Start a #TakeNoBullies anti-Bullying Club in Your Community

Get your friends and start an anti-bullying club today!

It's summer!  School is out however bullies and cyber bullies don't take a break just because it is summer. 

What a perfect time to encourage your teens to start an anti-bullying support group and begin educating your community about cyber bullying and bullying.

Here are some tips to get you started.

Build your team:  Start recruiting your friends, family, neighbors and even local businesses have been known to contribute in a variety of ways.  For example, SmartSign from New York has created the #TakeNoBullies campaign.  You can check them
out for stickers and pins with great slogans that help spread the message that bullying and cyber bullying will not be tolerated.

Name your club:  Selecting a name for club as a well as a mission statement is important.  You want it to reflect on what your group stands for and how you are making a difference in your community.  Browse around the Internet and review some others for ideas.  Brainstorm and you will be amazed how something will come to you.

Where:  Many local libraries welcome kids and parents to start support groups.  Your local YMCA, Girls and Boys Clubs and local churches will sometimes have areas they can offer you space to have meetings and gatherings for events.

Do your research:  Learn as much as you can about bullying and cyber bullying prevention as well as how to help those that are victims.  There are many excellent websites to gather information from.  Here are a few of my favorites:

• Cyberbullying.us
• STOMPOutBullying.org
• StopBullying.gov

Create a ground swell:  Make some noise!  Contact your local newspaper, TV station and radio stations.  Let your community know your club exists.  Let kids know they have a place to come and learn more about bullying and cyber bullying.  Most importantly, it is a safe place for them to come if they are being bullied.  Again, school is out, and we always encourage kids to tell their parents, but some will go to their teachers first.  Right now they don’t have a teacher.  After they tell their parents, these kids will appreciate your peer support group.  Get the news out there!
Let’s be ready for BLUE Shirt Day:  October 7, 2013 is STOMPOutBullying across America!  Starting in August, STOMP will be getting ready for their annual BLUE sea of shirts across the country.  Let’s be sure your community has a voice in that movement too — it is that important.
These are a few simple steps to get your community involved this summer.  Encourage your kids to be the difference in the lives of others.  Even if they have never been bullied – helping others feels so good.

Let’s pay it forward this summer.

Teens and Summer Camps: 30 Blogs With Tips and Resources for Parents

Choosing the right summer camp for your teens is an important task. Your teens are reaching those formative years where they are putting childish things aside and taking the first steps towards becoming young adults. As a parent, this leaves you in a bit of a predicament. There’s a fine line between fun and silliness, so choosing a summer camp that reflects their newfound maturity is difficult.

These 30 blogs will help you and your teen decide which camp is best for them.

Things to Consider
First of all, you should sit down with your teens and discuss all your options. Do your research so that you are not just randomly searching for general summer camps. Ask your teens what kind of summer camp they’re most interested in, then start narrowing your list from there. In these five blogs you will find some of the most common things to consider when choosing a summer camp for your teens.

• Choosing the Best Summer Camps for Your Kids
• Summer Camps for kids-worth it?
• Blog / Vacation Months With Excellent Summer Day Camps For Kids
• Best Seattle Summer Camps Tips
• Value vs Cost of Camp: What Parents Should Understand

Sports Camps
By the time your kids reach their teenage years, there’s a good chance that they’ll have an interest in a sport or two. If so, this may make choosing a summer camp much easier. Continuing sporting activities throughout the summer is the best way for your teens to improve, plus it’s healthy and fun, too! If you think your teens would get a lot out of a summer sports camp, take a look at these five blogs for some inspiration.

• Sign Up for Sporting Summer Camps Now
• Peer Approval Stimulates the Adolescent Brain
• Nine Tips for Choosing a Summer Camp
• The 5 Best Summer Camps for Kids
• How Summer Camps Can Develop Your Kid Into A Leader

Camps with a Difference
During their teen years, most kids will develop an interest in a particular hobby or activity. As long as it’s healthy and safe, most parents are happy to nurture their teens’ interests. When it comes to summer camp, there’s no reason why teens shouldn’t get to continue with their passion. With that in mind, these five blogs cover some of the more unusual choices for teen summer camps.

• Summer Adventure Camp Registration, Now Open!
• Send Your Kids to Cook’s Culinary Summer Camp
• 10 Really Different but Awesome Summer Camps
• Skip the Mega Expensive Summer Camps and Try These Unique Alternatives Instead
• Comedy camp helps kids hone their funny bone image

Education Camps
Let’s face it, some teens are never happier than when they’re doing math or solving some cosmic conundrum. These kids, who value education and learning above all else, may thrive in an educational camp that encourages and applauds their inquisitive nature. For a camp that will truly challenge your teens this summer, check out the brainiacs in these five blogs.

