Can students make better grades and spend less time studying? Actually, yes! The key is to help your child plan strategically to make the most of each moment of study time. Here’s how:

Strategy 1 – Prioritize

If your child feels overwhelmed by school work, the only solution is to prioritize. Talk to your child to help him identify the goals that are most important and pressing and make a practical plan to achieve these goals.

• Define goals. Short-term goals are most important for managing study time effectively. Establish short-term goals with start and end dates to help your child avoid feeling overwhelmed.
• Make a plan. This plan should include all of the ways the student intends to accomplish a goal. For instance, if she wants to make better grades in math, the plan could include talking regularly with the teacher, completing all homework on time, and studying daily to be better prepared for quizzes and tests.
• Create a daily task list. Help your student learn to break up tasks into smaller, more doable steps that he can complete each day. The daily task list may include items such as completing an assignment, studying for 30 minutes, or asking the teacher for extra help with a particular skill.

Strategy 2 – Manage Time Effectively

Introduce your child to the time management skills below to help him become more productive and achieve academic success without the need for cramming:

• Take small steps. Emphasize why it’s important to devote a little time each day, starting as soon as your student is assigned a major task or assignment. Using this approach, he will be able to steadily chip away at the work that needs to be done, and feel more at ease and in control.
• Eliminate distractions. Observe your student’s study habits and help her to discover time-wasters that eat away at productivity. Keep the TV off during study hours or make sure your child studies in a room where there is no television. Help her also to unplug from phone calls, text messages, or emails. By eliminating distractions, she’ll be able to get more done in a shorter time.

Strategy 3 – Combat Stress

Tips to beat the negative effects of stress on academic performance include:

• Eliminate unnecessary sources of stress. Help your student identify and eliminate sources of stress that get in the way of good grades, such as any extracurricular activity the child no longer enjoys.
• Model and share ways to manage stress including regular exercise, play time, breathing exercises, meditation, adequate sleep and nutritious foods.

The more your child practices these strategies, the more natural they will become, and the more success he or she will enjoy in school and out of school.

The highest goal of raising children is teaching them self-mastery, the skills they need and can rely upon to fulfill their highest calling in life. Yet many parents in today’s world find themselves focusing on their child’s outward behavior rather than their inner being.

With small children, it is easy to get caught up in matters such as repeatedly telling them to pick up after themselves, or stressing the need for manners when interacting with siblings, friends and adults. This is all well and good, but it does not get to the heart of what motivates your child. The child may grow into a teenager and adult thinking that outward behaviors are all-important, and missing the inner self-mastery that leads to true joy.

What does it take to teach your children self-mastery? There are skills and concepts found across many cultures that parents use to help their children grow into positive, confident, centered and motivated adults. Here are a few thoughts to keep in mind:

• “Discipline” is not about punishment; it is about providing parameters, structure, which children need to master their world. Having specific times during the day for certain activities that are regular and ongoing (e.g., mealtimes, bedtimes), provides consistency that is comforting and leads to greater mastery.

• Parents should express all aspects of themselves to their children, playing with them like a child while providing discipline. This means being completely honest in communicating what is working and what isn’t, in what the parent needs as well as the child (the parent can say: “I am taking this time to do this and we will play later.”)

• Use activities to create and energize relationships with children. Taking children places exposes them to different aspects of life and provides variety, however it is about BEING with them in relationship wherever you go together, not about using the activity to take a break or separate yourself from the child.

• Help children develop inner discipline. Parents in many cultures tend to focus on pleasures and the senses, and use this as rewards – “you can have this sweet if you do this, if you don’t do this.” This is conditioning through gratification. Create inner discipline and patience without relying on these conditions. When the child has a tantrum, have the child go to their room to take time alone to develop self-mastery.

As parents, our relationship with our children is sacred, divine and unique. Like all our relationships, they are a mirror of ourselves. As a parent, examine your self-image. Be aware of what you are practicing through your own words and actions and ask if you are praising and glorifying your Higher Self. What does your relationship with you children tell you about yourself? Commit yourself to Love, your Higher Self, and see how your children respond.

