Monitor And Limit Your Child’s Screen Time! @Screentimelabs #Ad

    If your children are like mine, they love technology and are very savvy at navigating all of their electronic devices.  As parents, we all want our kids to be in step with today's modern times because we know that technology is evolving daily and will open many doors for them in the future.  The problem is that sometimes young people become consumed with their tablets and smartphones and don't know how to use them in moderation.       Thankfully, us parents have The Screen Time app in our arsenal.  It provides parents with the management tools to limit the time that kids spend on their devices. It is available for both iOS and Android users and is a wonderful resource for parents who want to establish boundaries when it comes to their children's screen time.     The Screen Time allows parents to automatically limit the amount that their child spends on selected apps each day.  You can even block certain apps from ever … [Read more...]

Calling All Parents! #Education

    This past week, I have taken the opportunity to reach out to many of the parents of my students just to introduce myself and to give them an update on how their children are progressing in class.  I cannot begin to tell you how many parents immediately get scared when I introduce myself because they think I am calling to give them a bad report about their child.  Nine times out of ten I have to reassure them right away that this is a good call and that there is nothing to worry about.     As an educator, it makes me wonder how often my colleagues are calling parents just to tell them that their children are doing well or simply to touch base.  My experience has been that I get a lot more support and cooperation from parents that I contact regularly than parents that I only call to give complaints to.  After all, nobody wants to hear bad things about their child all the time.  I'm a parent and I hate when I get bad reports from my sons' teachers.     The response to this round … [Read more...]

Did She Really Just Say That?

    Many of you know that this past year, I had to deal with some parents behaving badly in my son's class due to the presence of "Mom Cliques" and the children that they are raising to think that being mean spirited to others is acceptable.  One particular parent's son has been especially cruel to my son and to other children not only in class but also during organized sports.  It's been difficult to avoid it since all of the kids participate in these activities together within our community.     This past baseball season, my son and this boy ended up on the same baseball team much to my chagrin.  You see, this Momma Bear has had to go up against this mom and son duo before.  His mean antics continued right from the classroom to the baseball field and dugout.  He even went as far as to call some of the boys on the team "fagg&%ts" when they ran out of gum and did not have a piece to give him.  This was no surprise to me because this is the same boy who had called my son a … [Read more...]