What do Serena Williams, Russell Wilson, The Arizona Cardinals, Kobe Bryant and Jameis Winston all have in common? They have all been trained by Ryan Flaherty, who’s now the senior director of Performance at Nike. Ryan’s known in the industry for dramatically improving athletes speed, but he’s also sought out for his guidance on injury […]
Marianne Jett
The Extremes of Helicopter Parenting
If you are anything like me the “Operation Varsity Blues” college racketeering scandal completely sucked me in yesterday. Cheating, bribery, faked learning disabilities; it’s helicopter parenting at its most extreme. While the FBI papers read like a Riverdale episode, what struck me was the lengths parents were willing to go to. Not for their kids, […]
Giving Kids Autonomy
The definition of autonomous is “having the freedom to act independently”. For most kids, college is the first time they are living independently on their own. I have written about and shared other articles and books emphasizing the importance of learning practical skills like money management, laundry, grocery shopping, and mailing letters, but what about […]
Routine & Consistency
I celebrated my birthday last week in Tahoe with famiy and friends and I’m not going to lie, reentry was a challenge when Monday rolled around. Monday is usually my day to set goals for the week, reset, and prioritize my to-do list. However, this week I found myself procrastinating (yes I watched Lady Gaga […]
Claremont Colleges Visit
I was in Southern California and had the opportunity to visit the Claremont Colleges. There are seven Claremont Colleges, five undergraduate and two graduate schools, which gives students the opportunity to attend a small school but have the social and academic benefits of a bigger school. In addition, the combined schools have NCAA Division […]
Thinking About Next Year? It’s all about Balance
Thinking about next year? Summer plans? What courses to take? Here’s our advice: • Set Goals: The first question I always ask students who come in to see me is have you set goals for this year? Many students seem to be taking classes because they think they should, to check a box or because […]
Lessons learned from Marie Kondo
I have joined the Marie Kondo wave of tidying up just like everyone else and spent the beginning of 2019 bingeing her new Netflix show. There is beauty in the houses that are magically made over in the course of a 40 minute show (while in reality the families being featured are toiling away […]
Test Optional/Flexible Colleges and How They are Game Changers
I went to a great talk last night put on by the Sequoia Union Parent Ed Series. If you haven’t attended one of their events, I highly recommend them. The topic of last night’s event was Twenty Years in College Admission—What Has Changed, What Hasn’t: Reflections from Both Sides of the Desk. The legendary Alice Kleenan interviewed […]
Goodreads Best Books of 2018
Goodreads released their annual readers’ choice awards today. One of their categories is YA fiction and there are so many great books on their list, I wanted to share some of my favorites here. Becky Albertalli, who wrote Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda has two books on the list, the #1 YA readers’ choice is Leah […]
Back to basics…the benefits of using a planner
We are entering one of the busiest times of the year for our students and their families. Between academic commitments, extracurriculars and end of the year exams, projects (and SATs for our juniors!), things are well…chaotic. I wanted to share a gentle reminder for the benefits of using a written planner. Many of our students […]