• iD Tech Camps Debuts Two Summer Programming Courses Using Kid-Friendly Scratch 2.0 from MIT
• Activ8 Summer Camps Prepare Kids to Do Better in School
• Take Advantage Of Vacation Months With Awesome Educational Summer Camps For Kids
• TOP 10 EDUCATIONAL SUMMER ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS & TEENS
• From Surfing to Science: Summer Camp Guide 2013

Children with Special Needs
Children with special needs each have their own specific requirements. Parents of special needs teens obviously want them to have the best summer camp experience possible, which means finding a camp that can facilitate all their requirements. Whether your teen needs physical, emotional or mental support, you will find some great ideas for suitable summer camps in these five blogs.

• Summer programs for kids with special needs
• 19 More Summer Camps For Individuals With Special Needs
• How to Find a Summer Camp for Your Child with Special Needs
• How to Choose The Right Summer Camp for Your Special Needs Child
• Summer Camps for Special Needs Kids

Security and Insurance
No matter what your teens’ wants and needs are, their security and safety is always paramount. If you have legal, health or insurance concerns, then it is best to thoroughly vet every camp on your shortlist. These five legal-savvy blogs will help you make the right decision and ensure that your teens have a fun but safe time at summer camp.

• Insurance for A Teen’s Summer Trip Abroad
• Protecting Your Kids at Summer Camp
• Kids’ Summer Activities Could Equal Big Tax Break
• Top 10 Summer Camp Legal Tips
• Summer Safety

Source:  Babysitting.net

Take 5 for Your Dreams

By Paula Grieco and Liz McHutcheon

Created especially for teen girls, Take 5 for Your Dreams provides inspiration and doable steps for living your biggest, boldest dreams starting now.

It is an engaging daily guide packed with stirring quotes, beautiful and fun photography, keep-it-real essays, life experiences from teen girls, helpful resources, and daily Take 5 (minutes) actions -- all in a visually awesome and colorful format. Topics include getting in touch with what you love like crazy, being who you really are, understanding what really matters to you, stepping outside of your comfort zone, dealing with dream "crashers" and developing real-life superpowers.

Take 5 is based on two years of research and over 100 interviews with teen girls from diverse backgrounds and circumstances across the United States. It is designed to both inspire and provide practical steps for young women to identify what they really want and take easy actions to pursue their biggest, boldest dreams. This really can’t wait until next year or after high school or college or once a young woman gets settled in her career. That’s how lives pass wholly unexamined.

At a time when young women are inundated with messages about what they should look like and how they should act, Take 5 provides a refreshing alternative with a focus on understanding what really matters to you and how to take practical actions to achieve what you really want.

If you are a teen girl or know one this book was created for you! No matter what your life circumstances today it's time to begin making your unique, never-to-be-on-this-planet-again life all it is meant to be! The world needs your 1 in 7 billion contribution!

Order on Amazon today!

Also visit the author's website: What's Your Brave.

Wilderness Ventures: Teen Summer Camps

If you’re searching for traditional Teen Summer Camps or Teen Adventure Programs, you’ve come to a place where traditional turns into Exhilarating! Since 1973, Wilderness Ventures has been conducting unique Teen Summer Camps in many of the finest areas for teen summer camp activities in the world. Our teen summer camps and international adventure programs for teens combine an enriching group living experience with Outdoor Adventure and leadership skill training in a fun, non-competitive Wilderness Camp environment.

As the pioneering teen summer camp, Wilderness Ventures has been conducting adventure tours in the American West for 39 years. We conducted our first teen summer camp in 1973, visiting all of the most splendid wilderness areas in the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Northwest. Today, we take great pride in running the best teen adventure camps in Washington, Oregon, Alaska, California, Hawaii, Wyoming, Idaho, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and in several international destinations, including Central and South America, Europe, Australia and the South Pacific. Because of our vast teen adventure experience, our exclusive destinations, and the enviable degree of control that we have over the quality of our adventures, we are largely considered the best teen summer camp available to today's teens.

Learn more at www.wildernessventures.com and watch their video here.

