Even the best of parents can’t prepare their teens for all the challenges of college life or out in the real world. But you can give them the the advantage of being able to think their way through any problems or situations when they arise.
It all starts with these six essential life skills:
There was a discussion within a long string of comments on Facebook about teen drug rehab. I was just reading it out of curiosity because the friend usually has a good string of comments every day on a variety of subjects.
I have not had to personally deal with teenagers and drug issues, but I do know several people at work who are dealing with it now. My heart go out to anyone who has to find a teen rehab for their kid. Thankfully, there are places that can help.
Teen addiction statistics are more alarming every day. Based on anonymous surveys of high school students, the National Institute on Drug Abuse has been tracking prevalence and use of various substances by teens since 1975. Although the reported use of most drugs has declined slightly the past 4 – 5 years, the use of marijuana has been fairly consistent and there is an increase in the use of prescription drugs, in particular Oxycotin and Vicodin. The increased abuse of prescription drugs is the most alarming to me. These teens are obviously getting the drugs from relatives or buying them on the street.
The kids of today are our promise of a future for our society. We must help these kids live drug free, and if we need to build more rehab centers or fund more programs, then we must do what it takes to find a workable solution for drug addiction.
We’ve been watching a lot of documentaries the past couple of weeks. The new season of TV shows is still about a month away and I’m sick of the reruns. So we’ve flipped to the channel to other shows and we have learned a lot.
One of my favorite series was about sea life. We’ve learned about sharks, whales, dolphins and a variety of other sea creatures, including krill. I always knew that krill is a food source for whales and fish.
Now I have learned from the krilloil.com web site that krill is an important source of Omega 3 fatty acids for humans. They have made krill oil capsules that can used as a dietary supplement.
According to the krilloil.com web site, krill oil is comparable to fish oil. Although fish oil may be a cheaper, the krill oil is absorbed by the body faster and easier.
I al always interested in learning more about natural health products, and I’m going to ask my brother to check out the krilloil.com and let me know what he thinks about trying some krill oil as a supplement.
This month all the kids are heading back to their schools and colleges. Parents are shelling out big bucks for new clothes, textbooks, and even computers. But one thing they don’t have to worry about is getting free online math answers when the kids need it.
Free math tutoring online from the www.tutornext.com web site can help kids of all ages and grade levels. If you find this site helpful, you can sign up for a monthly subscription and have access 24 hours a day, which is especially nice for college students who stay up really late.
The same web site is good for Chemistry help for kids in the advanced grade levels and taking college courses. Although a lot of parents may have taken these classes in high school and college, chances are that they have not remembered much of it as the years have gone by. So when you get a late night phone from your son or daughter asking desperately for help with their Chemistry or Algebra homework, you can send them online to the www.tutornext.com web site.
Next week my niece goes back to college as a sophomore. Considering how many kids only go for one year and then drop out, we are all very happy that she is sticking to it and returning for her second year.
This year she will be taking a college level algebra course. Do you remember working with an Acute triangle? Could you explain the formula and the process to a student in today’s college courses?
Reading through the new textbook for her class, I looked up the Indices chapter and the Line segment chapter. A rush of memories came back into my mind. Formulas, equations, checking your work. All the disciplines that I learned from math when I was in school.
But that is almost ancient history. Today’s kids need more help than a geezer trying to rely on flashbacks from 30 years ago. So, I’ve promised my brother to help underwrite the cost on an online tutor so that she can get all the Algebra help that she needs. It is not very expensive and it is truly an investment in her education and her future.
This year we missed the Tennessee Renaissance festival. It is always on weekends in May, including Memorial Day. We’ve gone to every one since we moved here in 1992, but this year we had a lot on our plate and we kept putting it off. Next thing we knew, it was June and we missed out.
The local Ren Fest is always at the property of a man who built a real castle. Part of the Festival admission allows you to tour the castle. It was an ambitious undertaking and he did a lot of the work himself, including all the hand placed tiles in the castle kitchen.
The wife was looking at a web site with Halloween costumes and found a sexy pirate costume that would be great for a Ren Fest costume. We have always dressed up like peasants in the past, but if she wants to go as a pirate next time, maybe I will find a new costume for myself, too.
I had not even thought of looking on the internet for sexy Halloween costumes that would serve us as a Ren Fest costume. I’m glad she was looking at the Halloween site and got the idea. That opens up our costumes options quite a bit.
This is the same site that my step daughter used last Halloween when she chose a sexy cop costume to go to work dressed up on Halloween. All the employees were allowed to dress up in Halloween costumes as long as they did not wear a mask or wear anything too revealing. After all, it is a family shopping destination.
The good thing about this Halloween costume web site is that they have a category dedicated to plus sized women. So my stepdaughter was able to find something that she knew would fit and not have to worry about getting something too small and then sending it back.
As I was putting my gear back into my locker at the country club this morning, it occurred to me that I’ve been hanging clothes, shoes and equipment into lockers for about 80% of my life. How interesting that I’ve been completely assimilated and trained to put everything into a small rectangular container and walk away for several, with the full expectation that when I return, all my belongings will still be there, waiting for me.
It all started with School Lockers, as early as 5 years old for most children. Of course, when I was a small child, we used hooks in a closet for the first few years of grade school. We didn’t get actual lockers until middle school.
When I got back to the office, I decided to search online for Lockers for sale. It was interesting to me to see how many different kinds of lockers are used in every day life. The only thing that has changed is that you can no longer rent lockers in an airport. One of the effects of anti-terrorism and modern life.
This is a guest post by Steven Freitag
After dinner, my son and I like to watch one TV show together: Spongebob Squarepants. The first time my son asked me to watch the show, I was confused. He told me it was about a sponge and that the character reminded him of his older brother. I didn’t know what to expect. It turned out that SpongeBob was the name of the main character. He is a sponge who lives in the ocean and works as a fry cook and loves his job. He is a hapless, yet cheerful character who always sees the bright side of life. My son was right; he did remind me of his brother too! SpongeBob is carefree and really enjoys life even if life isn’t going his way. This tenacity is great for kids to see. Today, there is so much pressure on kids and sometimes life isn’t perfect. SpongeBob allows kids to see that a good attitude will make a difference. So, when I turned on TV By Direct after dinner, I find SpongeBob. My son and I sit down for thirty minutes and laugh together. It is my favorite part of the day.
When a good friend of mine realized that she needed help with her dependency on prescription drugs, she searched online for the right drug treatment facility and chose one for several good reasons. She was interested in the treatment program but also interested in the facility. The doctors are hard to judge without meeting them face to face, but the facility is very easy to judge by both their web site and the photos of their property.
Most treatment centers do both drug rehab and alcohol treatment, although most patients need help with just one type of substance abuse.In rare instances, like some big time rock and roll stars, patients abuse multiple substances and using drugs becomes a lifestyle.
My friend had injured her shoulder a few years ago and needed prescription pain killers to be able to continue working and getting through each day. The problem with that is her body built up a tolerance to that medication and she found herself needing more and more pills to just be comfortable and productive. Most physicians do not really know how to effectively help their patients manage pain, and many will just continue handing out prescriptions to the patients who ask for them.
I never did ask her which alcohol treatment center she chose. I know it is in Southern California and that she claimed to take a two week vacation to Los Angeles, when in reality she had checked into a residential rehab. She is entitled to her privacy, though, and I’m glad that she found the right place and the right program to help her get through her issues.