on another big project: she got married to Matthew. They had little Siena in 2011 and then started trying for another child a couple of years ago. However, the universe had other ideas, and it was only after three gruelling 32 CHILD MAY 2015
“The letter from them announcing whether or not I had been accepted arrived after I found out I was going to be a mum. I’ve never opened it.”
miscarriages in a row that she finally got pregnant with her current bun-in-the-oven. Matthew is still working with the same company, but now they commute: “We have Christmas, Easter, mid-terms and a lot of the summer together. We go abroad, we go camping, we visit museums. When we are all together, we concentrate on having fun with the kids.” Kristina says that she is extremely lucky in that her passion has become her full-time job. Although she hasn’t been on stage for seven years, mainly due to the fact that she has had three slipped discs after what she calls “the abuse dancing and gymnastics have inflicted on my body’” she says that she derives immense satisfaction from seeing what her students are capable of. “Matt is also very involved in Dance Project. I always say that if your partner doesn’t love what you do, it doesn’t work. It’s true that work permeates everything; it is so difficult to ‘switch off’ when we are together. “But it’s nice that we can talk about it. The best things about it are my students giving me hugs and watching their progress. It is often hard to cope both
with a family and my strenuous job, but I have a lot of help from my wonderful family and my staff who now drop everything if I am tired or unwell or need to rest.. and I cat-nap when I can. Twenty minutes and I’m ready to go again!” Kristina says that Naomi and Sienna are very different in character “When she was little Naomi – who is a budding artist, writer, dancer and swimmer – would sit down and colour, paint and be quiet. Sienna wants attention and to dance and jump. If she has noone to sit with her, she will jump into a dance class and join the students. She is like a firecracker, very talkative, super funny and so playful. They are both very excited about having a baby brother.” So, with the arrival of child number three, is there any chance of Kristina slowing down at all? “I don’t think so,” she laughs. “If I slow down I won’t know what to do with myself! It is in my character to keep strong and keep on pushing my boundaries… not only with my work but also with my kids. If things go smoothly, they should remain the same.”
CHILDHOOD FEARS
To fight the fear of horrors lurking in the darkness, don’t belittle your child’s imagination but harness it. By Joy Campbell. hildren fear monsters. It’s a fact of life for most parents; something they’re not surprised to see colour their child’s world with hues of anxiety, dread and worry. As the creative portion of the mind begins to develop, the imagination takes on a mind of its own, creating situations steeped in fantasy rather than logic. The unexplored emotions and fearful images collide, and since young children have not yet grasped the ability to separate reality from fantasy, fears takes control. The child becomes con-
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vinced that what they fear is not only real, but terrifying and relentless. That loss of control can cause children to act out as they seek to eliminate the threat. Parents and caregivers can, however, help the child to regain that control through a variety of methods, each one’s effectiveness based solely on the needs of the individual child. Parents tend to their child’s needs from the moment of conception all the way through to adulthood. Children grow and flourish under constant care and protection, and as a result, they look to their parent and caregivers for security when they feel threatened. When faced with the issue of monsters, many adults scoff and shake their head, followed by a speech about how monsters aren’t real. Only, for the child, they are. Young imaginations can spin very believable tales that won’t disappear just because their parent says it isn’t real. If anything, the parent’s denial has the potential to make the child feel isolated and unprotected. Regardless of how hard we try to keep children from ever experiencing fear, the fact remains that the imagination will not be denied. Darkness can cause the child to wonder what’s out there, and the imagination is more than happy to jump in with heart-pounding details. Nightlights can cause shadows to paint the walls, flickering and skittering, and again, the imagination eagerly draws image after image of what could be causing the movements. The imagination knows no bounds, but parents do. Setting boundaries within which the monsters “must” abide can be very helpful in granting the child a sense of security; a way in which they can take control of their situation. There are as many “rules” regarding monsters as there are children who fear them. For instance, most monsters can’t stand light, will run from sweet scents, and dislike
