5-7 Grade

Slake’s Limbo by Felice Holman

This gem of a novel follows a runaway teen seeking solace in New York City’s maze-like subway system. A survival story at its core, Slake exhibits ingenuity, street-smarts, and an emotional maturation that serves him well over the course of the book.

Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick

You are sure to shed a tear or two reading this touching, sweet, and often funny adventure story about unlikely friends who team up to become a single superhero of sorts. The sometimes serious tone is lightened by the magical quests these two embark upon.

Holes by Louis Sachar

Curses, legends, and lore – oh my! This celebrated book masterfully weaves tales of Stanley’s plight at Camp Green Lake digging holes as punishment for a crime he didn’t commit with flashbacks to events that set his family’s perpetual bad luck in motion. The ending’s so good, you’ll cheer.

The Revealers by Doug Wilhelm

Fast becoming a middle grades must-read, this book follows fed-up, yet earnest students who attempt to blow the lid off the growing bullying problem at their school. They soon discover that the troubles are more widespread than anyone realized. These honest illustrations of harassment and cruelty hit home for a lot of children, and will be a real eye-opener for parents. It’s an important book, and one that you might want to read together.

7-9 Grade

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

In this action-packed, emotional read, the lives of rival gangs spin out of control after the events of one tragic evening. It forces one to ask important questions about loyalty, family, self-respect, and how far a person should go to stand their ground.

A Separate Peace by John Knowles

Set in a New England prep school in the 1940s, this novel delves into the complicated nature of friendship and the inner-workings of the teen-aged mind. Jealousy and unspoken emotions alter the lives of two best friends, one of whom will bear the burden of a life-long regret.

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 ¾ by Sue Townsend

This hilarious British import has garnered acclaim for decades – with good reason. Adrian’s delightfully immature, yet wise beyond his years opinions on love, friendship, and everything in between will have you sneaking back into this secret diary for years to come.

The Pigman by Paul Zindel

Though the slang might be outdated, this book never goes out of style. Two teenagers befriend an elderly man as part of a prank, but before long a true friendship has bloomed. Regrettably, the teens betray his trust, and shortly after, tragedy strikes. Will they ever get the chance to make amends?

Erika Ehren’s fun debut novel, Dirty, Loud, Crowded follows a high school boy blogging his way through one crazy year in New York City. He learns to love his new city by getting a life. For more information, visit https://www.facebook.com/DirtyLoudCrowded. 

Brought to you by Paul A. Gydosh Jr.
In conjunction with (Lincoln Financial Advisors)

Through your own philanthropic generosity—whether volunteering, supporting a charity as a benefactor, attending fundraisers or setting up a family foundation—you are educating your children about your values and teaching them to be generous. While you may identify your philanthropic values more formally in a family charitable mission statement, children learn a lot through observation.

Introducing your children to the philanthropic projects you support is the first step toward building a family unit that knows what resources you have, and will work together to help reach financial goals. In the long term it will help your children preserve your assets and share the wealth in a philanthropic way.

Studies show that participating in charitable activities can help boost your children’s self-esteem, build confidence and help shape their values. Doing charitable works is enriching, valuable and self-perpetuating; kids learn that helping others can be fun and makes them feel good. Children also feel positive about wealth when they see the effects of charitable giving on the world at large. Philanthropy helps children learn to manage the family wealth and realize the benefits of the family working together to support common interests. This can help ensure that the legacy you leave will be cared for by your heirs.

Encouraging Philanthropy

Working with your children to support philanthropic projects is an important way to put your family values into practice, build relationships with your children and to teach them how they can impact others in a positive way. Here are 10 ways to get started:

