Recent Articles
Helping your child conquer stage fright
Don’t you love the way kids communicate these days? They text, they IM, they email. Somewhere along the line, talking one-on-one became so last century. But talking in front of a group has never gone out of style. Can today’s youngsters do that — articulately, intelligently and persuasively — if as
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Is Your Child in the Wrong Class?
Those first-week back-to-school jitters were normal, you reasoned. And that first month? OK, it was difficult, but everyone knows some kids take extra time adjusting to the new school year. But now it’s well into fall, your child starts the school day in tears and comes home the same way, and you’re
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Getting college ready with Dr. Laura Kastner
Doesn’t it seem as if the college quest has just about taken over the high school years? Seattle author and psychologist Laura Kastner, Ph.D., says the whole process of the “launching year” — applying to college, choosing a school and ultimately leaving home — can trigger mega amounts of anxiety for
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Ready ... Set ... Go Back to School
By now, we’re used to the deluge of back-to-school gear and goodies that appear long before the yellow buses return to the roads. Sometime midsummer, gleaming backpacks appear on store shelves, newspaper ads tout crisp notebooks and colorful rulers, and cozy hoodies surface at Target. Every year, w
Read More »Reaching your reluctant reader
A recent survey by Scholastic Books finds that only 29 percent of 7 to 11-year-olds in the U.S. read daily for pleasure. So what do you do if your child is a member of that other 71 percent who shows little interest in books? “Most kids are reluctant readers because their reading time has become unp
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Making Summer Reading Fun for Kids
Our lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer seem a little heavy on the “crazy” these days: T-ball practice, swim team, gym class, day camp, play dates … the list goes on. When did “summer” become code for “hectic”? Now that summer is in full bloom, it might just be the perfect time to dial things down, cu
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Get Outside! Great Summer Learning Opportunities for Kids
If you suspect your child suffers from “summer brain drain,” you have research on your side. According to a study at Duke University by education and psychology professor Harris Cooper, Ph.D., test scores show that, on average, kids have lost at least one month of learning when they return to school
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Get a little respect
Ask any parent: All they want is respect — just a little bit, to paraphrase the person who turned the R-word into an anthem. Yet the quest for it seems more frustrating than ever. How can you sell respect to your kids when the playlist they’re plugged into, the sitcom they’re watching and the cel
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