It’s no mystery that exercise boosts mental health and cognitive function in kids. A nine-month study of children aged seven through nine found that kids who were active could think more clearly, and a March 2020 report found that 12-, 14-, and 16-year-olds who exercised regularly were less likely to develop depression by age 18. Brain scans of 20-year-olds revealed that active young adults have better recall and thinking ability. The relationship between movement and…
Knowledge is indeed power, but academic achievement is only one aspect of a successful education. Children must also learn social-emotional skills to develop healthy identities, manage emotions, set goals, express empathy, build relationships, and make decisions. Teaching and practicing these techniques is called “social-emotional learning” (SEL). SEL has many benefits for students, ranging from improved school performance to healthier friendships. Plus, down the road, those with strong social and emotional competence are more likely to…
Demand has surged for outdoor and wilderness programs, driven by parents desperate to get their kids off-screen and out of the house. Numerous New England wilderness schools report they could double or triple their already increased programming and still have waiting lists. “I think we’re entering the golden age of outdoor education,” says Sam Stegeman, executive director of the Vermont Wilderness School. “Because of COVID, one of the silver linings is we’re finally getting huge…
Most days, Jen Lamott would describe her daughter, Katie, as cheerful and kind. Lately, though, the 7-year-old has been acting moody and sometimes grunting instead of talking. “It’s like we have a teenager suddenly,” Lamott said. But while teenagers’ attitudes are usually chalked up to puberty, Lamott knows that something else is at play in her house: exhaustion. Katie has been having trouble falling asleep, expressing greater sleep anxiety and starting to take naps to…
A national group that seeks to curb chronic absenteeism is sounding an alarm after finding that the number of chronically absent students continued to surge even as pandemic closings abated. The organization, Attendance Works, believes that the number of students missing at least 18 days of school a year doubled to 16 million in 2021-22 from 8 million students before the pandemic. If correct, this means that one out of every three public school children…
They say playing is the work of children—and it’s true! Play is how children learn about the world, themselves and each other. It’s as much a part of healthy development as eating vegetables, reading books together and getting a good night’s sleep. Even the United Nations lists play as one of the basic rights of every child. There is no right or wrong way to play. It’s anything from sticking a hand in mashed potatoes to…
In Fairfax County, Virginia, thousands of middle school students experience what most of their peers leave behind in elementary school — recess. The break is only 15 minutes long, but at Rocky Run Middle School (about 25 miles west of the nation’s capital), the seventh and eighth graders make the most of one of the few stretches of time in school that they can truly call their own. Fairfax County schools, a district of around…
At this stage in the long slog of the pandemic, many of us are forgoing masks in places we previously wore them and getting together indoors when we had formerly avoided it. But the holidays throw new variables at everyone’s risk calculus. People trek across the country to see each other. Families crowd around dinner tables, with older, more vulnerable people sitting beside their younger relatives. As we enter our third pandemic holidays, experts are…
Children might start going to school in darkness next year in exchange for more sun later in the day, while their parents commute home from work with the benefit of light. Those would be among the impacts of ditching standard time and adopting year-round daylight saving time, a change in legislation the Senate recently passed with virtually no opposition. If the Sunshine Protection Act, as written, were to gain House approval and President Joe Biden’s…
Back to school brings bandages, bumps and bruises, but it also brings meeting students’ needs for sensory challenges, chronic conditions such as diabetes and food allergies, emotional needs such as anxiety and depression, and battling infectious diseases — including COVID. What should families know for the 2022-2023 school year? These school nurses will tell you themselves. School nurses need up-to-date information on a student’s needs — including medical conditions, changes in the home, and other…
