This tip is from:picklebums.com

Instead of always telling our kids what they can’t do on their devices, how about we offer them some ideas of things they can do on their devices. How about we find some apps for tweens that are fun, creative, and maybe even a little educational!

10 apps for tweens: 

1. Minecraft

2. Video Star

3. Garage Band

4. Little Alchemy

5. Sushi Monster

6. Color Switch

7. Land Sliders

8. Stop Motion Studio

9. Inventioneers

10. Disney Crossy Road

This tip is from PsychologyToday.com:

"The operative word in raising healthy children in this often-times unhealthy digital world they are growing up in is balance. A nutritional analogy works well here. A balanced nutritional diet doesn’t mean 50 percent healthy food and 50 percent junk food. Rather, a balanced diet involves ensuring that your children get adequate nutrition from all of the major food groups while allowing them periodic treats.

The same holds true for your children’s diet of technology. You first need to make sure that your children get the proper “nutrition” they need in their lives, meaning offering them a psychological, emotional, intellectual, social, physical, and spiritual “diet” that will fuel their vigorous development, in addition to fostering healthy self-identity, values, thinking, relationships, and life.

Once this “nourishment” is in place and your children are growing strong mentally and physically, you can then introduce other “foods,” namely, technology, that may or may not be healthy." 

This tip is fromChildMind.org: 

"E-Cigarettes and Vapes. E-cigarettes are now the most frequently used tobacco product among adolescents — some 2.1 million middle and high school students were e-cigarette users in 2017.”

Mrs. Giron says: Now with these vape companies marketing more directly to our younger children, there are more and more  students trying out this new form of smoking. It can be scary for parents because some vapes look like everyday objects such as USB drives!

This tip is from  https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/142/1/e20173718:

Be explicit about allowable movie and television show ratings and content your children can watch.

• ○ Youth whose parents allow them to watch R-rated movies are at higher risk for underage smoking, alcohol use, and cannabis use.

• ○ Television shows rated above TV-Y7 include significantly greater amounts of sex, smoking, and alcohol use. Media ratings provide information about age-appropriateness of content for children, although some behaviors (eg, violence and substance use) are not well captured in ratings.