Yoga for Youngest to Youth

Some programs begin with toddlers and pre-schoolers, teaching them deep “balloon” breathing and using animals as models for stretching and posing.  Elementary school programs emphasize the benefits to both students and teachers who take as little as ten minutes out of the day to focus on basic meditation and yoga techniques, promising increased mental alertness and less classroom disruptions.

Beth Navon of The Lineage Project works with at-risk and incarcerated New York City teens on a mission to share yoga and meditation in efforts to empower youth to find alternatives to stress, violence and crime.  One of the participants in the program, James, reports feeling calm and relaxed and senses his anger melting away.  Shawna’s home is chaotic, she says, and the techniques she has learned help her to deal with the stresses there. Other participants say that they are better in touch with feelings, emotions, and better able to control them.

What are the benefits of yoga for teens?

Researchers have shown that yoga and meditation reap multiple physiological, psychological and biochemical benefits to yoga practitioners including reduced pulse rate, increased energy, less anxiety and reduced pain.  Mood is generally improved and feelings of self-acceptance increase.  There is continuing research to suggest that yoga and meditation can even improve academic performance.  Students of yoga have better memory, concentration and attention.  Ka’ron Fletcher, 11, said he found yoga challenging when he began classes last fall, but now finds himself using the deep-breathing techniques when he’s struggling to concentrate during science class. “It’s easy,” he said of yoga. “I just close my eyes and think about the sunrise. I can block all that other stuff out.”

Meditation creates new patterns of thinking, reducing negative thoughts and tendencies and helping the mind to become more stable. Meditation helps participants to improve articulation, feel greater peace of mind and increased mental strength and coping abilities.

Can Yoga Effect the Obesity Epidemic?

Nearly 13 million children and adolescents in the United States are obese, a number which has doubled since the early 1970s and tripled since 1980.  So, can yoga help youth get control of their weight?  While yoga is not a calorie-burning power aerobic exercise, it is exercise and many practitioners believe yoga can take off extra pounds. Yoga can give a challenging workout and increase flexibility, strength and endurance and increase metabolic function.  The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle led a study which showed that those practicing yoga who were overweight to start with lost about five pounds during the same time period that those not practicing yoga gained 14 pounds.  Additionally, yoga helps teens to be body-aware and helps them change the relationship of mind and body, causing kids to reevaluate their eating and exercise choices.

Everybody’s Doing It

Jennifer Aniston does it.  Halle Berry and Liv Tyler does it.  So does Madonna, super models and professional athletes.  Everybody’s doing it—yoga, it seems.  Along with the numerous physical and emotional benefits of participating in yoga and meditation, there is an important social aspect to be considered.  Adolescents feel a need to be included and participate in group activities with friends and where they can make new friends.  Attending yoga classes provides a clean and safe environment where teens can work out together; enjoy socializing in a positive, healthy way.

Have you participated in yoga or meditation?  Have your children?  Have you seen any benefits resulting from their participation? Do you think it could benefit your youth?  Leave your thoughts and comments in the box below.

1. Only you can show them how to be organized. It’s not something they are going to learn in school. Understand that they need to be taught these skills.
2. Lead by example. You can’t expect your teen to have a clean room if the rest of your home is in disarray.
3. Don’t clean their rooms for them. This will be a temporary fix and before you know it, the room will be a mess again. Make sure they play an active role in the process.
4. Create a system that works. Everyone is different, so it may take a little trial and error before finding the right system, but don’t get discouraged.
5.  Show them the value of being organized. By having a place for everything and actually putting things where they go, your teens will spend less time looking for lost items and have more time for the things they want to do (and things they don’t, like homework).

New Technology in 2012

Each new year brings new technology it’s either bigger and better, or it’s smaller and faster.  One of the biggest trends in 2012 is e-readers.  E-readers are any electronic devices that have reading capabilities for books, magazines, newspapers and sometimes web access.  According to McGraw-Hill Education, 95% of their textbooks are also offered as ebooks.  Mobile usage has completely exploded over the last 2 years with over 1.2 billion having a web capable handset within arm’s reach at all time.  Tablet computers are also hitting the market in a big way, many of which hold almost all of the same capabilities of a full-size computer in a device smaller than a notepad.

