Band, sports, church, projects, essays, algebra, report cards, school dances, driving lessons, hormones and dating—who has time to think about college for their teens? Waiting until senior year of high school to get started with ACT’s, SAT’s, scholarships and college admission can cause your child to miss out on many available opportunities.

If your child actually listens to the school announcements and heeds the advice of school counselors, don’t plan on your teen relaying the information to you as a parent. Here are a few of the things you need to know.

Read more: http://acworth.patch.com/articles/parenting-column-prepare-your-teens-for-college-now

The gloomy days of January can be the most miserable and stressful of the year, but it doesn’t have to be this way. If you follow this ten step guide to destressing your life, then the next few weeks just might become the most serene and fulfilling ones of the year.

These really are easy steps — like doing something pleasurable,  eating a piece of dark chocolate, and remembering one of your favorite moments — but are based on scientific studies.

Read more: http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/most-popular/destress-your-life-in-10-easy-steps.html

For the single parent, dating can be a minefield. When do you introduce your kids to your new love interest? How should you do it? How should you talk to their kids about your boyfriend or girlfriend?

Michael Harris, a child psychologist at OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, hears from lots of divorced parents in his practice who want advice on how to deal with dating when they’ve got kids.

Read more: http://blog.oregonlive.com/themombeat/2011/10/top_dating_tip_for_single_pare.html

On October 15, families are invited to workshops offered by the Adoptive Parents Committee/Long Island.  Adoption attorney Jeanine Castagna will address pre-adoption issues in a workshop, “Red Flags:  What to Look for When Adopting Independently.”  Joining Castagna that night is Andrew Vaughan, Ph.D, executive director of the early intervention agency Up We Go, Inc.  Vaughan will address post-adoption issues in a presentation entitled “Maximum Strength Parenting to Raise Maximum Strength Kids.”  The final presentation that evening focuses on the waiting process.  Moderated by an APC board member, participants can get answers to questions during an interactive round table session.

On Thursday, October 20, the Children’s Museum will host the Bi-County: Nassau/Suffolk Adoption Exchange for an evening devoted to “Adoption Options.”  The 6-9 p.m. adults-only program, is designed as a “one-stop” information source for anyone considering public adoption.  Representatives from the Departments of Social Services in Nassau and Suffolk counties, will be joined by NY State representatives, as well as adoption agencies and adoption support groups.  The evening’s format will allow adults to talk with all the key players you might encounter on the road to adoption.  Participants are requested to RSVP to this free workshop by calling (631) 972-7038 or (845) 708-2493.

Both workshops at the Long Island Children’s Museum are free to the public.  The Long Island Children’s Museum is located at 11 Davis Avenue in Garden City, NY. 11530

The Adoptive Parents Committee
(APC) is a non-profit parent support group comprised of volunteers dedicated to
improving all aspects of adoption and interim (foster) care. APC, the oldest
adoptive parent group in North America, was formed in 1955 by a small group of
people who shared their adoptive experiences. Today, there are more than 1,500
member families who belong to one of APC’s four chapters: Long Island, New York
City, New Jersey and the Connecticut/Hudson Region. Some of our members are from
Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania and other states throughout the country.

The Bi-County: Nassau Suffolk Adoption Exchange is composed of public and voluntary child care agencies, adoptive/foster parent groups, post-adoption agencies from Nassau and Suffolk Counties and the New York State Office of Children and Family Services.  The group’s mission is to recruit foster and adoptive parents for the children in need, work to improve the child welfare system and to educate the public about the children who need loving foster and adoptive homes.

www.licm.org

Llama Llama Red Pajama Reading Party at Gymboree for Jumpstart’s Read for the Record
October 6^th

Pledge to Read Today!

Looking for something fun, free and educational to do with your child?

Pledge with them to join Jumpstart’s Read for the Record, a day whenmillions of families and celebrities read to promote early education, and come to your local Gymboree Play & Music for a free “red pajama reading party” on October 6^th. In honor of Jumpstart’s Read for the Record day, Gymboree students at every location will read this year’s book, Llama Llama Red Pajama, by Anna Dewdney and participate in themed activities. Getting involved is simple. Pledge today to read at www.ReadfortheRecord.org and take advantage of your first free Gymboree class on October 6^th, for a celebration of reading and learning.

For the past three years, Gymboree and Jumpstart have worked together on this event in the company of celebrities like Justin Bieber, Nelly Furtado and Patti LaBelle, and families around the world, to raise awareness for the importance of reading early and often. Most parents don’t know reading to young children lays an essential foundation for literacy that’s needed before they ever set foot in a classroom. The reality is, 1 in 3 children in the U.S. begin kindergarten behind, and most will never catch up. The millions of children in the U.S. living in poverty are even more likely to fall into this statistic, as many grow up in homes without a single book.

By pledging to be part of Jumpstart’sRead for the Record, you can be part of a solution. Reading with your child on this day helps prepare them to be successful in school and in life and also helps Jumpstart provide educational skills and resources to thousands of low-income children.

So pledge today, at www.ReadfortheRecord.organd come out for the festivities at your local Gymboree on October 6^th. Jumpstart has extended their giveaway entry deadline, so those who pledge before September 30^th have a chance to win a $77 gift card to 77Kids by American Eagle. Thanks for doing your part! Sit down to read and stand up for children.

