Weekly Wrap] End of Semester Exams, Easter and Some April Fool's Day Fun

The social network is buzzing with mischief and plans this week as many teens prepare for their favorite holiday of the year– April Fool's Day. You can expect to see a lot of pranking on Facebook such as changed profile pictures, outrageous statuses and a whole lot of "poking." It wouldn't be surprising if some of the social network sites pranked back this year as well. After all, how can we forget YouTube's famous 2008 "Rickrolling" prank? For those of you less familiar, "Rickrolling" is when you send a link claiming to be something else that lead's to Rick Astley's cheesy video for "Never Gonna Give You Up." Let's not forget that the infamous annual "Senior prank" tends to take place around this date, so school will be extra exciting for many teens.
It will be a good breather for many of them too, since the year is gradually winding down and exams are quickly approaching. From end of the semester exams to AP exams to SATs, it seems like every teen has at least one (or, in many cases, multiple) exam to study for. As parents, you can help your teen with this by providing them with study materials such as practice books, calculators and plenty of number two pencils. You can even use the opportunity to spend time with them. Invite your teen to bring their study materials and come to Starbucks or Panera with you for some refreshment and a new study setting. You can help your teen with some of their problems and spend a little quality time while doing it. With all the stress their experiencing with the upcoming exams, they're sure to appreciate it.
Another holiday favorite is also quickly approaching: Easter. Whether you're religious or not, it seems like almost everyone still observes Easter in one way or another. First of all, the Easter holiday means there's a small break from school for most, so that's reason enough to celebrate. Easter's still pretty far ahead, but with all the stress from exams, teens are looking forward to the relaxing break already. Teens are looking forward to candy and gifts in their Easter baskets, egg hunts and other holiday events and, of course, special Easter sales in their favorite retail store.
For your teen sports fan, the final four of the NCAA tournaments will take place this weekend and many teens have been periodically expressing their shock with the results thus far. A few underdogs– Virginia Commonwealth and Butler University– have been surprising a lot of teens with their unlikely successes on the court. During games you can often see an outpouring of Twitter updates providing a play-by-play of the game along with the reaction. For the non-sports fan, it can be quite amusing how many emotional statuses are posted.
In television news, teens are still keeping up with their favorites like Glee, American Idol and Dancing with the Stars, while some other favorites have already premiered the season finales. Teens have been tweeting about their reactions to television show finales such as MTV's Jersey Shore and Teen Mom 2 along with HBO favorites like Entourage and Big Love. For the teens who are too busy studying to watch, the social networks can be a sort of "spoiler alert" that you have to avoid until you see the episode yourself. Anything that can keep your teen off the addictive social networks and into studying is a good thing, however, so consider the season finales a blessing.