“When our daughter graduates from high school, do you want her to own a nice condo or a private school education?” my accountant asked his wife some 15 years ago.  She chose private school and they are still debating the merits of that choice.  It is a passionate debate that has strong arguments for each, with parents and educators being heavily divided.

Private Schools vs Public Schools

Obviously cost is the biggest consideration and barrier to sending one’s child to a private school, and there are many parents willing to make extraordinary sacrifices to do so.  Is it worth the $240k to $600k (with boarding), after tax money?  There are many benefits specific to both private and public schools.  Here are some considerations one must weigh before making that decision.

Can you afford it?

If you can, by all means, go with a private school education.  Students do get more individual attention and the teachers and students tend to be more motivated to work.  If you do not earn huge amounts of money, you need to understand what the financial sacrifices would mean. You cannot send one child and not another. It is not just the tuition fees, there are extracurricular activities, school trips and birthday parties. This may mean fewer vacations than you would otherwise have and these are wonderful learning opportunities that cannot be replicated in a classroom. Your retirement will be affected and you’ll have to worker longer. There will be financial pressure and worry that you will no longer be able to afford it should you lose your job. This may put pressure on your children and it will not guarantee that they will work harder.

How much do you value Great Connections?

This is the number one reason cited by parents supporting private school education for their children.  Imagine: your child graduates and automatically they can get a great job, with upward mobility, in an international firm because their classmate’s father sits on the board.  There is no arguing that private school affords your child exposure to possible friendships with tomorrow’s leaders.  However, as my accountant very accurately pointed out, usually birds of a feather flock together.  Just being in the same school does not guarantee that your child will become close friends with children of old money and power. Besides, if your child is outgoing and charismatic, they will attract support from old friends and new, regardless of the school they had attended.  Simply being an alumnus of a great school can open up wonderful opportunities for connecting with fellow alumni.

Is your child likely to get bullied?

There is peer pressure and bullying at every school, in both the public and private school systems.  The usual victims stand out from the crowd in some way, however minute.  So, you need to consider whether your child will fit better with students in a public or in a private school.  Consider your income level, ethnicity, religion, your child’s personal interests,and academic level.

What is your child’s potential?

This is always a controversial and loaded question, but a pragmatic one, too.  If your child is “average”, with normal interests and no strong inclination for one career or another, perhaps public school will be the best and you can save the money to give your child the condo or house.  This will give them a head start that could be of more value than an expensive private school education.

Public School vs Home School

I often see people cringe when the topic of homeschooling comes up.  I do not homeschool my children because I would make a poor teacher and there is a great public school 300 metres away.  There are many resources to support homeschooling that were not available a decade ago, mostly because of the internet. Here are some points I would consider before attempting the monumental task of homeschooling your child.

What is your motivation for homeschooling?

This is a critical question because homeschooling is a huge undertaking.  It is a lot of work, requires a great deal of commitment, and your child’s education is at stake.  If it is just that you want to spend more time or share more experiences with your child, you should not take this route.  You can have tremendous quality time with your child after school, weekends and summers that you do not need homeschooling to bond.  They in fact need time away from you, to see you as an independent person and to develop socially without your ever-presence.

If it is because you want to limit your child’s exposure to violence and influence from the neighbourhood school, it can be a compelling reason, depending on the severity of the situation.  However, it might also be wise to expose and prepare them for the world at large, or move to another neighbourhood, if it is possible.

Will your child have social interaction with other kids if you homeschool?

Academic knowledge is but a portion of what traditional schools provide, public or private.  Social development through interaction with other children and adults outside of the family is vital for well roundedness and a happy childhood.  If you are considering homeschooling, you must consider how you can provide social interaction and opportunities for your child to develop strong social skills.  Social interaction might come from neighbourhood kids, a local drop-in center for parents, or a church community with a large number of children your child’s age.  If you have any of these, you will have a much greater chance of providing your child with a balanced social life.

Will you be a good teacher?

Think back to your own school days and you will remember that there were good teachers and good people who were bad teachers.  Where do you think you would fall in that spectrum? It requires a unique set of abilities to be a great teacher.  Not only will you need to be enthusiastic to inspire learning and motivate your child, you have to have patience, empathy and a knack for conveying information.  You do not need to have excelled at school to be a good teacher, but having had good grades will not guarantee that you will be a good teacher, either.  I suggest testing your skills as a teacher by teaching your child a few new things in each of the curriculum subjects and see how well you and your child fare.

