The Parent's Guide to High School

Got a teenager? Our guide has all the bases covered. Whether it's talking to your child about dating, exploring college, or just dealing with teenage angst, here's what to expect in high school. Keep learning interesting with dozens of high school activities from SAT espionage to CSI science.

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Developmental

School and Academics

When Your Child Says No to College

The road to college can be a rocky one. Between SATs, ACTs, tough courses, teacher recommendations, a cutthroat pool of applicants, extracurriculars, college essays, and everything in between, it’s an exhausting journey. So what should you do if your child says she doesn’t want to take the trip?

Scoring an Athletic Scholarship

Your teen has been balancing academics, athletics, and high school social life for years now. But all her hard work is about to pay off: as most kids and parents know, the more accomplished teens are in a variety of fields, the better their chances of getting into the college or university of their ...

Key Things Parents Can Do To Make Sure Their Children Are Prepared For The 21st Century

Tips for parents to prepare their child for the increasingly competitive global economy and take advantage of the new opportunities given by No Child Left Behind law.

Help Your Child Make Career Decisions

While your child is in middle and high school, he or she can participate in many career exploration activities. Here's how to get started.

Finding Educational Consultants and Commercial Counseling Centers

Tips for Avoiding Senioritis

De-stress the College Essay

The Best of Both Worlds: Residential Colleges

Going to College Is Not Always the Best Choice

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Social and Emotional

If an Adolescent Begins To Fail in School, What Can Parents and Teachers Do?

What are some common indicators of an adolescent at risk for school failure? Get answers here, as well as some strategies for parents and teachers to assist teens.

Book Therapy: A High School Reading List

As long as there has been engaging literature, young adults have been engaging in developmental bibliotherapy. That is, teenagers have picked up books, identified with the character and his plight and, through that connection, gained some emotional insight into their own lives.

Preparing for College: Cool Ideas for Summer (for teens)

After weeks of chilly rain, the weather here at the NACAC home office in Alexandria, Virginia, has turned warm and sunny. Suddenly, we are thinking fondly of summer: afternoons at the pool, hamburgers fresh from the grill, and wearing shorts and sandals ...

Getting the Best Help for Your High Schooler

From the classroom to the playing field, standardized tests to college applications, getting outside help in high school - in the form of SAT prep classes, individual subject tutors, athletic trainers, and private college counselors, among others -has become as mainstream as studying the ...

Preparing for College: Selecting Summer Programs

Packing for College (for teens)

What Makes a High School Successful?

Ten Tips for Talking With Sexually Active Teens About Contraception

Growth and Development, Ages 13 to 17: What Parents Need to Know

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Milestones and Development

Social Graces: What to Expect From Your High Schooler

Education and manners guru Cindy Post Senning said manners education should follow along with a child's development, and high school is no exception. So, what manners should be second nature to your high schooler? Post offers advice based on these five core manners topics:

The Role of Parents in Dropout Prevention

Students who drop out of school face a difficult future. However, families can play an important role in making sure their student graduates. Staying involved in your teen's life during middle school and high school is critical

Selecting A College for Students with Learning Disabilities or Attention

Students with learning disabilities (LD) or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) approach the transition from high school to college with an array of learning strengths and needs.

Considering a College Honors Program

If you're looking for small classes, in-depth discussions, and an opportunity to get to know your professors, it might be worth looking into an honors program. Here's what you need to know.

How Can I Help My Gifted Child Plan for College?

College Planning for Gifted and Talented Youth

Does Your High Schooler Got Game?

Alternatives to a Traditional College

Gender Differences: High School

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Our Essential High School Gift Guide

We've looked high and low for the best toys, books, games, and gadgets to make gift-giving easy. Check out our gift guide for top picks that combine learning value, staying power, and major kid-appeal!

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Tamar

by Mal Peet

Layered, exciting, and packed with secrets that unravel one by one, this award-winning book is the tale of two Allied spies who parachute into Nazi-occupied Holland during the winter of 1944, to help organize the Dutch Resistance movement.

How to Be an Explorer of the World: Portable Life Museum

by Keri Smith

Think of this less as a book and more as a guide to individuality, creativity, self-expression, and positive thinking. This tome teaches that everything around us--from coffee cup rings on notebooks to a crumpled up leaf--is the stuff of great art, and merits closer observation and analysis.

The Other Side of the Island

by Allegra Goodman

Honor and her family live on Island 365, where the sky is covered by a rigid enclosure that regulates the weather, and the population is governed by a mysterious ruler and her Corporation. Like 1984 for the modern teenage set, this chilling look at a possible future reads like a rocket.

What if your iPod could talk to your running shoes? Well sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, because guess what? It can. Thanks to a collaboration between Apple and Nike, all new iPod Touch and Nanos now come ready to step in as Personal Trainer.

Your high school kid may not be the hike-and-bike type, but all teens have this in common: they're about the pick up, move on, and seek adventure, whether it means going to college, traveling abroad, or just taking an extended weekend away.

Cranium WOW is an updated version of the wildly popular board game, and it takes the cake for retaining the successful format, while adding new details that make the game more fun than ever. There's a challenge for everyone, whether you're a sketch artist, intellectual, thespian, or vocab pro.

This software makes plucking your best digital photographs a breeze, with cool features that let you sort your shoots, view the contenders side-by-side, and then slide your favorites into buckets, much like one might cluster favorite songs into playlists.

Your teen may be able to talk his way out of any situation, but talking won't open cans, saw branches, or furnish four different screwdrivers to get the job done. That's where the Leatherman multi-tool comes in.

If you've ever wished parenting a teenager would be shock-proof, you're in for a disappointment. But, lucky for you, there's the next best thing: a digital camera that can not only survive a drop of five feet, it's also waterproof, dust-proof and freeze-proof.

A collaboration between the Discovery Channel and NASA, to celebrate 50 years of space exploration, this 4-DVD collection contains 12 hours of footage, much of it never before seen. This is much more than a cursory look at the history of the space program and a must for space lovers!

Podcasting is a great way for a teen to get her voice out to a limitless audience on the Web, in a creative and safe venue. This program comes with a microphone, editing software, plus a one-year subscription to Acidplanet Prozone, an online host for her podcast. Terry Gross, watch out!

This much-anticipated computer game will give your teen exactly what he's been hankering for--the chance to control his own universe! With a few clicks, your child is on his way to creating a civilization, starting from a single-celled organism and moving all the way up to a galactic super power.

Now that your teen is in high school, toting a word search puzzle in her back pocket may be less than cool. That's why these puzzles are disguised as funky and fashionable notebooks that go with anything. The hipsters version of sudoku, word search, word roundup, and crossword puzzle books.

With this science-forward magazine, teens can learn how cheetahs take care of their cubs, what scientists know about the nature of consciousness, or how online worlds will be used in the 21st century as virtual science labs. This is one glossy you'll be glad to catch your child reading.

What do Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico have in common? They're all part of the Great Continental Divide. Give your teen the chance to experience its beauty with a multi-day volunteer trip.