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Learning Styles vs. Universal Principles
The concept of learning styles has been around for decades, and there are many variations of it, but the most popular version was created in the early 1990’s by Neil Fleming.1 His VARK questionnaire...
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A Surprising Way to Improve Your SAT Reading Score
Here at Northwest Educational Services, we spend a lot of time teaching conventional strategies to improve your SAT reading score: previewing the questions, annotating, using evidence, process of...
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Humility and Confidence
“Study as if you know nothing. Work as if you can solve anything.” –James Clear Humility Of course, you don’t actually know nothing. You know a great many things! But it’s all-too-common to slip into...
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“Good” vs. “Skilled”
When it comes to describing our abilities at various activities, the word “good” isn’t, well, very good. In fact, it’s pretty bad. A better word is “skilled.” Think about the following pairs of...
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The Value of All Subjects
An important point was raised in this episode of Crash Course: European History: “The question isn’t just how to build a bridge; it’s where to build a bridge.” In other words, subjects like history,...
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Nature as a Biology Lesson
It’s springtime, which is one of the best times to go observe biology in action. If you go out into a park that has a forest, such as Carkeek, Seward, or Discovery in Seattle, you can see quite a lot...
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4 Surprising Brain Benefits of Crawling
Dear Readers, All of our clients have one thing in common… they have been born. Yes, silly truism, but I bring this up for a reason. A few times a year I am approached by prospective parents who ask...
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Growth mindsets debunked? Not so fast.
The concept of a “growth mindset” is very popular these days. In case you’re unfamiliar, here’s a quick summary of the idea: Having a growth mindset means believing you can improve through effort and...
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How to Succeed When School Returns to Normal
Many people are concerned about what’s going to happen next year when school returns to normal. Remote learning wasn’t as effective as in-person school. Kids didn’t get enough social interaction....
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What It Really Means When a Student Says “I Don’t Know”
Not knowing is an essential step in the learning process, but that does not always make saying the words “I don’t know” easy. Acknowledging a lack of knowledge is like stepping into the garden of our...
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Side Hustles For High School Students
For a lot of high school students, summer break means getting a job, and there are many good reasons to do this: earning some financial independence, learning valuable skills, getting experience that...
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How to Support Your Child Without Doing Everything For Them
One of the timeless struggles parents face is deciding just how much support to give their children as they grow up. When your children are very young, you have to do everything for them. And,...
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Dragons, Mountains, and Math: Why Kids Need Challenges
It’s often said that, on a hero’s journey, there will be dragons. This means that, if you’re doing meaningful work, you’re going to encounter extremely difficult problems. These problems will often be...
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The Connection Between Anxiety and ADHD
Your big research paper is due on Friday. It was assigned weeks ago, but you haven’t started yet. You didn’t mean to procrastinate, but each time you try to sit down and work on it, you can’t focus....
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Why You Should Verbalize As You Study
Most people study in silence, and if you’re in a library, perhaps that makes sense. But if you’re somewhere where you’re allowed to talk, you should be verbalizing as you study, even if you’re all...
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Memory’s Two Components: Storage and Retrieval
Imagine you’re at your high school reunion. A man walks up and shakes your hand, saying how good it is to see you. You recognize them, but can’t recall their name. Luckily, someone else in your group...
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You Are Not Your Grades
You are not your grades. You are not your SAT score. You are not the sports trophies on your shelf (or the lack thereof). You are not the college you got into. You are not your future career. You are...
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Learning How to Work
Portions of this post appeared in my humorous memoir Wood Floats and Other Brilliant Observations. Hard work is a skill. All throughout high school, my brother worked very hard. Nick spent long hours...
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What is the Point of School?
What is the point of school, anyway? I mean, what’s the purpose of it all? This is a common question, sometimes asked in jest, but often serious. Most adults are quick to give overly simplistic...
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How to Get Students to Care About Their Grades
Here’s a question we sometimes get in our parenting classes or that Greg often gets in parent coaching sessions: “Bobby just doesn’t seem to care about his grades. How do I get him to care?” This...
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