It can be difficult as a parent to help your child through being bullied, and even harder when it turns out your child is the bully. Add in cyberbullying, which wasn’t even possible when most of today’s parents were kids, and it can be easy to feel at a loss about what to do. With … Continue reading 8 Actions Parents Can Take to End Bullying
Helping Your Child Deal with Peer Pressure
When your child first heads off to school, you are the most important person in their world and they look to you for guidance. Their teachers in the early grades fill that role as well. But by the time they turn 11, children start caring more about what their other kids think of them than … Continue reading Helping Your Child Deal with Peer Pressure
5 Tips to Boost Your PTA Membership
Membership is critical to your PTA’s success. Members become your PTA’s volunteers and leaders, but most importantly members, even those who never volunteer, are sending the message that what your PTA is doing is important for their child, for their family, and for their school. Here are five tips to help your PTA engage with … Continue reading 5 Tips to Boost Your PTA Membership
5 Key Skills for Academic Success
There are a lot of different skills that your child needs to develop in order to be successful at school. Great Schools! has a new article out on how to help your child learn the five key skills they need to succeed. The article recommends starting with a simple conversation with your child—what are their … Continue reading 5 Key Skills for Academic Success
New Tools to Help with Preparing for College
Planning for college can be confusing and overwhelming, whether your child will be the first in your family to attend or not. The Illinois Student Advisory Council(ISAC) has a student portalloaded with tools to help your family through the process. Some new resources and tools have recently been added to the site. ILCollege2Career debuted at … Continue reading New Tools to Help with Preparing for College
New Survey Reveals How Teens’ Social Media Experiences
Common Sense Media, a non-profit dedicating to helping kids thrive in a world of media and technology, has just released a new report detailing their survey of teenagers and their experiences with social media. The report, Social Media, Social Life: Teens Reveal Their Experiences, covers a nationally representative survey of over 1,000 kids ages 13 … Continue reading New Survey Reveals How Teens’ Social Media Experiences
PTA Celebrates Back-to-School Week September 17-21
Next week, PTAs across the country will celebrate National PTA Back-to-School Week. Each day of Back-to-School Week will highlight and provide tips and resources for the people who support our children’s learning and success. Monday, September 17: PTA Leaders Tuesday, September 18: Parents Wednesday, September 19: Students Thursday, September 20: Teachers Friday, September 21: Office … Continue reading PTA Celebrates Back-to-School Week September 17-21
School Health Webinar Series—Programs, Fundraisers, and More
Action for Healthy Kids, a long-time partner of the Illinois PTA, has an ongoing webinar series focusing on school health issues. There are three live webinars scheduled for this year so far, and past webinars are available as recordings. The live webinars will also be archived for those unable to attend in real-time, so be … Continue reading School Health Webinar Series—Programs, Fundraisers, and More
Building an Effective PTA Board
As the school year begins, it’s important to get your PTA working effectively. A key part of that effectiveness is having a good PTA board made up of your officers and chairpersons. Here are some important things to keep in mind as you build your PTA board and start working together. Get the Right People … Continue reading Building an Effective PTA Board
Healthcare Transition Toolkit for Children with Disabilities
If you have a child with a disability, you have probably become very familiar with navigating and supporting their health care needs over the years. However, once your child turns 18, health laws turn much of the responsibility of that care over to your child. Youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities often face a variety … Continue reading Healthcare Transition Toolkit for Children with Disabilities
Ordinary Trip to the Grocery Store with Your Kid? Explain as You Go
Today’s guest post comes from Laura Schlachtmeyer at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), with suggestions on how to help your child develop money management and math skills. We all know our kids are always watching and learning (even when we wish they weren’t). This applies to the way you use and manage money as … Continue reading Ordinary Trip to the Grocery Store with Your Kid? Explain as You Go
School Bus Safety Tips
As kids head back to school, it’s a good time to give them a quick refresher on school bus safety. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) regulates school bus safety and notes that children are far safer riding on a school bus than they are in the family car. The following information is from … Continue reading School Bus Safety Tips
Give Your Child a Quick Readiness Check for This School Year
Surveys show that 90% of parents believe their child is performing at or above grade level. However, their teachers indicate that only 39% of students start the school year prepared for grade-level work, and other indicators such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) agree with them. Learning Heroes has created a quick readiness … Continue reading Give Your Child a Quick Readiness Check for This School Year
3 Back-to-School Things Families Need to Know
Illinois students are heading back to school now or in the next few weeks. Here are three key things that parents need to know that your PTA should be educating them about. Family engagement is critical to student success.Research shows that real family engagement, not just newsletters home or brief parent-teacher conferences twice a year, … Continue reading 3 Back-to-School Things Families Need to Know
National PTA’s New Position Statement on Safe and Supportive Schools
As schools across the country are increasingly impacted by violence and natural disasters, National PTA’s board of directors adopted a new position statement on safe and supportive schools during its August board meeting. The statement calls for a multi-faceted approach to address school safety that involves all stakeholders, especially students, parents and families. “School safety is … Continue reading National PTA’s New Position Statement on Safe and Supportive Schools
Is Your PTA Ready with a Budget for This Year?
The budget and finance committee develops a budget to meet the needs of the PTA’s programs and activities. After the PTA has adopted the budget, the budget and finance chairman (usually the treasurer) is responsible for assuring that PTA money is disbursed in accordance with the budget, presenting necessary amendments to the budget at executive … Continue reading Is Your PTA Ready with a Budget for This Year?
Help Deciphering What Your Teen is Saying
Just about everyone’s grandmother even understands that LOL is “laugh out loud” and OMG is “Oh my God,” but teen slang continues to grow and change, so here are some places you can go to decipher what you overhear your teen talking about with their squad. The Teen Slang Dictionary for Parents(from Very Well Family) … Continue reading Help Deciphering What Your Teen is Saying
How Do You Tell Your PTA’s Story?
At this year’s National PTA Convention, Illinois PTA President Brian Minsker was speaking with PTA members from Tennessee about their efforts in raising the age for juvenile courts there. He shared the Illinois PTA report on Young Adults Involved in the Justice Systemwith them. One of them asked him to join their PTA, which he … Continue reading How Do You Tell Your PTA’s Story?
End-of-Summer Activities
If you’re hoping to catch the last of summer’s sun and fun, there’s still time to celebrate the season (while avoiding those back-to-school displays at your favorite retailers). Teachers and parents alike will want to check out the Every Kid in a Park program from the National Park Service. Every 4thgrader in the United States … Continue reading End-of-Summer Activities
Key Questions to Ask at Your Child’s School
The start of the new school year is fast approaching. The US Department of Education has created I Have a Question…What Parents and Caregivers Can Ask and Do to Help Children Thrive at School: A Parent Checklistto help you fulfill an important part of your child’s education—engaging with your child’s school in a way that … Continue reading Key Questions to Ask at Your Child’s School
One Voice Illinois 