Getting Ready for High School

The new way of doing things:

When I was a kid you registered for your home school, picked your classes and that was it. Now a days parents are more aware and informed, therefore, they are trying to set their kids up for success as much as possible. These days preparation begins the minute you go into elementary school. You need to see what schools have what programs, which are the best rated, what are the perks and how will it facilitate the process from middle school to high school (I’m already tired and we are just starting elementary school ugh!). Here’s a little tip I didn’t know, if you put your child in an IB program, also known as International Baccalaureate Program, (which is not offered in all schools) they can automatically go into any magnet high school. These programs are rigorous but, not impossible and it opens more doors in the near future. So once you can figure out what your child’s talent is, for example; drama, photography, art, music, dance, band, foreign languages, etc. then you see the best schools for that program. You have to apply for the programs, most of the time have some type of audition or its lottery based (meaning random selection), it truly is like playing the lottery. Once your child gets in for middle school and reaches 8^th grade, you begin the process all over again and find the best high school programs, apply, audition or enter the lottery and wait months to find out where your child got in (the more options the better). If this is not stressful, I don’t know what is. What ever happened to just teaching your child the importance of doing well in school and just making sure they make good grades, keep a good attendance and stay out of trouble? I remember when the goal was to graduate high school, then college, now it’s a masters or doctorate degree. Good grades is just not enough anymore. The child has to do volunteer hours, be an athlete, be an over achiever, enroll in all extracurricular activities and hope that’s enough to stand out and be looked at by colleges. Our job as parents has extended itself beyond believe, we play chauffeur, administrative assistant, scheduler, chef, bank and much more. I live in Florida and this is how the public school system works, not sure about other states. Exhaustion is an understatement and the stress levels are unimaginable because, we all want what is best for our children. At this point I did all I could do, I’ve left it in god’s hands and what is meant to be will be. I can tell you one thing, if in my times my parents had to do this for me, it wouldn’t have happened. My dad was always busy working and my mom didn’t even speak English. Looking forward to the stress of preparing to pick colleges, said no parent EVER!