1. Give away used items: Set aside time to go through your children’s rooms with them to select gently used toys or clothing to donate. Help your children box up the items, and encourage them to come with you to deliver the items so they might see the need their donation fills.
2. Donate part of an allowance: Encourage your children to contribute a percentage of their allowance to charity, or to purchase an item from savings to donate to a charity. Charity is something that must be taught. It can be hard at first for people to give money away.
3. Adopt another family: During the holidays many charities sponsor “angel” projects. You could select needy children in the same age group as your children to make shopping easy and fun, or adopt a whole family.
4. Hold family meetings on charity: Discuss how much money the family will donate this year and review what charities you’ve supported in the past and the impact of the contributions. Involve your children in the decision-making process of where this year’s charitable donations will go, or helping to create the mission statement of the family foundation. You may wish to allocate age-appropriate amounts from your total charitable contributions so that each child can select a charity to support.
5. Research charities together: Research the Web with your children to identify projects they would like to support with donations or time.
6. Volunteer: Help your children contact, visit and explore a community cause that interests them.
7. Support school and community activities: Support your child’s involvement in charitable projects sponsored by the school, church or community centers. Working together with their friends to benefit others reinforces the values you are teaching at home.
8. Start or join a local charity chapter: You may wish to contact a local organization that can identify resources in your area and help you get started.
9. Organize a fundraising project: Encourage your children to identify a charity they would like to promote and help them organize a fundraising project.
10. Take a philanthropic vacation: Working to help build a school or well in another country will give your children a new perspective on the world at large, the needs of others and how to help. You can send them on their own or make it a family activity.

Here are some of the qualities tweens and toddlers share:

1. They Enjoy Songs Lyrics Involving the Telephone

Preschool and middle school kids both seem particularly enamored with songs about making phone calls. For the younger set, it may be Raffi’s Bananaphone that they insist on listening to until you can’t stand hearing one more “ring, ring, ring, ring.” Sadly, it’s no easier to endure Carly Rae Jepsen’s Call Me Maybe. After the ninth, “I know it’s crazy, but here’s my number…” you might get heart palpitations. Take a deep breath and know that your child’s musical tastes will evolve and, in a year or two, you might actually enjoy the music they choose.

2. Their Conversation Can Be “So Random”

When he was three or four and you asked what he did at preschool that day or what book she wanted to read, your child’s responses included “Jelly is sticky!” or “Mama, do dolphins sleep with their eyes open?” Conversations with your child were riddled with non-sequiturs. You’ll find your tween also blurts remarks that don’t seem to relate to the conversation. For instance, you might remind him to take out the garbage and find that your son responds with “My gym teacher sucks!” Or you’ll ask, “Would you like a snack?” and instead of hearing the usual “I’m good,” your child might offer a friendly, “No problem.” Do not fear. Before long, conversations with your child will not be “so random.”

3. Their Dental Hygiene is Substandard

What happened to that dutiful little 8 year-old who stood brushing at the bathroom counter and let the sand completely run out of the timer before she rinsed? These days, you notice bits of what look like seaweed between your child’s teeth. “Honey, did you brush today?” At this point, tweens will either admit to having forgotten or will comment on the inferior quality of their cell phones. (“Honey, that was so random!” “Whatever!”) For the first time in years, you will orbit around your children as they get ready for bed, reminding them to put toothpaste on their brushes and to keep scrubbing for more than ten seconds. (The situation is even more dire among those who wear braces.)

4. They Smell

Remember how shocked you were when your beautiful newborn got bigger and began dirtying her diapers in a manner so noxious that your eyes watered? Potty training comes and goes and you are lulled into complacency about the smells your child can emit. Until, that is, said child becomes a tween. Suddenly his sneakers smell like a decomposing goat. Her underarms are a spilled bottle of vinegar. And their morning breath could detonate the Death Star. Don’t panic. Just dig around in the back of the cabinet for that old bottle of Lysol. (You know, the one you doused the house with after a particularly bad diaper blow-out?) Only this time, spray it directly into your son’s shoes and those of his friends when they aren’t looking. Surprise your daughter with fancy shampoos and bubble baths. And wait it out. Even this will pass.

5. They Seem Almost…Narcissistic

When children are tiny, they are very clear about the fact that their needs matter most. They think nothing of brazenly vomiting on you, grabbing that last strawberry from your plate, or waking you from a perfectly delicious – and rare – night’s sleep to announce that their thirst. Well, as tweens, that “I’m the Center of the Universe” mindset returns. Ask her to do her chores before spending the day at the pool? You’re the meanest mom in the world. Tell him he has to wait a half hour before you drive him to the park? Well what is it you’re doing that’s so important? Smile. Act kinder than you feel. And wait it out. They’ll turn fourteen before long and things should return, more or less, to normal.

Remember, the tween years do come to an end. As you did when they were toddlers, give them clear boundaries, be intentional about connecting with them every day, and shower them with lots of love – and body wash – as they make their ways down that bumpy road through adolescence.

