If visions of smartphones are dancing through your child’s head this holiday season, you are not alone! But before you buy, we want to encourage you that there is a growing market of alternative products to consider. There are lots of choices—here are just a few options to kickstart your research!

Thinking of trying a device-free Thanksgiving table? Check out these tips and tricks from our friends at The Family Dinner Project. Happy Thanksgiving from START, where we believe that the good old days are yet to come.

When Tim McCoy, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania West Soccer Association, reached out to share some side effects of how technology is changing the world of youth sports, we were all ears. But then, an incident happened that he could not ignore. We are thankful for his willingness to share it with the START community, in hopes that by standing together, we can rethink ways to keep our kids safe and healthy on the field—and beyond.

When it comes to technology, we recommend a driver’s ed approach – one that you can apply even to individual apps like TikTok, and we’re now offering a second tool to help you get started: a Parent’s Guide to TikTok We hope this info is helpful for all families, but we especially recommend this guide for parents of elementary age children.

When it comes to technology, we recommend a driver’s ed approach – one that you can apply even to individual apps like Snapchat, and we’re now offering a free Parent’s Guide to Snapchat to help you get started! We hope this info is helpful for all families, but we especially recommend this guide for parents of elementary age children.

At START, we want to help parents take a “driver’s ed” approach when helping kids learn to drive in the digital world. We call this process “Ride. Practice. Drive.” It’s a simple, but powerful tool you can pull out the next time your child or teen asks for a new app or smart device. Here’s how it works.

One of our START Rules of Thumb is: Ride. Practice. Drive… use a driver’s ed approach to tech training. The idea is that before your kid is ready to drive a smart device independently, there is a learner’s permit season—where you log hours in the passenger seat, coaching them for the road. Not sure where to start coaching? We loved these tips from Melissa Griffin, also known as “HR Mom.”