Q: My daughter, a first-grader, is thrilled to be back in school, but my son, who's in third grade, is fighting it, especially homework. Nothing happened last year to make him reluctant to go back, so how can I get him excited?

A: For many kids, a new school year is exciting. But it's totally normal for some children to experience nervousness and anxiety, says Virginia educator Ann Dolin.

"It's not uncommon for kids to worry about whether they'll be with old friends, or if they'll get along with a new teacher, or whether they'll remember anything from last year," she explains.

Focus on listening to your son's concerns and establishing positive routines, so he feels prepared, rested and confident. Excitement may follow!

Dolin, who taught in Fairfax, Virginia, for several years prior to launching her tutoring company, Educational Connections Inc., offers this advice:

-- Find a calm time to talk. Probe and listen for reasons that might be causing your son's resistance. Has anything happened recently that has upset him, such as a close friend being assigned to another class? Does he struggle with separation anxiety from you at other times? Is he getting enough sleep? Is he eating properly? For example, notes Dolin, research shows that sugary snacks can increase anxiety, so keep those out of his diet.

You mentioned homework is a worry. If having homework is new to him, "establish a routine for getting it done," Dolin advises.

In a post on her website, she writes: "There are essentially five times to start homework: right after school, after a 30-minute break, before dinner, after dinner and right before bedtime. Elementary students often need down time after school, or when they return from their extra-curricular activities; about 30 minutes is usually sufficient. This is when homework should start."

-- Talk about what to expect in third grade. Build excitement for new learning. Check your school's website for curriculum standards to identify subjects he'll study. Point out topics that will interest him. For example, third-graders study the solar system. If he's a "Star Wars" fan, this could excite him.

-- Reinforce organizational routines: Getting back into a school-year groove doesn't happen overnight. Stick with routines that give the school day a smooth start. For example, every evening, check his homework, then pack his backpack, and place it next to the door. Make his lunch and refrigerate it the night before and put a sticky note on the backpack so he doesn't forget it. Have him choose and set out his clothes before he goes to bed. Establish a regular school-year bedtime and wake-up schedule that ensures he gets enough sleep.

Don't drag out goodbyes, which can increase anxiety, says Dolin. "You don't have to show tough love, but hold your tears and worries until you are out of his sight. Project confidence. Tell your son how excited you both will be when he comes home to tell you about his new friends and what he's learning."

If his anxieties don't go away in a couple of weeks, meet with his teacher or school counselor to gather more information. For more tips, see Dolin's blog at ectutoring.com.

(Do you have a question about your child's education? Email it to Leanna@aplusadvice.com. Leanna Landsmann is an education writer who began her career as a classroom teacher. She has served on education commissions, visited classrooms in 49 states to observe best practices, and founded Principal for a Day in New York City.)

Q: Our middle school sent home tips for back-to-school success; one of them was to "enjoy family dinners together frequently." With three teens in grades 7 through 11 who are going in different directions, that's tough. Is there any research on this?

A: There is. Since 2001, the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University has studied the impact of family dinners on family interactions.

The research shows that more frequent family dinner gatherings ensure higher quality communication between kids and parents. Eating a meal together strengthens family relationships, something that's particularly important for teens as they begin to forge influential peer relationships.

Joseph Califano Jr., the founder of CASA, emphasizes "that the magic that happens at family dinners isn't the food on the table, but the conversations and family engagement around the table."

A senior policy analyst at CASA further explains, "Teens who have frequent family dinners are more likely to say that their parents know a lot about what's really going on in their lives. ... Family dinners are the perfect opportunity when kids can talk to their parents and their parents can listen and learn."

A 2012 CASA study showed that in homes where family meals were frequent (five to seven times a week), teens were more likely to say they had good relationships with their parents. In turn, they were less likely to say that they felt stressed and were less likely to use marijuana, alcohol and tobacco. When the quality of teens' communication with parents declined, their likelihood of using marijuana, alcohol and tobacco increased.

To remind parents of the importance of family mealtime, every year CASA celebrates Family Day as "a day to eat dinner with your children." This year, it's Sept. 26. For more information, go to centeronaddiction.org.

