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Child Care News for Parents & Carers
May 24, 2017 |
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Welcome, this week we ask whether handwriting is still relevant for young children growing up in the digital age, also the benefits of dramatic play for developing minds. Plus, findings from our 2017 Child Care and Workforce Participation Survey.
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| Is handwriting obsolete in the digital age? |
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When was the last time you wrote something down? Not just in your phone or on a keyboard, but a handwritten note or letter?
In today's technology driven world, it increasingly feels like handwriting is becoming something of an old-fashioned
skill.
Finland, a country known for its pioneering approach to education, scrapped cursive writing in its classrooms
in 2016, opting to teach only print handwriting and to spend more time teaching keyboard skills. And from 2017,
over a two to three year period, NAPLAN is moving from being a paper-based test to an online computer-based assessment.
Though cursive writing is still favoured in many schools in Australia, with the increasing shift to keyboard
and technology-led learning, what are the benefits of cursive writing in the classroom?
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| Employment and Workforce Participation |
| 2017 Survey Results
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An important element of our annual Child Care and Workforce Participation Survey is to consider the decisions parents and carers make about returning to work after they have children and how they balance (or don't) the competing pressures of work and family life.
This is important, as it gives us a snapshot of how open workplaces are to flexible work and whether these
so called 'family friendly' arrangements are actually helping working families.
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| Be dramatic: the many benefits of dramatic play |
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Dramatic play is something that young children have engaged in forever. But as children's lives become increasingly scheduled,
dramatic play is something that may be lost in the day-to-day rush.
As a busy parent, dusting off your inner child to engage in "let's pretend" with your little ones can often
be hard. But there is a myriad of benefits of dramatic play that will remain with a child throughout their lives.
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