Did You Know?...
Latest Research on the Family

Quick Facts

Our Television Habit

• Time per day that the television is on in average home: 7 hours, 40 minutes

• Percentage of families who eat dinner with the television on: 40

• Percentage of children with a television in their bedroom: 56

• Number of hours children will spend at school this year: 900

• Number of hours children will spend watching TV this year: 1,023

From: www.tvturnoff.org If you want more some tips on how to reduce TV viewing, click on their website!

Students are learning hardly anything in school...

Every few years, the U.S. Department of Education conducts standardized tests of what students are learning in school. The results are, to say the least, discouraging. Here's a graph of how students are performing in various subjects. The numbers represent the percentage of children performing at or above proficiency for their level. In other words, only 26% of grade 4 students are proficient in grade 4 math. That means that 74% are not. You do that math on the rest...

I don't know what the numbers are for Canada (I can't find standardized tests like these; if you know, please tell me), but this is pretty abysmal.

The amazing thing, too, is that spending more money is not linked to doing better in school. For instance, New York City will spend approximately $11,000 US per student this year, and they do not have great results (they're near the bottom of the pack). Cleveland, which has recently allowed vouchers because their schools are failing so badly, spends almost $10,500 per student. So money is not the answer. If you want to know my opinion, I'll be writing about it in my newsletter over the coming months. Sign-up here for your free copy.

And now for the good news...

Kids who Are Close to their Moms Delay Sex

If you want your children to delay sex, maybe even until they're married, but you're worried you'll have no influence on them, think again!

A new study shows that kids who are close to their moms are more likely to delay sex.

But the answer isn't that straightforward. They also have to know that their moms want them to delay sex--and the same study shows that even when moms do disapprove, only 70% of girls and 55% of boys actually know this. So the moms have to:

• Be close with your kids. Communicate about everything.
• Have strong feelings about your children delaying sex--and let them know!

So why does this work? When kids feel safe with their parents, they're less likely to turn to peer groups for support and self-worth. They're also more likely to share their parents (and here specifically their moms') value systems.

Here's what Dr. Blum, the head researcher, says: “When children are close to their mothers, they are more receptive to what their mother says and are also more likely to share their mother's beliefs. Children who feel close to their mothers tend to not feel like they are being lectured to when discussing subjects such as sex and drugs.”

For more information, see here.

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