Those pre-teen or “tween” years when your child hits double digits in age and suddenly wants nothing to do with you can be tough for caregivers. They’re busy testing limits and developing independence, and it’s a challenge to keep a strong bond with your child. The Child Mind Institute has ten tips to help you parent your tween … Continue reading 10 Tips for Parenting Your Tween
Safe Summer—Mosquito and Tick Bites
With nicer weather and the easing of the pandemic, families are heading outside again. Two common outdoor pests bring potential diseases with them—mosquitos (West Nile, Dengue, and Zika viruses) and ticks (Lyme disease). The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has tips on preventing mosquito and tick bites. Preventing Mosquito Bites Using the right insect repellent and other preventive actions … Continue reading Safe Summer—Mosquito and Tick Bites
Give Your Kid a Summer REcharge from Learning Heroes
To say the past year has been a challenge for families, schools, and students is an understatement. With the school year coming to a close, our friends at Learning Heroes have new resources to help families and students get a Summer REcharge. The Summer REcharge helps your family partner with your child’s teacher to develop a simple plan … Continue reading Give Your Kid a Summer REcharge from Learning Heroes
12 Things College Parents Should Know
Perhaps you have a child leaving the nest this coming fall and heading off to college, or perhaps you have one not leaving for a few years. In either case, an academic advisor from the University of Vermont has 12 things college parents should know about how to support their child when they head off, … Continue reading 12 Things College Parents Should Know
What Parents and Educators Can Do To Combat Hate Speech
Hate speech is more than harsh words. It is any form of expression meant to vilify, humiliate, or incite hatred against a group or class of people. It can be communicated by words, symbols, images, memes, emojis, or videos. Connect Safely has created a guide for parents and educators on how they can help children … Continue reading What Parents and Educators Can Do To Combat Hate Speech
What to Do When Your Kids Are Fighting
Siblings are sometimes described as best friends and best enemies. Given that they live together and spend a lot of their free time together, it’s understandable that they’ll get on each other’s nerves once in a while. And the pandemic, with all of us spending much more time at home, hasn’t made things any easier. … Continue reading What to Do When Your Kids Are Fighting
Make Sure Your Child is on the Path to Success
Learning Heroes, in partnership with National PTA, Univision, and Remake Learning Days Across America, has launched Paths to Success, a research-based bilingual resource aimed at helping parents of middle school and high school students prepare their child for success in high school and beyond—whether that path leads to a four-year college, technical program, or a job. … Continue reading Make Sure Your Child is on the Path to Success
Keeping Your Kids Safe Online—The Smart Talk and Parental Controls
Several years ago, Illinois PTA shared information on The Smart Talk, a National PTA program steps you through a conversation with your child about online limits and produces a “contract” based on your discussion. Now, with kids online even more in the pandemic for school, socializing, and fun, it might be time to revisit The … Continue reading Keeping Your Kids Safe Online—The Smart Talk and Parental Controls
Helping Your Child Stay Engaged in Remote Learning
As classes start back up after the holidays, many of our children are quickly closing in on a year of online learning. Like many adults working remotely, they may be finding it difficult to continue to be engaged. The Child Mind Institute, whose resources we’ve highlighted before in supporting learning at home and modifying your child’s IEP or 504 … Continue reading Helping Your Child Stay Engaged in Remote Learning
Illinois Student Assistance Commission’s Free FAFSA Help
A new law that took effect with the 2020-2021 school year requires every Illinois public high school senior to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) in order to graduate. With students struggling with remote education and family finances perhaps stretched by the pandemic, college plans may seem more up in the air than … Continue reading Illinois Student Assistance Commission’s Free FAFSA Help
Safe2Help Illinois Aims to Reduce Suicide, Bullying, and School Violence
Teen suicide, bullying, school violence, and other threats to school safety are a far too common part of today’s schools. Illinois has now launched a new school safety program called Safe2Help Illinois to address those issues. The program is aimed at getting students to seek help before harm. Central to the program is a free app, website, … Continue reading Safe2Help Illinois Aims to Reduce Suicide, Bullying, and School Violence
Notes from the Backpack Season 3—Even Better
Illinois PTA highlighted National PTA’s podcast Notes from the Backpack about a year ago as the first season finished up. The award-winning podcast is starting its third season, and PTA’s Center for Family Engagement is even more focused on providing the information that families need now and the resources to help spread the word. The third season has … Continue reading Notes from the Backpack Season 3—Even Better
Modifying Your Child’s IEP or 504 for Distance or Hybrid Learning
This spring, when schools closed and teachers struggled to shift to online learning, some students were left behind. Many of them were students with special needs. Now that schools are starting up for the fall, whether in person, online, or a hybrid of the two, families with special needs students may be worried their child … Continue reading Modifying Your Child’s IEP or 504 for Distance or Hybrid Learning
Work with Your Child’s Teacher with Ready to Partner Resources
We’re big fans of Learning Heroes, and we’ve talked about their Readiness Check before. Now, in partnership with National PTA and Univision, Learning Heroes has launched Ready to Partner, a research-based bilingual resource to help parents and teachers work together for what will certainly be a different sort of school year. The Ready to Partner … Continue reading Work with Your Child’s Teacher with Ready to Partner Resources
20 Questions to Help You with Back-to-School Choices
We at Illinois PTA are big fans of National Public Radio’s (NPR) Life Kit podcasts and articles, especially the parenting-focused ones. Now, as we head into an uncertain back-to-school time, they have released a 15-minute podcast and article on 20 Questions to Help Decide What’s Best for Your Kids (and You) This School Year. Whether … Continue reading 20 Questions to Help You with Back-to-School Choices
Teacher-Recommended Math Apps and Online Tools
Of all the things parents have struggled with during the shift to online learning, helping their child with math probably ranks close to the top. Edutopia spoke with hundreds of teachers and sorted through over 500 comments to find the math tools that they found most useful this past spring. The result was a list … Continue reading Teacher-Recommended Math Apps and Online Tools
Supporting Learning at Home
As Illinois heads towards back-to-school time, families are again facing the possibility of their children either starting the year with online classes or perhaps moving to online classes later should cases of COVID-19 increase in their area. After the sudden shift to online learning this spring, some parents and caregivers may be concerned about how … Continue reading Supporting Learning at Home
Get Digital—Facebook’s New Resources for Youth, Families, and Educators
Our children were already spending a lot of time online, and with online learning and shelter-at-home requirements, are probably spending a lot more now. Facebook has created a new collection of resources to support families, youth, and educators as they help children navigate online. The aim of Get Digital is to start conversations with children … Continue reading Get Digital—Facebook’s New Resources for Youth, Families, and Educators
How to Talk to Your Kids About Racism
Parenthood comes with a lot of difficult conversations that you need to have with your child. For some of those conversations, you might be comfortable with the information, but struggle with talking with your child about it. For others, you might feel you don’t know enough to even start the conversation. With the protests following … Continue reading How to Talk to Your Kids About Racism
Make Sure Your Child Doesn’t Have a “COVID Slide”
We’ve talked about the “summer slide” before, and with this year’s shift to online learning due to the pandemic, many are concerned that the “COVID slide” could put students behind where they were at the start of the school year last fall. Longtime National PTA partners Learning Heroes has resources to help you determine what … Continue reading Make Sure Your Child Doesn’t Have a “COVID Slide”