This is a guest post by Robyn of RobynsOnline World for our Back To School Connection campaign.

Taylor was apprehensive, to say the least, about heading off to high school this year. Part of him was very excited to go and I remember that you finally feel you have made it when you start high school – like you really are no longer a kid, but now a full fledged teenager. The other part worried about what it would be like, about being in the lowest class (freshman), and all sorts of other normal teenage and high school angst. Zest Books sent us three of their fun high school titles that came at just the right time for Taylor.

The Dictionary of High School B.S. Uncensored

This is a hilarious dictionary of everything related to high school. Remember, this is for real teens in the real world so it’s not all mild and sweet. Taylor actually was very pleased about that and as soon as he recognized that point it made him read even more about it. Taylor did wonder why the book didn’t mention Facebook, that is the place for teens these days (according to him MySpace now sucks). It also doesn’t mention Twitter, although he thought if it had it might state that most teens things it’s stupid even though he feels it’s actually nice, dag nabbit (his words). One of Taylor’s favorite entries from the dictionary:

“School spirit (N) 1. enthusiasm about one’s school and its sports teams. 2. school pride exhibited through the wearing of logo-emblazoned clothing such as t-shirts and jackets, and rooting hard core at games, especially during home coming.  3. for some, a great uniting force, especially If a school’s sports team is pretty good.  4. for others, a completely ridiculous idea.”

Been There, Survived That: Getting Through the Freshman Year of High School

I found this book to be really clever, but Taylor didn’t care for it as much. I think though that his feelings were because right off the bat it takes a poke at people who play World of Warcraft. Actually it is poking fun at kids who bring the manuals on playing WoW to school that are really extreme – not just people playing the game so much. It just happen to rub him wrong though – that happens sometimes with books when you first pick them up. He said he found it more corny than funny, but he is much more cynical so that doesn’t surprise me. For teens who are more easy going they would probably get a laugh or two out of this book. Oh, and there is a flip book included on the corners of the pages which Taylor did think was cool.

97 Things To Do Before You Finish High School
This was the book that Taylor found most useful actually. He found there were really lots of good ideas in this book of things to do, some on your own, some with friends. A few he has already actually done even. One of his favorites was about going out to a fancy restaurant, but just having everyone order appetizers and water so everyone can afford the bill. You still have a wonderful experience, but on a teenagers budget! I think that the book is filled with enough ideas that any teen could find at least 20 things right off the bat that would sound interesting to them. It is an easy read, but one that gets them thinking of new things to try.

Great little gifts for teens new to high school this year or perfect for the teacher’s classroom library also. I think Taylor is going to take the first two books to one of his teachers to keep in her classroom, but the 97 Things To Do book I’m pretty sure he is hanging on to and going to start marking things off the list as he does them. Zest Books publishes lots of other interesting books for teens, you can find them all at the Zest Books online store. You can like Zest Books on Facebook and follow @ZestBooks on Twitter.

The Giveaway: One lucky winner will receive a copy of all three Zest Books titles!

Please Note: You can only enter the giveaway at Robyn’s Zest Books post.

Robin’s Disclosure: Zest Books sent these books for Taylor and me to review, the opinions are our own. They are also providing the books for the giveaway prize.  Transparency is everything!

All Back To School Connection giveaway posts can be found here.

This is a post I wrote at the end of May on my other blog Connie’s View. Although there is not as much time to get prepared for middle school now, you can still use some of these suggestions and continue to use them throughout the school year.

We’re preparing our daughter for middle school this summer. Do we sound like awful parents who won’t allow our daughter to enjoy her summer vacation? Just take a look at what we’re doing and then judge us!

Social Skills Readiness

In middle school, children will be meeting new students from other schools and from home school. This is a time of making new friends. For some children, this is something they can handle easily, for others it is one of the most frightening events in their lives. Our daughter is in between. She’s not shy, but doesn’t make friends easily.

We’re preparing her by registering her for summer activities where she doesn’t know anyone. When we travel, she’ll go off to the children’s events on her own. She’s been reading books about friendship and I’ve bought one for her as a surprise to read over the summer – Fab Friends And Best Buds: Real Girls On Making Forever Friends

Getting Organized

We’ve already started helping our daughter get better organized during the end of this school year, but will work on it more over the summer. She’s going to be responsible for getting herself ready in the morning. When we go out for the day she’s going to be in charge of bringing her belongings. When we travel, she’s going to pack for herself. We’ll be buying school supplies that she can use to help in this area too. She’ll be using her calendar and the one on her computer to remember important dates.

She’ll be rewarded for her accomplishments over the summer and of course when school begins again. She wants more time on the computer, to see movies and to have friends over the house. All fine with us.

