Q: Our middle school sent home tips for back-to-school success; one of them was to "enjoy family dinners together frequently." With three teens in grades 7 through 11 who are going in different directions, that's tough. Is there any research on this?

A: There is. Since 2001, the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University has studied the impact of family dinners on family interactions.

The research shows that more frequent family dinner gatherings ensure higher quality communication between kids and parents. Eating a meal together strengthens family relationships, something that's particularly important for teens as they begin to forge influential peer relationships.

Joseph Califano Jr., the founder of CASA, emphasizes "that the magic that happens at family dinners isn't the food on the table, but the conversations and family engagement around the table."

A senior policy analyst at CASA further explains, "Teens who have frequent family dinners are more likely to say that their parents know a lot about what's really going on in their lives. ... Family dinners are the perfect opportunity when kids can talk to their parents and their parents can listen and learn."

A 2012 CASA study showed that in homes where family meals were frequent (five to seven times a week), teens were more likely to say they had good relationships with their parents. In turn, they were less likely to say that they felt stressed and were less likely to use marijuana, alcohol and tobacco. When the quality of teens' communication with parents declined, their likelihood of using marijuana, alcohol and tobacco increased.

To remind parents of the importance of family mealtime, every year CASA celebrates Family Day as "a day to eat dinner with your children." This year, it's Sept. 26. For more information, go to centeronaddiction.org.

A 2016 Common Sense Media survey of parents of kids 2 to 17 representing a range of American socioeconomic and ethnic groups found that more than 90 percent of respondents viewed conversations during dinner as an important way to learn about what's going on in their kids' lives. Seventy percent of the respondents said they carved out time to have dinner together five or more times a week.

While the family dinner isn't some relic of the 1950s, today's mobile devices are unwelcome newcomers to the table. Research shows that cellphones next to forks can disrupt and shut down conversations even when the devices aren't in use.

Thirty-five percent of Common Sense Media survey respondents said they'd had an argument about using devices at the dinner table. More than half said they were concerned that devices at the table "were hurting their conversations," writes Michael Robb, Common Sense director of research.

To encourage more families to declare the dinner table a tech-free zone, Common Sense Media has launched the Device-Free Dinner campaign. "Our devices keep us connected, informed and engaged, but dinner time is an important time to just say 'no,'" urges James P. Steyer, founder and CEO of Common Sense. "Everything from better grades to a healthier lifestyle has been linked to eating together regularly as a family."

Steyer invites families to take the Device-Free Dinner challenge, and "set an example for kids that we all need to carve out face-to-face conversation time in our lives."

For more information, go to commonsensemedia.org.

(Do you have a question about your child's education? Email it to Leanna@aplusadvice.com. Leanna Landsmann is an education writer who began her career as a classroom teacher. She has served on education commissions, visited classrooms in 49 states to observe best practices, and founded Principal for a Day in New York City.)

Q: My daughter, a high-school sophomore, was proud to get into a summer course in leadership at a local college. However, she got an incomplete because the professor said she plagiarized her paper. Now it will be hard to include that course on her college application. How could he tell?

A: Savvy educators spot the clues and use a range of digital tools -- from a simple Google search to plagiarism trackers -- to check students' work.

"The internet and today's amazing digital tools make cutting and pasting, or even buying the work of others, incredibly easy," says Greta Love, a New York state reference librarian who teaches college students research techniques. "But those same tools make it easier for educators to spot the work of others using databases, search engines and sites that sell or give away term papers and so on."

Worry less about what the incomplete does to your daughter's college application and more about teaching her proper research skills for her writing from now on. That will be the best preparation for college.

Many students simply do not know what plagiarism is, says university educator Robert Harris, author of "The Plagiarism Handbook: Strategies for Preventing, Detecting and Dealing With Plagiarism" (Routledge, 2001).

In an essay titled "Anti-Plagiarism Strategies for Research Papers," Harris writes that students hold misconceptions such as, "Everything on the internet is public domain and can be copied without citation," or, "If you change an author's words into your own words, you don't have to cite it," or, "If you copy fewer than 10 words, it's OK not to use quotation marks."

Some students don't consider copying wrong, notes Harris, because they think information is for everyone. Still others are tempted to copy because they're on a tight deadline, just not motivated by the topic or "know it's wrong, but like the thrill of rule-breaking."

