Guest post by Anya Willis

Today’s kids have a lot more on their plate than their parents or grandparents did. Technology has helped them to connect to the world in ways we could never have imagined. But that comes with a price, too, since they seldom have downtime. They are always connected, always busy because having all that content and connections in the palm of their hand is almost irresistible. It’s a double-edged sword that is overwhelming many of them.

Find Fun Activities That Help the Whole Family Unwind

• If your children are carrying a lot of stress, it’s up to you as their parent to help them learn how to reduce that. It starts at home, where you and your family spend most of your time, so be mindful about putting your kids first, no matter how busy your days become. Carve out time to connect with your kids and do something fun, and look for opportunities to make memories together.

• Good old-fashioned board games like Monopoly and Scrabble never go out of style, but the store shelves are filled with a lot more your kids might want to try instead. Take them to your local Target or WalMart, and let them pick out one or two so they’ll be more likely to enjoy your family game night.

• A family outing to a ball game is something everyone can enjoy. Either go to your local stadium or turn it into a weekend getaway if you don’t have a local team.

• Outdoor activities are the ultimate unplugging family activities. National and state parks offer family passes and have designated free-pass days throughout the year. If you don’t want to invest in all the camping gear you’ll need for extended camping trips, AFAR notes that it’s possible to rent a lot of the more expensive items like tents, sleeping bags, and cooking gear.

• Set up some fun and exciting art and crafts projects for your kids. You can even take the fun outdoors! That allows kids to get messy with their work, plus they can connect with nature. It’s a win in all regards.

Create a Stress-Free Home

When your home is a stress-free zone, it’s not only good for them, it’s good for you too. If you find your family is arguing too much, that the kids are whining and complaining unreasonably, your home could be one of the reasons it’s happening. Try some of these tips to get rid of any bad vibes in your house that can be causing problems.

• Get rid of clutter. It may take a day or a couple of weekends to get rid of the things that you no longer need and are just taking up space. If you let the kids participate and even offer to hold a yard sale where they can set the price on the things they want to sell, it’s more likely they’ll want to finally part with that video game they no longer play.

• Take the family out for a plant-buying trip. Let the kids choose the one they’ll want to be responsible for. HGTV points out that plants are a great way to teach responsibility and allow them to have a non-virtual project that is theirs alone.

• Gear up and go on the road for a Sunday drive. Trusted reviews help you buy with confidence, whether you bring along a wagon to tote kids through a local park or need a backpack to stash their favorite toys and snacks.

• Going to the library together is a way to remind you of how much they were important to you when you were young and a chance to introduce them to all that libraries have to offer besides books, which they may be reading on electronic devices. While you’re there, check out a book on how to decorate using the ancient philosophy of Feng Shui. Shop for some crystals and let them choose one based on the energy they give off.

• Bring your lawn to life and with healthy green grass, and encourage the kids to play in the yard. A carpet of green is easier on knees and joints during rough-and-tumble activities, plus it’s a great way to avoid dirt and mud when the kiddos really get playing hard. If you haven’t done so for a while, aerating the lawn works wonders. Look for aeration companies near me and check trusted reviews to hire the right contractor for the job. Make sure you talk with at least a few pros, and get any pricing information in writing.

Model Stress-Free Living at Work and Home

Get rid of your own stressors. If you’re stressed at work, it’s almost a certainty that you’re letting that stress filter down to your children. Here are some ideas for reducing workplace stress:

• If you have a project looming that you’re procrastinating getting to, tell yourself you’re only going to spend five minutes on it. Those five minutes may be just what you need to show you that you can do it. If not, at least you’ve got five minutes of that chore done.

• Take time to stop and eat and drink. Keep healthy snacks nearby to boost your energy levels and keep you from crazing coffee and sugar in the mid-afternoon.

Follow these tips to prioritize your kids and guide them on their self-care routine, and don’t forget to take care of yourself at the same time!

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sourced by Anya Willis:

Anya Willis is a mother of three and has been a yoga instructor for the past 12 years. For most of her childhood Anya struggled with her weight. She was a bookworm since the moment she could read, and had zero interest in physical activity. In school, she was bullied because of her weight, and it wasn’t until she took a yoga class in college that things started to change. She fell in love with how yoga used her whole body and mind. For Anya this was the catalyst she needed, she found a new interest in her physical health and started striving for a healthier life. Reflecting on her younger years, Anya became passionate about kids being active and healthy.

