Helicopter, Velcro And Snowplow Parents

As a young person, I can remember being told that I had to go to college. My mother had finished high school. Dad flunked out of first-year engineering. World War II was raging. They signed up in the Royal Canadian Air Force. That experience shaped their adult lives in profound ways. That's really what a college education should be about. It can shape lives in profound ways. To make sure that happens you must consider five metrics when choosing a college. Yes, there are more than five metrics involved in selecting the right college, however, let's keep it simple for the moment. Choosing a college can be an overwhelming process.

I am assuming that your child is in a private school with grades 9-12 or 13. That being the case, you will have the advantage of a professional guidance counselor to help you choose the best college for your child. Instead of dealing with hundreds of seniors as a public school guidance counselor does, your school's guidance counselor will be able to allocate enough time to help you with the process of choosing the right college. You can enhance the process further by hiring an education consultant. We did that for one of our daughters and it was worth every dollar we spent.

These are the metrics that I recommend that you discuss and explore thoroughly as you search for the right college for your child. Please include your child in the discussions. She will not appreciate

A long summer break has been a fixture of the schedule in most private schools seemingly forever. Three months or more offers plenty of time for a wide range of activities for every age group. Here are some of the options available.

Sports camps

Many private schools rent out their facilities to outside organizations which run sports camps. The last time I checked, there seemed to me to be a camp available for almost any sport you could imagine. And they were offered at various age levels too.

Tech summer sessions

Ages ago we called these computer camps. Nowadays they are called tech camps. They will teach your daughter robotics, code, game development, design and much more. IDTech and Emagination Tech camps are just two of the commercial companies offering tech courses on college campuses here in the United States and abroad.

This video offers a peak at an IDTech summer tech camp.

Your local community college probably has tech camps too. Wake Tech in my area has fifteen tech camp options including such popular offerings as drones, video game design and more. Our sister site, Community College Review has a powerful search tool which will help you find a community college near you.

Day and overnight camps for children with special needs

Your child attends a school for children with special needs. What will

Educating Your Gifted Child

We parents worry a lot, don't we? From the time of your baby's first kick in the womb to her graduation from college, her marriage, and the birth of her own children, we just never stop worrying, do we? Now, of course, I don't mean worrying in a negative sense. I use worry to express that parental awareness or sixth sense, which we parents remarkably seem to develop from the time we first hold our child in our arms. Worrying goes with parenting. But let's make it informed worrying. That's why organizations such as The National Association For Gifted Children are so important.

This video discusses the parenting of gifted children.

As you begin to suspect that your child might be gifted, take time to review the information contained on an authoritative website such as the NAGC's. Ruthlessly filter information that you see on television, hear on talk shows, or read in social media.

So, what makes a child gifted? The NAGC lists the following common characteristics of gifted children:

• Unusual alertness, even in infancy
• Rapid learner; puts thoughts together quickly
• Excellent memory
• Unusually large vocabulary and complex sentence structure for age
• Advanced comprehension of word nuances, metaphors, and abstract ideas
• Enjoys solving problems, especially with numbers and puzzles
• Often self-taught reading and writing skills as a preschooler
• Deep, intense feelings and reactions
• Highly sensitive
• Thinking is abstract, complex, logical, and insightful
• Idealism and sense of justice

Signs that your school might be failing don't suddenly appear all at once like a flashing neon sign. Instead, they appear gradually over the course of weeks, months, and years. I am targeting small private schools with these remarks and suggestions, hoping that you will recognize telltale signs of concern long before they become major troubles.

As you and your board of trustees review the list I have set out below, I suggest scoring each item on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 representing the low end and 10 representing the high end. So, for example, as you look at your enrolment data for the past 5 years, if the trend shows a deterioration in enrolment, you would score that item 5 or less. And so on. Then tackle the items on the list that need the most attention.

The following video discusses signs that a business is in trouble. Many of these will apply to a private school, which, after all, is a business.

1. Low enrollment

Let's start with enrollment. Filling your school's seats is essential for balancing your budget. If you are having trouble doing that, then you need to find out why you are not able to fill all your seats. If you are a seasoned enrolment professional or have one on your board, then seek his advice and follow it. Enrollment professionals will look at a host of