Summer Safety Tips: How to Keep Your Home Safe While Traveling

For many, summer is all about heading out the front door and heading off on a great adventure. Worries are put aside, and the occasional stress of home and school life disappears.

But while vacations are supposed to be fun and relaxing, they don’t mean you can forget about home completely. Did you know that more burglaries occur in July and August than in any other time of the year?

Never fear! We’ve collected some great tips from SafeWise.com to help ensure your home is safe this summer- even while you’re not in it!

How to Keep Your Home Safe This Summer

1. Keep the garage secure

In addition to storing a variety of goods burglars want, such as lawn equipment, bikes and other easily pawned items, garages are often easier to access than the rest of a home.

To keep your belongings safe, close and lock the garage door, and carefully secure the door that leads from your garage into your home.

If you’re leaving your cars behind, make sure they are well-secured as well. Even if your vehicle is inside a locked garage, roll up all the windows and make sure all doors are locked. Clean out your car before you leave, too, and make sure there are no valuable items inside, and no money, change or electronics in sight.

2. Consider getting a home security system.

Home security systems can be the best ways to keep your valuables safe while on vacation. Turn on the system and you’ll be notified if anyone enters the home. Systems can also detect broken windows and other forms of forced entry and notify emergency officials automatically.

Home security systems are also important protection against fire and carbon monoxide, an especially important feature if you have pets still at home.

3. Remove window air conditioning units and fans.

No matter how securely a window air conditioning unit is installed in your window, they can still be a point of easy entry for a burglar. Remove all units before leaving for vacation, even those placed in second-story windows.

4. Ask a neighbor to watch your home.

If you’re going to be away for an extended period of time, ask a neighbor or close friend to keep an eye on the house.

Ask the neighbor to keep an eye out for anyone suspicious around the house, and ask them to collect any mail and newspapers delivered to your home each day. A pile of newspapers on the front stoop is an easy way to tell burglars that you’re not home.

Make sure to snip any shrubbery around your front door and turn on a front light before you leave, too- having a front door that is easily visible by neighbors will help deter any unwanted visitors.

5. Be quiet about your plans.

We know, we know- you want to tell the world about your upcoming trip to the Carribbean that you are so excited about. But talking about your trip in public or on social media makes it easier for unwanted visitors to find out you’re leaving.

Pack up the car in the garage if you can, and if you can’t, try not to bring too much attention to the fact that you’re heading out on vacation.

For more tips from SafeWise, read their full article.

And share your best tips for keeping your home safe while traveling this summer!

 

Got Motivation?: Help Your Kids Transition Back to School After the Spring Holiday

Just as it’s hard for adults to go back to work after a week or two away, students often have trouble transitioning back to the classroom after a school break.

Are your students feeling reluctant about the return to school? While teachers and staff at BSB will be making sure to engage students and get them excited about the return to school, keep reading to learn some tips of your own to help make the transition easier and more enjoyable for your whole family.

The following ideas were shared last year on the educational organization Edudemic’s website, meant to help teachers motivate their students after a school break. We’ve adapted them to help parents help with the transition back to school, too!

1. Set short term goals.

In the classroom, this might mean easing students back into work, depending on how long they’ve been away. At home, this tactic could be used toward homework routines.

After two weeks of traveling, local fun or even BSB’s sports camp, students may be reluctant to get back to their homework and studying. For the first week, encourage your children to spend some time playing outside or relaxing with a book for 30 minutes to an hour after school, before starting their homework.

Helping them enjoy a bit of the fun they had over their break will make sitting down to do homework easier, and make your evenings at home smoother.

2. Find exciting material.

Teachers will be working to ensure they include exciting material in their lessons to engage students in their return to the classroom. At home, help boost your children’s enthusiasm for school with some fun at-home learning.

Is your child interested in science, art or reading? Check out BSB’s Pinterest page for some great resources on science experiments, art projects and recommended books that you can use at home to help your students engage in the learning process!

3. Start small.

For many students, going from two weeks of sleeping in, staying up later, traveling and relaxing at home to a structured school routine can be the hardest part about returning to the classroom. Ease the transition at home by slowly returning your child’s bedtime to its normal school week time, or continuing a school break tradition into the first week of their return to school.

