Saving For Children's Education

One of the most common financial goals that couples have is to save money for their children's education, whether that be at a private school or a tertiary institution. Saving for this purpose is no different than saving for any other goal in life, yet there is a common misperception that funds need to be set aside separately or even in the child's name for this purpose. That can lead to a lower rate of investment return in some cases.

If you are going to save for your children's education, then you're probably looking at saving tens of thousands of dollars and it will take a number of years to get to that target.

That means starting when the child is young - in fact, probably at the preschool age. Anybody with preschoolers most probably has a mortgage. With mortgage interest rates being so high, the best place to put your money is into your mortgage to keep the interest payments down. If, for example, you are paying say 7.0% interest on your mortgage you would need to earn at least 7.0% after tax on an investment to make it worthwhile investing and not paying your mortgage. So pay off your debt as fast as you can, and then remortgage later if your still really want to help your kids. If you have grandchildren that you wish to provide for, the situation may be a little different. You probably won't have a mortgage and you may wish to make funds available that are clearly earmarked for your grandchildren and clearly specified to be used only for education costs. A good way of achieving these objectives is to set up an education trust. This can be done through a solicitor or trustee company. There will be a fee involved to establish and maintain the trust, but there will be safeguards in place to ensure that the funds are used for the purpose you intend. An education trust can be particularly useful in certain situations, for example, where there is a relationship breakdown between parents and a parent or grandparent wishes to make funds available without the risk of the money being used for a different purpose. An education trust can also be used where funds might be at risk of a possible future claim by business creditors.

Art Education for Children With Learning Disabilities

There are a large number of students who have difficulty learning material using traditional teaching methods. Learning disabilities vary from mild forms such as attention deficit disorder to more severe disabilities like autism and mental retardation. Incorporating art into the curriculum of students with learning disabilities can be a useful tool. Students with disabilities are not students who are incapable of learning but instead are students who may need material presented to them using alternative methods. Methods that incorporate art can be very successful for these children.

Many students with disabilities are separated from regular students for either part of all of the school day. These students spend a great deal of time focusing on remedial skills and learning new skills to help them catch up with the rest of the class. For students with learning disabilities the knowledge that they are not able to function at the same level as other students can be very discouraging. Introducing these students to art classes can offer them the opportunity to do something creative where success is not measured by the same standards as in regular academics. The feeling of succeeding at something can provide these students with self-worth and confidence that can carry over into other areas of study. Allowing children to be involved with art related activities also encourages creativity, problem solving skills, motor skills and other skills that are useful in all areas of academics like math, science and language.

Art lessons can be combined with traditional lessons and used as a teaching tool for these students. Children that have difficulty with verbal expression will often have more success by expressing themselves through art. Practicing expression through art may translate to better overall communication skills. Teaching math and science lessons that are hands on art based lessons also tend to hold a student's interest more than traditional lecture lessons. Sometimes just holding a student's attention is half the battle especially for students with attention deficit disorder. Activities that encourage drawing and painting can help students learn about shapes, contrast and spatial relationships. Teachers can implement lessons that use these art activities to teach basic math skills like geometry and various other math techniques. Another interesting way to teach history involves having students create plays that focus on historical events. This method can help students internalize the material as oppose to just memorizing facts from a textbook.