JATP Admissions Preparation 2016: Saying Goodbye (for now)

It's almost the end of the journey (for most of my clients; believe it or not - some have just started) and I'm afraid that I might not want to let go of some of these precious moments that I have shared with these wonderful families.

What I do want to talk about, is how great they have all have been, at a very personal level.

One memory I want to share is that of a father who has taken a passive/active role in this process. Most fathers do not involve themselves when they work with me, but this is one father who definitely makes me feel like I have faith in this world by observing him lead his family.

This evening I had one of my final conversations with him. We talked about the journey and how far we've all come and all the hiccups down the road. This father has worked very hard in his life and despite all of that, he spares no expense when it comes to making either myself or my staff feel important when we are working with his children. He is what I would call, "Mr. Genuine Dad". As we wrapped things up, he  told me that as he was beginning to think about their future, he came across some more important aspects of their social development.

The conversation was very emotional  (for me) and real and there was not a filter between the words that were exchanged between us. I asked him why he chose the group of schools for his children and his response was: "After looking at some of these schools, I took a look at my children and wanted them to feel secure and normal. I want them to know what the world is like and not the bubble that most people would like for their children to be in here in Atlanta. I want them to have the same experiences that everyone else has - and not just the chosen few". It took me a bit of time to let that all sink in and then I thought to myself:

This is a real dad. He knows his children and he knows the world that we live in. Unlike other parents, he is sensible in his approach and does not let the world adjust to his children but rather his children adjust to the world. I felt that at the end of the day, he was not planning on sending them to a school so that he could show off the decal on his car (or SUV, I don't pay attention anymore), he wants to send his children to a school that would bring out the best in them and in turn, the best in our community. He's a true father that pays attention to the needs of his family, and not his ego.

This dad has been an inspiration for me to follow in the next few years of this process. I've noticed that his traits and mannerisms have been found in many of my other clients who are fathers. They love their children so much that sometimes you only see it when you pay attention.

I'm extremely proud of the group that I've worked with this year and you all know that I've tirelessly made sure that we get the results that you want. To all of my "Mr. Genuine Dad" clients, it has been an honor working with you!

5 Tips To Ace the JATP Parent Statement

It's time for you to open up the website to begin the application process. You look through the questions and unfortunately, your spouse is not around to see what you have unveiled. It's been several years since you have been asked to write anything that is longer than 50 words. These days the only time you are writing more than five sentences is when you are getting a little too excited about dinner and your Yelp review proves this.

The deadlines approach sooner than you can imagine and you keep waiting to be in the right mood to write the Parent Statement; after all, this is important enough to warrant your undivided attention. You do everything that you can to come up with the best and most honest portrayal of your child. If you are lucky, you know the art of writing and do not have to exert yourself like the other 95% of the population need to do. However, for most people, this task does not come as easily.

For most people who are driving around the streets of Atlanta, writing the Parent Statement is short of finishing off the final pages of your "Great American Novel". As soon as you hit the "Submit" button, all of your time and effort into putting in those key words (or 500 characters) will be scrutinized from now until the doors open again.

Here are my top 5 mistakes made when authoring the Parent Statement

1. Ask the most "Intelligent" Friend That You Know to Write About Your Child

Yes, this sounds like such a great idea doesn't it? Crowd sourcing from your more capable compatriots to bail you out of this... ordeal.  As I have my afternoon tea with clients I'll briefly glance through their Parent Statement and notice one thing: they didn't write it. It's rather comical because parents will tell me that, "Oh, my friend is an attorney and they helped me write it." or "Yes, my friend has a Ph.D in Political Science and they helped me come up with a few paragraphs." The fact of the matter is, you've given up and have taken the short course to the bottom of the pile.

Learning Ridge Pro Tip #1: Your "Intelligent" Friend is "Intelligent" in their own field. I would consult with them for information in that field and in that field only. If you decide to pursue them in matters that pertain to the Parent Statement, then proceed at your own risk.

2. Use Recycled Responses of a Friend's Failed Admission

"There's no way that they will compare my essay with one that was submitted five years ago!" Several years ago I saw the responses of a client who has a child that is now attending school at (Confidentiality). Like most parents, they had a difficult time knowing who their own child actually is. They asked a friend to help them with the Parent Statement and they did what many parents would do, cut/copy and paste. I asked the parents if their friend's child was accepted into the school that they had applied to. Their response was "no", my response was "Are you holding on to this for sentimental value?"

Learning Ridge Pro Tip #2: Don't use the recycled responses of your friend. There are so many ethical reasons why this should not even occur in the first place.

