Connecting Families

New technologies are radically changing the way that families connect with one another: we can text our teenagers from work, eat dinner with far-away parents via video link, and instantly upload and share photos after a family day out. Whether we are bridging time or distance, and whether we are enhancing our closest relationships or strengthening the bonds of extended family, as computer technologies alter the communication landscape, they in turn are changing the way we conduct and experience family life. This state of the art volume explores the impact of new communication systems on how families interact – how they share their lives and routines, engage in social touch, and negotiate being together or being apart – by considering a range of different family relationships that shape the nature of communication. Composed of three sections, the first looks at what is often the core of a ‘family’, the couple, to understand the impact of technology on couple relationships, communication, and feelings of closeness. The second section studies immediate families that have expanded beyond just the individual or couple to include children. Here, the emphasis is on connection for communication, coordination, and play. The third section moves beyond the immediate family to explore connections between extended, distributed family members. This includes connections between adult children and their parents, grandparents and grandchildren, and adult siblings. Here family members have grown older, moved away from ‘home’, and forged new families. Researchers, designers and developers of new communication technologies will find this volume invaluable. Connecting Families: The Impact of New Communication Technologies on Domestic Life brings together the most up-to-date studies to help in understanding how new communication technologies shape – and are shaped by – family life, and offers inspiration and guidance for design by making clear what families need and value from technological systems.

Are Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) connecting families? And what does this mean in terms of family routines, relationships, norms, work, intimacy and privacy? This edited collection takes a lifecourse and generational perspective covering theory, including posthumanism and strong structuration theory, and methodology, including digital and cross-disciplinary methods. It presents a series of case studies on topics such as intergenerational connections, work-life balance, transnational families, digital storytelling and mobile parenting. It will give students, researchers and practitioners a variety of tools to make sense of how ICTs are used, appropriated and domesticated in family life. These tools allow for an informed and critical understanding of ICTs and family dynamics.

This book " ... is a biography or partial history of the Freed and other Families ... who are in direct lineage of Jacob A[nglemoyer] Freed, of Elroy (formerly Franconiaville), Pa., ... and his descendants up to 1922 and part of 1923 of Johannes [John] Fried."--P. 15. Jacob Anglemoyer Freed, son of Joseph and Anna (Anglemoyer) Freed, was born 5 July 1851 on the family homestead " ... situated mostly in Franconia Township and partly on both sides of the North Branch of the Perkiomen Creek ... "--P. 46. in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. He married Lydia Lewis, daughter of Aaron Lewis of Franconia Township, on 4 January 1873. She died 20 August 1918. The arrival date of ancestor Johannes Fried, later know as John, in America is unknown. On 8 April 1724 he purchased land in " ... Van Bebber, now Skippack Township, in the vicinity of Lucon [Montgomery County, Pennsylvania] ... He died December 21st, aged 62 years, and is buried at the Lower Skippack Mennonite Meetinghouse."--P. 15. John Fried's wife's name, as listed in his will, was Christina. Descendants lived in Pennsylvania and else where.

A Powerful Approach to Bringing God's Grace to Kids Did you know that the way we deal (or don't deal) with our kids' misbehavior shapes their beliefs about themselves, the world, and God? Therefore it's vital to connect with their hearts--not just their minds--amid the daily behavior battles. With warmth and grace, Jim and Lynne Jackson, founders of Connected Families, offer four tried-and-true keys to handling any behavioral issues with love, truth, and authority. You will learn practical ways to communicate messages of grace and truth, how to discipline in a way that motivates your child, and how to keep your relationship strong, not antagonistic. Discipline is more than just a short-term attempt to modify your child's actions--it's a long-term investment to help them build faith, wisdom, and character for life. When you discover a better path to discipline, you'll find a more well-behaved--and well-believed--kid.

