As I talked with a good friend recently about our sons and their social lives, he quoted an old saying that rang so true: "Show me his friends and I'll show you his future." Our sons will most certainly have a lot of friends over the course of their childhood and adolescence. But at some point he will develop [...]
Hope all of your sons are settling well into the new school year. Here is a GCP Checklist of things to do/keep your eyes on as the year begins: Meet the teachers: There will certainly be an open school night or some other formal opportunity to meet teachers, and you shouldn't miss that. But you should try to meet [...]
Giving constructive criticism to our sons so that they hear and accept it can be so tough, especially when our boys are in their middle and high school years. Constructive criticism lets them know they could do something better without blaming or shaming them. Takes a lot of parenting skill to get this right! We at GCP believe strongly [...]
Did you and your family know that Sunday September 13th is National Grandparent’s Day? It's time to celebrate the grandparents in your lives!! Be sure to connect today with grandparents or older adults in the community and show them some love. Looking for more ways to celebrate Grandparent's Day? Find them at www.grandparentsday.org.
GCP has been checking out back to school articles for parents on line, and we think these are especially worth reading: The 8 EdTech Questions Every Parent Should Ask Schools This Year: An educational technology consultant has compiled a list of questions for parents to ask at their children's schools. Unless you are an edtech expert yourself, or have [...]
Even as we enjoy the last bit of summer vacation, we at GCP are already thinking about school's return. Today's Thoughtful Thursday offers up a student and a teacher's perspective on a day's lesson. Acclaimed Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes provides the student's perspective in "Theme for English B". Elizabeth Alexander, poet and author of the recently published (and [...]
Parents, here is some help with getting your sons ready for success in the coming school year: Summer Learning: www.education.com has tons of customizable and printable worksheets for students from kindergarten through high school. Print out a few from last year's grade and encourage your son to dust off the cobwebs and review the material. Or if he is [...]
The Chautauqua Institution presented a week of thoughtful and interesting commentary about the development of boys into men last week, and I was thrilled to have been asked to bring the GCP perspective to the conversation. I joined Dr. Gregory Hess, President of Wabash College in a talk with Dr. Robert Franklin, Director of Religion at the Chautauqua Institution [...]
GCP Founder Carol Sutton Lewis has been appointed to President Obama's My Brother's Keeper Alliance ("MBK Alliance") Advisory Council. Launched by President Obama in May 2015, The MBK Alliance is engaging partners in the private and public sectors to create and advance efforts to eliminate the gaps in opportunity and achievement for boys and young men of color in [...]
We've been surfing the web doing research in preparation for the conversation about boys we are having on Friday with Dr. Robert Franklin and Gregory Hess, president of Wabash College, at the Chautauqua Institution (more on that in another post!) and have discovered some great articles which are definitely worth reading. We will share what we come across. "Letter [...]