The Good News:

Despite the risks associated with technology, it’s not all bad news.  According to 2009 Parent-Teen Cell Phone Survey, teen’s trends in technology are not all that different than their parents.  While teenagers love the Internet, they record spending far less time browsing than adults.  They also report that many of teens’ favorite TV shows and top Web sites are mostly the same as their parents.  This makes it easy to know what you’re teens are doing, it’s probably similar to the same things you are doing.

The Trouble With Too Much Technology

The problem with having a world’s worth of information at your fingertips is that you get up a world’s worth of false information at your fingertips.  According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project: Teens and Parents Survey in 2004,  twenty-two percent of Internet-using teens say they have looked for information online about a topic that’s hard to talk about, like drug use, sexual health, or depression. That statistic was almost eight years ago.  Today, you can almost guarantee that your teen is probably Googling more topics than you can think of.  The problem with this is they are finding lots of information, picture and sometimes even video.  And the bigger problem is much of the information is incomplete or absolutely incorrect.

Managing Your Teen’s Technology

It is important to actively manage your teen’s technology in order to maintain both an understanding and a limit to their access. Here are a few simple ideas to stay in top of your teen’s tech habits:

• Learn about your teen’s phone or tablet.  Most tech devices are basically living track records, if you know how to use them.  You need to be able to use your teen’s phone as well (if not better) than they do.  Know how to check recent calls, read texts and ask your teen about any unidentified names or numbers they are contacting.

• Monitor your teen’s e-mails.  Today, teens may be communicating with people all over the world, so it’s important to monitor their email and web history on a regular basis.  Make it a clear rule that the web history on any computer is NEVER to be deleted, and know how to restore it if it is.
• Remind your teens that the Internet is public space.  It is easy to forget that the entire world is online and teenagers often have a hard time seeing the big picture.  Remind them that anyone and everything including college admissions offices, potential employers, and even grandma might be online at anytime.
• Explain the legal boundaries of the internet.  The legislatures are still trying to figure out how to impose the rule of law in a digital age, and as a result, the internet functions much like the wild, wild west.  Many thing online are not legal such as alcohol, tobacco, drugs marketing, weapons sales, and pornography.  Explain to your teens that just because it is available does not make it legal and they can still be held responsible to the consequences.

What boundaries have you set for your teenagers, have you discussed the off-limits areas of the web? Do you have a problem with over-techy teens? Remember that the precautions you’d use in the real world are the same ones you should be using in the virtual world.

A Passion for Fashion.  If you have a budding fashionista in your house, The Art Institutes Passion for Fashion Competitionis a great opportunity to get an inside view of the fashion world.  Contestants enter into two categories: Fashion Design or Fashion Marketing and compete for the chance to win a shopping spree in New York and a scholarship to an Art Institute school.  To learn more about The Art Institutes, visit their website at www.artinstitutes.edu.

America’s Best High School Chef. Perhaps your teen prefers to spend their free time in the kitchen.  If so, they are eligible to enter the America’s Best High School Chef competition, hosted by Monroe College. Two competitions are involved, one for best chef and one for best pastry chef.  The winner is awarded a scholarship for the AAS Culinary Arts Programme at Monroe College, and the chance to study in another country for a semester. More information can be found at www.monroecollege.edu/abhschef.

Calling All Artists: The Affiliate Network of the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers is a visual and literary arts-focused organization that is present in local communities across the country.  The art category includes design, digital art, drawing, photography, film, painting, sculpture and mixed media (just to name a few). To find an affiliate and get involved in your local competitions, visit http://www.artandwriting.org/alliance/affiliates.

Future Engineers:  If you have a teen that enjoys pulling things apart to learn how they work, they might be a great candidate for the Ability One Network Design Challenge.  This is a design challenge for students in grades 9-12 to create a device using science and technology.  The teams work together and the top five teams win a trip to Washington, DC to present their device and compete for cash prizes.  Learn more at  http://www.instituteforempowerment.org/design-challenge

Mr. Roboto.  The National Robotics Challenge offers twelve robotics contests for students of various ages.  This challenge actually provides the opportunity for teens to build an actual robot and compete with other students from across the country.  Find more contest information at www.nationalroboticschallenge.org.

