Safe Search Kids - Education, Parenting, Internet Safety for All

As parents, you want nothing but the best for your children, especially when it comes to matters that affect their future. But for that to happen, you’ll need to lay the foundations that will help them build a better life for themselves –  this includes financial literacy and building good money habits.

Your teenagers will already have a good grasp of what money is and what it can do; you may have already discussed with them how to use a debit card responsibly.   Still, you need to play a more proactive role in their financial education and ingrain in them money habits that will prepare them for the real world.

Teaching your children these eight money habits as early as possible will increase their chances of becoming financially-responsible adults: 

1. Creating a Budget

 It’s very important for your kids to learn about budgeting and money management while they’re young and the stakes are still very low.

If your teenager has some form of cash flow, either from an allowance or doing part-time jobs, you can start teaching them how to allocate money for their expenses and then document everything that’s coming in and out. You may also use your own household budget as a teaching tool or develop a fictional income-expenses scenario if you’re not comfortable with divulging your financial information to your children. 

2. Saving Money Regularly

Once your teen is familiar with the concept of cash flow and how to keep track of their expenses, it’s time to teach them the value of “paying yourself first” or setting aside a specific percentage of their allowance or earnings from side hustles.

You can encourage this habit with a savings account. They will be more motivated to save when they can see for themselves how their money grows the more they save. 

3. Financial Goal-Planning

Saving and spending money wisely are crucial factors to financial success, but goal planning is even more important.

Ask your teenager to write down their goals for the future – it could be a big purchase, travel plans, college or the kind of life they want to lead – and then educate them on what they need to do to achieve those goals. When they have a clear vision of where they want their money to go or what they plan to achieve with it, they’ll be able to plan their finances more effectively.

Teach budget skills for daily living as well as preparing for the cost of college.

4. Delayed gratification

The new generation is growing up in a buy-it-now society where people just go ahead and purchase whatever they want without second thoughts. This is why it is important to teach children the concept of delayed gratification, so they don’t just spend their money aimlessly.

It can be very hard to say no to your children, but making them save or work for the stuff they want will help them appreciate the value of things. Ask them to do extra chores for extra allowance or do odd jobs around the neighborhood for additional spending money. This way, they will understand the connection between working and money.

5. Distinguishing Good vs Bad Credit

As much as you want your kids to avoid debt at all costs, it’s important for them to understand that not all debts are bad.

Credit cards and other forms of consumer debts can be very risky when they borrow beyond your means. However, it is okay to take out a loan or a mortgage if they’re going to use it to acquire assets, develop your skills, or build wealth over time. But also teach your child how to get out of debt with a proper strategy as early as possible, as this will give you peace of mind.

6. Investing

 As they prepare for higher education, start talking to your teens about investing and the power of compounding interest.

One good way to kick off investing for kids is with a high-interest savings account, which they can use for funding short-term financial goals. From there, introduce them to stocks, bonds, Roth IRAs and how these investment options can grow their money faster and help them fulfill their more expensive and long-term financial goals.

About the Author:

Samantha Green is the Content Marketing Strategist for the MCA award-winning app, BusyKid, the first and only chore and allowance platform where kids can earn, save, share, spend, and invest their allowance. A mom of two, she enjoys spending time with her kids and reading books to them.

The risk of burnout is one of the primary threats of contemporary life. But it’s important to remember this isn’t an issue strictly limited to those of us of adult age. Kids are just as susceptible to the damaging effects of the stresses and expectations they’re faced with.  Among the contributors to burnout for kids in this way is their online behavior.

While the internet can be a positive tool, it is also one of the ways children are subjected to pressures and anxiety. While it is certainly a virtual environment, the threat is no less real. Indeed, with the prevalence of smart devices and online learning, your kids may find it somewhat inescapable, leaving them at greater risk of burnout.

Let’s take a look at how you can effectively teach your kids to mitigate the potential for online burnout.

