It’s important for children to learn how to manage their time and organize their assignments on their own, and the start of a new school year is an excellent opportunity to work on these new skills.

In Part 2 of our Start The School Year Strong series, I’m sharing a few quick tips to help your family start a back-to-school ritual and create a more personalized schedule to help your child accomplish more during the new school year.

1. Instill Responsibility
   1. This is an endlessly useful skill that your child will use through out their life. They’ll thank you later!
   2. Time management is a part of this! It will help them to be seen as a reliable person who gets things done when asked.
2. Create a Routine
   1. Instituting an earlier bedtime can help them get up earlier for school. Starting to put together their belongings the night before can make mornings go smoothly every day!
   2. An alarm clock can help foster independance and feelings of self sufficiency.
3. Calm is key!
   1. Going to bed without difficult emotions and waking up at ease can help every day start on the right foot.
   2. Including them in the back-to-school shopping trip helps them to be a part of the process and know what to look for in their daily routine. Plus, having them choose the items themselves gives your child a sense of ownership over the products…which means a higher likelyhood of them taking good care of them and bringing them back home with them each day.
4. Talk to them!
   1. Ask them about their hopes and expectations for the year.
   2. Discuss what they think could go better at school this year than it did last year.
   3. Make sure they know that they can always talk to you about their worries and dreams. This gives them a healthy place to vent (and it lets you in on where their mind is!)
   4. Be careful not to pass any judgement on what they share with you. Give advice only when asked!

Remember, It’s never too late to start any of these tips! I hope you found these suggestions helpful. Can’t wait to hear about this school year!

If we are the average of the five people we spend the most time with, then I might be in big trouble. I spend WAY too much time with my phone. Even though it’s an inanimate object, I think it still counts.

I would much rather spend my time with (actual) people, out in nature, or just enjoying life without a screen in front of me. Yet my attention is constantly being sucked up by this communication device. I rely on it for my work, my side projects, my family schedule, and…okay, sometimes for entertainment too. 🙂

Hence, my desire to consider a digital detox.

In doing some research, I ran across an article that lays out seven steps to disconnecting from your tech devices. I especially like Step 4 for families: Digital Free Dinners.

This is a common complaint I hear from families who have limited time together, and dinner is the only time to reconnect regularly. Author Gwyneth Jones gives some excellent suggestions for negotiating with family members about how and where they keep their devices.

If dinnertime is a ‘sacred’ time for your family, it’s important to figure out how to establish some healthy boundaries around that hour of the day.

Take a look at Gwyneth’s suggestions here and let me know what you think. If you have other ways to take a break from technology, please post your thoughts in the comments below.

Parents should help their teens — but not in the way you might think.

As an Educational Therapist, I often find middle and high school students’ parents asking:

• How much should we help our teen?
• When is the right time to step back?
• How much should parents step back?

Together, we discuss time management and executive functioning skills. A common thread in these conversations is the push-pull between teens’ quest for independence and parents’ fears. 

The Tension Between Teens and Parents

Students are usually begging their parents to let them have more responsibilities. On the other hand, parents worry that if they loosen the reins too much, that freedom will backfire. Many hours are spent discussing who should pack lunches and backpacks. Or whether forgotten items should be raced back to school by the frantic parent. Another favorite topic of discussion in my office is whether parents should wake up their children or if the adolescent should begin relying on an alarm clock. 

The Healthy “Letting Go”

While there are definitely exceptions to every rule, generally, as students hit middle and high school age, parents should take a few steps back. It is time to let their budding teen or young adult begin to fend for themselves.  

After all, the middle and high school years are the only time your child will have to make mistakes, while still in your care.  It’s the only time they have when they can still count on you to soothe their pain after a misstep or mistake. Once they enter college and/or the working world, your influence begins to diminish. 

So, yes, parents should help their teens. And they should help them become independent. 

Another Resource

If you’d like more information on this topic or to read about how another parent handles these situations with her children, click on this link to read Amy Carney’s article, Quit Doing These 8 Things for Your Teen This Year if You Want to Raise an Adult.

There’s been a great deal of challenging weather around the country this winter. I feel lucky and grateful to live in Southern California, where we are blessed with lovely weather year round.  I’ve been consciously sending warming energy and thoughts from the West coast to the East coast. Hopefully nationwide, we will soon see signs of spring everywhere.

In addition to enjoying our warm weather, I’ve been in the process of doing some research on the latest developments in learning disabilities. If you’d like more information on the International Dyslexia Association (IDA), please be sure to click on the link within the article, or click here.  This association is an excellent resource for cutting-edge information.

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Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic has always been one of my top ten recommended resources. They have recently changed their name to Learning Ally. And they are better than ever!   (more…)