5 bad habits that stop kids from reaching their full potential

Happy Tuesday!

An especially big welcome to the 7,405 parents who have joined us in the last week. We remain one of the fastest-growing parent communities on the internet with 70,000+ parents joining since launch 🙌

In case you’re new here, Prequel is the free weekly newsletter for parents who want their kids to succeed. We give you weekly insights on how your children can get ahead ― in school and in life.

We’ve got lots to tell you, so let’s dive right in. Here’s what you’ll get today:

💡 Valuable things kids don’t learn in school

⚡️ 2 short lessons

🚀 3 tools to boost your teen’s productivity

💡 Valuable things kids don’t learn in school

Most schools are officially on summer break.

And suddenly, where your kids had rigid structure, they now have… nothing!

If you’re not intentional about maintaining good habits with your kids, it’ll be easy for them to slide into bad habits that will be tough to break come next school year.

Don’t let these behaviors become your kids’ new normal, and you’ll ensure that nothing is holding them back from reaching their full potential — this summer and beyond! 

5 bad habits that can hold your kids back (and how to break them out of it!):

1. Multitasking

There’s not a human being in this world who can effectively multitask, so don’t. Even people who think they can multitask actually show degraded cognitive capacity while multitasking.

When your kids want to get something done, whether that’s reading a book or working on a project, make sure they put their phones away, turn off the TV, and apply their full focus to just one task at a time.

2. Wasting time on social media

Social media can be a great way to stay connected with friends over the summer, and it can even be a way for your teen to start building a powerful network.

That said, it can also be a big time-waster when you use it mindlessly.

What are your kids’ goals this summer? What do they want to do with this free time? Will scrolling social media get them closer to that goal, or farther?

If it’s the latter, use apps like Screen Time to help your kids keep track of their phone time. They can even set time limits on apps — when the time is up, it’ll remind them and kick them out of the app until the next day.

3. Using tech before bed

Without early school start times, kids can sleep in (and stay up late!). While this is normal, it can also make it more tempting to use tech before bed. 

When you stay up until the wee hours of the morning scrolling on your phone, the blue light suppresses the production of melatonin and makes it harder to fall asleep and stay asleep. We should all be shutting off blue light 1-2 hours before bed.

If you absolutely must use your tech before bedtime, try downloading apps that will automatically turn off blue light in the evenings, so you don’t have to remember.

When we keep our sleep habits healthy, we’ll wake up ready to crush the day, every day.

4. Procrastinating

Summer feels endless — but in reality, it always goes by in a flash. If your kids want to accomplish something big this summer, they shouldn’t procrastinate!

Not to mention that those who procrastinate until the last second never end up achieving their goals.

Take some time to reverse-engineer your kids’ goals. What needs to be done each day to get to the end result? How can you break it down into small, doable steps? 

5. Not getting enough regular exercise

It can be tempting to spend the summer indoors, watching TV and scrolling on TikTok. But it’s important for kids to stay active — research recommends kids move for at least an hour a day.

Exercise can be a family endeavor, too — try taking a family walk after dinner or simply doing a YouTube workout in the living room together.

Exercise has been proven to improve school performance. So starting a movement habit this summer will set your kid up for success come next school year!

Parents - would you add anything to this list? We want to hear from you! Feel free to reply to this e-mail with your suggestions and feedback.

⚡️ 2 Tutorials

1. 3 ways to prepare kids for success with ChatGPT (link)

2. The top skills kids need to learn now to thrive as adults (link)

🚀 3 Tools To Boost Your Teen’s Productivity

P.S. This week, all of our featured AI tools were created by students!

1. How one student used ChatGPT to create a video game (link)

2. AskElle — a chatbot trained on Alpha School student Elle’s teen dating advice

3. CoachBot — a chatbot trained to get students into the Ivy League

Thanks for reading!

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Until next time,
Ivy
CEO Prequel, BETA Camp, Apollo
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