Back-to-School Resources for Parents (Plus a Reminder) | By: Committee for Children While we know that teachers can provide children with a great deal of support, we also must remember that children learn first from their parents and guardians. When you show interest and get involved in your children’s education, it makes a positive difference. Ongoing research continues to show that in addition to basic needs, children need love, attention, and guidance to grow socially, emotionally, and academically. When children feel valued and respected and are taught specific social-emotional skills, they gain the confidence needed to ask questions, explore with curiosity, and solve problems creatively and cooperatively. That’s why we’ve included resources in our Second Step program for both schools and families. We want to make it easier for all the adults in a community to work together to help our children grow holistically to be healthy, happy, and productive. As your kids head back to school, find out if their teachers use the Second Step program. If so, be on the lookout for back-to-school resources, letters, and activities sent home or emailed from your child’s teacher, including one titled, “Parent Involvement in SEL Education Is an Important Factor for Your Child’s Success.” It’s also a great time to get familiar with the Second Step lessons and concepts being taught in school by checking out the back-to-school resources below. Family Resources to Support Social-Emotional Learning at Home Bullying Prevention. Visit this resource page for videos, articles, activities, and more to help you understand bullying, who’s affected, and how to prevent it. Child Abuse Prevention. Learn about the talk every parent needs to have to start and normalize ongoing personal safety discussions. With age-appropriate examples of conversation starters, videos, articles, and other educational resources, you can learn to recognize and prevent unsafe situations, and find out what to say and do if a child does disclose abuse. Mind Yeti.* Learn how to practice mindfulness with your kids with these free and fun guided audio sessions. Practicing mindfulness has been shown to deepen social-emotional learning and promote resilience by helping children become aware of their feelings and learn tactics for coping with stress. ParenTeenConnect. Offering interviews with real families and research-based, expert advice on real-life issues, this free website provides resources for both parents and teens (or even pre-teens) that help with communicating effectively through challenging situations to support healthy relationships. Learn the best ways to talk about and manage screen time, independence, responsibility, conflict, communication, and more. Parents can find more resources and articles on our dedicated Parenting channel on the Committee for Children blog. * Mind Yeti is not accepting new users at this time.