June in WorkLife Essentials

Let's get right into this month's topic - which is again covering a topic related to your children, and again, it's a topic that is very much up for debate. What is the right amount of parental involvement in their children's education? Should it be limited to the home? Should it be limited to the early years? Even the role that Homework should play in a child's life can be contentious, and this is one of the most basic elements of education in today's world.    We are helping guide you through this topic this month with our extensive collection of resources, including a number of brand new articles that provide specific techniques to become more involved in your child's education at any level of schooling from preschool all the way through graduation. Just click on the Parental Involvement in School promotional topic after logging into WorkLife Essentials to explore. We will also be inviting you to share your thoughts on our Blog. Tell us how involved you are right now - would you like to be more involved? What are the obstacles you face? Lack of available time? Do you feel you're not up to the challenge? Or is it a cultural restriction that prevents you?    Involvement of parents in their children's education certainly varies across cultures. Some cultures favour it so highly that it is almost legislated, with parents being requested to sign an agreement outlining the school's expectations of them and what is a proper role for them to take when getting involved with their children's education. In other cultures, parental involvement has traditionally been minimized. This can be a result of longstanding policies put in place by the educational institutions themselves, or due to traditional cultural norms, or even just a belief that the teacher is the most qualified person to teach a child, and thus, their authority should be unquestioned.    However, newer perspectives are emerging as educational techniques are spreading and being shared on a more international level, and there are more opportunities than ever to get involved. Whether it's being active in the school decision making process, volunteering with school programs, or helping your child with their homework if the school is not yet supportive of you being involved outside the home, the benefits to your children are clear. They will gain a better understanding of the value of their education, and a better feeling of support and inclusion in the family if they can see that their education is something that is invited to be part of their home life, too.    The best way to do it is just to get started, and we help you figure out ways to do that this month with articles like "Four Ways to Help Your Child Succeed in School", or "How to Help a Child Who May Have a Learning Disability". Helping your child develop the right approach to studying as early as possible is important, so "Study Skills" is another critical article to read. The articles we've featured below follow this vain with suggestions on how to help your kids with homework. And when you're not able to be there, we help you find the best possible before or after school care for your children with our extensive interview checklist. If you have any questions or comments, please contact us - we love your feedback - either through email or by logging into WLE.com and using the Suggestion Box.  Useful Links: US Dept. of Education - Helping Your Child ... UK Dept. for Education - Pupil Support UK Dept. for Education - Impact of Parental Involvement Report NSW Public School Multilingual Helping Your Child Project Appleseed - Involvement Checklist Helping Your Child with Homework Teachers at every grade level are now assigning more homework than they used to. In some communities, even children in kindergarten or first grade may be expected to do an hour or so of homework a night... Read more…* Questions to Ask When Selecting Before or After School Care You can use this questionnaire to help screen before- or after-school programs as you look for care for your school-age child. To find the right place for your child, you really need to go beyond the usual questions... Read more…*

