Finding Your Balance
What a year we have all had! It was another year like “Mr. Toad’s Ride” with all of the ups and the downs. Our lives have recovered; we hope for now. The world is spinning around us but as educational consultants we keep learning about what you, our families, need, specifically your children. We provide school placement help for in town schools, boarding schools, and aid many families relocating to Atlanta. We also spend a lot of time thinking about child development, social emotional well being and life beyond the classroom for our students and families. We are listening to the specialists, reading the most updated literature and talking to teachers and educators. We are a team that cares about you and your family.
As we are hopeful for more “normalcy,” we have found ourselves thinking about maintaining balance while also keeping pace.
- Wellness and your Mental Health: We stress this topic constantly, but please keep this in your mind throughout the summer. Be sure the children get adequate play and down time, but this does not necessarily mean screen time. In fact, get creative and pick a day of the week where no one touches a screen or at least one morning a week where all screens stay off. Watch for signs of change in your child too. If you feel or see something, go to the pediatrician. Be sure to ask for the help you need.
- Wellness means Brain and Body Recentering: Whether it is pilates, walking, running or just meditating, be sure you and the children are doing the activities they love to do outside. Get vitamin D, go to the park or play in the pool. Formalized activities need to be adjusted. We are leading a life filled with too many schedules. We are over programmed. Take this summer to recenter your life. Regain control.
- Wellness reflects Family Time and Quality Time: Travel is happening again, but be sure to get input from everyone. Ask your family members, “What would you like to do that you have not tried?” Let everyone share in the planning, even research. If you have little ones, trips are still your decision and your planning. You are still the key decision maker even though we want our children to express their thoughts. Be sure there is freedom on your trips and build in time to relax and unwind.
- Wellness means honing in on your Family’s Needs: Nutrition, doctor’s appointments, friends, helping others, giving back. Make a garden, cook a meal, build a fort, have others over that you have not seen and share moments. Build in special days of enjoyment.
The key: Wellness is the whole person and the whole family, relaxing, laughing and feeling less stress in this world that often feels crazy. Wellness is communicating, connecting and centering.
Resources on Wellness:
If you need resources on wellness, talk to your pediatrician, read materials from the CDC, Skyland Trail, Emory University, Resilient Georgia, educators, psychologists and psychiatrists. There is a wealth of knowledge out there so use your clinicians and listen to your children. We can also help steer you in the right direction.
As you practice wellness over the summer, know that we at Education Connection Advisors continue to do what we do best:
Individualization of each family
Analysis of your children
Time and care with your questions
Help with the specific process
Finding the right fit
Availability and confidentiality
Specialized services for complicated issues
Understanding your needs
Discerning Public vs Private
Educational Lingo
Testing Strategies
Listening to you
Things to reach for this summer:
- A summer filled with rest, relaxation, camp, reading, outings and family
- Do some of those things you had to put off for the last two years
- Get a workbook, a journal and be sure your child reads
- Math, reading and writing are those important academics that have not changed. Studies are showing that our children did lose academic growth during covid so practice of some sort is helpful.
- Set up a time for a little work once a week. Formal tutoring may not be needed, but reinstate the school corner or a fun place to do projects in your home. Children love art supplies and having your own design thinking lab at home may be just the thing to keep their minds moving and generating ideas.
- Have library time or movie night. Build that family time up again and establish traditions but in a different way now.
Summer Reading Books:
Non-Fiction:
Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls through the Seven Transitions into Adulthood (Damour)
Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World (Epstein)
The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed (Lahey)
The Nineties (Klosterman)
The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family (Howard)
Fiction:
The Lincoln Highway (Amor Towles)
Black Cake (Charmaine Wilkerson)
Lessons in Chemistry (Bonnie Garmus)
Still Life (Louise Penny)
Podcasts for Grown Ups:
Raising Good Humans with Dr. Aliza
Podcasts for Kids:
When do you need us?
We have already started our May and June meetings with some of you to learn about your families. Let us know if you are ready to get started. We can accommodate you and look forward to helping you. We love what we do and hearing your journeys.
We at Education Connection Advisors may travel from Vermont to Virginia and back home to Georgia but we are not very far away. We are here to help you with your family, your educational plan and your concerns.
We care about you and your family,
Barbara, Betsy, Fontaine and Margo