By Margaret T.

Mother’s Day is just around the corner. This time of year, I always pause and reflect on my three children when they were younger. They’re older now. One is still in high school, one in college and one graduated from college.We started thinking about their college educations when they were young, and I’m grateful that we did.

Even at a young age, the school that children attend makes a huge difference in terms of college acceptance and success. We found that middle school builds such a foundation of learning for a child’s high school experience. The best thing we did to help prepare our children for college was to send them to Forsyth Country Day School. My husband and I have seen firsthand the difference that Forsyth Country Day made with our three children.

The caring teachers and college counselors at Forsyth Country Day capitalized on the individual strengths of each of our children, and the results were impressive. The college counselors were particularly strong advocates for our children and helped us think outside the box as we considered course schedules and potential colleges.

As you think about a school for your children, I recommend that you ask yourself a few questions:

Are the classes in your child’s school in the core curriculum of English, math, science and social studies challenging enough so that he or she will be ready for honors and AP courses in high school?

Is your school preparing your child for global leadership with foreign language, technology, the arts and numerous opportunities to not only listen to community and national leaders but also to serve and lead on his or her own?

Does your teen or pre-teen have a college counselor that considers them as an individual instead of a number? And does that counselor have personal relationships with the admissions representatives at key universities?

I know what you may be thinking at this point. If you have elementary or middle school aged children, it’s way too early to be thinking about college.  Yes, it may be too early to be thinking about specific colleges or majors for your child.  From one mother to another, however, it’s never too soon to consider the academic foundation for your children so they will be accepted to the college of their choice by the time they’re seniors in high school.

Forsyth Country Day School has been a blessing to our family.  I hope you’ll take a look.

Sponsored by Forsyth Country Day School