Can You Afford a Christian Boarding School?

Every child in the country needs and deserves and education, which is why it is illegal for a student to not go to school. We make sure that there is schooling available to everyone through the public school system, which provides tuition free education to all that want it. Alternatively, you can choose to pay money for education if you are looking for specific things that the public school can’t offer. For example, some private schools offer smaller class sizes, which might be preferable if you want to make sure that you are getting the attention that you need. Private schools are usually still close to where you live, but there are some that require your child to live away from home because it is out of the range of travel. Those schools, boarding schools, can be for students that have disciplinary problems or just students that would benefit from an independent environment. Christian boarding schools add in the religious values that a lot of Christian parents want included in education, but can’t be included in secular schools. For those that are looking into boarding schools or private schools in general, the biggest barrier is going to be the cost. With free education staring you right in the face, boarding school better be worth the investment. Boarding school can be much more expensive than other private schools because you are also paying for the room and board (obviously).

Families that are struggling financially might run into the decision where they are unsure if they can afford the education that they feel that they need for their child and that is really sad to hear. There are some students whose behavior could be improved with a boarding school, but they are unable to reach their potential because money gets in the way. Overall, the average cost of boarding school per year is $38,850, which ranges from $10,000 to $60,000. That will likely include the cost of room and board. For high school, that is over $150,000. You are not even at college and that is killer. The good news is that you are not doomed to that tuition if you are not able to pay that much. There are options for students to get help.

For those in financial need, there are some cases where you can apply for financial aid and even might get a tuition waiver. Some still require you to pay for room and board, but those are much easier to cover than the exorbitant expense of the actual education. Other schools offer scholarships that you can apply for, although you might not be able to get them if the reason for applying is behavioral. That likely means that the grades are not good enough. That said, most Christian boarding schools will require you to take a standardized test before entry and a strong score could help affect the amount of financial assistance that you get. In those cases, you can defray either all or some of the cost of boarding school and make it a much more attractive option.

English Vocabulary and Pronunciation

They say that most English speakers use 20,000 words to get by in their lives, which is a pretty big number, but it is a drop in the bucket compared to the massive number of words that exist in the language. There are even new words added every year and definitions changed based on the use of language in our lives. English is constantly evolving, but having a large vocabulary can help you express yourself the way that you mean without mistakes and miscommunications. It is also a big help when it comes to the SAT, which requires a lot of vocabulary knowledge. To digress about French, I think it is really interesting the different words that they have for relationships that describe different levels of intimacy. In English, we basically just have single, married, and it’s complicated. With a large vocabulary, you can express everything that you want to.


Going with that vocabulary is pronunciation because reading words does not always mean that you are going to pronounce them correctly. Every single person on the planet that speaks English has mispronounced a word that they have only read before because they never bothered to learn the proper pronunciation. I remember mine in 4th grade as dachshund, which I pronounced with a lot of Germanic throat noises instead of realizing it was the little wiener dog. A funny one in college was when a friend pronounced tentacle like debacle, which coincidentally I have also heard mispronounced like tentacle in the past. Getting the words right just takes hearing the right ones and practicing to make sure that you are not doing it wrong. You could learn the pronunciation symbols from the dictionary and learn that way, but I will only allow the computer to pronounce it for me because I need to hear it pronounced. My favorite football team drafted a guy named Oshane Ximines this year and I decided that it would be a smart move to avoid his last name until I heard it pronounced.

Now that we have gone over some of the challenges of vocabulary and pronunciation, we should talk a little about what you can do to improve on your skills. For vocab, you have probably heard of the note card method in the past, which is a tried and true method for studying that many students use. On one side of the card, write the word. On the other side of the card, write the definition. Try going back and forth between guessing the definition from the word and guessing the word from the definition. That is probably the simplest and cheapest way to learn words, but it does not do too much to provide context. In terms of individual words, knowing them does not do much good if you do not know how to use them in a sentence. One way to expand your vocabulary and learn about the word in context is to read a lot. You can see how the word fits in a sentence and get a better sense of how you can use it in the future.

Basics of English Grammar

The English language has a lot of rules to it. That should be a good thing. When you have a language that uses strict rules, you are much more likely to have language uniformity and that leads to more people understanding each other, which is the point of language in the first place. However, with English, there are tons of rules, but we do not always follow them. We have rules of thumb that we have come up with for the language, including one of the common ones, I before E except after C. Now, this is all well and good in theory to help with words like receive and believe, but then you come across a word like society or their and realize that the rule means absolutely nothing unless used in the right context. A rule that requires other rules to specify use is just a bad rule. As much as we try to make the English language easier with those mnemonics, it is just a complicated language. Here are some of the basic grammar rules that you will need to grasp before moving on to the even more insanely complex stuff.

Parts of Speech

On the most basic level of language are the words and our words are classified into parts of speech. The most common three are nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Nouns are people, places, and things. They are objects and usually the subjects of the sentence. Verbs are actions and also sometimes serve to help you figure out timing, whether the action is currently taking place or it has happened or will happen. Adjectives are descriptors that modify a noun with more specificity. Other parts of speech that further complicate sentences include adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, interjections, and articles.

