CLS Parent Support

  ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ is Still Worth Watching Months before its December 9, 1965 debut,  The New York Times  television reporter Val Adams called  A Charlie Brown Christmas  a “big gamble” that was “tampering with the imaginations of millions of comic strip fans on how Charlie Brown, Lucy and others should act and talk.” It might have been a risk, but it was a wager that certainly paid off. How and why does a nearly six decade old animated television program manage to connect with younger audiences – and still draw many of us older viewers back year after year? One of the main reasons is that  A Charlie Brown Christmas  isn’t about Santa Claus and reindeer and the traditional sentimental trappings found in your typical holiday television fare. It’s about the birth of Jesus Christ, perfectly and poignantly articulated by Linus in the climactic scene of the Peanuts’ gang’s stage performance. In writing the special with producer Lee Mendelson and ...

  The Best Internet Filter for Kids Like most modern kids, our children get some screen time each day to watch YouTube videos or play Minecraft or Zelda. And like most modern parents, Kate and I want to make sure our kids don’t come across anything they shouldn’t — like porn — while they’re on their screens. There are some gnarly things on the net that you really don’t want your eight-year-old to see. While we’ve laid down some ground rules for screen time that allow us to check in on what our kids are consuming — e.g., you can only watch screens in communal places in the home — it’s impossible to keep an eye on them all the time. So I’ve tried various internet filters to fill that gap. And by trying various internet filters, I mean I’ve tried pretty much every iteration on the market in order to find the best one. What I found in all my testing is that the cost of most internet filters is about the same. Look to spend $10-$20 a month for filtering multiple devices. The most signif...

  Good Christian Parenting Led to Man’s First Flight It’ll be 121 years ago this coming Tuesday (December 17) that Orville and Wilbur Wright took their Kitty Hawk flyer to the skies for man’s first successful powered flight. That first journey covered just 180 feet and lasted 12 seconds. By the end of the day, they had figured out how to soar 852 feet and stay aloft for 59 seconds. For perspective, the Airbus A380 can now fly 9,200 miles carrying over 500 passengers for upwards of 19 hours without stopping. In the years following this world-changing triumph, the Wright Brothers were asked to explain how they were able to do what prior to that December day had never been done. During one interview, a reporter posited to Orville that he and Wilbur were just two young men with “no money, no influence, and no other special advantages” who had somehow managed to pull off the impossible. Orville politely pushed back. It isn’t true to say we had no special advantages,” the now aging pione...

 Nemours Teen Health 4 Ways to Make Homework Easier Homework can seem overwhelming at times, especially in high school. One of the biggest challenges of being a high school student is learning how you work best — and this can look a little different for everyone. Luckily, you can try many different strategies to find what works best for you. 1. Create a Homework Plan Understand the assignment.  Write it down wherever you keep track of your assignments, such as a notebook or an app on your phone. Don't be afraid to ask questions about what's expected. It's much easier to ask the teacher during or after class than to struggle to remember later that night. Consider asking your teachers how long they expect specific assignments to take. Start as soon as you can.  Use any free periods during your school day to start your homework. If you don’t have any free periods, take a few minutes to look at all your assignments during school so you have a chance to ask questions before yo...

  Roblox Announces New Parental Control Updates Roblox has been continually adding new features to their platform in the aims of helping protect its youngest users. Today they announced remote management, which allows parents and caregivers to adjust controls and review their child’s activity even if they aren’t physically together. It also means parents have to have the app downloaded. (Something that Snapchat is trying to push as well as they encourage parents to track their kid’s location via the app). To link their accounts, parents will have to prove that they’re an adult by uploading a picture of their ID or a credit card. The ID will be hard to fake, but so many kids have cards these days — we wonder if Roblox will be able to tell the difference. Note: The above comes directly from their website. Click here to read more.