Study Development May Hold the Key to Your Child’s Academic Success

April 17, 2013 By Leave a Comment

girl studyingWe regularly come into contact with families frustrated over their child’s academic progress.  And while many people assume that we gear our tutoring specifically toward students with poor grades, that’s actually not the case.  Many families have children who are functioning well below their obvious skills, and they come to us seeking help.  These children often have grades well above normal, but it’s still frustrating for their families if they have even greater potential.  These children represent an even greater challenge, since they could easily continue at their current pace.

Our Study Skills tutoring series is designed to help both these students as well as those with real struggles.   Here’s an overview of the skills we’ll help your child develop: 

Organization
With increasing amounts of homework, good organizational skills become more important than ever.  We find that many students struggle with organizing their workload efficiently and their grades suffer for it.  We’ll help your child develop a simplified workflow that will help them complete their homework more quickly. 

Time Management 
Every parent has dealt with their child’s excuses and pleas to delay working on their homework.  But teaching your child simple guidelines for scheduling and avoiding distractions can help improve their overall school performance.

Note Taking 
We’ll help your child develop better listening skills, so they can keep notes that will equip them to improve both their retention and study skills.

Working on the ComputerStudying and Test Taking
We’ll help your child gear their note taking toward better test results.  We’ll also give helpful training to equip your child to compete tests better, and with less stress.

As your child’s study skills improve, you’ll also see an improvement in their performance across all their academic subjects.  And students who approach testing with greater confidence are better able to translate their learning into improved grades.

We are one of Orange County’s leading tutoring services.  We specialize in helping students reach their academic goals through math tutoring, science tutoring, and SAT/ACT Prep programs.  We’re dedicated to helping your child fulfill their potential and partnering with you to propel them to success.  We have proven tutoring programs that will equip your child to excel from their earliest learning through high school and college as well.  Call us at 949-546-0800 for details on any of our learning programs from Pre-K through college preparation tutoring.

 

Filed Under: Academic Success, Studying Tagged With: ,

Acting On Your Child’s Progress Report

February 20, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Many schools issue their progress reports near the end of February.  It’s an important time for you and your child to pause and take a close look at their progress.  It’s also a time when you can form a plan to move forward and capitalize on your child’s strengths as well as help them overcome any areas of weakness.

Handling Areas That Need Improvement

For many families, the progress report is the first alert they will receive that their child is struggling.  It’s an opportunity to help your child overcome whatever obstacles they may be facing.  It’s vital to step in and take immediate action.  This is especially important for core skills like reading and writing.  These skills are fundamental to virtually every other endeavor your child may undertake.  A child struggling with reading or writing will invariably face greater challenges in in other subjects too.

It’s important to recognize that even if you were unaware of your child’s struggles prior to receiving the progress report, they will certainly not be surprised.  Many children do not share these difficulties with their families, choosing to push their way through the challenges alone.  We encourage you to take an active approach and resolve to help your child improve.  Your child will be relieved if you step in with help rather than criticism over their struggle.  This is where we can step in and play a vital role in helping steer your child back to a successful course in their academics.

Maximizing Your Child’s Strengths

As we’ve discussed in previous blogs, many top tier colleges today evaluate potential new students based upon a wide spectrum of qualifications.  The better the school, the more stringent the requirements will be for acceptance.  If your child’s progress report consistently shows extraordinary skills in a specific subject, it’s likely that a public school will be limited in helping them develop this skill to its fullest.  We can team with your child to propel them to a level of accomplishment that will help establish your child as a true expert.  And the ability to demonstrate an unusual talent can be a deciding factor for entrance into some of the country’s finest colleges.

Call us at 949-546-0800 and we’ll be happy to discuss with you programs and individualized tutoring available to help your child grow in their academic pursuits.

 

Filed Under: Academic Success, College, Progress Report, Report Card, Studying Tagged With: , ,

Conquering Your Child’s Dread of School

February 13, 2013 By Leave a Comment

In many homes it’s not uncommon to hear your child come home after school and complain of a subject they don’t enjoy. Maybe it is reading. It could be science or math. Even if they are excelling in school, for most kids, there is one subject that they dislike and dread. There are a multitude of reasons this may be, but often an exclamation of “I hate math!” is an indication that a student is simply struggling to understand math.

