Here are five ways to get their minds and bodies moving this spring!

Tuesday, January 22 marks the start of National Drug and Alcohol Facts Week – an excellent opportunity to start–or continue–the conversation about underage drinking with your kids and students.

What I’ve figured out this year is that the balance between have to and want to, between freedom and responsibility, starts with trust. I earned the right to be responsible for my precious, messy, ridiculous family because I showed up every day ready to do the work required to take care of them. Now my kids get the chance to step up and do more for themselves, and as they do that, I will step back. It’s not easy to do, and I know mistakes will happen. Responsibility is a gift to my kids because it means I have to trust and let go, having faith that things will be OK because my kids have good sense and kind hearts.

Responsibility comes is so many shapes and sizes, and it is what Ask, Listen, Learn is built upon. Throughout the year, the Ask, Listen, Learn program strives to give you—educators and parents—the information you need to encourage kids to say YES to a healthy lifestyle and NO to underage drinking.

And, as it turns out, what we all really wanted was to actually BE together.

Earlier this year, during Alcohol Responsibility Month, I was excited to hear that I was the winner of Ask, Listen, Learn’s “IN ACTION” contest. As such, I was able to select the education conference of my choice to attend, compliments of Responsibility.org and this awesome underage drinking prevention program.

The one thing that shouldn’t freak you out? Conversations with your kids about how to avoid risky behavior!

Here’s a tip for making yourself an easy person for an older kid to talk to: When they suddenly want to tell you stuff at eleven o’clock on a Tuesday night, and you’re exhausted and have a meeting in the morning and the kitchen still needs to get cleaned up and YOU KNOW in your heart they’re only talking to you to avoid going to sleep? Have the conversation anyway.

Conversations about topics such as this “digital balance” can help build strong bonds with your kids. They help develop trust, show them you care, and open up gates to other conversations.

The 2018 evaluation of Ask, Listen, Learn has demonstrated it as an effective program in increasing students’ knowledge concerning brain function and how their developing brains process and are affected by alcohol.