As a parent interested in providing her child with the necessary skills to thrive and succeed in the real world, I wanted to teach my son the fundamentals of computer programming. To me, it seemed as basic and necessary as learning the alphabet. Consequently, several years ago I began a personal quest to teach him basic computer programming. The only catch? I knew nothing about computer programming myself. I didn’t even understand all the various coding languages out there. Java, JavaScript, C++, C#, Scratch, Python, Tynker and on and on…. I didn’t know that Java was different from JavaScript! Yikes.

I searched the Internet in earnest for tips on computer programming camps and websites that could get us started. There are so many resources out there, but most just list a bunch of websites that have free lessons without much guidance on where to begin. Fortunately, it was the beginning of summer, and my son’s private school had a summer camp session on MineCraft, the popular game that many kids play using blocks to build forts and virtual cities. My son who was 9 at the time was already obsessed with MineCraft so I figured that this was the perfect way for him to get started. Fortunately, he was hooked.

I then learned from speaking with his MineCraft teacher that Scratch is a popular, relatively easy language for beginning programmers. Scratch was developed by the MIT Media Lab and is widely used as a stepping stone to more advanced computer programming. Using Scratch, kids can create their own video games while learning basic coding skills. Many schools, including our own middle school, use Scratch as the beginning computer programming language. So the next summer, I enrolled Dylan in an iD Tech camp in a Scratch class. He loved it and wanted to be more challenged after playing around with it for a summer.

Taking computer programming to a slightly more advanced level was harder, especially during the school year. Although summer camps had been plentiful, how was I going to keep up my son’s interest in computer programming during the school year, especially with all of his other activities? After an extensive web search, I stumbled onto a great website called Art of Problem Solving . It’s actually a math-oriented website founded by a math genius for students who want to take their math to the next level through online webinar courses. But it also offers great computer programming courses (it makes sense that a lot of the gifted math students would be interested in programming as well).

As an experiment, I enrolled my son in the beginning Python class. I figured that if he understood even 50% of what was going on in the class, it would be money and time well spent. The classes are online at a set time each week, and there is also a chat forum where students can ask questions to the instructor. The students create a project and learn the basics of Python. Python is a general purpose, higher level coding language that many programmers use but is widely praised for its simplicity. Thankfully, my son was interested enough to stick with the class and wanted to continue on. Then he signed up for the next level Python class which, in his opinion, was much more difficult.

After the Python class came the Java class. Java is an advanced programming language used to create applications for your computer. According to the Art of Programming website, students who complete the Java class should be prepared for college level computer science courses. The Java class was much more difficult and Dylan felt that he would need to repeat the class again to learn more about it. In addition to realizing that he needed a lot more practice and time to become a proficient coder, Dylan discovered that there are other coding languages he would need to learn to be fully proficient at coding,.

Now I would definitely not claim my son (now 12 years old) to be any kind of a computer genius, but is he pretty comfortable with basic coding at the end of all this? Definitely! Would it be easier for him to pick up a new coding language as a result of this experiment with coding classes? Yes! Can he look at a bunch of Python and Java codes and have a basic understanding of what is going on? Yes! So all in all, mission accomplished.

Like any other language skill, however, I find that computer programming needs to be maintained. Accordingly, I bought him a book on creating various games using Python on his own for the time being. As an incentive, he has to create games to earn Yankees baseball tickets. So far so good. He has gone to quite a few games this year.

Note: For parents who want to introduce their kids to computer programming, there are several websites out there that are described in the article “Teach Your Kids to Code” by Matt Davis. In addition, Khan Academy offers various computer programming classes online.

PTA’s are volunteer organizations generally run by parents of the school with involvement by the teacher representatives who work collaboratively to enhance various aspects of the school. For example, a PTA can organize and host carnivals, staff appreciation days, cultural awareness days and other social events for students. In addition, most PTA’s are heavily involved in fund-raising so that they can host various academic and social events and purchase school supplies that are not usually in the school’s budget. In New York City, for example, parents at the Anderson School, a highly regarded K-8 on the Upper West Side for gifted and talented students, were able to raise over $1 million in a single school year.

The Parent Teacher Organization for the Lincoln School in Westfield, New Jersey was able to support its school with the purchase of iPads for every classroom and other tech purchases as well as an additional $3000 in books and supplies, etc. Although not all PTA’s are able to draw on the financial clout of their wealthy student body, other PTA’s are still able to provide scholarships for special research projects for students or teachers or ice cream socials for families. In addition, in schools where there are no school cafeterias, the PTA’s often step up to run lunch programs for its students.

