Lisa Endlich's Blog, page 455
July 31, 2015
Teacher Offers Best Advice for High School Freshman
After reading Professor Offers Best Advice for College Freshmen, I decided to write my top ten list of advice for high school freshmen (and older kids getting ready to go back). I have taught high school for 15 years so just think of this list as some words of wisdom from a teacher who has seen it all.
These rules work. To boil it down even more succinctly, there are two things you need to remember: Build relationships from the very beginning, and be honest. Everything else will fall into p...
July 27, 2015
“Love, Mama,” A Letter to My Daughter Before Freshman Year
My daughter left for college last August. This is the letter I gave her during our last family dinner at home. We laughed…we cried…and surprisingly, we let her go.
Dear Daughter,
Don’t go.
Love,
Mama
Dear Daughter,
No, of course that’s not my message to you. That would go against every article I’ve consumed over the past year in an effort to gear up for this very moment: the ones that tell me that the healthy way to cope — for me and for you — is to embrace this change in our lives and to ma...
July 23, 2015
Grown and Flown Appearance at The Container Store
We have previously gushed about our admiration for The Container Store, writingabout the reasons why we love dorm shopping there for our off-to-college kids. We are thrilled to announce that, on August 5, 2015, 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm, we will be making an appearance in The Container Store in White Plains, New York, to share our thoughts on how to help kids, and parents, get ready for freshman dorm drop off.
If you live nearby, we hope you can join us. Please RSVP hereby July 28 to receive a 15% di...
July 20, 2015
Why The Lazy Days of Summer Shouldn’t Be Quite So Lazy
It’s the middle of July and it is time for your teenager to get off the couch. Never mind the many voices wistfully calling for a summer break, imagining high school kids filling their days with reading for pleasure, swimming and long walks in the woods. Or college students giving their brains a rest and taking “mindless” summer jobs—mowing lawns, babysitting or scooping ice cream.
These critics scoff at “resume-building” summer internships and work designed “to impress a college admission d...
July 16, 2015
We are the Luckiest Parents. Ever.
From the moment that we first pondered having children through the day that those children bear our grandchildren, we stand apart from parents throughout the rest of human history in our good fortune. While I love complaining about parenting as much as the next mom, I think there is value in stepping back for a moment, adjusting our lens and taking a more objective look at the hand that life has dealt us.
I know all too well that many parents are faced with truly challenging situations and t...
July 14, 2015
“Dear Mom,” From Your Off to College Daughter
In examining the off to college process we have heard from the parents. We have looked at dorm shopping, adjusting to life without our kids and the silver lining that just might exist in the empty nest. But up until now we have not heard from the kids. How does it feel to be 18 years old and leaving home? What will they miss? Looking back at their childhood, what memories loom large?
We asked actress and recent Harvard Ivy Orator for the class of 2015, Taylor Kay Phillips, to give us a taste...
July 8, 2015
The UniversityParent Guide to Supporting Your Student’s Freshman Year: A Review
The two monumental changes in our families, the moment our children arrive and when they leave, are marked with great emotion, some confusion, a feeling that life is about to change forever and a long list of things to buy. When our kids were born we read through well-thumbed guides looking for both information and insight, yet as they depart few of these guides exist.
Our friends at UniversityParent have taken the wisdom of many writers, parents and experts and compiled the UniversityParent...
July 7, 2015
Shakespeare and the Empty Nest
Shakespeare had something to say about every subject, though what he had to say was mediated through the voices of characters who were sometimes shameless liars. However, so insightful and articulate is even the worst Shakespearean character, that striking thoughts about almost any subject can be found by sifting through the Bard’s plays. Even thoughts about the dreaded empty nest.
Shakespeare and his Elizabethan contemporaries might have been puzzled by modern parents’ grief and trepidation...
July 4, 2015
Freshman Year: The High School Race Begins
Freshmen are all bodies and nervous excitement. They are hormones and awkwardness and giggles and curiosity. When they walk into high school, there is an energy and expectation in their eyes. They are first time marathon runners who have trained for this moment.
All through middle school, they have heard about high school. They have been warned about the higher expectations, been cautioned about work ethic and homework and grades that suddenly matter. They have been told that from the moment...
July 2, 2015
The Container Store College Savings Weekend: A Review
This is a sponsored post but the opinions expressed are ours, truly.
My first attempt at college dorm shopping with our eldest child was a bust.Ever-multiplying lists of dorm room “essentials” only added to my anxiety that I would send off our son to the wilds of freshman year lackingin some crucial provisions. I bought several things he never used and others that were flimsy, ending up in the trash can before he took his first midterm.
When It was our daughter’s turn to dorm shop last summe...