Learn more by visiting Anya at https://fitkids.info/

These days, primary school kids, as early as even the 4th grade, are seemingly hounded constantly about going to college when they graduate high school.

By the time they reach high school, these kids are so stoked about going to college that they’re willing to sign on the dotted line without so much as even a passing glance at the total, very real, economics that surround that dotted line.

College is in for the long game when it comes to their bottom line. If they weren’t, we wouldn’t be pressuring kids, as early as the 4th grade, to begin preparing for college.

In the 90’s, there was the American tragedy of graduating kids from high school that couldn’t read. These days we’re facing another American tragedy — Graduating kids from high school that don’t know anything about finance/economics.

Economic illiteracy reigns supreme in a nation that encourages crushing debt. You aren’t ever going to move ahead in life until you have a bunch of stuff that you’ll never own.

Teach any kid that can rub two brain cells together basic finance/economics in high school and this whole student loan fiasco would simply disappear.
Kids are smart, but they can’t make truly informed decisions if they’re ignorant to the realities of finance. Informed decisions don’t do anything to further the cause of higher educations bottom line, so primary and secondary education conveniently dismisses curricula that involves finance. If I didn’t know better, I’d have to say that there are some pretty strong connections between the lenders and higher education.

When I went to college I very quite nearly starved to death. My job didn’t involve picking fly poop out of pepper for $2.65 an hour at Safeway, but it was close — I worked split shifts at Sambo’s washing dishes and cooking. After Freshman year in the dorms, I got a studio apartment and paid $40 a week in rent. It was outrageous. How in the sam hell was I ever going to survive this. I didn’t have the so-called luxury of getting a student loan tailored to fit my lifestyle complete with deferred payments that included accruing interest during the deferment period. Maybe it’s just as well that I didn’t, because in hindsight, my degree was the very most expensive worthless piece of paper I ever bought, and there it sits, in the drawer, along with the nail clippers and a half used tube of chap stick. In hindsight, I would have been dollars ahead by getting a free paper sack at the Buttery Foods checkout line.

Most kids that graduate high school are already broke even in spite of the fact that they might have a job, and still, here they are, being bullshitted into believing that getting that $130K (+ accruing rates of 3.22%-13.95% fixed) degree is going to land them in the upper echelons of great power and wealth, when in reality all they’ll end up with is a $45K job schilling for the state (in some assigned department), or in a worse case scenario, not getting any kind of job short of flipping burgers at McDonald’s because their chosen field of study has left them in a market so saturated that the coveted job won’t be available for at least 20 years or even ever. In the meantime, here they all are, having to deal with the crushing debt of all of that accrued interest.

Though my degree be fairly worthless, all was not lost. I’ve taken certain elements of my college education and applied them to industries that didn’t require a degree, and I’m quite pleased at the over all end results. The days of having to turn my tired eyes in reference to what was hanging on the wall are long gone.

I don’t think that kids these days are truly aware of college finance and the crushing debt that goes with it. Deferment on the principle but not the interest is the man that stands behind the curtain pulling all of the levers and pressing all the buttons.

So what causes a kid to willingly (short of being ignorant of over all financing to begin with) agree to the predatory lending practices of college financing so eagerly? We could look at the ostracizing nature of ones peers when they learn that one doesn’t plan on going to college. We can also look at the $55K a year teacher that has no desire to move beyond such a low pay scale. We can also understand that “looks” are 90% of the sale. If it doesn’t look good, then we don’t look good. Go along to get along … and so it goes and so it goes and so it goes.

When I tell my Son’s high school teachers that we are considering trade school, they turn me off like a light. I suppose that’s fine. This whole town is chocked full of C+ average people that get on quite nicely that never went to college … many of them make twice to three times the money than a BA would and they’re pretty fine with that.

My opinion of the student debt crisis in this nation is such that says, any institution that promoted a deferment program that didn’t also include interest in that deferment should have to eat the so-called cost on their own. The student should be able to just walk away from the note free and clear without it reflecting badly on their credit score, and the government should stay the the hell away from paying off any of these types of loans.

It would be a win/win for the student and the taxpayers, and a wake up call to the lending institutions that didn’t already do the right thing to begin with.