Your quest to find the pre-kindergarten program in the Boston area that fits your son perfectly has stalled. Nothing seems quite right. Is it time to give up or compromise? Before you relax your standards, we suggest taking a second look at a category of pre-K programs you may have dismissed out of hand when you...
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No parent wants to subject their child to unnecessary emotional distress, but sometimes, divorce is unavoidable. Middle schoolers already feel insecure about themselves. When a change like a divorce hits their family, it’s normal for everyone to have a wide variety of emotions to navigate. Research has shown that “although divorce is hard and often...
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You have enough trouble just getting to work—especially if you live in an area like Boston, with some of the worst traffic in the country. The prospect of dropping your son off at a private kindergarten program in another town, adding another stop to your already headache-inducing commute, is hardly appealing. The kindergarten program might...
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When Newton MA parents Dave and Jen Visco started searching for a kindergarten program for their oldest son, they didn’t know much about private schools. They weren’t totally convinced on public schools, either. And, as Dave puts it, “We certainly didn’t know a lot about single-sex private schools.” Does this sound familiar? Every year as...
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In February, Fessenden families once again gathered in the Performing Arts Center for an event that has become an annual crowd pleaser — the Staffulty Cabaret. This tradition has become a staple of the Fessenden experience, with countless staff and faculty performing in front of hundreds, even thousands, of Fessenden students and parents over the...
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Few decisions are as agonizing for parents in the Greater Boston area as where to send your son for his first year of school. You have many goals for his education: You want to find a kindergarten program that will lay a solid academic foundation for the rest of his formal education. You want a...
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How do you raise a compassionate, honest, and respectful son in an age that is anything but? Too often, character education seems “tacked on” at America’s middle schools (as one English teacher describes): signs posted—and ignored—in the hallways saying “share with others” and “be honest,” single-semester classes unconnected to the rest of the curriculum. “All...
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Is pre-kindergarten just a place to leave your child while you’re at work or are there actual academic and developmental benefits to starting your child’s formal education the year before he starts kindergarten? As the research piles up, it’s becoming clear that an academic jump-start at 4 years-old can launch children down the path to...
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Parenting is hard. Being a child is just as difficult. And in today’s 24/7 digital world, both roles have become even trickier and more rife with conflict and confusion. It seems like every day there’s a new article about the impact of social media and other digital tools on the young developing mind — and...
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You grew up with a single TV in the living room and maybe a second in your parents’ bedroom, but children today are surrounded by electronic screens. Smartphones, tablets, laptop computers, and video gaming consoles are only the tip of the iceberg. Once-exotic electronic devices like smartwatches and virtual reality goggles have already made inroads...
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