We’ve all seen the social caricature of a “problem” child who seems so highly intelligent in certain areas of life but just can’t seem to get it together in others. The youth who become labeled “troubled” teens because they seem pent up and frustrated with life rather than flourishing.
Unfortunately, in many cases, these youth are truly gifted beings hiding under early pigeonholing by a system that failed to recognize their unique situations early on. Understanding the “gifted” child is a key element in helping he or she lead a successful and productive life.
I love to tell childhood stories about my now independent, hard-working, world traveling 23-year-old. Hard to believe she's the same child that screamed the entire walk to school every morning and sat on my lap for two hours at birthday parties. My Brooklyn neighbors would stand on their front porches waving, smiling, and silently encouraging me to carry on.
My kid was a clinger and did not want to go to school. She held my leg so tightly and screamed so loudly I wanted to cry. And this was only kindergarten evaluation day.
Transition times, such as beginning a new school year, or starting preschool, can be difficult for kids and parents alike. We're all creatures of habit, and change can often bring stress.
What can parents do to prepare their children, and themselves, for transition to a new routine?
We asked an expert: Claire Haas is a teacher and mother of two who also serves as the Vice President of Education for Kiddie Academy, an education-focused child care provider. She gave us the following tips.
"Back To School" - the three words that strike dread into the hearts of students and parents alike. The kids are waving goodbye to long summer days and resenting the piles of homework, while parents are dreading the expense of all of the back-to-school knickknacks.
Suri Cruise will be hitting the books this fall - but not at just any old posh private school.
Previous reports claimed the six-year-old would be attending Convent of the Sacred Heart (a prestigious all-girls Catholic school that graduated both Lady Gaga and Caroline Kennedy).
So, you want your child to become a better writer. Good plan! The ability to write clearly and with ease is one that will help your child from first grade through the rest of his or her life.
Sure, school will teach your child the fundamentals of writing (grammar, syntax, and such), but that won’t necessarily make it easy or fun. Take-home essays and homework assignments can only help so much; the only way to become a better writer is to practice it over and over. Even as a college English major, I fully admit that writing is hard!
Imagine falling under the trance of a hypnotist...and not waking up for over five hours!
That’s exactly what happened to several girls at Quebec’s private school, Collège du Sacré-Coeur.
Maxime Nadeau, a young hypnotist, performed a typical show for the school's students, but instead of simply entrancing his subjects, it affected several 12 and 13-year-old audience members as well. He had some trouble waking the girls up, and was reported that one girl was stuck in a trance for over five hours.
The old saying is that if you ignore a bully, he’ll stop. One kindergarten teacher at Salinas Elementary School, which is located just outside of San Antonio, Texas, tried a very different method of teaching her class bully a lesson. Six year old Aiden Neely was accused of picking on other students in his class, so his teacher (who remains unidentified) had the other 24 children in her class line up and slap Aiden, one by one. Aiden’s mother claims that her son was hit twice by each child before his punishment was over.
College is the best four years of your life (at least, theoretically). It’s about freedom, independence, and eating cold pizza for breakfast just because you can. It’s our first foray into the “real world,” which is pretty exciting, but for parents, I suppose it can be a little frightening to watch the nest empty out.
College reunions are designed to trigger reflection, nostalgia and insights into the winding, baffling life journey that connects who you were at 20 and who you are now. And maybe, for cynics, how much you owe your college, how impressive are your life achievements, and how good you look compared to your college boyfriend’s wife.
