Monday, December 14, 2015

DECEMBER 14 - 16

FOR GRADES 9 - 12 ONLY:

Monday,
December 14
Tuesday, December 15
Wednesday, December 16
8:00 – 10:00
Math
Spanish
Science
BREAK
BREAK
BREAK
10:30 – 12:30
Language Arts
Social Studies

Monday, December 7, 2015

DECEMBER 7 - 11

10 TIPS TO INCREASE SELF CONFIDENCE IN TEENAGERS

Teenage is like a twilight zone, because your darling now is neither a child nor an adult. Most teenagers are confused, insecure and conscious about themselves during their teens.

What should be done to help teenagers in such a crucial phase?

As a parent, you are the one, who can tremendously help increase your teenager’s self confidence. How you mould your teenager today will decide the course of his or her life tomorrow. It is, therefore, extremely important to build a positive self esteem in your teenager.

What Is Self Confidence?

It is no secret that self confidence proves to be the most important key to one’s success in life. Self confidence is how one feels about himself or herself.
It affects the way one acts in public.
Also it clearly reflects the way one conducts himself or herself.
A healthy sense of one’s self plays a crucial role in forming one’s overall personality.
A positive development of one’s self confidence directly affects one’s happiness quotient.

Why Is Self Confidence Necessary In Teenagers?

Self confidence gives a teenager the ability to face life, its challenges, uncertainty and even tackle disappointments, ups and downs of life better.
Relations, emotions, peer pressure, competition and expectations, together these things can play havoc on a teenager’s self confidence.
A positive self esteem can help a teenager go out and conquer his or her aims and goals in life.
It helps him build better bonds, relations and be a happy and mentally strong person.

Parents’ Role In Increasing Teenagers’ Self Confidence:

Of all people, parents are the most important when it comes to building self confidence in teenagers. Your support in building confidence in teens can go a long way in molding his personality.
Your actions and words impact your teenager the most.
How you feel about them and how you make them feel about themselves directly affects their level of self confidence.
The way you treat them also sets a benchmark about how others should treat your teenager.

10 Tips On How To Increase Self Confidence In Teenagers:

Teenage is where a child is molded into an adult. It is such a sensitive process that only the parents have the tools (such as patience and courage!) to do it. Here are some of the easiest and useful tips on increasing your teenager’s self confidence.

1. Show Respect:
Do not forget – your teenager is not a child anymore and is a near-adult, and as such, deserves respect just like any other adult.
When you address your teenager, always show respect. Do not let disdain or contempt show in your tone!
Always treat their problems and fears with importance. Never shun off your teenager’s fears as a childhood worry.

2. Praise Often:
You must praise your teenager often. Be generous with your compliments.
When you praise your teenager for something good they did, it boosts their confidence in heaps and bounds. It encourages them to do even better next time.
Always express yourself and let them know how good and proud you feel to have them as your kid.

3. Avoid Criticism:
Try and avoid criticizing as much as you can. Criticism can be detrimental for your teenager’s self confidence.
If you disapprove or dislike something that involves your teen, take time to sit with them and talk it out.
Teenagers often take criticism as ridicule or shame. At times, when criticism is unavoidable, watch your tone.

4. Encourage Extra Curricular Activities:
Let your teenager follow his hobbies.
Encourage him to participate in more and more activities. It is important for your teenager to excel at anything he likes and enjoys.
Extracurricular activities prove to be great opportunities for learning about success, failure, challenges and they add a great deal to your teenager’s confidence.
These activities build a positive team spirit in your teenager and help him learn about working together towards a common goal.

5. Support Optimistic Friendships:
We know you cannot possibly control, pick and choose the kind of friends your teenager will make. Teach him about respect and acceptance.
Mutual understanding and respect in any relation is important. Teach him that value is what matters between friends.
The kind of friends your teenager makes also affects his self confidence. Teach him ways to differentiate between good and fair weather friends.

6. Looks Do Not Matter:
Most teenagers fall under peer pressure. To them looks matter a lot. They crave to look like models and celebs and inability to do so affects their self confidence immensely.
It is important to sit and explain to your teenager that looks do not matter.
What matters is good manners, hygiene, healthy mind and body.

7. Focus On Strengths:
Teach your teenager that he should focus more on strengths. Never compare your teenager to his peers, friends, siblings and cousins.
Your teen should realize how different people have different strengths. Comparison creates rivalry.
Make your teenager understand that his only competition is with himself. And the best way to do even better is to focus on strengths.

