Get your preteen to follow some simple school-week routines and you won't just make this school year run more smoothly. You will also be teaching her responsibility by putting her largely in charge of her own schedule.

Here are three areas where responsibility-boosting routines are especially useful:

1. Homework. Your preteen will probably have some every day, so teach her to take charge of it! Encourage her to hit the books at the same time each afternoon and suggest she work in the same spot. And wherever her "homework spot" may be, remind her to stock it with paper, pens and other supplies.
2. Bedtime. Along with showering and brushing her teeth, suggest that your preteen go over a "mental checklist" before bed each night. Are her clothes for tomorrow laid out? Is her backpack ready and waiting? Did she have you sign any and all permission slips or forms?
3. Morning. Hopefully, your child's bedtime routine will minimize scrambling in the morning. Still, it's good for her to follow a regular ritual in the morning, too, such as: "Wake up, eat breakfast, get dressed and go." But if that doesn't keep her from rushing around frantically, have her set her alarm clock to go off 15 minutes earlier.

Reprinted with permission from the September 2010 issue of Parents Still make the difference!® (Middle School Edition) newsletter. Copyright © 2010 The Parent Institute®, a division of NIS, Inc.

It's hard to overstress the importance of your child's regular school attendance. One of your responsibilities as a parent is to get your child to school every day unless there is illness or an emergency.

This is essential because:

• Your child risks poor or failing grades if not at school.
• Learning builds every day on what is learned the day before. This routine is interrupted when students only show up part of the time.
• The whole school can suffer. Schools get state and federal money based on average daily attendance. When attendance goes down, so does the funding a school receives.
• Your child's life as an adult depends a lot on whether he has a high school diploma. If your child misses too many days of school, he may not be able to get a diploma.
• Much research shows that students who skip school will also skip other commitments, like days of work.

Reprinted with permission from the September 2010 issue of Parents Still make the difference!® (Middle School Edition) newsletter. Copyright © 2010 The Parent Institute®, a division of NIS, Inc. Source: "School Attendance: Issues to Consider," Great Schools, www.greatschools.org/parenting/behavior-discipline/school-attendance-issues.gs?content=644.

Peer Pressure

Talk to your middle schoolers about dealing with peer pressure

Peer pressure may be unpleasant, but it's also extremely common--especially in middle school. So what can you do about peer pressure? Teach your preteen strategies for handling it. The better he gets at deflecting pressure from friends, the more immune he may become to it.

Of course, he first needs to understand what it is, so have a conversation about it. "When kids try to get you to do something that you know you shouldn't, that's peer pressure." Things he might be pressured into doing include trying alcohol or drugs, smoking or shoplifting.

Once your preteen is clear on what peer pressure looks like, teach him strategies to combat it. Your child should:

• Think before he acts. Is the thing he's being asked to try really worth it? How will he feel about himself if he gives in?
• Laugh it off. Humor is great for defusing tension. "Yeah, I'd love to steal that CD, but then I'd be grounded for about a thousand years!"
• Firmly say no. Sometimes an assertive "no" is all it takes to make peers back off. Help your preteen practice saying it to you until he feels confident enough to say it to them.

Reprinted with permission from the September 2010 issue of Parents Still make the difference!® (Middle School Edition) newsletter. Copyright © 2010 The Parent Institute®, a division of NIS, Inc. Source: Harriet S. Mosatche, Ph.D. and Karen Unger, M.A., Too Old for This, Too Young for That! Your Survival Guide for the Middle-School Years, ISBN: 1-57542-067-8, Free Spirit Publishing.

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Homework in middle school as opposed to elementary school can usually be summed up with the word more. There is more of it, it is given more frequently and it is more complex.

You can help your child make a successful transition if you:

• Know what your child is doing after school. If you are not at home, have a system through which he checks in frequently.
• Make sure your child has a place that suits him for doing homework. His nook should be comfortable and well lit.
• Tell your child that his schoolwork is important to you because your family values education.
• Set up a schedule. Some children don't need this, but many do. Homework is more likely to get done if the words: "Do homework from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m." are written down in a prominent place in your home.
• Encourage your child to set goals. Example: Do five math problems daily for weekly assignment. If I complete this goal, I will be done with math by Friday and have my weekend free.
• Teach your child to plan ahead for large assignments. Have a calendar for writing down due dates. Break up the assignment into chunks and have a due date for each chunk. That way your child will not be doing everything the night before the project is due.

Reprinted with permission from the September 2010 issue of Parents Still make the difference!® (Middle School Edition) newsletter. Copyright © 2010 The Parent Institute®, a division of NIS, Inc. Source: Sydney S. Zentall and Sam Goldstein, Seven Steps to Homework Success, ISBN: 1-886941-22-X, Specialty Press, Inc.