High School Chatter by Sasha

Sasha is a rising high school freshman and lives in the Fairfield County area. She will tell you that as an elementary school student she fantasized about high school but never thought the day would come. And here she is, on the verge of walking through the doors of her new high school. Read her tips and thoughts below for entering freshmen and their parents about how to tackle the transition to 9th grade.

THE UNKNOWN...

During middle school, we become close and form meaningful connections. And then, we’re thrown into a completely unknown environment and expected to find a new group of peers. But making new friends seems infinitely more difficult now than it was when we were younger. It seems that people get more judgmental as they age. So, when the first day of school rolls around, the sad truth is that the first impression we make could determine what people think, which brings me to the ‘clothing conundrum’... 

WHAT TO WEAR...

While I’m sure most of us prefer having freedom in what we wear, as opposed to having a uniform, it seems that a uniform is easier and causes less stress. If there is no uniform, we have to find clothes that adhere to our school’s dress codes but also fit our own personal style. Because of this, the options are narrow down considerably, and we still have to think about making a good impression. So, when all of these factors are combined it is extremely difficult to buy all the right ‘high school’ clothes. If you’re looking for where to shop, here are some personal favorites. 

• Urban Outfitters

• Hollister

• American Eagle

• Abercrombie & Fitch

• Brandy Melville

SCHOOL SUPPLIES AND BOOKS...

Clothing is only half of the back-to-school shopping dilemma. Since it’s now August, most of us have received our school supply list. On that list, there are notebooks, pens, organizers, and at some schools, textbooks. And, let me tell you, textbooks can be expensive. Some people buy them second-hand from kids who have already gone to their school. But what if we don’t know anybody at our new school? Amazon is a great resource that sells new, used, eTexts, and even rents textbooks. All that's needed is the title of the book or ISBN number (ask your school for it).

COURSES AND TIME MANAGEMENT...

Course registration was a real challenge! When I first researched my school’s offerings there were so many choices and not enough space or time to schedule everything including homework, clubs, sports, activities, and still have down time. To make sense of it all, consider using a good planner to keep track of things. Check these out!

• Papercode Daily Planner

• Weekly and Monthly Planner

• Academic Planner with Tabs

SOCIAL MEDIA…

Social media is a great way to learn more about the school we're about to enter, so follow your school on Instagram, reach out to others who follow and through that create connections that may relieve the "who do I sit with at lunch" dilemma. This can be really helpful in dealing with the anxiety of starting a new school!

TIP TO THE POWERS THAT BE…

It’s guaranteed that the majority of us incoming high school students would prefer it if parents didn’t get super involved with campus life. But if you must, just be mindful of the student’s space. Let’s face it, no one in high school wants to see their parents in the hallways during the day!

Written by Sasha | Blogging Intern at Keating Quigley Educational Advisors

College Chronicles by Charlotte G.

Meet one of KQ’s new Intern Bloggers! Charlotte grew up in Greenwich, CT. She graduated high school in 2020 and currently attends university in Virginia. Charlotte looks forward to sharing her perspectives and advice on academics, dorm life, and the joys along with the challenges of being a college student!

#1 - My top 10 Freshman Tips

Ah, as the beginning of the back-to-school commercials and sales come about, we’re reminded that summer is soon to come to an end. And for some, it means moving out and going to college for the first time. I was a college freshman last year and although it was an unprecedented year, every piece of advice I received from older siblings, friends, and adults remained just as, if not more, important. Trust me, I was terrified. Moving out after living in the same town and with my parents, my whole life seemed insane. I always knew I would go to college, but it always felt so far in the future, until it was right in front of me. 

And now, after my first year of college, I have never been more excited to return; I followed the advice from my friends and family which in turn made my freshman year one of the best years of my life. My hope is for yours to be just as amazing, so I am going to list some of the advice my friends and family gave to me that made me more cool, calm, and collected when heading into college. 

1. Balance Work and Play

   I think this is the most important piece of advice I was given. College is tough academically, and freshman year you are also thrown into the thick of social life. You are dying to meet people and make friends and acclimate to the school community. However, it is also important to prioritize schoolwork. Like myself, most college freshmen are experiencing living and studying away from home for the first time. This meant I had to adjust my study skills and truly learn how to manage time. I am a pretty social person, but I learned pretty quickly that to do well in school you have to balance both perfectly. It is okay to miss out on a couple of things in order to do better in school, and it is okay to not do your best on one project if you feel too overwhelmed with school. 