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May in WorkLife Essentials

This month we're talking about the adolescent years.  Adolescence can be a trying time for both children and parents, and we cover numerous relevant topics this month inside WLE.com.  But we want to start this topic by continuing our discussion from last month, when we talked about children and technology.  Technology plays an increasing role in the lives of children and it's especially influential to your adolescent children.  As we talked about last month, this can be very beneficial, but as adolescents change their types of usage and increase their usage, some problems can develop. With their technology usage transitioning from media consumers to social interaction, children will have to adjust to being more guarding of their privacy and learning the extra responsibility and social skills required for interacting with people online.  It can also be tempting to focus all their social interaction efforts online, which can lead to missing out on opportunities for meeting new people outside their current social circle or discovering new activities they might enjoy.  If social interactions online don't work out, this results can be very stressful as the options for moving on from a conflict are limited.  Managing these new skills and stresses is something that will be new for most adolescents, and our first excerpted article below will guide you through techniques you can teach your adolescent to manage stress in their lives. Also, with the increased usage, children will have to learn to keep their online lives in balance with their offline lives.  It can be tempting for them to stay home and online when they finish school for the day and the number of hours spent in front of a screen each week can skyrocket.  The first week in May has been declared "Screen Free Week", an initiative supported by numerous health agencies, including the US National Head Start Association and Center on Media and Child Health, which is designed to increase awareness of the growing influence of screen time in our home lives.  We're supporting this effort with the second article we've excerpted below, which will help you find activities for your adolescent children away from a screen.  Follow the link to find out more about Screen Free Week. In addition to our excerpted articles below, navigate to your WorkLife Essentials Promotional section this month to find more resources designed to help you better understand, better interact, and provide more assistance to your adolescent children with articles like "Being an Involved Father During the School Age Years",  "Raising a Teenager as a Single Parent", and "Helping Your Child with Homework".  Also, we'd love to hear your thoughts on this week's promotional topic.  How do you help your child manage stress?  What would you do for a week if you were going to avoid sitting in front of a screen? How would you like to see your adolescent spend their time? How would their social life change? How would you want their family interaction change?  Please share your thoughts, questions or answers in the comments section below. Useful Links: HealthInsite.gov.au/Young_People Health.gov.au/NutritionMonitoring HHS.gov/Office of Adolescent Health Dept. of Education/Adolescence National Institute of Mental Health/Teen Brains Stress and Your Young Adolescent Child Stress affects everyone -- even children. Learning how to handle the demands of school, after-school activities, and friendships can be hard. When the pressures build up, children can feel overloaded and anxious. This is especially true in pre-teen years, when homework demands increase, schoolwork gets harder, and children take on more independent responsibilities... Read more…* After-School Activities and Free Time: Finding a Balance One of the many challenges parents of young adolescents face is what to do with their children after school. After-school time offers opportunities for children to learn, develop friendships, do homework, and play and relax. Too many idle hours after school, however, can lead to trouble. An overcrowded schedule can also be a problem. How can you find a safe and balanced mix of after-school activities during the middle school years?... Read more…*

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WLE Discusses Children and Technology

Part 1 - Comparing New and Old Media

"Children and Computers: New Technology - Old Concerns" is a fascinating read about the correlation/parallels between new media and the other new medias of the 20th century: radio, movies and television.  How are they similar and how are they different?  The abstract follows, but you can read the whole study here.

"Computer technology has ushered in a new era of mass media, bringing with it great promise and great concerns about the effect on children’s development and wellbeing. Although we tend to see these issues as being new, similar promises and concerns have accompanied each new wave of media technology throughout the past century: films in the early 1900s, radio in the 1920s, and television in the 1940s. With the introduction of each of these technologies, proponents touted the educational benefits for children, while opponents voiced fears about exposure to inappropriate commercial, sexual, and violent content.

This article places current studies on children and computers in a historical context, noting the recurrent themes and patterns in media research during the twentieth century. Initial research concerning each innovation has tended to focus on issues of access and the amount of time children were spending with the new medium. As use of the technology became more prevalent, research shifted to issues related to content and its effects on children. Current research on children’s use of computers is again following this pattern. But the increased level of interactivity now possible with computer games and with the communication features of the Internet has heightened both the promise of greatly enriched learning and the concerns related to increased risk of harm."

What's interesting is that the study shows that new technology such as computers and the internet are seen by parents equally as promising as potentially harmful.  So, you're not alone in your hopes and concerns... and reluctance.  But how to decide what is right for your kids?  Should you treat it similarly to the existing medias we're all accustomed to like television, music and movies?

The intricacies of the newest technology seem to set it apart, though.  With it's interactiveness, it holds much greater promise for learning and social interaction.  The study presents actual research to see if the promise meets reality.  Some of the highlights are below:

• Existing media is well understood to shape socialization and learning behaviors.
• Studies in 1933 on movies, and again in the 60's on television showed that the influence media has on a child isn't just about the content of the media - their relationships in the real world play a factor, as does their inherent nature.
• Past studies always began with focusing on the amount of time children are spending with a new media, then as use was more widespread, the focus turned to the type of content it allowed access to.
• Children between the ages of 2 and 5 are already using computers an average of 27 minutes each day.
• Computers in school settings, such as a shared computer room, often enhance the students' interaction with each other as they typically turn to their peers for advice even when a teacher is present.
• The effects of computers in a home environment are a little harder to capture as the location of a computer within the home can matter a great deal, and more studies focusing on the home environment are needed before anything conclusive can be found.
• Interactivity is the key to a beneficial effect when using any media type, and new medias such as computers have far greater potential for interactivity (defined by the study as responsiveness and engagement).
• Many studies show that using software that focuses on this strong interactivity can create measurable educational benefits.
• The risks are definitely out there for children to be exposed to harm, but as with earlier media, parents can be successful in keeping their children safe by following well understood practices.

