New Age Mom's Text More Than Talk To Kids

According to a recent poll Generation Y Moms talk to their kids via text, cell and facebook more than face to face. Read http://tiny.cc/momstext. Are we losing the art of being personal? Are we being reduced to short sentences (140 characters) and code for communication (SMH...for those of you who are not up on the lingo SMH means shaking my head)? Sure it's great to be able to talk with your son or daughter when they are not around but what's happening to the art of communication? As humans we thrive on relationships. Like sitting down to eat dinner together and talking about your day; like watching a movie and discussing it; like driving in the car and talking about the lastest happenings. These sorts of communication proved to have great benefits for our kids. There is something about face to face interaction that technology can't replace. There is something about looking at a person's face when they are talking that texting can't relay. You can't see a goofy smile or feel the warmth in your mom's voice (or the voice of dissappointment or anger) when you get a facebook, twitter or texting message.

Technology has it's place in family communication but I don't think that it should be the main way we communicate. Now more than ever our kids need us to be there for them, to listen to them, to guide them, to direct them...LET"S NOT TAKE SHORTCUTS!!!







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Is Breakfast The Answer To Our Children Doing Better In School?

We've all heard that breakfast is supposed to be the most important meal of the day.  There's the commercial with the frosted mini-wheat quizzing a little boy during breakfast (Kellogg's stating that “A clinical study showed kids who had a filling breakfast of Frosted Mini-Wheats cereal improved their attentiveness by nearly 20 percent.”) Now studies are saying that children who skip breakfast; miss school more often, are unable to problem solve, and generally have slower memories ( read http://www.shortweet.com/5609ac). Can it be as simple as eating a bowl of cereal or sitting down to eat breakfast that will help our kids do better in school?

Sure breakfast can prevent children from experiencing distracting hunger pains during morning class but is breakfast the answer to doing better in school? No I don't think it's as simple as that. So many of us are always looking for a "quick fix", a "right now" answer. Having breakfast may stop the hunger pains but it doesn't necessarily mean that it will increase their attention span. We are going to have to dig a little deeper than that.  Likewise because a child skips breakfast doesn't mean that he/she is going to miss school often. I think there are some key factors that we are missing here. It also turns out that whether a child's family consists of one parent or two working parents, children still skip breakfast or don't eat a nutritional one (looks like we can't play the socio-economic card). Yes, we are going to have to dig deeper to find the answer to helping our children do better in school.

We are going to have to have parent involvement (imagine that), teacher creativity, community involvement, and student involvement (and yes we can include nutritional breakfast).

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Is Paying Georgia Students To Get Good Grades The Answer

In 2008 we had several different incentive programs to get kids to study or increase their grades. We paid them to study and we paid them to get better grades. Read http://www.shortweet.com/dcf050.  NOW it's all up for discussion again. Yesss the debate is on in 2010.

 I was recently talking with my granddaughter who is 16 years old and learned that a friend of hers was paid $300 to attend summer school this past summer. Let me repeat that, $300 for attending summer school.  The drop out rate in the district that her friend attends is very high. Needless to say this sparked a good discussion between my granddaughter and me.

Then I was listening to a radio station and heard that several middle and high schools are paying students that have poor grades $100 to increase their grades. Of course the radio host asked people to call in with their opinion. There was a lot of talk about increasing our graduation rate and motivating kids to do better. But there also was discussion about rewarding those who were doing bad and not rewarding those who are doing good already.  

Is this a good solution to helping our teenagers stay in school and graduate? What message are we sending? What will happen if the money runs out, especially with all the budget cuts?

Discussion is only great if it leads to a productive solution or at least a plan.

Let me know what you think.