Boundary Setting

One of the most important areas of knowledge you can pass onto kids regarding online burnout surrounds setting boundaries. Teach them about the various types of limits they should be setting for themselves throughout their online use. This can begin with something as simple as overall screen time. But it could also include keeping devices away from the bedroom at night so they’re not connected right up until bedtime. This helps to ensure good quality and quantity of sleep.

Another boundary can surround the safe use of social media platforms or online communities. This isn’t just about time spent on them. It’s also about the kind of content being consumed and the discussions they engage in. Peer pressure, trolling exposure, and even pop-cultural disagreements can get heated and stressful. Teach them to recognize the boundaries and when to separate from the negative influences.

Alongside recognizing and setting the boundaries, you should teach your kids how to respond to them effectively. It can be healthy to encourage a digital detox when social media use is becoming problematic in particular. Help them to make accurate assessments about how long this detox should be depending on the severity of the impact on their lives. This could be blocking social sites for a couple of hours each day, or even separating entirely for 24 hours.

Symptom Awareness

Burnout can sneak up and take the victim unawares. A key to mitigating burnout can be recognizing the symptoms early enough to make adjustments. By teaching your child what these are, you can work together to identify them before they get out of hand.

Some of the key signs of online burnout in kids include:

●     Slipping Grades

This can be especially prevalent when your child is experiencing the stress of remote learning. The relentless nature of performing their schooling online without casual interactions with their peers can make the situation especially difficult. When your child is unable to disconnect from this environment and struggles to cope with the stress, their schoolwork can start to suffer.

It’s important to encourage your child to speak up when they find their grades are slipping or they don’t enjoy the work as much as they would have in person. This allows you to make adjustments to their learning space or routine to better suit your child’s remote learning needs.

●     Isolating Behavior

It is not unusual for children to withdraw from the family space, particularly as they approach pre-teen years. But refusing to engage with family and friends can be a sign your child is experiencing online burnout. This is because the stress they’re living with is driving them to reduce the stimulus they’re exposed to in other areas of their life.

Talk to your child about recognizing when they feel they don’t want to spend time with other people in ways they would have otherwise enjoyed. Help them to see that feeling they’re too tired or too busy for social interactions can be a sign they’re burning out.

●     Anxiety

Online burnout creates a situation in which it becomes harder for your child to function comfortably each day. Sure, they may always have had challenges in their lives. But the constant stress and negative influences of their online spaces can result in them experiencing fear. Even their self-consciousness around their online presence or remote schoolwork may be more pronounced. As such, they can find themselves more emotionally distraught and crying more often. Even their sleep may begin to suffer.

Balance Maintenance

You should stress to your child that reducing and preventing online burnout can be about creating a balance in their life. Simply developing a positive attitude despite the difficulties they face isn’t enough. Rather, it’s about taking action to reduce the negative impact on their lives. With kids, this isn’t always an easy idea to get across, so it’s worth taking a practical and visual approach.

Work with them on a weekly basis to list all the essential online activities for each coming day. This may not be limited to schoolwork alone. A growing number of children are using online methods to stay close to their long-distance parents. This is a vital element to maintaining their wellbeing and forging strong bonds. Knowing clearly what these essential online activities are can help your child feel more in control and less overwhelmed.

You can then list all the non-essential online activities they can engage in. Don’t make them feel as though their gaming time or social media use isn’t important. It may be wise to create separate columns for online activities and offline activities each day. This gives a clear view of how successfully they’re achieving a balance. These columns don’t have to be equal each day. But it can be a good tool to help them recognize when their day is imbalanced to the point they’ll risk burnout.

Conclusion

It is important that you as a parent remain vigilant for when your child is displaying signs of online burnout. However, it can be more empowering for your child if you teach them about mitigating the risks themselves too. Talk them through the importance of setting boundaries and recognizing the symptoms of burnout. This, alongside activities to maintain a healthy balance, can help make sure your child approaches their online time in a healthy manner.

The best way to teach kids how to code is through an online coding for kids program that is self directed.  When you combine these teaching tools with games, kids don’t even realize how much they are learning.  The educational benefits expound to boost their confidence, creativity, problem solving and logical thinking skills.

