Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt
Wed, 26 Apr 2006 02:24:00 GMT
I just returned from an incredible presentation at my kid’s middle school on drug prevention education. I know it doesn’t sound like a lot fun, but the presentation was extremely informative, entertaining and, needless to say, eye-opening.
Every year in the 7th and 8th graders in our school attend a 5-day session with Jonathan Scott of
Miles to Go, and there is a parent meeting at the beginning of the session to discuss with the parents what the children are going to be taught during upcoming the week.
Scott is a very charismatic and entertaining speaker and amazingly the kids really connect with him. He is also a recovering drug addict. My son thinks he’s learned more in this class than any other class all year.
Scott focuses on comprehensive drug facts, the socio-political environment surrounding drugs (legal and illegal), and the chemistry of drugs, alcohol, tobacco and their effects on the body in a very entertaining and engaging way, so the kids don’t feel like they are being lectured to.
I’m very grateful that our school is offering this kind of material for our students.
Please contact
Miles to Go if you are interested in getting a program like this for your school.
Posted in Setting Limits, School, Family Life, Parenting | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt
Mon, 24 Apr 2006 00:40:00 GMT
Ok, here’s my first look at one of the family-oriented parenting blogs I have listed in my earlier post.
Minti is a very cool, cleanly designed, Web 2.0 site whose mission is to create “the world’s largest parent to parent advice-opedia”. It seems that they are well on their way to accomplishing just that.
It a place for parents to share and gain advice on parenting with other parents. The have a growing community of members, which at the moment seems to be in the several hundreds.
Judging from their tag cloud – most popular tags being “baby, cuddle, sleep, strabismus (I had to look that one up), teething, toddler,and trimester – most of their advice and comments to date are from parents of babies or toddlers
I hope over time there will be more advice from parents of teens and pre-teens. God knows we need all the advice we can get.
Minti is definitely worth checking out.
Posted in Family Life, Parenting | 1 comment | no trackbacks
Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt
Thu, 20 Apr 2006 02:46:00 GMT
It seems that until recently there has been a dearth of parenting advice on the internet, except for the mainstream parenting magazine websites or people trying to hawk books. But I’m starting to see more and more very interesting sites popping up. Although a lot of them are focused on the baby to toddler age group, they are certainly worth checking out. I’ll try to look over these sites and update this post with my impressions.
Minti
Maya’s Mom
To soon to tell on this one since it’s a parenting site in the works, but they are taking e-mail addresses from those interested in being informed about their release.
Families.com
365 First Time Parenting Tips
ParentingIdeas.org
RebelDad
ParentHacks
If you happen to know of any others, please let us know.
Posted in Parenting, Technology, Family Life | 2 comments | no trackbacks
Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt
Sun, 16 Apr 2006 11:39:00 GMT
There has been a lot of controversy swirling around for years on the effect of video games on kids, whether they are simply time-wasters or actually detrimental.
Now there is a new book out that makes the case that video games are not only good for kids, but are preparing them for life in the 21st Century.
In Don’t Bother Me Mom-I’m Learning! How Computer and Video Games Are Preparing Your Kids For Twenty-first Century Success - and How You Can Help! , author Marc Prensky makes his case in favor of video games.
Prensky who is a speaker, writer, consultant, and designer in the areas of education and learning, states that that video and computer game playing, within limits, is actually very beneficial to today’s “Digital Native” kids, who are using them to prepare themselves for life in the 21st century.
The reason kids are so attracted to these games, Prensky says, is that they are learning about important “future” things, from collaboration, to prudent risk taking, to strategy formulation and execution, to complex moral and ethical decisions.
Prensky’s cites examples of gamers who have become successful corporate workers, entrepreneurs, leaders, doctors, lawyers, scientists and other professionals. It is well know that gaming has been used as a training tool for the military for a number of years. In fact, Prensky runs a DoD sponsored website Department of Defense Game Developer’s Community that serves as a community resource for military personnel, contractors and consultants with an interest in military training games.
Since most adults simply can’t play these modern complex games themselves, most of their opinion is informed by secondhand sources of information, most of whom are sadly misinformed about both the putative harm and the true benefits of game-playing. This book tries to clear the air on video games and provides parents with techniques approaches they can use to improve both their understanding of games and their relationships with their kids.
If you have a gamer or future gamer in your house, this book is definitely worth picking up.
Posted in Technology, Setting Limits | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt
Wed, 15 Mar 2006 13:03:00 GMT
Instant messaging, along with text messaging, has become one of the social communication modes of choice for a large number of today’s teens and pre-teens. While banning it entirely may be impractical, if not impossible, it is important for your child to understand its proper use and etiquette as specified by your family or school rules, and that abuse of these rules may result in the restriction if not banishment of its use.
How to monitor its use is an ongoing dilemma. Some instant messaging services do have archiving features but others, including one of the most popular, AIM, do not (at least as far as I have been able to discover).
One solution I found is a product called IMbrella ChatChecker Pro. Priced at $49.99, ChatChecker installs on YOUR PC and lets you remotely monitor, block or record instant messaging on 2 other PC’s in your home or small office. No one will know how their IM is being checked and it will never stop working until you shut it off!
IMbrella ChatChecker will allow parents to:
• Check up to 3 PCs (including the PC it’s installed on)
• Record or block all AOL, MSN, Yahoo, Trillian and ICQ conversations
• Set up special time windows for permitted IM use
• Discover inappropriate or sexual content
• Search messages by keyword and date
• See live messages as they occur in real time
• Block harmful viruses hidden in IM file transfers
• Reveal both sides Instant Messages
• Save conversations for 30 days
If there are any other solutions that anyone knows of, please let us know.
Posted in Internet Safety, Setting Limits, Technology | no comments | no trackbacks
