Whenever a loved one is on the road, you want them to be safe, including when they’re riding a bicycle. Teen bicycle safety is important because it begins to teach them the rules of the road they’ll need to know when they get their driver’s license. The rules of the road are generally the same for bicyclists as it is for other vehicles on the road.
Teach your teen that the best way to remain safe while riding a bicycle is to be predictable in your actions, to be visible by using reflective clothing, and to communicate what you intend to do to the motorists around you. Have your teen familiarize themselves with the rules of the road handbook so they know how to signal by hand.
Be sure the bike your teen will be riding is the right size and that it is properly adjusted. They should have reflectors on the spokes and a red rear reflector on the bicycle so they can be easily seen at night. It is also a good idea to wear a white headlight to be seen, regardless of how stupid your teen thinks it makes them look.
Most bikes can be equipped with a rack over the rear wheel. If your teen’s bike doesn’t have one, you may want to have one added. This will allow them to carry items such as books or a backpack. They should always carry a basic tool kit just in case they have problems with their bike.
Remind your teen to wear a bicycle helmet whenever they plan to take a bike ride. While they may not like the helmet, it is required by law for everyone under the age of eighteen.
Here are some other rules of the road that they’ll need to follow:
* Always ride with the traffic flow.
* If you ride with others, you should ride in a straight line.
* Unless you are turning left, you should always stay to the right side of the road.
* You are required to stop at stop signs and all red lights. You can continue once the light has changed to green.
* Keeping a safe distance from parked cars is also important. This will keep the cyclist from colliding with you.
* Be sure to use proper hand signals when turning, stopping or changing lanes.
* If you’re riding while it’s raining, use extra caution and allow extra time to stop on the wet roads.
* Bicycles should cross railroad tracks at a right angle.
* When you reach a crosswalk, get off your bike and walk it across.
* Hearing is important while riding a bicycle. Therefore, don’t wear headphones on both ears while riding your bike. It will be distracting and could be a contributing factor in having an accident.
* As with driving a car, never drink and ride your bike.
* Ride defensively and pay attention to what is going on around you.
* Even though you’re not as large as a car or truck, it is important to always give pedestrians the right of way.
Teen bicycle safety may be an afterthought once your teen starts to learn to drive a car. That’s not the time to let safety take a backseat, however. Remind them that they should treat any time they’re riding a bike on the road as if it were a car. The rules of the road are the same so they should know what the rules are and obey them.
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Acne is a condition that is common among teenagers across the world. Over 70% of teens between the ages of 12 and 19, and sometimes into adulthood, have acne in some form or severity. This could be caused by hereditary or poor skincare, but there’s no doubt teen acne can scar more than skin.
Primarily acne is caused by the glands released at puberty that cause the oil glands to produce more oil than is needed. This leads to pores being blocked and the development of pimples or blackheads. Thankfully there’s something a teen, or adult for that matter, can do to combat acne.
If the case of acne is mild, it’s important to wash your face daily with a mild cleanser. This helps open the pores and remove the excess oil. It’s also important to keep your hands away from your face. Eating a diet of fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as drinking plenty of water, can also help your skin be healthy.
Severe cases of acne aren’t going to clear up by washing your face. You may have to see a general doctor or dermatologist. They can prescribe gels, lotions, or other medications that can help get rid of acne.
It may be easiest to think that acne will clear up on it’s own over time. The fact is that few people merely outgrow it. In fact, if acne is left untreated, it can cause scarring that is more than skin deep. Severe acne can cause teens to have poor self-esteem or other emotional problems that could be averted if their acne was treated promptly.
While it’s true that most people will develop and have to deal with acne, telling your teen that everyone their age has acne won’t help them. They need you to listen to them and understand that they feel bad about their own acne problem. You don’t have to baby them, but if you’ll think back to how you felt as a teen with acne, you’ll have a better appreciation for what they’re going through.
Here are some other statements that parents have used in the past when talking about acne with their teens. They may even be things your own parents said to you. Think back to how you felt and you’ll know why it’s better to leave these things unsaid:
* “You eat too much junk food, that’s why you have acne.” The truth is that there isn’t any scientific evidence to prove that our diets directly affect acne.