3. Have Your Spouse Write It During Their Lunch Break

"Sure honey, I'll finish this today during lunch:)". That's the text that would make any spouse happy, but would make a professional like me worry. Many clients have spouses that travel a great deal and may not have the time to talk to them about the Parent Statement. So a few days before the applications are due and here it is: all eight paragraphs. The only problem is: there are so many mistakes in the submission that it looks as if you rushed to turn it in like it was your Tax Extension "sans receipts".

Learning Ridge Pro Tip #3: Completing the Parent Statement during your lunch break is a half-hearted attempt that may not allow you to pass the "Parental Involvement" Requirement for most schools. If you think this is how all the parents act at the school that you are dreaming to send your child to,  you may be in for a big surprise.

4. Tell Your Child To Write It

It's disguised as a homework assignment that your child didn't know was due and cannot find it anywhere on Edmodo or the school's designated blog. So your angelic child spends months agonizing over something they cannot answer without offending you.

Learning Ridge Pro Tip #4: If you or anyone you know has done this, please give me a call. I've tried counseling parents on the fact that it's great to have your child be independent, but some tasks are made for you to complete, and you only. I support being a helicopter parent for a few things (safety of children so that they do not end up in another state for one or making sure that they are not posting egregious photos of themselves on Social Media) but having them write the Parent Statement for you and making them change it might be ...... #tacky.

5. Take Out Your Personal Statement From Graduate School and Substitute Your Name For Your Child

You have given up and know that as a successful professional, you have the keys to admissions because you've gotten through undergrad, graduate school and have awards on your wall to signify your contribution to your field. So you have your child turn into your "Mini Me". The only problem is: they are not you.

Learning Ridge Pro Tip #5: During this time, it's important to know that they want to know more about your child than.... you. Albeit, you are a significant individual in your child's life but I would not fabricate their accomplishments so that their file mysteriously appears at the top of the heap. If you think this might work, it won't.

6. Resorting to a Thesaurus to Upgrade Your Vocabulary

If the word that you are typing is a word that you have never heard of before, please do not use it. The sad thing is, there is a certain style in every individual's vernacular that is personalized. When parents have to take a thesaurus to use words that they have never heard of, the problem is that it may not be appropriate for what they are trying to say. Now  your family sounds like a collection of non-existent five syllable adjectives #TryingTooHard

Learning Ridge Pro Tip #6: Choose language that comes naturally to you. Keep it simple and think about what points you are trying to communicate.

7. Submitting a poor essay and thinking that you can just do it better next year

If you think that next year they are not going to compare your "Language Arts Worthy Creation", think again. The first idea that may pop into their heads is that you had someone write it for you the second time around.

Learning Ridge Pro Tip #7: Do it right the first time. If not, "The Ghost Of Parent Statements Past" might come back to haunt you.

If you or someone in your family needs assistance with the Admissions Preparation Process, please feel free to contact us to schedule an Opportunity Assessment: christine@learningridge.com or call (404) 964-8533.

Understanding the Private School Admissions Process in Atlanta

Over the years I have fielded calls from parents who have talked to me about the process of getting their son/daughter into elite private schools here in Atlanta. I'm always pleased to learn more about the process that they had undergone and share in their experiences whether it's the first time they are applying to a JATP school, or the last time they are trying to get into their first choice.

The worrisome aspect of this is that there is a great deal of misinformation that occurs when it pertains to the JATP. As I've observed, there are certain skills that all children need to have when they enter school. There are problems with how this process slightly favors some groups over others. It's not a competition to see which child has which score; as a matter of fact, it's so much more than that.

As we've worked with clients with different needs ranging from private school in Atlanta, college outside of Georgia, graduate school, and board certifications, it is important now more than ever to give people a fair and competitive advantage. Information and proper planning of what is expected of you is the recipe for success in my opinion.

Math Test Mishaps

Are you the type of parent that watches your child complete their math homework the night before a test so that they can earn an "A" and come home with a grade that is "unexpected"? If this is you, then you might have to change your mindset when it comes to test-taking, specifically in the area of math.

Math, similar to physics and chemistry, is an "application based subject". It's important to understand more than the material that has been presented in class in order to do well on tests.

