Best of the Web: Students Who Hate their Phones, Being a Resilient Parent, and Talking to Kids about Cambridge Analytica

How Do Young People Really Feel about Technology?

(Donna Freitas, Greater Good Magazine)

The conventional wisdom is that the lives of young people revolve around their smartphones. We are getting it very wrong, according to new research by the author. Two years seeking the views of more than 1000 college students across the United States produced a very different picture. While students may love their smartphones, many hated them, and there was a massive effort to control how they used them.

How to trick kids into reading so they don’t realise their doing it

(Suzi Catchpole, Essential Kids)

Dealing with a reluctant young reader can be a tricky business. This article offers six everyday ways to help children in the reading journey – and barely know their reading. The suggestions include environmental reading, such as road signs, and number plates. Others include using humour, and giving them things to read that match their personal interest – books about Star Wars,say, or soccer.

To Raise Resilient Kids, Be a Resilient Parent

(Emily F. Popek, The New York Times)

Raising children to be emotionally resilient has emerged as key aspiration for parents. But to do so, parents need to be resilient themselves. This means that parents need to be able to take temper tantrums and meltdowns in their stride – to accept they are part of the ‘messiness of childhood’. The article offers some tips for parents to make difficult interactions easier to absorb.

Why you should talk to your children about Cambridge Analytica

(Amanda Third, The Conversation)

It’s been one of the world’s biggest stories – how Cambridge Analytica harvested the Facebook data of more than 50 million individual profiles on Facebook, using them to influence election outcomes. While this may seem a controversy of the adult world, the author argues there are implications for our children, the first generation whose lives are being wholly tracked digitally. How can we talk to children about what’s happening?

Our recent Best of the Web posts

Tips for Reading to Kids, Why You Should be a Lazy Parent, and the Sadness of the Empty Nest

Start Classes Later, Dance as Important as Maths, and Getting to Know My Child’s Dyslexia

Why Homework Matters, Helping Boys Enjoy Reading, and the Kids Beating Stress with a Journal

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