A Reward Chart for families has been released by ChampLadder.com, a leader in  child reward systems that help Moms and Dads know how to parent.  With many parents  struggling to discipline their children due to being in a single parent home or  latch-key home, solutions have been a hot search term in Google.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/426145#ixzz1YbDTT9Dn

By Issa M. Mas

The Geography of Social Media Threats

A new survey by conducted by Trend Micro has determined that many consumers are merely one click away from digital disaster – and that could mean you or your children.  Trend Micro, a leader in internet security solutions, recently announced the results of a survey they conducted concerning internet safety and determined that “61 percent of consumers click on links while online that take them to unexpected places, making them vulnerable to cyberattacks that can lead to identity theft, theft of their financial records and banking information and loss of their digital belongings, including music, family photos, important documents and more”.  While parents certainly do the best that they can to ensure that safety precautions have been taken to keep their children safe from predators and cyber bullying, often they are unable to keep their children from clicking on links that seems appropriate and enticing, which could put the family computer at risk.  Also revealed in this survey, “Sixty-six percent reported that they would be financially susceptible if their computers were accessed without their permission, and 67 percent said they would be devastated if they lost everything on their computer and/or connected device”.  With that kind of pressure to safeguard personal computers, it can get a bit confusing as to which digital safety product is right for you and your personal needs.  To that end, Trend Micro has just recently launched Titanium 2012, which encompasses a suite of online security products that are based in the cloud (not on your computer), that provide a wide-range of protection from threats against both your computer and the online sites you and you family access most. i.e., Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Incredibly user friendly, Titanium 2012 provides protection not only for your home computers but for your smart phones and tablets.  With the Titanium Maximum product, Trend Micro offers a trial of Online Guardian, a product that gives parents the ability to remotely check in on their children’s usage of social media sites.  This is hands-down one of the best features of the Trend Micro products because of the parent’s ability to remotely check in on their children’s usage of social media sites.  Your child is away for the weekend for visitation at their other parent’s house?  Log in from where you are to see their activity and ensure they are being safe, appropriate, and responsible.  Titanium 2012 also generates reports so that you can stay on top of their activity online, giving you the information you need to have the kinds of conversations with your children that will ensure their time online is safe and age-appropriate.

Trend Micro goes one step further and provides resources to parents that need help once they have found cause for concern with their children’s usage of social sites.  Parents who need further information can go to their Internet Safety site for Kids & Families.

By Deesha Philyaw, co-founder, CoParenting101.org

In the spring of 2005, we delivered some news to our then-six-year-old daughter Taylor that broke her heart.  We told her that we were divorcing because we had grown-up problems we could not
fix, even though we’d tried very, very hard.  We explained what divorce meant: the two of us would live in separate houses, and that she and her 18-month-old sister, Peyton, would stay with each of us on different days.  We told her all of the ways our lives would change because of the divorce, and we told her all of the things that would remain the same—especially our love for and commitment to her and Peyton.  She still had a family, we reassured her.

Taylor’s reaction was one that is common of many children whose parents divorce.  “I made up a word for what I feel”, she told us a few days after our initial conversation.  “I’m smad.  Sad and mad at the same time.”  We knew that we couldn’t take away her hurt entirely, but we made a pact to avoid compounding the pain and upheaval in our children’s lives.  Through the at-times tense legal process and the awkward early days of negotiating the day-to-day details of parenting across two households, we put aside our own wounds and concentrated on the most important task at hand: Making sure we acted in our children’s best interests, emotionally and practically.

After our marriage ended, we became the poster-children for divorce amongst our circle of friends and colleagues. We wish we could have been the poster children for successful marriage, but it didn’t work out that way.

Instead, we have managed to establish a congenial co-parenting relationship that allows our children to thrive and that causes those who know us to ask, “How in the world do you do it?”  There are simple and not-so-simple answers to that question, answers we have shared with other divorced couples, those contemplating divorce, and adult children of divorce through our website, CoParenting101.org, and on “Co-ParentingMatters”, the live, weekly, online radio show, we co-host with Talibah Mbonisi, founder of WeParent.com.

As divorced co-parents, the question we get most often after “How do you do it?” is, “If you can get along this well–well enough to found a website, co-host a radio show, and write abook together–why couldn’t you make your marriage work?”  Our answer: the platonic relationship we’ve cultivated since the divorce is possible only because we’ve removed ourselves from the parasitic resentments that ate away at our marriage, from the daily misery and conflict.  In other words, we are able to get along now because we are free to have a relationship that is limited to what we are good at together: parenting.  While co-parenting forces us to still bump up against those raw areas that contributed to the demise of our marriage, we deal with them in a different context now: It’s not about us anymore.  Our obligations are to our children, and our love for them motivates us to proceed with caution through the rough spots.

We’re not alone in pursuing this particular post-divorce path.  Through our website, we’ve connected with other co-parents–divorced and never married–who tell us that, despite a rocky start, they are doing what at first seemed impossible: striving for civility, compromise, and cooperation.  And their children are better for it.

With straight talk, practical advice, and a dose of humor thrown in for good measure, we offer CoParenting101.org as a resource to help exes become successful co-parents…truly for the sake of the kids. We welcome you questions, comments, war stories, and small victories!

 
Deesha Philyaw and Michael Thomas, co-founders of CoParenting101.org
“Co-Parenting Matters Show” |The Faster Times
info@coparenting101.org

Your son refuses to do his homework. Conversations with your daughter turn into arguments, and it seems like you are frequently uttering empty threats.

Frustrating, yes, but it’s not time to throw your hands in the air just yet.

Read more: http://www.daytondailynews.com/lifestyle/kid-whisperer-shares-tips-for-success-1252444.html