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Lately with LiiNK

What is Happening at your Child's LiiNK Campus?

Lately with LiiNKWhat is Happening at your Child's LiiNK Campus?

Welcome to the Monthly LiiNK Family Newsletter!

We are excited to welcome you and your children to LiiNK! The LiiNK Project was founded by Dr. Debbie Rhea of Texas Christian University. "The goal of LiiNK is to improve non-cognitive factors in children through the combination of increased unstructured, outdoor recess and character education training" (TCU, 2017).


The 2018-2019 school year marks the fourth year that EMS ISD schools have participated in LiiNK. This year, 11 of our 15 elementary campuses are participating in LiiNK!

CHECK OUT LIINK FEATURED ON WFAA!

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WARM WEATHER REMINDERS

It's been a very warm summer! Remember, LiiNK campuses follow the weather guidelines set by the National Weather Service and the CDC. Children will only go outside when it is safe to do so. For the complete weather guidelines, visit the Parent Portal (click here) on the LiiNK website.

LiiNK students enjoy daily Positive Action lessons. Below you will discover the learning targets and vocabulary to be used during the first month of class. As the school-home connection is a valuable tool for reinforcing positive actions, we encourage families to talk about Positive Action at home.

Unit One Main Idea and Learning Targets

Self-Concept: the way you feel about yourself

  • Positive and negative actions
  • Relationship between positive actions and self-concept
  • How others impact our self-concept
  • How our actions, thoughts, and feelings affect our self-concept
  • Introduce the thoughts, actions, feelings circle as the basis of a good self-concept
  • Happiness and wellness is a result of a good self-concept

Week 1) Positive Action: To do or cause good things to happen

Week 2) Self-Concept: How you think and feel about yourself

Week 3) Valuable: Precious or great worth

Week 4) Happiness and Success: To feel good about who you are, what you are doing, and how you treat others

Week 5) Unique: To be one of a kind

LiiNK is excited to announce its collaboration with Let Grow. Let Grow aims to change minds and behaviors so children can develop into healthy and resilient adults. To learn more about Let Grow, click this link. The LiiNK Project is excited to work with Let Grow to move forward the initiatives of allowing children to take risks, encouraging more free play and socialization, and giving responsibility back to children. Check out the piece below written by Lenore Skenazy, President and Co-Founder of Let Grow.

TOO SCARED TO LET GO? LET GROW!

Childhood anxiety is giving ME anxiety. Nearly a third of American adolescents meet the criteria for an anxiety disorder, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Even among younger kids, anxiety is on the rise. But as Let Grow co-founder Boston College Psychology Prof. Peter Gray notes, crime rates are at a 50-year low, so it’s not because the world has been getting scarier.


It’s because WE have been getting more scared. The media make us believe there’s a predator behind every pine tree. And so we keep our kids closer than ever, meaning they rarely have the kind of free, unstructured, unsupervised time that serves as a pressure valve. If we could only give kids back a smidgen of that freedom, would they feel less anxious – happier?


Yes.


The solution is so simple you’re going to laugh, but it’s this: Have your kids do ONE THING on their own that you did at their age that you haven’t allowed them to do till now. Maybe let them ride their bikes to a friend’s house, or play outside in the neighborhood, or get themselves to school.


Our own survey of kids K-6 who did a “Let Grow” activity found that more than 50% felt happier afterward – and the parents experienced their own drop in anxiety.


Why? Because when fear meets reality, reality wins. All the worries swirling around in our heads get shoved aside by pride and joy when our blossoming child bursts through the door, excited and elated.


It feels great to be the wind beneath their wings, instead of weighing them down. That weight IS anxiety.

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So how can you get started? Easy:

1 – Find a friend who is willing to do this seemingly radical, actually totally developmentally normal, activity with you. (If you’d like to find other Let Grow families in your neighborhood, join Let Grow – it’s free – and use our Zip Code-enabled friend finder, also free.)

2 – Ask the kids what they’d like their activity to be. If they don’t have an idea, here's a list.

3 – Set a deadline to do it by one week from today.

4 – Do it! Meet up with your friend, pour a cup of coffee, and send the kids out together.


You and your friend give each other moral support, and it’s more fun for the kids, too. One reason kids DON’T run around outside is because when they look out the window, they don’t see anyone to play with.


Then, with your heart gladdened, do us a favor. Tell us your story! Go to the Facebook page, No More Helicopter Parenting – Let Grow Support Group and share your experience. Please share it on your own pages, too, with the tags @letgroworg and #letgrow. That will inspire more people to try it too.


Have fun!