Tips and Tools
New Film Coming Soon Check It Out: Invisible Youth
Invisible Young is an inspiring, feature-length documentary that tells the life stories of four young adults, all of whom were homeless as teenagers in Seattle Washington. It takes a revealing look at their families, their day to-day lives, their possible fates, and follows them as they strive for a hopeful, prosperous future. Invisible Young is [...]
Are Family Dinners Overrated?
A new study published back in May in the Journal of Marriage and Family suggests that perhaps they are. The authors of the study, Ann Meier, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota and Kelly Musick, an associate professor of policy analysis and management at Cornell University, writing in The New York [...]
Teens & Social Media
Below is an infographic from research complied by Common Sense Media. The report is entitled “Social Media, Social Life: How Teens View Their Digital Lives.” Walt Mueller asks some good questions for us to consider in light of this research: What does this data mean for us as parents? As youth workers? Is there anything [...]
Tween D8-ing?
The Wall Street Journal had an interesting article tween dating. I struggle with that concept since I won’t let my kids date and here’s an application that any young suitor for either of my teenage daughters would have to fill out first. But I digress… some findings: Nearly half of 11- to 14-year-olds say they [...]
Are Your Kids Getting Enough Sleep? Four Reasons Why They Should
An interesting topic at the Youth Specialties blog, but I thought I’d expand it out beyond the context of church and camp youth ministry. Are your teenagers at home getting enough sleep? Mine do, but we have the advantage of homeschooling and being able to have a later start for the day. Sleep is vital [...]
Arguments Can Be a Good Thing
Parents of teenagers find that one of the greatest challenges of parenting is we once has this child who, for the most part, was compliant and respectful has now morphed into this argumentative, disagreeable alien. ”Who is this, and what have you done with my child?” Being a parent of three teenagers I find myself [...]
Are We Placing Limits on How High Teens Can Jump?
Kara Powell shared an interesting video about fleas in a jar. I know that sounds riveting, but apparently if you place fleas in a jar they will become conditioned to jump only as high as the lid goes – even when the lid is removed. Their offspring does the same thing. Watch below. You may [...]
A Faith That Sticks: Relationships, Relationships, Relationships
Our friends at Fuller Youth Institute have been researching what makes faith stick as youth transition to adulthood. The study they did with 500 youth group graduates revealed three surprising and key findings. I wanted to focus on the first key finding in this post. While churches across the U.S. have tended to allocate financial [...]
Back to School Blues
By Peter Vanacore Late August was my least favorite time of year. OK, it was the worst. Fall’s approach meant school was about to begin. Although I would get a surge of optimism that “this year would be different,” nothing changed. From first grade through half of college, September meant looking ahead to ten months [...]
Sticky Faith
Kara Powell and her team at the Fuller Youth Institute recently launched StickyFaith.org. This resource for youthworkers and parents is designed to help disciple teenagers into a faith that will last. Kara Powell explains what sticky faith is…. We want faith to stick. Not just in a static way, but a stickiness that keeps growing, [...]