Whole Kids Project

Heritage Foundation: Parent's Influence on Teen Sexual Activity

Just received this email from the National Coalition regarding a Heritage Foundation study of the influence of parents in teen's sexual decisions:

In its August Family Facts edition, the Heritage Foundation released their top ten findings concerning the impact of parental involvement in teens’ sexual decisions.

Not surprisingly, each fact confirms what the National Coalition has been saying for years—parents are the number one influence in their children’s lives and greatly affect their attitudes regarding sexual activity.

Following are the Heritage Foundation’s top ten findings:

1. Delayed sexual behavior. Youths who report higher quality relationships with their mothers and who feel their mothers highly disapprove of their having sex are more likely to delay sexual activity. Click here for full details.
2. Reduction in teen pregnancy. Adolescent girls who feel their mothers highly disapprove of their having sex and say they had a very good relationship with their mothers are less likely than other peers to become pregnant. Click here for full details.
3. Reduction in number of sexual partners. On average, youths who feel that their mothers hold more liberal views on teen sexual activity have more sexual partners than peers who believe their mothers hold less liberal views on teen sex. Click here for full details.
4. Youth sexual activity. Teen girls who say they have a close relationship with their fathers are less likely to become sexually active. Click here for full details.
5. Youth abstinence. Adolescents whose parents discuss what is right and wrong in sexual behavior are more likely to remain abstinent than peers who do not have such talks with their parents. Click here for full details.
6. Parent/child discussions. In spite of peers’ behavior that would encourage sexual activity, adolescents who engage in discussions with their parents about sex are less likely to be sexually active or have fewer partners than youth who do not have such talks with their parents. Click here for full details.
7. Delayed sexual behavior. Adolescent girls whose mothers communicate with their friends’ parents tend to become sexually active at a later age. Click here for full details.
8. Risky behavior. Teens who are closely monitored by their parents are less likely to take risks regarding sexual behavior. Click here for full details.
9. Parental rules. Adolescents whose parents set clear rules are less likely to have had sexual intercourse than peers whose parents did not. Click here for full details.
10. Setting limits. Teens whose parents set limits on their television viewing or watch television with them are less likely to initiate sexual activity. Click here for full details.

To help parents, student leaders, and teens combat the sexual trends among today’s youth, the National Coalition developed a curriculum called Sex & Young America. This interactive discussion series helps initiate open and honest conversation about sex. For more information and to learn more about the curriculum, please visit www.nationalcoalition.org.

Folks- this is common sense that applies to every facet of your kids' lives.  The more involved you are, the more of an influence you will be.  This applies to diet and nutrition, academic performance, and spiritual development.

Parental influence cuts both ways- good and bad.

As a parent, what kind of a role model are you? What do your words and actions say to your kids?

My Light: Free Online Magazine for Kids

Jennifer Gladen has launched a free online magazine for kids:

Welcome to MY LIGHT, a Catholic centered magazine for children. The goal is to help Catholic and other Christian children nurture a deeper relationship with God. Many of our children know about God, but don't have that connection with Him. We aim to be a lightened path from our children to God Himself.

It looks great!

Hat tip to the Catholic Mom Moments blog.

Friday Nite Video: Grace Before Meals

We had the great pleasure of meeting Fr. Leo at last weekend's Catholic New Media Celebration. 

Fr. Leo presented the keynote speech and we found him to be both hilarious and humble- traits which are in abundance in this video:

For more videos, visit Fr. Leo's site.  For recipes and a good read- buy Fr. Leo's book: Grace Before Meals. 

For a healthier family- have dinner together tonight!

Green Hour: A Very Cool Site

The more time that I've spent on the National Wildlife Federation's Green Hour site the more I'm blown away.

Most adults of a certain age have childhood memories of carefree days spent playing outdoors -- climbing, digging, collecting, building, and exploring the natural world around them, at their own pace, in their own way.

Those children of a generation ago are the parents of today, and you might expect such outdoor play to be part of their families' lifestyle. But today's overscheduled kids are increasingly "plugged in" to electronic devices and media and unplugged from the fundamental and formative experience of nature in their own neighborhood. Their senses -- including, most sadly, their sense of wonder -- are bombarded, overwhelmed, and ultimately diminished.

Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods, refers to this nature-child disconnect as "nature deficit disorder." One of the primary symptoms is the replacement of the green space by the screen space as the occupier of children's free time. Indeed, a Kaiser Family Foundation study found that the average American child spends 44 hours per week (more than 6 hours a day!) staring at some kind of electronic screen. Studies have linked excessive television viewing to obesity, violence, and even lower intelligence in kids. Now, a growing wave of research indicates that children who spend time outdoors are healthier, overall, than their indoor counterparts

Children who regularly spend unstructured time outside:

Play more creatively

Have lower stress levels

Have more active imaginations

Become fitter and leaner

Develop stronger immune systems

Experience fewer symptoms of ADD and ADHD

Have greater respect for themselves, for others, and for the environment

The National Wildlife Federation recommends that parents give their kids a "Green Hour" every day, a time for unstructured play and interaction with the natural world. This can take place in a garden, a backyard, the park down the street, or any place that provides safe and accessible green spaces where children can learn and play.

