SCMP Column: Between The Lines

High-quality children’s picture books are the building blocks to a lifelong love of reading. When I disparage commercial products in book form that are based on cartoon characters, my friends protest, insisting their children love storybook versions of their favourite animated TV series. I counter that recognising and enjoying stories about familiar television characters is […]

Many will be surprised to learn that Hong Kong has the world’s lowest rate of family literacy – a term used to describe parents (or extended family members and other adults) and children learning together. Just 12 per cent of children in Hong Kong have that experience compared to an international average of 37 per […]

Animated feature films have come a long way since Walt Disney’s 1937Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. For films in the past two decades, the technical advances of animation are rivalled only by the increasing depth of storytelling. Like many children and parents in Hong Kong and abroad, our family recently watched and loved the […]

  Most people celebrate the New Year on January 1 or the Lunar New Year in January or February. It is a perfect time to set intentions, try new things and to make new commitments to be our best selves. But for me the real New Year begins in late August when the children go […]

There’s plenty of time for children to read Harper Lee’s books, so why not let them tackle more age-appropriate fare, says Annie Ho. Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman has been flying off the shelves of bookshops and libraries around the world, and I wonder whether the copies being sold in Hong Kong should include a label […]

Financial literacy is as important to teach our children as any other kind of literacy, and yet many of us shy away from candid conversations about money with our children. In so doing, we miss an opportunity to instil family values and to cultivate positive traits such as generosity, patience and perseverance. When I lived […]

Some children need a good example to follow when it comes to reading.       Over the summer, every student, administrator and teacher at my son’s high school will read Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi. Carefully selected, I suspect, for the themes of race and identity, this book should ignite conversations and spark […]

Some parents think reading is for the elite or that their own tastes in reading lack sophistication, but children who see parents enjoying reading are likelier to develop good reading habits     Visitors at last year’s Hong Kong Book Fair. Photo: Sam Tsang     It is well known that while our children don’t […]

Every one of us starts life as an egocentric baby, concerned only with having our own needs fulfilled. Somewhere along the road to adulthood, we all become less self-centred, to varying degrees. Some children are so protected from growing pains that they never let go of their self-centredness. Others grow up in an environment that […]

Homework is stressful for children and leaves them little time to do more constructive things, experts say – but parents like to see their children doing some. Photo: Sherry Lee   Homework is so inextricably linked to school it’s hard to think of one without the other. But increasingly, educators and child development specialists are […]