Today I'm pleased tp welcome guest blogger Kelly Kilpatrick who writes on the subject of university accreditaion. I particularly enjoyed her article 100 Awesome Ivy League Video Lectures at Online Universities.com and 100 Free College Rides You Don't Need Daddy to Pay For.

Kelly Kilpatrick

Sometimes we fail to see the forest for the trees. We get caught up in the shuffle of things and fail to see what looms ahead of us. This couldn’t apply more to the hard work required to simply get into a college. Through the constant barrage of forms, we fail to remember that once those kids are in school, they may not be prepared for what lies ahead.

Many college students get where they want to be, only to fall miserably behind because of some conversations that never took place before they left home. Parents need to have some serious talks with their children before they leave and throw away years of hard work. What follows is a list of things college students need to know before they head out for school.

Always Attend Class

So many students fall into the class-skipping trap when they find out professors don’t take attendance. Why would you pay hard-earned money to not go to class? Young students need to realize that every single class is valuable and that professors know who is attending their class regularly, whether they know your name or not.

Get to Know Your Professors

This is directly correlated to the first item on this list. If you make an effort to get to know your professors, you begin to forge a relationship – and this can really help when it comes to crunch time. Attending classes and getting some face time with professors shows that you care as a student and is a sign of respect.

Budget Time Wisely

With a full class load, it can be easy o get bogged down. Many students fall behind because they don’t have someone on their case to get them to finish their work. Ultimately, students must take responsibility for their own actions, but they must learn how to budget their time wisely.

Prioritize

This goes hand in hand with budgeting time, and relates to how students must select what to get done first. Reading, projects, papers, social engagements – what should come first? Teaching students how to evaluate what should get their attention first is a necessary skill for students of all ages and helps prevent procrastination.

Financial Responsibility

This is especially important for students that will not be working. Perhaps they will be living on a set allowance; they must know how to budget this money so that it lasts for the amount of time intended. Additionally, acquiring credit cards should be discouraged. Have the money talk with your future college student before they leave and get in over their head financially.


Kelly invites your feedback at kellykilpatrick24 at gmail dot com

As most people who come here know, I adore reading and believe strongly in encouraging children to read. So I was more than pleased to come across the eReading Pro blog. This is a blog by Denese Mcdonald, the founder of eReading Pro, who is passionate about teaching reading to struggling readers. Her job actually entails travelling around the world to demonstrate her reading program and she shares her journeys with her readers.

What is eReading Pro

Denese explains that it is designed primarily for the visual reader. The reader who struggles with learning to read phonetically; these include readers with dyslexia, add/adhd, down's syndrome and other disabilities.

Denese explains:

"[visual] readers tend to use the right side of their brain for reading rather than the left side. In doing so, words are remembered as pictures, rather than by way of the phonetic decoding methods that are used by the left side of the brain. Children who are visual learners tend to have weaker auditory processing skills along with weaker auditory memory. For these children, remembering how letters and sounds fit together to make up a word can be challenging."

Denese recommends that parents have children start reading at an early age, a view with which I agree. I actually taught my son to read and it developed his language skills remarkably. Not many parents feel competent to teach their kids to read and in this case the eReading Pro could prove very useful. If you detect that your child is a visual learner then this product is perfect but any young reader would enjoy using this tool and kids who are not learning disabled learn to read using both visual and phonetic methods anyway.

One more thing I hope Denese continues to recommend good books. I am getting the Lawrence Hill book "Someone Knows My Name". The reviews are fantastic and I anticipate buying this book with great excitement.

Sometime ago I published a post on Financial Aid for International Students, which addressed the various aspects of the IFSAA form to be completed by student applicants and their parents. Most student applicants to US colleges however are citizens or permanent residents and they are required to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) - a form which many consider tedious if not brutal. So since many people enjoy video guides,I found one for them.

One of the best tips here is to Get All the Information You Need Before You Start. Watching this is a great beginning, believe me your parents will appreciate it.