<p>My son has been at college more than a month. After the initial few days of homesickness (although he termed it loneliness), he has adjusted so well. Spends a lot of time with his suitemates. Has a girlfriend who is not only beautiful, but very smart. Has gotten involved in student government. Loves his classes. He only calls once or twice a week now, but that’s all right. I hear from him daily with e-mail. He also likes to chat with me online – the other night he told me that he wants to get a job because he felt he had time to work. I shall see him at Family Weekend, and he is quite excited to introduce us to his girlfriend and all his friends.</p>
<p>Shawbridge–I’m glad to hear your son is figuring it out. D was able to register early and get the books scanned early, though she hasn’t been particularly stressed and has been able to read without a problem so far. (If she didn’t already have the scans? I think she’d need them, though.) Funny how that works.</p>
<p>We got her a great scan program for her own computer, text to voice, a nice voice, before she left, and I’ll find out from her which one it is…just in case she ever needed it for something late at nite. I hope your son can register early next term to get the books before he starts class. :)</p>
<p>My DS is at his safety school, so he departed with a very casual attitude about the experience…Socially, he seems more than content - says he’s very busy - says he does not have to go far to see friends and seems to love that aspect - all from a formerly only semi-social being. He says he’s staying ahead of all assigned homework, spending his time between classes rewriting notes rather than socializing… .</p>
<p>He still expresses disappointment that the students are not more engaged with the material that they study - still says many are concerned with grades not learning - and that large lectures are not condusive to asking the great ‘why’ questions…;O and even his TAs in small discussion groups seem more interested in repeating the class material than in really asking questions about relevance to the larger world…</p>
<p>My hope for him is that he finds some discussion based classes next term, or keeps up grades to transfer from a large state school to a place that more suits his need to talk about everything he learns…</p>
<p>my D says she is happy. She made friends and loves her classes( she got the best score in college writing yesterday!) and when i call she is always busy and says “i call you back, i can’t talk right now!”…and she never calls back…! a good sign!</p>
<p>DS has only been gone a couple of weeks, but seems to be adjusting okay. I think he gets lonely sometimes (he’s an OOS, so doesn’t know anybody, yet). This is when I’ll get a call from him. I think he misses me the most on Saturdays - we are football buds. The past two Saturdays he’s called me while walking back to his dorm from the game. I was able to watch his school play last Saturday, and I think he was pleasantly surprised when I answered the phone with, “Man, that was a great game!” </p>
<p>I’ve already sent him a card (with money!) and a care package (some stuff we couldn’t fit into the luggage for the plane ride to school.) Will be sending one more package in a week or so, then just a card once in a while. He LOVED getting the money and has yet to receive care package #1 - so we’ll see.</p>
<p>He likes his classes and profs, but I think he is a little lonely. He’s a sociable kid, though, and has played video games and poker 
with some guys in the dorm. I know he’ll find his way. It will just take a little time. I hate to hear that lonliness in his voice, but am glad he calls me. It makes me sooooo happy to hear his voice and chat with him. And, yes, he’s even done the laundry since he’s been away :)</p>
<p>poetgrl, I’d love to know. If it was for a Mac, it was probably Ghostreader, which the college provided to my son this summer. Because the college is big believers in the advising system, they didn’t choose courses until the beginning of school and then they have a shopping period. So, he couldn’t tell the school his courses until a week into class. He signs up for spring semester in November, so they should be able to get the readings for next semester in time (not sure what happens with shopping).</p>
<p>Classes are small (15 to 25 kids) so he is having ample time to talk and the school has arranged note-takers, so that is good.</p>
<p>So nice to hear all the different situations and updates. I finally heard from my daughter … she had been doing a bunch of auditions and just found out she had been called back to several, so I figured that’s why she was too busy to call. Hopefully she gets offiicially into one of the singing groups so she can continue music. She seems to be adjusting well and is no longer settling in but feels settled. She seems to like her classes and is focussed on doing well, and at the same time it sounds like she is being social and meeting new people. She instant msg’d last night that she might want to come home for the 3-day weekend in October, so that’s a sign she hasn’t completely left us in the dust. Since I consider myself somewhat strong (prof. female, one other high-school age son, don’t consider myself a helicopter mom, etc.) I was surprised to feel this missing feeling … it’s a phase in my life that caught me by surprise. I’ll get through it, but gosh.</p>