The study concludes with a series of criteria for Media Creators to use in generating content for children, but we think that this is also a great list of criteria to use when deciding which content your child has access to.

So, how does this study compare with your experiences?  Can a parallel be drawn between 21st century technology and 20th century technology, or are they too different?  Is the reality of these new media living up to the promise of the interactivity and educational benefits? Where do you see it going in the future?  Are the benefits worth the risk?  We'd love to hear your thoughts and discussions on these and any other relevant topic.

April in WorkLife Essentials

As usual this month, we are highlighting a topic that we feel is important to our clients.  We have expertly written articles and useful resources inside WLE.com and we are featuring them in our Promotional section this month.  But we feel that this topic is so new and diverse in its opinions and impact across families that the most helpful approach is to open the topic up for discussion.  The expert opinions are generally in agreeance - caution and moderation are the suggested approaches when talking about introducing children to technology.  But what about the stories we all hear about?  What about the pre-school that provides Tablet computers to all their students as educational aids?  It seems that every child wants a social networking presence, but is it really a need?  What about the cautionary tales of internet addiction and short attention spans, identity theft, cyberbullying, online reputation, offensive material and unwanted contact.  Most studies in the journals are based on data collected outside the home, and with technology evolving so quickly, it's difficult for families to know the best approach in their own homes. The benefits are seemingly limitless.  Often cited in studies as a benefit is that the technologies will help the child engage in diverse topics and enhance their breadth of knowledge outside their physical exposure to the world.  Some schools are starting to incorporate technology tools into early development programs as teaching aids, but also as aids for students.  But this is still seen as possibly invasive to the "normal" childhood development.  What are the facts?  Conventional thought is that introducing technology earlier and earlier is detrimental to a child's "full" development.  Will they always be focused on a tiny screen and not care about the world around them?  Will they never learn how to stack real blocks on top of each other, or the patience to even try, when they can do it all virtually?  Is this just the wave of the future and is getting the most exposure to it as early as possible the best approach to ready our children for the way their life will be? Often it is thought of as inevitable.  Technology has always been used to entertain children, and many of the same claims and concerns were raised regarding movies when they were first introduced, and similarly with radio and television.  In all of these, the initial fears led to calls for research, which resulted in a better understanding of concerns and benefits, but ultimately parents were relied on to provide the determination of positive vs. negative impact.  If you're a parent that is very comfortable with technology, it can seem easier to decide which technologies are beneficial to your child and what behaviours to encourage in your child in their use of them.  But your first instinct could be wrong, and while those earlier technologies were focused on entertainment primarliy, more recent technologies have so much more potential for educational uses that it's becoming more likely that your children will be exposed to technology outside the home, and outside of your control.  So, even the most tech savvy parents should not take it for granted that they'll be able to manage their child's interaction with technology with ease and should seek help and advice as early as possible. If you are a parent who is not so comfortable with the newest technology, or even unaware what's out there, and you may even be intimidated by your child's expertise with a technology, you should not let that stop you from being in control of how they use it.  The first step is to educate yourself on as much of the new technology that is out there so that you can be actively involved in your child's experience with it.  Please use some of the useful links below to start this process.  Then, try to become aware of all the different opportunities that your child has to interact with technology, be it at a friend's house, a library, or school, or on a device in your own home that you may not have been aware of.  Discuss all of these actively with the child and talk about what types of interaction they're having in these settings.  Many of the sites listed below provide guides to follow that makes this much easier. As you can see, this topic brings up many questions and we think that the pros and cons should be weighed for every family.  That's why we would like to take this opportunity to challenge you to discuss this topic with us.  All month long in April, we will be highlighting recent studies and providing some analysis and discussion on our Blog.  We will be posting updates on the promotional section of the WLE home page, too, so login and check back often to see which topics are up for discussion. If you're not comfortable interacting on our blog, don't worry!  We've featured articles that help with understanding the impact of technology (excerpted below), and also with topics that make it easier to engage your child in discussions about it, such as "Building a Good Relationship With Your Teenager", and  "Discipline and Your Young Child".  Or, if you have an issue with children of different ages handling different rules governing access to technology, perhaps "Sibling Rivalry" can help you address the issue.  As always, you can communicate with us through our Suggestion Box inside WLE.com.  If you have trouble viewing our Blog in your area, we also update our "What's New" page with the latest promotion and teaser info regularly. Useful Links: http://www.cybersmart.gov.au http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk http://onguardonline.gov/topics/protect-kids-online http://www.kids.gov/educators/ed_computers.shtml http://www.infosec.gov.hk/textonly/sc_chi/parents/set.html Keeping Children Safe on the Internet The Internet can open up a world of possibilities for your child or teenager. These online activities can have many benefits, but they can also involve risks... Read more…* Your Young Adolescent's Social Life In today’s adolescent world technology and the internet are becoming more and more an inextricable piece of their social fabric. Between cell phones, social networking, email and the internet, it is fair to say that nearly all adolescents are using technology all the time, everywhere... Read more…*