By Eric D. Brotman, CFP^®, AEP^®, MSFS

Many families buy life insurance to make certain their spouses and/or children will be taken care of financially in the unfortunate event of a parent’s untimely death. It is an unpleasant topic to consider, for sure, but it’s always best to plan ahead and be prepared.

However, what many parents don’t realize is that owning life insurance policies may have more financial advantages than just the death benefit. For families with significant portfolios who are looking to do tax and estate planning, whole life insurance can be a fantastic tool to help build net worth. Beyond simply providing a lump sum payout on death, there are a variety of ways your family might benefit from holding life insurance, even if you and your spouse both live to the age of 105.

When saving for a college education, many times it is the grandparents who are able to “save the day” to make an education possible.  In addition to contributing to 529 College Savings Plans¹ or making tuition payments directly to a college or university, having the parents own permanent life insurance on one or more grandparents may be an effective strategy. If the insured grandparent passes away before your child starts college, the proceeds are received income tax-free and are available for school. If your child doesn’t go to college, or if the grandparents are fortunate enough to enjoy a very long life, the funds will still be available for other uses. Both of these options allow flexibility with the money saved – it can be used for college or for other family needs. In our family, we used this strategy personally, in addition to funding a 529 College Savings Plan at a level designed to pay for in-state tuition.

If you are purchasing whole life insurance, I would say to plan not to touch it for the first 10 years as you pay the premiums and allow its cash value to grow. After that point, if you find yourself in a situation where you need access to additional cash, you can access your policy in one of two ways. You can make withdrawals from the cash value of your policy, or you can take out a policy loan². These sorts of loans never have to be paid back, as long as the policy still has enough value in it to cover the cost of the loan interest each year.

Whole life insurance grows tax deferred, meaning there are no capital gains or income taxes as the policy builds cash value. And when cash values in whole life insurances are withdrawn during the lifetime of the policyholder, they are not taxable income as long as the policy is not surrendered. This means you have ways to access your cash, later in life, tax-free and can leave behind a death benefit that is also income tax-free to your beneficiaries, net of any loans or withdrawals.

Today, some companies are offering whole life insurance in a 10-payment format that will require you to pay annual premiums for just 10 years, and then never to contribute another nickel assuming that no loans or withdrawals are taken against the policy.  At that point, you can decide to keep the policy and allow the cash value and death benefit to continue to grow for the rest of your life, or to begin making withdrawals from the policy at some future time for use of the cash values. This is a great option that could allow you and/or your spouse to pay for your life insurance in full before you retire. Of course, the younger you are when you get started, the better off you’ll be in terms of cost and time to accrue your return.

Investing in whole life insurance is not right for everyone, however. If your family is not fully funding retirement or has any debt issues, deal with those first. As always, you need to be careful in how you allocate your assets, so be sure to work closely with a financial and tax advisor to determine what strategies and policies are best for you. But if you already own a sizable portfolio and have fully-funded retirement (or are on track to do so), participating whole life insurance purchased from a mutual insurer – Guardian and Mass Mutual are my personal favorites – may make sense.

¹ – There is no guarantee that the plan will grow to cover college expenses.   In addition, depending upon the laws of your home state or designated beneficiary, favorable state tax treatment or other benefits offered by such home state for investing in 529 college savings plans may be available only if you invest in the home state’s 529 college savings plan.  Any state-based benefit offered with respect to a particular 529 college savings plan should be one of many appropriately weighted factors to be considered in making an investment decision.  You should consult with your financial, tax, or other adviser to learn more about how state-based benefits (including any limitations) would apply to your specific circumstances and also may wish to contact your home state or any other 529 college savings plan to learn more about the features, benefits, and limitations of that state’s 529 college savings plan.  You may also go to http://collegesavings.org for more information.

² – Loans and withdrawals from an insurance policy may generate an income tax liability, reduce available cash value, and reduce the death benefit or cause the policy to lapse.

All guarantees are based on the financial strength and claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect those held by NFP Securities, Inc.  This is for general information only and is not intended to provide specific investment advice or recommendations for any individual.  It is suggested that you consult your financial professional, attorney, or tax advisor with regard to your individual situation.  Comments concerning the past performance are not intended to be forward-looking and should not be viewed as an indication of future results.

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.