After school safety - tips and reminders

When parents send their children for after school programs, they take it for granted that the child is safe. But since the number of children participating in these activities has increased, it is necessary to look into safety issues.

Children are vulnerable when they are outside the classes. While going or returning, they should know the safest route to take. Many kids hang out with their friends just after these classes. Find out 'danger zones' from your neighbors and make the children aware of these.

The child has to know how to handle emergencies. It is better to discuss various scenarios with your child. Tell her what she should do in case the class is suddenly cancelled. Show her the first-aid kit at home and make sure she knows whom to call in an emergency. Post any important contact information in a place that is easily accessible to the child. If the child will be alone at home, discuss a few unexpected things with her. Tell her to use the safety chain ALWAYS.

Relay on your neighbors and friends when needed. Let your child know who can be contacted at times of emergency. Ask your child to check in by phone. Above all, always tell the child to be in a group. Visiting toilets all alone or going home via isolated streets must be avoided.

Avoiding Burnout in Home Schooling

Whether you’re studying in a traditional school or in a home schooling program, there will come a time when you will experience burnout. This is something that you have to avoid so that your learning progress is not affected.

Here are a few helpful tips that you can make use of to avoid possible home schooling burnout:

• Know your limitations. From the very start, you should already know your and your child’s limitations. You are capable of doing things slowly at a time especially if your child is still young since you have to consider your child’s learning capacity. Most of today’s students are average learners so you have to take the lessons based on your child’s learning pace.
Never expect your small child to read complicated reading selections nor your teen to ace SAT exams.

• Don’t follow strict schedules because this can pressure your child. You can simply set an interesting routine for your kids. Children spend most of their time doing their routine activities like getting up late in the morning, eat hearty breakfasts, read, write, do light chores, and some other things. You must insist that they finish first their routine activities before they can play outside or with the computer. Even the routine activities vary from day to day but you have to make sure that you’re child follows the routine activities. You can throw in occasional incentives or fun activities if they finish their routine tasks earlier.

• Enjoy home schooling together with your kid. This is one way to develop a good relationship with your kid. If you and your kid can relate to each other, you will find it very easy to handle curriculum struggles and motivation problems. Aside from motivating and guiding your child, you can also pursue some of your interests like gardening and cooking. If your child sees you pursuing your interests, then he or she will also be motivated in doing the same.

• Since your child is into home schooling, you should not mimic the traditional school environment. Try to use unusual methods when teaching your kid. Home schooling is also about flexibility and if you can achieve a light atmosphere, you can effectively avoid burnout.

Always remember that with home schooling, you don’t have to structure your teaching methods. You can simply do things in a fun way especially with very young kids and they can learn easily. Just keep the day in the right perspective to avoid burnout. Although your kids might forget some of the day’s lessons, that’s all right because somehow they grow in intelligence and even physically. And of course, you kids will always cherish your moments together and how well you’ve treated them. There is no other place like home and for little students this is the best place to learn the first lessons in life. Now, even your teens are already in high school or in college, they can still pursue home schooling if they want too. That is also a good decision because you get to monitor your child’s performance.

Parents are always looking after their child’s best interest. If after careful consideration you still think that home schooling is the best option, go on with it. Just follow the tips mentioned earlier to avoid burnout at home. Do fun activities from time to time to rule out monotony.

Educational Savings Accounts

When it comes to getting a college education, financing is one of the most important considerations that you will need to make. Unfortunately for far too many it is one the last considerations that is made when it comes to the educations of our children. If you are a parent you owe it your child and yourself to plan ahead and plan carefully in order to cover the cost of your child's education. There are fortunately, a few great ways in which you can do this.

The most common is to begin by opening up an educational savings account for your child (under the age of 18). When you open up an educational savings account for your child, you can contribute up to $2,000 per year per child. This is a combined total contribution however and includes the contributions of grandparents, friends, and family in addition to your own personal contributions. The money from these funds can be withdrawn tax-free as long as they are used for educational purposes.

Educational expenses in this case include books, tuition, fees, supplies, and college room and board provided that your child is at least a part-time student. If you do not use all the funds for your child there are options as far as what to do with the remaining funds in the account. The first option would be to leave the funds in the account and allow the account beneficiary to withdraw them up until the age of 30. There is a penalty involved and the beneficiary will be required to pay income tax on those funds. You could also elect to roll those funds over to the next child under the age of 18 who will have educational expenses in the future.

The money you set aside in these accounts to cover the cost of the education of your child or children is not tax-deductible however, it is a great way to begin saving money and investing in the future of your child. If you begin investing the maximum amount $2,000 per year upon birth your child should have a nice nest egg to help cover educational expenses. If your child is fortunate enough to qualify for scholarships and other sources of financial aid you can turn the funds over as a graduation gift or save it for the next college student in your family that comes along. Either way you've saved yourself a good part of the worry that goes along with providing for your family by having this fund set up for your children.

You can sign up for programs like Upromise in order to subsidize your contributions with donations from corporate sponsors as their way of thanking you for buying their products or using their services on any credit cards that you, your friends, and your family members have registered to go into your child's account. Every edge you give yourself when it comes to investing in the education of your children is an edge worth having. College tuition rates are rising at an alarming rate while corporate expectations of college degrees are rising at the same near lightening speed. This means that a college degree is more critical for our children than in any past generations.