8. Teach Them To Be Stronger :
Teach your teenager to build some tolerance level towards teasing or heckling. Teasing affects every teenager’s self confidence.
A good rule in life is grin and bears it. Your teenager must learn to tolerate negative emotions to some extent, without losing his cool
Your teenager must know that teasing cannot hurt and it should in no way affect his self confidence.

9. Look For Professional Help:
If your teenager suffers from severe lack of confidence and it is starting to affect his academic and/or social life, you may need help from external sources.
Initially, you can try for family counseling with your teen’s favorite relatives.
If the above does not work, it is best to seek professional help, which might uncover the real issue behind this lacking and help your teenager come out of it.

10. Be Your Teenager’s Support:
You probably don’t even realize how small gestures and the little things you say and do in regular life boosts your teenager’s self confidence. Your teenager must know that you are always there for him, no matter what.
Your support can act as a catalyst as far as your teenager’s self confidence is concerned.

The moment your teenager knows he has someone to rely on, to fall back upon; he can face his life with even more confidence and strength.
Deal every difficulty politely and positively when it comes to your teenager. Remember, this is just a phase and it shall pass on soon.
Teenage issues and angst are a part of your teenager’s growing up process. So be patient and help your teenager.


Taken from: http://www.momjunction.com/articles/tips-to-increase-self-confidence-in-teenagers_0081604/ 

Monday, November 30, 2015

NOVEMBER 30 - DECEMBER 4

SCIENCE SAYS PARENTS OF SUCCESSFUL KIDS HAVE THESE 11 THINGS IN COMMON

Any good parent wants their kids to stay out of trouble, do well in school, and go on to do awesome things as adults. 
And while there isn't a set recipe for raising successful children, psychology research has pointed to a handful of factors that predict success. Unsurprisingly, much of it comes down to the parents.
Here's what parents of successful kids have in common:

1. They make their kids do chores.
"If kids aren't doing the dishes, it means someone else is doing that for them," Julie Lythcott-Haims, former dean of freshmen at Stanford University and author of "How to Raise an Adult" said during aTED Talks Live event. 
"And so they're absolved of not only the work, but of learning that work has to be done and that each one of us must contribute for the betterment of the whole," she said. 
Lythcott-Haims believes kids raised on chores go on to become employees who collaborate well with their coworkers, are more empathetic because they know firsthand what struggling looks like, and are able to take on tasks independently. 
She bases this on the Harvard Grant Study, the longest longitudinal study ever conducted.
"By making them do chores — taking out the garbage, doing their own laundry — they realize I have to do the work of life in order to be part of life," she tells Tech Insider.

2. They teach their kids social skills.
Researchers from Pennsylvania State University and Duke University tracked more than 700 children from across the US between kindergarten and age 25 and found a significant correlation between their social skills as kindergartners and their success as adults two decades later.
The 20-year study showed that socially competent children who could cooperate with their peers without prompting, be helpful to others, understand their feelings, and resolve problems on their own, were far more likely to earn a college degree and have a full-time job by age 25 than those with limited social skills.
Those with limited social skills also had a higher chance of getting arrested, binge drinking, and applying for public housing.
"This study shows that helping children develop social and emotional skills is one of the most important things we can do to prepare them for a healthy future," said Kristin Schubert, program director at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which funded the research, in a release.
"From an early age, these skills can determine whether a child goes to college or prison, and whether they end up employed or addicted."

3. They have high expectations.
Using data from a national survey of 6,600 children born in 2001, University of California at Los Angeles professor Neal Halfon and his colleagues discovered that the expectations parents hold for their kids have a huge effect on attainment
"Parents who saw college in their child's future seemed to manage their child toward that goal irrespective of their income and other assets," he said in a statement.
The finding came out in standardized tests: 57% of the kids who did the worst were expected to attend college by their parents, while 96% of the kids who did the best were expected to go to college.
In the case of kids, they live up to their parents' expectations.

4. They have healthy relationships with each other.
Children in high-conflict families, whether intact or divorced, tend to fare worse than children of parents that get along, according to a University of Illinois study review.
Robert Hughes Jr., professor and head of the Department of Human and Community Development at the University of Illinois and the study review author, also notes that some studies have found children in non conflictual single-parent families fare better than children in conflictual two-parent families.
The conflict between parents prior to divorce also affects children negatively, while post-divorce conflict has a strong influence on children's adjustment, Hughes says.
One study found that, after divorce, when a father without custody has frequent contact with his kids and there is minimal conflict, children fare better. But when there is conflict, frequent visits from the father are related to poorer adjustment of children.
Yet another study found that 20-somethings who experienced divorce of their parents as children still report pain and distress over their parent's divorce ten years later. Young people who reported high conflict between their parents were far more likely to have feelings of loss and regret.