After over a decade personally helping students with math, here are some reasons why students fail to earn that "A" on the test:

1. Forgot to follow the directions (sometimes even reading them)! Yes, you would be surprised. I've seen students in Algebra that mistakenly mix up the positive and negative sign and walk out of the test telling mom and dad they aced the integers test.. Not a good idea.
2. Poor penmanship. Some students think that they are already in medical school by the way they write. If his or her teacher cannot read what has been written, they cannot grade it either. When the skills become more cumbersome, students will try to collapse numbers that are not aligned in different columns so that they finish before everyone else. This is not a way to do well on tests.  
3. Perplexed by Vocabulary. If your child is taking a test and cannot distinguish between the LCM and GCF and encounters a word problem, they are in a world full of hurt. 
4. Homework: OPTIONAL. Even though your child has a great social life and a calendar filled with more extra-curricular activities than the valedictorian for Harvard, homework helps. 
5. Math Basics. I am not saying that you need to complete 100 facts in 2 minutes, but you need to know all of them well enough to meander through calculations.  

Be aware of these signs of a student who may not be at their potential in math. If you would like more information about Math Study Tips, Math tutoring or enrichment, contact us at: info@learningridge.com or you can call us at (404) 964-8533. 

Computerized Testing For Young Students: Helpful or Hurtful?

When I was a student, actually - let me be completely honest, we didn’t have computer access when I was in school until I was in college (one of my math professors from Loyola talked to me about email, and that was freshman year). There were three computers in the entire school and we basically had drills (similar to what I assume they would have at the CDC) before we could even “touch” the computer. Before they had us walk into the “computer room”, they gave us a twenty minute lecture of how we were to respect the computer and that we were dealing with high tech materials that could cost the teacher in front of us their job. And of course, we had to go to the sink and wash our hands with soap, there was no such thing as "sanitizer" back then. It was good old fashioned, soap.

Fast forward (several decades later) to 2015, and there has never been a time more than ever where clients have been complaining to me about how their child cannot perform well on computerized standardized tests. It’s come to my attention that children are asked to perform monumental tasks that (as I breathe a sigh of relief) I cannot imagine performing at such a young age.

A few years ago, a first grader in one of the City Districts took one of these exams, for the first time. He was excited to take a computerized exam because, like most children, computers and technology do not signal, “testing” or “reading”, it signals "fun" and "recreation" like challenging your friend’s high score on Temple Run. When his mother saw his score, compared to his peers in the district, she was mortified. I remember meeting with her at one of my favorite coffee shops and her eyes looked bloodshot as if she spent the entire night either crying or had to take a bottle of aspirin to rid herself of the headache also known as "raising kids to be smart, sociable, and successful". His mother was not the first mother to complain to me, and she certainly was not the last. We came up with a plan to increase his scores on that computerized test and the last time I saw his score, he was in the 98th percentile in the district. Sadly, every year I have parent after parent call foul on these computerized assessments that feel more like a polygraph test administration than an actual test of basic skills.

Let me be clear: despite our technophilic tendencies, many children still learn  to read in a more traditional way. For the first few years of a child's life, many parents snuggle up with their children and read them a bedtime story. They use a non-technological device called their fingers to teach their children how to track the words on the page and use the volume of their voice to emphasize certain interesting or exciting parts of a story. Children begin to engage in the reading by flipping the pages of a book and readjust their focus as they find their place. Nowadays, these behaviors have quickly been replaced with a computerized screen that does not have the ability to change the location of the  text or allow you to touch or mark it. As you can already imagine,  it’s a highly stressful and frustrating experience.

Most adults, let alone most children, need time to absorb information when reviewing material on a screen. As one reads through a passage, several processes must take place when you are reading in order to understand it proficiently. If you are like most people, you must prime  yourself  before answering any type of question. Here are some tips for your young reader to help them take their next computerized test:

3 Skills For Great Computerized Test Takers

Use Your Imagination

As I read through the words of a book or an article, it’s important that I take a second and use my imagination to understand what the writer is trying to convey. Sometimes the idea of “imagery” is a difficult concept for students when they are thrown into a computerized test.

Be Organized

The other process that takes place when reading through information is that you must organize the details as you read. Sometimes the glare of  the screen or the other distracting noises that you could hear as you are given these tests could be a strain on your attempt to organize the data.

Use Your Memory

Lastly, the ability to recall the information can only be done if, you have a way to remember. If your student is stressed beyond belief, then they may not remember key pieces of information to help them answer some of the reading comprehension questions.

If you or anyone you know have questions about education, testing, learning challenges, or just want to talk about your child, feel free to contact me at: christine@learningridge.com or visit our website at www.learningridge.com .

How to Be A Great PlayDate Host!

New to the field of Playdating? Here's some insight from our best clients at Learning Ridge..

Are you new to the area and are trying to have your children integrate with their peers at school? Then organizing a play date with one or more of their friends will be a sure win!

