Parent Connection–September 2026
What to Encourage for this Season:
Prov 13:20 - Walk with the wise and become wise; associate with fools and get in trouble.
One of the most important things we can do this season is to use our influence to help our students get into circles with wise people so they can become wise. If we don’t, they could end up in circles of foolish friends and get into all sorts of trouble. So how can we do that?
1. Prioritize getting students to friendship-forming events like Impact, Focus, D groups, and extended time events so that they can form friendships with both wiser adult youth leaders and peers headed in the same wise directions.
2. Offer to help your student get to hangouts (usually means driving them) or host hangouts with healthy friends. (And maybe not offering to drive your student to hang out with foolish friends.
Monthly Parent Tip: Back to Basics
I pick up my kid every Monday & Wednesday from TCC, and I often fall into the trap of asking bad questions like, “How was school today?'“ I ask bad questions so I get one word bad answers. Here are some I’m trying to incorporate into my vocabulary this month to try to get better answers.
Focusing on Highs and Lows
· "What was the most frustrating part of your day?"
· "If you could re-do one moment from today, what would it be?"
· "What made you laugh today?"
Focusing on Curiosity and Learning
· "What is one new thing you learned today that surprised you?"
· "Did anyone ask a really interesting question in class today?"
· "What was the most peaceful or quiet part of your day?"
Focusing on Social Interactions
· "Did you see anyone do something kind today?"
· "Who was the funniest person in your class today?"
Playful & Hypothetical Questions
· "If you could swap places with your teacher for 10 minutes tomorrow, what rule would you make?"
Got a good question to ask? Share it with me!
How I’m Using AI This Month: Formatting EVERYTHING
Man, I use AI now to do all the stuff I used to do the hard way. For example, I used to highlight rows using a complicated conditional formatting code, so when I marked a value as Yes, it would highlight the whole row in green. I used to never spend time on colors, but now I simply ask AI to make my Word Documents more appealing, and presto, it adds color to them.
What I’m Enjoying This Month!
So my kids dig audiobooks. So I’ve been enjoying loading episodes of Story Hour onto my kids' iPods so they can learn about history and enjoy truly engaging, inspiring stories. Check it out for yourself here. https://www.yourstoryhour.org/listen-for-free
Jon’s Game of the Month:
Don’t Llama - While I don’t love the formatting for this game (I printed a new 3d box for it), I do enjoy the upgraded gameplay. It is like Uno and 5 Crowns had a baby, and it is a lighthearted, fun game to play. Highly recommended if you can find a copy.
My September question for All Parents is this:
What is a big question or topic your teenager has brought up lately that you'd love us to address at youth group?