Parent Connection –June 2026
What to Encourage for June 2026:
In June, we went to summer camp and are planning a series for June and July all about healthy friendships.
#1 - Spend time with friends!
Look for opportunities to connect your student with healthy church friends. That’s things like upcoming sports camps, Family events, signing up for VBStogether, going swimming, watching the World Cup, attending a middle school girl’s Bible study (led by Brianna Freeman), or so many more things. The goal is to ask your student who they enjoy spending time with. And then help facilitate what’s happening.
#2 - Encourage Friendships Over Crushes
While crushes are healthy and normal, encouraging them is not. In fact, if a student has a boyfriend or girlfriend in Middle or high school, it hampers much of what we are trying to do in youth ministry. We will be exploring this more this Summer, but in the meantime, help me by having healthy conversations about leaning into healthy friendships during the middle and high school years.
#3 - Grace University
Samson and just finished our Grace University Class called “Drowning in Dopamine,” all about how screen time is rapidly replacing family time, and it is rewiring our brains in how we relate to others. If you are interested in the recording, send me an email, and I’ll share it with you! Also, we are starting a monthly book club as an action step from this class, and our next meeting will be July 12 at 6:30 pm (Dessert provided).
Monthly Parent Tip: Set Goals
We are in the middle of Summer break. I’ve been asking my kids to make a list of the things they want to accomplish this Summer. Do they want to do the summer reading club, learn to crochet, learn to play bass, play every game in the game closet, or a bunch of other things? The point is I’m not setting the goals for them, but I want them to consider the time they have this summer and aim at a goal and hit it! Eph 5:16 says to make the most of every opportunity, and so let’s help our students see the value of setting goals and hitting them!
How I’m using AI this Month: Editing PDFs
I’ve been using Claude Co-worker, but most AIs can take something and update it. So, for example, if I need to change a PDF and don’t have access to Adobe Acrobat, I simply tell Claude to change the PDF for me. As an example, we got a poster for one of the overseas workers we were encouraging, and it had a typo in it inside the PDF version. I had Claude fix it for me in about 30 seconds.
What I’m Enjoying this Month!
The World Cup in America, of course! But in addition, I’m a huge fan of cooperative games. For video games, I love Let’s Cook 2 or Overcooked. All you can eat is a classic great. For board games, I love many, including Pandemic, Mission: Crew, and Fable Fury (kids are begging for a round of that with me tomorrow). The cool thing about cooperative is that you win or lose together, and so you don’t have to be perfectly evenly matched, and the goal is to encourage your partner to do better and cheer them on instead of beating them.
Jon’s Game of the Month:
I’m a huge gamer and love playing computer games and board games, especially when they bring people together, as most games should. So here’s my game of the month: Mission - The Crew - If you like Spades and want a cooperative take, then try this one out! It is a lot of fun laughing with (and at) your friends as they goof up a mission and you have to restart.
My June question for All Parents is this:
I’m planning our Fall retreat(s), and I’m interested in knowing what one thing you would like to see included during a fall retreat this Fall?
