College is an important time in your child’s life for exploration and new experiences. This can be a rewarding, frantic, and fun filled romp which can teach some of life’s most important lessons about love, finance, and education. As a new student, it’s an enticing time. But for a worried mom, it’s a hands down, freaked-out, stress loaded, emotional roller coaster.

Modern technology allows us to keep in contact with our kids at all times; but how much is too much? College is a time for the kids to get out and make a stake for themselves in this world. Too much influence from mom and dad might hinder that experience.

Cell Phones

Cell phones are the most effective way to communicate with your prodigal child. Whether you have a family plan or send them off with one of the many prepaid phone plans, your student will keep his or her phone on person at pretty much all times (even at the gym). Make sure to schedule a specific time to call instead of just dialing out of the blue because their schedule will be varied day-by-day.

Social Media

In my opinion, it is never a good idea to follow your kids on Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media website. Think of social media as a sanctuary for your personal life and their personal life. Mixing up family is sometimes fine, but if you don’t want to see some of the more “colorful” things about college life, you should stick to sending private emails.

Snail Mail

There is no better feeling for a college student than receiving something in the mail. Whether they order something from Amazon or get a care package from you, the endorphin levels and serotonin will skyrocket. Try sending something that can only be found in your hometown that’s totally unheard of at the school. This will help them bond with students in their dorm.

Making a Visit

When I was in college, I loved when my parents would come pay me a visit. I didn’t necessarily appreciate their company as much as I appreciated the trips to Target and the meals at Applebee’s. After that, I wanted them to go back home so I could study or partake in other college festivities. If you’re a parent, make sure to make your campus visit is brief and bountiful.

Tell your kids that partying in college is done best in moderation. After you tell them that bit of key advice, take it upon yourself to contact them in moderation. Them going to college is kind of a vacation for you.

The best kind of learning for kids aged two to six is the kind that does so through curiosity and excitement. Children this age can certainly be forced to sit still if enough effort is exerted while the rules of arithmetic are being demonstrated to them, but what good does it do if they’re daydreaming? Without knowledge being retained, efforts to tutor toddlers is wasted. You might as well surrender them to video games instead.

Really, you should. Parents have been skeptical of the video game’s role in childhood development, but so long as the right children games are being given to kids to use, they provide an incredibly beneficial tool in the teaching of tots. The truth of the matter is that nothing grabs the attention of kids like the glow of a monitor or the microscopic on-goings being displayed on a mobile phone or handheld game console.

The options vary greatly, and it really depends on the academic needs of the child, the budget of the parent, and the technology available around the house. The simplest and more readily available educational gaming option for parents is probably the phone app. If you have an iPhone, PopMath Basic Math or Interactive Alphabet are awesome choices. Phones that operate using Android can also get great educational resources such as Math Flash Cards and Dr. Suess’s ABC.

Sophisticated web-based interactive educational learning environments are also available that are increasingly being used by parents, teachers, and even school districts. They include a vast variety of games that help kids understand the fundamentals of math, reading, and writing. In addition to games and puzzles, these sites tend to also include videos, printable activities, and books. Art can also be created using online interfaces, which can be printed too, so kids can proudly carry on using the fridge as an art gallery.

Video games exist because they entertain people. But if they can also educate, then their significance rises from mere novelty to vital academic tool. When augmented reality morphs into serious academic usage, the kids of today that grew up learning via computer games are going to fall right into line without a problem. It’s the way of the future, so it should be integrated into the development of those who will inherit that future.

If you’re young enough you probably grew up during the D.A.R.E. days of American school life. If you’re like me you have a difficult time remembering anything about it except all the over sized D.A.R.E. shirts, corny bumper stickers, and tree-killing information packets no kid every read ever except if they wanted to laugh. I honestly can’t recall anything any visiting D.A.R.E. team or other authoritarian voices ever told me about illegal drugs. After growing up and having kids drug-free in a world were drugs are as prevalent among younger people than ever, I don’t know if what they had to say ever really mattered to anyone.

That’s not to say that what they had to say didn’t need to be said. It’s imperative that kids understand the dangers of drugs as early as possible. The problem is they’re often being talked down to in a way that simply shuts them off to impressionability. Why can’t I remember what Officer Kirkpatrick had to say about marijuana to my 2nd grade class but I can remember recess drama just fine? Maybe because I was being told what was good for me and what wasn’t instead of simply being educated and expected to find out for myself.

I really hope my children never use drugs, even “light” ones like marijuana. But statistics overwhelmingly show that my children, or at least one of the two I have, will try an illegal drug in their lifetime. What’s a parent to do? I decided a year or so ago that I was going to redo D.A.R.E. but just for my family. Only this time it was going to educate, not dictate, drug awareness.

That’s easier said than done. Apart from drugging my children, which would unfortunately undermine my effort, there isn’t much I can do to encourage them to get educated about drugs that doesn’t leave that tinge of condescending concern that every kid is able to understand in the adults around them by age four. But it’s not impossible. My daughter has been taking Spanish lessons recently so I took the opportunity to link her to videos de narcotrafico on Spanish-speaking websites. She surprisingly saw right past the gimmick and was just happy to find a place to hear people speak the language natively on a regular basis. She’ll probably branch off into video categories more up her ally, probably something about J-Lo no doubt, but the seeds were planted when she watched footage of coca fields being set ablaze.

My son will be harder to coax because he’s a lot more jaded when it comes to drug education. I’m sure a few no-nonsense cops came to talk at his school once and it made the whole idea of anti-drug discussion totally uncool. But you know, he does like a good crime flick. When he’s old enough I certainly won’t be opposed to letting him watch the innumerable gangster movies that revolve around drugs. Why? Tell me, of “Scarface”, “Goodfellas”, “Blow”, “Traffic”, et cetera, which one has a happy ending? Maybe all he needs to see is Tony Montana drop dead from machine gun fire to get the point that drugs are just dangerous.

My children need to know that doing drugs is not a disqualifier for my love and respect. Too many anti-drug campaigns focus on the notion that illegal drug use is the biggest violation of self-respect. Sometimes I wonder if talking down to kids about drugs is a sign of not giving them enough respect in the first place.