So if you have any spare time on your hands, I would suggest doing some kind of extra curricular, that way you are actually doing something with your afternoons and it looks great on a college application.  While some of you have a good four to six years before you have to start really thinking about college, it is always good to be proactive.  But make sure that whatever you do is something you enjoy — don’t just join because it looks good on your college application, do it because you want to.  I joined drama because I had always wanted to and I finally had that day open.

Whether you join drama, art club, chorus, some kind of sport, or whatever else, you have to commit one hundred percent to it.  It isn’t fair to the instructor and the other kids if you quit right before the big play or performance.  Say you got the female lead in drama, and right before the play your friend scores tickets to a concert and asks you to go with her; you have to say no.  No matter how much you want to go.  It isn’t right because then the instructor has to find another person to play your part, and I know how long it takes to learn lines (it takes months).  So your bailing would set the whole play back and it would just be a disaster.  And this can apply to anything, it doesn’t matter how minor your part or job is, it just isn’t fair and it isn’t right.  But enough of this lecturing,  I know you guys wouldn’t quit anyways because you want to be there!

If you liked the Tween Advice column, you would probably enjoy the Teen’s Perspective column.  Make sure to check it out!

The only memories I have from my elementary school days are ones that I’ve reinforced since then by telling the story to others — and the ones in my memory book. Some people are able to record their memories in the form of a diary. I tried many times, but the attempts never amounted to much. Having to make a memory book as a school assignment was extremely useful.

Putting aside time to help your child make a memory book is probably one of the best decisions you can make. Even if your children show no interest in making one at first, keep pushing the idea (which is something I would never suggest for anything else); they will thank you later. If I had made a memory book on my own, the result would have been a stapled stack of flimsy papers, which would’ve  stuck together because of my poor gluing skills. Instead, because of the help of adult volunteers, I have a spiral-bound book with laminated pages, guaranteed to last a lifetime of use. Here are a few ideas for pages to include in a memory book:

• Timeline. Mine includes school photos from each year.
• Letters. Have them write to a friend, favorite teacher, or to you, their parents.
• If I Were in Charge of The World I Would …
• In 10 Years I Picture Myself …
• My Favorite Memory is When …
• Family Tree
• What I Like/What I Dislike
• Bio Poem

The memory book can also include a folder that contains small memorabilia. I love looking at my memory book. It’s fun to compare what I liked or disliked then to my current preferences. I truly enjoy reading the letter I wrote to my best friend at the time and seeing what she meant to me. I also get a kick out of seeing my first grade report card.

Working with your child to create a memory book can be a great bonding experience that will have a lasting, tangible result.

I talked with my friends and quite a few of them had never done it before.  We all went on the rollerblading rink together holding hands so that if one of us fell, we would all fall.  After a couple of laps we hadn’t fallen yet so we started to break apart; once I was on my own I fell on my butt.  Now that I think about it, it was quite hilarious, but when I fell I didn’t think it was.  In fact, I was mortified!  But, I laughed it off and started talking about how klutzy I was.

The next lap around, I fell in the same exact spot and then fell while I was getting up.  Again I laughed it off and started skating again, but inside I felt like I had died.  From then on I did very well.

My mom picked me up from school and I told her my story;  she said that she was very proud of me.  I was confused as to why so I asked her why she was proud of me.  She said that she was proud of me because I got back up and kept trying, and that most girls my age probably wouldn’t have skated ever again after they fell that first time.

Personally, I think that you should never give up after just trying once at something.  I mean, nobody is perfect after trying just once, and it will take a lot of practice to be really good at something.  Nobody is perfect at everything, no matter what they say.  They might be good at one specific thing, but that doesn’t mean that since they are better than you, you should just give up.  There were quite a few people at the rollerblading rink that our school went to that were doing laps around me, but that didn’t mean I should give up.  That means that I should keep trying harder and practicing.  I say never give up on something because you never know when you will get better at it.  Never stop trying and never say that you can’t do something.

You should also be constantly trying new things because you never know when your perspectives will change on certain things.  I think you should always be open to trying new things, but that doesn’t mean that you have to like it.  You can also then say, “I tried blablabla this weekend and it was nothing like I thought it would be.”  And you never know, you might just end up liking that thing that you thought you wouldn’t like.