cleanliness and organization. The list is never ending, so allow the child to add to it. Talk to your child about ways of keeping the monsters away. Scented sprays can be used as monster repellent. Children can be given an active role in spraying the points of entry under adult guidance. Establishing a routine of securing the child’s room each night grants a sense of security. Having a special spot within the child’s room where the spray can be stored is also a good idea because then the child can use it as protection if needed, using it to spray the monster directly. Craft time can be used to create monster traps. For example, crisscrossing strings in the style reminiscent of a dream catcher or spider web could capture the monster’s “meanness,” rendering it harmless. This can be done by threading the string through the outer ring of a paper plate, or even hung directly on the wall using thumb tacks. Another useful monster deterrent is a collage of items the monster fears. Use the child’s imagination to discover what their specific monsters fear, and then assist in creating a collage using magazine clippings to hang in the child’s room to keep them away. Sometimes, it is beneficial to hang the collage inside the closet where the monster will see it immediately upon entering. In addition to heightening the child’s sense of security, the process of accepting that monsters have fears too can be liberating for children because it openly challenges the assumption that monsters are “all powerful.” If the child is fortunate enough to have older siblings, feel free to include them in the process of getting rid of the monsters. It’s natural for younger children to look up to their older siblings, to want to impress them, so the simple act of encouraging a younger sibling to stand up to the monsters may have significant and, potentially, long lasting effects. The most important thing to remember is that children seek guidance from their parents, caregivers and siblings. Try not to belittle the child’s fears, but instead, assist in defeating them.
TOP TIPS
BEHAVIOUR ISSUES: CATCH THEM EARLY s a preschooler, your child was well behaved and didn’t exhibit any particular problems. Next your child enters school, perhaps Kindergarten, and then Grade 1. Slowly issues with some classes and subjects appear. Maybe you think nothing of them in Grade 1, but along comes Grade 2 and trouble worsens. Now your child’s grades begin to suffer and there may be some issues with behaviour. By Grade 3 and almost as school begins so too do behaviour concerns and they outweigh the academic issues. Children who surface with behaviour problems early in the school year and in early grades may have an undiagnosed learning disability that increasing educational demands aggravate. There are clinical scenarios that can quickly lead to suspicion. Children whose challenging behaviour occurs more in groups or unstructured settings may have an auditory processing disorder. If the medical history includes recurrent ear infections, the risk of an auditory processing disorder heightens. If behaviour presents more during certain subjects or learning demands (visual, auditory, motor), other learning disabilities may be present. Even in the case of a bona fide diagnosis of ADD/ADHD, statistically 50 per cent have a learning disability as well. Notwithstanding biologically determined problems, children who are exposed to arguing or fighting in the home or to domestic violence or serious conflict between their parents will appear behaviourally similar to children with academic difficulties or problems. These children often go to school worrying about one or both parents and even their marriage. This alone is distressing and distracting from schoolwork. It can make children irritable and that can cause them difficulty in getting along with others.
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Girls in these situations sometimes appear behaviourally similar to children with ADD while boys sometimes appear behaviourally similar to children with ADHD. In still other instances, a child who is a victim to bullying may also appear behaviourally similar to children as above. A good assessment will be vital to determining the appropriate intervention. Accordingly then, the assessment should look at the child’s developmental and medical history as well as family history and any issues between the parents. Further, the school situation should be assessed to make sure there are no problems such as bullying. Medically, the child should be screened for vision and hearing problems and finally, a psychoeducational assessment to explore for learning disabilities can be in order. A good assessment will help uncover problems contributing to behaviour and academic issues. This good assessment will then lead to proper intervention. Intervention may include special education or at least recommendations to remedy learning needs, couple counselling for the parents, or even intervention by school authorities as in the situation of bullying. The earlier a child’s schooling problems are caught and addressed, the better for the child. The longer problems continue, children can get further behind in their learning and behaviour problems can escalate to become separate issues in their own right. Further, as these problems continue and behaviour and failure occur, the child’s self-esteem diminishes, bringing on other psychological/emotional concerns. In the early years, at the beginning of each school year, track your child’s performance carefully. Read report cards thoroughly and attend all parent-teacher meetings. Good information and good communication between parent and teacher will help to identify any academic problems so they can be addressed before they get too big. By Gary Direnfeld, social worker and expert on child development
