Parenting and Learning Issues

New struggles and challenges must be confronted at each grade level during a child’s academic development. Specifically, in the public high school years, many teens struggle to stay organized, facing difficulty managing their assignments and agendas. The high school years open students to far more freedoms, social opportunities, new technologies, and countless distractions. Subsequently, many teens cannot seem to figure out how to manage all of their obligations.

Being organized is an essential skill that will help your teen as he or she grows into an adult. Research shows that organized students develop habits that will help them perform better in school and in the long term in their professional and adult life. Thankfully, there are several ways parents can continue to guide their teenage children toward greater organization and self-management.

Secrets to Teenage Organization

One of the main reasons many parents struggle to guide their teenage children towards organization is the common teenage desire for freedom from their parents. As teens encounter more privileges and responsibilities, they want to break free from the parental nest.

During this period of unrest and self-discovery, teens quickly feel overwhelmed and disorganized. As teens desire more freedom and self-control, parents are often pushed away as they try to intervene. Despite this power struggle, parents can still offer guidance and support.

Set the Boundaries

First and foremost, if your teen is among the many who desire to assert their independence, you must first set and explain clear boundaries and expectations.

While every teacher naturally wants to help students learn and excel, there are inevitably some “favorites” in the classroom. However, based on expert information and educators themselves, parents can be involved and take simple steps to help get on the teacher’s “good side.”

Meet the Teacher

Most schools host “open-house” or “meet the teacher” events at the beginning of any school year or new semester. If your child’s school provides the community with this opportunity, try your best to attend! The open-house invitations allow parents and teachers to interact face-to-face.

This parent-teacher meeting can ameliorate various miscommunication issues down the line. For example, if your child comes home complaining of a teacher’s unfairness or assignment, you can use your own knowledge of the teacher (based on your meeting) to assess if your child’s perceptions are accurate. Upon meeting parents at open-house events, many teachers can clearly outline their classroom procedures, grading policies, and so forth. By becoming aware of these guidelines and the teacher’s personality, you can more clearly assess any future issues that your child may encounter in the teacher’s class.

Establish Communication

If you can meet the teacher at an open-house event, then you’re off to the right start! However, if you cannot attend a meet-the-teacher event, try offering your introduction through another alternative method. For example, email the teacher, introducing yourself in a friendly fashion. Offer your home number or

To provide students with academic, social, and personal enrichment opportunities year-round, many public schools and national institutions have created unique and diverse summer programs. With programs focusing on core subject areas, such as math and language, in addition to programs that spotlight team development and leadership skills, students of all ages can benefit from the exclusive perks of summer programs.

Stimulate Academic Advancement and Cognitive Development

For students who struggle in specific academic areas, or for students who demonstrate exceptional academic abilities in core areas, summer programs that focus on academic instruction allow students to enhance their cognitive skills and abilities. For example, as the American Mathematical Society reveals in their list of summer camps and programs, there are hundreds of local universities, public schools, and community colleges that provide kids with the opportunity to engage in mathematical practice, research, and investigations.

While these opportunities, in any subject area, will provide students with unique and engaging intervention activities and lessons, many of the academic programs also help support personal development and social development advancements as well.

In this video, Socratica offers 5 reasons for attending summer school.

For example, in thoroughly investigating the array of summer math programs across the country, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) directs an academically rigorous math camp with a unique social twist; the UNL camp caters specifically to young girls ranging from

While final exams once seemed to be an unpleasant rite of passage for high school students, they are now common forms of assessment for almost every grade level! With the rise of standardized testing in the attempt to make all schools equal, most elementary, middle, and high school students are required to complete an array of final exams during their twelve years in public schools.

While many children and teens manage the stress of finals through their own strategies and tactics, some students need a bit more support. Finals can provoke stress and text anxiety and spike student mood and behavior issues. If problematic behaviors or signs of anxiety arise, parents can easily intervene to help provide their son or daughter with positive encouragement and test preparation support.

Elementary Final Exams

While many elementary schools often require students to take a final exam at the end of the semester or school year, many of these final exams do not actually impact a child’s grade; therefore, final exams at the elementary level should not be over-stressed or too greatly emphasized.

Final exams at the elementary level tend to be standardized tests that are developed by curriculum experts, and they are normally given in order to assess the teacher’s progress and the average student performance rate, in addition to providing test result information that can determine whether or not a specific student needs serious intervention strategies.

As The Chicago Public Schools’ Elementary Standardized Test

As extensive studies and reports reveal, the study and practice of music serve to boost children’s mathematical abilities. While many schools struggle to manage time, course schedules, and the cost of music programs, expert educators assert that music education classes are imperative to a child’s development.

Research and Support

When examining the music education curriculum in most elementary schools, many students are forced to be pulled out of core classes in order to attend music lessons. While many school leaders feel that pulling students out of core classes leads to deficits in cognitive growth, data and investigative studies report otherwise. According to The National Association for Music Education (NAME), a 1995 study of Ohio elementary schools reveals that pulling students out of core classes for enrichment opportunities does not harm student achievement.

While most administrators and leaders express concern about enrichment pull-outs, the Ohio study shows that students who were pulled out of core classes for a thirty-minute string instrument session two times per week scored higher than students who were not pulled out of class in every assessed subject!

Specifically, in examining the math scores of the children, string students scored an average of nearly 215 points on the Ohio Proficiency Test, while non-string students scored an average of nearly 212. In further examining the assessment results of the string versus non-string students, and to make the analysis as fair as possible, researchers of the Ohio schools “Looked at students' scores on a previous standardized