Clean: Overcoming Addiction and Ending America's Greatest Tragedy

By David Sheff

Addiction is a preventable, treatable disease, not a moral failing. As with other illnesses, the approaches most likely to work are based on science — not on faith, tradition, contrition, or wishful thinking.

These facts are the foundation of Clean, a myth-shattering look at drug abuse by the author of Beautiful Boy. Based on the latest research in psychology, neuroscience, and medicine, Clean is a leap beyond the traditional approaches to prevention and treatment of addiction and the mental illnesses that usually accompany it.

The existing treatment system, including Twelve Step programs and rehabs, has helped some, but it has failed to help many more, and David Sheff explains why. He spent time with scores of scientists, doctors, counselors, and addicts and their families to learn how addiction works and what can effectively treat it.

Clean offers clear, cogent counsel for parents and others who want to prevent drug problems and for addicts and their loved ones no matter what stage of the illness they’re in. But it is also a book for all of us — a powerful rethinking of the greatest public health challenge of our time.

As a side note: Beautiful Boy is still one of my favorite books and one of the most recommended books I suggest to parents of struggling teens today.  I can't wait to read Clean.

Order on Amazon today! 

20 of the Greatest Blogs with Fun and Fabulous Ideas for the Perfect Graduation Gift

Do you know someone graduating this spring?  You are probably wondering what to buy for the graduate.  Try to keep in mind what the next step is for the graduate.  Is he going on to college in the fall or out to get a job?  If he’s moving out of the house he may need items for his new place.  If he’s going job hunting he may need a suit and other dress clothes for interviews.  You may just want to get something sentimental like a personalized watch or necklace that he will always have to remember his special day. 

These 20 blogs will help you determine what the right gift might be, whether you’re buying for a guy or a girl.  You may end up just giving him money and if so you may want to check out the blog posts about unique ways to give cash.

Guys
For some reason guys can be hard to buy for.  Men like gadgets so maybe you could get him a new cell phone, a laptop for college or a tablet.  Personalized items like a stadium blanket for those games that he will inevitably go to see or cuff links so that he can look very stylish at his interviews.  These five blog entries will help you choose something for your male graduate.

• Great Graduation Gift Ideas Clocks and other gadgets might be just the ticket for your male graduate.
• Graduation Gift Ideas for Him Buy your graduate a shirt and tie so that he can look like the young professional that he is.
• Graduation Gift for Him How about cuff links or a stylish watch for the young man of the hour.
• Graduation Gifts for Men Read this blogger’s advice on how to decide on a graduation gift based on the graduate for which you are buying.
• Graduation Gifts for Men—Cheap Air Max UK From stadium blankets to a leather wrapped pen you can find manly gift ideas in this blog article.

Girls
Sometimes girls are easier to buy for, but only because girls like technology, fashion, travel, and cars just like the guys so there’s a wider range of things to buy.  Take a look at some of these ideas for your female graduate and see if you get any ideas.

• High School Graduation Gift Ideas Put together a family cookbook and then give the graduate a laundry basket filled with the food she needs to make the recipes.
• Graduation Present for a Young Woman Read about the ideas this personal finance blogger has for giving a graduation gift to her cousin.
• Five Personalized Graduation Gifts A personalized pen or scrapbook are a couple of the suggestions on this blog post.
• Graduation Gift Guide: Girls From pretty duffel bags to a necklace check out the suggestions on this blog.
• High School Graduation Gifts for Girls… Celebrate Another Milestone in Your Girl’s Life Depending on how much you want to spend; this blogger suggests everything from a car, an exotic vacation to a spa gift basket.

Unisex
Many items are unisex such as luggage, alarm clocks, docking stations for music as well as many other things.  These kinds of items might be good for the graduate that you aren’t too sure what they’re interests are, the last thing you want to do is to buy a gift that won’t get used.  Check out the ideas on these five blog articles and see if you can find any clues as to what you should buy.

• A Unique Graduation Gift for Students that Love Music This music speaker can go anywhere with you and help liven up the party.
• Graduation Mad Libs By Roger Price Looking for something small and inexpensive that you can give all your friends, this Mad Lib might be the ticket.
• Vacheron Constantin Replica Watches, The Ideal Graduation Present A nice watch will work for either a guy or a girl, but make sure you know what style to get.
• Unique and Original Ideas for Graduation Presents Several unisex ideas like an eReader, laptop or a new phone are suggested along with experiences like a hot air balloon ride.
• High School Graduation Gift Ideas Stocks, a big screen TV or a fun caricature for the dorm wall are just a few of the suggestions on this blog entry.