5. They've attained higher educational levels.
A 2014 study lead by University of Michigan psychologist Sandra Tang found that mothers who finished high school or college were more likely to raise kids that did the same. 
Pulling from a group of over 14,000 children who entered kindergarten from 1998 to 2007, the study found that children born to teen moms (18 years old or younger) were less likely to finish high school or go to college than their counterparts. 
Aspiration is at least partially responsible. In a 2009 longitudinal study of 856 people in semirural New York, Bowling Green State University psychologist Eric Dubow found that "parents' educational level when the child was 8 years old significantly predicted educational and occupational success for the child 40 years later."

6. They teach their kids math early on.
A 2007 meta-analysisof 35,000 preschoolers across the US, Canada, and England found that developing math skills early can turn into a huge advantage.
"The paramount importance of early math skills — of beginning school with a knowledge of numbers, number order, and other rudimentary math concepts — is one of the puzzles coming out of the study," coauthor and Northwestern University researcher Greg Duncan said in a press release. "Mastery of early math skills predicts not only future math achievement; it also predicts future reading achievement."

7. They develop a relationship with their kids.
A 2014 study of 243 people born into poverty found that children who received "sensitive caregiving" in their first three years not only did better in academic tests in childhood, but had healthier relationships and greater academic attainment in their 30s. 
As reported on PsyBlog, parents who are sensitive caregivers "respond to their child's signals promptly and appropriately" and "provide a secure base" for children to explore the world.
"This suggests that investments in early parent-child relationships may result in long-term returns that accumulate across individuals' lives," coauthor and University of Minnesota psychologist Lee Raby said in an interview.

8. They're less stressed.
According to recent research cited by Brigid Schulte at The Washington Post, the number of hours that moms spend with kids between ages 3 and 11 does little to predict the child's behavior, well-being, or achievement. 
What's more, the "intensive mothering" or "helicopter parenting" approach can backfire. 
"Mothers' stress, especially when mothers are stressed because of the juggling with work and trying to find time with kids, that may actually be affecting their kids poorly," study coauthor and Bowling Green State University sociologist Kei Nomaguchi told The Post.
Emotional contagion — or the psychological phenomenon where people "catch" feelings from one another like they would a cold — helps explain why. Research shows that if your friend is happy, that brightness will infect you; if she's sad, that gloominess will transfer as well. So if a parent is exhausted or frustrated, that emotional state could transfer to the kids. 

9. They value effort over avoiding failure.
Where kids think success comes from also predicts their attainment. 
Over decades, Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck has discovered that children (and adults) think about success in one of two ways. Over at the always-fantastic Brain Pickings, Maria Popova says they go a little something like this: 
A "fixed mindset" assumes that our character, intelligence, and creative ability are static givens that we can't change in any meaningful way, and success is the affirmation of that inherent intelligence, an assessment of how those givens measure up against an equally fixed standard; striving for success and avoiding failure at all costs become a way of maintaining the sense of being smart or skilled.
A "growth mindset," on the other hand, thrives on challenge and sees failure not as evidence of un-intelligence but as a heartening springboard for growth and for stretching our existing abilities. 
At the core is a distinction in the way you assume your will affects your ability, and it has a powerful effect on kids. If kids are told that they aced a test because of their innate intelligence that creates a "fixed" mindset. If they succeeded because of effort, that teaches a "growth" mindset.

10. The moms work.
According to research out of Harvard Business School, there are significant benefits for children growing up with mothers who work outside the home.
The study found daughters of working mothers went to school longer, were more likely to have a job in a supervisory role, and earned more money — 23% more compared to their peers who were raised by stay-at-home mothers.
The sons of working mothers also tended to pitch in more on household chores and childcare, the study found — they spent seven-and-a-half more hours a week on childcare and 25 more minutes on housework.
"Role modeling is a way of signaling what's appropriate in terms of how you behave, what you do, the activities you engage in, and what you believe," the study's lead author, Harvard Business School professor Kathleen L. McGinn, told Business Insider.
"There are very few things that we know of, that have such a clear effect on gender inequality as being raised by a working mother," she told Working Knowledge.

