The great thing about the New Year is that it’s a time for new beginnings. Is there a new school you want your child to attend or a new subject you want to introduce to them? The start of the New Year is the perfect time to make a change and put your child on the path to success. Even if you’ve never before worked with your child to prep for a test, prepare for kindergarten, or just improve their academic performance, now is the perfect time to start!

There are a variety of resources available for you to help your child. If your goal for the New Year is to get your child into a Gifted and Talented program, there are many different resources to guide you through understanding the programs offered by your district and the admissions process to get your child into one of those programs.

We speak to parents all the time who are researching their district’s Gifted and Talented program. We usually advise these parents to start by looking at their school district’s website, which often provides details on the program and the test (or tests!) required for admission. Once you have the name of the test, you’ll be ready to jump into preparing your child for the admissions process.

It’s critical that you start doing research as soon as possible – since many school districts refuse to give out the name of the test, lots of digging may be required. We speak to many parents who spend months trying to gain any information on their district’s Gifted and Talented test.

Once parents know the test their child will take, we at FasTracKids can help. We have a skills-based Test-Prep Course which has an over 90% success rate of getting children. These courses are designed to build the same skills and abilities as the tests themselves, using a similar format, but are designed to be just different enough that your child is alert on test day, since he feels like he’s doing something new.

Getting into a Gifted and Talented program is hard – in some districts, harder than getting into an Ivy League university! But even if your child is one of the few who gets in, the journey isn’t over. Once your child starts the new school year as a Gifted and Talented student, you’ll need to work with her to ensure that she’s at or near the top of her class. When the time comes to apply to college (or to an elite middle or high school), your child will need to show that she truly stands out from the pack.

This is where school enrichment comes in. It’s important to work with your child outside the classroom to reinforce the concepts she’s learning in school, and also to introduce her to new concepts and subjects that she’s not learning even in an advanced program. Programs like FasTracKids Core and Eye Level Math & English provide great content that challenges your child to think outside what he’s learning in school, and provide hours of fun, engaging content.

Enrichment activities also go a long way toward addressing and correcting any weaknesses that your child has. If you know your child struggles in math, for example, it’s important to practice the skill in a lighthearted way that doesn’t feel like work. Using programs Eye-Level Math keeps your child engaged in learning math and also makes her feel like she’s taking a “break” from the more rote, traditional homework that she’s likely to get in her Gifted and Talented program.

Fortunately we at FasTracKids and Eye-Level offer all of these programs and many more. You already knew that FasTracKids gives you courses that you need to prepare for the Gifted and Talented entrance exam. Now you know that, once the test is finally in your rear view mirror, you and your child can use your FasTracKids and Eye-Level Learning to transition to more game-like skill building programs like the ones I just mentioned. FasTracKids truly provides one-stop shopping for all your academic needs – both for the test and beyond!

But your child won’t make any strides at all if you don’t commit. With the ringing in of a New Year, now is the perfect time to throw down the gauntlet. Give your child a fresh start and schedule a Free Trial Class or Testing today!

Visit FasTracKids/Eye Level Learning Center online at:

www.fastrackids.com

www.myeyelevel.com