Did your family travel to an interesting country or new state over the break? Try making a meal that reminds you of that place, and talking about your trip over dinner one night this week, helping your children gradually transition from vacation mode into learning mode.

Have some great tips of your own? Share them in the comments section of this post!

Keep Kids Learning Over the School Break

Staying at home this winter break? While there’s plenty of family activities in Boston this time of year, there’s no need to even leave the house if you want to help your child continue learning!

Gather your family and try out some of these great ideas to help students have fun while learning over the spring holiday:

• Have your child read to you daily from the newspaper or a magazine and get in a reading lesson and a civics lesson! Practice their reading, talk about the news of the day and discuss the importance of being an informed citizen. Reading with your child- and letting your child see you read each day- is also a great way to inspire your children to do more reading on their own. Not interested in reading the news? Read a favorite book aloud or find a new one to enjoy.
• Use the winter break to strengthen your child’s vocabulary. While reading the newspaper, ask your child to write down any words they do not know. Help them look up these words in a dictionary, and write down the word and definition on an index card. Practice using the words in a sentence by writing a story with the new vocabulary!
• Bundling up on a cold day? Check out one of the many online subscription services and find a classic film to watch! Talk with your child about the way that film has changed over the years, and help them find an appreciation for the arts. We have many great opportunities for students to celebrate the arts at school, especially as our students get older, and this area of learning is important to the development of the whole child. Creating an appreciation for the arts at home will support an interest in music, drama and fine arts as your children get older.
• Is your child always using their iPad or other tablet? Make the best of their interest in technology and find a great book to download to their device! For younger students, Nook and Kindle offer books that are read aloud by the device and even offer interactive books that can help children practice their reading. Older students will love exploring the books available to them in their digital bookstore. Have a particularly veracious reader? Connect your device to your local library and download e-books for free!
• Take reading and writing learning to a whole new level by encouraging your child to write a book of their own! Use those new vocabulary words you’ve developed and get brainstorming on a great story idea! Apple offers many apps to help students create e-books of their very own, complete with text, illustrations and pictures and sound effects. Check out Book Creator to inspire your little author, and once they’re done creating, share the book with family and friends. Want more great apps for kids? Check out our Pinterest board.
• Do some cooking or baking together. Not only is this a great way to teach your child an important life skill, making food together is an important opportunity to talk to your children about healthy choices and can even help sneak in a math lesson! Whip up some healthy banana bread or a yummy soup and you’ll need to do some math to make sure all your measurements are correct! Check out our Health Kids Pinterest board for more great recipe ideas!

British School of Boston Hosts Annual Julie’s Fund

The students stood eagerly at the edge of the pool, leaning over, cupping their hands around their mouths and yelling encouragement across the water to those swimming.

They high-fived and clapped as students completed a lap in the pool, even hugged those students who were nervous about swimming, but did their laps anyway.

Looking at the group of young students, one would never had guessed that many of them had only met an hour ago.

The students- from British School of Boston and the Dorchester-based Epiphany School– were gathered for BSB’s annual Julie’s Fund, a two-day fundraiser that benefits Epiphany school and the national organization Save the Children.

Julie’s Fund was created to honor the memory of BSB’s founder, Julie Saville, and recognize her commitment to helping others. Throughout the two-day event, students run, swim or complete an obstacle course, collecting money from sponsors to be split between the two organizations. Since the event’s inception 12 years ago, the school has raised more than $250,000.

On Thursday, students from Epiphany School visited BSB to learn more about the fundraiser that helps their school and to give students from both schools a chance to better understand their connection. The visiting students participated in a series of team-building activities with Year 6 classes at BSB, and then joined the classes at the pool, swimming dozens of laps for the fundraiser.

By the end of the visit, it was clear a connection between the students had been made.

“I knew BSB as a school we played in soccer,” said one Epiphany School student. “I didn’t know them as a school that supported us until today.”

Epiphany School is an independent, tuition-free middle school for children of economically-disadvantaged families from Boston neighborhoods. The school features small classes, individualized curricula and extended school days, providing rigorous academic, moral and social instruction.