A comprehensive collection of essays from leading experts on family and community engagement The Wiley Handbook of Family, School, and Community Relationships in Educationbrings together in one comprehensive volume a collection of writings from leading scholars on family and community engagement to provide an authoritative overview of the field. The expert contributors identify the contemporary and future issues related to the intersection of students’ families, schools, and their communities. The Handbook’s chapters are organized to cover the topic from a wide-range of perspectives and vantage points including families, practitioners, policymakers, advocates, as well as researchers. In addition, the Handbook contains writings from several international researchers acknowledging that school, family, and community partnerships is a vital topic for researchers and policymakers worldwide. The contributors explore the essential issues related to the policies and sociopolitical concerns, curriculum and practice, leadership, and the role of families and advocates. This vital resource: Contains a diverse range of topics related to the field Includes information on current research as well as the historical origins Projects the breadth and depth of the field into the future Fills a void in the current literature Offers contributions from leading scholars on family and community engagement Written for faculty and graduate students in education, psychology, and sociology, The Wiley Handbook of Family, School, and Community Relationships in Educationis a comprehensive and authoritative guide to family and community engagement with schools.

This book provides a comprehensive review of how digital communication technology can help families network and communicate across generations, despite differences in family composition, residential location, cultural values and orientations. Covering the full spectrum of intergenerational relations (including child to parent, and parent to grandparent), it offers a positive view of the value of digital technology usage within families. The author focuses on three European countries: Finland, Italy and Slovenia, but also touches on other European countries and parts of the United States, revealing evidence that challenges ideas of universal adoption of information communication technology (ICT) and consistency in the social effects of such adoption in different regions and cultures. Further, the book discusses numerous other challenges and issues, such as: • the social transformations and technological developments that have made digital families possible; • the resulting changes in family roles, responsibilities, and practices; and • the theoretical and conceptual implications of digital communication-technology use in families. The author illustrates how ICT can facilitate family solidarity and how it helps to provide new ways of being together, and they discuss how social media, particularly instant messaging applications, helps develop affinity between family members better than traditional one-to-one personal communication tools. Combining highly nuanced material with fresh sociological thinking, it enhances readers’ theoretical understanding of the meaning of the ‘digital family’, making it a powerful resource for graduate and undergraduate students, as well as academics. Thanks to its structured format with easy-to-understand explanations, it appeals to practitioners and researchers alike.

This book is a vital new resource in the sociological study of family life in the 21st century. The chapters in this volume explore a diverse range of family and intimate life experiences, such as personal choices about reproduction and how life choices and family forms are mediated by factors including geographical location, race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, income and government policy. Through a series of evidence-based chapters, leading sociologists explore a diverse range of family and intimate life experiences and the contexts within which they are lived and experienced. Each chapter delves into the lives and experiences of people whose choices in some way seem to disrupt normative and traditional ideas of family, parenting and childhood. Family patterns and experiences of living apart together, troubled families, children in care, culture, coupledom, same-sex families and digital technology are covered and examined innovatively through theoretical engagement. Chapters also incorporate innovative technologies and their use within family spaces that shape the nature of human relationships and interactions. These negotiations within the family are globally contextualised within the political and ideological frameworks of societies at any given moment in time. The work recognises the sensitivity of family and personal lives and incorporates the increasing need of the impact of emotionality that forms part of knowledge production. Additionally, innovative methods are showcased in chapters on researching the family through socially just methods, researcher emotionality and visual data. By bringing together thought-provoking research findings and innovative methodological and theoretical approaches, this collection of essays raises and articulates relevant, timely and future thinking for its readers. This book will therefore be indispensable for students and researchers as well as professionals and policymakers interested in understanding family life in the 21st century.

Designed for all professionals working with parents and families of young children, this practical guide offers comprehensive resources for building trauma-responsive family engagement in your school or program. Throughout this book, you'll find: Evidence-based practices that promote trauma-response family engagement. Exercises and tools for identifying the strengths and learning edges within your program, school, or agency. Vignettes from people and programs striving to create trusting, asset-focused partnerships with families that improve equity and promote culturally responsive practices. Reflective inquiry questions and sample conversations to help you examine your own practices. With concrete examples and easy-to-implement strategies, this critical book helps readers put theory into practice while providing essential support for individuals and groups both new to and experienced with trauma-responsive practices in early childhood.