2. Get an academic planner 

   Getting an academic planner actually saved me. Without it, it is so easy to forget a small assignment that was just slipped out in the middle of class or something. I’ll link some below

   • Try this one

   • Or this!

3. If you have communal showers, Invest in shower shoes

   Please, who knows what’s on the floor in there! 

4. Buy headphones or earbuds 

   If you know you have a roommate, get yourself some headphones or earbuds if you don’t have any yet. No matter if you love or dislike your roommate, everyone needs a little alone time once in a while and with headphones, you can be in your own world without bothering the other person in the room.

5. Hold your judgments when meeting new friends

   It's totally okay not to be friends with everyone, but as a freshman, everyone is going through the same motions of making friends, and for some people, it's harder than others.

6. Try to make connections with your professors 

   It will only help you in the long run to have people in your corner! 

7. Don’t be scared to go to extra help sessions/office hours 

   It shows you really care about understanding the material and doing well, and will only help you to get extra help.

8. Be as outgoing as you can - even if it’s uncomfortable

   Although it's scary to be yourself, it's also the easiest way to find people that will be your best friends. Being genuine attracts people.

9. Immerse yourself in school spirit!

   Go to sports games!!! They are amazing and it is so fun to have school spirit. 

10. If everything is overwhelming you and you feel swamped, take a break 

    I had to take a lot of breaks this year, especially with corona, I felt my stress sometimes take over. The most effective ways I regrouped were working out, calling my mom or my home friends, going for a walk, or just watching a comfort show (my personal fav is New Girl)

Written by Charlotte G. | Blogging Intern at Keating Quigley Educational Advisors

Summer Reads from The Hoot!

Sit back, relax and embrace the gift of time with Anne’s 2021 summer picks

Summer gives us the gift of time to read for pleasure with longer days, warmer weather, and more sunlight. Let’s see what our reading can look like this summer whether you’re sitting on a beach, on a road trip with your family,  in a bunk at summer camp, or just relaxing. After a year of quarantining and isolation, let’s make it a goal to turn off our phones and shut off computers to experience the joy of turning pages - paper or digital.

With that in mind, here are some of my favorite summer reads to consider. They run the gamut of gripping, endearing, educational, inspiring, and entertaining, so be sure to check them out. I’ve made sure to include something for everyone, so feel free to share the list with friends and family as well. Have a great summer filled with happy reading! 

Parents

• Deacon King Kong by James McBride: “Some novels about city life are poems of alienation, interior portraits of the existentially isolated, but James McBride’s vision of New York is one of overwhelming human profusion.” (New Yorker)

• A Place For Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza: Mirza's book gets to a universal truth: To be part of a family is to learn how to be more than one person, how to remain an individual while fulfilling the duties we have to those who love us, who made us. It is almost never easy; it is sometimes, in fact, impossible.” (NPR)

High School

• Oasis by Katya Becerra: A supernatural thriller about six teenagers stranded on an oasis in the desert

• Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo (novel in verse): Two teenage girls realize that they share a father

• Found by Joseph Bruchac: After witnessing a crime, Nick survives in the wilderness to escape the murderer

• Girl, Unframed by Deb Caletti: While spending summer with her movie-star mother, Sydney, 16, finds love but also finds danger

• This Is My America by Kim Johnson: Teenager Tracy fights against racism in the justice system

Middle School

• Danny Constantino's First (and Maybe Last?) Date by Paul Acampora: A Middleschooler, Danny reconnects with an old friend, who is now a celebrity

• Raising Lumie by Joan Bauer: Newly orphaned and living with the half-sister, Olive, 12, rediscovers hope when she trains a guide dog puppy

• Catherine's War by Julia Billet (graphic novel): Set in France during WWII, Rachel Cohen must goe into hiding after being separated from her parents

• One Last Shot by John David Anderson: Malcolm, 12, takes up miniature golf to make his athletic father happy

Elementary School

• You Can Do It, Yasmine by Saadia Faruqi

• Benny McGee and the Shark by Derek Anderson

• The Boy Who Grew Dragons by Andy Shepherd

• Great Escapes (five historical fiction books) by W.N. Brown

Happy summer from KQ!