All this activity requires a lot of dedication, commitment and hard work by the parent volunteers in the PTA. Some heavily involved parents work as much as 25 to 40 hours per week on PTA duties. This is not usually the case, however. PTA’s can offer volunteer opportunities of all scope and sizes. In fact, most parents start being involved by taking on less time-consuming, concrete tasks. One working mom in New York volunteers 2 hours every other week at the school store, selling school supplies and school gear. Another mom in Beijing, China volunteers at her daughter’s international school manning concession stands during school sporting events about once a month on the weekends. Even the heavily involved PTA parents started with discrete tasks before taking on larger roles such as being the President or the Treasurer. According to Diane Gurden, a PTA parent in Scarsdale, New York, who currently serves as the Treasurer for the Greenacres Elementary School, “There are jobs of all sizes on the PTA. You can start with something small and then see if you want to take on more responsibility.”

If excessive time commitment is not the necessary element to being a successful parent, then what is? Soo Sang, a PTA parent from Westfield, New Jersey, believes that the most important ingredients to being a successful PTA parent are the “desire to help or improve and effect change in a positive way” and “a sense of commitment and willingness to be actively engaged in shaping your child’s school experience.” Soo adds, “Most importantly, a willingness to try! Do not feel that you can’t participate in something or even run a committee because you have never done it before in your life. You will be amazed at what you are able to do!”

It is important to note that PTA’s are not all about hard work. They offer social outlets as well, especially for parents who are looking to build connections in a new community. One of the most often cited benefits of joining the PTA is “meeting other parents who have dynamic, interesting, varied backgrounds.” Particularly for working parents and parents with smaller young children, it can often be difficult to connect with other parents in the school. Joining the PTA can be extremely helpful in building friendships with other parents who are actively involved and plugged in with the school. Another PTA parent reflects, “I have met wonderful parents every year, which has resulted in having an amazing group of supportive moms that I can call true friends whom I can rely upon – which is really a nice thing to have in a time when people often do not even really know their neighbors!”

The value of an active PTA organization cannot be understated. Consider the example of a young middle school student whose mother took an active part in the Mothers Club of his school and organized a rummage sale to buy a Teletype Model 33 ASR terminal and a block of computer time on a General Electric computer for the school’s students. Thanks to the role of his school’s PTA, the young man was able to become actively involved in computer programming, wrote his first computer program on that machine, and developed a life-long passion for computing. He then went on to start one of the most important companies in the world: Microsoft.
For parents with school age children, it’s a yearly ritual. Every fall or late summer, parents sit eagerly at the school orientation meeting anxiously hoping to gather information about what the new school year will bring for their kids. Amidst presentations by the principal and various teachers about the academic programs, the extracurricular activities, and the school cafeteria, there is invariably the friendly PTA representative who asks parents to sign up and volunteer. Particularly for newbie parents, however, Parent Teacher Associations (PTA) can seem intimidating. Does it require a lot of commitment? Does one have to be a gung-ho Tiger Parent to be involved? So what’s a PTA and what’s it about?

PTA’s are volunteer organizations generally run by parents of the school with involvement by the teacher representatives who work collaboratively to enhance various aspects of the school. For example, a PTA can organize and host carnivals, staff appreciation days, cultural awareness days and other social events for students. In addition, most PTA’s are heavily involved in fund-raising so that they can host various academic and social events and purchase school supplies that are not usually in the school’s budget. In New York City, for example, parents at the Anderson School, a highly regarded K-8 on the Upper West Side for gifted and talented students, were able to raise over $1 million in a single school year.

The Parent Teacher Organization for the Lincoln School in Westfield, New Jersey was able to support its school with the purchase of iPads for every classroom and other tech purchases as well as an additional $3000 in books and supplies, etc. Although not all PTA’s are able to draw on the financial clout of their wealthy student body, other PTA’s are still able to provide scholarships for special research projects for students or teachers or ice cream socials for families. In addition, in schools where there are no school cafeterias, the PTA’s often step up to run lunch programs for its students.

All this activity requires a lot of dedication, commitment and hard work by the parent volunteers in the PTA. Some heavily involved parents work as much as 25 to 40 hours per week on PTA duties. This is not usually the case, however. PTA’s can offer volunteer opportunities of all scope and sizes. In fact, most parents start being involved by taking on less time-consuming, concrete tasks. One working mom in New York volunteers 2 hours every other week at the school store, selling school supplies and school gear. Another mom in Beijing, China volunteers at her daughter’s international school manning concession stands during school sporting events about once a month on the weekends. Even the heavily involved PTA parents started with discrete tasks before taking on larger roles such as being the President or the Treasurer. According to Diane Gurden, a PTA parent in Scarsdale, New York, who currently serves as the Treasurer for the Greenacres Elementary School, “There are jobs of all sizes on the PTA. You can start with something small and then see if you want to take on more responsibility.”

