Parents, the Anti-Drug

A media campaign has been underfoot for some time touting involved parents as the anti-drug (www.theantidrug.com/).  At this website, information about 15 classes of drugs is available in 6 languages.  Time can be set aside in class to surf the site with students, focusing on a different page every other day.  The following activities may be used to complement the site.

Back to school play day for parents: April 16 is a Friday this year and the day after Tax Day.  Parents need a chance to destress and what better way than to spend 30-45 minutes playing with their children.  Send out invitations in advance and play up the month's theme (i.e., how meaningful it would be to students to have their parents come and hang out with them for a little while) and the chance to have fun the day after a major stress is relieved.  Activities can include lifetime activities (e.g., dance, golf, walking) or sports (e.g., 4 v 4 mother-son/father-daughter/etc. basketball).

Thanks Mom/Dad!:  In the ad campaign for Parents/the Anti-Drug, several commercials show parents asking their children questions that show they are concerned, involved, and aware.  The children resent the questioning but at the end of the commercial thank their parents for caring.  Students can write a card of thanks to a parent for being the anti-drug.  It can be combined with the VERB campaign (described on a separate page in this Interdisciplinary column) to identify the many things parents do with their children that show support and love.