Love that on a number of different levels. Great activity to bring the family together and talk about a common interest. The school's strategy is brilliant. You all connect as a family and then form a deeper connection with the school. Now, if you can schedule the President to come and speak. Wow what a conclusion. I would love to throw my book into the mix for the next school book group.

Best,

Joe Bruzzese

My son's middle school is requiring the faculty, parents, and students to read DREAMS from MY FATHER by Barack Obama, so my husband, my son, and I are reading for 30 min a night and we are calling it a "book group".

Wow! Sounds like a wonderful summer filled with learning opportunities. Do your kids generate the learning ideas?

I took the summer off after graduating from college to spend time with my children. I am tutoring a neighbor boy along with my children in multiplication, spelling words, and the summer theme is space camp. There are days that we learn about space and there are days that we just do math or language arts. My children are having fun this summer learning about outer space. We also planted a garden by recycling a plastic swimming pool and putting potting soil and dirt in the pool along with leaves and manure for the plants.

Wonderful to hear you have met the technology challenge by texting. Are your kids away at camp?

alot of texting while they are both away! Also calling 2-3 days a week to stay in touch!

Brilliant! Your summer sounds like its packed full of together time. Is the goal of their book reports to test their comprehension for the story or to practice their writing skills? You might consider opting for an audio or video recording where they can interview each other about the books. Love to know how your summer progresses.

Best,

Joe Bruzzese

We are having a bit of a crazy summer this year (moving and a remodel) but we make sure to do some reading each day. The kids each 10 will read 10 books and write book reports (this is the part they hate). So that they can go to a water slide park. We've been to the zoo, the science museum, played in fountains, camped in the yard and at a lake. Meals are something I like for us all to have together.

Wow! wonderful to hear that you worked like a team. The meal prep does sound overwhelming. Great to hear your boy recognized this and jumped in.

As you suggested, many families find a gap during the middle school years when the kids are looking for time away from family and parents would love to hold on to the relationship they developed over the past years. Finding time to share together also becomes more challenging as kids spend more time with friends and engaged in a variety of extracurricular pursuits. Outside of scheduling getaways when everyone can come together and share in a similar experience, I encourage families to connect on a daily basis. The quick conversation as you are headed out the door in the morning may set the stage for a followup later when everyone comes back together. At times, asking, "What are you looking forward to today?" or "What's on your schedule?" is enough to let your kids know that you want to know what's important in their lives.

Hi Joe,

Again, both my husband and I work from home, and our kids are 10 years apart. The older one likes to eat. And if we're both scrambling to make a deadline, my son will either ask what to start, or he'll just start something (now clean up? That's another story).

He also bakes a mean cookie, which helps out immensely since all our "thank you" gifts to teachers and mentors are of the baked variety.

He started to learn to prep stuff when he was playing water polo in high school and was eating six or more meals a day. It was self defense because I couldn't spend 24/7 in the kitchen, and despite how much I'd over make and leave for him, it wasn't always enough.

As for notes, I don't think my son has written on paper and pencil for quite some time, but another way we stay connected is he'll either forward me pertinent emails from his college or ping me from his instant messaging thread (although a common theme there too is "What should I start for lunch?"....) :)

We never seemed to go through the awkward transition in junior high that some families do. Since you're familiar with that age group, what do you suggest for the families where the tweens/teens suddenly don't want to do anything with the fam anymore?

What's especially impressive about my son leaving notes is that he's dyslexic, so I know writing isn't one of his favorite things to do....
Because we knew he'd be taking a summer class, we scheduled our family vacation for the week between when he got out of school at the end of May, and the start of his course in June...It was only a month ago, but it feels like eons...
We began sharing the responsibility for meal prep when my son was in high school.....It's not that we expect him to be a gourmet chef, but we want him to be able to prepare something more healthy and nutritious than just frozen pizzas if he ends up in an apartment in college some day! (I remember preparing complete family dinners when I was only 12 or 13 years old...I think girls tend to enjoy spending more time hanging around the kitchen, but boys tend to need "a push" to get involved in meal prep. He's still not the most enthusiastic cook, but he does it...he's especially fond of outdoor grilling, but most old apartments in the city don't allow bbqs on wooden decks, so I'm not sure what he'll do if and when he really gets his own apartment at school!)

Incredible! Sharing the responsibility for meal preparation is a wonderful way to come together as a family and build a set of independent living skills (indirect benefit).

When did you begin sharing responsibility for meals? Parents of teens and soon to be teens might welcome the extra together time.

Best,
Joe Bruzzese

Love the idea of handwritten notes when the face to face communication isn't an option. The reality for families, particularly those with busy teens, is that together time is limited. Great to hear you have found new ways of keeping the connection alive. I'm guessing that parents of teens will welcome a few fresh ideas.

Have you planned for a summer vacation getaway?

Best,
Joe Bruzzese

We have an older teen who holds a part-time job working evenings at a movie theater, while he also takes one summer school class, so we find his schedule seldom "meshes" with the rest of the us. He sleeps in, while we're earlier risers. He is responsible for preparing at least one meal each week for the family, and in between we communicate by cell phone, texting, and even occasional handwritten notes! (For example, I thought I heard the door close around midnight yesterday, so I got up to see if it was our son, and instead I found a note on the floor, saying, "Back in a bit. I needed to borrow your van to carry something." Apparently he didn't want to wake us by using the phone/texting, but I wasn't exactly thrilled that he took my vehicle without asking.) Life with teens is never predictable!

Hi Joe,

We're very fortunate to both work from home. So we're able to have three meals a day together. Thankfully three of us are capable of actually preparing those meals, so it doesn't always fall to the same person.

And we all participate in the same sport, so we spend time on weekends bowling on the same team.

My son is only learning to drive, so we spend quite a bit of time driving him to and from his summer courses at a community college. And having him drive basically anywhere.

And my daughter's favorite activity is sitting on our bed with a giant dry erase board and having us come up with problems to solve or sentences to write.