A 2016 Common Sense Media survey of parents of kids 2 to 17 representing a range of American socioeconomic and ethnic groups found that more than 90 percent of respondents viewed conversations during dinner as an important way to learn about what's going on in their kids' lives. Seventy percent of the respondents said they carved out time to have dinner together five or more times a week.

While the family dinner isn't some relic of the 1950s, today's mobile devices are unwelcome newcomers to the table. Research shows that cellphones next to forks can disrupt and shut down conversations even when the devices aren't in use.

Thirty-five percent of Common Sense Media survey respondents said they'd had an argument about using devices at the dinner table. More than half said they were concerned that devices at the table "were hurting their conversations," writes Michael Robb, Common Sense director of research.

To encourage more families to declare the dinner table a tech-free zone, Common Sense Media has launched the Device-Free Dinner campaign. "Our devices keep us connected, informed and engaged, but dinner time is an important time to just say 'no,'" urges James P. Steyer, founder and CEO of Common Sense. "Everything from better grades to a healthier lifestyle has been linked to eating together regularly as a family."

Steyer invites families to take the Device-Free Dinner challenge, and "set an example for kids that we all need to carve out face-to-face conversation time in our lives."

For more information, go to commonsensemedia.org.

(Do you have a question about your child's education? Email it to Leanna@aplusadvice.com. Leanna Landsmann is an education writer who began her career as a classroom teacher. She has served on education commissions, visited classrooms in 49 states to observe best practices, and founded Principal for a Day in New York City.)

Q: My daughter, a high-school sophomore, was proud to get into a summer course in leadership at a local college. However, she got an incomplete because the professor said she plagiarized her paper. Now it will be hard to include that course on her college application. How could he tell?

A: Savvy educators spot the clues and use a range of digital tools -- from a simple Google search to plagiarism trackers -- to check students' work.

"The internet and today's amazing digital tools make cutting and pasting, or even buying the work of others, incredibly easy," says Greta Love, a New York state reference librarian who teaches college students research techniques. "But those same tools make it easier for educators to spot the work of others using databases, search engines and sites that sell or give away term papers and so on."

Worry less about what the incomplete does to your daughter's college application and more about teaching her proper research skills for her writing from now on. That will be the best preparation for college.

Many students simply do not know what plagiarism is, says university educator Robert Harris, author of "The Plagiarism Handbook: Strategies for Preventing, Detecting and Dealing With Plagiarism" (Routledge, 2001).

In an essay titled "Anti-Plagiarism Strategies for Research Papers," Harris writes that students hold misconceptions such as, "Everything on the internet is public domain and can be copied without citation," or, "If you change an author's words into your own words, you don't have to cite it," or, "If you copy fewer than 10 words, it's OK not to use quotation marks."

Some students don't consider copying wrong, notes Harris, because they think information is for everyone. Still others are tempted to copy because they're on a tight deadline, just not motivated by the topic or "know it's wrong, but like the thrill of rule-breaking."

To help your daughter, be explicit. "Plagiarism is using another person's words or ideas without giving credit," writes Harris. "When you use someone else's words, you must put quotation marks around them or set them off in a block quotation and give the writer or speaker credit by revealing the source in a citation.

"Even if you revise or paraphrase the words of someone else or just use their ideas, you still must give the author credit in a citation. Not giving due credit to the creator of an idea or writing is very much like lying because without a citation, you are implying that the idea is your own."

Once students understand why it's wrong, Harris takes a positive approach. "Learning to write makes a person powerful," he explains. "Whenever they cite a source, they are strengthening their writing, not weakening it."

He goes on: "Citing a source, whether paraphrased or quoted, reveals that they have performed research work and synthesized the findings into their own argument. ... The student is aware of other thinkers' positions on the topic."

Find more advice from Harris at his website VirtualSalt.com.

For more information, check out "The Plagiarism Spectrum: Tagging 10 Types of Unoriginal Work" at turnitin.com.

(Do you have a question about your child's education? Email it to Leanna@aplusadvice.com. Leanna Landsmann is an education writer who began her career as a classroom teacher. She has served on education commissions, visited classrooms in 49 states to observe best practices, and founded Principal for a Day in New York City.)