Knowing My Teenager
This activity was designed for the families of our newly admitted students who will begin our school in August 2012. The students are 11 to 13 years old. Teachers and school administrators have observed in other generations that parents of adolescents are astonished when informed of the actions of their children both with their peers and with teachers and authorities. They argue that they know their child perfectly well and do not recognize such behavior. They sometimes even doubt that we are telling the truth regarding their child's academic performance. This led us to create a workshop for parents, which includes reading excerpts from research reports regarding adolescents and their behaviors in this period of their life. The goal is to help parents to identify and understand these seemly incongruent behaviors, which are a normal part of the growth and maturity process. We hope this will help parents with the challenge of coping with these changing behaviors of their adolescents. In addition this exchange will also prove valuable in fostering the exchange of ideas and the relationship between families whose children will enter our school in the near future.