Monetary
If all else fails you can give the graduate cash, but no one want to just hand over the cash because it will be combined in a pile with other cash and pretty much forgotten.  If you want to make something unique glance through the ideas on these five blog posts because they show a bunch of different ways to give cash as a gift that will make it far more memorable.

• A Creative Way to Give Cash: A Mobile! Fold the bills into fun shapes and hang them from a simple mobile.
• Unique Ways to Give Cash as a Gift Check out the many ways to give cash as a gift from wrapping it around candy to rolling it up and tying it with a ribbon.
• How to Give Money as a Gift Learn how to create the “endless” roll of cash for this unique gift.
• How to Give Money in Style—10 Creative Ways to Give Cash Watch this informative video on how to make roses out of money.
• How to Give Cash {Ways to Give Money} Many ideas can be found on this blog, from making a money lei to stuffing the money into balloons.

Source: Babysitting.net

Bloom: Helping Children Blossom

Order today!

By Dr. Lynne Kenney and Wendy Young

Bloom presents a brain-based style of parenting that helps children learn to develop the social-emotional, behavioral and communication skills to grow and thrive as productive social beings.  Moving away from consequences as a primary method of behavioral change, Bloom offers the thoughts, words and actions needed to raise socially competent, thoughtful, ethical children who grow and prosper with confidence and caring.

Available on Kindle for ipad, iphone and android, Bloom can help us transform families and classrooms by teaching children the skills they need to thrive.

Order on Amazon today!

Family Fit: Find Your Balance in Life

By John E. Mayer

In Family Fit: Find Your Balance in Life, John E. Mayer outlines a program to alter negative eating behaviors and change the social/emotional forces that contribute to obesity in all family members regardless of age. The program is based on three pillars of planned Diet and Nutrition, fun Activities for the family, and Motivational words of encouragement and praise. The book also includes planning tools, examples, and real-life stories to ensure success and make the reading fun.

Order on Amazon today!

“Dr. John Mayer has invented an ingenious solution to the epidemic of childhood obesity that masquerades as an enjoyable family outing.

His unique approach employs the latest research on human health and behavior and is shaped by his 30 years experience as a beloved family pychologist.

Effective and fun, Dr. Mayer’s program can help anyone achieve extraordinary fitness.”
—Mark Bryan, founding member of Oprah’s Change Your Life Team

Bullied: What Every Parent, Teacher, and Kid Needs to Know About Ending the Cycle of Fear

By Carrie Goldman

Carrie Goldman became an unexpected voice for the antibullying movement after her blog post about her daughter Katie's bullying experience went viral and an online community of support generated international attention. In Bullied, Goldman brings together the expertise of leading authorities with the candid accounts of families dealing firsthand with peer victimization to present proven strategies and concrete tools for teaching children how to speak up and carry themselves with confidence; call each other out on cruelty; resolve conflict; cope with teasing, taunting, physical abuse, and cyberbullying; and be smart consumers of technology and media. As a mother, she calls on us all—families, schools, communities, retailers, celebrities, and media—to fiercely examine our own stereotypes and embrace our joint responsibility for creating a culture of acceptance and respect.

For parents, educators, and anyone still wrestling with past experiences of victimization and fear, Bullied is an eye-opening, prescriptive, and ultimately uplifting guide to raising diverse, empathetic, tolerant kids in a caring and safe world.

At least 25 percent of kids have been bullied online. One in five teens has been bullied at school. More than half of bullying behaviors will stop in less than ten seconds when another student intervenes.

Order today on Amazon.

Distracted Driving: 97% of Teens Admit to Texting and Driving

Recent AT&T surveys found that texting while driving is prominent among both teenagers and business commuters. Watch the video above.

See the findings from a new AT&T texting while driving poll, showing that nearly half of commuters text and drive. Learn about the risks of texting while driving and take the pledge at http://www.itcanwait.com.

97 percent of teens say texting while driving is dangerous — but 43 percent admit to doing so.

• Almost all teens (nine in 10) expect a reply to a text or email within five minutes or less, which puts pressure on them to respond while driving.
• According to 77 percent of teens, adults tell kids not text or email while driving — yet adults do it themselves "all the time."
  AT&T Teen Driver Survey - Executive Summary
• Hispanic teens (54 percent) are more likely to admit to the practice of texting while driving than Caucasian (41 percent) and African American (42 percent) teens.

