At the end of every school year, my mom would make a date with my brother and me for a night out to celebrate. She was an elementary school teacher, so we were all celebrating having finished up another year. We would usually go out to dinner, and then to a movie (for several years running, we saw "Shaft" [...]
As school winds down for the year, now is the time to focus on how you can help your sons and daughters stay on top of their academic game throughout the summer. As you probably know, when math and reading skills aren’t practiced over the summer, kids can lose 2 to 3 months of progress—that's the dreaded "Summer Slide". [...]
As the school year comes to an end, is it time for your high school son or daughter to start thinking about college? We've got some tips on starting the process! The course that I developed and taught at Hunter College in April, "The Inside Guide to NYC Parenting", continued its second two weeks with a focus on College [...]
Today DonorsChoose.org, the crowdfunding non-profit that supports public school teacher's classroom requests, announced their latest campaign: #ISeeMe, which is designed to mobilize support for teachers of color and inclusive learning materials in public school classrooms. Research has indicated that children learn best when they see themselves in the classroom materials as well as in the teachers leading their classes. [...]
We've all heard about parenting styles that can hinder children's success: the over involved parent, the distracted parent, the super protective parent. But are there parenting styles that can help children become highly successful adults? According to Harvard economist Ronald Ferguson and journalist Tatsha Robertson's new book The Formula: Unlocking the Secrets to Raising Highly Successful Children, there are, and we [...]
Are you in partnership with your children's teachers to make sure your children are thriving in school? In today's second session of "The Inside Guide to Helping Your Child Thrive from K-8", Lower school teacher Jennifer Vermont-Davis offered parents advice on how to establish strong and productive relationships with teachers each year. Here just are a few of her many [...]
Would your high schooler be interested in spending two weeks in New York City or Washington DC diving into unique academic pursuits which take advantage of the best these cities have to offer? The New York Times Summer Academy offers high schoolers two week courses in June -August which cover a host of great topics including "Diverse Voices in [...]
Have you heard about the 8 year old Nigerian refugee living in a NYC homeless shelter who took first place in the NYS Scholastic Chess Championship for his age bracket? This is a story of hard work, perseverance, and kindness to share with your sons and daughters. Eight year old Tanitoluwa Adewumi, who is known as Tani, came with [...]
BIG NEWS! I've developed a series of parenting classes called The Inside Guide to NYC Parenting, and it is coming to Hunter College in April!! If you live in or around NYC, you can join us to discover answers to some of the pressing parenting questions I've been focusing on for years in this blog. I'll be offering resources, [...]
Looking for ways to help your children stay motivated and succeed in school? Check out these resources we've recently discovered: Code.org. It is no secret that knowing how to code will put children at a huge advantage when they reach the job market. Jobs that require coding make up 58% of all projected new jobs in STEM fields, and [...]