This is certainly not an exhaustive list of variables to consider when deciding on private, public or homeschool education.  There are many passionate proponents of each, and you will receive different answers from different parents as to why they chose one and not the other.  Once you decide, questions and doubt do not cease.  As for my accountant, he tells me that his wife has not changed her mind about their decision.  He on the other hand, comments that his daughter, now in her third year of university, could have been the proud owner of a luxury condo.

Screen-Free Does Not Mean Anti-Screen

Screen-free week is many things to many people, but what it most certainly is not is an all out attack on the ‘screen-based industries’. It’s not about slamming broadcasters and game developers. It’s not a protest where parents who don’t let their kids watch television or play video games rally around an effigy of a ‘very popular fantastical…animated sponge that lives under the sea’ chanting anti-screen slogans. So, what is screen-free Week all about?

Turning on Life

Everyone will have their own slant on what going screen-free means to them. I want to share with you the mission of screen-free week as stated by the organizers themselves, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood:

Screen-free week (formerly TV Turn off week) is an annual celebration where children, families, schools, and communities turn off screens and turn on life. Instead of relying on screens for entertainment, participants read, daydream, explore, enjoy nature, and enjoy spending time with family and friends.

Screen-free week isn’t just about snubbing screens for seven days; it’s a springboard for important lifestyle changes that will improve well-being and quality of life all year round.

At the heart of screen-free week are the thousands of parents, teachers, PTA members, and leaders of religious and civic organizations who organize local activities and events around the world.

Reading instead of relying on screens? Enjoying time outside? This may be the dream of many parents (and the nightmares of some children) but there is an important take home message in this that does not discredit all technology in one fell swoop: technology can be entertaining, but so can real life! There is nothing in the statement above that suggests that technology is inherently bad or good. Last week’s celebration simply encourages us to consider it carefully. I personally found this break as enlightening as it was refreshing. In some ways, it renewed my love for the screen media I do choose to consume. In other ways, it highlighted just how much I rely on videos and games to relax, have fun, or even cheer myself up after a hard day’s work.

It was important to me that my family and I took part in the celebration. Over the past year or so I’ve noticed screen time playing a more and more dominant role in the household and I wanted to gain a little perspective on that. Screen-free week provided the perfect opportunity to disengage enough to reflect on the role that screen-based media does play in our lives on a day-to-day basis.

Dumbing Down the Discussion

When industry representatives say that the emphasis should be on ‘managing screen time’ instead of ‘breaking the screen habit’ I agree with them. But when they say that screen-free week is as effective in changing media habits as “Eat nothing week” would be in changing dietary habits, I cringe. Aside from the fact that hunger strikes, or so-called “eat nothing” events, have had a demonstrable impact on major world events, there is a stark difference between food and screen media; namely, that we do not need screen media to live.

Think of screen-free week as analogous to Meatless Mondays. This event emphasizes taking one day a week to opt out of eating meat and opt in to being more thoughtful about where your food comes from and what kind of impact those choices have on your health and the environment. It’s about awareness of the issues and making a positive change in one’s lifestyle; it’s not about becoming vegetarian.

In the same way that going meat-free for a day brings awareness to the health and environmental impact of eating meat, screen-free week is about raising awareness of our (over?) reliance on screen media for entertainment. It’s about making positive lifestyle changes that involve “enjoy[ing] nature and enjoy[ing] spending time with family and friends.” It’s not about shunning technology in general or screens in particular. It’s about bringing our awareness to our media habits and our reliance on technology. It’s about thoughtful reflection and making positive changes in one’s life. How can that be a bad thing?

The Industry Spin on Screen-Free Week

It may not be surprising to note that the some in the industry don’t support screen-free week. In his recent Huffington Post article David Kleeman, President of the American Center for Children and Media, argues that going screen-free does little in terms of supporting ‘smarter’ use of screens. He suggests that, while TV turnoff week (screen-free week’s predecessor) might have been effective back in the 1990s because “unplugging the television for a week represented real sacrifice,” with DVRs and today’s technology you can still access the same content. He also suggests that saying ‘no’ to screens “may foster self-control, but it does little for critical thinking.” I beg to differ.

