My Baby is Going to College

It is hard to believe that your little one is now a young adult heading off to college and starting to make his way in the world. For most kids, college offers great life- enhancing experiences. For others, it turns out to be a year of irresponsibility and indebtedness. When our oldest was getting ready to head off for the first time, my mind reeled with life lessons I forgot to teach her. Now that she is nearly finished and I have a second one preparing for college, I can reflect on some key things to share with parents experiencing this for the first time.

Treat college like a job. Most students take a 15-credit course load which equates to roughly 3 hours a day in class. That leaves 5 hours for studying. If your student will adopt an 8-hour day or 40-hour work week mentality, he will find that most of the evenings and weekends are free for fun. Remind your student that the primary purpose of college is to get an education but you want them to enjoy it as well. Encourage your child to make a plan that covers work and study time, then work the plan.

Learn to take advantage of 10 minutes. There is a lot of dead time between classes and walking around campus. When your student calls home struggling with a class, encourage him to use that dead time to memorize a formula or to review a few pages of the chapter that didn't jell. By the time he reaches class, he may have it down.

Build in stress relief. Encourage your student to enroll in a physical education class every semester. College campuses have wonderful facilities and have a variety of activity choices. Most classes are only 1 credit hour and don't take that much time but they provide an opportunity to release stress and to learn and/or refine a skill. My oldest started taking Tae Kwon Do her first semester and has stuck with it. By the time she graduates, she will have her black belt. She also developed strong friendships in that class separate from all the dorm friends she has accumulated over the years.