There will continued to be a demand worldwide for students who are educated in IT (Information Technology).  This need is expected to only increase in coming years. That doesn’t mean that kids need to be thinking about a career in tech to truly benefit from an online coding class. You may have a child who is simply interested how computers work. You may have a family member that spends a lot of time playing video games and you want ensure some of that screen time is educational.

Coding for Kids – Online Learning

Whether or not a child is gifted in science or STEM subjects in school, coding courses are designed for children of any skill level to discover whether learning to code is a path they want to explore.

Coding is also a great introduction for children to other educational focuses regarding computational thinking, which explores many aspects of problem solving and how both boys and girls can use these skills to understand how everything works in the world, not just computers and math.

How Kids can Learn Coding Easily while Having Fun

Whether teaching is live or a course where kids learn at their own pace, everything is designed to ensure any age group can grasp basic coding concepts. Any knowledge gained can only help kids succeed in school regardless of their chosen profession when they graduate.  There are also a variety of AP computer science books and courses online that guide a child through the basics of coding without a live teacher. Both experiences instruct kids how to code as they move through games they may already be playing normally.

Whether you are a teacher or a parent, there are coding activities that you can get your students or kids excited about.

Educators, learn how to teach computer science and the foundations of computational thinking. Explore the best coding courses for kids to discover engaging, curriculum-aligned tools that make it easy to introduce programming in the classroom. From block-based coding for beginners to more advanced text-based languages, these courses help young learners build logical reasoning and creativity. These newly learned capabilities will benefit them across every subject and well into their future careers.

Why parents are encouraging their kids to learn coding.

• Coding through fun games is a great opportunity to see if your younger child is interested in STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).

• Classes and courses provide an educational process that can be enjoyed while kids are playing games online.

• Parents may want their kids to learn coding skills to supplement what they may not being getting in school.

• Coding lessons can be an excellent program addition for home schoolers or kids taking virtual classes.

Parents may have kids who enjoy playing a lot of video games. The challenge for any parent is limiting screen time when a child is only asking for more hours of play per day. Giving your son or daughter an extra hour of online play devoted to a coding game is the perfect compromise for many.

• Children doing very well in school may not be challenged enough with their current studies.

• Kids may have a keen interest in STEM already and are open to expanding their learning.

Something for Every Age: Self paced coding courses are provided for kids as early as 5 years old. Online coding classes can be taken as early as kindergarten.

Types of Coding Languages for Beginners

Block-based coding is an excellent ways for kids to get started.  It consists of dragging and dropping colorful components. This engaging method is fun for kids and helps them learn the basics without writing text.  After they are comfortable with blocks, instructors can introduce text-based coding.  This includes the basics of writing lines of code.

Together, block-based programming and text-based coding is more easily grasped as kids begin to understand how everything ties together to create something new.  With proper set-by step instruction, it’s possible for kids to learn more complex coding languages, such as;

• Python – the programming language that reads like normal speech.
• Ruby – the most readable syntax for beginner programmers.
• Scratch – when introduced to kids who have a proper foundation of the basics, Scratch is fairly easy for children to learn.  It’s important because it’s they will be more than likely be using this type of coding in some capacity for the rest of their lives.
• Java – while more difficult, teaching Java to beginners will make learning any language easier for kids.
• C++ – this language make turn off some beginners to the world of coding because it’s very similar to math.  While it can expand a new coders world, instruction on this type of coding might turn of some beginners off.  However, once the basic fundamentals of programming are understood, C++ is very beneficial to those who decide to progress in their programming knowledge.

There are many different coding languages. Equipping a young children and teens with multiple options as they expand their expertise and knowledge can only serve to help them find what they enjoy best.  Other languages include Blockly, Alice, Lua, Go,Twine, Swift Playgrounds and Ruby.

The Benefits of Online Coding for Kids

Learning how to code has many benefits.  You can sign you child up for small online classes or choose one on one training.  Both of these class options involve live teaching. Kids will learn creative coding, game design, Minecraft modelling, Javascript and Python. All classes begin by kids learning the basics of easy block-based coding.