The Screen-Free Week Sacrifice

There is some truth to the claim that the content one forgoes during screen-free week is still available via DVR. The catch is that DVRs are present in only one third of Canadian households while 95% of TV viewing is live. In my own experience last week, the biggest sacrifice I made in terms of the television content was giving up a full week of NHL playoffs. I assure you I will not be trying to catch up before tuning in to the next game. And yes, perhaps 15% of TV episode viewing occurs on a tablet, but linear, one-way television still represents the bulk of the remaining 85%. And with preschoolers’ screen time dominated by television, which clocks in at an average of 32 hours per week, we cannot say that we are out of the woods yet.

Genius Can Wait

The point has also been raised about the young creators who are using digital tools as a means of expression and creativity. In his article, David Kleeman asks, “Are tomorrow’s Lucases and Spielbergs required to shut down Final Cut Pro (or, for younger kids on tablets, Toontastic orDoodlecast) during “Screen-Free Week”?” My response is, in short, yes! Artists, including budding young creators, should be free to create on whatever platform they see fit. However there is no reason to believe that a week-long digital hiatus would impact them negatively. On the contrary, there is research to suggest that unstructured outdoor play can have a positive effect of children’s creative thinking among other benefits of physical activity in general.

It’s true that not all screens are created equally and they shouldn’t be treated as such. Using a video editing application on your macbook is not the same as playing angry birds or watching television. But just because ‘screen is not a screen is not a screen’ doesn’t mean that we should not contemplate the use of more advanced digital tools as well.

Some Common Ground

With the differences of opinion noted, I want to give credit where credit is due. We do need to focus on media literacy and smarter day-to-day choices. We do need to support parents with information about the negative effects of background television on parent-child interactions and language development.  We do need to support teachers with relevant curriculum and the tools to help their students analyze content on all kinds of platforms. And we need to equip our children with the tools to help them make sense of the unending stream of messages directed at them in today’s media-saturated world. Being ‘screen smart’ on a daily basis is important and I believe screen-free week is a great place to start.

We all want our kids to grow up as responsible citizens in our connected society. While we may disagree on how to get there, it’s reassuring to know that we’re headed in the same direction.

The Growing Influence of the Screen

In my household we have multiple smartphones, laptops and desktop computers, handheld game consoles, televisions and a tablet. While it might sound like a lot of screens when put together in a list, I don’t think we are an atypical household. It didn’t happen all at once; it was a gradual progression. But it struck me one day when I looked around and saw that every member of the household was on a different device. One was playing with their favourite app on the couch, one catching up on their favourite television show, one watching a movie with a friend. It was then that I knew that these devices had changed the way my family interacts. Was this how I wanted to spend my Saturday afternoon?

Technology is Not Inherently Bad or Good

I know that all screens are not created equally and that all these devices are not bad or good in and of themselves. Technology is what you make of it. But the feeling that every member of my household was engaged with their favourite device and not with each other left me with a funny feeling. Should I point this out them? Should I take them out for a walk in the park? Or should I catch up on some email while I have a quiet moment to myself?

What I Gave Up for Screen-Free Week

Given the nature of my work, I could not go completely screen-free. During work hours I was still using my computer for email and other tasks, doing my best to keep the tabbed browsing to a minimum. But after hours there was no TV, no video-on-demand, no apps, no games, and no movies. I signed off of social media for the week and turned off all the notifications on my phone. I was excited about spending more time outside, talking with friends and family, and ploughing through my reading list. On Sunday night I was all set to turn off screens and turn on life.

What I Learned

The first few days I felt great. I felt free and less distracted. I didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything. And more importantly, my family was spending more time together, playing games and just hanging around. But I did catch myself habitually reaching for my phone to check for messages or to look things up. Each time I would stop myself and think, ‘there’s no need for that.’ But I was struck by how habitual it was. This happened many times each day, though by day three it started to fade away.

The most surprising thing I learned about my own screen use was how I used it to regulate my own mood. Some days I would get home and feel a palpable urge to play a few rounds of a favourite game in order to relax and shake off the stresses of the day. I hadn’t realized how much I had been doing this as a means of decompressing at the end of the day. I wasn’t sure that it was a healthy habit and I certainly didn’t want my kids to think that apps and games are the best way to relax.

