How to Make Your Child’s Transition Easier

By Michelle Bourg

As the old saying goes, “Nothing is constant except change.” All change requires some adjustment, from a new baby to a rescheduled dental appointment. This can be difficult for adults, let alone for children, who thrive on routine and have fewer coping skills.

From preschool to college, starting or changing schools is a dramatic—and a potentially traumatic—milestone for a youngster. School is the place where children establish an identity and relationships outside the family circle—changing schools requires them to establish them over again. Plus, we’re human: the unfamiliar is scary.

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How to Help Your Child Get a Head Start

By Michelle Bourg

Attending college has long been a cornerstone of the American dream, and the majority of students hope to do so. But the path to getting there is a winding and long one: educators and college admissions officers recommend that planning for college begin when a child reaches sixth grade. For modern families, the three keys to navigating the path to college successfully are proactivity, organization, and communication.

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How to Help Your Child Handle the Workload

By Michelle Bourg

Back in the day, homework was something kids could do before dinner—a page of math problems and maybe a chapter of reading, done with the radio or TV on and with plenty of time left over for other things. Not any more: it’s a more rigorous academic landscape, and homework is a continuation of a demanding workload. Helping kids manage the demands of homework efficiently for maximum educational benefit is now a priority for the whole family.

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Students Travel the Country and World to Put Lessons Into Action

By Cady Schulman

Sometimes education goes beyond the classroom. Learning doesn’t have to be limited to books and lectures. Teachers can also rely on real-world experiences to engage students and give them a first-hand look at what is going on beyond the four walls of the classroom.

Connecting to the world is a vital part of education, says Jason Underwood, head of school at High Meadows School in Roswell. It sparks curiosity and joy in students, which means they pay more attention when they are in class. “We’ve noticed that our kids really are successful academically and socially as a result of getting outside of the classroom and getting outside of themselves,” Underwood says.

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Enhancing Connections to Other Academic Disciplines

By Michelle Bourg

The last 15 years have seen educators put more emphasis on test performance in basic subjects, particularly reading and math. But the arts are now making a comeback. New studies on the correlation between the arts and academic achievement support a trend to put the arts back into classrooms both here in Atlanta and across the country.

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How Standards Help Students Compete Globally

By Ken Abramczyk and Larry Anderson

Common Core standards help to ensure that students in the United States are proficient in language arts and mathematics. But what exactly is Common Core, and how is it impacting Georgia students’ educational journey? Georgia is one of 42 states that have embraced the initiative, although some aspects in Georgia have changed, and the standards have a new name.

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Without a doubt, academics form the core of any school’s mission, and they’re often the first thing parents analyze when selecting a new school for their child. But at many metro Atlanta schools, studies in such subjects as reading, writing, mathematics, science and social studies are just the foundation of a well-rounded curriculum. At these schools, teachers aim to educate the “whole child” by focusing on the development of a student’s mind, body and spirit—teaching him how to interact with the outside world, and instilling the skills and confidence necessary to continue to grow and learn throughout his life.

Here are just a few of the different types of schools and philosophies that aim to educate the whole child, going beyond facts and figures to help students grow into happy, healthy and responsible adults.

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We live in a fast-paced world, with many parents struggling to balance the demands of home life and a busy career. And that world is increasingly affecting our children, who are enrolled in extracurricular activities and organized sports in an effort to help them become well-rounded individuals and increase their chances of getting into a good college. On top of that, changing to a new school can bring the added pressures of fitting in and making new friends.

The result can be a crushing weight of activities that keeps students rushing from one to another at breakneck speed. Too often, this hectic approach can backfire, creating stressed-out students who can suffer both academically and socially. Striking the right balance is crucial for kids’ health. So how can parents keep their children from feeling overloaded and overwhelmed with all they have going on?

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BY DANIEL BEAUREGARD

In decades past, it was common to leave a child at a day care or preschool and expect little more than that the staff keep him or her occupied while the parents were at work. But as educators learn more about what and how children learn in their first few years, early education has come to mean much more than simply dropping a child off at the doorstep of a day care center. Continue reading →

BY ANNA BENTLEY

It’s a topic on the minds of many high-school students and their parents: college admissions. With an ever growing number of prospective college students—and an average of seven to 10 applications per student—colleges are seeing more competition than ever before. So, how do students stand out in the sea of applicants? According to some of metro Atlanta’s college and admissions counselors, the strongest applications are ones that show a pattern of success—and a little personality.

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