COLLECTING
Investing in yesteryear’s
TOY WORLD A LOOK AT WHAT’S COLLECTABLE Old toys don’t just evoke memories but may bring a good return somewhere down the line, says Marika Azzopardi s one of UK’s leading auctioneers (Bonhams – Oxford) braces itself for two major forthcoming toy auctions in June 2015, collectors of fine dolls, tin soldiers, teddy bears and other old playtime companions seek to list their own items or to purchase something exciting to preserve. Looking at old toys is a good way to reminisce about whoever played with them so many decades ago. But it also connects us to the present day and the toys with which our own children play. These will be tomorrow’s collectables. Take a tour around your child’s playroom and look carefully at the toys, their colours, shape, design, functionality and the way they have been created to be handled by small fingers. Then step back in time and remember your own toys. Venturing in a timeless toy world helps us rediscover what was and how that changed over time. Chances are your own par-
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ents or grandparents relish their own happy memories of their childhood companions and the way they played with them. Toy auctions prove the interest is not merely sentimental. In April 2014, one single doll dating back to 1916 sold at auction for the incredible amount of $300,000 – a world record in the sale of collectable dolls. So collecting toys is not only a way of retaining that Peter Pan quality in our life but it can also possibly make us some extra cash in the long term. In a collector’s world, the connoisseur of tomorrow is already putting aside today’s toys with relish. Some of the most collectable toys are not necessarily the oldest ones. The collectable toy world is divided in specific categories – squeaky toys, mechanical toys, tin trucks, wooden toys, pull-along toys, lead soldiers, toy soldiers, English teddy bears, porcelain dolls, trains… all the classics which are
“Collecting toys can also possibly make us some extra cash in the long term”
CHILD MAY 2015 41
COLLECTING antique or vintage in themselves owing to their age. But more recent toy creations are gaining ground as hot favourites. Remember ‘My Little Pony’ from the 1980s? Those very first Nintendo games? All the Star Wars paraphernalia your older brother possessed? The Barbie doll, its clothes and the doll house stashed away in your dad’s garage? Those small bags full of battered Matchbox cars? Then there were the Mutant Ninja toys, the ugly looking Troll dolls, and yes even the very pink and lavender coloured Polly Pockets, 1970s robots and Fisher Price baby toys. All collectable with a capital ‘C’, perhaps not fetching high prices just yet, but surely one day. Does this mean you don’t allow your children to play with their toys because they might break tomorrow’s treasure? Far from it – toys are for playing with and it is a mortal sin to stop children playing. Keep in mind also that today’s world of abundance means there are too many of the same to make some toys collectable. Yet this very same abundance may mean that some toys are overlooked and
“You can just decide to base your collection on that one single toy you still own from your childhood, because it was too special to throw away”
42 CHILD MAY 2015
Photo by Martin Charles Hatch / shutterstock.com
HOW TO CHOOSE A TOY SUITABLE FOR COLLECTION taken so much for granted that nobody bothers to collect them at all. There are specific things to watch out for when considering starting a toy collection so on the right are some guidelines to spur you on. Scour charity shops, church bazaars, jumble sales, house sales or garage sales for something that catches your eye. You can just decide to base your collection on that one single toy you still own from your childhood, because it was too special to throw away. Don’t be ashamed that somebody will see you looking lovingly at something you recognise from the good old days – we were all kids one day and hey, you’re a collector now. Passion and loving looks go together even if you’re just looking at a squashed looking Cabbage Patch doll.
• A toy in perfect working order and excellent condition is every collector’s dream. • Only the very old or antique toy will be excused for being broken, missing a part, rusty or mended. • It will fetch more if it is still in its original box. • More of the same will definitely be worth more in the long run – a collection of French car models; a collection of American Kewpie dolls in different poses; a doll wardrobe full of Barbie clothes. • It’s not only about the toys – toy cases and boxes; toy character sweet containers; toy brand stickers; board games; toy character jigsaw puzzles, and so on. • Collectors look for curious details – original price tags, possibly showing the shop name from where it was bought; a dedication gift card with a date on it; a limited edition toy; a limited edition toy linked to a commercial advert that links back to specific propaganda; a limited edition toy linked to an important movie or TV series.
