Andrew Martin - How to Help Your Child Fly Through Life: The 20 Big Issues

Are you agonising over whether to put your child in childcare?

Do you wonder whether your child will be ready for school?

Are you comfortable with your choice of school?

Whats the best way to help your child survive the pressures of big exams?

Based on years of research and evidence, Andrew Martin weighs up 20 of the biggest issues facing parents and their children. With common sense and humour, How to Help Your Child Fly Through Life will help you make the most important decisions for your children on:

• Childcare and pre-school
• Preparing your child for school
• Getting your child into reading and writing
• Selective, single sex and co-ed schooling
• Coaching, tutoring and homework
• Helping children deal with challenge and pressure
• Extra-curricular activities, including part-time work and sport
• Preparing your child for big exams and assessments
• Choosing school subjects and a career
• Going to college or university
• Having a gap year.

If you want the best for your children from cradle to graduation, this book will help you help your children be the best and happiest they can be.

HOW TO HELP YOUR CHILD FLY THROUGH LIFE

Sometimes I find myself paralysed by the decisions and choices I have to make about my childrens education. It seems as soon as I make a decision, I hear a story about a child or family or school that makes me think my decision maybe isnt the right one. I then go back to the drawing board. After re-analysing all the pros and cons, Ill then stick to my original decision, decide something different, or throw my hands up in frustration and put off making a decision until I absolutely have to.

Does this sound familiar? Are you often confused and even bewildered by the many important educational issues that you have to make decisions about? Do you wonder whether youre making the right educational decisions for your child? Are you making the most of your educational decisions?

I do a lot of work in schools and I know that most parents struggle with educational decisions and choices. There is a lot of anecdote, hearsay and misinformation that is sometimes the only basis for parents to make decisions for their children. Unfortunately, on precisely the big issues that parents need good evidence and straight information, theyre not getting it. This book tackles these big issues and does so from an evidence-based perspective. It asks the question: what does good research tell us about such issues and how can this help us make better decisions?

What do I mean by fly through life?

When I read the title of this book to my five-year-old son and showed him the cover, he got very excited about the prospect of me teaching him to fly. Understandably, he was disappointed when I explained that I couldnt actually teach him to fly. I think it was at this point that he observed that there were more pages in his two-volume illustrated edition of Winnie the Pooh than in my book. Ouch!

The title of this book is not meant to imply that your child will fly through life with every success and no problems, hiccups or setbacks. I use the concept of flight for another reason. I use it because life is a lot like flying (in the aeroplane sense). Some people love it. Some people fear it. Some people are bored by it. Some people just ride it out neither bored nor enthused by it. Our aim as parents (and teachers) is to nurture children who love to fly.

To help kids fly and enjoy the ride, there is a need for a good pilot (i.e. good parents or caregivers and teachers) and a sound plane (i.e. a safe and supportive home and an effective class and school). Both pilot and plane need to function effectively to get the plane safely in the air and to safely land it on time and at the right destination (i.e. effectively guiding children into adulthood). There is often anticipated and unanticipated turbulence that needs to be weathered (just as there are tough times in life that must be endured). It is also important to have all of ones luggage arrive on time and in the right place (i.e. reaching adulthood with all the appropriate skills to function well in life).

There are fundamental principles of physics that keep the plane safely at 40,000 feet, just as there are fundamental principles that help our children fly through life. This book unpacks these principles as they relate to twenty of the biggest educational issues and decisions facing parents and kids today.

Is there always a right decision or a single answer?

Being realistic, often there is no one right decision just different consequences and implications for the decisions you make. A major theme of this book is to help you make the most of your educational decisions . If you are fair-minded, seriously consider good information, sensibly balance up the different arguments for and against, think in the interests of your child, and err on the side of optimism, then you are doing the best you can. Give yourself full credit for this.

If youve got more than one child, you know how different each can be. It is quite astounding that although from the same parents and growing up in the same environment, your kids can be like chalk and cheese. Therefore, what suits one child might not suit the other. All those answers and solutions you found raising your first child might not work for your second. That really clever strategy which other parents use to get their kids to do something might not work for your child.

Different educational environments and experiences suit different kids. In fact, a lot of this book is about helping you develop the skills to make educational decisions that are right for your child. At certain times the conclusions I provide are more general, but if you know that on specific issues your child has particular needs, strengths or weaknesses, you will need to factor these in when making your decisions.

I confess: Im a researcher, a psychologist, and a parent

As you read this book, you need to know where Im coming from. Im an educational researcher and psychologist specialising in educational psychology. My main angle in this book is to have a good and close look at what the research tells us about the hot educational issues facing parents and kids today.

I have tried to be very comprehensive in my review of the research. Over a thousand studies, research reports and reviews have informed this book (all these are listed in the Notes section of this book and then more fully at www.ajmartinresearch.com ). Having said this, I havent reviewed all the research, and in fairness it is impossible to do that there will always be some studies or clusters of research that get overlooked. Although I have mainly focused on research conducted after 1990, I do include major studies that were conducted before that. I should also say that my research leaning is in the direction of psychology. Ive also included case studies which will give you an insight into how these issues play out in individual students lives. When reading these case studies, be mindful that Ive adjusted details to ensure anonymity of the students involved.