This post is sponsored by Google’s Be Internet Awesome When my daughter was in preschool, she used to come home with sand in her mittens. Each afternoon I’d wonder what she’d done to fill her tiny pink mittens to the brim with sand. She thought it was one of life’s great mysteries too! Tethered to…
digital citizenship
Talking to Kids About Healthy Technology Use
This healthy technology use post is sponsored by The National PTA Ready, Tech, Go! When my kids were little, there was a time when they used to always ask “why.” Even when their curiosity felt overwhelming, taking time to explain the why behind their question always satisfied them. I learned that working with my kids…
5 Ways Teach Cyber Confidence to Prevent Cyberbullying
October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month which not only involves protecting our data but also protecting people from cyberbullying. While cyberbullying and cybersecurity are different, they both involve harm caused to others through technology. As adults, we understand this but the idea of harm through a digital device can feel very abstract to kids. Since October…
How to Teach Cyber Confidence to Stop Cyberbullying
This post is sponsored by Bitdefender The third Friday in June is recognized as global Stop Cyberbullying Day. Designed to celebrate and promote a truly inclusive and diverse online environment, the day’s goal is to take action against online bullying and abuse by creating a safer, more inclusive online world. But what if we directed…
These Free Resources Will Help You Raise Confident Digital Citizens
This post is sponsored by Google As parents, we’re constantly reinforcing the importance of being smart, alert, strong, kind, and brave to our kids. The conversations about kindness and friendship we have with them extend beyond the real-life face to face interactions in school hallways, classrooms, and during extra-curricular activities to virtual ones that occur…
Giving Your Child Their First Cell Phone? Read this first!
This post is sponsored by Google Family Link and Be Internet Awesome If you’re giving your child their first cell phone (or any digital device), take some time to develop a strategy for what happens next. It’s ok if you haven’t thought this until now because you’ve been focused on trying to figure who has…
How Kids Can Play Their Way Through Interland to Learn Digital Citizenship
This post is sponsored by Be Internet Awesome When I was a technology magnet coordinator, one of my beginning of the year tasks was to acquaint kids with our school system’s User Responsibilities for Computer Systems, Electronic Information, and Network Security during their first visit to the computer lab. This nine page PDF was filled…
How to Talk to Kids When They See Adults Being Unkind
This post is sponsored by Be Internet Awesome “Ugh,” my husband typed when I texted him to ask how the team meeting went before our son’s weekly baseball practice. The three letter response left me with more questions than answers about the mandatory pre-practice meeting that I thought the coach was holding to address bullying…
3 Simple, Positive Actions to Teach Tweens to Combat Bullying
This post is sponsored by Be Internet Awesome “Hi, how was your game?” I shouted to my tween son as I walked in the door from my daughter’s soccer game. For years, Saturdays in our house have been for soccer while Sundays are reserved for baseball which means I rarely miss a game. I love…
How I Taught My Tween to Be an Upstander After Bullying in the Baseball Dugout
This post is sponsored by Be Internet Awesome After two hours of playing baseball in the midday sun, I watched my son and his teammates emerge from the dugout with smiles on their faces from their win as sweat beads dripped from underneath the brims of their ball caps. I was folding my chair when…
