With a new year comes the communal feeling of a fresh start. The shift from 2020 to 2021 is an opportunity to reset our priorities and goals for ourselves and our families. Some of the questions we have been asking ourselves include:
 How might we support and guide our children and teens to be their most balanced selves?
How might we create a home environment that prioritizes and cares for the family unit as well as the individual?
How might we encourage our children to deeply explore their interests and curiosities?
In this month’s newsletter, we provide some helpful tools and tips to increase your child’s well-being as well as highlight a new, upcoming workshop for parents on February 24th. We hope to see you there!
May your year be full of inspiration, connection, and hope.
The Challenge Success Team
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Our data from surveying over 250,000 middle and high school students, in addition to other research, show that kids who are more physically and mentally healthy are more fully engaged with learning, and the reverse is also true. Increasing student engagement or improving well-being will support the other. Explore the following tools and tips to support both well-being and engagement.
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SUPPORT A BALANCED DAILY SCHEDULE
Parents, educators, and students can use this Time Wheel tool to evaluate your use of time in various categories including sleeping, exercise, downtime, etc. Ask yourself if the numbers align with your priorities and values, then take it a step further and break down some of the categories to better see how you might reprioritize and better allocate your time according to those values.
For example, we know sleep is crucial to mental and academic well-being. The American Association of Pediatrics recommends 9 hours for teens and even more for younger kids. If your child is getting less than this, consider how to rearrange the current schedule to better support a full night of sleep.
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HELP CHILDREN PRIORITIZE SELF CARE AND THE FAMILY UNIT
- Reframing “Chores”: We often encourage parents to think of chores as an opportunity for children to contribute to the family unit instead of as punitive or something that should be rewarded with money. In this Washington Post article, Sharon Holbrook explores how reframing chores cut the complaining and allowed her kids an opportunity to learn more life skills.
- PDF: Make Playtime, Downtime, and Family time (PDF) a crucial part of your daily routine. Each of these activities are important protective factors for children and adults.
- Get Moving: Educate your kids on the importance of movement and taking actual screen breaks during the day and during passing periods. Ask your child to take the dog for a walk or run a lap around the house or go make a snack in between their classes if they are in remote school.
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ENCOURAGE AREAS OF INTEREST
Increase academic engagement by encouraging kids to explore what they love in their free time - music, art, space, dinosaurs. Help them find ways to learn more and expand their interest by joining them and/or suggesting resources or activities. Listen to this clip from Dr. Denise Pope for more ideas.
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NEW! WELL-BALANCED STUDENT PARENT EDUCATION EVENT
Feb. 24th at 5:00pm PT | 8:00pm ET
$10 Registration
When we are too focused on grades and performance, we deny our children the time and energy they need to tackle the demanding work of growing up. In this presentation, you’ll learn how you can establish a healthier home environment for your school-aged child, reduce academic stress without sacrificing achievement, and increase your child’s resilience, creativity, and well-being. Participants will examine the tension that parents, students, and teachers often experience during remote and in-person learning over issues such as homework, grades, and the culture of competition. Learn more here.
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“I LOVE the interactive flow of this workshop. The speaker was very practical and gave us the right amount of interactive opportunities! This workshop enlightened me and gave me an awareness of all the stressors our kids have.” - High School Teacher and Parent
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LET US HELP YOUR SCHOOL PLAN FOR NEXT YEAR
With the continuing uncertainty of the pandemic, it’s not an easy time for schools to plan. And yet, between budgets and schedules and curricula, there’s a lot of planning to do. We’re partnering with schools in our Planning in a Pandemic program to accelerate and bolster this work by using our surveys, facilitation & coaching support, and a community roundtable. Learn more here.
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ADMINISTER A SCHOOL SURVEY
In our surveys, we measure well-being with metrics related to stress, worry, sleep, homework and extracurricular load, and relationships with peers and adults at school. Schools receive a dashboard as well as a debrief call to go through the data, discuss the trends that emerge, and consider how to make changes that would most positively impact your specific student body. Learn more here.
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Letting Go of “The Best” - Lynn Lyons, Psychotherapist
“As long as you know you’ve done your best.”
The Blueprint for Your College Search - Brennan Barnard, Forbes
“Before students begin to develop a list of schools or try to determine how to stand out in the application process, they need to draw out who they are, what is important to them, what they value, and what they are hoping for in their future.”
College Board Is Scrapping SAT’s Optional Essay and Subject Tests - Nick Anderson, The Washington Post
“Two major stress points in the grueling rituals of college admission testing are vanishing this year.”
How Gratitude Changes You and Your Brain - Joshua Brown & Joel Wong, Greater Good
“Compared with the participants who wrote about negative experiences or only received counseling, those who wrote gratitude letters reported significantly better mental health four weeks and 12 weeks after their writing exercise ended.“ We also loved this gratitude document from La Salle.
Make Schools More Human - Jal Mehta, New York Times
“These are not new problems — they are just newly visible because of the pandemic, and in some cases exacerbated by it.”
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IFSEL (Institute for Social and Emotional Learning)
Looking to build your SEL teacher toolkit? Join online courses this month with IFSEL focused on advisory, foundational SEL tools, and integrating SEL into curriculum. Learn more.
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TEACHING TO THE MOMENT SERIES | CSET STANFORD
The Center to Support Excellence in Teaching at Stanford has a new webinar series, Tuesdays at 4:00pm PST. It is free and open to all. The series will connect research to practice, create community among educators, and share practical takeaways for the classroom. Learn more.
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