There are so many great outdoor activities to engage your kids and help them learn about the environment- there's even an activity built around roly-polys which just so happen to currently be our girls' favorite insect!

For the adults there is a downloadable mp3 of the week's activity, a blog, a free e-newsletter, a community corner for you to share ideas with other parents, and a park locator that can help you find green spaces near you.

The site is now listed as one of our favorites.

(One suggestion if anyone from Green Hour should read this: a link to Green Hour from the NWF site would be helpful!)

What Are Your Family Values?

People love to talk about family values, or even more specifically "traditional" family values. Have you ever given much time to really think about what values drive your family's beliefs and actions?  Can you list the things that you so strongly believe in- that guide how you live your life and raise your children. 

It is important that both parents and children know and understand the values that form the basis of their family. These values create a blueprint that directs how the family interacts with each other, how they set priorities, and how they make the decisions about what are appropriate and inappropriate ways to behave.

Beginning Monday, We'll start crafting a Family Values Statement of simple "We Believe..." statements built around each of the four Whole Kids components: Spiritual, Physical, Emotional, and Intellectual.

Please join our family and craft your own Family Values Statement.

Ready Kids: Preparing for Emergencies

With several large scale natural disasters in the news, now is the time to make sure that your family is prepared.

The US Department of Homeland Security has a website focused on emergency preparedness that lays out 3 steps every family should follow:

1. Get a Kit: Here's a List of Basic Supplies
2. Make a Plan:  The Family Emergency Plan
3. Be Informed: Local agencies to help you in case of an emergency

There is also a section designed specifically for kids that follows the same three steps- get the whole family involved and BE PREPARED!

Helping Kids Deal With Disasters

Dr. Robyn Silverman offers helpful advice on how to cope with disasters.  This is a very timely post with the cyclone in Burma and the earthquake in China in the news.  Closer to home, we are entering tornado season in which tornado warning sirens and trips to the basement are not uncommon.

Among Dr. Silverman's tips:

• Stay Calm
• Be Available
• Reassure Them
• Let Them Know They're Safe
• Comfort Them
• Limit The Media Onslaught

Click here to read all of Dr. Silverman's tips.

TV Turnoff Week Wrapup

Well, overall we did a good job of staying away from the TV this week.

First, I'd say that ordinarily we average less than an hour per day of viewing- so decreasing our viewing even more wasn't a huge sacrifice.

Even when the TV is on, it quickly becomes background noise as the girls get busy with reading, crafts, coloring or just good old-fashioned playing.  I found that several times when I sat down in the evening and grabbed the remote, I remembered that it was turnoff week and grabbed a book instead.

High-points for the week:

• We were blessed with great weather which allowed for a lot of outside play.
• I was in LA from Monday-Wednesday and only watched about an hour of the PA primary coverage on Tuesday night. Fourteen hours of flying time allowed me to catch up on some reading that I've wanted to do.
• Sunday was gorgeous here- my oldest daughter and I went for a nice bike ride and did some treasure hunting (geocaching).

Low-points:

• Saturday. I attended the Columbus Catholic Men's Conference during the day and Karol attended another meeting in Akron until late in the night.  In my exhaustion (big excuse here), the girls watched two DVDs Saturday night and I watched Supersize Me after they went to bed.

That's my short report. Overall, a pretty good effort. I caught myself a few times and picked up a book instead (which is always more worthwhile) and slipped a few more times (did I forget to mention that I also watched an episode of The Office Friday night?).

The Weather's Great- Go Outside

It looks as though we've turned a corner here in central Ohio- sunny and 74 today and moderate temps for a far as forecasters dare to guess.

Turn off the screens and go outside! Even if it is just for a stretch and a breath of fresh air.

Have you heard of the Children and Nature Network?

The vision and mission of the Children & Nature Network is to give every child in every community a wide range of opportunities to experience nature directly, reconnecting our children with nature's joys and lessons, its profound physical and mental bounty.

The Children & Nature Network (C&NN) was created to encourage and support the people and organizations working to reconnect children with nature. The network provides a critical link between researchers and individuals, educators and organizations dedicated to children's health and well-being. C&NN also promotes fundamental institutional change and provides resources for sharing information, strategic initiatives and success stories.

The C&NN news service and portal, cNatureNet.org, offers parents, youth, civic leaders, educators and health-care providers access to the latest news and research in this field as well as practical advice, including ways to apply new-found knowledge at home, at school, in work environments, and in the community. The network also engages a diverse community of institutes, organizations and industries by providing a forum for publishing and presenting research, reports and case studies on children's health and nature, and related program-development strategies and support.

The site has lots of news and offers support if you want to join the movement to "reconnect children and nature".

C&NN was founded by Richard Louv- the author of Last Child in the Woods - a great book about re-aquainting yourself and your kids with nature.

Read it! The book has great ideas- even for urbanites!

2nd Annual TV-Turnoff Week

Lisa, of Corporate Babysitter fame, alerted me to the 2nd Annual TV-Turnoff Week.

The challenge is to see if you can go TV-free for the week of April 21-27.  All the details can be found on the Unplug Your Kids blog.

Of course I'm traveling and will be in meetings for most of the week so much of the burden will fall on Karol and the girls. They know that they can count on me for moral support!