December High School Years Newsletter
December High School Newsletter
A Leadership Role
Being a leader is a good way for your teen to gain self-confidence, communicate better, and learn about teamwork. Consider these ideas: ■ Encourage a leadership attitude. When your teenager mentions changes she would like to see, ask how she might make them happen (run for student council, start a new club at school). Then, suggest that she do it! ■ Recommend ideas for showing leadership at her job or in the community. At work, your child could volunteer to lead a team meeting. In your neighborhood, she might plan a cleanup day or organize a community yard sale.
Reading for Pleasure
High schoolers spend a lot of time reading to learn —but what about reading just for fun? Reading regularly for pleasure exposes your teen to new words and broadens his knowledge, helping him do better in all subjects. Here’s how to help him develop a reading habit.
Find Time
With all that assigned reading, when can your teenager read just for fun? Encourage him to look for pockets of time, and mention benefits that matter to him. For example, reading something light (a short story, a car magazine) may help him relax at bedtime. Or he might recharge in school by dedicating the last 10 minutes of study hall to leisure reading.
Stock up
Having reading material around makes it more likely that your teen will pick something up. Let him fill your home with books from the library, used bookstores, and flea markets. He could include novels, short stories, biographies, poetry, and how-to books. Idea: Set up a family library, and everyone can swap in new items regularly to keep it interesting.
Read Together
Show your teenager how much fun reading can be by letting him see you do it, too. Instead of reading that new mystery in bed, plop down and read next to him on the couch. Mention interesting newspaper articles, and ask what he’s reading. You could even read a young-adult novel and then pass it on to him.
Worth Quoting
“Do not judge me by my successes. Judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.” Nelson Mandela
For the rest of the High School Years Newsletter, be sure to click the link. December High School Newsletter