MOnEY
Put your child on the path to
RICHES All it may take is some basic financial education and wise investment decisions early in their lives, says Luca Caruana. oney is a big part of what lies behind parents’ encouragement of their children to work hard in school and earn those certificates. This is what will lead to what many aspire for their children: getting a good, well-paid job or career that offers stability and a measure of success. That would certainly secure a good life and for many parents, that’s a good-enough goal. It may take more than that, however, to give a child the solid financial backing that would see him or her through difficult times or economic woes the likes of which the world experienced so recently. And it would probably take more than that to set a child on the path to riches that perhaps go well beyond his or her parents’ own earning capacity. Your child can be financially well-off later in life through the investment decisions you make early in his or her childhood. That capital base you provide for early adulthood could prove to be the financial foundation that allows him or her to make further invest-
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ment or business choices. But it all starts with the most basic of financial principles: saving. “Saving is a habit. The earlier we start the better, and the better chance we stand that it gets ingrained in us,” says Mario Farrugia, the head of Bancassurance at Bank of Valletta.
such as giving children weekly pocket money for completing certain tasks like cleaning their room or running errands. The child should then be encouraged to save part of that pocket money in a piggy bank and eventually in a bank account. And it can all start from as early as when the child is three years old. Hopefully, by the time the child hits the teenage years, he or she will appreciate the value of money and will be saving pocket money to finance certain items that are needed as one gets older, says Mr Farrugia. Over at Banif Bank, the head of the Business Development Unit, Dirk Spiteri Lucas, has similar advice: “Education in the home teaches children how to manage money, how to budget and how to plan for future expenses by saving now.” This is the kind of education that, unfortunately, is not offered very much at schools. It is up to parents to build a mindset of saving and investing in their children. Once this is ingrained from an early age, it will be one of the most powerful things your child will have learned
“Saving is a habit. The earlier we start the better, and the better chance we stand that it gets ingrained in us”
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“Saving is important both to build up an emergency fund for when something goes wrong and also to raise the necessary funds to enable us to achieve our personal dreams such as buying a car, a house and eventually to continue living a decent life following retirement.” Being responsible parents entails educating our children about the importance of saving and to start doing so from an early age. It starts with simple things,
MOnEY
to enable him or her to master one of modern life’s biggest challenges – financial freedom. The ‘secret’ formula is... compound interest. If one invests at least 10 per cent of one’s income in a well-diversified portfolio of investments throughout one’s lifetime, even the status of ‘millionaire’ could fall within one’s grasp. Imagine this scenario. You open an investment account for your one-year-old child that provides a modest seven per cent return in a portfolio of stocks and bonds. By starting with a lump sum of €700 and adding a mere €200 to this amount on a yearly basis, after 20 years the total sum available to your son or daughter would be €10,707.88. As the table below shows, only €4,500 of that final sum would have been deposited. The rest, i.e. €6,207.88, is derived from compound interest earned over the years. now, increase the initial sum and the yearly deposits by the amount you think
you can comfortably afford, or can afford by making just a little sacrifice, and you start to get an idea of the potential earnings that derive from the simple habit of saving in the right instrument, especially if you start when your child is a mere babe in arms. Parents’ awareness of the above phenomenon is essential. Mr Farrugia again: “In order to ensure the long-term wellbeing of society, we need to ensure that we embrace the culture of saving. Irrespective of their socio-economic group, more parents need to educate their children financially from a young age. “It is proven that people with a culture of balancing what they spend with what they save can achieve a better standard of living, which they will be able to sustain even after their retirement, when their income will go down significantly.”
