Get Your Ears Ready! Sync 2019 Starts on April 25th!

It's almost time for another summer of free audiobooks from Sync! Yes, they're specifically directed at teens, but I've been enjoying them for several years, too. I check out YA books from the library, too.

Every weekSync gives away two free audiobooks in themed pairs, often a current book paired with a classic. The program is a great way to get exposure to many different types of books. And audiobooks make it possible to read and do other things at the same time!

Unlike library books, these audiobooks are yours to keep, but you'll only have one week to download each pair. So be sure you have Overdrive on your computer so you'll be ready to start downloading. And sign up for email alerts or text syncya to 25827 to receive text alerts about all the featured titles.

2019 titles:

Who's excited?

Free Audiobooks All Summer Long

Once again SYNC is offering two free audiobooks - a current Young Adult title paired thematically with a Classic or Required Summer Reading title - each week all summer long.

It begins the week of May 15 – May 21 with

• WARP: THE RELUCTANT ASSASSIN by Eoin Colfer, Narrated by Maxwell Caulfield (Listening Library) and
• THE TIME MACHINE by H.G. Wells, Narrated by Derek Jacobi (Listening Library)

and continues through the week of August 7- August 13.  Here's the entire Summer 2014 Sync title list.  There are some I'm really looking forward to!

Be sure to sign up for email and/or text alerts to get reminders when the new titles are available.  Just enter your email address on the site or text syncya to 25827.

Please Note: Signing up for the alerts will not send you the titles.  The alerts will simply tell you when and where the title is available to download.

Download Details
• Downloads are in MP3 format, hosted by OverDrive, and are Mac and Windows compatible.
• Downloads will operate through OverDrive’s Media Console.
• Most listening devices are supported.
• Each SYNC audiobook will be available for download for a period of 7 days (only).
• Titles, once downloaded, are yours to keep.


I'm currently listening to one of the books I got from SYNC last year, but I can't wait to download some new ones this summer.  How about you?

Related articles

• Free YA Audiobooks from SYNC - 2014 Summer listening schedule

Help Your Child Make Good Life Choices

Do you have high school-age children young people in your house who are struggling to find a purpose and a path in life?  Who are trying to decide what to study in college - or even to go to college - and what career path they should follow?

It's hard as a parent to watch this without really knowing how to direct these young people.  Sometimes career counseling and guidance at school works, but if your school is anything like the school my kids went to, the guidance they receive leaves a lot to be desired.

There's a new program from www.brilliantu.com called "The Right Me" that promises to help young people find out the answers for themselves.  The program is designed to aid school aged children and young adults (and their parents) in achieving the student's full potential.  The Right Me leads students on a journey to discover their own inner strengths, develop confidence, and attain the self-knowledge that will enable them to make the right choices.  The right choices for them

What’s been missing is a real understanding of who you are. It’s quite possible that nobody has ever helped you understand just who you are and how this affects the decisions you make.

The Right Me is not a computer printout – a piece of paper that tells them who they are, based on a series of multiple choice questions. The Right Me Journey will help young people FIND OUT FOR THEMSELVES, through a series of thoughtful and carefully crafted exercises, what really inspires and motivates them and what choices in life and career are right for them.

Please check it out and give it a try.  They offer a 30-day 100% money back guarantee, so there's really nothing to lose - and a bright future to be gained.

This post sponsored by The Right Me from www.brilliantu.com.

Choosing the Wrong Friends

I was just reading this website on teen drug treatment and saw where it says that peer pressure is one of the big reasons why teens start taking drugs.  It seems to work that way, because from some of the things Beth has told me about her friends, even the best kids can get in with the wrong crowd and make a whole lot of bad choices.  One of her friends who seemed like such a nice guy back in high school has apparently been in jail for drug possession and maybe even dealing.  And it sounds like so many of her other friends have at least experimented with drugs, and some of them could really benefit from teen drug rehab.

I don't know all the teen drug statistics, but on the surface it would seem that teens living in a small town would be less likely to get addicted to drugs than teens in the big city.  Apparently that's not the case - teens from anywhere can be at risk.  Thankfully, even though she hasn't always made the best choices when it comes to friends, and other things, Beth has avoided drugs.  At least I choose to believe her when she says so, especially when I see how upset she gets when Tim's so-called friends want him to smoke weed with them.  Maybe his 'friends' should look into teen Marijuana rehab?  Except that they're no longer teens, and they don't seem to want to quit.  This is, apparently, what they want to do with their lives.  Sad.

Unfortunately, as long as Tim considers them friends, Beth is going to have to deal with the whole thing.  She's not really having to deal with her high school friends and all their issues because she doesn't see them much anymore, not since she started dating Tim - but that's a whole other issue.

Heat

True to form, the first week of band camp, in this case, the only week of band camp, is hot, hot, hot and sunny! All those sunburned band members! It really has me wondering - why does band camp not start until 10am? Wouldn't it make more sense to start early and try to get some time in before it gets too hot? I suppose, we are talking about teenagers here. It's hard enough getting them out of bed in time to get them there at 10am (or 9:30 in our case - Mr. Drum Major has to be there before the band) - getting them going any sooner would take a miracle. It is summer, after all.

Resources

Beth thinks she should have more freedom than she has. Mostly it sounds like she wants to be free to do whatever she wants to do, and she doesn't feel that we have the right to ask her where she's going to be and who she's going to be with. I went looking for some information on dealing with teenagers because I really don't know how much freedom she should have. So far she hasn't shown that she deserves more freedom. Every time she does get to do something, she has to push the issue and wants more. It seems nothing is ever good enough. Then if she doesn't agree with something we tell her, she'll go ahead and do it anyway - and then it's all our fault because we shouldn't have told her no in the first place. When she gets in trouble, she gets upset with us and doesn't seem to understand she did anything wrong. If there were no rules, then she wouldn't be able to break them, and then she'd never get in trouble. At least that seems to be her logic.

Some online resources on raising teenagers that I want to check out more:

• Raising Successful Teenagers
• When Your Teen Rejects Your Values