* “If you washed your face, you wouldn’t break out.” This may be partially true. Proper washing is important, but acne starts under the skin’s surface, not on top of it.
* “Popping pimples will get rid of them.” Actually it’s better to leave acne alone. The more you mess with acne the higher the chances are that you’ll develop scarring.
* “Learn to live with it, it’ll go away.” More than 40% of teens with acne have it so severely that they need to see a dermatologist to get it under control.
The old adage says that “beauty is only skin deep.” It’s important for your teen to know that they are the same great person whether they have acne or not. Explain to them that their personality, how much they care about others, and their intelligent conversations are what makes people want to be friends with them. And if they’re true friends, acne won’t keep them from remaining as friends. In fact, it may help them learn to deal with their own when they develop teen acne.
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What is it about teens? They often think their parents are made of money. Of course, this isn’t a new problem parents face. However, teaching teens the value of money can help them learn where money comes from and how to handle it properly.
If you’re successful at teaching teens about money while they’re young, they’ll be less likely to have money problems in the future. At least that’s your hope as a parent - for your children to grow up and avoid the mistakes you may have made, whether financial or not.
You may want to consider giving your teen an allowance if you haven’t already done so. This will help them learn about money. Their allowance doesn’t have to be associated with doing chores, since chores are something that everyone in the family does to help make the family home run smoothly.
Sit down as a family and decide how much of an allowance your teen should get and what you expect them to learn about money. If they’re old enough to get a part-time job, allowing them to do that will give them their own money, but you’ll still want to give them help with what to do with it.
Help them open a savings and a checking account. This will give them a way to save some of the money they make and a way to track their spending. If they want a particular brand of shoes or jeans that you refuse to buy because of how expensive they are, suggest they save up for that item. Talk about a way to learn how to value money! If they want that item badly enough, they’ll understand how long it takes them to work to buy it. They may find that they don’t want the item after all.
Use the checking account to help your teen learn the importance of balancing their checkbook each month. If this is a skill you’re lacking in, perhaps the two of you can go to the bank and ask someone to show you both how to do that to keep from spending more than you have.
To help your teen realize the value of money, show them how to search for bargains. You can do this by comparison shopping or by going to yard sales, thrift stores, and consignment stores. Quite often you can buy name brand items for much less than in a traditional store.
Do everything you can to keep your teen from opening a credit card account. Credit can play an important role in your teen’s financial future, but it’s better for them to avoid it until they are an adult and have a full-time job so they can pay their bills.
Most importantly, if they make a mistake with their money by overdrawing their checking account, don’t rush to bail them out. They need to learn that spending more money than they have is not something they want to do. Let them face going to the bank to pay the overdraft fees. This is one way of teaching teens the value of money - even though the lesson isn’t an easy way to learn what not to do, it will be a lesson they’ll never forget.
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Economic hardships and natural disasters have a way of bringing out the best in people. Instead of being stingy and holding on to their money, many people dig deep and try to help others. This could by giving money or by volunteering time. Teaching teens about charity work can be an experience your teen may continue with into adulthood.
There are many reasons why a teenager might consider giving their time for charity work and helping others. Teens often learn that being charitable has rewards of its own; they’ll see that sharing their time can help them feel good about themselves.
What types of activities could a teenager volunteer for that would make a difference in someone else’s life? Actually there are many ways teens can volunteer, some right in their own neighborhood or city.
The holidays are a great time to teach your teen about charity work. Quite often rescue missions offer free meals during Thanksgiving or Christmas. This may be the only hot meal some people eat if they are homeless. Teens can volunteer to help cook or serve the meal. They may also help clean up afterwards.
Explain to your teen that charitable opportunities are all around them. There are television commercials from charities that help children in other parts of the world. There are children’s hospitals that would probably be thrilled to have someone come to read stories to sick children. Nursing and convalescent homes would also appreciate having someone to come to read to their patients, especially if their family isn’t nearby.
As a parent, your most effective way of teaching your teen is by example. If they see you giving your money, your time, and your unused items, they may be more willing to participate as well.
