"Trust in the Lord with your whole heart and lean not on your own understanding..." - Proverbs 3:5
 Summer vacation is a great opportunity for families to spend quality time together, take trips to see family or visit new and exciting parts of the world. But, for many working parents, the need to find something engaging for your children to do is pressing.
 The idea that your first years of education are influential to your later success, both in school and out, is nothing new. We all understand the value of providing our children with a firm foundation for their school years, but what many don’t realize is that the type of education your kindergartener receives has just as much impact as the amount of time spent in a classroom.
 There are few skills as valuable to your children as the ability to empathize with others. Empathy and emotional intelligence are getting harder to come by, which is why it’s important to be intentional about teaching these skills to your children.
 There are many reasons why parents would choose a private education over a public one. In many cases, the feeling that their child’s education is of the utmost importance to their school can be the driving force behind this decision.
 After giving the public school system a try, some parents decide that a private school is a better fit for their child.
To help this transition go as smoothly as possible, here are a few things that you can expect to find when your child switches from a public to a private school: 1. Smaller classroom size. One of the driving factors that motivates parents to choose a private education for their children is the smaller classroom size private schools typically offer.  If you're wanting to give your child a private education but are hesitant to do so given the stereotypical high costs, think again. We recently wrote a blog post about this very subject that explains how a private education can actually be the more cost-effective path for your family in the long run.
For most parents, cost does play a role in deciding which private school to send your child to. If you're currently considering your options for a private education in Central Florida, you've likely already made yourself familiar with the tuition and other costs associated with enrollment at these schools.  While some parents are certain that they want to give their children a private education, they choose to wait to do so until the high school years. Perhaps their motivation behind this is that they consider high school to be the "important years" and that the extra pressure of being in a class with high achievers will motivate their children to succeed academically.
 If you're a parent considering a private education for your child, you can find a plethora of information about schools simply by visiting their websites and reading through admissions materials. However, nothing can be more valuable during this process than physically visiting the school and the personal interactions that you have with the teachers, students, and parents of the school.
To help ensure that you are choosing the right school to give your child the best private education possible, we recommend walking through this checklist as you tour the school:
 Have you noticed groups of kids gathered together looking at their phones? If so, there's a very good chance that they're playing Pokémon Go, which is the hottest new smartphone app game to hit the streets.
The game uses your phone's GPS to send you on a hunt for monsters and makes virtual Pokémon appear around you for capturing. As you walk around town, the goal is the capture as many Pokémon that you can so that you can train them and battle them against other Pokémon Go players. This huge sensation has created a number of safety concerns for parents though. Could the game be too distracting for kids and cause them to not pay attention to where they're walking? Considering the game involves interacting with other players, will this cause kids to let their guard down too soon? With that being said, should your kids be playing Pokémon Go? Since we frequently use our blog to offer parenting tips, we wanted to touch on this valid concern.  Generally speaking, children under the age of 14 are a greatly underutilized volunteer resource. There is so much that can be gained from youth taking an active role in helping our community, which is why our private school finds every opportunity to expose our students to volunteer opportunities. Here are just a few of the ways that volunteering can positively impact our youth:
There's no question that there is a direct link between community service and academic gain for our youth. It provides students with the ideal opportunity to apply what they've learned in the classroom to real human needs. Working as a volunteer can also help students to develop better problem solving skills and gain a sense of self-accomplishment. |