More Focus on Academics

When we went to the middle school open house, we were given a list of the Florida Sunshine State books, which are recommended reading for students based on their grade level. The principal stated in his speech to us that this was not required reading, but since our daughter enjoys reading, she’ll be going through the list. To keep her focused on math, one of problem subjects, we’ll be using math in our daily lives. We’ll have her choose the lowest price items when we shop, figure out the tip when we eat out, help with measuring when we cook, etc. She’ll also play math games online.

She enjoys meteorology so she’ll track the weather for our trips, keep track of the tropical storms and hurricanes and play with a new weather device she received as a gift. None of these are things that she doesn’t enjoy. We plan on making them fun and exciting for her.

Keeping Communication Open

We have worked at keeping communication open between us and our daughter, but this summer we are going to work extra hard at this. We want her to voice any concerns she has about starting middle school.

Visiting The School

There are a few opportunities to visit the middle school over the summer and we’ll take advantage of them. We need to fill out forms when she decides what sport she’s interested in. I signed up for the PTSA so I’ll go to any meetings or see if there’s any volunteer events where we can help. There’s also another open house right before school starts which we’ll attend.

Book Recommendation

We already purchased this book and highly recommend it – Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook, The: Middle School (Worst Case Scenario Junior Editions). It covers everything from what to do if you’re bullied to how to cope with pimples.

Are you more concerned about moving on to middle school than your child? What did you do to prepare your child for middle school?

(affiliate links included)

All Back To School Connection Giveaways are posted here.

A guest post by Robyn of RobynsOnlineWorld.com for our Back To School Connection campaign.

Being a poor student doesn’t mean you are not smart or that you are lazy. There are a lot of reasons why some students don’t do well at school. One reason that many teens and tweens start to struggle though is because they haven’t ever been taught organizational skills, time management, and study skills. In elementary school is really where they should start learning, but it doesn’t happen for a lot of our kids. Once they hit middle school and high school they don’t have a teacher taking them little step by little step through all of their assignments, the teachers hand out assignments and the kids start to struggle because they don’t know these basic skills that are so important to their success. It doesn’t matter if our kids attend public school, private schools, or even are homeschooled – they all need to learn this tools!

In Tutor In a Book teens can learn these skills. What I really like about this book is that it does not just teach one specific way of organization, time management, and study skills. We are all unique individuals and have different learning styles and habits so we obviously will all have different ways of accomplishing these other skills. The book starts off with a self-assessment; a great idea because sometimes teens don’t even realize where their strengths and weaknesses lie with these tasks. The form is very teen friendly in the wording as well. This is consistent throughout the book with all of the sample forms and worksheets – all if language that is very easily understood. They even have some case studies of other students with samples of things like goal sheets filled out, this gives readers an idea of what kind of information they need to be thinking about for their own forms. Taylor struggles with organization and the book gives two main ways, the binder system or notebook system, to keep things together for school. He is the binder type for sure, but he has trouble putting things in the binder while he is actually at school. For this they suggest you use a zippered binder to at least keep all the papers together in one place and then he can take more time once he gets home to work on putting them in place. (Now if they would only invent wrinkle-free paper for him.) Time management not only covers the smaller tasks of evening homework, but also how to effectively manage larger projects that may last over several weeks. Teens will learn how to map out the assignment and break it down into manageable parts. There are plenty of mnemonic ideas for using doing studying – these are so effective for so many people! I have always found I learn right along with Taylor when I teach him using mnemonics. Tutor in a Book also covers some basic concepts for studying for different subject tests. Did you know there are different ways to study for a math test, social studies test, or a grammar test? Games are another great way to study for tests that make it a lot more fun. Friends can get together and study this way together or parents can play along as a study buddy too.

I really think Tutor In a Book is one of those great books that’s value far exceeds the actual cost. As a parent I have tried teaching some of these things to Taylor in the past, but now we can work on more of these tools together at his own pace to help him succeed during his high school years. I truly recommend picking up a copy of this book for any student you know. The book is available in paperback or Kindle version on Amazon.com

The Giveaway: One lucky reader will win a copy of Tutor in a Book.

Please Note: Entries are only accepted at Robyn’s giveaway post.

Robyn’s Disclosure: I received a copy of this book to review. The opinions are my own. Transparency is everything!

All Back To School Connection Giveaways can be found here.

A Cross Post from Robyn Wright of RobynsOnlineWorld.com for our Back To School Connection Campaign.

