A Fresh New School Year
If you’re like most parents of tweens and teens right now you’re either celebrating their near return to school or you’re already beginning to miss them badly. Whatever you may be feeling, your son or daughter is probably psyched to be free and get back to school, if only to spend more time with friends.
So what’s different this year from last? Aside from starting a new grade, your child may also be moving up to the middle school or high school, navigating new hallways, meeting new students or changing schools entirely. Then there are all the academic changes. Harder classes, tougher teachers, more tests and a heavier homework load. Combine all of that with extracurricular activities and a social life and your child has a lot to handle.
It’s easy to think of how fun it would be to hand over our responsibilities and step back in time to live life as a care-free student again. But, really, they have a lot to think about this school year and every school year. Soon they’ll have to make some of the biggest decisions of their lives.
Isn’t it a bit strange that students have to decide where they’ll go to college, what they’ll study and what career path they’ll follow, all before they’re 20 years old? We learn so much about life after college, which is when we also have some regrets. Any of these sound familiar?
- “If only I’d studied more in high school!”
- “Why didn’t I give that major a chance?”
- “I remember being so good at that – why didn’t I follow through?”
- “I wished I’d traveled in college.”
Of course hindsight is 20/20 for us. So I hope your child will ask questions that I know I personally didn’t think to ask anyone when I was in middle school or high school. The more they explore their interests and work hard in class this school year, the better prepared they’ll be to make those big decisions when 11th and 12th grade rolls around — if it hasn’t already!
The team here wishes you and your student a very successful new school year! Remember to let us know how we can help along the way.