PARENT RESOURCE

Drug Free America Foundation has a new Parent Resource which is now on their National Drug-Free Workplace Alliance Web site. It is a great tool to share at home. This link will take you directly to the publication:

http://www.ndwa.org/images/Parent%20Resource.pdf

TALKING ABOUT POT

What is marijuana? What will happen if I smoke it? How does it effect my brain? Our kids want to know and what better source of information than parents. Here is a great brochure and conversation starter for your teen or preteen about marijuana. The more information our Lawrence youth have about drugs the better decisions they can make. MARIJUANA IS THE SECOND MOST ABUSED DRUG IN LAWRENCE after alcohol. Click on the link below and share it with your teen.

http://www.drugabuse.gov/PDF/TEENS_Marijuana_brochure.pdf

http://www.nida.nih.gov/MarijBroch/Spanish/Marijteens-sp.html

FAMILY CONTRACT FOR A HEALTHY FUTURE

Here is a great way to share family values and put parents and teens on the same page before school starts. Share this family alcohol contract with your child's friend's families as well. It will help your child fight peer pressure when they know their friends have signed the family contract too.

http://www.dccca.org/Family%20Alcohol%20Contract%208-2009.pdf

TEXTING INTO THE NIGHT

School is getting ready to start up and it may be time to visit or revisit some house rules with our teens about cell phone use and texting. You can check the texting activity records with your cell phone provider to see what may be going on while you are asleep! Lack of sleep is a big problem with teenagers as their internal clock is geared to sleeping late and staying up late. You may want to start a week before school begins with regular bed times and early rising to get your child ready. Some teens resort to energy drinks or amphetamines (easily obtained) to keep going throughout the day. Add that to the hormone activity, stress, peer pressure and homework, sleep deprivation can snowball into something serious.

Our Comment of the Week comes from Ken on a post about teens texting way into the night and losing sleep.

He said: "Bekah...for someone who's getting good grades and getting enough sleep your grammar and spelling are very poor. Turn off the phone at night. And thank you for making a perfect example for everyone on this subject."

He is referring to Bekah's comment on the same post:"i am 17 yrs old. i have grad high school, i work, i live on my own and i txt 24-7. i sometimes will stay up till like 4 in the morning txting.. i dont think there is anything wrong with teens that can still have good grade and work and text 24-7... i dont have a prob with gettin up every morning at 6am.... you just got to know your sleeping habits.. know wen to go to bed and wen to stay up... your body will get immuned to it if you do it long enough"