Year Deposit Interest
Balance
1
€700
€49
€749
2
€200
€66.45
€1,015.43
3
€200
€85.08
€1,300.51
4
€200
€105.06
€1,605.55
5
€200
€126.38
€1,931.93
6
€200
€149.23
€2,281.17
7
€200
€173.69
€2,654.85
8
€200
€199.83
€3,054.69
9
€200
€227.83
€3,482.52
10
€200
€257.79
€3,940.30
11
€200
€289.83
€4,430.12
12
€200
€324.12
€4,954.22
13
€200
€360.81
€5,515.02
14
€200
€400.05
€6,115.07
15
€200
€442.05
€6,757.13
16
€200
€486.99
€7,444.13
17
€200
€535.11
€8,179.21
18
€200
€586.55
€8,965.76
19
€200
€641.61
€9,807.36
20
€200
€700.50
€10,707.88
CHILD MAY 2015 45
MOnEY
“Education in the home teaches children how to manage money, how to budget and how to plan for future expenses by saving now”
Mr Spiteri Lucas believes there is already a good level of financial awareness among parents and that to some extent the issue is also tackled in schools through personal and social development education. “But there is always room for improvement. Financial literacy should be on the agenda of all stakeholders, who should make a concerted and aligned effort.” Most banks offer child savings plans. At BOV, for example, “for those who are cautious and have shorter term objectives, the safety of the With Profits Fund is often the best choice. “Whichever funds are selected initially can always be changed at a later stage. For instance, if you were saving for 20 years, it might be appropriate to invest in bond and equity funds in the earlier years in order to give your savings more potential for growth, but start to move them into more conservative funds as you reach your target date, hopefully locking in the gains you have already made.” Banif offers a deposit account that pays preferential rates and both the capital and the interest rate are guaranteed. Through the new Generations Account, parents and guardians can save for their children from as little as €25 a month, without any risk on rate or capital. You don’t have to be well-off yourself to teach the concepts of saving and investing. Even if you are struggling financially, you can still teach your children the way to achieving financial freedom in the long-term. Once your child masters the discipline of prudent saving, it becomes much more likely for the rest to fall into place. The information, view and opinions provided in this article solely for educational and informational purposes and should not be construed as investment advice, advice concerning particular investments or investment decisions, or tax or legal advice.
46 CHiLD MAY 2015
TOP TIPS
CYBER SAFETY: WHAT PARENTS SHOULD DO As the internet continues to form an inherent part of our social fabric and children go online at ever younger ages, parents need to arm themselves with tools to help guide their offspring through this exciting, though potentially daunting cyber-world. nternet usage by children has substantially increased the wide and sometimes scary world of the internet. The over the last five to six years. Furthermore, children amount of information and the speed at which trends reverse are also going online when they are younger. can be overwhelming, especially for parents brought up The Malta Communication Authority’s latest in a more technologically-bereft age. Parents can take “Ask friends or study ‘Children’s Internet Use and Parents’ back some measure of control by following a few other parents for easy steps. Perceptions of Their Children’s Online Experiideas on what they The foundation of all of these is keeping an open ence’, found that more than 99 per cent of chilare doing to keep dialogue. Speaking to your child about their interdren in primary and secondary schools have acinformed on the cess to the internet and 78 per cent look to their net usage is the best way to keep your child safe. matter” parents for information related to the internet. The subjects brought up by internet safety may be These facts underline the importance of parental prickly and difficult to tackle but regardless, parents need to get comfortable talking about these things with their support and guidance when using the internet. children. You should treat the online world in the same way you already treat the world offline. Parents, encourage the dialogue with ibrowsesafely.com.mt’s 6 Golden Rules your children by showing an interest in the websites and social media platforms they use. Take the initiative to use the internet Below are some steps parents can take to help their chiland learn about the latest technologies, apps and platforms. dren be safe online. Platforms like ibrowsesafely.com.mt are a useful tool for parents 1. Keep an open dialogue with your child to support and simplify this type of research. 2. Set up parental controls Discuss the benefits and dangers of the internet and ask your 3. Spend time with your child using the technology they children about what they do to keep themselves safe. The aim use of this is to make sure your child will turn to you if they face a 4. Agree boundaries and set rules difficult or abusive situation. Take the initiative to remain in 5. Keep up to date with technology touch with the cyberworld and ask friends or other parents for 6. Pay attention to age ratings when choosing activities ideas on what they are doing to keep informed on the matter. for your child For more detail on each of the 6 Golden Rules, please visit ibrowsesafely.com.mt. This is an initiative born within VodaIn the tumultuous and every-changing cyberworld, parents fone Malta Foundation, as part of the Vodafone Group initiacan take action to try and support their children in navigating tive Digital Parenting.