Take an afternoon as a family and gather up good, used clothes that you don’t wear any longer. Ask your teen to take them to the homeless shelter, Salvation Army, or Goodwill store. You can also donate books, toys, and any other item that can still be used.
Go through your kitchen pantry to see if there are food items that can be shared with those less fortunate. Perhaps a family in your town have recently had a fire and lost everything they owned. Find out where they are staying, what they need, and see if there is anything your family can share.
It’s not difficult teaching teens about charity work, especially if you’ve always been charitable as a family. Your teen will see that there are those less fortunate than themselves. They will also learn that giving can give back by helping them feel good about themselves when they reach out to those in need.
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Your day has been long and hectic. You’re tense and ready to go home. Unfortunately, you’re concerned that you might bring home the tension from work and that it will affect your family time. Here are some ideas of how to create a smooth transition between work and family time that may help you.
Use the drive or commute home as a way to relax. If you’re driving, find some soothing music to listen to. If you’re riding a bus or train home, why not take a book with you to read on your commute? This will help you begin to relax so you’re less stressed when you return home.
If you arrive home before everyone else, try to set a relaxed mood. Change out of your business clothes, put on comfortable shoes, and take a few minutes to relax. There’s no reason to begin rushing around if you’re home alone. Give yourself a break - you’ve worked hard all day and you deserve it.
What do you do when everyone arrives home at the same time and there’s no time to relax before you’re faced with everyone at once? Try asking everyone to go to their rooms and get comfortable. After they’ve had a chance to do that, you’ll have your few minutes of peace and quiet before they all appear again.
Do you have a routine that you generally follow each evening? You and your family can ease into your routine by taking time to sit down and talk for a few minutes. It’s important to reconnect after you’ve been away from each other all day. Taking this time may also help your entire family to relax so the transition from work and school to family time is less abrupt.
Have a small snack fruit or vegetable slices available for them so you can begin preparing dinner without people bugging you about when it will be done. A small snack before dinner, just enough to cut the hunger, can also help your children calm down while you’re busy with dinner.
You may want to ask your family to help prepare the meal. This will also give you an opportunity to talk about your day without anyone feeling like they’re being given the fifth degree. In fact, spending time together while cooking dinner can be a great way to reconnect for everyone in the family, so why not make dinner preparation a family affair?
Have someone set the table so you can eat and then enjoy the meal you’ve prepared together. Take time to keep the conversation going by asking open-ended questions about each other’s day. This is one of the best ways to create a smooth transition between work and family time.
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Routines are important for children as they grow up. They allow children to learn what to expect during their day when they may be unable to handle change well. Routines can also make your entire family’s life run better. Learning how to create a smooth morning routine isn’t difficult, but it may take trial and error to get it working just the way you want it.
If you have a newborn, it’s so easy to get them into a routine. Do the same things each day and night at the same times and you’ll have them in a routine before you know it. If haven’t gotten older children into a routine yet, don’t fret - there’s still time.
The easiest way to create a smooth morning routine is to actually start the night before. Establish a routine the night before so your children know what to expect the next morning. This will definitely make your day run smoother.
* Decide on their clothing for the next day. Take out any clothing they want to wear the next day including shoes, socks, and accessories. By deciding on what to wear and laying the clothes out you’ll reduce the morning struggle of finding what is either appropriate or acceptable at the last minute. You will also know where each item is so you don’t have to worry about not being able to find a shoe or another item.
* Make right before bed activities into a routine. Bathing, brushing their teeth, and having a bedtime story read to them are common pre-bed activities. These can be changed to suit your family’s needs.
* Create a chart to help them do what they need to have done the night before. This may be as simple as pictures and numbers for very young children. 1 Bath, 2 Brush teeth, 3 Bedtime story, 4 Sweet dreams. Adjust it to your own family.
* Establish a set bedtime and stick to it. This is particularly important while your children are in school. You want them to get plenty of rest so decide what bedtime is appropriate depending upon their age.
When everyone has had a good night’s sleep, they will be less cranky in the morning which can make your day start out better. Prepare a good breakfast for your children and take the time to sit down and eat with them.
