Dear Readers,
Sometimes as parents we do not realize how different our children are. The tricks of the trade of parenthood may not work for all of your children in the same way. My first child was somewhat of a breeze to raise. Whatever I told him to do he did in school and at home. Most of my instructions to him for elementary school was to sit at the front of the class, obey your teacher and do your homework immediately after school.
Sometimes I would have to explain my logic behind why I had him participating in the educational activities on Saturday. Most children want to sleep late and watch television on the weekends. Overall he followed Mom's instruction and achieved Honor Roll status every year throughout elementary, middle and high school.
Before he entered high school, I thanked him for his obedience and good grades for the past 8 years of school. I then proceeded to tell him that the past 8 years of school did not count, it is what you do in the next 4 years (9th - 12th grades) that is going to help you earn scholarships for college.
Again he listened to his mother and followed my lead and enrolled in one of the city's 1st charter schools. I chose this school because of the small class sizes, educational curriculum and Saturday school classes. The school ended up being an excellent choice for high school because of the many opportunities it afforded my child (ACT preparation classes, Prep School, Challenge, Rotary, Dual Enrollment (High School and College courses, etc). He was able to blossom and find out who he was as an individual and understand his leadership role in the community.
One of the school's requirements in order to graduate was for the Seniors to be accepted into college. In the fall of his senior year, my son came home and told me that he had applied to 18 colleges. Of course I asked him why so many colleges and his response was because they had my major and they accepted the common application. Thankfully, he followed up by completing the application process of essay writing and etc for each college. He did not have to wait long before the acceptance letters started appearing in the mailbox.
Each letter from each college brought a huge smile on my son's face and a sense of relief to me. He smiled because he was accepted and I was relived because he was offered many scholarships.
In the end he chose to stay at home and attend college in the city where he was born receiving a full academic scholarship. My only stipulation was he would have to live on the dorm in order to be able to really experience college life.
He received more than $700,000 in scholarship awards to various colleges in the United States.
Read Part II of my post to understand the title fully.
