Pinwheel Blog (3)

Summer Break: Kids Need Friends

It goes without saying that kids need to stay connected to their friends, and summertime is the perfect opportunity for kids to hone their social skills. During the school year, children sit with friends at lunch and run with the crowd at recess. But in the summer, those opportunities don't come naturally; it takes a bit of work to consider the when, where, and whom! By allowing our kids to take the reins on this, they're learning crucial social skills that will set the stage for their adult relationships.

Through research, we know that “exposure to positive experiences, settings, and people, as well as opportunities to gain and refine life skills, supports young people in the acquisition and growth of [their] assets”. Let's try to break this down further.

Julie

Summer Break: Connecting with Your Kids

Summer is just around the corner, and our kids are counting down how they'll spend three months free from homework, standardized tests, and hours in the classroom. While most parents don't have the same break as their kids, it's still a great opportunity to get to know your child and help them transition into the new season.

Julie

How Music Enhances Learning

Just whistle while your work. Or ask your smart speaker to crank up the tunes while you clean. Music not only gets adults in the right headspace to focus on a task, but kids as well. Next time your child is prepping for a big test, encourage them to turn on some background music to boost their brain function. Research shows that music can impact emotions and thought processes, which can help lower stress before a test and contribute to focus.

Julie

Spotify's TikTok-Like Home Screen Updates Could Threaten Kids

Starting March 8, 2023, Spotify is rolling out a significant change to all users. The new features pose serious concerns for the well-being of the teens and tweens who use the platform.

Shelley Delayne

Pinwheel and Google Family Link

Julie

Finances on Pinwheel

It's a step better than a paper check, but cash is rare these days. A lot of people rely on cash apps, like Venmo and PayPal, to pay their babysitters and dog walkers.

Julie

Six Smartphone Tips Homeschool Parents Should Know

Growing up in a homeschool household, my parents had two approaches for giving us kids a phone. One, getting a really old outdated flip phone, or two, no phone at all. I chose no phone over a flip phone because I didn’t want to stand out amongst my friends with a weird device. Was this a good decision by my parents to give me no phone, was it a bad one? Here are the top things I think every homeschool parent should know before giving their kid a phone.

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Screen Time Shouldn't Make You Anxious

Research finds parenting with tech causes anxiety, but Pinwheel offers the solution.

Do you feel like screen time makes parenting harder? If so, you’re not alone. A Pew Research study launched in 2020 found that the majority of parents think that parenting is harder today than it was two decades ago. And many parents say that technology is to blame.

Julie

whatdoesahealthykidphonelooklikepinwheelthehealthykidphone

News and Events

What Does "Healthy Kid Phone" Mean?

Pinwheel named as a kid's top alternative to smartphones. The Wall Street Journal featured Pinwheel as one of the best ways for parents to keep in touch with their young students.

Julie

What's Your Earliest Memory with Tech?

It was a stormy night in December and I was sitting at the kitchen table with my Dad eating soup. I was anxiously awaiting him to finish so I could play with his first Apple phone, called an iPhone, which had buttons on the screen. As we sat down together, we laboriously pushed the buttons on the screen, wondering if iPhones would stick around.

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