Creating parent-teacher groups enables parents to share their opinion in regards to topics that concern directly their children, such as classroom activities, field trips, or homework. This can prove extremely efficient, as parents are the ones who know the best their kids and can, therefore, make great decisions when it comes to them.

Parent-teacher groups

Allowing parents to participate in their children's field trips can prove an inspired idea, as they often have great suggestions. Moreover, getting their feedback both before and after the trip might lead to the improvement of such activities.

Parents and field trips

This kind of program often results in successful cooperation between parents and teachers, therefore ensuring that no feedback is lost. Parent volunteers get in contact with other parents for topics related to their children and forward their opinions to teachers, enabling an efficient communication of everybody's thoughts and suggestions.

Parent mentor programs

The cooperation between teachers and parents can lead to a relationship based on mutual respect and exchange of opinions and experiences, which can only have good effects regarding a child's development.

Encourage personal connections

Parents have strong opinions about the education of their children, so teachers are first in line for their feedback. The perspectives of parents, however, have an important role to play in helping all students succeed. Here's how teachers can improve communication with parents by incorporating feedback into field trips, community events, and peer mentorships.

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Personal Development

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Parenting

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Problem Solving

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Communication

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Teamwork

How parent involvement enhances classroom community | The JotForm Blog

"If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes."

We normally use existing methodologies and analogies to solve problems, which is essentially short-cut thinking. Engaging in 'First Principles Thinking' makes us discard existing knowledge, and get down to the essentials, exploring on our own and questioning everything. This uncharted terrain takes us to the absolute truth which we call the First Principle. When we understand the core of the problem, we can build creative and unique solutions. <ul>
</ul>

First Principles Thinking

The First Principles Thinking can be applied in our daily life:
<ul>
<li>Starting a business requires first principles thinking to build a fundamentally better product or service.</li>
<li>On a busy day, first principles thinking makes us do what's essential while not being bogged down with time constraints.</li>
<li>Applying the first principles toward good health will make us feel considerably better than obeying some diet or exercise routine that we hate.</li>
</ul>

Using The First Principles Thinking

<ol>
<li>Take moment and think of a problem bugging you and write all the reasons you think the problem is difficult to solve.</li>
<li>With each of the reasons, self-verify by questioning yourself to see if it is valid or not.</li>
<li>Keep asking yourself till you get to the root, the fundamental truth which cannot be denied.</li>
<li>With a few runs, you will be able to test different solutions and find effective answers quickly.</li>
</ol>

Solving Difficult Problems

The gist: If you want to solve hard problems in unique ways, "first principles thinking" is the strategy that works for the world's most creative people. "If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes."

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Productivity

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Business

Use First Principles Thinking to Solve Impossible Problems

The baby-advice industry targets people at their most vulnerable - at the start of the weightiest responsibility of their lives - and suggests that they have some information that will ensure the future happiness of the child.
Even the most skeptical readers fall prey to books that promise a happy and healthy child.

Baby advice industry

<ul>
<li>Baby Trainers urge parents to get their newborn on to a strict schedule to integrate him into the rhythms of the household. </li>
<li>Natural Parents emulate the earthy practices of indigenous tribes in the developing world.</li></ul>Although these two camps are hostile toward each other, we should realize that baby advice is not mainly about raising children. Instead, it is a vehicle to suggest that it might be possible to bring the terrifying unpredictability of the world under control. A brand new baby makes it possible to believe in that fantasy. <ul>
</ul>

The two camps of parenting advice

<ul>
<li>For a start, nobody can remember what it was like to be a baby. </li>
<li>Most parenting gurus only have direct experience of parenting two or three babies, which isn't much better as a sample size. They can't assume that whatever worked for them will work for everyone.</li>
<li>When you have read all the parenting books, your baby will possibly follow an entirely different manual of instructions. </li>
</ul>

Nobody really knows 

Whether new parents try to follow advice from well-known parenting experts or rejecting outside expertise in favor of their own instincts, all guidance fails to quell anxiety away. You'll find yourself constantly questioning whether the advice is the best for your child.