<p>Our son, a quiet but sociable kid, is blossoming as best as we can tell; he texts or phones home only when prompted! He bonded with a group of students on a preorientation Outward Bound trip which he really enjoyed. He and his roommate were matched well, and he has met up with kids from the accepted students visits, his classes, work study, dorm…We are watching the transformation from somewhat of a shy guy to butterfly with great interest. He was able to work out the schedule he wanted and is enjoying all of his classes although he thinks his foreign language class will be the most challenging–no surprise there. So far, so good although I’ll confess that we’re nervous about his ability to manage his time with all of his new friends/distractions. </p>
<p>We have one child left at home, the baby who’s now 14. It’s a lot quieter here which has been a tad difficult for us to get used to. I miss my college kids, but I can’t help being overjoyed that they’ve seemed to make the transition from home to far away as well as they have.</p>
<p>I absolutely think these outward bound/outdoor adventure/get away orientations are aboslutely the best thing for these freshman. Two years ago, my son did a week kayak trip and when he returned he had 10 new kids that he had eaten with, told stories, with, bonded with to go to meal with, say “hi” to crossing campus, see in classes, etc. Of the ten he is still friends with one of the kids. Thirty some years ago my college was doing this and it was great then (for me) and it’s still great now for my kids. There was a very small cost and some gear associated with my son’s trip, but worth every penny in terms of peace of mind for us and a great start for him. Kids participating in sports in the fall have this with an early entry onto campus and an immediately “group.” I’d recommend to any parent with a child going to a school that offers an orientation trip or a small group orientation for the non athletic types prior to the start of school to consider the benefits.</p>
<p>Ditto to that, momofthreeboys & PlantMom. Son did a canoe trip before school started & some of the guys from their are his very good friends, now. So glad he did it!</p>
<p>Agree momofthreeboys. I also highly recommend based on our son’s experience. Jolynne, my son did a canoe trip as well; he was up in northern MN. They weren’t by any chance on the same one???</p>
<p>PlantMom–this was the deep south! But, same great idea!!</p>
<p>Ah…same idea without the frosty temps, JolynneS!</p>
<p>Yes – but I bet they were sweating in those canoes during the 90 degree deep south days in the sun! MN might have been a better bet in August!</p>
<p>D’s old tendonitis flared in her right wrist this week - she thinks copious writing/notetaking, mostly outside of class, is the culprit. I express mailed her brace and she’s doing the anit-inflammatory/icing therapy but it’s still painful and, if I remember correctly, usually lasts several weeks to a month. </p>
<p>Does anyone have ideas on alternative ways to take notes? I was thinking of suggesting she buy one of those speech to text programs but have no idea how they work…do they require extra hardware too? Would they recognize scientific (ie. chem/biology) terms?</p>
<p>why isn’t she using her laptop for note taking? My daughter brings it to her humanities classes to take notes. Last spring she had an art history class where the professor would reference various paintings, she would find the painting on the web(wifi), download it to her word document and type notes next to it. We got her a Mac to carry around because the Dell she had was too heavy.</p>
<p>Finally dropped my daughter off at college this week! People warned me that the late start would make us all crazy!!! Had a lot of fun the two days prior - even took my younger daughter out of school to join us and it was the best thing. When it was time to leave her we all felt fine - my husband said, “We’re all so happy, how can this be sad?” My younger daughter said, “Parents weekend is in 6 weeks and then Thanksgiving, then Winter break. See you soon!” My college daughter said, “Bye!” and we were gone.</p>
<p>UGH! The anticipation was so much worse than the send off! I’m feeling a little lost now since she was home so long after her friends were gone and hanging out with me. I just need to get back into a routine which I will by next week. Thanks for all the help here, I’ll probably be visiting less often at least until the end of this year when I need to begin the process with my younger.</p>
<p>Good luck to all!</p>
<p>sk8rmom–in law school, one of the students had a wrist injury and she taped all the lectures. Maybe this would be a possible solution?</p>
<p>sk8rmom, I have a friend who is a senior in college and he got a Livescribe Smartpen and loves it. It is used for notes and translated to your computer, but it includes an audio recording function so that could help with the tendonitis.</p>
<p>From sk8rmom
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<p>My son is quite dyslexic and can’t take notes and listen at the same time. The disabilities services office is paying kids to take notes for him. Could this be defined as a temporary disability so that your D’s school could handle this.</p>
<p>We have voice recognition programs, but I don’t think they would work well for this purpose. There is a note-taking pen called Livescribe Pulse that we may try. It record entire lectures and you only need to write down parts and when you go back to those section, it starts the lecture up where you are. [Amazon.com:</a> Livescribe 1GB Pulse Smartpen (APA-00001): Electronics](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Livescribe-1GB-Pulse-Smartpen-APA-00001/dp/B001AAOZHI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1253216631&sr=8-2]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Livescribe-1GB-Pulse-Smartpen-APA-00001/dp/B001AAOZHI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1253216631&sr=8-2). I’m not sure exactly how it works or what is needed yet.</p>