Tag: Learning

3 Ways You Can Prepare Your Preschooler for College

On By Lauren FortenberryIn Education4 Comments

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When is the best time to prepare your child for college?

Today.

If you are parenting young children, you have an incredible gift: time. There is still time to read. There is still time to play. There is still time to develop a healthy emotional, social, and diverse learning environment for your little person.

And, perhaps best of all, there is still time to save for college. 

From the halls of higher education, I glean insights daily from those students who successfully made the leap – including what their parents did or didn’t do.

Here are 3 ways you can prepare your preschooler for college:

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Counting Fingers

On By Lauren FortenberryIn Parenthood, The Gratitude Gospel2 Comments

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The Gratitude Gospel: Day 5 

“Mommy, two plus two equals…1, 2, 3, 4!”

I shot my husband the look. You know, the “Wait, what just happened?!” variety.

Our three-year-old son has been curious about numbers for years, but the light bulb moment has never been within reach.

Until yesterday.

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The Ones I Couldn’t Save

On By Lauren FortenberryIn Career, Education6 Comments

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Several years before I became a mother, I was a high school English teacher…and probably inappropriately maternal.

One particular student comes to mind from my first year in the classroom. He demonstrated a gift for the written word. His passion for music was contagious (think drummer). And his family was in the midst of a financial crisis. He always seemed to end our conversations with the same urgent question: How am I going to survive? 

But I am a teacher, and – every so often – I struggle with a God complex. I want to save every last one of my students.

As an unmarried, 23-year-old I couldn’t offer him money or a safe home. He did, however, mention that his birthday was quickly approaching. And so I did what any loving woman without children would do.

I celebrated him as my own.

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The STEM Needs the Flower

On By Lauren FortenberryIn Education, Writing3 Comments

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Oh, Ronald Reagan. In 1983 his administration presented A Nation at Risk, a report that would forever change the game in American education.

In short, it claimed we had everything to fear. We were falling behind. Our teachers weren’t good enough.

And so began our collective sprint to a finish line where all children succeed, where domination in math and science would be as natural as breathing. To achieve these goals, however, we had to shed the excess – the nonessential.

And, just like that, the STEM virus began.

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