Do you know if your child’s school provides media education or digital literacy classes? As teachers increase the time your child spends with computers, are they also making sure your child is learning how to make wise choices about how to use the Internet safely? And most importantly, do you know what kinds of safeguards your child’s school has in place to protect children from harmful Internet content?

Most schools want to work with parents to provide the best media/digital literacy education. And certainly most schools have rules, guidelines, and safeguards in place and are eager to share these with parents. Sometimes, however, parents have to make the first move.

Patricia Barros realized that her six year-old daughter was protected at school from unwanted Internet content when she used the Goggle search engine, for instance. But then her daughter expected to use Goggle at home—and well, that was another story. The extensive tech system the school had in place for protective entry onto Goggle was not so easy to implement in a family home. Realizing this, Patricia and another concerned mother initiated a productive meeting with the school principal. Listen in to hear the positive results of one mother’s leadership and determination for a win-win home-school partnership around media/digital issues. Inspiring!

Gloria continues coaching Geri, a mom of three sons, ages 9, 11, and 13 about their use of their digital devices. In this session (the fourth of 12 coaching sessions) Geri shares her ideal reality related to her sons’ use of their i-pads, i-pods, video games, and the Internet. She explains what she really wants—more than anything—and explains how that would feel if she experienced it. Articulating and feeling our dream means that we then can begin to work toward it. (Listen to the three previous podcasts to catch up with Geri.)

Please Note: You hear a portion of a one-hour coaching session. We can’t record the entire session, but we give you the important gist. For more information about PCI Parent Coaching, please contact: [email protected].