Types of Sentences

When you break down how sentences are formed, there are four basic types of sentences that you can use. Declarative sentences are statements, usually declaring a fact. That might be something simple like “He went home.” Interrogative statements ask a question, which likely means that you are looking for a declarative response. In the previous situation, you might first ask the interrogative sentence “Where did he go?” Third are exclamatory sentences, which express a strong emotion. They are similar to declarative sentences, although they can often be more subjective, while declarative statements are more likely objective. In an exclamatory sentence, you might say “His home is boring.” Finally, imperative sentences come with a strong command. If we were wondering why he went home, the answer might be that someone told him “Please go home.”

Punctuation


People often think that the only punctuation are the symbols that come in the middle or at the end of sentences, but sentences actually begin with punctuation too because capitalization is a part of the process as well. Sentences always begin with a capital letter, as do proper nouns and other titles. After that, we have commas, semi-colons, colons, question marks, exclamation points, periods, and more that affect our sentences. There are too many rules to get into here, but you should learn them all to write properly.

Speaking and Writing English Effectively

English is a language that is totally weird when you look at it as an outsider. The fact that it is so widely spoken, yet there are differences between American, British, and Australian English show just how silly the language can be. As an outsider, the idioms and wordplay can be some of the most challenging things to overcome when trying to understand people in practice. The fact is that you are going to need to learn more than just the words, the structure, and the pronunciation to do well with the language. You are going to need to learn a little more about context with language. Here are a few tips of how to get better at speaking and writing English.

Watch Television and Films in English

You hear stories about this all the time because it really works. When you are trying to learn English the way that people talk, you can get an okay idea from sitcoms. The proliferation of Netflix has made it so much easier for people to access American or even British sitcoms that can help them learn the language. There are also plenty of reality shows that can show you a bit more natural of a conversation instead of something that is scripted. There is a great clip on the internet from the Graham Norton Show where Chris Pratt shows off his love of The Only Way Is Essex by mimicking the accent from the show, which comes from his hours of “research.” This is a totally viable way to learn how people speak, although it is not a great way to learn proper grammar.

Read Lots of Books

The only thing that you do not get with a book is the pronunciation, although you might solve that by listening to the audiobook. You should still follow along reading though because reading is not just helping you to grow your vocabulary, but it also makes you a better writer. The vocab is a part of that, but reading can help inspire you with sentence structures that you are not used to using, which will help you vary your writing and improve that way. Seeing good writing gives you an idea of what to strive for and highlights what is bad writing as well.

Outline Your Thoughts

This is something that applies not just to what you do before you write, but as you are writing. When you learn writing in elementary school, they teach the hamburger method of essay writing, which is an introductory paragraph that previews three main points, three body paragraphs covering each point, and a conclusion summarizing your points. It feels a bit cookie cutter, but the goal is to show you that people respond well when you organize your ideas and walk them through within a structure. I think one of the most interesting things about Chris Rock’s comedy is that you are always on board with his premise because he makes sure that you are focused. He will repeat a theme before and after jokes to keep you in the space that he wants you. Structure allows for control, so make sure you understand that for your writing.

An Effective English Tutor

First off, they need to know the language. If you work with a tutor you need to make sure they have the necessary credentials. When I say “they need to know the language” a lot of you are probably thinking to yourself that this is common knowledge. But you would be surprised. Knowing the language goes further than being able to speak and understand it. For instance, there are thirty two million illiterate people in the United States alone. These individuals know the language and can understand it, they are able to hold full conversations. But there is absolutely no way that they can teach it.

Now, this might be a little extreme but the same can be said about literate English speakers as well. Just because you can speak, read, write and comprehend the language does not mean that you can actively teach it to a student. You need to make sure that whoever you are working with has the necessary skills to actually teach the language. First off, can they communicate to you the things that you need to know.

Do they know verb tenses and types of nouns? Or even the more in-depth grammar practices that come associated with the English language. You need a tutor who knows all of these rules and techniques while also being able to teach you. Next, your tutor must be able to pinpoint what you are doing wrong and then help you fix the problems. I remember when I was younger, my cousins would make fun of me because I was not able to say certificate. They knew I was saying it wrong, but none of them were able to show me how to say it right. After spending a few sessions with my grandmother, who was also a teacher, I was able to say the word and the jokes stopped.

This is just a small example, but you need to make sure that your tutor is able to do the exact same thing. The tutor has to be able to give you constructive criticism and feedback that is going to help you better understand the English language. Lastly, you want to make sure that your tutor is college educated. There are certain things that you learn in a college classroom that you will not be able to learn anywhere else. So it is important that you work with someone who has that knowledge so that you can receive it and also so that they can actually teach you.

Finding a tutor who is also a certified teacher my be trickier, but is something that you should do in order to make sure you are working with someone who is qualified. When you work with a tutor who can actually teach, who has a college degree, who can provide constructive feedback while also helping you get to the bottom of your issues you are ensuring that you are working with an effective tutor.