Parents are anxious

For most of human history, children were largely ignored until they were old enough to begin contributing to the survival of household or tribe. It is only in our modern society that children have become the center of attention from day one. Parenting books promise that there are techniques and expertise that parents can acquire to help them accomplish the goal of shaping their children's lives. That this should be a goal is a recent development. Yet, almost every human in history has been raised without the insights of a multitude of parenting books.

Children were mostly "ignored"

Parenting is not about using techniques or thinking in terms of methods. Anything as complex as a relationship between humans can't be reduced to a set of consciously manipulable variables. 
Secure attachment in children is not a result of using techniques, but from the overall quality of the relationship between children and parents who are reasonably consistently available and in tune with their children's emotions some of the time - basically, loving parents.

Secure attachment

Human beings are born too soon. Within hours of arriving in the world, a baby antelope can clamber up to a wobbly standing position; a day-old zebra foal can run from hyenas; a sea-turtle, newly hatched in the sand, knows how to find its way to the ocean.

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Health

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Love & Relationships

The diabolical genius of the baby advice industry

As the world changes rapidly, the future becomes increasingly uncertain. This impacts the future generation, as a majority of jobs that they would be doing haven't even been invented yet. 
We also face environmental, geopolitical and racial/ethnic crisis with an escalating craziness around the world.
As technology advancements penetrate every area of our lives, the skill-sets required are becoming increasingly different. The old demands of compliance and standardized test scores becoming irrelevant.
Youngsters need to build up the definitive skills of the future like critical thinking, resilience, creativity, process-oriented thinking, and empathy.

An Uncertain Future

For youngsters to be comfortable with challenges, failure, and uncertainty, a three-step approach is put forth, which has the elements of separation, liminality, and reincorporation. This approach, comprising of three stages (preparation, threshold and reflection), enables one to rise, and transcend to a different level, having learned new skills.

Rite Of Passage

A challenging ordeal, filled with frustration, setbacks, and even failure is an important step in the rite of passage. 
Failure is just an opportunity to learn and grow, and this is practically imbibed in the youngsters in the tasks undertaken while ensuring that the focus on the positive aspects.
Some points to ensure:
<ul>
<li>Record and bring forth the lessons from the project activity by making the students aware of the many details they can miss due to their focus on their performance. 
</li>
<li>Keep the 'wonder' part alive and do not let go of ethics and morals in this exercise.
</li>
</ul>

The Ordeal

Once the students have completed their ordeal, there is a sense of accomplishment and learning of new experiences along with the formation of new bonds. It is a good idea to celebrate these accomplishments and reflect upon the learnings of the project, along with the memories and key take-aways. The youngsters feel a major sense of identity, a change of state that comes with accomplishing a major stretch goal. This Rite of Passage exercise prepares youngsters into adulthood, as it affects their entire being: mind, body and soul.

The Reflection of the Ordeal

With so much rapid-fire change in the world, the job of preparing our young people for the future has become increasingly daunting. The Institute of the Future issued a report in 2017 that declared that 85 percent of the jobs in 2030-when today's second-graders will graduate high school-have not been invented yet.

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Career

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Leadership & Management

How to Help Young People Transition Into Adulthood

Most parents believe it is a top priority to instill kindness in their children.However, in one study, nearly 80% of children surveyed said their parents taught them that personal happiness and high achievement were more important than caring for other people.

Instilling kindness

Children learn to act kindly the same way they learn anything else - with practice.
Give them daily opportunities to practice kindness, such as helping another child.

Give kids opportunities for kindness

Children need to learn to focus on individuals and truly listen to them.
They also need to learn to see the bigger picture by putting human experience in context.

Two important skills

Children will emulate their parents. Children need to see how their parents show empathy, concern, and sympathy.