While your children are eating, tell them what is going on during the day. Suppose they have a doctor’s appointment - then they need to be aware that you’ll pick them up at 10:30 a.m. at school. Preparing them ahead of time by telling them what to expect will make their day go better.
Have all papers signed that need to be returned to the school. Put everything in their bags and have them sitting by the door so they can be grabbed on the way out the door. Don’t forget to give your children a hug or kiss before they leave the house - this way you don’t have to worry about embarrassing them in front of their friends.
As you can see, it doesn’t have to be difficult to create a morning routine, especially when most of the work is done the night before. Routines establish consistency for children, and children thrive when they know what to expect.
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One of the catch phrases when people think about children is whether or not they are “socialized.” For public schools, school dances are one way to teach our children to socialize. Being confident in a group is a skill most parents want their children to learn and school dances are a great way to hone these skills.
Parents hope that their children, and especially teenagers, get along with students in their class. Some skills are better suited for other venues. Let’s face it, during the day students are given few chances to actually interact with one another because order has to be maintained. To allow the students more freedom to socialize, schools often have dances for this purpose.
What can a student learn at a dance that they can’t during the regular day? Here are a few social skills that are important to know and that can be learned at a school dance:
* Talking with the opposite sex. This is a skill that will be used the rest of their lives, so it’s important to learn it at a young age. Keep in mind, however, that dances can create an uneasy atmosphere that may not encourage talking.
* Asking someone for a dance. It gives the person asking a chance to reach out to someone who might be shy or a little bit intimidated by the whole dance scene.
* Saying no without being rude. Sometimes you have to say no. That doesn’t mean you have to be rude when doing so. A dance atmosphere may help your children or teens learn to use tact when telling someone they would rather not dance with them. This can be an important skill that will serve them well in the future.
* Learning to deal with rejection. No one wants to be rejected, but school dances may be able to teach your teen how to deal with rejection if someone doesn’t want to dance with them. They need to learn to brush off rejection and keep going.
* Improving manners. School dances give students a chance to practise their manners. They can learn to respond kindly to other students and with respect to adult chaperones.
* Becoming aware of themselves. Dancing allows your child to learn to control their bodies, to discipline their bodies and mind, and to increase their self-confidence.
School dances can teach our children to socialize, but they can also teach them so much more. If you’re uncomfortable with allowing your child to attend a dance without you, why not offer to be a chaperone? Remember, however, that if you are a chaperone, your child probably doesn’t want you to hover over them at the dance.
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Let’s face it, parents; you want your teens to do well throughout their lives. If you can motivate your teens to do well in school, the chances are greater that they’ll also do well after high school is over. Sometimes knowing how to motivate them is the difficult part.
The desire to motivate your teens to do well in school should be applauded. It shows that you are concerned about their future. The goal is to transfer that concern for their future to them while they are still young.
Having teachers that are interested in the subject they teach, even passionate about the subject, can make all the difference in how well a teen is motivated in school. It’s said that enthusiasm is often caught; this would be a good example of that fact.
As a parent, be sure to give positive feedback when your teen has a good report card. Be sincerely interested in what their dreams are for the future. Talk to them about how their good grades can be used as a springboard for getting into a school that has their chosen field as a major.
Threats and nagging really don’t work to motivate children of any age, so it is usually best not to use them in regard to school work. However, rewards can be used if grades are brought up from rock bottom to passing in a semester. Yes, it may seem like you’re resorting to bribery, but if it might be worth it if it works.
How you talk to and treat your teens can also have a motivating effect on them. They want to know that you don’t think of them as children any longer. You may want to tell them that if they want to be treated like an adult, they need to act responsibly like an adult would. This means they have to be serious about school and how they do while there.
Explain to them how what they do in high school can have a great effect on their future. If they are doing their dead-level best and all their grades are Bs or Cs, don’t be too upset at them. Know that they are working hard and let them know that you’re proud of the effort they are putting forth. Let them know that you love them no matter what grades they get.
