Archive for June, 2010
Colleges that offer online degree programs are becoming more prevalent. From ivy league schools to smaller independent universities, learning over the internet is becoming a common way to get your college degree. There are several reasons to opt for online education as opposed to ground schools; with internet learning, you can work at your own pace, set your own schedule, and read in the quiet privacy of your own home.
There are three main things to think about when you consider finding colleges that offer online degree programs. The first is your own schedule. If you hold a full time job and have a lot of outside obligations to tend to, it can be tough to find extra time for learning. This makes you a good candidate for online degrees, because you can work whenever you have time as opposed to having to go to class at a physical college.
Secondly, you should think about your individual learning style. If you are someone who enjoys classroom discussions and having a teacher to explain things to you one on one, distance courses may not work best for you. On the other hand, if you like to work quietly and independently, colleges that offer online degree programs may be a better option for you than a normal college. You can work when you want and in the environment you choose, and not be forced to go to a classroom to complete your coursework.
One other thing to think about is the type of degree you are aiming for. Physical colleges offer resources like labs and equipment that the school itself pays for. Not having easy access to these resources means that degrees in biology, physics, or any other field that requires using high-tech equipment are going to be difficult to complete online. Sometimes the physical college may offer a program online that lets you complete some coursework at home and then go to the closest lab location for other work, but you would still have to commute to a physical location.
It is not uncommon for intelligent students to get by, or even excel, in high school, then arrive at college and hit a wall. This is particularly confusing to students who are accustomed to doing well without working particularly hard or efficiently. When their first semester college grades come in, and they are considerably lower than those they earned in high school, both students and parents are confused. Parents may wonder if their teen’s attitude toward college is cavalier, whether he/she is doing too much partying and too little work, etc. Students wonder why their methods worked well in high school but don’t work now. Once parents are convinced that, truly, their teen is taking college seriously, they should suggest the student speak to someone in the Counseling Center or visit their academic advisor.
Assuming the counselor or advisor is on the ball, she will ask the student questions about academic history, need for tutoring, study habits, etc. As it happens, many students with learning disabilities are sufficiently intelligent to pass through high school “under the radar”, but due to the highly different nature of college, they no longer get by, much less do well. These students, besides being bright, probably have good long and short-term memory facilities and can get away with little studying in high school. Simply looking the material over before a test enables them to perform well on a high school exam.
The rules change in college. College reading and lectures are less literal and more analytical, and the work comes on more rapidly and in greater quantities. No longer can memory skills that served the student in high school suffice. In college, the absence of study skills quickly becomes apparent.
To assure your child is diagnosed before hitting that college wall, here are some behaviors that are red flags:
* Learns primarily through listening and doing and avoids reading
* Misreads and/or misunderstands information
* Trouble with subjective, or open-ended, questions on tests
* Weak memory skills
* Difficulty adjusting to new settings
* Works slowly
* Difficulty with summarizing
* Poor grasp of abstract concepts
* Difficulty paying attention or hyper-focuses instead
Students possessing many of the above traits should be referred for psychoeducational testing, despite good performance, to determine whether a learning disability is at the root of their deficits. Early detection gives students time to learn compensatory strategies before the work gets more difficult. Furthermore, if the student is presently earning decent grades, imagine how much better he/she could be doing with skills that shore up weaknesses.
You have your curriculum chosen and prepared, you have gathered together all the materials you need. You have books and notebooks and art paper. The music lessons scheduled, the afternoon homeschool football games arranged.
But remember how you said that this year, you were going to be more organized and figure out a way to make the whole day run more smoothly?
Snack Time
What about the after-homeschool snacks? You have sworn to upgrade your family’s eating habits from getting-by to super-healthy but you have not yet put a plan in place.
Here is how it will go. You will have a full day of homeschooling under your belt and finally, you will be ready to tackle the other things on your schedule. You will taste a sense of freedom because there are hours left before dinner time. And then, one or more of your children will ask for a snack.
You are going to need something easy and quick so that you can get back to what you were about to do, but filling enough to hold them until dinner.
The Simple, No-Cook Snack Solution
Now, when I say no-cook, I do not mean that you will not have to heat anything up. But I am advocating that there be no mixing, chopping, slicing or dicing during your homeschool day. If you do want or need to slice or dice, do it during the weekend and store or freeze it.
Sandwich Wraps
Buy square wraps, spread cream cheese on them and then, pile on a few slices of ham, turkey, tuna or roast beef. If you want to add bell peppers or onions or celery or grated cheese, go right ahead. Heat it up for a few minutes in the oven and you have one snack ready to go.
Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
This one is a no-brainer, obviously, but I suggest adding interest with apples, bacon, celery or some other surprise ingredient that you already know your child likes. Melt the cheese with a make-your-own-grill assortment of frying pan and spatula, and voila, you have another quick and easy snack.
Afternoon Tea
Add a touch of whimsy, elegance and fun by taking a brief break to snack with them. Prepare a cup of tea for yourself and each of them and offer cucumber sandwiches with cream cheese. Slice them ahead of time and leave them in the fridge in a Ziploc bag. For the occasional snack treat, you could make cinnamon apple muffins or homemade bread or cookies to go with them.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has become the single most common diagnosis for children with problems concentrating in school or who consistently misbehave. The medical treatment for this condition consists of prescribed doses of stimulants, which increase mental activity and slow down the impulsive outbursts associated with ADHD. However, it is estimated that this diagnosis is reached and medications are prescribed three times more often than is actually the case. Here, we will examine the misdiagnosis of ADHD and what it can mean to you and your family.
There are several problems associated with a misdiagnosis of ADHD. The first is that a child is often prescribed stimulants that are not necessary and carry the risk of serious health related complications. Taking these drugs when they are not needed can lead to heart disease, cause liver problems, create or enhance mental health problems such as anxiety disorder or depression, and much more.
The next issue is that a child who is misdiagnosed as having ADHD may not be receiving treatment for the real problem. Some things that can mimic the symptoms of ADHD include temporal lobe epilepsy, a form of epilepsy that causes “absence” seizures where it appears the child is simply daydreaming, depression, restless leg syndrome, learning disabilities, personality conflicts with a teacher, and even normal, high energy stages of childhood.
In all cases except that of this being a normal stage the child is going through, there are other medical and behavioral treatments and therapies that could eliminate the symptoms and address the child’s real problem without prescribing unnecessary stimulant medications.
Often, when a child is placed on medication for ADHD when it is not the real problem, the symptoms of ADHD go away, but so does the child’s personality. While this may be seen as an improvement to the behavior problems that led to the diagnosis, it actually harms the mental development of the child and inhibits the normal development of social skills that are needed later in life.
Many parents of children who have been misdiagnosed claim that their child is like a robot when taking the medication. He/she goes through the motions of every day life, but there is no spark or spontaneity to the child’s activities. These children often tend to play alone or to stop playing altogether.
Sadly, with so many homes where both parents have to work, these symptoms can go unnoticed for long periods. This means that the child often continues to take unnecessary medication for an extended time frame that allows for more damage to be done to the brain and organs of the developing child.