It Takes A Village

Auckland couple Peter and Sandra Altman have been involved in the Toughlove organisation for 25 years, focussing on providing ongoing support for parents and teenagers going through difficult times. They have a checklist to run through to help parents and teens navigate a harmonious Christmas period and the long summer ahead. And the Altmans say if you're at the end of your tether through unacceptable teen behaviour, give TOUGHLOVE a call (on 0800 868 445).

Psychologist Sarb Johal talks with Kathryn about when kids have to move home. It can be for a variety of reasons, and stability is the ideal for better outcomes. How does it affect the relationship between parents and children, and what support do kids need to make relationships when they change school as well as maintaining old friendships?

Educator Joseph Driessen on how to get your children to do the right thing with a 5 step method. This will help the family who has a child who always keeps everyone waiting because they are disorganised, or the whanau trying to convince their teenage to do some homework.

One working mother's tips on where to cut corners. Learn to live with chaos is advice Australian journalist, Wendy Tuohy wishes she had believed! The Melbourne mother-of-three and editor of Fairfax's Daily Life has recently written a piece on what she has learned during her 14 years as a working mum, juggling job demands, home-life and children's after school activities.

Once your baby's on the move, the easiest way to identify potential hazards around the house is to do a video tour with your phone held at knee height, says Nicola Woollaston, author of the new book Nurturing Your Baby's Potential. Nicola Woollaston is a mother of four, trained early childhood educator and the team leader of Starship Hospital's play specialists. She tells Kathryn Ryan she meets many people who have had little contact with babies when they become parents themselves and her book offers some advice.

How much sleep do teenagers really need and why do they feel the urge to stay up so late? Teenagers need more sleep than adults and their circadian rhythms are actually different, says parenting expert Nathan Wallis. On average, a teenager's body clock moves forward around two hours so, effectively, we can think of Kiwi teens as operating on Sydney time - "they're two to three hours out from the rest of us." He gives parents some tips.

Currently, 6,000 New Zealand kids are getting homeschooled, not including those enrolled at the correspondence school Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu. Educating a child at home can allow a parent to "light a fire in their hearts and minds" without pressure or competition, says Siobhan Porter, who has homeschooled all five of her kids. Siobhan is the director of Auckland Home Educators - a support and advocacy group for homeschoolers. She and education consultant Natalie Donaldson - who has also homeschooled five kids - talk to Kathryn Ryan about their experience.

Educationalist, Frances Adlam with tips for parents on how to help their children love reading and writing. Her book Raise Your Child to Read and Write - aims to give caregivers strategies to engage pre-schoolers and primary school entrants to get a good start to a lifetime of reading. Simple things help, including thinking about how your talk to children and encouraging them to scribble, draw and paint, these are all building blocks which lead to writing.

Having a child who turns their nose up at a variety of foods, which often includes fruit and vegetables, can be a huge stress for parents trying to give their child a balanced diet. How can you tell whether it's a fussy eating phase or a restricted eating problem? And if it persists how and where do you seek help? We get some advice from Massey University nutrition lecturer Dr Cathryn Conlon and Massey University speech and language clinician Emily Jones, who runs the ACTIVEating Clinic which treats children with restrictive eating.

School holidays are almost half way through, and some parents may be scratching their heads as to what to do. Let the kids watch as much Youtube as they want? Make them get outside and play? Or - shock horror - get them to do some jobs around the house? Teacher, author, public speaker and CEO of Spectrum Education Karen Boyes has some ideas for fun family challenges.

Speech and language therapist Christian Wright talks about the importance of play in pre-school language development and shares five effective strategies to support this.

Body image, anxiety, self-harm, social media, homework, partying, curfews, respect... It's not easy being a teenage girl and it's not easy parenting a teenage girl. Child psychologist Sarah Hughes - who has worked with hundreds of teenage girls and their families - shares some advice from her new book Skip the Drama.

Kiwi mother Emma Gilkison has written a memoir about the devastating discovery at a routine twelve week scan that her unborn baby had a fatal condition. His heart was growing outside his body due to an extremely rare condition called ectopia cordis. Emma and her partner Roy were faced with two heartbreaking options: end the pregnancy or continue in the knowledge their baby would die. Former Sunday Star Times and Dominion Post journalist Emma Gilkison tells Kathryn Ryan why her book The Heart of Jesus Valentino, named for their baby boy, is ultimately a hopeful one.

Parents need to focus less on enforcing rules and more on developing their kids' independence if they want to help them handle real-world pressures, says family coach and author Yvonne Godfrey.