Parenting My Teen

The SAT that our teens take today isn’t like the one we took years ago.

Did you know that a few years ago, the SAT became a longer, more challenging, and a lot different? The SAT is now 3 hours and 45 minutes long. What was known as the Verbal Section has been renamed Critical Reading and the Analogies questions have been eliminated and replaced with Short Reading Passages.

An SAT Writing Section has been added, which contains multiple-choice grammar questions and a 25-minute written essay. Finally, the Math Section has been expanded to include three years of high school math — in other words, it now includes harder questions in the area of algebra II.

For your teen, taking the SAT is a huge, life molding event. It marks the beginning of a countdown to your child’s high school graduation and has us, parents, thinking seriously sending our teens off to college.

Helping our teens prepare for the SAT is crucial! It is important to not leave this preparation solely in the hands of your child’s school. It is important to arm your child with other materials that help them gain the test taking skills that will propel them to higher SAT test scores.

Here is a very popular and proven guide to help your teen obtain a higher SAT Scores. The book is filled with exercises, drills, and full-length sample exams that create a true-to-life testing experience: http://parentingmyteen.com/SAT-Preparation.HTML
Here’s to helping your teen do his/her very best!

The high school years tend to be a blur for most parents. Surprisingly, it’s not because these years go by really fast, although this is part of it, but it’s because of all the changes that occur within your teen during these years. These are the adolescent years when your teen’s body changes both physically and hormonally. These changes can cause a whirlwind of things such as changing moods, changing friends, dating relationships and much more. It’s hard for parents to keep up with it all, which can make tensions at home stressed.

All parents naturally want to help their teens throughout their high school years, but most don’t know what to do when all of the above mentioned changes occur. Many make the mistake of trying to control the situation and “hold on” tighter to their teens, which just pushes them further away. The best thing you can do when these changes occur is to continue to be involved in your teen’s life, but take on a more “mentor/guide” type role. Let your teen know you are there for him when he needs you.

In the meantime, try putting yourself in your teen’s shoes…if you can remember that far back, think about the things you went through as a high school teen. Below are a few examples of the things your teen is going through. Learning how to understand what your teen is going through will help you relate to her when she comes to you for advice.

1. The Dating Game – As a high school teenager, your teen will no doubt begin to meet new people and want to start dating. The thing about teenage dating is that when two teenagers begin dating, they feel like this relationship is real love. However, as adults who have been there, we tend to look at it as “puppy love.” In most cases, these relationships don’t last – and we know this…but your teen doesn’t. Just sit back, watch and wait. When your teen experiences trouble in paradise, be there for him/her to talk to. When your advice is sought, give it. Otherwise, let your teen learn some of these “lessons in love” on his/her own.
2.  Friends – As your teen enter high school, he will probably have a closer circle of friends than he did when he was younger. This is because your teen is maturing and beginning to form those life-long friendship bonds with other his age. However, just because your teen has a certain group of friends that he prefers to hang out with doesn’t mean that there won’t be arguments that occur between your teen and his friends. Try not to get involved in these arguments unless you are specifically asked for advice. Your teen needs to learn how to work through problems with his friends on his own.
3.  Rebellion – Rebelling is just a part of being a high school teenager. All teens do it at one time or another and in their own unique ways. They rebel against their parents and other authority figures because they are trying to gain their own independence. While you should continue to enforce your family rules on your teen, just understand that this is a part of growing up. Sometimes it helps for parents to pick their battles if their teen isn’t doing anything wrong, but is merely being argumentative. However, if your teen’s rebelling is putting himself, or anyone else, in danger – you need to put a stop to it.

The high school years can be rough, but you and your teen will get through them. Just try to give you teen some space and let him figure things out on his own, when possible. Be there when needed, but let your teen come to you. And, try to always put yourself in your teen’s shoes to help gain a better understanding of what he’s going through at this stage in his life.

Click here to get further information and tips on Helping Your Teen with High School.

For many parents, the study habits of high school students are frustrating at best and disturbing at worst. Many parents find themselves at wit’s end and they are on the hunt for some good teen study tips that they can pass on to their teenagers to get them to do more studying. 
 
(ARA) - In the balancing act of life, teens who juggle school with activities, like social networking and sports, typically find that studying is the ball that gets dropped most often. Poor study habits extend beyond middle and high school to damage a teen’s ability to succeed in college. But with parents’ help, teens can break poor habits and learn a solid study routine that leads to college success.

The roots of the study problem lie in kids’ lack of time management and organization, and it can begin as early as seventh grade, according to Dr. Robert Neuman, former associate dean for academic development at Marquette University. During his 25 years of working with thousands of college students, he discovered a set of key study problems that cause students to either drop out or take years longer to graduate.

“Only one in three college students graduate from a four-year program on time,” says Neuman. In today’s economy, neither parents nor students can afford the financial drain resulting from not being prepared with a complete set of strong learning strategies.

Even students who get good grades in high school may struggle later because they have honed last-minute cramming to a fine art, Neuman says. “Their test grades are often good and might get them into college, but students won’t have the knowledge a professor expects since it has evaporated within weeks of cramming.”

Neuman has written a book to help students practice “effective, productive study” long before they get to college: “Are You REALLY Ready For College? A Dean’s 12 Secrets for Success.” He says parents should guide students as early as middle school to use simple tactics that will make all the difference in college. Here are some examples:

Here are some teen study tips that pay off in school and life:

Learning self-management 

Do your teens know where their time goes? They need a plan, and it should include daily study time for each course as well as giving additional time to harder courses. This takes organization.

1. Always use a day-planner. Planners help teens “see” and manage what they are doing: Study, music lessons, extracurricular activities, cell phone time, TV, and team practices. If teens can’t fit everything in when they write it all down, they’re overbooked. Being crunched for time leads to added stress and falling behind in classes.

