Journaling

Tips to Keep Your Body Healthy

1. Mix up your tasks, so you’re not sitting in the same position for hours and making the same types of movements over a long period of time — potentially putting yourself at risk of carpal tunnel syndrome (trust me, I know!).

2. Don’t tense your hands as you’re typing. Try to remain as relaxed as possible.

3. Stand up and walk around every so often. Your body isn’t designed to sit still for long periods at a time. Try some light stretching exercises every 20-30 minutes.

4. Follow the 20-20-20 rule for your eyes! Click here to watch a video on what to do! Give your eyes a rest from time to time, too. We don’t blink as much as we should when looking at screens and that leads to eye strain. For every 20 minutes you work, you should take a 20 second break to look at something 20 feet away.

5. Avoid fatigue (being super tired) and take care of your body when you’re not working at your computer. Enjoy a good night’s sleep on a nightly basis and eat a good, well-balanced diet. Participate in regular exercise to support proper functioning of your body and brain. It also makes you more flexible and able to better handle the strain of sitting and working at a computer for long periods.

6. Maintain a neutral neck posture by placing the top of the chromebook screen at about eye level. It is very easy to hurt your neck if you spend too much time looking down at your screen (phones included!)

Parent Corner

AWESOME ADVICE

• MCMS Parent Handbook

• Ultimate Guide: How to Survive Middle School—for Parents

• 6 Steps to Avoid Over-worrying and Helicopter Parenting

• Parenting Guides (scroll down for Middle School and click on each article)