The Parent Resource Center
The decisions around the schoolwork: readiness and transitions, summers and screens, conferences, confidence — and whether tutoring makes sense at all.
Some of the most consequential school questions never appear on a report card: Is my child ready for kindergarten? What do we do about summer? How much screen time is too much? How do I get real answers at a ten-minute conference? Is this the moment for a tutor — and how would I even choose one? This center collects the guides for exactly those decisions, written the way I'd talk them through with a friend: honestly, specifically, and without a sales pitch attached.
The transition guides (TK, kindergarten, first grade) are the most-read pages here each spring; the confidence guide is the one I most wish every family had in the fall. And the tutoring-decision guides do their best to be genuinely useful whether or not the answer ends up being me.
11 guides
Every guide in the Parent Resources Center
11 plain-English guides, written and kept current by a credentialed classroom teacher.
The kindergarten readiness checklist from a kindergarten teacher
I teach kindergarten for a living, so let me tell you what we actually hope to see on the first day — and, just as important, what we genuinely don't expect.
Read the guideIs your child ready for TK? A teacher's guide
Transitional kindergarten is its own animal — younger children, gentler expectations, and a different definition of ready. Here's what that means in practice.
Read the guideThe realistic summer learning guide
You don't need summer school at the kitchen table. You need twenty good minutes a day and a plan that survives July. Here's the one I give my own students' families.
Read the guidePreventing summer learning loss
Teachers can spot it the first week of school: the readers who read all summer and the ones who didn't. Here's what fades, why, and the minimum effective prevention plan.
Read the guideThe parent's guide to one-on-one tutoring
What actually happens in good one-on-one tutoring, when it's the right tool versus the wrong one, and how to tell — concretely — whether it's working.
Read the guideHow often should my child receive tutoring?
The honest dosing guide: why weekly is the floor, when twice-weekly earns its cost, how long engagements should run, and the schedule patterns that fit each goal.
Read the guideChoosing the right tutor
An insider's evaluation checklist: what credentials actually signal, which format fits which problem, and the interview questions that make quality reveal itself — use them on me too.
Read the guideGetting real value from parent-teacher conferences
I've sat through hundreds of conferences from the teacher's chair. Here's how to use your fifteen minutes like a pro — the prep, the questions, and the follow-up that matters.
Read the guidePreparing for first grade
Kindergarten to first grade is the biggest jump in elementary school — the day gets longer, the reading gets real, the training wheels come off. Here's the summer bridge.
Read the guideRaising kids who love learning
School success runs on a deeper fuel: a child who likes finding things out. Here's how families protect and feed that — obsessions, wonder, play, and grades kept in their place.
Read the guideSupporting academic confidence
Reading confidence and math confidence are chapters; this is the book — how school-confidence forms, the household habits that build it everywhere, and the rebuild when it breaks.
Read the guide