How to make your kid do well

[fishfinger]

according to the times today, this is the reasearch that show how a kid can achieve academically:
"1. The child has highly educated parents.

2. The child?s parents have high socioeconomic status.

3. The child?s mother was 30 or older at the time of her first child?s birth.

4. The child had low birth weight.

5. The child?s parents speak English in the home.

6. The child is adopted.

7. The child?s parents are involved in the PTA.

8. The child has many books in his home.

And the eight factors that are not:

1. The child?s family is intact.

2. The child?s parents recently moved into a better neighbourhood.

3. The child?s mother didn?t work between birth and kindergarten.

4. The child attended Head Start. ( american literacy shceme for underpriveleged kids)

5. The child?s parents regularly take him to museums.

6. The child is regularly spanked. (??!!))

7. The child frequently watches television.

8. The child?s parents read to him nearly every day.

To over generalise a bit, the first list describes things that parents are; the second list describes things that parents do. Parents who are well-educated, successful, and healthy tend to have children who do well in school tests, but it doesn?t seem to much matter whether a child is taken to museums or frequently read to or plopped in front of the television. For parents who are obsessed with child-rearing technique this may be sobering news. The reality is that technique appears to be highly overrated.

But this is not to say that parents don?t matter.

Kama - I don't particularly agree with the mother being over 30. Their rationale though is that a mother who has her first child over 30 is more likely to be highly educated and have had a career. I had ds1 at 28 but I am very well educated and moved up very quickly in my career before I had him. Also, my mother had me at 21 and as I say, I am 'highly educated' - it's a generalisation though isn't it and like everything people will fit or not fit with it.

I'm not sure I believe that birth weight has anything to do with it really!

OMG!
Apparently it is highly likely that i am a bad parent because ds was of a low birth weight.
According to this study, it is "usually" a mother who abuses her baby in utero by drinking smoking and generally mistreating it. I am more likely to be poor, producing a poor child!
Well let me tell you that i must be of the minority of mothers who just happens to not and never have smoked, not touched alcohol for 3 years prior to conception, took folic acid for 12 months before planning my baby and i just was unlucky to have suffered pre eclampsia!

I suppose i am just shocked by this information because it never even occurred to me that this was some thing that the maternity care team may have thought/considered to be true of me/us!

I scored 6/8, then 3/8.
It is a very interesting article having said that, very informative

Read it this morning on the tube. Fascinating article. Breathed a sigh of relief because it lets me off the hook for not having gone to all the mother & baby/toddler groups that I hate so much!!!!!

Wonder about low birth weight and adoption, could it be that we parents are prepared to go the extra mile to make up for a "disadvantaged" start?

ooops crossposted

I can't even be bothered to read that article! There are so many silly variables that in the end it wouldn't be telling you much... I really can't see how being over 30 helps... it's just a bunch of silly averages!

Bugsy, open wide and put your mouth firmly back on the hook!! Academically, it may not mean a thing. SOCIALLY, it makes a difference. It is great if child is bright but if they dont have the confidence to communicate, whats the point?
Im off to pick Einstein up. Ta ra.

In terms of statistics we can say that air kills, all who have breath would die. It ahs always been like that, no exception

Bugsy, my thoughts exactly. And I'm breathing a sigh of relief that I don't have to spend the next 10 years traipsing round museums every holiday.

Guardianangel, if they can't communicate then how will anyone know if they are bright? (Still skipping through day happy in the thought I haven't neglected my children by not doing monkey music!!!!!!)

Scoff, Scoff. Communicate in the real world not just at home.