For starters, the staff was very friendly and professional.  We felt welcome the moment we walked in the door.  In fact, I actually had the feeling as if I knew the instructor, she was so personable.  It only got better from that moment.

All the parents arrived shortly after us and some were new while others were clear veterans.  I think our daughter was the youngest in the class at 13 months, but it really made no difference.  Developmentally, everyone seemed to be very close out of the ten lads.  Our instructor made the class engaging and challenging for all.

We started with a warm-up exercise of trying to get the young’ns to clap and get into the rhythm of a song.  Then we introduced the family and watched as the children attempted a high five.  This portion of the class made me a skeptic as I observed the kids staring at the adults as we were doing what we were trying to make them do.  I almost heard their thoughts as they called us fools.

Following the adult sing-a-long, there was instruction on how to do a somersault.  She placed hands and feet stickers on the ground and we spotted our daughter as she did a forward roll.  She loved it!  After this the students had time to explore the gym and all the different apparatus.

As the time went on, differing skills were explored.  She kicked a ball, popped bubbles and continued to explore and climb.  It was a great play day.  And that is all I thought it was, until the Mrs. decided to sign her up for more.

I was only onboard for the social aspect of her getting to play with all the kids, since she has an in-home nanny.  That was until I saw her attempting the somersault at home.  Now, I’m a converted skeptic.

In fifth grade, I made a stellated icosahedron (pictured). It’s actually a relatively easy project as far as folding is concerned, despite how it looks. It consists of 30 identical units. You can learn to make them here. The cool thing about these units is that you can make many different shapes with them. All you have to do is memorize how to make this one piece, and you can let your imagination do the rest of the work.

The icosahedron now hangs in my bedroom. You might notice that it is beginning to sag, and the colored pieces of paper have faded quite a bit. To avoid the “decay” of a project, you might want to use real origami paper rather than construction paper. It is available in exciting colors and patterns and is thinner (and thus easier to fold) but stronger than regular paper. It also comes in the standard shape (square), so you don’t have to cut your own pieces. You can find packs of origami paper in general crafts store. However, origami doesn’t have to be limited to paper; learn how to make a t-shirt using a dollar bill here. Anything that is of the right basic shape, flat and able to hold a crease will technically work.

You can find both simple and more complicated free origami instructions here. There are also page-a-day calendars that you can buy, which provide paper to make an origami model each day of the year. This could be a unique project and collection between a parent and a child.

In order for you to properly understand this product review, you have to understand that I have a black thumb of death when it comes to plants. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong – I don’t think it is just one thing – but I am just not good with plants. Between my inability to maintain healthy plant life and my sons’ *ahem* youthful exuberance, any success in the horticultural sciences is a major victory.

And we had some success. We killed more than not. But we learned together. We watered, we watched. The kit really does make it pretty easy. You just add warm water to the little dry peat pots and they expand into slightly larger and much moister peat pots. With seventy-two individual compartments in the tray, it is simple to plant a good variety of plants in one go.

The greenhouse does its trick and the seeds germinate quickly (1-3 days). From that point on it is pretty much up to you. My boys really enjoyed using the spray bottle to spritz the tiny little seedlings. The hardest part was curbing their enthusiasm so that we didn’t drown the plants or blow them away with the sprayer.

In the final analysis – the product did what it was designed to do. It allowed the seeds to germinate and provided a step by step program to bring them from seed to transplant. It did not do what I had hoped, which was fully engage my sons in the process. As previously stated, they liked the watering. The rest, not so much.

There are parents whose formula of raising super kids tend to work better. This formula involves letting their children find the path to their own dreams,  and when it is found help them follow it.  Every day these parents discover new things with their children, new talents, new learning, little things that when put together can become really great. These parents let their children discover their own strengths and help them work on it.

Every child is a super kid, but it’s up to parents to see where the strength of their children lie. If we start by letting our own dreams for our children overtake our ability to see what they really have in them, we could muffle the super kid in them forever. Remember that our dreams for our children may not be their dream. If we just learn how to see the little wonders that a child learns and does every day, we will see the super kid in every child, and we will be more fulfilled as parents.

