Food for Thought

Your Happy Chemicals

Dopamine, Endorphin, Oxytocin, Serotonin You can enjoy more happy chemicals if you know what turns them on. In the state of nature, happy chemicals turn on to meet survival needs. Whatever met your needs in youth triggered happy chemicals and paved...
Food for Thought

Digital Devices and Family Time

Parents who spend a lot of time on their phones or watching television during family activities such as meals, playtime and bedtime could influence their long-term relationships with their children. To learn more about the impact of your screen time...
Food for Thought

Helping Children with Frightening World Events

As events of violence and terrorism are more common and regularly reported in the news, an increasing number of children are being affected by exposure to these frightening stories. There are a number of strategies parents can use to ‘protect’ their...
Food for Thought

Beauty - The Real Picture

Beauty – The Real Picture is a program for girls aged 10-12 years and will be held in the upcoming school holidays. We know that self-esteem and body image are prevalent issues for pre-teen and teenage girls, particularly as we live in a society...
Food for Thought

Identifying Bullying

Sometimes, unkind behaviour may not be ‘bullying’. The following article discusses the differences between unkindness and bullying and how defining the two correctly can help build resilience in our children and teach them how to cope with conflict...
Food for Thought

Equipping Students with Coping Skills

Developing a child’s emotional wellbeing has become an area of much interest in recent times. However, it’s quite natural for a parent to want to step in and relieve the distress that accompanies any child’s feelings of being treated unfairly. But,...
Food for Thought

Beauty - The Real Picture

Beauty – The Real Picture is a program for girls aged 10-12 years and will be held in the September school holidays. We know that self-esteem and body image are prevalent issues for pre-teen and teenage girls, particularly as we live in a society...
Food for Thought

Building Emotional Resilience

If you’ve had a child at school for more than a few years, chances are that there have been times when you have considered whether to ‘step in’ when your child is experiencing difficulty. Working out what requires your intervention can be tricky. An...
Food for Thought

A Parent's Guide to Surviving the Teen Years

When you consider that the teen years are a period of intense growth, not only physically but emotionally and intellectually, it's understandable that it's a time of confusion and upheaval for many families. Teens are often energetic, thoughtful and...
Food for Thought

Reducing Plastic as a Family

Children cannot be expected to self-regulate the accumulation of stuff. Instead, they learn through modelling. As adults, we have to be the ones steering the ship. We need to set boundaries around the stuff we bring into our homes, particularly in...
Food for Thought