Recent tragic events brought out this article by Robyn Sandoval of A Girl & A Gun. Robyn dives into topics to Initiate the Conversation, Make It Age Appropriate, Calm Their Fears, Invite Them to Help, Help Them Make Good Decisions, Give Them Equipment and Training, and then Revisit the Conversation. It is a MUST read, she did an excellent job communicating helpful points to discuss w your kids. Thank you Robyn for choosing Smart Choices as an avenue to help parents communicate and help children make smart choices.

When a tragic shooting takes place at a school, many parents struggle with how to address it with their children. It is a challenge to reassure your child that school is a safe place, and at the same time review emergency protocols so that they feel safe that they have a plan in place if something happens.“For the majority of students, school is a safe and supporting environment,” Dr. Robin Gurwitch, a licensed clinical psychologist and professor at Duke University Medical Center, told ABC News in 2018, after the Parkland tragedy.

In this article, parents learn how to discuss the news with your children and some ideas for age-appropriate training that can help them stay safe.

I just finished working with one of my students using the Smart Choices Image Cards. I use them as a jumping off place that creates space to talk about hard things.

I’m a tutor in Minnesota and like to incorporate Smart Choices in my writing exercises with my students. I give them time to look at the card, formulate what is happening in the picture on the card and then ask them open ending questions about what the card means to them.

I use the Five W approach with my questions….Who, What, Where, When and Why to explore the possibilities of each scenario on the card. Then I ask them to write paragraph describing their response to the card.

Today my 7th grade student shared about how hard it is on social media at his school. “we see things that just aren’t meant to be seen”, he told me today as we talked about sending or receiving inappropriate photos on our phones.

• We talked about acknowledging healthy boundaries before even engaging on social media apps.
• We both wondered out loud what we would do if certain things came our way on our phones. What would we do and at what point do we get a trusted adult involved or even the authorities.
• We talked about the compounding effect of sending one photo to a friend, and so on, and so on, and so on….and what we could be responsible for when sending inappropriate texts.

​Thank you to Smart Choices for giving my students exposure to real-life scenarios that prepare them, just enough, that when the time comes, they may think, “Hey, I’ve seen this before and already know what I am going to do!” 

Steph Schrope 
Minnesota Tutor