The Third Child Advantage
While I was pregnant with our first child, my husband and I felt well-equipped to be remarkable parents. We read all the books and witnessed the parenting mistakes of friends and family members. What else could we do? Our first born shall rise above his peers because he is blessed with such amazing parents.
The very day we brought this baby home was just the beginning of our humbling journey through parenthood! “We don’t know what we are doing! We are unprepared to parent this child, the possible next Bill Gates.” I remember the drive home thinking, “They let us leave without the instruction manual. We just get in this car on these dangerous streets and take this perfect baby to raise on our own?” We were scared, and found out we had a huge learning curve when it came to caring for our son.
When he was a small toddler, he developed a dislike for milk. What baby doesn’t like milk? We were worried about this nutrition habit, until we figured out the sippy cups needed to be disassembled to be properly cleaned. We were disgusted to find mold growing in a piece of the now unassembled sippy cup, but we did have the answer to his sudden distaste for milk… It is safe to say that our next daughter, and the next, had the advantage of more experienced parents. We just kept getting better and better at this parenting thing.
We learned many lessons wading through the waters of education and college preparations. Parents have so many questions at each stage of a child’s education. What happens when my child falls behind on math concepts, what are the signs of ADHD and dyslexia, what are the early signs of a reading disability, can my kids earn college credit in high school, what are the academic requirements for an athletic scholarship, how can my child get scholarships to pay for college, when should my child take the ACT or the SAT test, what is a good score, how many times should they take it, what is a good GPA, when are the deadlines for college applications, what is FAFSA? The list of questions is overwhelming. The information we learned after the first and second go-around was priceless. There was no question; our third child had an advantage.
Did you know intervention timing is important when dealing with weaknesses in reading? Do you understand the link between the PSAT and National Merit Scholars? Did you know you can take the ACT test 12 times? Did you know that test prep increases scores and just two points can mean thousands of dollars in scholarships? Did you know a student needs community service and outside-the-school-leadership to stand out on college applications? Did you know all testing should be completed by December of a student’s senior year? Neither did we! Until the third child! This wealth of information is one of the important reasons The Study Hub came to fruition! As a parent and 14 year educator, I realized the third child is at a real advantage. Shouldn’t every student have this third child advantage?
At The Study Hub we assist families through private tutoring, test preparations and homework help. Class sizes are huge and at many points in a child’s life they require one-on-one help to ensure they are not left behind. We help students with reading skills which are all vital to a good education. We help families with the frustrating time-consuming task of homework. Families are busier than ever; most students need to be taught how to study and prioritize their homework efforts. We prepare students for college by helping them raise their ACT scores, maximizing their opportunities and giving them knowledge to gain scholarship dollars. Just as one practices for a game; we practice taking the ACT test. We share the valuable third-child-advantage with our community.