Single Parent Grants to Help the Family Survive Tough Times

There are many federal grants for single parents. Such single parent grants include housing, education, hospitalization, welfare, and even business grants. These opportunities provide single parents the chance to have a less burdensome life especially in these financially critical times. Parents can go to college and finish their studies, have a comfortable house for the family, have food on the table, get free medical checkups, and even start a small business of their own. Government can give all these as it wants all the citizens to enjoy a decent life.

If you are wondering how you can avail of single parent grants, the first thing to do would be to ask around. Visit government offices and they will be glad to give you the information you need. There is also plenty of information in websites for single parents. You just need to determine what kind of grant you would like to avail of. Choose the one that is necessary at the moment.

After determining your needs, start applying for the grant. There are forms to be filled out and submitted. In the case of scholarships, you need to fill out a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). If you need medical insurance, you need to visit the state health department and ask for medical insurance for a single parent. If you would like to avail of a housing grant, you should submit the needed documents and requirements asked by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Among the most useful single parent grants are the child care grants. Qualified families for this type of grant will avail of government assistance to pay for child care expenses. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families provides this aid to allow parents to enroll their children in the child care facility or school of their choice. The size of the family will determine how much assistance will be given. If you wish to apply for this grant, you need to go to the local Department of Health and Human Services office and present supporting papers and documents needed.

The government believes that a college degree will give a person the chance to eventually land a good-paying job. The Federal Pell Grant is given to single mothers or fathers who have not received college education and would like to continue their studies. The U.S. Department of Education gives this grant without any repayment at all. This financial aid gives $5100 to the beneficiary. Application can be made through the Department of Education or through a school's financial aid division.

Single mothers and fathers can also avail of food coupons from the government to ensure that they will have enough to eat every day. This is the most important and basic of all grants, since it provides for the sustenance needs of a family which of course are basic for survival. Without food, families will never survive. There are many opportunities single parents can grab in order to give their children a decent living, and all they need is the patience to look and apply for these grants.

Are you looking for more single parent families information? Visit singleparentcenter.net for more information for single parent families, like single parent grants, dating tips and childcare options and help.

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The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook - A Creative and Stress-Free Approach to Homeschooling

Within society, we often lose our way. As a result, many have taken it upon themselves to provide handbooks in order to help the rest of us find our way. There are handbooks available for most any situation, from how to survive in the wilderness to building a house out of surrounding materials. We can get the information we need to aid in our trek around the world seeking adventure and all that nature has to offer through handbooks. They have increasingly become an important part of helping us through life itself.

As it so happens, there is a movement afoot that is capturing the attention of parents everywhere. It is a movement borne out of concern regarding the educating of our children and the increasing evidence that supports the position that the educational system in its present form is failing our children's academic needs to a greater extent than ever. Being that necessity is the mother of invention, Dr. Raymond and Dorothy Moore have produced a handbook for the ages.

"The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook" is just such a book to meet the parent's need to guide their children through the jungle that is the educational system. And, it provides those needs in a simple, small bites approach. It is not a book that strictly advocates removing the child from mainstream schools and teaching them at home; it more accurately sees the desire for parents to do whatever is necessary to ensure their child's education and champions that position, whether it be in the home or the traditional educational arena.

"The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook" is wonderfully segmented into five distinct parts, dealing with such critical issues like that found in part two titled "Homeschooling Stress: Prevention and Remedy" addressing issues such as learning to slow down and not stress over the "what about their peers" question. In part four titled "Effective Homeschoolers Share Their Wisdom" you get a compilation of insights from actual homeschoolers sharing their experiences, revealing that each child is a treasure and unique in his or her own way. You will hear from people from every walk of life; the single mother, the Navy wife, physicians, artists, a former assistant attorney general.

In part five there are answers to questions such as how to get into college after being homeschooled, or how a working mother can still home school. You will also get some invaluable background as to how the home schooling movement was born as well as concerns regarding the dreaded word 'certified'.