Fiction Writers.  Encourage your teen to take their writings and get published for the first time with Teen Ink.  Anything goes in the Teen Ink’s Fiction Contest. Entries of all genres are accepted, whether fantasy, horror, sci-fi, or romance. Short stories should be between 500 and 2,500 words.  This ongoing contest is open to teens across the country and winning stories are published in Teen Ink magazine.  Entries are accepted and considered for publication in Teen Ink magazine and online throughout the year.  More information can be found at www.teenink.com

As parents, it is important to be there for your teen through all of the ups and downs of this roller coaster ride we call adolescence.

New Beginnings:  When a roller coaster begins, it brings butterflies and excitement to all passengers, ready and waiting for what lies ahead.  This happens over and over again for teenagers.  New friends, budding romances, a developing talent or skill begins with unprecedented optimism.  Teenagers beginning something new are excited about what might lie ahead for them, but they still need advice from someone who has been down the road before.  Use this time of enthusiasm for counsel and advice, encourage their optimism, be their cheerleader and help them to remain balanced.

The Upward Climb: Every roller coaster has an upward climb that makes you think you’re on a simply scenic joyride, it’s usually calm and slow, without a lot of jerks and turns.  During this time, your teen is comfortable, relaxed and life seems to be going along smoothly.  Grades are up, friends are good, moods are positive and it’s time to kick back, right? Wrong.  Don’t lose effort during this time and think your job is done.  This is the best time to nurture your relationship, spend time together, talk about day-to-day activities.  It is during this time that you build your relationship so that you can have a foundation to build off of when the hard times come ahead.

The Downward Spiral: This is the gut-wrenching part of the roller coaster when teenagers need parents more than ever.  The downward spiral might include particularly painful events, death of friends or family, depression, drug use, academic failure or self-destructive behaviors.  If you suspect the beginning of a downward spiral, don’t ignore it.  Let your teen know you care, put aside the yelling or nagging and calmly express your love and concern.  If you are concerned about addictions or life-threatening behavior, it might be time to enlist additional help from a counselor or religious leader.   The good news is often times a downward spiral can end with a new beginning, consider different “new beginning” possibilities that may help your teen break their spiral cycle.

Every Roller Coaster is Different:  Just like every child, every roller coaster is different.  Your daughter might spend most of her years in the upward climb and have only a short downward spiral, your son might spend most of his time in a downward spiral leaving you feeling hopeless.  It is important to remember that your teen needs you regardless of the phase they are in because they simply do not have the brain power, the knowledge or the experience to handle life in the same way an adult would.  When your family experiences changes, be sure to pay special attention to your teen.  In the same way that you made sure they had enough to eat when they were a 3-year-old, be sure that you stay in tune with the changes they are going through.  No teenager should be riding their roller coaster alone, so buckle up and hold on for the ride.

What does your roller coaster look like? Do you feel like you’re riding two or three simultaneously? How have you helped your teen transition out of a downward spiral by exploring new beginnings? 

I Don’t Have Time!

Before you can get control over much else, you have to get control over your time, and in a family
that involves the kids time, too. Set aside one night a week to sit down together as a family for a
few minutes and go over everyone’s schedule for the next ten to fourteen days. Calendar all the
appointments, driving and other responsibilities, school and after-school activities, work meetings, etc.
You may see, in calendaring together, that you have scheduled too tightly or with too many things.
Alvin Rosenfeld, M.D., a child psychiatrist and author of The Over-Scheduled Child: Avoiding the Hyper-
Parenting Trap, believes that enrolling children in too many activities is a big problem with far-reaching
effects. “Parents feel remiss that they’re not being good parents if their kids aren’t in all kinds of
activities,” he says. This often causes stress for children and parents alike. If your family’s schedule is so
packed that you don’t have any down-time then reevaluate and let go of the non-essential things.

