Blog Posts by Common Sense Media

By Julia D. Akpan, Common Sense Media editor

Common Sense MediaThe final school bell rings, and kids stream out of the building with nothing on their minds but three months of lying on the grass, riding bikes, going away to camp, and hours and hours of unsupervised Web surfing ... wait, what?

Welcome to summer vacation 2012, where your kids may be envisioning a vacation packed with tech time. Since you want fun, safe, and enriching places for your kid to visit, we've rounded up some of the most popular websites for kids, along with great parent tips to help you manage their experience.

Twitter

At this micro-blogging social networking site, kids can follow celebrities, friends, organizations, and even companies like Nike or charities like Greenpeace. Kids over 13 can tweet for themselves, too. Because Twitter is easily connected to other social media outlets, teens' tweets immediately show up on their Facebook page -- or their friends' smartphones.

• Keep an eye out: Take a look

By Regan McMahon, Common Sense Media Editor

Common Sense MediaFinding the right book for your kid can be a challenge. But if you guess right and keep new ones coming, you may be on your way to raising a lifelong reader.

Every month we highlight a few books for different ages -- some exceptional titles that could be the perfect thing to perk your kid's interest, get your reader hooked on a new author, or rediscover an old favorite. Here are our picks for May:

• For kids 3 to 7, there's Oliver, by Judith Rossell, a picture book that celebrates a young boy's irrepressible imagination. Oliver is curious about everything, peppering his mom with questions about penguins and his suspicion that there's a monster below the bathtub drain because he hears it gurgling. A do-it-yourself kind of kid, he fashions a submarine out of cardboard and tape and goes down the drain on an adventure that leads him to friendly vacationing penguins. Kids will find many amusing details in Rossell's fanciful

By Sandie Angulo Chen, Common Sense Media Reviewer

Summer Movie Preview

With sequels, explosive superhero adventures, and eye-popping animated flicks taking over theaters this summer, it might be hard to decide what will be worth your family's time (and money!). From the highly anticipated Marvel "dream team" blockbuster The Avengers to fresh fun with the Madagascar and Ice Age gangs, here's a month-by-month cheat sheet to help you decide which high-profile movies will be age appropriate for your kids.

May

The Avengers (May 4)
Target Age: Older Tweens and Teens
What's the Buzz: What's better than a superhero flick? A movie about a group of superheroes, from sweet Captain America (Chris Evans) and burly Thor (Chris Hemsworth) to rakish Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and green-with-anger Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). This Marvel "dream team" unites to save the Earth from the nefarious Loki and his legions of destruction. Expect epic tween interest -- and plenty of comic book-style mayhem.

Recently, my 5-year-old and I walked into a room full of kids playing video games at a birthday party. "You suck!" shouted one kid to another. "I'm going to kick your ass!" the kid yelled back. My son looked up at me with wide eyes -- he was shocked, and I think, a bit thrilled to see bigger kids using words that he still considers taboo.

For my part, I was glad he was shocked. It hasn't been easy keeping swearing out of my kids' lives.

For one thing, my husband and I can let a few strong words fly when we're frustrated or forget we're in the company of kids. And some of the TV shows my kids watch on Saturday mornings tend to pepper the action with words like "stupid" and "jerk."

As kids get older, they come across strong language in everything from YouTube videos to online comments. And lately, the amount of swearing on some of tweens' and teens' favorite TV shows seems to have bumped up a few notches. Preschool-age character

By Sierra Filucci, Common Sense Media Reviewer
With its abundant outdoor play area and passionate teachers, my kids' school seemed like an oasis from the modern world of electronic entertainment. But when I picked my kids up from their after-school program, I was sometimes surprised to find them watching movies instead of drawing, reading, or playing outside. At first I chalked it up to the fact that the rain had made the play area pretty muddy. But when it happened again on a sunny day, I got angry.

Not only do they get enough time with movies and TV on the weekends, but I didn't like the idea that I was paying someone to watch them watch movies. Besides, I didn't have any control over which movies my kids were seeing. What if something scared my son? What if my daughter had questions about what she just saw? What kinds of guidance were they getting after the movies ended? Was I going to have to leave all of this to chance?

Despite feeling a bit nervous about taking my

By Caroline Knorr, Common Sense Media Reviewer
thinkstock One of the biggest surprises about raising kids in today's media-and-tech-filled world is that it's not the shadowy, dangerous place we've been warned about. Yes, there's iffy stuff out there, but much of what kids can discover is enriching, inspiring, practical, helpful, and fun.

That doesn't mean that you can let your kids loose with no limits or guidance. A big part of parenting today involves knowing what your kids are doing online, teaching them to be responsible and respectful, and helping them make good choices. In other words, teaching them to participate constructively and age appropriately.

Spurred by new research and new thinking -- and a strong impulse for spring cleaning -- we're challenging the conventional wisdom about managing kids' entertainment.

Brush the cobwebs off the old thinking, and usher in some fresh new ideas about how to manage everything from the Internet to iTunes.

Television:

Old think: TV

Being on the road -- whether for a family holiday or a long commute -- requires a certain kind of soundtrack. Songs about freedom and yearning, especially if they're easy to sing along to, make perfect highway partners. Check out these tunes for some road-friendly picks.

By Caroline Knorr, Common Sense Media Reviewer
If the long winter months have sent your kid into the arms of Facebook, Angry Birds, or Sesame Street reruns, it's time for a little spring cleaning. Thankfully, cleaning up your media act is a lot more fun than figuring out how all those insect wings landed in that weird space in the attic.

The first step is taking stock of the stuff your kid is watching, playing, and downloading. We'll help you figure out what to keep (the good stuff), what to toss (the not-so-good stuff), and what you, as a parent, can "give away" (support strategies for every age).

Stay tuned for the next installment, where we'll tackle the issues that come up and provide handy resources for problem solving.

Ages 2-4

Movies, television, Internet: If your toddler's day includes Yo Gabba Gabba for breakfast, an app for lunch, and a Cars chaser after dinner, you may be over relying on flashy screens to keep your little one entertained. It's an easy pattern