If you’re looking for a more structured learning path, CodaKid is an award-winning online coding platform that has taught over 100,000 kids and teens using real-world tools and languages. Courses range from beginner-friendly Scratch and block coding to advanced tracks in Python, game development, and AI — making it a great fit for kids at any skill level.

There are plenty of things that kids can do when they learn to code.  Some of these avenues can be explored while they are young and still in school.  Other areas may be developed in adulthood.  In either case, learning how to coding now is an excellent building block for any career choice, especially if their chosen path involved computers.

Here are 5 few things kids can do with coding knowledge;

1. Create an Online Game or Website

If you’re looking for something more than just a website, consider creating an online game or app. There are lots of free tools available to help with this process.

2. Build Apps for Android and iOS Devices

If you’d rather build an app instead of a website, there are plenty of options out there. One popular option is Appy Pie, which allows users to build mobile apps using drag and drop technology. Another option is PhoneGap, which lets developers use HTML5 and other web technologies to develop native mobile applications.

3. Learn Programming Languages

There are lots of different programming languages available, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. A good place to start would be to learn one language well enough so that you can understand how others work. Once you feel comfortable with one language, you can move onto another.

4.  Start a Blog

If you’re looking for ways to earn money online, starting a blog might be a good option. In fact, there are tons of free blogging platforms out there where you can set up an account and start writing right away.

5 Design Websites

There’s no shortage of things you can do with coding. Whether you’re interested in building websites, creating mobile apps, or developing games, you’ll find plenty of opportunities to learn how to code. And once you’ve mastered one language, you can move onto another.

Is Coding Right for Your Kids?

No one can argue that any type of computer skill will offer a valuable educational benefit as kids advance through their grades. If your child loves spending time online, whether gaming or on social media, coding for kids education is an easy way to transition from online play time towards online learning time. The latter of which can be equality as fun as kids learn.

If your child is a book warm and doesn’t like computers much, it will be more of a challenge to engage them in the subjects associated with technology. Whether it’s part of a school curriculum or home schooling, live coding classes or monthly subscription based courses offer a way for educators and parents to make a child’s introduction to coding fun.

For 60% of Americans, the traditional education system is not up to snuff.  When asked why, students and parents alike couple grim statistics with their own personal experiences.  More than 6 million students are “chronically absent” from school in the US each year. Teenagers are 5 times more likely to suffer from a mental illness now than in prior generations.

Furthermore, many high school students believe their schools value grades more than learning, as they say most students end up cheating at some point.  A study at Queen’s University suggests that grade obsession is detrimental.  Radical change needs to happen in the school system.  And it has, just not for the reasons reformers expected.

In an effort to slow the spread of this decade’s pandemic, millions of students were forced into online learning for the first time.  Schools of all types were going in and out of the virtual format in an ad hoc manner.  Despite the frustration caused by switching around, 57% of students feel more positively about online learning than they did before it was the only option.  Imagine what a planned, professionally designed virtual school environment can do for children.

Could Virtual Schools Be The Future of Education?

For some students, yes.  Families all over the nation are turning to online education because it offers more flexible schedules, a safer environment, and more chances for family involvement in their child’s education.  Flexibility is a great thing for students because it allows them to be treated like individuals, something large school districts struggle to do.

Online school has lower incidences of bullying than in-person school does.  Furthermore, online school is time effective.  Online learning can cover the same material in 40% to 60% less time than traditional school formats.  A virtual student in school for the same amount of time could potentially learn twice as much.

Redesigning Education to Provide Effective Options

Moreover, virtual school is a chance to design education for the 21st century.  Traditional school settings value compliance and uniformity while the modern workforce wants to see people exhibit innovation, creativity, and initiative.  Individuals who take more initiative in their own learning are more successful in our rapidly changing technological world.

Online school is a chance to create better learning formats, such as a project based curriculum with greater focus on the student’s goals and needs.  Traditional grading scales can be replaced with self-evaluation and more descriptive forms of teacher feedback.  New options arise thanks to online schooling.

This infographic provides a snapshot of the the future of school may look like:

What will life be like in the future?  Read about technology of the future.