Amid after-school activities — homework, dinner prep, baths and bedtime — it can be hard for parents and children to make time to talk.

While Georgia’s school kids are just getting into the swing of summer break, specialists with University of Georgia Cooperative Extension, Georgia 4-H and the UGA College of Family and Consumer Sciences are preparing for August.

When toy shopping for children, shopping at your favorite store or clicking a button online involves a certain responsibility. It’s important to choose wisely when buying holiday toys to make sure your gifts aren’t an unintentional safety hazard.

Georgia 4-H inspires kids to do — to do community service, go to new places and to learn new skills. Georgians across the state are celebrating everything 4-H’ers do during National 4-H Week on Oct. 7-13. What started as a club for farm kids has grown into the nation’s largest youth leadership organization — a place where school-aged children learn to become successful and confident adults.

Kids say the darnedest things, and with the advent of smart speakers, what they say can have some unforeseen consequences.

Between after-school activities, homework and other obligations, kids have a lot of competition for the time they should devote to sleep. Many kids — and adults, for that matter — don’t get enough sleep. On average, high school students need between seven and 11 hours of sleep. For younger kids, even more time is needed: 12 hours for school-age kids, 13 hours for preschoolers and close to 14 hours for toddlers.

New backpacks, jeans, and boxes of markers and crayons can help get kids ready to go back to school, but how should parents mentally prepare their children?

While it's hard to imagine middle schoolers living on their own or heading off to college, students need to begin to think about their future education and career goals when they’re in middle school.

Students today spend more time online than anywhere else, so it’s not a surprise that some of the worst behavior adults remember from their own teenage years — gossiping and bullying — has followed students online and into their newly built social networks.