We thought it had to be an “only in New York” kind of thing: this absurd pressure to get your child into the right nursery school and kindergarten (including public kindergarten), and then bolster their success from there on, to ensure future schooling.  While it is indeed particularly intense in the Big Apple, this phenomenon is becoming increasingly commonplace across the country – concentrated in metropolitan areas, where demand simply exceeds the good supply.  Savvy parents have learned to work the system, which in turn has spawned burgeoning cottage industries around test-prep, testing, and tutoring – starting at an age when diapers may not be that distant of a memory. 

For those wishing to do the right thing – without going off the deep end – here are two brand new resources that might help:

For Parents Prepping For Elementary School Admittance:

We love this new board game that is actually a comprehensive test prep kit in disguise.  Created by Karen Quinn, author of “Testing for Kindergarten,” The IQ Fun Park was cleverly conceived to incorporate the kinds of questions found on the most common tests used to assess children for early elementary school, including the Stanford-Binet, the OLSAT and The Bracken Basic Concept Scale.  However, it is to a child’s eye a board game, in which little space babies in the form of finger puppet game pieces need to work their way up the rainbow path across the Fun Park, learning about earth things along the way.  In the process, players get to answer questions from the game cards, as well as use colored blocks, pattern tiles and secret password cards – and earn reward stickers at the end. 

We’ve been “playing” this with our four-year-old over the past two weeks, and to our delight, there is not a whiff of this being anything other than a fun game (one that she is interested in continuing to play – a feat for ANY game), thereby taking away all of the stress and pressure that can accompany more obvious preparation routes like workbooks or tutoring.  Be forewarned, however, that you will know this is more than just a board game from the price; IQ Fun Park (in its first limited production run) sells for just under $300.  Not a bargain compared to Candyland – but a great value relative to almost all other forms of formal test prep or supplementary learning in the marketplace.  We will raise our hand to say we are impressed.  (Now all we need is the answer key for why an understanding of nuanced analogies might be expected of anyone who can still count their age on one hand)…

Learn More at testingforkindergarten.com/game

For Parents Looking to Supplement Schooling:

When we were of school age, “getting tutored” was generally limited to those needing more remedial help.  Today, of course, tutoring has gained prevalence across many types of students, as academics in the tween and teen years become more complicated along with kids’ schedules – compounded by busier-than-ever parents searching for the best ways to support their children.  This is high-ticket support, as tutors come with a pricetag that can range in the hundreds to several thousands of dollars across a school year. 

With this in mind, we were intrigued to find that one of the rising stars of the tutoring industry, the founder of NY-based Thinking Caps Tutoring, just penned a book telling students and their parents how they can improve things on their own.  “Tutor in a Book” by Alexandra Mayzler, with Ana McGann, is a very user-friendly primer predicated on the knowledge that the majority of students’ issues link back to one or more of these three areas: Organization, Time Management and Study Skills.  With clear tips and a range of different worksheets, the book helps students better understand first they kind of learner they are, and then play to their strengths to improve their results. An entire section is devoted to Test Taking Tips and Tricks, including how to turn study materials into rounds of Trivial Pursuit, Go Fish or Jeopardy … proving that at any age, we’d always prefer to turn work into a game.

Tutor in a Book: Better Grades as Easy as 1-2-3