Parenting Your Teenager: 7 Tips For Back To School Success
|
Blink. That's all we did, blink, and summer is ending and a new school year is beginning.
Parents have mixed emotions. Relief that the kids are going back and dread that another school year, and the battles that come with it, is right around the corner.
Here are tips for a successful school year for students and parents.
Tips for Students
Get a good start. If you start out behind, you dig a hole that you will spend the rest of the year digging out of, if at all.
Get a good finish. Even more important than getting a good start is getting a good finish. Keep doing the positive things you began the year and semester doing. Follow through and finish well.
Duck the personality conflicts. Sometime in your school life, you will run into a teacher with whom you do not get along. Instead of blaming your poor performance on "the teacher doesn't like me," take it as a challenge to learn how to succeed even when someone in authority does not like you. It's good training for the real world.
Beat the procrastination monster - The next time you are tempted to procrastinate, just put it off. Procrastinate about procrastinating and do it now.
Tips for Parents
Promote a love of learning. At some level, most teens are very obedient, in that they will model and copy our behavior and attitudes, the good, the bad and the ugly. Do your kids ever see you reading? Learning something new? Discussing the issues of the day with them? If they get it that learning is held in high esteem in their family, it sets them up to value their own learning as well.
Go to your kid's school. Walk through the halls between classes, walk through the cafeteria during lunch. You need to see that it is not like it was when we were kids.
Some parents find that the car is the best place for this conversation. You have a captive audience and are not staring at each other. Other parents have found that scheduling a 15-minute break during the week to talk about school works well for them.
For many more tips and tools for a great school year, visitTips for Back to School Success
|
|
|
Responsible Fatherhood - A Unique And Irreplaceable Role!
Something happened the other day that made me feel uneasy.Yet I shouldn't have felt that way!My wife had left for work and I was hanging the washing outto dry. A neighbour from down the way was in his backyarddoing the same. 'Good day for drying', he called. 'Let'shope the rain stays away.'I had to think about what made me uneasy. Then it hit me.Two men hanging out the washing! When I was a kid that would never have happened. That was women's work, after all!And that made me think about the changing role of menandfatherhood.Change is seldom easy, hence the deeply buriedsense of unease - even in someone like me who considershimself an enlightened individual!The image of fatherhood has changed very much in recentyears, hasn't it?We've come a long way from the distant, unemotional,p...(related: Parenting)
How Well Do You Know Your Child?
Do you think you really know your child? I don't mean know what he/she likes and doesn't like, but to know him/her well enough to understand his/her challenges, to appreciate his/her strengths and weaknesses and to help him/her develop his talents. Knowing your children can help increase their chance for success in the future and improve your relationship.As par...(related: Parenting)
Teaching Reading: Part One
One of the biggest milestones in our children's education is when they learn how to read. You've probably asked yourself, "When is the best time to teach my child to read?" You can research this until you are blue in the face, but the answer is really very simple. You've already started, because from the moment...(related: Parenting)
Would You Know If Your Child Were Being Bullied? 4 Tips To Keep Them From Becoming A Victim
The 21st Century Problem in Schools: Bullying, and How to Keep Your Kid From Being a VictimChildren bullying other children has been an issue since there were children, and though it has often been downplayed as "part of growing up," it has always had potentially serious implications from an emotional perspective.But these days, due to a host of factors such as our society's glorification of celebrity and being popular, violence in mass media, and easy access to deadly weapons, the implications can be especially risky. At the extreme, in many of the school shootings over the last decade, the perpetrators were withdrawn students who had a history of being bullied. Though still largely ignored or discounted as a minor issue, bullying is a very serious - an...(related: Parenting)
Pipe Down!
Life is funny.My twenty-year-old daughter, Melanie, has a her new summer job as a nanny for three small children. She's an aspiring operatic soprano who was whisked off to a rich suburb near Manhattan the day after her finals had ended at the Eastman School of Music. Her mother and I miss her dreadfully. Thank God for our Family Talk Plan!Last night, she called home and as we discussed my upcoming book signing at Borders, she called out, "You two need to pipe down and go to sleep! I don't want to hear one more peep out of you!"I doubled over with laughter. The tears streamed down my cheeks. The tone and emphasis was identica...(related: Parenting)
Dinner Table Drama
It has been a long day. Home from work, you put together a nice, healthy dinner for the entire family to enjoy. Gathering the family around the table, you sit down to eat and within a minute, a voice pipes up, "I don't like anything." Encouraging, you say...(related: Parenting)
Pet Loss Can Be Just As Devastating!
