Leaving for college can be a big move for both you and your children. It can be stressful for all the family – but it’s also an important part of growing up. If you’re a bit concerned about the whole situation – don’t be. These four simple tips should be enough to help get everything prepared so that your kid can get away to college without too much trouble. The right child plan can help you get everything sorted before your loved one goes to college.
-
Make sure your finances are sorted
College can be expensive, and it’s important that students learn good money management skills as early as possible. You see, they’re going to need to pay for weekly expenses like food and other things. This sort of financial money-management comes easy to some, but more difficult to others. A child education plan might help you here.
If you’re not sure about how well your child is going to be able to manage their money – then give them a few good tips. Make sure they understand how to budget and have checked the terms of loans and other aspects of their financial management. Instead of giving them a term’s worth of money up-front, you could drip feed them an allowance so that they don’t spend it all and then have none left for weeks.
-
Make sure they’ve got the right books
Each university course will have an extensive reading list – and you should hopefully be able to get a hold of this long before the course actually starts. Try getting all of the important books yourself. Some of these might be available from the university library, but if it’s a popular book on a busy course, they could run out. Some of these specialist books might be hard to find in normal bookstores, so you might want to place an order well in advance.
-
Make sure they’ve got transport sorted
Depending on how far away university is from home, you’ll need to make sure they’ve got the right transport to get there in first place. Are you going to drive them? Aside from this, even when they’re actually at university – how are they going to get around? Is it possible to ride bike to school, can they have a car, or will the use public transport? Some university campuses have student housing on-site, making it easy to get from dorms to classes. However, that isn’t always the case – some other schools are spread across wider areas and will require students to have their own means of transport to get to and from classes.
-
Make sure they know how to look after themselves
This is quite a wide-ranging tip, but your child will need to be able to look after themselves. Things like cooking and other basic tasks. You’d be surprised how many students turn up for their first year at university without any of these basic skills – so give them a few pointers before they leave.