What I'm hearing from Blaine families this September

Schedules get busy once the school year kicks in, that is one thing I hear from parents every September. The other is homework. It becomes a real source of stress at home pretty quickly.

The biggest struggle I see every day, without question, is confidence. Every student who comes through our doors is smart and capable. A lot of them just do not see it in themselves yet. Sometimes all it takes is a teacher who builds that confidence back up and meets them exactly where they are.

My advice to Blaine families this month is to set your priorities around whatever actually helps your student succeed, both in school and beyond it. I know schedules get packed with sports and other activities, and that is not a bad thing. But once a student starts struggling with math, it will not fix itself. It is worth taking a step back and asking whether a sport or a club is pulling time away from something that needs more attention right now. Confidence in math has a way of turning into confidence everywhere else, and a solid math foundation matters more than people realize.

We just hosted our first Library Math Game Night at Johnsville Library, and it turned out great. Big turnout, lots of families from around Blaine we had not met before, and a lot of fun playing educational games together. Getting out into the community like that is something I want to keep doing.

Nothing specific coming to mind for this month otherwise, but stay tuned, we have got pictures from the library night to share and more community events in the works.