We parents all know the truth: as soon as the school bus pulls away, we ditch the business suits for bathing suits and head for the water park, careful to return home in time to change clothes before the kids return.students begin to envision where they want to be, mental pictures of vacation homes and fancy cars, the trappings of "success" dance in their mind. They get the message; if you want to get what you want, crack open the books and get down to business.Herein lies the problem. The message boils down to this: determine what your heart wants and then apply your mind to chart the course to get it.

I think this is rather too sweeping. Lots of things ‘suck’ for most people, but very few things suck for everyone. People are very, very different, and there is a danger in just assuming that a child is acting out of desperation when in fact they are quite healthily pursuing their own ends. The danger is that one will then, in effect, be refusing to help them pursue these ends, and, in effect, start to undermine them by constantly seeking alternatives and constantly acting on the assumption that there must be something wrong with them, or with the alternatives that you are providing for them, if they persist in wanting this.Take Iraq, for instance. Replace ‘school’ by ‘Iraq’ in what Stephen suggests above, and you may see what I mean. Very few TCS children want to go there, and if one did want to, the chances are that this would be because of some misconception or ignorance . But if the desire to go survived the child's hearing the relevant explanations, then the chances are that for this child, at this point in their life visiting Iraq is a good idea. So then I think the next step should not be to “create a bounty of other good ways for the child to get what they want ... turning [Iraq] into a sad silly choice . Instead, the parents should try to find ways of helping the child actually to visit Iraq while avoiding as many of the disadvantages as possible.

If your children are approaching the age of five and will soon be starting school, then here are some useful tips on preparing them for the educational transition.It’s a big step for children to start school for the first time and it’s no wonder that many youngsters are nervous or anxious about the prospect. Parents, too, get a bit on edge about it and want the transition from pre-school to infant school to go well, so that their children settle in, feel comfortable and have a happy time. The happier they are being at school, the more likely they are to do well, concentrate in lessons and boost their learning and early education knowledge.Sometimes the transition goes smoothly and you wonder what on earth you were worried about. It can help if your child has attended pre-school sessions at an infant or primary school, where they’ll later start school properly aged five, as they’ll at least be familiar with the environment. Or if they’ve got an older sibling who already goes to the school they’re attending, then they’ll have hopefully heard positive things about it already or know where the school is from having been to collect them from school.