1.Parents’ attitude to after-school calsses

It’s no secret that after-school activities do wonders for a child’s development. They are linked to improving social skills, grades and relationships with others. What’s more, after-school programmes and activities also give kids a chance to be themselves, free of the structure they face at school.

Chinese parents are very generous when it comes to educating their children. Many also want their children to take after-school activities. Their children either learn a musical instrument or other academic classes that will equip themselves for peer competition. They believe that the more time and money you spend on after-school class, the more competitive you will become.

However, my homestay don’t support after-school classes. “Since kids spend their day primarily sitting down and following a schedule at school, when they get home it is important for them to have time to be creative, get moving and do something they enjoy,”

2.  Parents’ attitude to pocket money

Children always appreciate money. Some of them like buying books and food. Others may like listening to the sound from their piggy banks.

As parents, we might as well make good use of this opportunity to:

*Help the children understand the value of money and how to use the money responsibly.

*Cultivate a spirit of independence and learning to make a decision on one’s own.

*Educate children in this very important life skill.

My homestay in the UK, they don’t think it is wise to give too much pocket money to their daughter. If the child wants more money, he/ she can make work for it. In addition, It is also important that children should know money never comes easy.

3.  Surf   the   Internet

According to our research,   in the UK around a quarter of parents are concerned about whom their children is in contact with online.   There appears to be an increase in the number of parents of 5-15s who are concerned about aspects of their child’s internet use; for example, whom their children are  in contact with online (26%) and the content on the websites that their child visits  (28%). While it is likely that these increases are attributable to a change in the survey’s focus, from a child’s use of media ‘at home’ in previous years to both ‘at home and elsewhere’ in 2014, it is also possible that parents’ concerns about particular aspects of their child’s media use may have increased.

We also find that   nine in ten parents mediate their child’s use of the internet in some way .Parents of 5-15s use a combination of approaches to mediate^[1] their child’s access and use of online content and services, including:

• using technical tools
• regularly talking to their children about managing online risks
• supervising their child
• having rules (about access to the internet and/or behaviours while online  )

While in China, parents are also concerned about the safety of surfing on internet.  They don’t want their children   to go to internet cafes , some parents prefer their children to surf the  internet at home. And parents   are also worried the real identity of their children’s friends online. Chinese parents also negotiate with their children about the rules of surfing on internet and playing computer games:

• the frequency of surfing on internet
• the length of time spent online
• surfing on internet as a reward for getting a good score

4.Disagreement on opinions

In Britain, when parents and   their children have different opinions, children can speak their voice and parents will speak their opinions. After realizing his wrong behaviour, the child will say “oh, I am wrong”.  For example, if parents ask a   child to come back before 10:00pm.the kid knows it but he come late on purpose. His parents will punish him or her(Maybe he or she  will be grounded next time).If a child is right, his parents will agree with him.

In China, some parents will listen to their children’s voice, while others always  force their children to do as they say.

First, 6 Different Family Types

1. Nuclear Family

Nuclear families, also known as elementary or traditional families, consist of two parents (usually married or common law) and their children. Nuclear families may have one or more children who are biological or adopted, but the main idea is that the parents are raising their kids together in the family home. Many families in China are like this type.

2. Single Parent

Single parent families consist of one parent with one or more kids. In these cases, the parent either never married, is widowed, or divorced. In China, this kind of family really extists.

with the development of Chinese society, there are more this kind of family types.

3. Extended Family

Extended families are families with two or more adults who are related through blood or marriage, usually along with children. Now in China we have fewer this kind of family.

4.Childless Family

Childless families are families with two parents who cannot have or don’t want kids. Generally speaking, most Chinese families have one or more than one child. But this kind of family also exists in some big cities such as Peking and Shanghai.

5.Stepfamily

Stepfamily is when two separate families merge into one. This can go several different ways, like two divorced parents with one or more children blending families, or one divorced parent with kids marrying someone who has never been married and has no kids. Because of the rise of divorcing rate, this kind of family is increasing. Some families can live in harmony with each other, while others  can’t get on well with family members.

6. Grandparent Family                                  A grandparent family is when one or more grandparent is raising their grandchild or grandchildren. Obviously, this is rare in Britain because grandparents prefer to live seperately with their children. But in China it is common.

Today our group leader interviewed our teacher Nancy. Our interview focuses on such questions:

1 What’s your attitude to your childen’s study? Will you punish them if they didn’t do well in exams?

2 How often do you give your children pocket money? How can they get pocket money?

3 Do you permit your children to play computer games ?What if the children are addicted to the Internet?

4 If there are disagreements between you and your children, how do you deal with this problem?

5 Do you agree to send children to after schoolclasses or activities?

We found Nancy pays a lot of attention to her children’s study just like we Chinese parents, but unlike some parents in China, Nancy never punishes her children just because they didn’t do good job in academic study, because she trusts her children . If they are not interested in maths, she isn’t going to force them to give up their interest in arts to learn math. For pocket money, as  same as the situation in China, parents always give the children pocket money as reward for their help doing housework. At last she told us if her children are interested in subjects or sports and they would like to take , of course she supported. Most parents in China send their children to take courses even if the children are not willing to.

How to bring up children

Topic: The simlarities and differnces of bringing up children between China and the UK

Hello! Everyone! Welcome to our blog! There are five members in our group, and they are Grace, Angel, Rainbow, Amy and Lily.

What we are going to research is how British parents bring up their children and find out the differences between China and the UK.  There are some aspects we are going to talk about:

First, different family types;

Second, parents’ attitude towards study;

Third, parents’ attitudes in daily issues:

1. pocket money

2. surf the Internet

3. disagreement on opinions

4. after-school classes.

We hope we can discover more about the way British parents bring up their children and learn more.