11. They have a higher socioeconomic status.
Tragically, one-fifth of American children grow up in poverty, a situation that severely limits their potential.
It's getting more extreme. According to Stanford University researcher Sean Reardon, the achievement gap between high- and low-income families "is roughly 30% to 40% larger among children born in 2001 than among those born 25 years earlier." 
As "Drive" author Dan Pink has noted, the higher the income for the parents, the higher the SAT scores for the kids. 
"Absent comprehensive and expensive interventions, socioeconomic status is what drives much of educational attainment and performance” he wrote.


Monday, November 23, 2015

NOVEMBER 23 - 27

THE 6 BEST THINGS ABOUT TWEENS
Why you shouldn't dread the tween years, and how you can enjoy them the most

By Charlotte Latvala

When my kids were younger, friends with tweens gave me dire warnings: "It's a whole new world -- much worse than the terrible twos." "You won't believe the change in your kid -- like night and day." "Just wait until they hit middle school; brace yourself."

Now my older kids (A.J., 11, and Mathilda, 14) have reached the dreaded tween/teen stage. And guess what? I'm still waiting for doomsday to strike. Don't get me wrong; we've had a few bumps. But there's more to tweens than hormone surges and moodiness. In many ways, these crazy years are my favorite phase yet. This is why:

The Good News: You Have a New Buddy

Yes, I know, your job description doesn't read: "My Kid's Best Friend." And, no, you're not equals. But the tween years provide endless opportunities to bond on a deeper level than you did when your child was little. I can take Mathilda or A.J. out to lunch and have a completely different experience from a few years ago, when a trip to a restaurant meant watching them color the kids' menu and knock over their milk. Now we discuss everything from their friendships to current movies to politics. (And if they have to go to the bathroom, they find it on their own.)

Sharon Pomerantz Strelzer recently experienced an unexpected buddy moment with her 10-year-old daughter, Samantha. "We had a rainy movie day, just the two of us, and the choices were to see either Pink Panther 2 or Confessions of a Shopaholic," says the Fairfield, CT, mom. "Samantha said, 'Let's save the Pink Panther for Daddy and have a girls' day out!'" The two happily watched Shopaholic together.

Make It Even Better

You've got to shift gears during the tween phase, says Susan Kuczmarski, Ed.D., author of The Sacred Flight of the Teenager: A Parent's Guide to Stepping Back and Letting Go. "Enjoy the changes and be aware that she is entering a new phase -- don't expect the same old behavior."

The Good News: You're Past the Do-Everything Stage

I recently realized I hadn't washed anyone's hair but my own for ages. (Mathilda has taken over giving baths to my youngest child, 5-year-old Mary Elena.) When the tween years come around, it's exhilarating to be free of the drudgery that comes with parenting small children: wiping bottoms, pouring juice, tying shoes. Not only that, but tweens can actually help around the house in meaningful ways, like emptying the dishwasher and taking out garbage. "It's simply less physically exhausting to be the parent of a tween," says Jen Singer of Kinnelon, NJ, the creator of Mommasaid.net, a parenting humor and advice website, and mom of Nicholas, 12, and Christopher, 11. "My kids make their own lunches and their own beds. They're self-cleaning. When we go skiing, I don't have to run down the slope holding them in a harness. The day-to-day stuff is much easier."

Make It Even Better 

Celebrate each new task your kids can do, and get over any guilt you have that you're slacking off by letting them take on more, says educator Annie Fox, author of the Middle School Confidential series. "Some parents mistakenly equate dependence with love," she says. "They feel that 'if he doesn't need me, he doesn't love me.' But do you really want to be cutting your kid's sandwiches when he's thirty?" Encourage independence by giving tweens more complex home projects once in a while. Athena Marsh of Sewickley, PA, expects her sons (Roy, 14, Jay, 11, and Theo, 9) to do laundry and feed the cats, but sometimes asks them to try something a little challenging. "Last year I had Roy put a new handle on the toilet," she says. "He did it all by himself, just following the insert for directions. He was surprised -- and very pleased -- he could do it."