If you have heard your student say something like this, you can be relieved that they feel comfortable enough in their relationship with you to share these feelings. You and your child can now begin working towards a solution. At Academic Learning Labs, we approach students’ negativity towards a certain subject by first understanding the their reasons and then working to improve mastery of the subject. Students who feel like they are “good at” reading, for example, will rarely also say that they “hate” it. Similarly, if your student is the best in their class at multiplication tables, they will probably also say they enjoy math. If your student is complaining about a particular topic, it is indication that lessons taught in-class may not be suited to their particular learning style. Studying the subject in a new way can make a world of difference in a kid’s attitude towards it.

By taking the dread many students have towards their least favorite subject and turning it into understanding, we can help your student excel in all areas at school. At Academic Learning Labs, our tutors specialize in understanding your student’s unique learning style and working collaboratively to face academic challenges creatively. We can replace students’ discomfort with confidence and equip them to succeed! Call us at 949-546-0800 to learn more about our tutoring services.

Filed Under: Studying Tagged With: , ,

The Power of Encouragement

January 9, 2013 By Leave a Comment

It’s sad but true how often we tend to get disconnected from our children’s lives. We have very busy lives, and frequently we’re left distilling an entire day’s worth of experiences into, “My day was find, how was yours?”  As parents, we could each sit down and provide a much more lengthy explanation of the day’s events, and so could our kids.  And we do that frequently, but perhaps not often enough.  This disconnect is normal, but can create a more difficult environment for our children when they are struggling with their school work.

At Academic Learning Labs, we understand the dynamic at work between parents and children.  We’re often placed in a unique position to step into your child’s life with solutions and choices that can significantly improve their life.  Here are just a few of the academic services we can offer for children from grade school through high school:

 Math

Math is one of our most popular subjects, and we’re equipped to assess your child’s math skills and step in with a tutoring program specifically designed for their needs.  We’ll work within the framework of the school curriculum, so that our tutoring will augment their in-class learning.  But with the additional attention and targeted teaching, we’ll be able to produce results that cannot be matched in a large classroom setting.

Writing

Writing skills are fundamental to virtually every other area of study, so we’re prepared to help your child overcome any obstacles that prevents them from producing high-quality writing.  Our tutors are especially skilled in creating a fun and encouraging environment to help your child learn correct sentence structure and punctuation.

Reading

Our tutors are adept at taking reading from a chore to delight.  We specialize in creating a learning environment that stimulates your child’s natural curiosity and channels it into learning.  We’ll help your child expand their vocabulary and start to look upon reading as a fun tool for learning.

Timing can make a big difference with your child.  Too often families delay getting help until their child has struggled for an extended period of time and has become very discouraged.  The sooner you seek help, the faster your child will show improvement.  Please call us at 949-5446-0800 for more information on our personalize tutoring for your child.

 

Filed Under: Academic Success, Classroom Size, learning, Studying

Starting the New Year Off Right

December 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

As the beginning of a new year approaches, it is a chance for all of us to embrace a new start and develop new goals. The new year is also an opportunity to move past the challenges of the prior year and plan out a path toward improvement. Around this time students will likely be entering a new semester and phase in their education, and with this comes a new set of challenges to conquer. Maybe your child spent the last year struggling in school, or perhaps your high schooler would like to achieve a better score on the SAT. At Academic Learning Labs, we take the new year as an opportunity to face academic challenges head-on and change the course of your child’s education for the better.

In spring, many high school juniors will be taking the SAT for the first time. Most students do this with the intention of taking it again before graduating and improving their score. Even if this is your student’s plan, it is important to study and do well on the test the first time. It will be difficult to improve a score later if the original score is not an accurate representation of your student’s knowledge. The tutors at Academic Learning Labs can help students translate their knowledge into a good score on the SAT.

Moving into springtime brings graduating high schoolers closer to application deadlines for Fall admission to college. Many graduating seniors have already taken the SAT at least once, but will take it again before applying to colleges. Improving SAT scores is one of the final steps before embarking on a college career. In these upcoming months, many responsibilities can pile up and overwhelm students. SAT scores can determine which colleges your student is accepted to, what scholarships they are awarded, and what classes they will be required to take. Needless to say, it is important that high schoolers achieve their best possible score, and the new year is the perfect time to map out a plan for doing so.