Forming New Habits

We’ve all heard about parents using television, and more recently apps and games, as ‘babysitters,’ (whether we want to admit it or not) but I hadn’t realized the extent to which I had been digitally pacifying myself. It reminded me of a blog post I read recently. It was written by Susan Linn, Director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and in it she talked about her own Angry Birds habit. She wrote that “[t]here’s just enough strategy to keep me interested. Once I start it’s hard to stop, and, the weird thing is, it’s not relaxing.” This, I realized, was how I felt about many apps that I was using to ‘relax’ at the end of a long day. So for the rest of the week I explored activities that could replace my digital soother. I played the guitar, rediscovered my love for short fiction, and spent time walking and meditating.

How I cheated

I admit that, even though I went into the week prepared and excited about the celebration, I did cheat a little bit. I checked my email on the way home one night when I realized that I might have missed an important message. I replied to a few text messages I received. I used my guitar tuner app, rationalizing the behaviour to myself the whole time by saying that I was supporting an off-line activity. And I still used my phone as a clock. Even if I wasn’t completely screen-free, I was certainly screen-reduced.

The Take Home Lesson

As the event’s mission states, “Screen-free week isn’t just about snubbing screens for seven days; it’s a springboard for important lifestyle changes that will improve well-being and quality of life all year round.” The take home message is not to temper screen usage for one week of the year and then forget about it. Instead, it’s about creating the right conditions to make more healthy, sensible choices throughout the year. I got a good sense of just how much I was relying on my devices for everything from communication to cheering me up. It gave me pause to consider why I was choosing to use this app or play that game.

Concerned but connected

In a time where online privacy concerns are quite common, people are still connecting and sharing all over the world. ‘Strangers’ follow the intimate details of each other’s lives, and they relate to each other because of it. People who blog, tweet, or post interact with each other because of their interests, their values or their beliefs. You might connect with someone online through a homeschooling forum, an article about activities for children with ASD, or even through asking how to get your kids to watch less TV.  Emotional connections and friendships can be built online too, whether is it through reading a daily blog or tweeting.

Over sharing parents

24% of all adult internet users say they read blogs on a regular basis, with half of these people doing so daily. 66% of US adults use social media, mostly to stay in touch with family and friends. Many of these people post  their kids’ photos, activities and funny things they have said on social networks and their blogs. Has social media become like a digital photo album for parents, where funny or potentially embarrassing moments for our kids are on display for everyone to see?

Our kids’ online lives

Kids are interacting online at a younger and younger age. Currently there are 7.5 million children under the required age of 13 on Facebook. They are using social networks, playing online games, downloading music and using mobile devices. Frequently we hear about issues with cyber bullying and posting inappropriate content publicly among our preteens and teens. Our kids’ generation feels comfortable with having their lives broadcasted online and their comfort level will only continue to grow… Our kids are spending more time than ever infront of screens and online; are they learning how to do it from us?

Do you set a positive example for your kids with how you use social media and interact with others online? Have you had any issues with what your kids have posted online in the past?

Many moms find some children’s movies too scary or too gloomy, for example on Mommyish Lindsay Cross writes “Call me overprotective if you must, but there are some Disney scenes that I just don’t think we’re ready for. I realize that Maleficent, as the fiery dragon, is a huge and important part of Sleeping Beauty. I’m not arguing that the movie should have been done differently. I just choose not to let me daughter see the more terrifying aspects of fire and brimstone. She’s four, after all. She’s just not ready for it.”

Or in this article from Babble Cole Gamble flatly states, “There are those who believe we must guard and protect children from the hurts and traumas of the big bad world for as long as possible. Then there are those people who believe we should toughen kids up by exposing them to and even pummeling them with terror and depravity. Those people become children’s filmmakers.”

Short-Term Effects of TV Violence

According to Media Awareness Network, children who watch violent, scary or high-action movies are likely to act more aggressively than normal shortly after seeing the film. Some children might like or find a certain character interesting and can imitate their behavior.

Some children (especially those with a great imagination!) are inspired to have nightmares from scary movies or frightening scenes.  To help your child relax Kid’s Health recommends, “having a bed that’s a cozy, peaceful place to quiet down. A favorite toy, stuffed animal, night-light, or dream catcher can help too.”

Some children will not realize that the characters or the situations they see in a movie are not real. As a parent, talking to your children about the characters that they see in the films is essential. They can feel anxious because they cannot distinguish fantasy from possible reality. Talking about the differences between cartoons and real life stories can help them understand that they aren’t real.