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March in WorkLife Essentials - Motherhood

This month in WorkLife Essentials, we've collected a series of valuable resources related to Motherhood and career.  Thinking about becoming a mother?  Is Motherhood new to you?  Or are you always looking for ways to make balancing motherhood and career easier?  Well, that's what March is all about at WLE.com. Our first featured article below is about helping work through the common questions women have when deciding to start a family.  Also, inside WorkLife Essentials, we are featuring more articles in line with starting or growing your family, such as "The Biological Clock", or with particular focus on being a single parent in "Choosing to Become a Single Parent".  Or, in dealing with obstacles such as infertility in "Dealing With the Stress of Infertility While Working".  As always, we also feature a number of related resources which can help guide you or your employees in their search for information related to starting a family as a career woman.  Please look for the Motherhood promotion link on your homepage once you have logged in, where you can find all of the highlighted articles Our second featured article is focused on helping a mother with the home side of the Motherhood-Career balancing act, with help for many family types.  Are you a single parent?  Are your kids grown up and about to leave the family home on their own for the first time?  Do you have a blended family?  Read our collection of articles focussed on any of these situations starting with "Ideas to Help Single Parents", or "When the Children Leave Home", or "Adjusting to Stepfamily Life". The third featured article gets into the details of exactly what it means to be a mother and a career woman.  We have all heard about the "Motherhood Penalty" a career woman faces and we go into the choices a mother might face in "Motherhood and Career".  And round out the series with "Motherhood and Career and the Importance of Mentors".  These articles were created to really focus in on many of the challenges that exist and the solutions that make it rewarding for millions of women.  We even get specific with "Returning to Work After Your Parental Leave", and "Time Management Tips for Working Parents" to give you or your employees real, practical, help that can be useful today. We encourage you to follow along with the latest in WorkLife Essentials news and announcements as well as the latest happenings in the Work-Life Balance field at our Blog.  We also highly encourage feedback and comments and interaction and that's the best place for it.  As always, you can communicate with us through our Suggestion Box inside WLE.com.  If you have trouble viewing our Blog in your area, we also update our "What's New" page with the latest promotion and teaser info regularly. Choosing the "Right" Time to Start a Family If you are thinking about starting a family, you are probably thinking a lot about the timing issue. How will parenthood fit in with your career plans and goals? How will you know when it is the “right” time in your life to start a family?... Read more…* Helping Your Young Baby Grow Through Play During your baby’s first six months of life, they are likely to astonish you. They will learn to nurse or take from a bottle almost immediately. They will gaze into your eyes. Soon they will raise their head, kick off their covers, and let you know that they are a special person unlike anyone else you’ve ever known... Read more…* Motherhood and Career: Challenges and Choices How can you create a working life that fits with raising a family? How can you find a balance? How do other families do it? Working mothers have been struggling with the “having it all” question for decades. Is it possible to have a family, a fulfilling career, and still find time for yourself? The experts agree that “having it all” is a myth. But... Read more…* *must be logged in to WorkLifeEssentials.com to read more Copyright© 2011 WorkLife Essentials®, All rights reserved. Download the latest Teaser here.

