Smart Kids
Richard Louv, author of “Last Child in the Woods,” on ending nature-deficit disorder
Our children are nature deprived. The reasons for this are many: fear of stranger danger, fear of what lurks in the wilderness, too little time, too little access.
I recently read “Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder,” a national bestseller by author Richard Louv, and immediately mounted my own campaign [...]
Quick Tip: Create a college application portfolio to stay organized
OK, high school students and the parents who love them so: Do you want to avoid that last-minute scramble for information to include on your college application? Of course you do!
Melissa Janak, who manages the middle and high school counseling program in the San Diego Unified School District offers this great tip: Keep a portfolio [...]
Reading: One of the best ways to prepare your teenager for college
By Lynn O’Shaughnessy
Author of “The College Solution”
One of the best ways you can prepare your teenager for college is to encourage her to read. As a practical matter, a teenager who reads is not only likely to achieve better grades in high school, but also earn higher scores on the SAT or ACT.
I understand [...]
Help teens, kids avoid the summer reading slide
If teens and younger kids don’t read during the summer, their reading level can decline two, three or even four months. Educators have a name for it: the summer slide.
Tim Shanahan, director of the Center for Literacy at the University of Chicago, said parents with a ready supply of great reads are a great cure [...]
Simple suggestions and great Web sites for college planning this summer
Summer is the perfect time for low-key college planning. Sure, hard-working high school students deserve down time to enjoy the summer. Ditto for their hard-working parents.
But setting aside time for exploring college options without the pressure of homework, tests and term papers is a smart use of your time.
Here are five simple [...]
Numbers that add up to summer math fun for elementary school children
Question: Where can you find fun math lessons during the summer so your elementary school kids don’t lose the number knowledge they picked up during the school year?
Answer: All around you, said educator Andy Isaacs.
There are math lessons in the games you play, the excursions you take, the trips you make to the grocery store, [...]
Mystery solved: Writing examples for each elementary school grade
Knowing how well a child should write in a given grade has got to be one of the great mysteries of education for parents.
By contrast, knowing what math skills your child should master each year is much easier to grasp. Simple multiplication tables, for example, are taught in second grade - 1s, 2s and [...]
The New Yorker: Why children who are patient prosper
Recent headline in The New Yorker: Don’t! Why children who are patient prosper
If that headline won’t pull you in, I don’t know what will. The article tells a tale that most of us grow to understand with time: Good things come to those who wait.
Back in the late 1960s, a Stanford University researcher conducted an [...]
Tips for helping a struggling reader become a strong reader
Children who are struggling with their reading need a patient, encouraging adult to sit and listen to them read. These tips can help you help your child become a strong reader.
These tips come from Everyone A Reader, a volunteer program in San Diego County that has trained thousands of tutors at approximately 150 schools.
PREPARE
Take [...]
Volunteers help struggling readers catch up to their classmates
Sometimes all it takes for a young, struggling reader to become a successful reader is a reading buddy, a patient adult who listens to her read.
That’s exactly what Marilyn Schmeling and hundreds of other volunteers do through Everyone A Reader, a terrific volunteer program that trains them in just three hours to work with young [...]
