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- Last Visit: November 26, 2007
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DreamTeamGary
Dream Team Newsletters I've Written
Let's Twist Again
Your favorite toys aren't just valuable to you -- your kids might love them, too.
Read More
Beyond the Barf Bag
You might need to bring more on your next family vacation than you think.
Read MoreWhat I've Been Talking About
How to Stay Involved in Middle and High School
Not to be entirely mercenary about it, but it surely also helps to meet your kid's high-school teachers, especially their favorites, because, as we all know, one day, maybe sooner than you think, your child's going to be looking to those teachers for college recommendation letters, and when a teacher has gotten to know you, their letter will inevitably reflect a deeper sense of your child and where they come from. So don't miss any parent-teacher nights, even if your teen never wants to see you walking the same halls they do.
Not Acceptable?Go Online for Homework Help
These are all great suggestions, Miriam. But I think it's also important to help kids learn to navigate the sea of resources on the Web on their own. For every FactMonster, published by the reputable Pearson's Education, there are any number of Wikipedias, published, even if earnestly and honestly, by the guy down the block. Kids need some solid lessons in Web research (for facts, look first to .gov and .edu sites; always check the "About" page of a site to see where the info comes from, etc.). Here, I decided recently to subscribe to the World Book Encyclopedia online. It's $50 per year, but I think it's great for kids to have that reliable source of info, even if they just check facts found elsewhere on the Web against the World Book's articles, as I'll instruct them to do when they get older and start using it for HW. And it's the encyclopedia I grew up with. Now two generations of my family can plagiarize it for third-grade papers!
Not Acceptable?Missing the Kindergarten age cutoff
There are so many private schools that don't even allow boys to enroll in kindergarten until they're nearly 6, not to mention suburban schools irresponsibly lax about allowing parents to hold boys and girls out of grade K until they turn 6 because they want their kids to be "leaders." What you end up with, at the younger grades, are oversized kids discouraging younger kids from sports by their very presence, and in middle and high school, an uncomfortable disparity between kids who are pre- and post-puberty. Our two older kids are December kids, and they started kindergarten before they turned 5. We just try to give them the confidence that they can do whatever their bigger friends do and so far, so good. And as you say, Manda, holding kids back from kindergarten can certainly backfire. I think parents should trust that their kids can handle school at whatever age they're allowed to attend, and then support their kids whether they're biggest, smallest, or somewhere in between.
Not Acceptable?
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