Don't let the student in your family backslide this summer. Any reading comprehension, vocabulary skills, reading speed and writing skills they lose this summer will be an anchor around their academic achievement in the fall. This applies to students at all levels of education.

Students lose skills in the summer if they do not continue to read. Many students who have required summer reading wait until the end of summer to do it. That strategy keeps them from getting the most out of what they read if the have not been reading all summer.

Sometimes the AP policies of colleges are confusing to students who wonder (when they get their AP test scores) if their score will result in college credit? Their parents wonder if their AP test scores will result in saving money and help their child graduate on time or even early.

Kudos to the North Carolina college system for standardizing their accepted score for college credit from AP exams! Now a score of 3 will result in credit at any North Carolina system college. As students decide where to apply this fall, they might take a look at their AP scores to see just how far ahead they will be at the colleges they are considering. There may be a dramatic difference that could save their families thousands.

Two temptations for rising seniors include taking a holiday from learning and taking a light academic load during senior year. Both of these temptations should be avoided. 

Students should stay in practice reading and writing in the summer to avoid losing skills prior to the next school year. It matters less what they read and write than that they do it regularly to retain their skill level. 

The academic load during senior year is the other error students sometimes make. They reason that colleges will make decisions on junior year grades and performance. But colleges can check grades and enrollment level during senior year and what the student is doing should match what they reported on college applications or they have hurt their own admission chances. College admission officers have reported that students who take a light load of less challenging courses as seniors are not as ready for their freshman year of college as others who continued to challenge themselves academically. Word to the wise: senior year of high school is not a victory lap.

Parents who would not go to a Tesla dealer and say they want a Tesla for free think nothing of saying something similar when it comes to colleges. The bottom line about colleges is that nothing is free. Whenever you hear about a student who got a "Free Ride" to a college, there was a huge payment beforehand. That student and family had huge sweat equity and likely significant costs getting the student to the point that they could earn a "free ride" to college later.

The next time you hear about a free ride, realize it came after 12 or more years of hard work by the student and at least as many years work on the part of the parent mentoring the student and paying for enrichment experiences through their own sweat equity and time.

It is never too early to begin to think about what your child will do after high school. No matter what plan you develop from apprenticeships to college, education will be the key to success. 

The young student in your family needs skills to be successful in school and in life. Those skills include the ability to critically read and evaluate information, quantify their work and resources, think broadly, focus specifically, understand their history and culture, interact successfully, act on their values and have an awareness of how they are uniquely equipped for their mission in life.