Role models

Shame, anger, and jealousy can interfere with kindness. Children need to be taught how to address these feelings. 
When adults introduce ethical questions, they put issues of injustice in view and help children learn how to treat their various responsibilities to others and themselves.

Managing destructive feelings

Few parents are willing to admit that they might be part of the children's moral state. Parents need to understand what values they are instilling in their children by being aware of their own actions.

Adults should stop passing the buck

Ask parents how important it is to instill kindness in their kids, and most will rank it high: even as their very top priority, according to Harvard researchers. But children surveyed by the university's Making Caring Common (pdf) project said, overwhelmingly, that they were getting a different message.

Harvard researchers have mapped the five child-rearing techniques you need to raise kind kids

Kids are master manipulators. They will play up their charms, pit adults against another and wail loudly in public. It's your job to keep up with them.

Kids manipulate

For siblings who refuse to cooperate with each other, assign them a task that they can do as a team, like picking up the toys.Over time, this will compel them to work together.

Force Cooperation

Who will get the bigger room? Who gets to name the cat? Have the kids bid for it with their chores or allowance.

Make Them Pay

Don't make threats that will make you suffer too. "Don't make me turn this car around!" Pick punishments that benefit you. "If you continue, we're going to Grandma's instead of the movies."

Pick "Threats" That Benefit You

If you suspect your kids haven't done their homework, ask many specific questions: Which subject? What did you learn? How long did it take? What was the hardest part? The act of maintaining an elaborate lie will discomfort them. Telling the truth will be easier.

Make Them Lie

When your kids are in some trouble and crying bitterly, don't bail them out of trouble. It will reinforce bad behavior. Establish clear rules and meet out punishment when necessary.

Don't Bail Them Out

Kids are master manipulators. They play up their charms, pit adults against one another, and engage in loud, public wailing. So it's your job to keep up with them, Carnegie Mellon's Kevin Zollman says. His new book, The Game Theorist's Guide to Parenting -written with journalist Paul Raeburn-explains how.

Understand yourself and those around you.

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Psychology

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Money & Investments

Kids Are Master Manipulators. So Use Game Theory Against Them

We judge ourselves and others morally for things that didn't come out as intended, were unforeseen, or were influenced by factors beyond one's control. The judgment we should receive is based on how our actions turned out, rather than our intentions, no matter how good they were. This is called 'Moral Luck'.

Moral Luck

Some people do their parenting in difficult circumstances, and nothing that is done by them as parents is fully under their control.The good and bad traits that parents possess can find their way in the child, with them having no say as to what the child will eventually become or do.

Feeling Morally Responsible

Due to so many factors at play, parents are relying on good luck, pulling off a gamble on the child that is being raised. They don't have much leverage on the outcome, the net result of the actions of their offspring.There is an inner paradox, a duality that exists in the minds of parents, which can make them accept and also reject the responsibility they have towards their kids' actions.

The Inner Paradox

I didn't choose to have a child. Not if "choosing" means something rational-weighing pros and cons, coming to a conclusion. I tried that process but ran away from it because, even though I wanted a child, it seemed to me that creating a whole new person was such an enormity that no one could rationally decide to do such a thing.

Parenthood, the Great Moral Gamble - Issue 2: Uncertainty - Nautilus

A child's pre-teen and teen years are a high-emotion transitory period. This is due to shifting classmates, social pressure, multiple classrooms and a period of many 'firsts'.

Vulnerable Time for Kids

A study on sixth-graders revealed that friendship is crucial and real for kids, and can be as deep as a parental relationship.Most parents and teachers do not understand the importance of deep bonding among friends at school and tend to regard friendships as a distraction or a nuisance.

Deep Friendships

Social isolation is the dark side of the school, in which many kids with no friends are at risk of anxiety, depression and low self-esteem. There is a perceived sense of threat with being friendless, and the young, immature mind can deeply internalize the resulting difficulties, leading to depression.Bullying at this age is also a major problem, with those who are socially isolated becoming the most vulnerable to being bullied.