If excessive time commitment is not the necessary element to being a successful parent, then what is? Soo Sang, a PTA parent from Westfield, New Jersey, believes that the most important ingredients to being a successful PTA parent are the “desire to help or improve and effect change in a positive way” and “a sense of commitment and willingness to be actively engaged in shaping your child’s school experience.” Soo adds, “Most importantly, a willingness to try! Do not feel that you can’t participate in something or even run a committee because you have never done it before in your life. You will be amazed at what you are able to do!”

It is important to note that PTA’s are not all about hard work. They offer social outlets as well, especially for parents who are looking to build connections in a new community. One of the most often cited benefits of joining the PTA is “meeting other parents who have dynamic, interesting, varied backgrounds.” Particularly for working parents and parents with smaller young children, it can often be difficult to connect with other parents in the school. Joining the PTA can be extremely helpful in building friendships with other parents who are actively involved and plugged in with the school. Another PTA parent reflects, “I have met wonderful parents every year, which has resulted in having an amazing group of supportive moms that I can call true friends whom I can rely upon – which is really a nice thing to have in a time when people often do not even really know their neighbors!”

The value of an active PTA organization cannot be understated. Consider the example of a young middle school student whose mother took an active part in the Mothers Club of his school and organized a rummage sale to buy a Teletype Model 33 ASR terminal and a block of computer time on a General Electric computer for the school’s students. Thanks to the role of his school’s PTA, the young man was able to become actively involved in computer programming, wrote his first computer program on that machine, and developed a life-long passion for computing. He then went on to start one of the most important companies in the world: Microsoft.

In an ever-competitive environment where admission rates to Ivy League schools and other prestigious universities fall each year, parents of over-achieving students are pushing the achievement boundary further and further. In some circles, particularly among the academic elites of New York City, New Jersey, Westchester County and Silicon Valley, advanced math tutoring, computer programming classes, Mandarin Chinese lessons, musical instruments performed to a near-virtuoso level and sports played at state levels are considered “the norm” for achievement. And all this in one child. But somewhere among the achievement rat-race, Westchester County mother Helen Whang, a Cornell grad who practiced law as a litigator in New York, noticed that there was a lack of resources to learn the critical fundamental skills of reading and writing outside the classroom.

“I wanted to make sure that my sons were equipped with the requisite skills to be able to succeed in school and later on, in the workplace. As an attorney, I know how important good reading and writing skills are, and yet, I felt that these essential skills, particularly writing, were not being emphasized,” states Helen, the CEO of English Hound, an online tutoring company specializing in reading and writing for advanced students. “Great reading and writing skills are not something you can necessarily put on your resume for college admissions but it will help you become more successful in school at all levels. It is a fundamental skill,” she adds.

In fact, Helen started English Hound with a small mission to teach reading and writing to learners of English as a Second Language (ESL) in both the U.S. and Korea via Skype, allowing Helen to find the best English teachers in America without geographical constraints. However, as English Hound grew, Helen noticed a trend. More and more of her friends and colleagues were inquiring about reading and writing classes for their academically over-achieving children from top-notch schools, particularly in late elementary and middle schools. And the kids themselves were asking their parents for these lessons. One 7th grader even found English Hound online himself and asked his mother to enroll him.

“We were puzzled at first as to why kids who were already getting straight A’s and A pluses in prestigious, academically rigorous schools were asking for reading and writing classes. But then it hit us that the kids did not feel that they were being adequately prepared in school to be good critical readers and great writers. Many schools cater to the average student. We help our students who are at the top of their classes to get the intellectual challenge they need,” states Haemi Kim, English Hound’s Program Development Director and a former teacher. More so than the ESL courses, English Hound focuses primarily on teaching high-level reading and writing to advanced students who want to take their skills to the next level. So much so that English Hound has revised its curriculum offerings to include high school level courses which were not offered previously.

What differentiates English Hound from other tutoring sites is its fierce commitment to the quality of its teachers and course offerings as well as a very high degree of personal attention paid to each individual student. Each potential teacher applicant undergoes a strict screening process and is personally selected by Helen who insists on several demo classes as part of the hiring process. As a result, English Hound’s teachers are not only extremely well qualified (some with advanced degrees from top schools such as Columbia and Yale or Ph.D.’s in English composition), they are great teachers as well. In addition, each student is paired with an instructor with the most relevant skill set based on the individual student’s needs. There are even personalized mid-term progress reports during the course and an online homework help center.

The results so far have been fantastic. English Hound has received rave reviews from parents and students alike about how much its courses have helped them. Many have written in commenting on the caliber of its excellent teachers, the ease of taking the courses via Skype, the individualized personal attention, and the breadth of course offerings. English Hound has 100% return rate of students from its Spring Session. According to Helen, “We love challenging our students to become better readers and writers.”

English Hound (www.EnglishHound.com) is an online tutoring company specializing in reading and writing for advanced students and ESL students in the U.S. and Korea. Please visit www.EnglishHound.com for more information about the company or contact Helen Whang at helen@englishhound.com.