PROM is a Four Letter Word

The event of prom is no small matter, endless movies have been crafted around this big dance– can we say “Footloose” without our toes tapping?

With nostalgia comes temptation, not only for teens, but parents. Local St. Johns County parents with seniors graduating this year may remember when the legal drinking age was 18. Coupled with memories of your own senior prom, well meaning, otherwise logical parents may be tempted to relax an otherwise firm “no alcohol” policy for this special event.

Let’s talk you off the ledge and back into your parent pants.

P is for planning. Seniors want to have a good time at prom. Regrettably, they’ve grown up in a media culture that has shown them images of good times being had with alcohol, and alcohol only. The best way to mediate this attitude is to literally plan for a goodtime. What happens before prom and after prom are often more important than the prom. Contrary to popular belief, teens are not wired to drink; they’re wired for fun and risky behavior.  Pool parties, slip and slides with bubbles, scavenger hunts and other types of crazy and somewhat goofy activities make memorable events. If you’re not planning for fun, they’ll find it on their own.

R is for respect. Most teens don’t respect parents who provide alcohol to minors and the largest portion of alcohol to minors comes from a small percentage of parents. The adage “their going to do it anyway” is a slippery slope for parents trying to convince themselves they’re doing the right thing by providing alcohol. There are many things teens “might” do when given the opportunity – sex, drugs, speed, steal, lie – at the end of the day, we’re obligated to provide the framework for good decisions, not try to mediate potential bad ones.


O is for omnipresent. Defined as, “present everywhere”, our teens once believed we were omnipresent. No matter where they were, or what they were doing, we somehow knew or found out everything. As they get older, carry more responsibility, and prove themselves worthy, we loosen our omnipresent grip. Consider however, that a teen’s brain is rapidly developing until about 21 to 22 years of age. Their decision making still has very much to do with two things – 1) what is everyone else doing? and 2) will I get caught? A healthy dose of omnipresence before big events such as prom reminds your teen that you still care enough to check up on them and gives them a powerful out should they face an overdose of peer pressure.

M is for memories. Remind teens that the best way to remember prom is to add nothing but fun. Who wants to risk having their head end up in a toilet, have a date that pukes all over them, or be so hung over you can’t make it to the beach the next day? When they send their own teen off to prom, the memory of how you handled their prom, from pictures to rules to curfew will undoubtedly be fresh in their minds. Let’s keep the parent pants on and enjoy prom. Be the wall between teens and alcohol.

Provided by PACT Prevention Coalition of St. Johns County

Visit www.PACTPrevention.org for more information and remember, "Be The Wall!"

Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy

National Best Seller!

By Emily Bazelon

Being a teenager has never been easy, but in recent years, with the rise of the Internet and social media, it has become exponentially more challenging. Bullying, once thought of as the province of queen bees and goons, has taken on new, complex, and insidious forms, as parents and educators know all too well.

No writer is better poised to explore this territory than Emily Bazelon, who has established herself as a leading voice on the social and legal aspects of teenage drama. In Sticks and Stones, she brings readers on a deeply researched, clear-eyed journey into the ever-shifting landscape of teenage meanness and its sometimes devastating consequences. The result is an indispensable book that takes us from school cafeterias to courtrooms to the offices of Facebook, the website where so much teenage life, good and bad, now unfolds.

Along the way, Bazelon defines what bullying is and, just as important, what it is not. She explores when intervention is essential and when kids should be given the freedom to fend for themselves. She also dispels persistent myths: that girls bully more than boys, that online and in-person bullying are entirely distinct, that bullying is a common cause of suicide, and that harsh criminal penalties are an effective deterrent. Above all, she believes that to deal with the problem, we must first understand it.

Blending keen journalistic and narrative skills, Bazelon explores different facets of bullying through the stories of three young people who found themselves caught in the thick of it. Thirteen-year-old Monique endured months of harassment and exclusion before her mother finally pulled her out of school. Jacob was threatened and physically attacked over his sexuality in eighth grade—and then sued to protect himself and change the culture of his school. Flannery was one of six teens who faced criminal charges after a fellow student’s suicide was blamed on bullying and made international headlines. With grace and authority, Bazelon chronicles how these kids’ predicaments escalated, to no one’s benefit, into community-wide wars. Cutting through the noise, misinformation, and sensationalism, she takes us into schools that have succeeded in reducing bullying and examines their successful strategies. The result is a groundbreaking book that will help parents, educators, and teens themselves better understand what kids are going through today and what can be done to help them through it.

Order on Amazon today!