I am very happy to be stop #8 on the 39 Clues Blog Tour. This is a wonderful series of books from Scholastic that really involves the readers on so many levels. With back-to-school season here this is a great series to start the kids on reading for just fun reading on their own – something that is not assignment related at school. I know Taylor doesn’t always enjoy his assigned reading at school and I want to keep him reading so series of books like this are a great way to do that (he is a little beyond this series now – but the same principal applies). Proudly, I present you with a guest post by the author of The 39 Clues books #2 and #8, Gordon Korman:

When you’re a 39 CLUES author, you’re also kind of a travel agent. The story is about Amy and Dan Cahill, two orphans who discover that they’re related to the most powerful family in human history. To uncover the source of their family’s power, Amy and Dan must find 39 Clues scattered around the world. This means that a large part of our job, as writers, involves sending Amy, Dan, and the other Cahills to a series of exotic locations. Sometimes these are places we’ve been to ourselves. For example, Book 2: ONE FALSE NOTE centers on Mozart, so it was a no-brainer to set part of the story in Vienna, Austria, where Mozart lived and worked. Best of all, I’ve been to Vienna, so it was easy for me to picture Amy, Dan, their au pair Nellie, and their cat Saladin walking the same streets I remember from my own travels there. But Cahills are relentless globe-trotters. Not even a great city like Vienna can contain an entire 39 CLUES novel. The series is flat-out bigger than that – an amazing race from A to B to Z and beyond, with nothing less than world domination on the line. Inevitably, ONE FALSE NOTE had to move on – from Vienna to Salzburg, Mozart’s birthplace, and then to Venice, one of the many stops on young Wolfgang Mozart’s endless European performance tours. Since I’ve never been to Salzburg or Venice, I had to replace personal experience with research.

All seven 39 CLUES authors agree on one thing: Research is the most fun part of the creative process for this series. More important, it has saved me more than once. Case in point: I had planned this elaborate Venice car chase for ONE FALSE NOTE. But when I hit the library, to my dismay I learned that cars aren’t allowed in central Venice at all. Turns out the city is built on more than a hundred small islands, separated by canals. The best way to get around is actually by boat! So I lose my car chase, but I gain an awesome boat chase, with Amy and Dan racing through the canals of Venice pursued by Jonah Wizard and half the Janus leadership. It never could have happened without research.

Yet the place where the research truly exploded for me was in BOOK 8: THE EMPEROR’S CODE. China is the world’s most populous country, one of the largest, and also one of the richest in culture and history. The Great Wall alone could stretch from New York to LA, and hang a right all the way up to Portland, Oregon. The Shaolin Temple is the cradle of all martial arts. Most fascinating of all, China is connected to Tibet, and Tibet’s border traces over what I consider to be the most amazing place on the face of the earth – the summit of Mount Everest.

I’m a full-fledged Everest fanatic. I first researched the world’s highest mountain several years ago for my EVEREST adventure series, and I couldn’t resist the temptation to bring the climax of THE EMPEROR’S CODE to the world’s loftiest peak, nearly six full miles above sea level. It was cool to revisit the research I did for my old series, but a lot has changed since my books were published. For one thing, modern science has developed a super-ultra-light helicopter capable of reaching the roof of the world, a machine so experimental, so revolutionary, so unique that it’s beyond the reach of practically everybody – except the most powerful family in human history.

A secret stronghold carved into solid rock deep beneath the islands of Venice; an ancient temple hidden in China’s Songshan mountain range; a deadly showdown on Earth’s pinnacle. Travel-agenting – and getting kids excited about what an amazing place our world is – has never been so exciting.

Just don’t ask for frequent flyer miles.

I originally shared with you all about The 39 Clues back in March of this year and I have heard nothing but positive feedback from my readers and others since I first learned about the series back then. Just a refresher though, The 39 Clues is a multi-media adventures series for kids ages 8-12 (or about) that not only includes books to read, but collectible cards and an online game that allows the readers to play a part in the story and compete for prizes! Adding to that, the movie rights for The 39 Clues have been acquired by DreamWorks Studio with Steven Spielberg eyeing to direct. And hey, what good is it if it doesn’t have an app for that? The 39 Clues Madrigal Maze app, launched in September 2009, is a Top 100 Paid Kids Game in the App Store. A great place to start your tweens off with this series is by visiting The 39 Clues Online Game where they can start learning about the story, getting clues, and find out the latest – then you can go to your local bookstore or library (or order online) and pick up the actual books and they can enjoy it completely!

This multi-media approach I think is brilliant for encouraging readers, especially boys. Here in our home we have always tried to take a multi-dimensional track in learning regularly. When we were homeschooling this was such a fun way to learn for Taylor. Even when he is attending a public school though, we are able to still find multiple ways to reinforce what he is learning at school as well as introduce new concepts, ideas, and build on interests outside of school to keep learning a part of everyday for Taylor and for Hubby and I. We are all much more likely to remember more of an experience when it has multiple layers rather than just being flat.

Thanks again to Gordon for the great guest post and to Scholastic for allowing me to be a part of The 39 Clues Blog Tour. I would love to hear your thoughts about The 39 Clues series and keep reading for your chance to win!

The Giveaway:  One lucky reader will win books 1-8 of The 39 Clues, PLUS book #8 will be signed by author Gordon Korman!

Please note – Entries are only accepted at Robyn’s giveaway post.