As you learn more about your child and their friends, here are a few PlayDate Host Rules:

1. Be gracious with your accommodations

You do not have to change your home to Disney World, but you should make your little guests feel welcome. Make sure they know where the necessities are (bathroom, place for their belongings) and where they need to be for the duration of their playdate.

2. Establish ground rules

Before the playdate starts, make sure that you reinforce "house rules" with your child and their friends. Depending on your parenting style, you may use a more active approach by discussing important topics with the child and their parents or you could use a less direct approach by engaging in conversation with your child where the information will be relayed to their friend. Be sure to use proper language with your child’s friends and expect them to do the same. 

If the playdate is at your house or is in an area that you may not be as familiar with, ensure that there are safe zones for them to wander in (kitchen, basement, playroom) and red zones where they are to not be out of your sight (garage, pool area without adult supervision, garage). This will ensure unnecessary search teams looking for your child and the other children on the playdate. 

3. Discuss meals/activity options

The last thing a parent wants to hear when their child is finally in the car from a playdate is that their friend’s parents did not feed them anything at all. Parents, it’s a playdate, not your version of “Survivor: Home Edition”. If things are too hectic for you, pick up a pizza, grab some donuts or take them to the park. If you are the parent of the child and know that the other parent runs a tight pantry, send your child off with a few snacks and an activity book to keep them occupied.

4. Count how many children you are responsible for

This is so important but some parents miss it. Make sure that you leave with the exact number of children that you came with (this advice is really meant for the fathers who might have "mommy duty" when their wife is out of town). Otherwise, if you miscount and accidentally leave a few children behind or inherit children from another play group, you’ll end up meeting someone dressed up in blue later on that evening.

5. No matter how much you want to pry, don’t be nosy around your child’s friends

I was having lunch one day and this mom was looking for a way to have her son join a baseball team. She kept prodding her son’s friend about the team, the coach, the players, until her son’s friend said, “Are you thinking about having your son play?” It was really tacky, and most children like playing with their friends rather than be interviewed on a playdate.

If you need to find out more about the other service providers your children's friends have in their circle, it may be best to ask the other parents. Using interrogation techniques does not make for a pleasant play date atmosphere and makes you look a little too.... tacky.

For more information about Playdating or General Questions about Education, feel free to contact Learning Ridge at 404-964-8533 or you can email info@learningridge.com

Atlanta JATP "Private School Parent Archetypes"

It’s October, also known as “Private School Season”. If you haven’t done so already, the calendar that coordinates all of your personal goals and objectives will slowly be overtaken by your child’s Private School Schedule. It’s going to be an arduous ride for all of you, but how will your personality fit in with this entire process?

After a decade of working with so many clients in this city, I’ve come to realize there are four different types of “Pre-Private School Parents”. Read through these descriptions and try to figure out which one you are!

“Do Nothing” Parents

These parents are the first to turn in their application and the first to start crying silently when April comes and they receive an onslaught of rejection letters in the mail. They’ve spoken to all of their friends who have kindly told them that the only way your child will get in will be to just turn in the application.  Perhaps their odds may be better spent on a weekend in Atlantic City but not on the future of your child’s private school placement. My experience working with these parents is the moment that they call me in the spring, it’s time to work on next year’s application.

The “I’m Connected” Parent

They are members of  the same country club as the Former Headmaster of the school that you are applying to. Or they think that if they have lunch with the mothers at “Insert Name of Private School”, they’ll get in. Easier said than done, right? 

I’m Getting JATP Prep/Consultation From A Former Private School Staff Member

I’ve seen some parents that have taken the time to work with these private school consultants and it’s really interesting to me. Some of them have a background that is so far from education that I wonder how they can even consult on the proper “educational fit” for your child. 

After a few years in the field, sources have confided in me that the information being presented is more of a formality that provides a little more than the what you could see from a brochure/website. As far as anything above and beyond that, good luck! 

Holistic Approach Parent

These parents are the ones who plan ahead, look at their different options, and focus on a plan for private school. When these parents call Learning Ridge, LLC, they know that they have someone to talk to and can rely on their years of working with clients who have successfully been admitted into these private schools and also who are currently attending these private schools, to help them through this process. By working with our experienced Educational Consultant, you will know how to prepare your child for the next few months, but also yourself!

So there you have it! Which archetype to you belong to?

For more information about the Admissions Preparation Process for Private Schools in the Atlanta area, feel free to contact Learning Ridge at 404-964-8533 or you can email us at: christine@learningridge.com