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As parents, we love our kids so much that we dread that fateful call—The teacher calling to report that your child is misbehaving, underachieving or that they should be tested for ADHD. Don’t panic. Follow these tips to handle the situation:

1. Be aware of your child’s environment. Explore contexts that are explanations for the behavior, like external stressors. Consider any relevant changes in your family in terms of finances, physical and mental health issues, or other significant factors. Also take into account nutritional factors: too much sugar and skipping breakfast are both linked to difficulty concentrating.

2. Seek solutions. Ask the teacher, “What are we going to do to support her?” Children need to learn how to learn, and every stumbling block in education is not brain dysfunction. Your child may simply need repetition, practice of basic skills, and coaching to excel in school.

3. Consider that your child may not be the problem. Sometimes our children’s learning style and profile of strengths and weaknesses mean that they need accommodations. While changing schools may not be an option, you can still protect your child’s passion and motivation by encouraging them to pursue those things that draw their attention. Read More

September is College Savings Month, a great time for those who are already in college to start developing healthier financial habits. The need is very real: after years of dutifully saving for college, more and more college students are spending their school years piling credit card debt on top of their student loans, leaving them in a deep financial hole upon graduation. This cycle can also lead to stress, depression and decreased academic performance while still in college.

Fixing the problem cannot wait for a student’s entry into the “real world.” College students need a budget plan, money tracking capabilities and access to basic money, credit and debt management information.

“Considering that more students drop out of school because of financial difficulties than academic problems, gaining these basic life skills is right up there in importance with gaining an education itself,” says Jo Bittof, co-founder of Solutions Financial, a financial management consultancy.

According to Ms. Bittof, the earlier one begins the budgeting process, the better – another reason for getting started during September’s College Savings Month. “Just as it is unwise to enter into marriage, a loan contract for a car, or any other financial situation ignorant of one’s ability to handle the obligation, entering college on a fiscal wing and a prayer is a potential set up for failure,” she explains. Read More

As your kids return to school, now is the time to take your child’s browsing and interaction safety online into your own hands. What measures can you take to make sure your children are using the Internet in a safe, appropriate way?

By now, you’ve heard tons of advice about how to keep your children safe while they surf the Internet. Some of it is true, but some lead to ineffective strategies that can give parents a false sense of security.

For instance, how many times have you heard that checking the browser history is an effective way to monitor what websites your kids visit? With new browsers comes easier ways to clear your browser history. Mozilla Firefox has the option for ‘private’ browsing sessions, and Google Chrome makes it simple to browse without any track record of your history. Therefore, not only is monitoring the history ineffective, parents will no longer even see that the history has been cleared as an indicator of bad online behavior.

The same goes for Facebook. Just because you are friends with your child on Facebook doesn’t mean that you can see all of his or her activity. Profile privacy settings are becoming easier to manipulate, allowing users to block all updates for individual friends.

And, of course, the issue of cyber-bullying has played a big role in the media lately. This is a legitimate concern for parents as they send their children back to school—so it shouldn’t be taken lightly. Read More

One of the joys of being a parent is watching your child learn new skills and reach new milestones. Learning to read is one of the milestones that parents eagerly await and often worry about. Parent everywhere what to their best to help their children prepare for reading success.

Simple activities and materials can help your child build reading readiness skills every day. Here is a “Top 10” list of what you need at home, starting today, that will make all the difference in your child’s reading future: Read More

As I prepare to send my second child to college, I feel somewhat more prepared than when I sent my oldest child. Thinking back to when I dropped my daughter off at New York University three years ago, I believed that walking out of the dorm without falling apart would probably be the hardest part. Wrong! The most difficult part of taking my child to college came after several weeks and months at home, when I realized how different our relationship was becoming. My daughter was now on her own in the Big Apple!

While she was in high school, my daughter and I had a wonderful relationship marked by great communication, and I felt that it would continue unchanged. What I did not understand was that she was setting out on her own new adventure, trying to separate from her parents and becoming independent in her new role as a college freshman. Because in the past I had been “up” on everything going on in her world, I was sure that she would call me about every new experience and with a description of every person she had met. When that didn’t happen, I was sad and confused. In fact, the only way I talked to her was if I made the call, and then only if she answered the phone. When we did talk, I got very little information about the big new world she had entered. I realized that her lack of communication was her way of breaking away from home, and she needed me to back off a bit. On top of adjusting to setting one less plate for dinner and walking past her vacant room, I recognized that this was going to be much more difficult than I anticipated. Read More

Did you know boys and girls don’t read equally?  That it can be so difficult to get boys to read that some have called it a crisis?  I sure didn’t.  To be fair, it’s not that I’m totally clueless, just mostly clueless.  After all, I tore through books like a swarm of locusts as a boy, and my son is an avid reader as well. So even when I left biotechnology to write a series of science fiction thrillers for kids, I never imagined there might be a huge reading gap between boys and girls.

