Scrolling into Slumber: The impact of electronic device usage on sleep

Phone usage before bed

March 10-16 was national Sleep Awareness Week, and it got us thinking about the importance of a good bedtime routine for students, whose minds are rapidly developing and who need many hours of restorative, high-quality sleep every night. Longitudinal studies of adolescents have shown a clear correlation between late night phone or tablet use and […]

Benefits of Spending Time in Nature for Children

Does anyone else hear their mother’s voice identifying plants in their head, or is that just me?  As I walk around Jersey City every spring, she constantly pipes up:                 Ooh, look at the little crocuses popping up!                 There are the daffodils […]

The Power of Discipline in Children

How to Discipline Children

Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.  -Jim Rohn Discipline – the ability to govern one’s own actions while working to achieve goals – is not always a natural talent. If it were, none of the examples I just listed would apply to any of us! Some people are born with self-discipline, just like […]

Fostering Autonomy at all Ages

As parents and teachers, we understand that our primary objective is preparing children for the future in a loving, safe way. But what does this look like, exactly, for a preschooler, an elementary-age child, or an early teenager? What does it mean to be autonomous at different ages? An understanding of children’s developmental milestones can […]

You Don’t Need to be French to Speak French

Preschool The French American Academy

It’s natural for a non-French-speaking family to wonder if our school would be a good fit for their child. Our experience is that children enrolled at a young age are able to start learning the language through immersion. Young children’s brains are notably flexible, primed for building neural connections and learning languages. During the immersion […]