Do you have a favorite movie that you can’t wait to watch with your children when they are older? Which scenes do you fast-forward? What’s your child’s favorite classic?
Use the comments below.

Tech families

The Ogilvy/Communispace study defined 19 percent of US families as “Tech Fast Forward”, meaning that they use more sophisticated technology than the average person and are in the know and on the cutting edge of new tech. Another 42 percent are “Tech Forward” – they have integrated tech into their lives and would have a hard time without it. These families have tablets, subscribe too many different social networks, read blogs, and their kids probably play Angry Birds on their iPhones while at the grocery store.

Brighter minds, better future

Interestingly, this study suggests that Tech Fast Forward parents seem to hold a more positive outlook about their children’s futures than other parents. The study found that 62 percent of these parents think that their kids are smart enough to “save the world”, as opposed to 30 percent of Tech Neutral parents. More than two-thirds of Tech Fast Forward parents think that kids today are smarter than previous generations. These parents see that their kids are part of the “new smart” generation because their children are engaging with content and media in new ways such as through self-directed learning, interactivity and puzzle solving.

But are these new skills and “smarts” developed because of advances in how we consume media and use technology?

“Educational” value

As mentioned earlier, many parents are passing along their tablets, smart phones or iPods to their toddler and preschoolers – either using them as a babysitter or as an “edutainment” tool. The Cooney Center study found that among all Education apps, 58% percent were geared towards toddlers. But there are no firm or verified standards of the educational value of these apps. There has yet to be a study of the educational differences between kids who have used educational apps regularly and those who haven’t used them at all. In fact, the study recommends that standards need to be created for products that are marked as educational.

Are you part of a Tech Fast Forward family? Have your kids mastered the latest gadgets that you bring home? We want to hear what you think about how technology is changing education and the workforce of the future. Comment and let us know how your kids are going to change the world!

It takes a village to raise a child

There are many benefits when it comes to reading parenting blogs; mainly the sense of community they establish. Today, families move around a lot whether for new jobs, schools, or other opportunities. Women of all ages are becoming mothers for the first time too. Starting a family away from your close family and friends or without having a group of moms around you to turn to for advice can be hard.

Instead, most moms turn to bloggers for advice about parenting. As Heather Armstrong the author of dooce.com pointed out on the CBC radio program Day 6 “My generation of women has lost our village. We live far away from family and many of our closest friends are those we’ve met online … and we sort of recreated these villages with our blogs. These are the women we’ve turned to for suggestions about what stroller to buy, which school to go to and which clothes to buy.”

Reverse the feeling of isolation

Starting a blog can also have a positive effect on new moms. A study called New Mothers and Media Use: Associations Between Blogging, Social Networking, and Maternal Well-Being found that new mothers who blog and use social networking feel connected and have social support, which leads to increased well-being. The study points out that blogging can reverse the feeling of isolation that new mothers sometimes feel and it eases their transition into motherhood.

The downside

Although there are a lot of benefits from blogging and reading other blogs, it does come with some disadvantages. Sometimes when people blog, they post events, photos and advice that shows the “best version” of their lives. As a reader this can change your experience from a positive social one to a feeling of further isolation. Some moms can feel like they’re not doing as well as others, and they feel as if they should be doing something different. It’s easy for parents to compare themselves to others, without realizing that bloggers have bad days too.

Sponsors and advertisements

Parents have to be careful when they are seeking advice. They have to keep an eye out for sponsored messages and advertising. Although, most professional blogs will post a message stating that a company sponsored this post, some don’t and parents may be led to believe that the post is a genuine opinion versus a targeted advertisement.

Pick and Choose

There are millions of blogs out there, discussing various topics and issues from politics, fashion, art, and parenting. It can be overwhelming. Find one that suits you best and start participating! It takes one person’s story or comment to create a community and active social networking can rake in lots of benefits.

Which blogs do you follow? Do you rely on blogs more than other traditional media like news articles and magazines?

Recommendations or opinions?

The Canadian Paediatrics Committee recommends that the safest place for babies is to sleep in their own crib, preferably in the parents’ room. These recommendations exist because of the increased risk of SIDS associated with co-sleeping infants. There are many other factors that play a part in infant deaths associated with co-sleeping such as heavy blankets, pillows, parental smoking, and drug (including sleep aid medication) and alcohol use.

