Building a Family Tree With Kids This Summer
Start with the present and work backwards, one generation at a time. Here is how real genealogists work, translated into a summer project your kids can lead.
By Zara Nasser • October 3, 2026
Juvenile Pre & Post
Latest
How Teacher Shortages Shape Your Local Schools
Fewer teachers means bigger classes, fewer electives, and a rotating cast of substitutes. Here is what that looks like day to day, and what a family can do about it.
By Zara Nasser • October 2, 2026
family
How to Talk to Your Child About Responsibility Without the Power Struggle
Chores and accountability work better as a conversation than a command — here's how to shape that talk at every age.
By Kara Williams • October 2, 2026
skills
Starting a Podcast With Your Class: A How-To
A classroom audio project needs little gear, a clear plan, and a publishing choice made early.
By Samuel Achebe • October 1, 2026
How Youth Mentorship Programs Match Mentors and Kids
Screening, interviews, and the slow work of building a pairing that lasts.
By Marta Kowalczyk • September 29, 2026
Volunteering Ideas That Build Real Teen Leadership
A ranked look at service roles that teach skills colleges and employers actually notice — and how to tell the difference between showing up and leading.
By Zara Nasser • September 25, 2026
What YouthBuild Programs Teach Beyond Construction
Diploma prep, leadership training, and support services sit alongside the trade skills — here is how the model actually works.
By Zara Nasser • September 23, 2026
youth
Youth on Course: How Affordable Golf Access Works for Young Players
The green fee is often the biggest barrier for a young golfer. Here is how access programs knock it down, and what families should check before signing up.
By Zara Nasser • September 22, 2026
From the past month
family
How to Handle Sibling Rivalry When One Child Struggles in School
When one child brings home report cards the other brings home praise, comparison can quietly poison both kids. Here's how to break the pattern.
By Kara Williams • September 16, 2026
family
Inside the Juvenile Intake Process: A Parent's Guide
What happens in the first days, who decides what, and how to keep your footing while the system moves.
By Kara Williams • September 28, 2026
skills
Skills for Resume: What Teens Should Actually List
Part-time jobs, clubs and coursework already contain resume-ready skills — the work is naming them in the language employers scan for.
By Samuel Achebe • September 20, 2026
education-news
How Tutoring Chain Contracts Lock Families Into Months of Payments
Auto-renewal, prepaid packages and narrow cancellation windows do the quiet work. Here is what to read before you sign.
By Amara Okonkwo • September 17, 2026
How to Help Your Teen Build a Weekly Study Routine
A step-by-step setup parents can run before the school year starts, so the schedule survives the first busy week.
By Samuel Achebe • September 19, 2026
How to Help a Student Study Smarter, Not Just Longer
Decades of cognitive-science research point to two study habits that actually work — and they're not the ones most students already use.
By Samuel Achebe • August 17, 2026
How to Use a Planner Without Giving Up on It
Most planners die by October because they are used as a diary of intentions — the fix is one daily review habit and a page small enough to finish.
By Zara Nasser • July 27, 2026
Why Public Speaking Practice Starts in Middle School
Speaking anxiety peaks exactly when class presentations begin — and short, repeated, low-stakes reps in middle school shrink it for life.
By Zara Nasser • July 5, 2026
How to Budget for the School Extras Families Forget to Plan For
The supply list is only the start. Lab fees, field trips, calculators and activity passes arrive months later — here's how to plan for them.
By Kara Williams • September 13, 2026
What Parents Should Know About Chronic Absenteeism
A record share of students are missing enough school to fall behind academically — here is what the data shows and what a family can do before it becomes a pattern.
By Kara Williams • August 12, 2026
Family
How to Build a Morning Routine That Survives the School Year
A school morning that works is designed the night before and paid for with sleep — not powered by louder wake-ups in September.
By Hiroshi Nakamura • August 10, 2026
Family
How to Plan College Visits With a High Schooler
A good college visit plan spreads a few trips across junior and senior year and treats the student, not the campus, as the unit of study.
By Kara Williams • July 18, 2026
Behind the Scenes of a Student News Broadcast
Anchors get the applause. Writers, producers, and camera crews do the work that makes a weekly show happen.
By Kara Williams • October 1, 2026
How to Start a Student Newspaper From Scratch
A back-to-school roadmap for staffing, beats, ethics, and getting the first issue out — in print or online.
By Kara Williams • September 27, 2026
Pathways
What Parents Should Know About the New FAFSA Timeline
The FAFSA — the federal form that gates nearly all college aid — now opens each October for the following fall, but the 2024 redesign delayed aid offers by months, and families should plan around the confusion it left behind.
By Kara Williams • August 28, 2026
Study
How to Help a Middle Schooler Rebuild Study Habits
The study methods most kids choose — rereading and highlighting — rank among the least effective in published learning research, and two boring-sounding replacements work measurably better.
By Kara Williams • August 26, 2026
What the CDC's Developmental Milestones Checklist Actually Tracks
The free checklists cover ages 2 months through 5 years and are built to start a conversation with a pediatrician, not to deliver a diagnosis on their own.
By Zara Nasser • August 13, 2026
What Parents Should Know About Teen Work-Hour Rules
Federal law caps how many hours 14- and 15-year-olds can work and keeps everyone under 18 out of hazardous jobs, but states can set tighter limits, and more young people are working this summer than a year ago.
By Zara Nasser • August 10, 2026
Education News
How Universal Pre-K Programs Are Scaling Across States
More than 40 states now run public preschool programs, but reach and quality vary so widely that "universal" means very different things in different zip codes.
By Kara Williams • August 5, 2026
Education News
What New Research Says About Tutoring That Works
A meta-analysis of 96 randomized trials found tutoring produces some of the largest learning gains ever measured — but only when the dosage, timing, and tutor are right.
By Zara Nasser • July 14, 2026