Create Command Central:

Are you struggling to keep track of where everyone is supposed to be? Do you feel out of touch
with what the kids are doing? Did you misplace the soccer schedule—again? A Family Headquarters
Board may be the answer you’re looking for. Using whiteboards, chalkboards, bulletin boards or a
combination that works for you, create a space in a central location where everyone in the family
can access it regularly and easily. One section should be the family calendar. This helps children and
parents keep track of each other. Maddie reported that she loved the Family Headquarters Board when
her mother, a busy traveling motivational speaker, installed it in the kitchen. “Now I know when she’s
going out of town,” she said. Also include a place for messages and other sections such as menus for
the week, job charts, recipes, photos, school papers, etc. Keep it neat and up-to-date and this command
central will go far in keeping the family chaos in order.

Hurry Up, We’re Going to Be Late

How many times have you heard that? Or said that? Getting everyone out the door in the morning
can be a real challenge but spending a few minutes the night before can be key to a smooth start the
next day. Prepare lunches and store in the refrigerator along with water bottles, pack up school bags
and briefcases, set out keys and phones. Prepare breakfast cereal and bowls, spoons, fruit and coffee
mugs. Do everything you can do ahead the night before. Planning the week’s clothing can also be an
enormous time saver. Help kids chose clothes and set them on shelves or in hanging fabric bags or hang
outfits together in the closet. This helps avoid the last minute race through the laundry basket to find
the rumbled white shirt you need.

Conquer Clutter

We’re all exhausted by the end of the day and cleaning the house is usually the last we want to do,
but a little bit goes a long way in conquering the daily clutter. Organization expert Shannon McGinnis
recommends a “10 Minute Tidy” – take just ten minutes to straighten up the kitchen, put away the toys,
or clean up the paperwork. Enlist the help of everyone for those ten minutes, set a timer, and you’ll be
amazed how much you can get done.

Try implementing these simple tips and see how successful you can be in getting control over chaos? Do
you have other ideas which help you and your family stay in control? Leave a comment in the box below
to share your experiences and suggestions.

1. Those who believe they are not smart enough to succeed, so they don’t try.
2. Those who believe they already know everything, so they don’t bother making an effort.

Students in both of these areas can be at risk for becoming a shut-down learner, which can seriously affect their academic success if not recognized and solved early.

The Shut-Down Learner:

Dr. Richard Selznick, is a child psychologist and the Director of the Cooper Learning Center, Department of Pediatrics and says a shut-down learner is one where the student is disconnected, discouraged or unmotivated in multiple areas of school.  Dr. Selznick says this is created by the following formula:

Cracks in the foundation + Time +Lack of Understanding + Strained Family Communication = Shut-Down Learner.

Cracks in the foundation can be identified early, be sure your child is on track during kindergarten all the way through grade school.  Anytime you begin to see a crack start to form, where your child is falling behind, address it immediately rather than allow time to make it worse.  Cracks can be caused by not understanding, or by being bored and choosing not to apply themselves, but addressed early, they can be remedied and avoid future discouragement.  Refusing to communicate early leads to strained communication and results in a shut-down learner.

Addressing a Shut-Down Learner.

If you have a shut-down learner, address the issue and trust your gut. You don’t have to wait until mid-terms or parent-teacher conference.  If you know something is wrong, act on your instincts.  Talk to your student calmly, no yelling, pecking or nagging.  You need to identify the problem first to understand whether it’s lack of understanding, or lack of motivation. Ask him about his favorite subjects, classes he dreads and whether he’s satisfied with his latest progress report.  A simple conversation can go a long way.

Support and Reinforce positive actions.

Perhaps the most important piece of the puzzle is to follow-up with your student.  Follow up on assignment and reinforce any positive actions like, “Thank you so much for starting on your homework, anything I can help with?” can make a big difference to a child who might be discouraged.  Let your teen know you are on their side.

Assess the workload.

It is important to understand that there are situations where children are given assignments that are simply too hard for them.  For example, if reading is a struggle for your child, textbook reading can be brutal.  Dr. Selznick suggests testing the workload to see whether the material is too difficult, “ask your child to read from a random place in the textbook. Is the reading smooth? Are they making many errors?” If so, then the work is probably causing the child to shut down. If this is the case, politely speak to your child’s teacher about the issue and then try working together with your child, stop frequently to review their understanding by making annotations or taking notes.  If the problem persists, consider alternate tutors.