The Good News: He Gets the Jokes

Your tween will love sharing a whole new level of wit -- puns, wordplay, sarcasm. Breakfast at Singer's home sometimes feels like open-mic night at a comedy club. "The other day, my eleven-year-old asked for an omelette, and I misheard him; for whatever reason, I thought he said 'Obama-lette,'" says Singer. "So I turned around and said, 'What is that -- filled with hope?' We all cracked up. A few years earlier, it would have been me laughing by myself."
Make It Even Better
Laugh along with your tween; some of the sweetest bonding times come from sharing inside jokes and offbeat references. In our house, A.J. does spot-on impersonations of characters from The Simpsons. His Marge, Mr. Burns, and Krusty the Clown bring the house down, and sometimes I find myself saying, "Excellent!" to them in a decidedly Mr. Burns-ish voice.
This is a good time to expose kids to more grown-up movies and books, both current and classic. Of course, how far you want to go is a personal decision (our family is most comfortable in the barely PG-13 world). Recently I've introduced my kids to some of my old favorites (Monty PythonSCTV, and Peter Sellers in The Mouse That Roared). They're constantly quoting from them -- it's like having our own secret language of humor.
The Good News: She's Interesting

Tweens develop passions and hobbies, whether it's basketball, Wii games, or musical theater. When Mathilda saw The Lord of the Rings movies, she became interested in sword fighting. We finally let her sign up for fencing lessons with a friend, and now she's an expert on the difference between a foil and an epee. Half the time I have no idea what she's talking about, but her enthusiasm is contagious. And taking an active interest in your child's sport or hobby is good for her, too, says Fox. She gets to be the teacher, which is a major confidence booster.

Make it Even Better

Find a hobby you can pursue together. Marsh's son Jay is a food buff, so they often cook dinner as a team. Jamie Woolf of Oakland recently started a mother-daughter book club with her kids, Anna, 14, and Leah, 10. "We really connect over the young-adult books we're reading," says Woolf, author of Mom-in-Chief: How Wisdom From the Workplace Can Save Your Family From Chaos. "It's allowed me to see a glimpse of middle school culture -- crushes, cliques, and so on."

The Good News: His Friends are Hysterical

Sure, a group of tweens can get loud and squirrelly, but you're privy to some of the most off-the-wall conversations ever. From listening to my son and his fifth-grade buddies, I have a fairly good understanding of the 11-year-old male mind. (Obsessive collecting -- video games, Bakugan, songs from iTunes -- is the norm, and no one else's parents have as many rules as your own.) Carpooling with tweens is a world unto itself: When Singer hauls 11-year-old Christopher and his buddies to soccer practice, she usually cranks up the radio and listens to the kids belt it out. "Last time, we all ended up singing Coldplay together at the top of our lungs," she says.

Make It Even Better

"Offer your house as a gathering spot for your tween and his friends, or be the mom who drives everyone to the mall," Woolf advises. "Taking advantage of their need for a ride is the best way to get to know their friends." Woolf has even brought her girls' pals on vacation. "You get a very real sense of who they're friends with and what they're up to."

The Good News: She Wants to Help

When tweens take on a project­ -- whether it's cleaning up a local park or volunteering at a food bank -- it's all or nothing. Maureen Pearson was surprised but thrilled when her 11-year-old daughter, Laura, asked to volunteer at the retirement community where Maureen works. "She really clicked with the residents," says the Harrisonburg, VA, mom. "On her first day, she bounced into my office and exclaimed, 'I met a woman who was a hundred years old!'" Lately Laura has also begun babysitting in her church nursery. "She's all about being helpful," says Pearson.

Make it Even Better

Let them know how proud you are of their kindness and generosity, and do everything in your power to help them act on it. I recently took my kids through an exhibit on the AIDS epidemic in Africa. We all were blown away by the stories of suffering kids and the photos of children who are available to sponsor. "We have to take on one of these kids," said Mathilda, grabbing my arm. "It's only thirty-five dollars a month." My initial, knee-jerk reaction ("Do we have an extra thirty-five bucks in the monthly budget?") paled next to her enthusiasm. How could I say no?
Don't forget the power of your example, adds Fox: "If your objective is to raise a good citizen, you have to show what that means," she says. "Make it your business to be involved, and your kid will get involved." Look for family opportunities for volunteerism; the more time you spend with your tween, the happier everyone will be. And that's not terrible at all.