Some parenting experts argue that infants need physical contact for sensory stimulation, maturing of the brain, and it helps to regulate breathing and body temperature, and when proper precautions are taken the risks do not outweigh the benefits. Some families engage in co-sleeping with their child without sharing their sleeping space, but instead keep the child within arm’s reach. Bassinets and cribs can be purchased that attach to the side of the parents’ bed.

Toddler co-sleeping

Many children spend the night in their parents’ bed after infancy too. Are there risks or developmental challenges associated with co-sleeping with your toddler?  The recent Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Study showed that there is no proven negative impact on the child, although many people still believe it has an effect on a child’s development.

The study followed 944 parent-toddler pairs and monitored their sleeping arrangements each year. The decreased social and cognitive skills found in some participants were accounted for by maternal parenting style & education, as well as socio-economic status, not bed-sharing.

Beyond the headline

Although the ads in Milwaukee were considered offensive by many parents, they are serving a purpose. Milwaukee has a higher infant death rate than 30 countries worldwide – including 9 deaths in 2011 alone. The ads were made to grab parents’ attention and be provocative – which they did successfully.

The intended message behind the ads have been lost because of the provocative images. Along with the knife in bed with the child, they are positioned incorrectly on their stomach and side, and are surrounded by choking hazards like puffy blankets. These factors contribute to the danger too, not just parents sleeping beside their kids. The ad encourages those who “can’t afford a crib” to call for a free one. This shows that the danger is associated not with co-sleeping with your infant by choice but by necessity, and without taking the proper precautions.

Do you find the Milwaukee Health Department ads offensive? Do your kids spend the night in your bed? What positive or negative experiences have you had with co-sleeping?

When we lived in Russia, we never celebrated Christmas but instead in December we celebrated New Year’s. On December 31^st we exchanged presents, spent time with family members, and participated in school concerts with Ded Maroz and his grand-daughter Snegurochka.

My parents helped me cope with the culture shock by encouraging me to watch North American movies and television shows when the holidays rolled around. Through watching videos like Meg’s Christmas, I learned that Santa Claus comes down our chimney, and through other fun videos I realized that I was supposed to leave him cookies and milk. Movies and videos also showed me how elves worked in Santa’s workshop! These videos did more than just help me assimilate into a new culture. They helped me make friends among my schoolmates because by watching these videos I was able to learn English much faster.

As I grew older, we decided as a family to keep our Russian roots. We started to watch Russian movies and videos like когда зажигаются елки around the holidays and continued to celebrate New Year’s Eve as well as Christmas, and in the end it helped me preserve my heritage.

Enjoy your holiday films and happy holidays!

Encouraging your kids to get involved in winter sports and activities at a young age can help keep them active and interested for years to come. Your soccer star daughter can become a hockey pro in the off-season. Your gymnastics camp obsessed first grader can try figure skating. Exposing your kids to new activities that they don’t usually learn in gym class or on the school yard helps to develop their hobbies and keeps activity levels up year round.

Include the whole family

If the thought of enrolling your kids in yet another activity is too much to handle, family activities and play dates can be arranged outdoors. Tobogganing, snowball fights and building snowmen all promote outdoor activity and exercise, and aren’t as intimidating or expensive as organized sports.

More than just exercising

Many winter activities such as skating and cross-country skiing boost balance, flexibility, and muscle development.

Picking up new activities and skills in the winter helps to develop patience, persistence and teaches children how to set goals and to achieve them step-by-step. If you can remember conquering the biggest hill as a kid you know the benefits of goal-setting. Taking risks helps to increase our kids’ resilience, helps them make judgments and gives them opportunities to challenge themselves. The trial and error and confidence-building that many winter activities require will help them when they enter the classroom, and with family and friend relationships too!

Happy and healthy

Many of us experience a slump when the colder weather, shorter days, holiday stress and flu season hit. It’s easy for families to feel overwhelmed in the winter months and to find themselves waiting for spring to arrive. Getting outside can help prevent these feelings.

It’s proven that engaging in outdoor physical activity is associated with mood enhancement, positive engagement, increased energy, decreased tension and aggression, as well as feeling more satisfied than indoor activity. Looks like just another reason to face the elements and jump on the toboggan with the kids this winter!

What activities do you and your kids participate in in the winter months? Any tips for parents who can’t find the time to enjoy the winter weather? Leave a comment below.