In the epilogue of "The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook" you will find a chapter titled "The Moore Formula" that has been tried and true dealing with four critical areas vital to home school and, by default, societal success: head, hand, heart and health. This chapter will provide three main areas to address for the sake of the children and their future that is backed by documented research to be effective in furthering the child's academic and societal growth: study, work and service. It is the Moore's position that these are most critical if children are to succeed in life, whether it is from a home schooled environment or within the public educational system itself.

Never preachy, yet never compromising, "The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook" is nothing short of a Godsend when it comes to finding our way through life as it is today. Timeless principles abound within its covers and the message is evergreen for all generations to take heed. If we are to succeed as a society, indeed as a free nation, we need to take every step and make every sacrifice possible that our future generations mirrored in our children will receive the guaranteed need for that success. This is most assuredly found in Raymond and Dorothy Moore's wonderful book. Whether you are a single mom, grandparent or the 'stereotypical' intact family unit, "The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook" will be an invaluable guide helping you and your children see the world around you with eyes of wonder.

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Study Finds Family Connections Give Big Advantage in College Admissions

A new study of admissions at 30 highly selective colleges found that legacy applicants get a big advantage over those with no family connections to the institution — but the benefit is far greater for those with a parent who earned an undergraduate degree at the college than for those with other family connections.

According to the study, by Michael Hurwitz, a doctoral student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, applicants to a parent’s alma mater had, on average, seven times the odds of admission of nonlegacy applicants. Those whose parents did graduate work there or who had a grandparent, sibling, uncle or aunt who attended the college were, by comparison, only twice as likely to be admitted.

Legacy admissions have become an increasingly touchy issue for colleges. Admissions officers mostly play down the impact of legacy status. But a growing body of research shows that family connections count for a lot — and Mr. Hurwitz’s study found a larger impact than previous studies.

And at a time when admission to elite colleges has become increasingly competitive, critics say the legacy admissions advantage stands as an undemocratic obstacle to social mobility.

“It’s fundamentally unfair because it’s a preference that advantages the already advantaged,” said Richard D. Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, a nonprofit research organization. “It has nothing to do with the individual merit of the applicant.”

Mr. Kahlenberg, the author of “Affirmative Action for the Rich: Legacy Preferences in College Admissions,” said a legal challenge to legacy preferences is becoming likely. Public university preferences could be attacked as unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection, he said, while private universities might be vulnerable under an 1866 civil rights statute prohibiting discrimination based on “ancestry.”

Mr. Hurwitz’s study, published in “Economics of Education Review,” looked at data from 133,236 applicants for 2007 college admission, and analyzed the outcomes of the 61,962 who applied to more than one of the elite colleges. That allowed him to compare how much more likely they were to be offered admission where they had family connections.

“I was able to take into account all the applicant’s characteristics,” Mr. Hurwitz said, “because they were the same at every school they applied to. About the only thing that would be different was their legacy status.”

Family donations were not included in the data.

On average, Mr. Hurwitz’s study found, legacy applicants had slightly higher SAT scores than others. Education researchers point out that students whose parents attended elite colleges are also more likely to have advantages like family wealth and private school education.

Thomas P. Espenshade, a Princeton sociologist who has studied legacy admissions, said Mr. Hurwitz’s study was the first to compare the advantage to students applying to a parent’s alma mater with that of students with other family ties.

Mr. Espenshade pointed out that legacy status is just one of many possible advantages.

“We did a paper that found that if you are an athlete, you have 4.2 times the likelihood of admission as a nonathlete,” he said. “The advantages for underrepresented minorities are pretty big, too.”

Mr. Hurwitz said applicants with the highest SATs got the biggest legacy benefits.

Among the 30 colleges, the legacy advantage varied enormously: one college was more than 15 times as likely to accept legacy applicants, while at another, the effect was insignificant.

As a condition of access to the data, Mr. Hurwitz said, he agreed not to identify the colleges.

Given a table showing characteristics like high endowments and SAT scores and low acceptance rates, it seemed apparent that they are the members of the Consortium on Financing Higher Education, a group made up of the Ivy Leagues and two dozen other private research universities and liberal arts colleges.

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