Tuesday, November 17, 2015

NOVEMBER 16 - 20

How to Help Your Kids Have a Healthy Relationship with Technology

Don't give up the fight for conversation

 In her latest book, author, technology critic, and clinical psychologist Sherry Turkle tears our preferred modes of communication a new one. The central argument of Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk In A Digital Age is that the easy, streamlined, emotionally risk-free technologies that entertain and keep people “in touch” without human interaction have diminished our capacity for empathy and self-reflection. Turkle is not just your gouchy friend from high school who won’t use Facebook because she’s “old school,” either. Her thesis is thoroughly researched and supported by legit academic studies suggesting not only that our smart phones are turning us into a——-; they are also making us less happy.
Turkle looks at how the unintended consequences of constant connectivity with little human connection have sullied our interactions in the areas of work, school, and our communities; and have removed opportunities for therapeutic solitude. But no aspect of the emotional distance and dissatisfaction wrought by the lure of social media and digital communication is as bleak as Turkle’s assessment of how our lack of conversation has impacted family life. To add insult to injury, she doesn’t even blame the Kids These Days. She blames the parents. Fortunately, she has a couple of very simple solutions for how to break the cycle. (They just happen to be gut-wrenchingly difficult to implement.)
How Technology Is Screwing Up Our Kids
Computers simulate human interaction; but they can’t replace it. The predictability and “friction-free” nature of virtual worlds is compelling to children, but it doesn’t teach them about relationships — conversations do.
·         “Children need to learn what complex human feelings and human ambivalence look like,” Turkle writes. “And they need other people to respond to their own expressions of that complexity. These are the most precious things that people give to children in conversation as they grow up.”
·         Children need to learn, through conversations with their parents, the difference between a problem and a catastrophe. Parental attention to the small ups and downs of childhood “helps children learn what is and is not an emergency and what children can handle on their own,” Turkle writes. “Parental inattention can mean that, to a child, everything feels urgent.”
·         In interview after interview, Turkle found that kids longed for more conversations with not only their parents, but also their peers. Their parents and peers were distracted by electronic devices, so these disappointed kids turned to their own screens for stimulation.
What You Can Do With This
·         Take the “Talking Cure.” Talk to your kids, even if they are pre-verbal. From Turkle’s book: “…instead of doing your email as you push your daughter in her stroller, talk to her. Instead of putting a digital tablet in your son’s baby bouncer, read to him and chat about the book.”
·         As your kids get older, make family conversations a regular part of every day. If you think back, this is probably what you originally envisioned when you bought that dinner table.
Boredom Is a Crucial Ingredient of Childhood
With all the connected devices available to our kids (and ourselves), there is no reason to experience “downtime.” We whip out our phones during any lull in activity, and therefore teach our kids to do the same. But we are robbing them of opportunities for flights of imagination and development of their sense of self.
·         Psychoanalyst Erik Erikson posits that “children thrive when they are given time and stillness.” The “shiny objects,” as Turkle calls technological distractors, interrupt that stillness.
·         “When children grow up with time alone with their thoughts, they feel a certain ground under their feet,” Turkle writes. “Their imaginations bring them comfort. If children always have something outside of themselves to respond to, they don’t build up this resource.” What they build up instead? Anxiety. Lot and lots of anxiety.
·         According to neuroscience research, “it is only when we are alone with our thoughts — not reacting to external stimuli — that we engage that part of the brain’s basic infrastructure devoted to building up a sense of our stable autobiographical past.” In other words, we figure out who we are. Turkle compares this process to its digital equivalent: creating online profiles that make us look cool and successful.
What You Can Do With This
·         Instead of screen-based play, get your kid involved with manipulating physical objects. “Whereas screen activity tends to rev kids up, the concrete worlds of modeling clay, finger paints, and building blocks slow them down,” Turkle writes. “The physicality of these materials … offers a very real resistance that gives children time to think, to use their imaginations, to make up their own worlds.”
·         Establish a screen time policy for your kids and stick to it. While you’re at it, establish one for yourself. Consider sending your kid to a device-free summer camp.
·         Go outside.
Parents Are the Worst
Whereas most screeds against the scourge of digital technology focus on “those d— kids,” Turkle puts the onus squarely on the parents. In citations from research, anecdotes, and interviews, she paints modern parents as helpless against the siren song of social media notifications, work emails, and at GIFs, all to the detriment of our kids.
·         According to Turkle, “several ‘generations” of children have grown up expecting parents and caretakers to be only half there. Many parents text at breakfast and dinner, and parents and babysitters ignore children when they take them to playgrounds and parks.”
·         Ignoring kids in favor of devices fails to model empathy and they’re less likely to learn the skills of creating and maintaining relationships, which are learned through physical interactions with each other.
What You Can Do With This
·         Create a “sacred space” — a device-free zone in your home where conversation or solitude will not be interrupted. You might want to keep the cookies and beer in this area lest no one ever visit there.
·         Be the grownup and put your d— phone away.