 At Academic Learning Labs, we work with students individually to determine a plan of study that will maximize their abilities and allow them to achieve their best score on the SAT. We will work with your child to identify their strengths and weaknesses, and most importantly, we will help your child learn the information necessary to succeed on the SAT and their upcoming college career. Call us at 949-546-0800 to discuss plans for your child’s education in the upcoming year.

Filed Under: Academic Success, College, SAT Prep, Studying Tagged With: , , ,

The Importance of Developing Good Study Skills

December 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment

It happens to most families at one time or another.  Your child is getting good grades — not great, not terrible — and you get a teacher’s note included with his report card telling you that he is not really living up to his potential.  There may not be any specific criticism offered, and the vagueness of the comment can be almost maddening.  This comment in not uncommon with bright children who pick up things quickly.  They’re bright and usually bring home grades with a mix between “A’s” and “B’s.”  There’s really not much to complain about, but there may a problem lurking that is best resolved during their early school years.  Exactly how can you help your child better fulfill his potential?

Or perhaps your child is bringing home grades that you’re convinced just don’t match his or her abilities. They’re not skipping school, and most of their work is completed on time, but their grades just don’t seem to be what they should.  What options do you have?

This is something we see quite frequently, and the problem may well be poor study habits.

One of the disadvantages faced by bright students comes from their ability to quickly comprehend most subjects.  The problem arises when they progress to a point in their education where the sophistication of the subject cannot be comprehended immediately and needs much more disciplined study.  This time most often comes during high school when students face the rigors of trigonometry, calculus or statistics.  For virtually every student, these subjects require significant amounts of study and memorization.  And these disciplines may have never been necessary for the bright student.  For perhaps the first time, they will be faced with obstacles that simply cannot be easily grasped.

A student who is producing marginal grades may need little more than some guidance on how to maximize study time to achieve the best results. Of course, all students will struggle from time to time with new topics.  This is one reason its so vital for them to develop good study skills.

At Academic Learning Labs we have a program of tutoring designed to help your child develop the study habits that will help improve their schoolwork and better equip them for the rigors of college work.  We break down study skills into several areas that we help your child improve:

  • Organization – covers assignment tracking, binder organization and study planning.
  • Time Management – includes scheduling study time and avoiding distractions.
  • Note Taking – covers effective listening strategies, practical note taking and following directions.
  • Studying – includes how to use notes to review material, extracting the most important information from textbooks, research strategies and subject-specific study tips.
  • Test Taking Strategies – includes ways to minimize test anxiety and effective tips for a variety of test formats including multiple choice, open answer and essay.

We also break down study skills for your child’s grade level offering targeted tutoring for elementary, middle, and high school.  Please call us at 949-546-0800 for more details on our study skills tutoring.

 

Filed Under: College, Homework, Studying Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Battling Over Homework? We Can Help Restore the Peace

October 31, 2012 By Leave a Comment

For many children, homework is a nightly grind that they try to avoid at all costs.  This can involve begging for more TV time, disappearing into their rooms, or any number of other activities.  The homework must get done, but your child is working at every turn to keep busy with anything else.  This game of cat and mouse continues in many households on a nightly basis until the parents are forced into a confrontation.  The homework must be done!

There can be a number of reasons for your child’s resistance to homework, but there is ultimately no way to avoid getting it done.  The key to solving the problem is to help your child overcome the obstacles that may be burdening them.  This is clearly not always an easy task, but we have tools and individualized tutoring that can provide concrete changes in your child’s behavior steering them toward completing their homework with greater speed, greater efficiency, and much less contention.  At Academic Learning Labs we approach homework from several different angles in order to smooth over the rough edges that usually contribute to a child’s resistance .

No More Homework Battles. We Can Help

Some parents are surprised that some of our emphasis on homework help will have nothing to do with the actual subject (or subjects) that are a struggle for your child.  But there’s a good reason for this.  Many children suffer from a lack of organization that creates a sense of frustration.  A child who feels overwhelmed by homework, may not actually have a significant problem with the topics, but struggles to organize the work in a manner that makes the task more manageable.  We help students organize the work and conquer it with bite-sized pieces.  We are experts at helping your child learn that a mountain of text books and seemingly insurmountable work can be quickly organized into a series of very small tasks that will have them saying, “I can do that!”