Written by Anne O’Reilly Connerty | Reading Specialist at Keating Quigley Educational Advisors

Reflections on Fatherhood

By Dave Olson, Former Middle School Head at Sacred Heart Greenwich and incoming Executive Director at the Waterside School, Stamford, CT

I am the proud father of an 11-year old son. I came to parenting later in life than many and had already spent more than 20-years as an educator before our son was born. Working with countless children and their families over the years has allowed me to develop some expertise, especially in the middle school years. I forever encourage parents to embrace the unpredictability of childhood and stay focused on the remarkable development their children will undergo over the span of their many years in school rather than focusing on the day-to-day successes, frustrations, and challenges.

Fatherhood has helped me embrace how difficult this is and has allowed me to learn the following additional truths:

It’s Not About You

I purchased a baseball glove for my son when he was three days old and soon after mounted a mini-basketball hoop in his bedroom. While I knew the pitfalls of being an overbearing parent I couldn’t resist exposing him to the things I loved and kept telling myself that I learned some of my greatest lessons through playing sports and being involved in competition. It turns out that my son has a mild interest in traditional sports, but really loves to read, skateboard, and create things with technology. Of course, my wife instantly fanned the flames of his interests, while I struggled to let go of my dreams of collegiate athletics, the Olympics, and additional feats of greatness in multiple sports. I am a recovering overbearing sports parent and working on supporting his interests so that he will continue to learn the valuable lessons that come from hard work in any venue and that he will experience the joy that comes from doing something he loves. I have even learned various skateboard terms like an “ollie” and a “frontside 180;” certainly I must be the hippest and proudest dad at the skatepark.

Be Present

One of my most salient fatherhood realizations is that my needs are secondary to the needs of my son. Being a father requires me to put the challenges of the day away when entering our home each evening so that I can be fully present for my son and wife. This is a work in progress. Thankfully, though, I have the most remarkable wife who picks up the slack regularly as I fall short. And while the pandemic created numerous profound challenges for schools and families, I found that it created greater opportunities for fathers to be more present in the lives of their children. We had a record number of working parents, many of whom are dads, participate in various virtual events this past year such as parent-teacher conferences. My hope is that fathers enjoyed the experience of being more intimately connected to their children’s education and that schools will continue to offer virtual options to encourage attendance. In addition, being quarantined for the spring of 2020 provided a profound experience for me as my son and I spent each afternoon playing outside together (yes, I “inspired” him to master the finer points of a jump-shot). When returning to in-person learning for the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year he earnestly asked “can you come home early from school each afternoon so that we can spend time together?” This hit me hard as I have spent so much of my life serving my various schools. Once again I am on the rocky road of mastering the simple concept of being present in my son’s daily life.

Enjoy the Ride

I often lament the lack of simplicity in the 21st Century, which is compounded by my tech skills as I am somewhere on the spectrum between a Luddite and digital native. Just like working in schools, being a father has forced me to embrace the sloppiness of each day and not get hung up on my utopian dream of having things arranged in vertical columns with neat bows. I am working on letting go of perfection, not getting sidetracked by complications, and simply enjoying time with my son. 

I salute all dads as we approach Father’s Day and encourage all to celebrate your small victories while remaining committed to being selfless, being present, and enjoying the greatest gift of being a father.

Want to avoid the summer slide? Here's how ...

Congratulations! You made it through another school year, and in a pandemic no less! Whether your children were learning remotely, in person, or in a hybrid situation this year, there is no doubt that they are ready for the lazy days of summer. Beach trips, BBQs, and video games stretch out before them in a perfect promise of summer bliss. 

But, if we’ve proven anything this year, it’s that children can learn in any environment. Just because the calendar says that it’s summer vacation, doesn’t mean they have to turn off their brains and wait for the next school year to begin. The summer months provide so many opportunities for children to continue to build on their mathematical thinking from the school year. 

So, to keep up those skills and avoid the dreaded “summer slide”, check out my favorite ways to keep kids from Preschool to Middle School thinking mathematically every day.

Preschool

Puzzles: Puzzles are a great social activity for the whole family, but they are also a fantastic way to build your child’s spatial reasoning skills. Spatial reasoning lays the foundation for geometry later in their academic career and now is a good time to introduce vocabulary like flip, turn, left, right, and rotate. Additionally, the puzzles that are geared to preschoolers also encourage the idea of one-to-one correspondence because one piece fits in one hole.

Concepts covered: geometry, one-to-one correspondence, spatial reasoning, directionality.