Social Isolation and Bullying

Teenagers and adolescents are more likely to behave recklessly, do something stupid, or commit crimes when they are together.Breaking the law or trying out drugs/alcohol is also done more often in the company of friends and schoolmates. This is known as the Peer Effect.

The Peer Effect

Social Buffering is a phenomenon where just the act of being together in a group, just the mere presence, lowers the anxiety and stress levels of teens.It is a positive and protective effect of one individual on another.

Social Buffering

The intensity of feelings generated by friendship in childhood and adolescence is by design. Early in 2010, the year we moved to Hong Kong, our three boys were 11, eight, and six. When we sat them down to tell them we'd be moving there for a few years, we tried to sell it as a challenging adventure.

The Outsize Influence of Your Middle-School Friends

Many American parents believe that their choices carve out their children’s futures. They seek expert advice to attempt to raise the happiest, most successful, and most well-adjusted leaders of tomorrow.

'Controlling' the future

In Japan and Norway, parents are focused on cultivating independence.<ul><li>In Norway, most children enter state-sponsored daycare at 1 year old.</li><li>In Japan, children run errands without parental supervision. The children take subways by themselves and walk on busy streets alone.</li></ul>

Fostering independence

American parents focus on grooming their children's talents for success. Many Asian nations focus highly on academics, while the Dutch parents believe in not pushing their children too hard.In Spain, families are focused on the social and interpersonal aspects of child development.

Different frames

We can't desire to follow the parenting styles of Korean and Dutch and Japanese and Jewish and Norwegian and Spanish, all at once. The values are not the same.Instead, we should be learning from each other and recognize that there are very different successful ways of raising children.

Competing values

The crisis of American parenting, as anyone who has looked at the parenting section of a bookstore can attest, is that nobody knows what the hell they're doing. Yet despite this lack of confidence and apparent absence of knowledge, many American parents zealously believe that their choices carve out their children's futures.

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Society, Arts & Culture

How cultures around the world think about parenting

The most valued childhood experiences of people who grew up in the 1970s and 1980s are things that the current generation of kids are far less likely to know.What stands out is that people are nostalgic for a youthful sense of independence, connectedness, and creativity that is less common in the 21st century.

The changing nature of childhood

American children have less independence and autonomy today.<ul><li>Parents have become more concerned with safety. </li><li>Parents run the risk of being charged with neglect for letting children walk unsupervised.</li><li>Some parents usher their children from one structured activity to the next, leaving little time to play, experiment, and make mistakes.</li></ul>Kids who have autonomy and independence are less likely to be anxious. They are more likely to grow into self-sufficient adults.

Less independence and autonomy

A childhood privilege was spending regular time with parents and access to meaningful interactions with other family members, especially grandparents.Close grandparent-child relationships have significant mental health benefits for both children and grandparents.

Time with family

Many people feel that time for reading was a major privilege of their childhood, where they had access to thousands of books from libraries, bookstores, or books passed along.Reading is good for children. It makes them more literate, better at math, more academically successful. Yet, the number of children who never read for pleasure has tripled since 1984.

Reading books

45% of teens say they are online on a "near-constant" basis. Three years ago, 24% of teens went online "almost constantly."Gratitude for a childhood free of social media is now a common thread. Technology habits of today's children come with an increased risk of isolation, depression and other mental health issues. The more hours a day teens spend in front of screens, the less satisfied they are.

A screen-free existence

It is only as adults that we are able to recognize all the factors that made us into who we are today.A healthy childhood is a privilege. But even children who do grow up in a stable environment may not have the kind of adventurous, family-oriented, independent childhood that should be the norm. Maybe it's time for a change.

Reinventing childhood

The endless stretch of a lazy summer afternoon. Visits to a grandparent's house in the country. Riding your bicycle through the neighborhood after dark. These were just a few of the revealing answers from more than 400 Twitter users in response to a question: "What was a part of your childhood that you now recognize was a privilege to have or experience?"

The best parts of your childhood probably involved things today's kids will never know

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