ChristJitsu plays on the popularity of martial arts, especially mixed martial arts and their Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.  Relax parents, kids won’t be learning to prize fight in a cage.  Instead, Danny claims they will be learning to fight in the cage of life.  ChristJitsu translated means, ” the way of Christ.”  The students will be learning important life lessons founded on the humility of the Christian faith.

Anointed Fighter and Martial Arts Ministries have created a belt system for kids (and adults) to learn and study the concepts normally taught in church.  The main difference is that there is no choir, no pews, no stand-up/sit-down routine, or any other stereotypical Sunday school routine.  In ChristJitsu there is a curriculum that is designed exactly like any other belt system.

This brand new system offers advancement from white to orange belt and then to yellow all the way up to Black Belt.  Their curriculum gives kids a goal.  They will have to persevere to learn verses and books of the Bible to advance.  It is all at their own pace and online.  There is no need to drive your son or daughter to another class or practice and no more need to argue with them to go to church.

The American culture really has embraced the martial arts over the past twenty years, and the popularity is growing more each and every day.  There are martial arts schools in almost every city and for good reason.  The arts are structured and focus on discipline.  Practicing martial arts teaches kids they can achieve whatever they put their minds to.

Go to www.ChristJitsu.com and get started on the path to Black Belt.  This is a great activity to do together with your children.  Here is your chance to set the example we are always going on about.

Now, some of my thoughts on screens (TV, video games, computers, etc.) for kids.  First of all, I believe they are addictive.  Some studies have shown that video games are addictive, they release a drug-like chemical. Here is one article on the study of video game addiction.  I have seen kids at school who are addicted, it’s all they talk about or do after school (World of Warcraft is the most common addiction).

Also, there is a link between screens and obesity.  Sure, there are games like the Wii Fit that exercise you,  but how much of an exercise are they?  To me the Wii Fit doesn’t provide a serious workout, and most games in it are not as effective as believed.

I think screen time for children should be limited.  Screen time should be decided on a child by child basis, but on a school night anywhere from no time to an hour and a half a day is good.  For example, if a child is doing poorly  in school, limit the amount to a low number (for example zero to half an hour).  On weekends, up to four hours a day is a good amount.  I have noticed that kids who are allowed to use screens more get worse grades.  That is because instead of doing homework when they get home, these kids game or watch TV. Also, in class, these kids will think things like, “I need to level up my dwarf mega super warrior” or “What’s on Fox tonight?… oh, it’s that comedy show” instead of “Two plus two equals four”.

These addictions can cause physical injuries, too, such as the ones mentioned in an older Level Revel article, Injured by Living in a Virtual World (Thanks, Bea).

Screen time should be limited because there are many dangers lurking around the corner!

When Max got a $25 Amex gift card for his eighth birthday, I made the mistake of telling him that he could spend it on anything that he wanted. As it turns out, that’s just enough money to buy two Pokémon starter decks. I wasn’t crazy about the idea, but I didn’t want to go back on my word. And so it was that Max entered the Pokémon trading card game frenzy.

The biggest problem is that two starter decks just aren’t enough. He needs a Fire deck, a Steel deck, and booster packs with special chromium card inserts and legendary Pokémon. He’s got a Pokémon Guide Book that he has worn the cover right off. He has studies these things with such alacrity that I have to think that he could be graduating from MIT by now if he put that much effort into his schoolwork. He knows their names, their types, their strengths and weaknesses.

Meanwhile, Max’s little brother is too young to play, and his mom is too smart to get sucked into this debacle. So, you know who he’s going to practice against. And it isn’t enough that I play against him. We have to trade cards with each other, swap energy types, and discuss at length the merits of Water Pokémon vs. Fighting Pokémon. The game is absurdly complex, with Byzantine layers of rules and conditions. Did you know that his Pokémon can simultaneously burn and poison mine?

Having said all that, in the final analysis the game is good for him. He’s learning to think strategically, which will help him throughout his life. And since I’ve started insisting on a chess match between Pokémon games, he’s learning to play a strategy game that will last beyond adolescence. Still, the cartoon I could do without.