February in WorkLife Essentials

Well, the new year is well and truly here, and as most of us settle back into our usual routines, you might find that it's been a while since you took some time to really care for yourself.  This month in WorkLife Essentials, we're helping you with that in our promotion on Personal Wellbeing.  This can come in many forms - but the general concept we are promoting is that, no matter what challenges you take on during the day, it's always important to make sure that you're looking after yourself. An area that is particularly fraught with difficulty in preserving your own needs is when you're working from home, and we've highlighted 3 articles below that can really help.  But it's also important to focus on Personal Wellbeing as a caregiver, which you can read about in "Caregiver Stress and Finding Support", as you undergo life changes, discussed in "The Biological Clock", or just when you're under a lot of stress at work or at home, "Managing Stress".  We even have recommended on-line resources and a self help guide "Online Self-Help" to direct you to help for any of many other issues you may be facing right now. So, please remember to take care of yourself this month, and if you find that it's become increasingly hard to do that, Search through our resources and try a few new things you may find.  And, we always love feedback, so please use the Satisfaction Survey or Suggestion Box inside WorkLifeEssentials.com to let us know how we're doing.  Another great way to give us feedback, as well as stay up to date with the latest news and promotions is at our Blog. You and your employees can read our promotional articles this month, including those highlighted below by logging in to your WorkLife Essentials homepage and clicking the "Personal Wellbeing" link in the promotion box.  As always, if you are having trouble viewing our Blog, you can still access the latest What's New features and Teasers at our "What's New" page. Setting Work-Life Boundaries When You Work from Home One of the things that makes telework so attractive and convenient for many people is the fact that you are not tied to an office. You can work anywhere and at any time... Read more…* Your Telework Day In some ways, telework is no different from working in a central office. You have work expectations to meet and you coordinate with co-workers and customers to meet them... Read more…* Managing from a Distance Managing employees from a distance is quickly becoming a normal part of a manager’s role. You may have employees who work from home, travel as part of their jobs, work at other work sites, or work at a client’s work location... Read more…* *must be logged in to WorkLifeEssentials.com to read more Copyright© 2011 WorkLife Essentials®, All rights reserved. Download the latest Teaser here.

January in WorkLife Essentials

We're preparing for a new year here at WorkLife Essentials and we'd like to start it off by thanking you for your business during the past year.  2011 was full of activities, accomplishments and expansion including launching our Blog and our new branding, exhibiting at conferences, charitable giving and development of our website with ever more countries on offer in the Global Village and advanced reporting features. And, in 2012, we have even more planned!  Stay tuned right here for all the updates every month, and visit our Blog for the very latest information and discussions on up to the minute topics.  If you have any questions about any new features or our activities from last year and any suggestions for 2012, please contact our Support Team or use the Suggestion Box feature inside WLE.com.  We wish you all the best for the start of the new year and look forward to meeting your expectations for 2012. As our first promotional topic for next year, we are talking about relationships, in all their forms.  The workplace is an important place to foster healthy respectful relationships, which you can read about in "Age Differences, Work Differences: Understanding Older and Younger Co-Workers".  The same thing applies to our home relationships.  We cover all of this, from the simple every day challenges like household responsibilities, with "Sharing Household Responsibilities", to building relationships with your children as they age and eventually leave the house, with "When the Children leave home", to relationships with friends and members of your community, discussed in "Friends, Relationships, and Building a Community". These relationships form the bedrock of your life and are support when you need it and a source of fun and companionship when you need those.  You and your employees can read our promotional articles this month, including those highlighted below, to help build the relationships that will make work-life more rewarding.  You can read more details, as well as find a downloadable version of this email teaser, at our Blog, or by logging in to your WorkLife Essentials homepage and clicking the "Relationships" link in the promotion box.  As always, if you are having trouble viewing our Blog, you can still access the latest What's New features and Teasers at our "What's New" page. Your Young Adolescent's Social Life Adolescents develop socially on their own timetable. Healthy adolescents are committed to becoming their own person, independent from their parents. In their social lives, they are trying on new behaviors that help develop this independence. Everything from dating, to communication via Facebook, requires them to make decisions and choices on their own... Read more…* Building a Good Relationship With Your Teenager Adolescence is essentially a voyage of discovery. On this journey a teenager must deal with a body that’s developing in new ways, strong (and sometimes scary) feelings about sex, and an innate sense of rebellion against authority -- yours included. At the end of this odyssey, they will have become someone who knows and lives by their own values... Read more…* Connecting With Your Child During Stressful Times at Work During times of workplace change, such as a new manager or a work relocation, we often bring our worries home with us. Children pick up on our feelings, and can tell when we are anxious, worried, or under stress. Connecting with your child during times like these can help reduce stress at home. Your child will feel better, and you will, too... Read more…* *must be logged in to WorkLifeEssentials.com to read more Copyright© 2011 WorkLife Essentials®, All rights reserved. Download the latest Teaser here.