School's Out Archives

Family & Home Life

Planning for Summer for a Teen With Depression

How do you plan a summer for a teen with depression? Structure Without Pressure: Active, Busy, But Easy-Going It’s hard to believe summer 2022 is almost here. Every year it sneaks up on us. But every year we know it’s coming. Teachers wrap up their curriculum objectives, get in their final instructional time, and update all the grades and assignments on the virtual platforms for parents to see. Teens prepare

May 20, 2022

6 Ways to Keep Your Teen Driver Safe During the 100 Deadliest Days of Summer

Don’t drink and drive. Don’t text while driving. Don’t get in a car with someone who’s under the influence. Teens have heard these rules over and over. But are they listening? Especially during the free, unstructured months of June, July and August – dubbed the 100 Deadliest Days of Summer – how can you enforce the rules when your child is spending less time under your watchful gaze? Here are

August 2, 2020

How to Find the Right High School for You

By the time we’re teenagers, most of us know whether we like school or not. Some of us may be on the fence, true: we can take it or leave it. But most fall into one camp or the other. We love it or we hate it. And it’s not always about grades. Some “A” students abhor sitting still in a classroom and want to be anywhere but school. Other

July 10, 2019

Worried About Making Friends at Camp? DBT Can Help

If you’re going to a new camp for the first time, where you don’t know that many faces, you may be nervous about friends. While you may or may not have a bunch of friends back home or at school, camp is a whole different setting. What if nobody likes you? Nobody talks to you? What if you have to spend every rec hour by yourself because everyone thinks you’re

June 13, 2019

Teens: How to Evaluate Your Year

You’ve heard the saying before: Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it. It’s attributed to the writer/philosopher Georges Santayana. Originally wrote went like this: Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. It’s survived the test of time because it’s wise. And true. But there’s something in the phrase that bugs us: what if part of the history you’re talking about was, to

May 19, 2019

Where is Your Teen Going This Summer?

International Summer Programs for Teenagers International summer travel programs for teenagers have been around since the early 1960s. The first programs were organized by summer camps and private schools whose administrators realized that some of their students, particularly those between the ages of 14 and 17, were at a crossroads. They didn’t need a summer at camp, and they didn’t need a summer of classroom academics. They needed something completely

May 16, 2019

Summer Planning for a Troubled Teen

When the teenage years arrive, behavioral issues become far more difficult to manage than when your kids were younger. Things once black and white become confounding shades of gray. When a teenager experiences emotional distress, you can’t always fix it with a hug. When they display disturbing behavior, simple behavior management strategies – like taking away the cellphone, for instance – don’t always work. And when they begin to show

May 9, 2019

Looking Back Over Your Year: How Did it Go?

See, What Had Happened Was… We’re sure you’ve heard some variation of the phrase, Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it. It comes from writer and philosopher Georges Santayana. In its original form, it read, Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. It seems wise. And it is wise. But there’s a wrinkle there that’s a little troublesome: what if what happened

June 1, 2018

L.A. Teens: Plan Your Summer Before Your Parents Do

The official calendar for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) says the last day of the 2017-18 public school year is June 8th. That’s in less than a month. The official LAUSD calendar says the first day of the 2018-19 school year is August 14th. That means you have 66 days to fill between the end of this school year and the beginning of school next year – and

May 14, 2018

International Summer Travel Programs for Teenagers

What’s Your Teenager Doing This Summer? Parents of teenagers face a decision at the end of every school year. What am I going to do with my teen over the summer months? It’s not a simple question. While it’s true that students do need a break from the rigor of day-to-day academics, it’s also true that backsliding—the loss of academic knowledge over the summer—can be a real problem. In which

April 7, 2018

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