Don’t be afraid to let your teen learn from failure. It can often be an excellent motivator. In fact, allowing them fail and then asking them about why it happened and how they feel about it can help them learn a lesson that they may not learn in any other way. Don’t forget to ask them what they could have done differently to get the outcome they wanted.
You’ll probably never be able to make your teen do what you want to. However, if you can find a way of motivating teens to do well in school, you can rest assured that their future will be brighter than if you had left them to their own devices. You may also find that your relationship with them improves along with their grades.
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Warmer weather often means that teens begin thinking about the prom. With thoughts of dancing may come moments of panic as your teen realizes, “Mom, I don’t know how to dance!” However, you can help them overcome this problem.
People have been dancing for a long time. A look through history would see dancing as a common activity. In fact, dancing has told stories similar to the way hula dancing is used, and it has often been used during wedding ceremonies. Today it is no different; people are still dancing for a variety of reasons.
When your teen is faced with going to a school dance and they don’t know how to dance, they might even be too embarrassed to go. They may be afraid their peers will laugh at or make fun of them. They don’t have to know ballroom dancing to enjoy themselves, but you can help them learn the basics.
Dancing really isn’t as difficult as you might think, and even if it’s been a while, you can help teach your teen how to do it. Dances may have changed since you were going to dances, but they’re really not that different.
Help them remember that they’re not the only ones who are worried about dancing. It’s more important that they have and look like they’re having fun than actually knowing particular dance moves. As long as they’re not flailing around like an injured monkey, they should be fine.
If you were one to cut a rug in your day, you know the best way to learn to dance is to watch what others are doing. Help them learn to feel the beat by listening to the music. There are basically two dances fast and slow.
Teach them to do a basic step:
* Standing with feet together, step to the right with your right foot and then bring it back together.
* Step out with your left foot and then bring it back to center.
* Your feet can follow this pattern in any direction front, back, or diagonally.
* Relax your upper body but don’t flail around.
* The most important thing is to have fun without hurting yourself or anyone else.
Let them take a class if there are some offered nearby. They can also find instructional dance videos online if they look for them.
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Homecoming is important to students for several reasons. For the athletes, homecoming means they’ll be pitted against their rivals for bragging rights for the coming year. For students of the school, it gives them a chance to show their school spirit by creating homecoming floats. For girls, homecoming is a chance to get dressed up and attend a dance, perhaps their first dance. No matter why you’re interested in it, it is possible to make this homecoming extra special for everyone involved.
Ah, homecoming! The thought of it brings excitement to students across the country, especially those that are part of planning it. To help make this homecoming extra special, you want to start with a great theme. Remember, you’re going to use the same theme throughout the week leading up to homecoming, so you want to think about this seriously.
If you haven’t decided ahead of time, often as early as the summer, you may still be able to come up with a theme that will work. Consider using television shows as inspiration, particularly if there’s one that the majority of students are fans of.
Ask each class to come up with a float that reflects the theme. Clubs and organizations may also choose to create a float or decorate a vehicle. When it comes to the homecoming parade, the more floats or decorated vehicles, the better!
The homecoming game is something that students get excited about. School spirit permeates the building as banners are hung encouraging the team to “Beat the Bulldogs” or “Cream the Cougars.” They look forward to the activities planned for Spirit Week. Pajama day, school colors day, pep rallies, and the homecoming parade are a sure bet to get the athletes and students pumped up for the big game.
The homecoming dance committee, however, may be the most important for making this homecoming extra special. Their task is to decorate the gymnasium or cafeteria, transforming it into a place of wonder for the evening. You don’t have to have a formal dance for homecoming, and depending upon the theme, a casual one might be better. Having a casual dance will encourage more students to attend.
Of course, if you’re a girl or you have a daughter, they will likely be more interested in the chance to get dressed up for the dance. Try to take everyone’s feelings and expectations for a homecoming dance into consideration, but realize you won’t be able to please everyone. The purpose of homecoming week is to have fun and make it memorable for everyone involved.
Each student can do something to make this homecoming extra special. Sometimes the anticipation of an event can be better than the actual event. While they’re showing school pride and looking forward to the game and homecoming dance, participating in as much as possible during the week will give them great memories to carry into adulthood.
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