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Highly Useful Guidelines For High Tech Kids

May 29, 2012 By

Teenage Girls Lying On Bed Listening To Mp3 Player

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There’s no doubt technology is an integral part of life, and that’s not all bad. After all, computers can be a gateway to educational opportunities and cell phones are a great way to stay in touch with your busy teen. But you know as well as I do that kids often get wrapped up in Internet surfing, texting, social networking, and gaming. Even adults can have a hard time setting their own limits or keeping track of the time they spend using technology.

With a little parental supervision and some clear limits, parents can help their children make safe, healthy choices when it comes to using technology. Here are a few ideas:

  • The easiest way to monitor what your kids are doing on the computer is to keep it in a common area of the home, for example, the family room, rather than letting kids have one in their rooms.
  • Have open honest communication with your child about topics they are to stay away from on the Internet (pornography, sex, drugs, etc.) and let them know that you plan to periodically review Internet history.
  • Use Internet filters, but don’t rely on them. They don’t catch everything, and resourceful kids can find their way around them.
  • Make sure to have a conversation with your kids about staying safe and protecting their identity and location, especially when chatting with people they may not know.
  • Require your teen to pay their fair share of the cell phone or Internet bill as a way to encourage responsible behavior.
  • Discuss cell phone etiquette with your teen. Answering your phone or texting while in the middle of a conversation or during a meal is just rude!
  • Define appropriate times for using technology, and conversely, those times when technology should be parked – when driving, at school, during meals, at church, after a particular time of night. Make sure you have determined appropriate consequences if these limits are crossed.
  • Create a house rule that homework and household chores must be completed before “screen time”.
  • Ensure that your kids know the dangers and laws against viewing or sending pornography, and clearly lay out the consequences of these actions, which should include reporting illegal activity to the police.
  • Model good behavior for your kids. For example, turn off your own cell phone during meal time and make it a point to limit your own leisure time on the computer. Kids learn more from what they see than what they hear.

 

Filed Under: Home & Family

What To Do While the Kids are at Summer Camp

May 8, 2012 By

Guest Post by Adam, a blogger who helps numerous people with their day and life balance. He also helps small companies and businesses grow whether they sell kids pajamas or are trying to get attendance for broadway shows.

mom and summer
Summer camp can be a blessing and a curse at the same time. You get a month or two away from your kids where you can relax. The issue you may find with the extra time you have is that you forgot to plan ahead to fill in the alone time. This time can be used for many things.

Here are 3 things that you can do to fill in that time, better yourself and help to become more productive while the kids are away:

1. Full time jobs and prepping ahead.

If you currently have a full time job but it is not as satisfying as you would like, you can take this time to research other positions, see if there is anything opened at your company and train yourself to interview for the position. Not only will you have the time to properly redo your resume, but you can spend the time practicing your interview and pitch as to why you are the right fit for the new role. You can also spend this time catching up or getting ahead with your job if you are happy.

If you are happy, take the extra time to finally file all of your receipts and paperwork. You can also use it to prepare ahead of time for projects that will be coming up. If you have things from the past that you know you will reference again, try to start filing or entering them into a new database where you can more easily find them. The list of things you can do when you have this time to better yourself at your current job is almost endless and you should create a chart with what you will accomplish each day or week to help get ready for when your kids come back and your extra time goes away.

2. Learn something new.

Taking classes, getting certifications and increasing your skill and knowledge set is one of the most important things a person can do. With your kids away, you will not only have time to take the classes, but you’ll have quiet time at home to actually study for them. Use this time to take a course and learn something that can help to progress your career and move you forward or into a higher paying role. You can even take a class that will help you be more efficient at your current job which may help to make your own life easier.

3. Find a way to de-stress and turn it into a routine.

One of the best things to do if you feel stressed out from work and your kids is to learn how to de-stress while they are away. It could be taking a Yoga class a few days a week since you’ll have the time and then learning the moves so you can practice at home or in your office with a shorter but still effective routine to help you keep stress away. Having the time to learn to distress and finding a way to bring it into your daily routine is the perfect thing to do while your kids are at camp.

Having the kids at Summer Camp can be great for you. It gives you time to better yourself for your career, learn to distress and also gain more knowledge or skills. By thinking ahead, putting down your goals and mapping out the time you will work on them each day will help you to make the most out of your free time to help better yourself for the next year.

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Guest Post by Adam, a blogger who helps numerous people with their day and life balance. He also helps small companies and businesses grow whether they sell kids pajamas or are trying to get attendance for broadway shows.

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