Along with helping improve organizational skills, we also specialize in helping your child grasp the concepts being presented in the classroom. We concentrate on creating a relationship that serves to extend the skills your child is learning at school.  Our tutoring is designed to expand your child’s daily instruction.  And with our individualized approach, we have the freedom to fill in any gaps in their learning and spend as much time as needed to insure that your child masters the topic.

Once your child learns the efficiency of organizing their work, and gains a better grasp of the homework topics, you’ll see that your nightly battles will disappear, and you’ll enjoy a quite a bit more peace and quiet each night.  Please call us today at  949-546-0800 for details on our homework tutoring.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Classroom Size, Homework, stress, Studying Tagged With: ,

Reading Is The Gateway for Learning

October 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Better Reading Skills Help Build a Better Future

The importance of good reading skills cannot be overstated.  Every other topic your child studies depends upon his or her ability to read and understand the related material.  Math skills are much more than learning multiplication tables and principles of geometry.  Students must be able to read and understand text books relating to math in order to truly learn the subject.  The same applies for history, science, and every other subject.  If your child’s reading skills are not what they should be, every area of study will suffer.

At Academic Learning Labs we understand the importance of cultivating your child’s reading skills and will create a tutoring program personalized to meet their needs.  We focus on fundamental teachings with an emphasis on phonics, vocabulary, comprehension and fluency.  We have programs available for all grade levels and Pre-K:

Starting at age 3, we have fun programs to build excitement about reading in your child.  Our Pre-K programs are designed for the following:

  • Increase Confidence and Motivation
  • Improve Concentration
  • Strengthen Reading Comprehension and Engagement with Text in all Subjects
  • Develop a Life-Long Love of Learning
  • Build a Firm Academic Foundation

Our program for elementary school students provides these benefits: 

  • Builds Word Analysis skills
  • Provides Vocabulary Enrichment
  • Expands Critical Reading and Critical Thinking Skills
  • Improves Communication Skills
  • Improves Reading Retention
  • Increases Confidence and Motivation
The benefits of our middle school reading program: 
  • Develops Intermediate Level Critical Reading and Critical Thinking Skills
  • Builds Self Esteem by Providing Opportunities for Success
  • Teaches Content Reading Strategies to Boost Grades in Other Academic Subjects including Science and History
  • Develops Reading Retention
Our high school reading program offers the following emphasis: 
  • Helps Your Child Quickly Get Back on Track Academically
  • Improves Performance in all Subject Areas
  • Develops Advanced Level Critical Reading and Critical Thinking Skills
  • Prepares the Student for college by Teaching Independent Learning
By enhancing your child’s reading skills, you’ll see immediate improvements in virtually every area of study.  For more details on our reading programs, visit our website (http://www.academiclearninglabs.com), or give us a call at 949-546-0800.
Filed Under: reading, Studying Tagged With: ,

The Challenge of Talented Children

September 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

We’ve all heard the stories before.  Some remarkable person is being interviewed on television and when asked to describe their early school years, they say they were bored to death.  School could not keep up with them, and they lost interest.  Many of these folks drop out of school or just struggle through the boredom while trying to fight off discouragement.  It’s sad to see such potential delayed because their talent and understanding far exceeded that of their peers.

We see this quite a bit at Academic Learning Labs, and it’s one of the things that excites us most about our tutoring.  While much of our tutoring is intended to help children struggling to keep up, we also have programs available in every area of study that are designed to challenge and encourage talented children.  And there are a lot of good reasons to make sure we keep our children challenged in their learning.

Less Boredom = Better Behavior

Boredom is The EnemyThere’s a good reason for the persistence of that old adage, “Idle hands are the the devil’s workshop.”  A child who is teeming with energy, but burdened by boredom will almost always find something to alleviate the boredom.  As parents, we are in a unique position to guide these activities into creative and challenging directions.  If we fail to do this, we create an environment for our children to stray into relationships and activities that may be harmful for them.  We really need to do whatever we can to help our children thrive in areas that will challenge them and help shape their character for a better life.   Extremely talented children can present unique challenges in this area, as we may not have all the tools and skills needed to keep them occupied and growing.