Take the time now to check into securing the future of your children by establishing an educational savings account. Let friends and family know that any gifts they are planning to give your children that involve money would be appreciated if they instead invested in the future of your children rather than the now. You can also ask your friends and family to sign up their credit cards with Upromise in order to provide a little bump in donations to your child's college savings account. These little steps add up to significant savings over the course of 18 years. You just might find that the investment you are making is adequate to cover the costs of your child's tuition in full.

Academic Scholarships for those who have Excelled in School

There are many great academic scholarships out there for those who have excelled in school. It takes a great deal of effort and determination to maintain a very high GPA. It shows you do care about your future and you strive to do your very best. You should commend yourself for such achievements and you should be well rewarded for it. You will find that there are plenty of great academic scholarships you can apply for.

The overall GPA is going to vary. There are some very prestigious academic scholarships that will only be offered to those with a 4.0. This means a perfect record for their high school career. This is going to be a very small percentage of people so you won’t have as much competition. Others only require a 3.0 GPA or higher so make sure you carefully look at this. Unfortunately if you have a low GPA then you are going to have to bypass academic college scholarships in exchange for those that focus on other areas.

The types of classes you have taken will be evaluated when you apply for any academic scholarship. For example getting an A in basic math is viewed differently than getting an A in Advanced Trigonometry. Keep all of that in mind when you are selecting your class schedule in high school as well. Yet if you know you can’t do well in a given course then don’t force yourself to do so. That could really backfire and give you a lower overall GPA.

You will find that many of the academic scholarships do want more than just that though. It isn’t enough to have just high grades in the most difficult courses. They also want to see that you have been involved in some types of activities that aren’t academic in nature. Make sure you do you best to find some to involve yourself in. If you find it to be too hard with your studies then take part in community activities that you can focus on over the summer months. It only matters that you do take part in such activities, not when you do them.

If you have worked hard in high school then you do deserve to get some funding to help you pay for college. Don’t be frustrated if you can’t afford to go to college on your own. Instead you need to spend some time searching for great academic scholarships you may be able to win. Many of them are renewable as well. This means you can reapply for them each year. However, you must agree to keep your grades up in order for that renewal to be granted.

If you have very high grades then chances are you won’t have any problem getting into the college of your choice. Make sure you carefully evaluate the financial burden of going there though. Some of the top schools are so very expensive that even with academic scholarships you have to take out loans or gain access to funds in some other way. Don’t let such issues prevent you from being able to get the college education you want. It is going to be a huge part of your future so make sure you make good choices now.

Federal Student Loans

I have found that there is one thing that we can count on, life is unpredictable. I was an excellent student in high school and college. When I completed college I was hired by a company with a great reputation and was paid a good salary. I met a wonderful man that I married. When I got pregnant we agreed that I would work only part time so that I could spend more time at home with the baby. Shortly after our first child was a year old I got pregnant again. We were thrilled about having a second child. Shortly after the birth of our second child my husband was killed in a car accident. I was left to single parent two children with limited resources.

As the children aged we managed to get along with the money I made. I was not able to put extra time into my career to get into the higher salary bracket because I am in a competitive field. My children had only one parent I was not going to spend all my time developing a career. As my oldest reached the age where he was looking into colleges I began to panic about funding. I spoke to the high school guidance counselor and was told about the federal student loans programs. The counselor said there were many different scholarships available for different career choices. The federal student loans site was a great place to research many different types of financial aide that many students do not realize are available. The counselor was aware of our family history and knew that I was overwhelmed with parenting and my career. He offered to do some research with my son regarding federal student loans. I was very grateful to him for taking the time and interest in my son’s education.

My son came home with several different forms to fill out for financial aide. He told me that he and the counselor had found a scholarship through the federal student loans programs that he may qualify for. The school had to make a recommendation on his behalf and the counselor was willing to do this. After completing all the paper work and waiting several weeks my son was interviewed for the scholarship. After waiting several more weeks we were informed that he was granted the scholarship. As long as he maintains a B grade point average he will get his tuition paid for. I was so thankful to the counselor for suggesting the federal student loans programs. Having the tuition taken care of is a great burden off of me and my son. I know that some how in the future we will be able to give back in some way for the generous scholarship. It makes me feel that I am entering a more positive time in life.

Distance Education Program

Finding the perfect distance education program can be a bit trickier than you might think. Although thousands of accredited distance learning programs exist in many different fields of study, not all of them are equal. Some require more work than others, some have more qualified teachers than others, and some will get you further in the real world than others will.

With distance education programs, it all depends on what you want to get out of the classes you take. A surprising number of people take a correspondence course not for the certificate, but for the joy of learning something new. After all, it is an economical and practical way to study something that you love. All course materials are provided for a reasonable fee, and there are deadlines to make sure that students stay on task.

Of course, the vast majority of folks in a distance education program are there because they want to get some valuable career training that will take them further in life. If this is your motivation, then it is important to verify whether or not your distance education program will really help you to get a better paying job. This may sound obvious, but it is not as straightforward as it seems. Every year, thousands of people fall for distance learning programs that promise more than they can deliver. Training alone is not enough - you need to verify what certificate you need and make sure that your distance education program delivers that certificate.

Fortunately, nowadays it is easier than ever to research distance education programs. Back in the old days, people would find distance education program information in newspaper adds and be forced to correspond through the mail. Back then, it was very hard to find out if you were getting the real deal before you had already given them your money and signed up for the course. Now that we have the Internet, however, you should not settle for a distance learning education program that does not answer all your questions. Find out what the course load is, whether there is a professor available to answer questions that you have during the class, whether there are online lectures available, and anything else that seems important to you. Once you find out all you can, then you can begin to make an educated choice as to which distance education program is the right choice for you.