Welcome to 2010 !! The Olympics is about to descend on us. Traffic will be heavy. Please discuss with your tutor about whether the Olympics will affect their ability to get to your home on time.

New Semester

February brings a new semester for many high school students. We hope your first semester went well. Feel free to give us a call or email us if you need to secure a new tutor for the upcoming semester. Visit our contact us page on our website www.schooliseasy.com to get in touch with us

Magnus in Victoria has rounded up a strong force of exceptional certified teachers who are fired up and ready to get out there tutoring. If you know anyone who needs tutoring in the Victoria and Western Communities please refer them to Magnus at 1-250-483-5496 or email at victoria@schooliseasy.com

Income Taxes - Tax time is around the corner. Even though tutoring is not a tax write off, it's not taxable. This means you don't have to pay GST. Your tutoring sessions will not be affected by the much dreaded HST tax (to become effective in July 2010). Your tutor has been providing you with an official tax receipt and progress report (form #02) every month. If you need receipts and have misplaced yours please contact your tutor.

Referrals

Referrals - We appreciate your many referrals. Thank you for telling your friends. More than 60% of our business comes from Word of Mouth. If you want to introduce a friend to your Academic Advantage tutor please make sure to contact Academic Advantage directly. Our tutors are on contract and have agreed to work through Academic Advantage when referred by an Academic Advantage client to a new client.

Supporting Your Child's Learning:

"The motivation for learning should be the child's intrinsic interest, not an external reward. And with school work, this can sometimes be a real challenge, because not everything a child is asked to do will be interesting to every child.
To help your child become self-motivated and self-analytic, give specific feedback instead of vague praise and rewards. Instead of saying, 'great job on the homework,' describe what you thought was great about it. Instead of saying, 'you didn't write enough of an answer,' ask your child to supply more details about the plot. In this way, children will be able to take ownership of their learning and of what they produced."
Dalton Miller-Jones, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology, Portland State University

The Homework Battle:

Caught in a battle over homework? Or working around the clock with your child completing a school project? Wondering what to do when your child forgets to hand in an assignment - a few days in a row? Baffled by experts who tell us we should help our children enjoy school and become independent learners? "Great," you might think, "but how?"
"Our children become independent learners very gradually," advises guidance counselor Linda Lendman, M.S.W. They learn at their own pace and you can support their process at home by nurturing what they are interested in and giving gentle guidance when they need assistance."
"What happens at home has a lot to do with supporting your child's success as a learner - and this goes way beyond making sure she gets her homework done or studies for the test. You want to help kids learn how to feel competent and positive about their learning. One way to begin is to help kids organize themselves (at their developmental level); create a schedule for doing their work and discover how they can follow it, so school work becomes a rich part of their after-school lives, but not the only part," advises Diane Levin, Ph.D., professor of education at Wheelock College.

Survey:

Your input and feedback is always valued. One of the best ways for you to share that with us is via our ongoing survey. You can find it here and let us know how we're serving you and your kids. Alternatively you can call us at 604-439-1790 or 1-877-787-5854

Susan Cumberland
Academic Advantage

In This Issue

Income Taxes & Receipts

Referrals

Supporting Your Child's Learning

The Homework Battle

How Are We Doing?