PLUS Loans – it's never too late to subsidize your child’s education costWritten by Vanessa McHooley
PLUS Loans – it's never too late to subsidize your child’s education costRising. Soaring. Skyrocketing. These are words that seem to begin every article about college tuition costs – and they are words guaranteed to make every parent cringe. According to College Board, costs for 2004-2005 school year at four-year private colleges are up 6%, while costs at four-year public colleges are up 10.5%. Scary? Yes. Impossible to handle? No! The good news is that there is more financial aid available than ever before. One of most interesting financial aid options is Parent Loan for Undergraduate Students, or PLUS Loan. What is a PLUS Loan? PLUS Loans are federal loans taken out by parents to help pay their children’s college costs. PLUS Loans offer several advantages: •Interest rates are adjusted each year, but are consistently kept low. For 2004-2005 school year, interest rate is 4.17%. It is capped to never exceed 9%. •Financial need is not a determining factor in receiving a PLUS Loan. •No collateral is required. •There is no penalty for early repayment. •Loans can be consolidated. •If you are eligible, up to $2000 in interest may be tax-deductible under Hope Education Tax Credit. Who is eligible for a PLUS Loan? If you are a parent with dependent students attending college at least part-time, you are eligible to receive a PLUS Loan. You do need to have a good credit history. The following credit issues will reduce your chances of getting a PLUS Loan: •Bankruptcies •Defaulted loans •Payments overdue by 90 days or more •High debt-to-income ratio If you are turned down for a PLUS Loan because of poor credit history, you can find someone to co-sign loan with you and then apply again. How much can I borrow with a PLUS Loan? You can borrow up to total cost of undergraduate education expenses, minus other financial aid already received. Expenses can include tuition, room and board, supplies, lab expenses, and travel. How do I apply for a PLUS Loan? You can apply for a PLUS Loan through Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program or through William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) Program. FFEL loans come from private lenders or loan servicers, such as your bank. PLUS Loan applications are available from your school or your lender. To apply for an FFEL PLUS Loan, you complete application and then submit it to your school. The school completes its portion of application and sends it to lender for approval. Direct loans come from U.S. Department of Education’s Direct Loan Servicing Center. To apply for a Direct PLUS Loan, you complete a Direct PLUS Loan application and promissory note and submit it to your school’s financial aid office. This form is available from your school’s Financial Aid Office.
| | Developing Fluency in Young Children Written by Nicole Brekelbaum
Questions to Ask when Developing Your Child’s Literacy Skills.Does Your Child have Ability to Link Letters and Sounds Together? We all know that letters of alphabet form words and that learning letters and sounds is usually predecessor to developing fluency in young children. But how can we stimulate an early interest in alphabet? To keep a child’s mind engaged in learning process, it is a good idea to use fun, exciting hands-on games. Many parents have had success arranging magnetic letters on their kitchen refrigerator and allowing children to touch, manipulate and sound out letters. Another variation is to work with one letter a week starting, for instance, with letter A. Place only letter A on refrigerator and then do a weeklong lesson that focuses on letter A. At end of week place three more letters on refrigerator. Ask your child to distinguish letter A from group, make sound of letter A, and pronounce two or three words that begin with letter A. Continue this learning technique for 25 more weeks until your child begins to recognize and sound out each of 26 letters of alphabet easily. A home-schooling mom who has had remarkable success with developing fluency in her kids has created a useful online resource that teaches children a letter a week. This free curriculum can be found at Brightly Beaming Resources - http://www.letteroftheweek.com/. Is Your Child Familiar with Words that Form Opposites? Most kids enjoy learning about opposites since it encourages sensory and motor development while at same time developing their literacy skills. Children can recognize difference between sweet and sour by taste, hard and soft by touch, slow and fast by adjusting their motor play, and loud and quiet by altering their voice pitch. This interactive approach is not only enjoyed by toddlers and preschoolers but also provides a great foundation for development of literacy skills later on in life. Can Your Child Build New Words from a Single Core Word? An important way to develop fluency is to provide children with a rich variety of words. One approach is to a take a familiar core word and build a web of related words around it. For example, using word bat as a core word help children find other related words such as baseball, base, batsman, catcher and umpire. Discuss word bat further using a completely different approach and inspire children to find new words such as nocturnal, caves, wing span and habitat. As children become familiar with related words they gain self-confidence needed to read aloud and to decode new words. Can Your Child Sound Out Rhyming Words? Rhyming words have sound appeal to kids. Listening to nursery rhymes and poems allows children to appreciate beautiful yet comprehensive forms of spoken language. Encourage your child to sound out rhyming words, making sure to praise him even if words he creates may not necessarily be real words. The idea is that he has mastered listening technique that is required to reproduce similar sounds. Has Your Child Learnt about Compound Words? Learning about compound words is a great way to introduce word-building skills to children. Start off by giving your child two very familiar words and then ask him to join words together and read composite word out loud. There is a 50% chance that he may not create a compound word on his first try. If he is unsuccessful be patient and allow his natural hunger to learn inspire him to manipulate words correctly. Soon he will be making some typical compound words such as batman, baseball, and bookworm.
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