Balance work with fun.

If the only thing you ever do with your child is read textbooks, they are not going to look forward to “family time.”  Before or after schoolwork, do something fun.  Grab a pizza to nibble on while you tackle the quadratic formula.  Take a break from Shakespeare to grab some ice cream.  Break up study time with an activity to avoid letting school problems set the tone for the entire household and all of your interactions.

What problems are you facing with your teens academically? Have you had an honest conversation with your teenager about their academic situation? Try some of these tips this week and let us know what progress you’ve made.  

There are shelves full of hot new releases in teen literature that may stay behind the headlines, but are getting high reviews and are quickly rising in popularity.  Here is a quick run-down of the some of the best teen books you never heard of.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Just released in January 2012 is a story of Hazel, a 16-year-old, with terminal cancer, who meets Augustus at her kids-with-cancer support group.  This novel tackles the three big subjects: life, death and love.  This novel allows teens to ponder life-changing questions such as: How will I be remembered? Does my life, and will my death, have meaning?  An emotional read that will definitely leave you thinking.

The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch by Joseph Delaney, Patrick Arrasmith

Thomas Ward is a 12-year-old boy bored on his farm when he decides to be the apprentice for Spook, an expert in dealing with ghouls, boggarts, and various other wicked beasts.  His mother is a magical person herself and approves of this idea, but things go terribly wrong just as Thomas gets started into his training.  This is the beginning of a series geared towards young tweens and teens.  If your teen is into magic creatures, fantasy plots and battles of creatures, this might be their favorite new series.

Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler, Maira Kalman

This classic story of first love hit the Amazon Best Books of the Month list for January 2012 and is quickly becoming a favorite of teen girls.  Throughout the book, readers learn by Min and Ed broke up.  These two unforgettable and loveable characters weave a story through significant love tokens which unfolds through memories of heartbreak and joy.  It has a depth of writing which describes exactly what it’s like to be a teenage girl in love.

Diablo III: Book of Cain  by Deckard Cain

In this third part of the Diablo series, the recurring character of Deckard Cain is back with his formal record of the bigger picture.  This book focuses on the creation of the Diablo universe, the conflict between heaven and hell.  Diablo, originally a video game, is definitely to be a home run for sci-fi lovers, gamers and teenage boys who might not seem interested in reading much else.

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keys

Flowers for Algernon used to be (and in some areas still is) required reading for 7^th or 8^th graders, and it is making a come back in a big way.  Charlie Gordon tells his story in his own words, with an IQ of just 68, of a human experimental brain operation.  As Charlie’s IQ rises, he learns more about the world, the people in it, and becomes painfully aware of the realities of life.  It’s a very thought-provoking story, and may help teens to imagine learning all of life’s hard truth’s in a matter of weeks rather than the normal development from innocent child to worldly adult.

Inheritance by Christopher Paolini

These books came out not long after Harry potter, and have been overshadowed by Potter frenzy, but for any Potter fans, these are a great series to feast your eyes onto. In the first book, Eragon begins his journey as a poor farm boy, who finds a dragon egg in the forest.  Four books later brings trainings and battles, victories, hope, and loss.  Inheritance is the conclusion to the four-part series and is a favorite of fantasy lovers everywhere.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

The story begins when 16-year old Jacob finds himself on a remote island where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. This book is full of adventure, photography and can be compared to Mr. Snicket’s “A Series of Unfortunate Events”. This is the first novel, which has a cliffhanger at the end waiting for book number two.  This classic intriguing tale is on just about every teen favorite list including Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.

Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare

Set at the London Institute with Mortmain and his clockwork army, this is book number two in this adventure series.  The main characters, Will, Jem, and Tessa set out on an adventure to unravel the secrets of Mortmain’s past.  This book is a historical fantasy set in the Victorian time.  The protagonist is spunky and brave but also level-headed and a bookworm. With a fantastic plot that is riveting and touching.  This is one of those books that reminds readers why they love reading.