Good luck to you ChoatieMom and ChoatieKid!
Thanks, all. Good luck to all those who are waiting anxiously on decisions, students and parents.
How many of us have kids with Jan birthdays? Apparently a few.
I’m prone to repeating myself, but it’s been an interesting half-year: with one kid a frosh and another a senior, we are getting the first year as well as the final year vibe. Nice break with both girls and a little travel to friends and family thrown in for good measure.
Happy New Year, all.
Hi there, I thought I would chime in. My first time reflecting since she began in late August. My daughter is really thriving and so happy with her new school. Listening to all the talk on here about fit really paid off for our family. Lots of nice acceptances and she thought long and hard about where she could really grow and by all accounts she chose well. Not that there haven’t been bumps along the way but how the school responded and how she recovered from them is what we were focused on. Really great stuff. Rigorous academics but not so much so (they are nice to freshman…) that she doesn’t have time to manage her social life and friendships and athletics- and even an injury. Parents weekend was so thoughtfully done and gave us the space to meet other parents and begin to try to forge friendships among the adults. Teachers were really so great and clearly knew our kid. She has made excellent friends that we love and likes her whole class (clearly she is in a glass half full stage)
Having her home for Thanksgiving and Christmas has been nothing short of awesome. Her poise and affection and ability to share the stage with her siblings (she has 3) was unprecedented. She was just delightful. She slept in late and mostly wanted to hang with family/extended family and hike. She left this morning at 3:00am and my sadness over her leaving overtook my ability to be excited to see her go back to such a wonderful place. Luckily she did not see it, but she knows her stoic mom was not so stoic this time… She’s a great kid- as they all are, and I am simply excited to see where she will go with all this surplus of opportunity and wonderful education. ok… done babbling. I truly don’t mean to go on and on- Which is good because she has a 13 year old sister who has essays due in 10 days… and I cannot believe we are here again… Happy New Year to all- what a ride it continues to be…
DS 's visit was bittersweet. He is such an integral part of our family. We all missed him so much and love our time together. BS for him is still overwhelming… He has gotten used to the routine somewhat and worked out his way of studying. He has gotten over his anxiety though organization will remain a challenge. His grades are very good except for math which is good bu he really slacked off because it should have been his best subject. He is still terribly intimidated by the EC achievers, whther in sports or clubs.
His house advisors switched up roommates and did not inform the kids why. So we had a talk/ speculation on the reasons when clearly they all got along fine. DS will have a new roommate who is on the leadership committee. I suspect this pairing is to get DS more involved in activities. DS wants to but he got to be buddies with a group who are gamers, when he isn’t one. Right now, while he has good friends, he isn’t as involved in school life as he could be. The saddest thing for me was when I offered to buy a big box of chocolate to be shared in the rec room, he declined, saying nobody does that. (It’s our culture, but it’s a pretty like able culture practice, I should think!)
But despite all that, he does really like his school and boarding life. Academically, it is challenging but he is adjusting remarkably well. Learning isn’t rote memorization and the school opportunities are incredible. He is starting to socialize better with adults, become more independent and says he is proud of himself for all that. He is a slow starter. The kid at the park who watches others play before getting into the thick of things.
Here’s hoping better news for second term!
SevenDad - did child number 2 go to a different school from number 1? If so, how did that work out for you as parents?
Update: CK’s EA decision on 1/10 was “yes.” Happy kid.
Congrats, ChoatieMom! How nice now to not have to worry about it!
Congrats to ChoatieKid!!
Congratulations to ChoatieKid and ChoatieMom!!!
@Britmom5 We know 7D1 will soon graduate SAS and 7D2 is at Masters. 7Dad made a nice posting about Masters school sometime ago.
Daykidmom: Not quite out of the woods. The EA was not his first choice(s). He might be waiting until April for those, but at least some of the pressure is off. He’d be happy at the EA school and that’s something. Sorry to hijack first-year reflections with last-year issues. Carry on.
That’s great news Choatiemom. Now everyone can exhale!
Thanks payn4ward. I was curious what that must be like to have kids at two different school. I’m not familiar with Masters. Off to google it…
Oh, and congrats to Choatiekid!!! A relief for Mom, I’m sure!
Congratulations ChoatieMom!
Must be such a great feeling!!!
though I have to admit the 10 applications part made me sigh… Thanks for the heads up though. 
Good news from DS!! He had try outs and made it on a sports team!! Which sport you ask? ! Drum roll…
The table tennis team! He even beat out a few guys from China! Every sport at his school is competitive. He seemed super pleased with himself by winning close matches to garner his spot. Has emailed his old coach here with the news.
He is happy to be hanging out with his buddies again, is trying to get more rewarding volunteer hours, etc. But making it on a sports team is a great boost to the new term!
@Disneymama: Congrats to DisneyKid! It’s really wonderful when kids find their sport. As part of the team, he’ll have a “place,” and his teammates will become his special group. That inclusion will go a long way to helping him feel happier, confident, and more comfortable in his skin at his BS. For CK, the moment he found his sport defined his time at Choate. He says it’s the single best thing that has happened to him there. His teammates will be lifelong friends.
It sounds like DisneyKid is branching out and adjusting well. Congrats. I know how that makes his mom feel. 
Ah - what comes out of the mouths of babes! Day 2 at boarding school after day 1 was move in, during early season field hockey training and Varsity tryouts before classes started. DD is trying on brand new sneakers and says, “I can’t do this.” So I ask, “What? you can’t try on sneakers?” Her answer, “No I can’t go to boarding school - it is too hard.” My response, “How can it be too hard? You have only just moved in!” This is when we knew homesickness kicked in. Next day, new question from DD, “Mom can you call your relatives and ask them if you can get your inheritance early so you can buy a house near here and move here?” with tears in her eyes. (Did she think I would do that? Really?) It did take 3 months to finally get over homesickness completely, couple of bumps in the road. But it has been worth it - high honors 2 quarters now. At home over Thanksgiving and Christmas, DD was overall much more polite, definitely more independent. Having a great advisor has helped.
DD did very (very) well in her first marking period at boarding school. Aced it in fact. Maybe there’s something to this whole private school thing…