The school serves 90 students in grades 5-8, providing 12-hour school days, after school and summer programming and a graduate support program. In order to provide these services free of tuition, Epiphany relies on fundraiser’s like Julie’s Fund and donations from area businesses, organizations and individuals.

On Thursday, many of the conversations between BSB students and Epiphany School students revolved around the similarities and differences between the schools and their students.

For BSB’s students, getting to know the Epiphany students was an eye-opening experience that helped them better understand and appreciate why they were raising money. Hearing about Epiphany’s 12-hour school day was a surprise, and a great example of different ways that students in the city learn.

For Epiphany’s students, it was a great opportunity to see another school support the school that many said has changed their lives.

“Before Epiphany, I was kind of going down the wrong path,” he said Thursday. “But since Epiphany, I have become more mature, I take on more responsibility, I have more character. They never give up on us.”

Students in all Year Groups participated in Julie’s Fund and worked hard to raise money throughout the week. Our parents also provided support during the event, helping to count laps of running and swimming and providing great snacks for students after their swims.

Julie’s Fund donations are still being collected, and must be returned the week of March 31. Please encourage your friends, family and neighbors to donate to this important cause!

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Take Your College Admissions Tour to the Next Level

Many BSB students will spend their spring holiday not relaxing at home or abroad, but traveling from college to college, seeing as many of their potential higher education choices in person as possible.

And while many of these visits may end up feeling like deja vu (gather for admissions information, meet with current student for a tour of academic buildings, dining halls and study areas, stop for lunch to try the food you’ll be eating for four years), they don’t have to. Follow these tips, shared by the Washington Post on their college admissions blog, to take your college admissions tour to the next level:

1. Contact a professor: While a tour of the campus and its academic buildings is important, it doesn’t always give prospective students the information they need about the major or specific courses they are interested in. So look around on the college’s website before your tour and find a professor or department head in charge of the courses you’d like to take (most institutions share professors’ contact details on their websites) and reach out to them. They may not respond, or they may only provide information packets or course syllabi, but they may also be willing to meet you during your visit. That helps you get the information you need, and taking the initiative to reach out makes you stand out!

2. Get a local tour guide: While admissions personnel and student tour guides often have extensive knowledge of academic programming, student life and the application process, students may get a better taste for daily life at a higher education student from someone they actually know. Whenever possible, track down a friend, family member, or friend of a friend who goes to the college in question and ask to hang out with them for part of a day, checking out their classes, having lunch with them and even visiting their dormitory. This is a great way to see how well you fit in the college’s environment.

3. Find information in places other than brochures. There are lots of ways to get information about colleges and universities besides the admissions materials they send in the mail. Read the student newspaper, follow school related social media sites, even try searching the school’s name on Twitter to see what current students are saying about it. While on campus, check out bulletin boards in common areas to see the kind of events and services offered to students.

4.  Keep notes. After scores of college visits, information and memories from each can start to blend together.  Before you go on a tour, write down some questions you have about the particular institution, and make sure you get the answers while you’re there. During an information session or tour, jot down notes on what you’re hearing and your impressions of the campus, students and faculty.  While a notebook and pencil will work well for this kind of note-taking, digitally savvy students can try Evernote, an app for iPhone, iPad and laptops. Evernote allows users to create digital notebooks, storing notes, webpages, images and even videos inside. Bring your phone or iPad on a tour and you can take pictures of the campus, film a student guide talking about their favorite course, and quickly type up your reflections on the day all in one place.

5. Check out the after-hours scene. So much of what makes college great goes on after dark. This does not mean partying or anything of the sort. Instead, students should explore a college’s student center, academic buildings and library after class hours have ended. See what kind of events are being held in the evenings, from concerts and poetry readings to meetings for student organizations. Check out eateries that are open late, find out what study groups there are at the library, and even see if you can find out more about evening life in the college’s dorms. This is a great way to see whether you’d like living at a particular school, not just learning there.

Want more tips? Check out the Washington Post article that inspired this post, and read this post from College Coach, with advice from college admissions professionals.

Good luck, and happy searching!