<p>Yeah, our youngest figured out how to empty this nest one year earlier than I'd anticipated. I should have known. His suprise homebirth was a 30-minute event from start-to-finish. He's always been moving ahead of me, and I try to figure out WHAT JUST HAPPENED? My MIL says proudly, "That one doesn't let any grass grow under his feet." She calls him "that one" because she has 17 other grandchildren, so I forgive her. </p>
<p>Our youngest figured out with his GC how to finish public h.s. in 3 years, but here it's dubbed "skipping 11th grade" so he currently enjoys eligibility into all the senior year excitement of the school, such as prom. Understand how ironic this is, since one reason I first agreed to him finishing h.s. in 3 years was to avoid senior prom, but I lost that round.</p>
<p>He continues to socialize most with junior friends, but is schoolwide sociable, with friends from fresh-senior each year, as is the pattern with many theater kids. He's just hardwired that way. Being parachuted into the senior class would not have been good if he dreamed of elections or school leadership positions, but he does other things, mostly theater which is talent-based primarily. </p>
<p>Academically and socially, he's at home with the seniors (and he has a Dec.31 birthday, so is one day different than a senior, anyway). Another maturing factor is that he only has older sibs, and patterns himself after them. </p>
<p>A big disadvantage is that he applied to colleges with 4 AP's on his transcript, but no exam outcome from them on his college app. ALthough he reported a "5" on the one he took in l0th grade, which we hope is predictive, the colleges weigh merely a hint from his first semester grades, against others who can report AP exam results on their college apps. </p>
<p>Two SUMMER COURSES. Financially, a negative because he couldn't get a fulltime summer job. Academically, a positive experience. For summer after 9th grade, he took the required second year of Global Studies, and after l0th grade finished off Math. That first course made him eligible for AP US History as a l0th grader, while the second freed up his schedule during his final year of h.s. for every subject he liked including 4 AP's in the Social Sciences. </p>
<p>The summer course after 9th grade was a suggestion made to him by the Global Studies-I teacher, but it opened up worlds and made his 10th grade wonderful b/c it included an AP US History class that he loved. </p>
<p>The summer course after l0th grade was Math. Although his Math teacher told him he'd fail it (..nice) my S kept his wits about him, showing grit and maturity. I notice he managed Math much better when it wasn't sandwiched among all the other courses during a regular school year. Although summer math is intense because it packs a yearlong course into 10 weeks, and attracts top math students trying to clear their schedules for more advanced courses in the coming year, he did okay on the grade. More importantly, he felt more successful because he could think Math all day, then take as much time as needed for h.w. each evening. </p>
<p>On English, to get in 4 courses, he had to double-up and take AP Language and another Honors English class this year. English, however, is his most joyful subject (second to History). I did inquire if he double up with AP Lang and AP Lit, rather than just another Honors English, but the GC sweetly shot me down there b/c the rest of his schedule included AP Econ, APEuroHistory, AP Government and the AP Lang. In the school's experience, AP Lit requires too much reading to be compatible with the rest of his reading-heavy schedule. So, in a way, that's a downside, because I'm sure if he'd taken the normative 4-year h.s., he'd have taken APLit.</p>
<p>A VERY good thing is that I see not an ounce of "senioritis" this year. He remains very eager, chipper and engaged academically; doesn't want to miss a day of school, because he loves this learning. By contrast, some of the seniors who finish up their important AP's jr. year and know their college outcomes by now don't appear very enthused for h.s. on a day-to-basis, which is not so, here. So that's nice for the spirit of the household!</p>
<p>Sidenote: he brought in from middle school two h.s. course credits that helped this process quite a bit. He completed the foreign language graduation requirement before 9th grade. That's because NYState Regents tests Hebrew, and he attended Hebrew Day School from Grades 3-8. So, once he got to h.s., he wanted to take Spanish, which he began in 9th grade with Spanish 2. That he did by taking a bit of late-summer tutoring, enough to parachute him into Span 2, skipping over the whole year of Span 1. But there was a downside, too: his freshman year transcript begins with "Span 2: C, B-, B, A. and I'm sure a "C" is noticed before somebody can put it all together, oh yes, well not bad for starting out a year head in the first year of a language, plus he's graduating with TWO foreign languages completed. I think perhaps the application review registers the dreaded "C." But I don't really know.</p>
<p>Overall, I think it's made it harder to write the college app without the strength of completed AP's, enriching summertime activities or a responsible fulltime job, and faults in his GPA.</p>
<p>It's harder to deal with the college apps unless the child is SO superior that all this could happens AND achieve top grades. </p>
<p>Harder yet, to find the exploration time to visit colleges and interview them! </p>
<p>If he doesn't like his outcome next week when he hears results from where he applied (theater-strong B.A. and B.F.A. programs in playwriting, screenwriting not acting), then he could take the gained year as a GAP year and strengthen his application that way. So I can't tell you how it all "worked" because it's all still a work-in-progress.</p>