It’s sad that some of the kids who do the poorest in school are those who actually have the skills and intellect to do the best. But without proper guidance and support, they may waste their amazing gifts.  It’s vital as parents that we step into this situation to provide necessary challenges to keep these children utilizing their gifts.  Here are some ideas to consider:

Get them involved in athletics

Many highly intelligent children appreciate the challenges of athletic competition.  Keeping your child physically active is a natural supplement to their mental activity.  Physical challenges nearly always have a mental aspect to them, and will serve your child well to keep their energies channelled in productive directions.

The magic of music

It’s never too late to expose your child to the magic of music, but the earlier you start, the better.  Starting at just 4 or 5 years old there are programs Kindermusik that get children to start exploring the world of music.  Later, kids can develop an appreciation for musical skills with programs like Guitar Hero.  And older kids can create their own music and record multiple instruments on programs like Garage Band included on Apple’s Mac computers.  Stretching your child’s imagination through music will augment their intellectual growth.

Volunteering

Children who excel in their school work often find themselves with extra time on their hands.  In your ongoing effort to keep them channelled into healthy and worthwhile pursuits, we encourage you introduce community involvement into their schedule.

This is most effective when a parent models the behavior.  There’s an entirely different dynamic at work when you send your child off to volunteer compared to when you pack up the entire family to participate.  Opportunities abound.  Start with your pastor or rabbi to find opportunities available.  The Orange County Rescue Mission is also a good choice.  Make a commitment as a family to get involved, and then watch as your children grow in their understanding and compassion, as well as their academic acuity.

Expand their academic skills

It’s not uncommon for parents of exceptionally bright children to find that the sophistication of their homework is more difficult than anyone else in the family is able to comprehend.  But don’t worry, this is one area that Academic Learning Labs can help.  Our tutors are able to handle advanced placement tutoring in every subject.  We can quickly step into a very vital role in your family to help keep your child challenged, growing, and pointed in the right direction.  Call us at (949) 546-0800 for more details on our tutoring.

 

Filed Under: Community Involvement, Homework, Parent Involvement, Preparing for College, Studying, Tutoring, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , ,

Overcoming Discouragement and Discovering The Freedom Found In Accomplishment

September 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Here at Academic Learning Labs, we often see students and parents arrive with a burden of real discouragement.  Sometimes they’re facing the pressure of midterms or year-end finals and have finally realized they need some real help to pull things out in time.  In can be a very stressful and discouraging time.

It’s Likely Boredom Is Your Enemy, Not Low Grades

Fighting Boredom Is Essential

Many of the children that we see for remedial tutoring are actually struggling with the pace and teaching methods at their schools.  Many students who struggle with their grades may actually be struggling with teaching techniques that are not well suited to their personalities.

We are often delighted to quickly find that a child struggling with math is actually quite a whiz at the subject when they’re given the correct tools for their best learning.  Classroom sizes continue to increase, and school teachers do the best they can.  Even the most diligent teacher cannot significantly personalize the learning experience for a given child, but that’s exactly what we do at Academic Learning Labs.  Our model for effective tutoring is not based upon a template we teach to each student.  Rather, we feel that each or our students is the template for their learning.  While your child is learning from us, we are learning from them.  We are finding out what causes their best responses, and we’re crafting our tutoring to match that.

Freedom Through Accomplishment

The outcome is remarkable.  Students who may have long felt they just could not understand a subject, begin to have tutoring sessions filled with “Aha!” moments.  As they climb each of the rungs on this learning ladder, they begin to grasp overall concepts as well.  There’s nothing we love more than watching our students run out of a tutoring session to tell mom or dad all about the new concept they grasped today.   It’s a triumphant moment for us, for their parents, and most importantly, for the student.   We count our successes not as much by improving grades, but improving outlooks.  We realize that most families come to us due to our skill at tutoring.  But we delight most in seeing our students shed the burden of their discouragement and start feeling the freedom of how powerful they are to learn and grow in areas they may have once thought impossible.   Students who may have once dreaded third-period algebra, find themselves actually looking forward to it with a renewed confidence and freedom.

We’ll be happy to spend some time with your family to show you exactly how we can bring these results to your family as well.  We have tutoring sessions available for virtually every subject with both group and individual settings available.  Please give us a a call at 949-546-0800 to learn how we can work with you to help your child excel in school and experience the freedom of self-confidence.

Filed Under: Classroom Size, harmful effect of class size, Parent Involvement, Studying Tagged With: , , ,
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