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CHiLD MAY 2015 49
schoolinG Getting into constant trouble at school may be one of the factors behind dropping out early.
WHY DO THEY QUIT? Education authorities have lately been focusing more effort on the so-called early school leavers: students who drop out of further education or training once they finish fifth form. Mark Said looks at why many of them become quitters. eter enjoys spending much of his time in front of a monitor playing video games. Even if he has to go to school the next day, you will find him exactly in the same spot well beyond midnight. he drags his feet to school every morning, laden with weariness because he has not had enough sleep, and is placed right in front of the classroom
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because the teachers notice that he struggles to remain awake. When the scholastic year nears its end, his results take a nosedive. apparently, he is completely devoid of motivation to become a better student. his teachers and classmates find it difficult to get to know Peter since he is an introvert, mainly because he is tired all the time. When faced with the question of what future he wishes to pursue after
finishing school, Peter replies: “i do not need schooling. i want to become a computer gaming engineer.” Peter’s case is not an isolated one. There are many like him out there. Why do so many students decide to drop out of school and jettison education, to end up living aimlessly like a candle in the wind? here are what to my mind are some of the main causes.
LACK OF MOTIVATION When students do not find sufficient opportunity to succeed and progress, they often lose interest in studying. Teachers and parents need to introduce positive encouragement in the classroom and at home in order to help the child develop the intention of furthering their education. When they do not have chilD May 2015 51
schoolinG teachers or parents helping them to discover such motivation, they view school as merely a waste of time.
POOR GUIDELINES FROM PARENTS i often wonder why some students could not care less about their progress. and then i get an insight into their home environment; sooner or later the truth will out. some students indeed do not have a proper upbringing. sometimes they have to play adult themselves and take care of their younger siblings. others have parents who enjoy going out at night and forget the fact that they have offspring. or who do not value education highly, having themselves quit school and perhaps earned a living doing odd jobs. sometimes students have their future pre-planned and are pushed by their parents to quit schooling and help in the family business, whether it’s an agricultural holding or a shop.
“Who would want to spend hours every day being insulted, threatened and ridiculed?” PROBLEMS WITH TEACHERS When students repeatedly encounter problems with a certain teacher or headmaster, they lose that sense of security so fundamental to their education. students who are at loggerheads with their teachers feel they are being picked on or marginalised and sometimes suffer from a sense of inferiority. ongoing problems with superiors at the workplace often result in workers seeking alternative employment; a student who is continually in trouble at school can easily end up being one of those who quit early.
BULLYING cruel comments in the corridor and playground or insulting posts on Facebook and other social networks can transform a student into a ‘victim of bullying’. an ugly experience indeed. it may not just lead to students feeling rejected and inferior but to dropping out, or, worse, harming themselves. Bullying takes place from primary school all the way up to the tertiary level and beyond. i can appreciate why these students reject school. Who would want to spend hours every day being insulted, threatened and ridiculed? Why did Peter drop out of education? it may be that he did not have a parent at home to insist with him that it was indispensable for him to carry on with his studies. Perhaps he had problems with his teachers due to the fact that he never finished his homework. he lacked motivation, but could he help it? only Peter knows that. But there are ways and means of assisting students on the verge of abandoning their studies. Even a small effort or a single word of timely encouragement could make the whole difference.
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Nestlé Materna – Nutrition during breastfeeding
Princess saved by a knight!
A healthy well balanced diet is important during breastfeeding. Although a supplement does not replace a well-balanced diet, it can provide some extra insurance on those days when taking care of your new baby keeps you from eating as well as you like. It is important to choose a multivitamin that is especially formulated for use during pregnancy and breastfeeding, that supports your nutritional requirements adequately as a nursing mother. Nestlé Materna helps provide the vitamins and minerals you need during all stages of your pregnancy. After pregnancy, Nestlé Materna provides both calcium and vitamin D to help meet the nutritional needs while breastfeeding. Available in Pharmacies.
