Eye on Parenting: Don’t wait till junior/senior year to prepare for college

Parent’s helping kids prepare for college, should start sooner than they think.

“A lot of times we think that junior and senior year in high school is the time to really get our kids prepared for college, but really it starts much younger,” said Jaimie Gosling President of the Arizona School Counselors Association.

 

 

 

Parents should be focusing on preparing their kids for post-secondary options as early as kindergarten.

Here are some tips starting with what parents can do for kid’s kindergarten to 6th grade.

“Support reading at home, reading to them or having them read to you,” she says. “Helping your kids set goals. What do your kids want to accomplish? Do they want to make the soccer team, do they want to be in the school play or get an ‘A’ in a certain class,” she said.

It is also never too soon to meet with your school’s counselor and talking about college.

“As kids get older it’s definitely important to make sure they’re getting involved with extracurricular activities,” Gosling said. “Ensuing that they have good attendance habits at school, making sure they’re at school every day and on time.”

It is important for kids from kindergarten to 12^th grade to make sure they’re learning social skills such as how to get along with other students.

It gets real freshman year, she said. Grades, attendance matters and those extracurricular begin to matter to colleges.

“So the very first day on to campus, your grades count,” she said. “Colleges are going to be looking at those grades that you got your freshman year.”

After applying these tips, by junior and senior year of high school all that will remain is applying for schools, grants, and scholarships and taking the ACT and SAT.

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