How to Parent in a Digital World: Resources
Family Minecraft Policy (Google Docs version here)
Family Support Form Responses (copy this to your Google Drive so you can adapt it to your family’s needs. For help, see How to copy a Google Form)
iOS 12: Getting to Know Screen Time & Stronger Parental Controls (for iPhone/iPad)
The Complete Guide to Setting up Parental Controls in Windows
How to use Parental Controls in Windows 8
How to Use Parental Controls in OS X to Protect Your Kids
4 Ways to Set up Parental Controls on Your Home Network
Parental Control Tools That Cover Every Device In Your Home
Rock Bottom
When we finally pulled Peanut out of public school at the end of Grade 2, I thought we’d reached rock bottom. We had a 7-year-old with a basket of diagnoses and labels: anxiety, ADHD, sensory processing issues, tic disorder, fine motor lags and a 99.99th percentile...
Telling tales about my autistic son
Introducing The Peanut Diaries: dedicated to sharing the experience of raising our gifted, autistic son.
Now on JSTOR: A Novel Defense of the Internet
Like the Internet, the novel was once viewed as a colossal waste of time. My post for JSTOR Daily looks at how fiction became respectable — and how the Internet can, too.
How people feel about sharing a name online
Thanks to the Internet, more and more of us have digital doubles: people who share our name, and may often be confused with us. I try to keep track of all the other people out there named "Alexandra Samuel", and yet I also feel vaguely uncomfortable with the fact that...
TV for every occasion: shows for family viewing, multitasking and more
The problem with the golden age of TV is that with so many choices, it’s hard to know what to watch. This guide and cheat sheet helps you choose the right shows for four different occasions: dedicated viewing, multitasking, working out and family viewing.
Where to find the best shows
Where to find my favorite shows via streaming or download.
How to tone down your tech
If you’re looking for a little online sanity, there are better options than a digital fast. My first post for the Headspace blog shares five great alternatives.
How to raise a white hat hacker
Today in the Christian Science Monitor’s Passcode, I look at what it takes to turn a curious, tech-minded kid into an ethical hacker.
A Robot By Any Other Name
What the research on artificial intelligence tells us about why and how we humanize the devices in our lives.
The 9 stages of special needs parenting
Today I went through my monthly ritual of looking for even more Facebook parent groups to join, in the hope that somewhere is the group of people who will understand our exact set of challenges -- or better yet, have the right set of solutions. It suddenly struck me:...