Merlin Publishers have just published a Maltese translation of the legend of St George and the dragon: Il-leġġenda ta’ San Ġorġ u d-Dragun. This story also gave rise, in the Catalonia region, to World Book Day, as legend has it that drops of the slain dragon’s blood turned into roses, which were then given together with books as a token of love and friendship. This new translation, by award-winning author Pierre J. Mejlak, retells in Maltese the story of St George in language accessible to younger children. Fully illustrated throughout, this is a stunning book that will have children aged 6 upwards enjoying the breathless adventure of the princess saved by the knight.
A perfect match
Sauvinex haute couture collection Suavinex, the experts in baby care products, have developed a new, beautiful collection of bottles, soothers and soother clips made from high-quality materials, with finishes inspired by the latest trends in jewellery. For enquiries contact T’Angelina on 21418218.
NUK Active Snacker Perfect for travel or at home, the NUK Active Snacker offers a mess-free mobile snacking. It’s soft, silicone flaps are gentle on little hands, and keep snacks in. It’s soft removable handles fit perfectly into your little one’s hands or in a car’s cup holder once removed. The NUK Active Snacker is BPA free and dishwasher-safe. Available in three different colours and is ideal for children from three years onwards.
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Some things bring out the best in each other, like Persil NonBio and Comfort Pure. Use them together for fresh, pure and gentle results that sensitive skin loves. Why choose Comfort Pure? When clothes are washed their fibres can start to tangle and bobble. Comfort Pure keeps fibres smoother so clothes feel soft and gentle. It’s dermatologically tested with skincare research recognised by the British Skin Foundation. It’s the recommended choice for delicate skin.
Summer fun at St Edward’s College Summer School for Boys and Girls aged between 3 and 13 years. Eight weeks of fun packed activities including Mini-Tennis, Dodge-Ball, Water Games, Hockey, Basketball, Gardening, Cooking, Face-Painting, Quizzes, Educational Outings, Treasure Hunts and much more. Summer School is between July 6 and September 11. One can choose a 5 or 3 day programme. For further details kindly contact The Marketing Department on 2788 1199 (ext 3) or marketing@stedwards.edu.mt / schoolsec@stedwards.edu.mt.
PRODUCTS & SERVICES
SHOPWINDOW Colief for Colic Colief is the product of choice for colic. It is natural and contains the enzyme lactase which breaks down the lactose in milk. It is clinically proven to reduce colic-related crying time. It is added to breast milk or formula milk, prior to feeding, and it break downs lactose, making it more easily digested by babies, resulting in happier babies, with much less crying. Colief also helps mothers continue breastfeeding, without the need to switch to low-lactose formula feeds. So whilst other colic-related products help to alleviate the symptoms of colic, Colief prevents colic!
Feed baby with Disney products Munchkin is proud to introduce its Disney baby range, a beautifully designed range of joint branded premium feeding lines which integrates the rich Disney heritage of character and storytelling into imaginative products, invoking a deep emotional connection that Mum can share with baby every moment of the day. Munchkin Disney Baby includes a range of spill proof cups, training cups, flip straw cups, dining sets and door bouncers with Disney characters ranging from Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Tigger, Winnie the Pooh and Monsters. Munchkin Disney Baby is found in leading supermarket, pharmacies and baby shops and is exclusively distributed by Alfred Gera & Sons Ltd, tel: 2144 6205/6.
