Each month we will dedicate one of our blog posts to questions that readers have sent in to shed light on the educational debt decisions that our readers are facing. Please note that our responses are not meant to provide specific legal or financial advice. Every individual's situation is unique, and we encourage people to reflect carefully on their options and to consult a financial adviser who can review their specific financial situation.

Average third-grade books may have 64 pages or more and have a fairly high proportion of multisyllabic words. Some words may not be in the students' listening vocabularies. Easy third-grade books include those written on a second-grade level. Challenging books are written on a fourth-grade level.

Your son and daughter have worked hard the past for years in high school. They have taken the PSAT exams, Act and SAT exams to qualify for a college or maybe a university. They have maintained a certain grade point average. They have written essays for scholarships, applied for federal grants, had several award ceremonies for extracurricular activities.

Often determining monetary gift etiquette for college graduation depends upon who the graduate is as well as their achieved degree. First off, if the graduate is a close family member such as a niece or nephew, child, or grandchild, a monetary gift is definitely the correct etiquette. If a friend or co-workers mails or hands you a graduation announcement for their child, unless you are invited and plan to go to either to the graduation ceremony, party, or both, you aren’t obligated to send the grad money. On the other hand, no matter whom the graduate is, if you plan on attending the graduation ceremony or party afterwards, you should consider gifting to the grad.

My daughter was preparing for her freshman year at a local college. I was looking over the expected costs and noticed that the school was going to charge over $800 for text books.

There are many times when funny college graduation gifts are appropriate. Funny gifts are a good idea for friends and even family members of the graduate. Even classmates can choose a gag gift for the graduate they’ve known and studied with.

When selecting a funny gift for the graduate, it’s best to keep some taste in mind and avoid gifts that utilize verbal or visual language that is sensitive. Still, there are many humorous gifts out there so start shopping, take a friend along, and have some laughs of your own while choosing the right gift.

Your son or daughter is about to be one of the 15 million students going off to college this year. They have spent months planning for this big day, survived months of preparation for the SAT or ACT, written college applications, and sorted through the piles of colorful brochures from colleges touting their school over all others.

The US Department of Agriculture estimates that middle-income two-parent families will spend $221,190 in 2008 dollars to raise a child born in 2008 from birth to high school graduation. The cost per child for low income families (earning less than $56,870) is $159,870 and the cost per child for upper income families (earning more than $98,470) is $366,660.

You’re about to have a baby and you’re already worrying about how to pay for their college education. Or your son or daughter just started high school and you read about some private colleges costing more than $50,000 a year. How are you going to be able to afford four years of a college education?

Has your child been bitten by the travel bug? If your son or daughter expresses interest in a foreign exchange program, it’s natural to feel intrigued. And it’s natural to feel nervous, too. After all, it’s one thing to let your teenager sleep at a friend’s house, another to let them travel halfway across the world to live with strangers.