To help your daughter, be explicit. "Plagiarism is using another person's words or ideas without giving credit," writes Harris. "When you use someone else's words, you must put quotation marks around them or set them off in a block quotation and give the writer or speaker credit by revealing the source in a citation.

"Even if you revise or paraphrase the words of someone else or just use their ideas, you still must give the author credit in a citation. Not giving due credit to the creator of an idea or writing is very much like lying because without a citation, you are implying that the idea is your own."

Once students understand why it's wrong, Harris takes a positive approach. "Learning to write makes a person powerful," he explains. "Whenever they cite a source, they are strengthening their writing, not weakening it."

He goes on: "Citing a source, whether paraphrased or quoted, reveals that they have performed research work and synthesized the findings into their own argument. ... The student is aware of other thinkers' positions on the topic."

Find more advice from Harris at his website VirtualSalt.com.

For more information, check out "The Plagiarism Spectrum: Tagging 10 Types of Unoriginal Work" at turnitin.com.

(Do you have a question about your child's education? Email it to Leanna@aplusadvice.com. Leanna Landsmann is an education writer who began her career as a classroom teacher. She has served on education commissions, visited classrooms in 49 states to observe best practices, and founded Principal for a Day in New York City.)

Q: My daughters, ages 9 and 10, are earning money doing chores for neighbors such as dog walking, watering plants and redeeming cans. I want to teach them about investing and running a business before they spend it all. Are there apps for that?

A: There are apps and some good books, too. But before teaching them how to run a business, start with savings -- namely, why we save and how.

Educator Gail Karlitz, author of "Growing Money: A Complete Investing Guide for Kids" (Price Stern Sloan, 2010), suggests you begin by explaining the concepts of needs (food, housing, clothes), wants (treats, entertainment, things we like but don't need), goals (things we must save for, such as a new bike), and giving (charitable donations, birthday presents).

She encourages kids to use a clear plastic envelope, box, jar or piggy bank for each category, so "they can see the actual money."

Karlitz also suggests keeping a notebook with a running total of what they are earning, and how they are allocating their earnings in each category.

One website, ThreeJars.com, helps kids track their money in saving, spending and sharing jars. The site shows them the tradeoffs between saving and spending, and allows them to earn interest on their savings jar. (It costs $30 annually.)

You can teach the girls about running a business by drawing examples from their summer. Lead them through questions such as, "What do you need to increase can redemptions?" If the answer is investing in a larger bin to store more cans until making a trip to the redemption center, you can discuss what that costs and if the investment is worth it.

Educational game maker Motion Math has created a couple of excellent apps that simulate running businesses and boost kids' math and reasoning skills, says Warren Buckleitner, the editor of the Children's Technology Review (childrenstech.com).

The "Motion Math: Pizza!" app gives kids a start-up budget to open a pizza shop with customers who must be kept satisfied.

The "Motion Math: Cupcake!" app lets players bake and sell cupcakes and be responsible for making decisions that influence all aspects of the business, from delivering orders to managing costs.

"Even though it's pretend money, kids start to understand that if you blow all your money on sprinkles for your cupcakes, you won't have enough to meet all the customers' needs and you lose money in the end," says Buckleitner.

Each app costs $6 and is available at the Apple Store.

Two books geared to your daughters' age levels can help teach them more sophisticated investment concepts.

"How to Turn $100 Into $1,000,000" (Workman, 2016) offers an easy-to-grasp explanation of compound interest, what the book calls "the most powerful force in the financial universe."

In "Blue Chip Kids: What Every Child (and Parent) Should Know About Money, Investing, and the Stock Market" (Wiley, 2015), author David Bianchi makes sophisticated concepts such as stocks, bonds, analyzing companies, interest rates, net worth and asset allocation understandable.

As you're studying the best books or apps for your kids, take heart: Surveys have shown that 1 in 5 American adults think that hitting the lottery is the best strategy to save for retirement. Your daughters are lucky. They will have no such illusions.

(Do you have a question about your child's education? Email it to Leanna@aplusadvice.com. Leanna Landsmann is an education writer who began her career as a classroom teacher. She has served on education commissions, visited classrooms in 49 states to observe best practices, and founded Principal for a Day in New York City.)