Dominoes: Dominoes are a good tool for building number sense in younger children. The dots, or pips on the dominoes, feature recognizable patterns that help children recognize numbers before they are even ready for one-to-one correspondence. Using dominoes also helps children subitize, or recognize a group of numbers without needing to count each one independently. This skill will help to develop their number fluency and ability to group numbers as they move through the math continuum. 

Concepts covered: subitizing, grouping, one-to-one correspondence, number recognition.

Scavenger hunts: Send your kids on a math scavenger hunt! You simply pick the theme and hey presto, you’ve bought yourself a few moments of quiet while they go off in search of the objects. It’s a win-win! Some things to seek:

• Shapes - Children at this age are starting to recognize shapes. While they may be able to identify shapes drawn on a page, it can be trickier to find these shapes in real life. Send them seeking objects that are squares, circles, triangles, spheres, cubes, and cylinders!

• Measurement - When learning about measurement, children begin by comparing objects using terms like longer, shorter, smaller, and larger: can you find something shorter than this toy? Can you find something taller than you? The opportunities are endless!

• Numbers  - Use the scavenger hunt as an opportunity for your kids to practice one-to-one correspondence. You can send them off in search of a certain number of objects - can you find three shoes? Can you find five stuffed animals? If they are still learning their numbers, set up a “parking lot” for these objects. You can use chalk on your driveway and ask the child to fill each space with an object of your choosing. 

Concepts covered: geometry, measurement, number sense, comparison, one-to-one correspondence.

Kindergarten - Grade 2

Schedules: Children thrive on routines. They need to be able to anticipate how their day will unfold, even if it just means playing all day. Give your children some power over their schedules and routines by co-creating them together and asking these questions:

• How much time is allotted for each activity?

• How much time do you have to complete all of your chores? Can you get them all done in time?

• How much longer until you can start something? By when do you need to finish?

Concepts covered: telling time, elapsed time, addition, subtraction, division.

Allowance: Giving children an age-appropriate allowance for doing chores is a great way to introduce them to money management. Paying your younger children in cash will help them recognize different coin and bill combinations so they can practice counting money. Older children can be exposed to decimals depending on the amount you choose.

• If your allowance is x dollars each week, how long will it take to save for that item?

• If you buy that item, how much money will you have left in your bank account?

• If you save all your allowance for a month how much will you have? What about after six months? A year?

• Ask for different coin and bill combinations. Can you pay me all in quarters? What about dimes

Concepts covered: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, decimals, skip counting by 5s, 10s, and 25s.

Card Games: Card games are an excellent alternative to flashcards. Not only do these games provide opportunities for social interaction, but they are incredible teaching tools. Check out my previous blog post for some ideas for games using only a deck of cards!

Concepts covered: addition, subtraction, comparison, number fluency.

Grades 3 - 6

Budgeting: Learning how to balance a budget is a life skill that all children should learn, and modeling how you use your budget is a perfect way to include children in this real-life application. 

• Give your child your grocery list, the weekly circular or access to the store website, and a budget. How can you make sure that you can get all the items we need?

• If the item is on sale, calculate the new cost. 

• Look at unit prices versus retail prices. Calculate the better value.

• Have your younger children round up the prices and estimate how much the total will be. Older students can calculate the exact total.

• When ordering takeout food, calculate the bill. Older students can include the appropriate tip percentage. Encourage them to find different ways to calculate 5%, 10%, and 20% of the total. 

• How will the state tax affect the bill? Estimate or figure out the exact figure.

Concepts covered: estimation, rounding, addition, subtraction, percentages, decimals.

Travel: As we all start to get back out on the road again, having your children be a part of the conversation around travel (even if it’s just down the street) allows for great mathematical conversations. 

• Have your child figure out what time to leave to get to your destination on time. If we need to be there at x time, and it takes y minutes to get there, what time should we leave?

• Calculate the total mileage for the trip.

• Calculate the total time for the trip taking into account speed, pit stops, and traffic.

• Calculate the amount of gas that will be needed for the trip. Have your child research the gas prices and calculate the estimated cost of the trip.

Concepts covered: time, elapsed time, rate, money, decimals, addition, subtraction, division, multiplication.

Baking and Cooking: I don’t know about you, but bake with my kids ALL THE TIME. We make bread, cupcakes, cookies, muffins - all the baked goods. It’s a phenomenal way to incorporate math into a fun activity.

• Don’t just take the recipe as given. Look at how many people you want to feed and then plan on doubling, tripling, or halving the recipe as needed.

