Middle School — The Balance Project

Empowering the Next Generation

Empowering the Next Generation is for parents and kids aged 0-18 and puts the spotlight on four critical things kids have always needed and rarely get enough of today: independence, responsibility, unstructured time and free play. Delivered as a full-family event, a webinar, or in partnership with Let Grow, this experience leaves adults and kids alike eager to bring more real-world living into every day.

Unplug, Unwind & Dine

Unplug, Unwind & Dine is a community dining experience designed to help families put down their phones and reconnect over a meal. Research shows that regular family meals where we're truly present lead to stronger relationships, better communication, and improved wellbeing for kids and adults. That's why we created this night out: complete with specially designed activity placemats for all ages to spark conversation and play while you wait for your food.

Devices & Delights

Devices & Delights is for parents of kids of all ages + kids themselves, and features our curated collection of tools and products designed to help families bring technology into the home thoughtfully, age-appropriately, and joyfully. From new-school landlines to screen-free alarm clocks, to smartphone alternatives, to child-safe home routing systems and physical solutions for digital distractions, this program shows you what’s out there — paired with exclusive perks for The Balance Project community.

Balanced Book Club

The Balanced Book Club is for all parents, educators, coaches/mentors/ guides and community members — formal or informal, big or small — a structured way to dive into the books shaping today’s conversation around childhood, technology, and what it means to live well. Each guide is built to spark honest discussion and meaningful connection around shared questions. Pick a title, pull together your people, and start a conversation that matters.

Stride & Ride

Stride & Ride is for elementary-middle school aged kids and is all about giving kids the developmental benefits and joy of getting somewhere on their own two feet — or two wheels. Through community maps, family buddy connections, and a feedback loop with local leaders, Stride & Ride encourages kids to walk and bike their way to greater independence, confidence, and connection.

Life/Tech Leap Year

Life/Tech Leap Year supports families through the milestone moments when independence and access to personal tech is expected to expand — for example the leap from elementary to middle school, or middle to high school (or whatever else the established “norm” is in your community). It’s a chance to pause, ask better questions, and shape a new community conversation around when, how, and with what guardrails should tech be introduced, as well as how to appropriately increase independence in our growing kids as well.

balance in school

Balance In School recognizes the powerful role schools play in childhood. Alongside families, they shape the rhythm of a kid's day, the friendships that form, the habits that stick. As more and more families bring intentional conversations about balance into their homes, schools are natural partners in that work.

The goal of "Balance in School" is to make that partnership easier for parents who are interested in having this conversation with their schools. We supply education, tools, and programs developed alongside educators, mental health professionals, and parents living these conversations at their own kitchen tables. We aim to help parents meet schools where they are, follow their lead, and offer support where it is useful.

Our Balance in School program is led by a long-time educator, current principal, parent of young children, TBP Steer Co member, and TBP local community lead

Balanced Book Club

The Balanced Book Club is for all parents, educators, coaches/mentors/guides and community members — formal or informal, big or small — a structured way to dive into the books shaping today’s conversation around childhood, technology, and what it means to live well. Each guide is built to spark honest discussion and meaningful connection around shared questions. Pick a title, pull together your people, and start a conversation that matters.

Perspectives Panel

The Perspectives Panel is for parents, educators and coaches/mentors/guides of kids 0-18. It is one of our favorite ways to introduce a community to this conversation. By bringing together a range of voices and viewpoints, it offers a broad overview of the topic — and sends people home with the “why” behind the movement, as well as concrete, doable steps for driving change in their own homes and neighborhoods.

More Summer Less Bummer Challenge

The More Summer Less Bummer Challenge is a summer campaign built around a simple but striking insight: with the average teen spending 7.5 hours a day on screens, nearly half of summer's 99 days can disappear into a device without anyone noticing. The challenge invites families to reclaim that time by focusing on five principles: letting real life happen, prioritizing human connection, being present where you are, normalizing being unreachable, and actually doing the thing you've been putting off, each backed by small, concrete actions that make more summer feel doable, not radical.

Mind + Body In Balance

Mind + Body In Balance is a group program built for middle schoolers that gives them a chance to discover that the best dopamine and serotonin boosts don't come from a screen. Through focused mind and body work, students tap into the natural confidence, calm, and clarity that come from being strong and fully present in their own bodies. And kids get the benefits of doing this with a community of other peers as a built-in support system.