Make friends with the SAT

By Emma Kress

I hate the SAT. Yet I teach a class to prepare students for this test.

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Sneak in some warm-weather brain work

Most students lose more than two months of math skills and some students lose the same in reading skills over the summer. But you can’t expect your child to do worksheets on a July afternoon. So how can you enjoy summer and help your child keep his brain busy?

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Understand, don’t label, kids with special needs

Health problems forced me to use a wheelchair for a few months and crutches and canes for years. While I am able to walk without assistance now, I do not take walking for granted. My experience awakened me to prejudice toward people with varied abilities. Later, I became a learning specialist, working mainly with students labeled with learning disabilities. Perhaps the most disheartening piece of my job was realizing how these labels gnawed at self-esteem, making kids feel stupid.

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Story time can be even better with some tweaks

Reading aloud with your child is one of the best ways to nurture future reading and school success. Yet reading aloud shouldn’t stop when your child enters that kindergarten classroom.

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Nurture your child’s language skills

As parents, we eagerly await our child’s first words. My father lobbied extensively for “Grandpa” and was devastated when “puppy” won out. But language expression is not a competition. It’s how we begin to know our child’s thoughts and dreams. We use language to make sense of and interact with our world. But your child begins to understand language long before the first fully formed word leaves his lips. In fact, your baby began responding to language when he was still in the womb. He is ready to learn from you the moment he is born. How can you help him learn?

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How to discuss skin color with your child

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What to make of grades, from A to F

Soon, you’ll get hard evidence of how well your child is performing in school: a report card. How do you make sense of the numbers or letters? How will you react? If it’s “good,” will you pin it on the fridge? If it’s “bad,” will you deny him TV privileges? Most importantly, which reactions will most benefit your child’s growth?

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Making the most of a parent-teacher conference

Parent-teacher conferences may be your first opportunity to meet your child’s teacher. Having coached parents and teachers, and been on both sides myself, I know how apprehensive everyone can get. Each person carries a lifetime of assumptions that can cloud that all-too-short meeting. And yet, for many of you, this is your only time to have a meaningful conversation with your child’s teacher. So how can parents make the best of their minutes?

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Use Halloween’s treats to work on school skills—painlessly

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. First of all, people just give you chocolate. And I loved becoming someone or something else for a single night. And did I mention the chocolate?

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Get back into the school-year groove

If you’ve ever been to London, you’ll recognize the phrase “Mind the gap.” It’s what a woman’s voice with a serene accent warns as you leave the subway car and step onto the platform. It’s the restrained British way of screaming “Watch out!” But I like to think that the use of “mind” also encourages us to be mindful. As parents, we need to be particularly mindful at this time of year as our child leaps from summer to school.

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Get your kid into reading

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