7PM PTA Meeting

Jean speaks on children’s media lives and how parents can add balance and safety.

Hudson

Jean works with parents to develop a media plan for the household based on ages of the children and the particular needs of the family. Learn about the impact of media on children through statistics and stories and develop a plan that works in your household. For more information, call 603-440-8783.

Assembly Room at Elementary School

98 South Lincoln Street

Keene

Monadnock School community turnout is all ears.

 

09/23 & 09/24/2010

 

Hello, everyone. I’m still on a 17-hour high.

We did two events, including a workshop, with the Monadnock Waldorf school community in Keene, NH. It started the evening of Sept. 23 and didn’t’ end until late the next morning.

Over that period of roughly17 hours, about 50 people total let their hair down and traded ideas with me and with my colleague, Bob Farquhar, on how to balance media in the home for children from birth through age 12.

Some of the parents and teachers literally unplug anything attached to a screen until their children reach age 13. But some of them said they needed a strategy going forward for meshing with young people whose families have few, if any, restrictions.

“My husband is ‘into’ video games,” one woman said. “I don’t want my child seeing these. How do we mesh my husband’s needs with those of our child?”

 “Your work sheets are just what we needed,” a teacher said of the Friday morning workshop. “This workshop provides the framework for doing our own plans at home. Thank you.”

How do you balance media messages in the home? I’d love to hear from you.

–Jean Rogers (mother, parent, educator and advocate of safe media)

214 Main St

Nashua

Jean takes notes.

 

Only Time for Screens

 

More than 50 Rotarians from the Milford area heard Jean discuss startling numbers from a national study that says young people spend 7 ½ hours in front of some kind of screen per day. And this doesn’t include computer time spent in school or multitasking (using several devices at the same time).

One member who works at a nationwide insurance company said he couldn’t promise anything but he’d try to interest the company in Jean’s workshops designed to help attendees leave with a plan for balancing media in their homes.

 

Message Appreciated

A number of people bought copies of our book, Kids Under Fire, when Jean spoke to nearly 80 people in a noon meeting at the Crowne Plaza. And we reminded everyone that the books are available through the Toadstool Bookshops in New Hampshire and on Amazon.com (www.amazon.com).

Several people came up to us afterward and thanked Jean for delivering the message that media balance in the home is absolutely critical.

Nashua Rotary Club

 

Screen Time at Epidemic Proportions

 

Jean stressed that time spent in front of some kind of an electronic screen by children has reached epidemic proportions. Computers, cell phones, video games, TV, iPods – you name it. Children are literally wired all day every day.

Not only are children replacing face-to-face communications with texting, but some experts believe such screen time can contribute to a multitude of illnesses, including obesity, which has gotten national attention from First Lady Michele Obama.

470 Daniel Webster Highway

Merrimack

Book display at Toadstool in Milford

 

02/13/2010

Toadstool Bookstool, Milford

 

Excerpts from Book a Hit

 

The gathering started small but grew to one dozen-plus. Didn’t sell as many copies of Kids Under Fire at this event as we did at the Toadstool in Peterborough. But several people said they would be purchasing copies from Amazon.com (www.amazon.com. In the search box just type Kids Under Fire, and the book details will pop right up). Jean read a few lines from her book. The group reacted positively.