Preparing your children for their educational future

Once again, it's back-to-school time. For some of us, that involves getting ourselves ready to embark on another year of learning. For some, it is the first experience we have at letting our kids walk out in to the world, to trust others with the minds of our little ones. For the rest of us parents, we look towards the future and what will be the best plan for the educational goals we set for our children.

My husband and I are both college educated individuals. I graduated from ASU with a Bachelors degree in Family and Human Development and my husband graduated from a tech school with a Bachelors in computers/web design. We see education as essential to a person's future. Right now, it is starting to seem that you have to have a Bachelors degree to obtain any job that pays a sufficient amount for a family to survive. In the future, that will jump up to a Master's degree. With all the pending competition for our futures, we know that getting an early start is important.

To prepare for the future of our children, we started a college fund shortly after getting married and one year before conceiving our first child. We feel that if we are going to ensure that our children attend some form of higher learning, we have to make it possible. We will also try and help our children to earn scholarships and grants to help to pay for their education.

Choosing the right school from the beginning will help ensure the later success of our children. Research shows that it takes 2 consecutive years with bad teachers to affect a child. This may be true but I believe that even a week with a bad teacher can change the way a child perceives their education and their success

Join me on my journey to find the perfect school for my 4 year old daughter who will be starting Kindergarten next fall. With all the public, private and charter schools in our area, this will be no easy job.