Greetings GCP'ers! Hope you enjoyed your summer break (we certainly did) and are settling back into your fall parenting routine. We at GCP have been spending a good bit of our break focusing on ways to improve this site and create a stronger and more interactive GCP parenting community. Stay tuned, upgrades coming soon. So much to focus on [...]
As many of you regular GCP readers may know, for the past 5 year Chicago's Urban Prep Academy has been sending 100 percent of its high school graduates off to college. (See "Good News on the College Admissions Front", April 16, 2014.) Recently Urban Prep Academy celebrated another milestone, as the first class of those high school graduates graduated [...]
Remember "Reading Rainbow"? That delightful children's series which encouraged reading, hosted by LeVar Burton and aired on PBS from 1983-2009? Burton has just launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise one million dollars to create an online version to expand the program's reach. When Reading Rainbow went off the air in 2009 Burton bought the rights to the show and [...]
Although Teacher Appreciation Week (May 5-9) has come and gone, it is not too late to show your appreciation for special teachers in your son's life. In fact, the end of the school year is a great time to thank teachers for the hard work they have put in all year on your son's behalf. Looking for cute year [...]
Common Sense Media has recently issued a report on children, teens and reading. While the report found here has some good news about children and reading, some of its findings relating to boys of color are particularly troubling. First, the good news: Reading is still a big part of many children's lives. Young children read or are read to [...]
As finals and other year end tests approach, pass on to your sons these tips for effective studying: Find a Good Study Spot: Identify a place in your home which will be the designated study spot for tests and quizzes. Make sure it is free from clutter and distraction, and is away from noise and activity. Review the Main [...]
In a recent report on gender, economic mobility and college success, a team of Columbia and Ohio State University researchers have concluded that they have seen the future, and it doesn't look good for boys. In their paper, found here and reported in the NY Times here, they assert that eighth grade report cards tell the story: if an [...]
For the fifth year in a row, all 240 of Chicago's Urban Prep Academies seniors have been accepted into over 200 four year colleges and universities. The seniors, all African American young men, celebrated their success at a ceremony where they exchanged the red ties of their daily uniform for the red and gold striped ties signaling their impressive [...]
As the new year begins, it is a great time to focus on being involved at your children's school. Here at GCP we can't say enough about the importance of parental involvement in schools. See, for example, our earlier posts "Back to School for Parents", September 13, 2011 and "Parents Resolve to Get More Involved in 2012", January 2, [...]
Navigating those parent teacher conferences for our sons in the lower grades can be really stressful if there are behavior issues to discuss. We ran across these helpful tips for a successful parent teacher conference for parents of younger children with behavior issues from "What Did My Son Do Now?", an article in Early Childhood News, and want to [...]