• Remove some of the measuring tools from your cabinet. If you need ¾ cup of flour, but don’t have a ¾ cup, what are the other ways you can measure ¾ cup? Don’t have a ⅓ of a cup? How can you use tablespoons instead?

• Grocery stores run out of ingredients. When this happens, look up substitutions. Some substitutions are 1:1 ratios, but others have different ratios that will need to be calculated.

• When cutting out cookies you can incorporate geometry! How can we get the most cookies out of this dough? Use flips, turns, and translations to fit the cookie cutter in the most efficient pattern.

Concepts covered: fractions, operations with fractions, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, spatial reasoning, geometry.

The Power of Making Real-World Connections

Encouraging mathematical thinking with real-world connections is a powerful way to give children a purpose and context for the skills and concepts they learned in their classroom. But most importantly, it answers the essential question - when are we ever going to use this?

Now go have some math fun with your kids…. Happy summer!

Written by Name | Alissa Helgesen | Math Workshop Specialist at Keating Quigley Educational Advisors

Starting an Independent School Search? Use the Four Rs ...

There’s no disputing it: applying to independent schools is a bewildering process that requires a significant investment in time and effort. In fact, a recent survey released by the Enrollment Management Association (EMA), shows that more than 50% of parents rate their anxiety level about the experience as a six out of ten or higher. That’s a lot of angst right there!

So, what is the best way to start the private school admissions process? And is there a way to make it less onerous? My advice? While there’s no big ‘fix’ that will suddenly make the legwork disappear, I always recommend using the Four Rs of Reflection, Research, Reinforce, Regroup.

Long story short, if an independent school search is on the horizon, I encourage you to follow these simple steps over the summer months. If all goes well, you’ll be ahead of the curve and ready to take a deeper dive into the admissions process by the time September rolls around.

A few words before we begin:

• When building your initial list of target schools, be as disciplined as possible. This preliminary diligence will help determine which schools you can discard and which one to explore on a more detailed level.

• Also, if they are old enough, be sure to include your child in all conversations around the search. Their input and opinions will lead to ownership of the process, which will ultimately result in better outcomes.

Since COVID, school websites have become the primary focus of the initial phase of the school search. Consequently, schools have enriched their site content to provide families with a deeper understanding of student life, academics, and extracurricular activities without even setting foot on campus. This is a huge gift to prospective students and their parents, so use it wisely!

To jump-start the initial legwork, reflect on these questions as you peruse each school website:

• At this school, will my child be seen and known?

• Will my child thrive?

• Does this school provide value in terms of programming and extracurricular activities?

• Does this school place emphasis on nurturing a love of learning and expanding moral character?

You’ve followed all the advice in Step 1 and by now, you’ve compiled a list of idealized schools. However, it’s now time to zero in on what matters most and build the definitive list. A word of caution: websites may start to blur and blend together after a while. That is why it is important to scrutinize the content beyond the jargon and take copious notes to determine how it makes you ‘feel’. 

With this in mind, be methodical. Research the answers to these two questions as you explore websites.

• Does the school’s mission statement resonate with me?

• Am I curious to learn more?

You’ll be surprised at how your replies will validate first impressions and organize your thoughts even more.

Well done … You’re making excellent progress. Your finalized list is in sight, but you’re not quite there yet!

After the website, a school’s most powerful tool in attracting new students is word-of-mouth recommendations. So, it’s important to actively solicit third-party opinions to reinforce and validate your thoughts.

To that end, seek out feedback from current parents, students, and alumni. Ask probing questions about what it means to be part of the school community; listen carefully to their personal experiences and anecdotes, and consider how this information aligns with your personal values.

You’ve fine-tuned the parameters and criteria of your search, browsed every website, listened intently to your neighbors’ storytelling about XYZ School, and you’re now proudly in possession of your child’s list of desirable schools. What an amazing achievement - and the new academic year hasn’t even begun! 

Yes, there is still a lot of work to be done, but for now, give yourself a congratulatory pat on the back and regroup. The rest can wait until September!

If you’re still unsure about which way to turn, Jacquie and I are just a phone call or email away. Whether you’re looking for advice on which schools to include on your child’s school list, seeking guidance for the interview, or looking for more comprehensive support, we’re here to help you work through the complexities of the school search. In the meantime, have fun putting the Four Rs to good use!

Written by Verona Keating | Founding Partner | Keating Quigley Educational Advisors