Pampers Baby Dry Every mum recognises that a night of quality, uninterrupted sleep is beneficial for babies as they wake up rested, cheerful and ready to start their day. Securing the best possible night’s sleep is important, but babies don’t just sleep through; they need a helping hand. Pampers Baby Dry have unique double dry zones; a new soft absorbing layer and a core which locks in wetness better than the next leading nappy for up to 12 hours of dryness. So your baby stays dry and comfortable throughout the night, every night. Pampers Baby Dry; every good morning needs up to 12 hours of dryness. For local trade enquiries, one may call VJ Salomone (Marketing) 2298 3201. www.vjsm.com.mt
Make potty training easier with Huggies! Does the thought of potty training bring you out in a cold sweat or are you taking it in your stride? Potty training experts Huggies know that helping your little one understand the difference between being wet and being dry is crucial. That’s why Pull-Ups training pants have unique fading designs when wet. Toddlers quickly understand that to keep the pictures, they have to use the potty – that’s the power of visual learning! Huggies Pull-Ups will help turn your little one into a big kid. HUGGIES The little things are everything…
PRodUCTS & SERViCES
SHOPwindow ANNABEL KARMEL – New organic babyfood Annabel Karmel, the famous author of ‘‘mumpreneur’’, has always been passionate about creating delicious and wholesome meals for babies. Annabel’s tried and tested recipes have also grown into a delicious, nutritious range of organic Baby Purees and Sauces. Her quick and nutritious pouches are the perfect solution for busy days and taste just like homemade. Call us on 2132 0338 for more information.
Sma Progress Kids – Mothers’ first choice for toddlers Growing-up milk such as SMA Progress Kids provides all the necessary nutrients even through phases of fussy eating. it is specifically designed for toddlers aged 1 to 4 years. it provides a high source of iron deficiency to which toddlers aged 1 to 4 years are extremely vulnerable. Call us on 2132 0338 for more information.
The new Okaidi collection
FAER Ambienti: rooms for play and study The FAER Play collection boasts endless solutions for all room types, personalising the room with its new colours and particular design to suit every taste. Although the collection ranges from different shapes to sport oriented design, its colours can cater for the younger generation as well as teenagers. FAER Ambienti implements and maintains Quality Management Systems all throughout its production. it uses materials that are child-friendly with low formaldehyde emissions and refuses to work with cheap toxic materials. These FAER procedures enforce long durability for every bedroom created. FAER (www.faer.it) is a subsidiary company of LUBE kitchens, which is one of the leading kitchen companies worldwide brought to you by Carmelo Delia of Valley Road, Birkirkara.
Find the latest trends at affordable prices. Stylish fashion and practical clothing from 0 to 14 years old. dress at €27.99. Visit the Okaidi store at The Plaza, Level 0, Sliema – Tel: 2131 1820. www.okaidi.com.
Tumbletots brings learning to life through play Tumble Tots allows children the opportunity to participate in fun physical play in a safe and caring environment using specially designed, colourful equipment. The programme aims to help children develop skills for life and contributes towards their growth into confident, healthy adults. For a healthy lifestyle and lots of fun, Tumble Tots is the must-do activity. A number of videos on YouTube help explain all that happens in the fun-filled world of Tumble Tots: www.youtube.com/tumbletotsmalta.
Stelatria – SOS cream for minor rash and bites Playgro to stimulate baby A baby’s first years of life are filled with exploration as they begin to learn about themselves and the world in which they live. Playgro understands the importance of play in this developmental journey and create fun, innovative toys that engage baby’s senses and stimulate their imagination. The Zany Zoo Playgro range offers fashion colours and fabrics, such as hi-pile fabric, soft velours and wide corduroys to fresh colours including fire-engine red, caramel brown, lemonade yellow, electric-train blue and sky blue to offer visual stimulation. Exclusively distributed by Alfred Gera & Sons Ltd. on tel: 2144 6205/6.
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Mustela’s Stelatria recovery cream has been specially designed to soothe localised irritations and redness (rash) on the face and body. Typical irritations are seen around the mouth due to drooling of saliva, dummies, or even babies sucking on their thumbs, or in skin-folds, such a the neck, under the arms, between legs and behind their knees. Stelatria is a very effective, steroid-free cream which helps soothes these irritations. it is based on a unique combination of copper, zinc and manganese, all of which are known to heal dry and irritated skin, and Bioecolia, which is yet another patented ingredient of Mustela, which helps limit the spread of bacteria and infection of these irritations. it is also ideal for insect bites, burns and chickenpox. Stelatria can be used by newborns, babies and children and is applied 2-3 times a day. Knowing that it’s Mustela, you know that it’s the best and safest product for you and your baby.