'And all because of a damned cat! It's only a cat, for God'ssake!'I'll never forget the wracking sobs of the girl sittingbefore me, and the disbelief on the face of the mother whouttered these words.I was a Guidance Counsellor in a city high school, and thegirl's performance had slumped in recent weeks. Her mothercouldn't believe it might possibly be related to the loss ofthe girl's pet cat.It became obvious that there wasn't much of a bond betweenmother and daughter. So over the years the girl's need toreceive and GIVE affection had been transferred to her cat.Now that the cat had passed on, the girl was devastated.What made matters worse was her mother's total lack ofinsight.Studies carried out by veterinary associations in the UKsuggest that most k...(related: Parenting)
The Best And Worst Of Motherhood
Until the moment I became a mother, I couldn't quite understand or comprehend the depth when people say "Mothers are the strongest, most noble and loving people in this whole wide world" It's just a whole bunch of cliché stuff that I could live without, thank you very much!The pain. The joy. The sacrifices. The love. The fear. The confusion. The anxiety, panic, loss of time, loss of privacy. The internal battle between a person's own inner personality conflicting with those of being a mother. The need to be alone and oneself roughly pushed aside because a child needs caring,...(related: Parenting)
Is My Child Lazy?
Is there a difference between lazy and unmotivated? Why do some children move as if in slow motion? Is this normal or are they just trying to irritate you? You may be surprised to learn that a great many factors come into play when a child appears to be lazy; stage of growth, hormones, hunger, motivation, lack of clear directions and maybe even sleep deprivation.I have never taught my workshop of "Kids, Chores & More" when there hasn't been at least two parents of 11 year old boys lamen...(related: Parenting)
Hurting From The Outside - In: The Rise Of Self-harming
Ask any teacher or adolescent counselor what the most disturbing trend they are seeing in teens today is, and they are likely to tell you it's the growing number of "cutters".By cutters, they mean people who hurt themselves or "self-injure" a term that is more encompassing of the many types of behaviors that are actually involved. Whatever the form of self-injury, cutting, burning, biting or any of many other similar behaviors, teens hurting themselves in an attempt to deal with emotional pain is on the rise.Today it is thought that 1% of youth in America are engaging in self-harming behavior. And, while both males and females are self-harming,...(related: Parenting)
Teaching Problem Solving Skills To Children With Adhd
Even though the "Stop and Think" movement in ADHD treatment has lost some momentum lately, the basic strategies and techniques are still worth teaching your children. My favorite version of the technique it the "Five Step Problem Solving Strategy," and it goes something like this. . .
Teach your child this five step problem solving strategy:
1. Ask yourself, "What is the problem?"
2. Think up three possible solutions (options) to the problem.
3. Look at each option for a minute. Ask yourself, "Is this a good move or a bad move?"
4. Pick the best option/solution.
5. Try it out and see if it works.
I use Checkers in my practice to teach this formula. It is a great way to practice without it effecting anything in the "real world." I ...(related: Parenting)
Study Skills - Help Young People Study Smarter, Not Harder
Many young people don't know how to study efficiently and effectively. By knowing how to study students maximize their time, improve their learning and also reduce stress. Research indicates that successful students follow smart study habits to maximize their effectiveness.Here are eight smart study habits you can help your secondary school student develop at home:1. Listen carefully when assignments are given at school. Your student should be aware of what each assignment requires and what teachers expect. Careful listening is an often-neglected study skill.2. Study at a suitable time. Students need to set aside regular time within their most productive hours....(related: Parenting)
Its A Sick World
It's no joy to be sick. It's even less joy when your child is sick. But the most unjoy is when you AND your child are sick together.That happened to my poor wife a few weeks ago. She and Little Lady, going on three years old, both had a cold -- with all the sneezing and wheezing, hacking and coughing, wailing and whining required for a certificate of authenticity.Little Lady normally bubble-pops with zest and vigor. Actually "bursting at the seems, bouncing off the walls and ka-booming through the roof" would be a more accurate description. So it was quite eerie to see her mope around like the drooping leaves of a Siberian Peonies that's been fed too much ...(related: Parenting)
site-map - Copyright © 2006 | Contact Webmaster | All Rights Reserved. | Parenting