2. Limit extracurriculars. Teens should participate in no more than three extracurricular activities — they squeeze out study time. And if activities call for large time commitments, like school plays and competitive sports, one activity is probably plenty.

3. Keep track of key due dates. Kids should transfer dates for tests and major assignments to their day planner and refer to it daily so events don’t creep up and catch them unprepared.

4. Use the “never-no-homework” rule. When students don’t get a homework assignment, they should still use time to study the subject: re-read a chapter; copy and reorganize class notes or formulas; make charts, flashcards, and timelines to help learn the material.

5. Create a noise-free zone. Real studying occurs in quiet places without cell calls or Internet socializing creating constant interruptions. Social lives can be turned back on when study is finished.

Preventing problems down the road:

Students must practice and strengthen these kinds of study tactics during middle and high school. Why? In college, no one will guide their behavior. That’s why parental coaching is so important now.

“If your teens were inexperienced campers, you wouldn’t simply drop them off in the woods and tell them you’ll see them next week,” Neuman says. The same is true of college.

Parents should view themselves as coaches helping their teen at home by monitoring study time, tracking their grades, and coaching them to seek help when needed — before they take a test.

College is full of distractions and temptations to skip studying. The solid study habits you nurture early will pay off later in an on-time college graduation and money saved. Get more tips from the Are You Really Ready for College website at www.areyoureallyreadyforcollege.com

By using the teen study tips above, your teen is sure to get more out of their study time and in turn, do better in school

For more help and information, get Aurelia Williams Real Life Guide to Helping your Teens With Highschool.

Many parents have forgotten how difficult high school was when they were growing up. Things like learning how to keep up with the harder school work, after school activities, friends and possibly a part-time job are all hard to do. This is especially true for high school teenagers today.

Not only do they face the normal distractions that we all faced during our high school careers, but they also have to learn how to deal with online pressures through social media outlets, cell phones, text messaging and a host of other things. It’s not that these things are all bad, they are just easy distractions for teens that can take their attention off of the things that are important – like schoolwork, getting accepted into college and achieving their short-term and long-term goals. Below are a few tips to help you help your teen stay focused.

1. What Is Important? The first step in helping your teen stay focused throughout high school is talking with them to determine what their short-term and long-term goals are. Talk to them about their current interests are and find out if they want to try and turn these passions into a career later on down the road. Once you’re able to determine what your teens’ desires are for the future, you will be able to better keep them focused.
2. Encourage Challenges. Whenever you become aware of something that will challenge your teens in a positive way by getting them one step closer to their goals, then encourage your teens to take on that particular challenge. Perhaps, your teen is serious about playing soccer beyond high school and into college. Encourage her to work hard to help pay for the summer soccer camp she wants to go to…even if it is in Europe. Earning the money to go, and then attending the camp, are both great challenges that will help your teen achieve her goal of getting a college soccer scholarship.
3.  Don’t Give In To Drama. A lot of parents with high school students listen intently to their teens when they talk about the daily drama that plays out between students. While this drama is important to your high school student, be careful that you don’t get caught up in it. Listen to your teen about these things, but then try and direct the conversation to a subject that highlights your teen’s real interests. Let your teen know that while the drama at school is interesting, it’s their long-term goals that are the most important things to spend the majority of their energies on.
4.  Promote Sleep. Finally, don’t let your teen stay up all hours of the night and go to bed whenever they “feel” like it. Online distractions like Facebook, Twitter, chat rooms and interactive computer games can easily keep your teen up at night. This will cause a lack of sleep, which will cause a lack of focus during the next day. Therefore, try to make sure your teen is getting an adequate amount of sleep at night by setting a regular “lights out” schedule during the week.

More information for helping and understanding your teen can be found here and here.

Many changes and adjustments take place when your teens enter high school. Not only do they have to adjust to larger class sizes, more students and harsher teachers, they also have to learn how to handle all of the studying and homework while keep up with any sports or other extracurricular activities they participate in. Below are a few tips that you may want to share with your new high school freshman to help with learning how to manage their study/homework time in high school.

Prioritize – A lot of high schools work off of a “block” schedule like colleges do. This means that they have certain classes they go to on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and another set of classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This is great for helping prepare teens for college, but can be hard to get used to when doing homework and studying.

 If your teen is going to a high school that works off of a block schedule, he will need to learn to prioritize his homework assignments in the order they are due. For instance, if your teen has class on Monday and has a paper due on Wednesday, but has a test in another class on Tuesday – he will need to study for the test Monday night in preparation for Tuesday and begin working on the paper Tuesday night (or after he’s finished studying for the test on Monday night).

Get in Tune with What Works Best – Many high school students have been taught that in order to study, they have to be alone in their rooms with no distractions. However, there are many teens that don’t study best under these conditions. Some study best when they are studying with others while other teens retain more information when they are studying in a room with background noise such as the television, radio or other kids. Your teen needs to take this time to figure out what study method works best for her.

 Set Routine Study/Homework Hours – It’s generally best for teens to get in a regular routine when they get home from school. This means having set hours when they are studying or working on homework. When teens get used to studying and/or working on homework at a certain time, they usually are able to concentrate better and retain more information.

Learning how to manage time and study properly is a critical skill that needs to be mastered in high school. Especially if your teen wants to go on to college as his high school grades will determine the type of scholarship he receives for college. Additionally, if good study skills are built in high school, managing the college work load will be much easier.

The tips above should help your new high school freshmen adjust easier to the demands of high school and the course work that is involved. However, remember that there is a lot going on during a teen’s freshman year in high school, so don’t expect results overnight. It may take a while!