With the new school year comes a fresh start.  Each September we, as parents, have another opportunity to help set up our children to have a stress-free (or at least greatly reduced) school year.  While the major exams, projects, and term papers are still just blips on the horizon, we can guide our children in developing a course of action that lays the groundwork for success in academics and beyond.

For the beginning of the school year a few years ago, Partners With Parents wrote an article for NY Metro Parent about when and how to be involved in your child’s homework and academic life.  In the article, and in our workshops based on the same concepts, we provide a structure for parents to help their children take ownership of their learning.  (more…)

If you are the parent of a child with a learning disability, you know the difficulty in understanding what your child is going through.  Even once you’ve begun to understand the “condition,” your child has probably already been stressed and overwhelmed for a while.  Fortunately, educators, and to some extent our communities, have started to create structures that help support children with different learning styles and needs. But we are a long way from knowing for sure what’s truly best for a child who is suffering in school.

Recently, Partners With Parents has seen a increase in the demand for private tutoring for use as part of a homeschooling program. In the past, homeschooling has had a reputation as a “solution” for parents who differed religiously or disagreed philosophically with how their kids were being taught in school. Now, particularly in places like New York City, there is a new group of parents who want, need, and are finding the vast benefits of homeschooling programs for kids with learning disabilities. (more…)

I was recently quoted in the New York Post substantiating the increase in homework that most parents have seen in the last generational shift.  A pediatric ophthalmologist had expressed his sense that all of the reading and homework our kids get these days could be making them myopic, especially in particularly intense academic climates.

My first response was to think that we need to reduce kids’ seemingly incessant “screen time,” as opposed to their “book time,” which my colleagues explored in last week’s post, Nearsightedness and Competitive NYC Schools.  Over the last week, however, I’ve been stuck on this popular notion that we are overloading our kids with homework.  In this idea, we are dangerously close to coming out against a certain developmental rigor that is crucial for our children’s development.  We have all become familiar with the refrain that we should “let them have their childhood,” but if we’re talking about replacing books and academic challenges with a bag of chips and a 50” screen, I’m declining.

As adults with a certain amount of life experience, we know that few things come easily.  We know one has to work hard for the things worth having, and in the process one builds the skills and wisdom to manage the fruits of those efforts.   (more…)

We were recently quoted in a New York Post article about the development of nearsightedness in students who go to the competitive schools in New York.  A pediatric ophthalmologist on the Upper East Side was interviewed about his assertion that there is a correlation between myopia and attending NYC private schools.  He expressed the opinion that kids in these schools are at increased risk for the condition due to the volume of reading and homework.

Partners With Parents Tutoring Service was contacted by the journalist to offer our expertise about the amount of homework students receive in New York independent and highly-selective public schools.  Essentially, our quote was that over the past decade we have seen a trend towards heavier homework loads. (more…)