Even when educators and reviewers began proclaiming that my books were great for boys, I had no idea. Had I realized at this point that I had inadvertently accomplished something important: that books, especially series, that appeal to this demographic fill a critical need, I would have happily embraced this label.  But instead I chafed against it. After all, I had received very positive feedback on the books from girls also (and even adults).  So why did some reviewers focus so intently on the boys, to the exclusion of all others?  Only gradually did I realize that they understood the books’ broad appeal—they just didn’t care.  Boys were the nut they wanted to crack.  After some key conversations with educators the truth finally invaded my impressively thick skull.  Now, I not only understood their viewpoint, I agreed with it entirely, and decided to make up for my previous cluelessness by becoming as much of an expert as I could on the subject. Read More

Kids remember the strangest things. Ask any teen what he remembers about his childhood and he will most likely tell you about the adventurous things that his parents did with him. You can tell it has impacted him because it brings a smile to his face when he retells it.

Summer is a perfect time to do things with your kids that just might make some lasting memories. These times will never present themselves again, because next summer your child will be one year older (you will, too), and he may not appreciate the family experience as much as he would this year.

Here are some suggestions. This isn’t a mandatory list, so there’s no need to become compulsive and do everything. In fact, one or more of these might give you your own ideas. It may be one of the things that bring a smile to your child’s face long after he becomes an adult. Read More

Reading is a fundamental skill that children develop over time. It requires on-going practice, hence the saying, “children learn to read by reading.” This summer, it should be of utmost importance that you provide opportunities for your child to read.

Learn more about your child’s interests.

It becomes imperative therefore, that as a parent you get to know your child’s interests and have your child select books that sparks his/her interest. Is your child interested in mysteries, comics, or poetry? Maybe your child would like to learn more about taking a care of a new pet, or how to play a new sport. Make reading fun. Even the most reluctant reader will read if you target his/her interests. It becomes necessary to provide your child with a variety of books.

Become engaged with your child in the reading process.

While your child is reading, ask questions to see if your child comprehends what is being read. Who, what, where, when, and why are some key questions to ask. A reading activity and discussion about the book your child is reading may tell you whether or not your child understood what was read. Read More

As President and Mrs. Obama send their daughter to summer camp, they may be wondering what activities will fill her day. Depending on interests and camp offerings, a day at camp can vary greatly — including so many exciting experiences and opportunities to learn something new. Every summer, happy campers return home after their time at camp with newfound skills, greater confidence, and a sense of community that can only be found at camp.

Some camps offer a little bit of everything, and campers have the option to participate in a buffet of activities — including swimming, horseback riding, archery, canoeing, ropes courses, art, drama, and many, many more. Other camps may specialize in one or two activities, such as academics, the arts, or soccer. There are other activities – such as campfires, family-style meals, and quiet moments in nature — that are as much a part of the camp experience as the zip line or high ropes course.

The camp community is wide-ranging, and there truly is a camp suited for every child. Whether families are looking for an all-around experience, or one that focuses more on one or two activities, The American Camp Association® (ACA) encourages families to find the camp that meets their children’s needs. Read More

Paying for college can be intimidating. Financial aid has its own language, including an alphabet soup of acronyms like FAFSA and EFC. It changes rapidly, with new programs and tweaks to old programs occurring every year. College tuition also continues to increase faster than the consumer inflation rate. Even financial aid professionals have trouble keeping track of it all. So what can a parent do to save money on college costs and avoid making a mistake that will ruin their child’s future?

Mark Kantrowitz, a nationally-recognized expert on student financial aid, student loans, scholarships and paying for college, provides ten tips about the most important steps parents should take to cut college costs. Mr. Kantrowitz is also the publisher of FinAid.org, the most popular free web site for clear and unbiased student aid information, advice and tools, and Fastweb.com, the largest and most frequently updated free scholarship matching web site.

1.  Save money in a 529 college savings plan. Start saving as soon as possible because your greatest asset is time. If you start saving at birth, about one third of your college savings goal will come from earnings, not contributions. If you wait until your child enters high school to start saving, about ten percent of the savings goal will come from earnings.

You can invest in any state’s 529 college savings plan, but 32 states and the District of Columbia provide a state income tax deduction for contributions to the state’s 529 plan. That’s like getting a discount on tuition equal to your marginal tax rate. (Some states require that you keep the money invested for a year before taking a distribution, since the state income tax deduction is based on contributions net of deductions.) If you start saving when your child is young, however, you should focus on the state 529 plan with the lowest fees. These are usually the 529 plans that are managed by Vanguard, TIAA-CREF and Fidelity. Also invest in the direct-sold version of the plan, not the adviser-sold version, as the fees are much lower. Use the age-based asset allocation within the 529 plan, as this will reduce the risk of losses as college approaches.

It is also cheaper to save than to borrow. If you save $200 a month for 10 years at 6.8% interest, you’ll accumulate about $34,400. If instead of saving, you borrow this amount, you’ll pay $396 a month for 10 years at 6.8% interest. The difference is that when you save, the interest is paid to you, while when you borrow, you pay the interest. So you can pay less after college by saving more money before college. Every penny helps. Read More