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Showing posts from November, 2019

November 2019: The Honeymoon Is Over.

By now school is in full swing academically and children who were doing well may be starting to struggle.  Elementary to middle school is an enormous transition (as are 6th to 7th and 7th to 8th grades) and many kids have a "honeymoon" period in the beginning.  If you are noticing that your student is struggling, what can you do? The first step is to ask your child.  Most middle schoolers aren't likely to self-report feeling academically overwhelmed but many will feel relief if you ask.  Asking your child, "Now that we're a few months into the new school year, how's it going?"  can be an easy way to start. Asking what things they like and are enjoying is a good opening to finding out what isn't going as well.  Once you have a sense of what they may be struggling with you can work with them to make a plan. Sometimes the plan is to be more organized at home with homework and studying.  It takes until almost 30 years of age for our brain to finish d