<p>I forgot about the day students -- and I don't know how many there are this year, but it looks like the freshman class will be about 95 -100 kids, which is a nice number.</p>
<p>We picked up my son at the airport last night -- he looks so different! He has grown another inch, lost some weight, gotten a tan from working in the sun and looks to be about 18. Amazing how much they change in a few months.</p>
<p>Today we are off to purchase linens and school supplies!</p>
<p>Stef - Wow! The football coach is going to be very excited to have your son. Is he happy to be home? Has he had a chance to do any of his summer work? </p>
<p>I assume that we need to bring sheets and towels for the camp... Is the camp for soccer on the other school campus? I wonder if the website has directions???</p>
<p>He is happy to be home and very excited about NMH -- he says he just can't believe it is really going to happen.</p>
<p>I have no idea what he needs to bring for the camp -- I hadn't even thought at that. The coach emailed the kids and told them that they just needed to bring cleats and a mouthguard and everything else would be issued to him, but I am thinking he is referring to sports equipment and not what is needed at camp. I will give him a call today.</p>
<p>I know that the football camp is at the other campus -- but we go to the main campus first to get the equipment. I also didn't think about directions -- so i better figure that out, too.</p>
<p>Dress clothes -- we are starting to go through clothes to see what he wants to bring. He wants to take up a suit and two jackets (one blue, one twill) plus all the shirts/pants to go with them. I think this is too much -- but he insists that each outfit is better for a different occasion. He wouldn't take the blue jacket at all -- but I told him that since most of the boys have blue blazers (as you said, typical prep school attire) he might want to wear it for a group event where all the kids wear the same thing. Thoughts??</p>
<p>Also -- any need to bring up costume stuff? He comes back at Thanksgiving and we visit mid-October, so I didn't know if he should bring costume stuff up at the beginning. He has pirate gear, cowboy gear and haiwaiin stuff. I don't see the need for it, but thought I would check.</p>
<p>A few weeks ago before I left for a trip I started going through my clothing and deciding what to bring. I've got most of the clothes I want in piles (my room is a compete disaster) and know what else I'm going need. As far as other things, I bought linens and towels the other day, and my dad gave me his Macbook Pro because he wants to get a PC. Lucky me! I bought a fantastic desk lamp while I was in NYC that I left at my aunt's house near the city and will pick up on my way to school.</p>
<p>keylyme -- I am hoping you and your son can answer a few questions about London. Does the desk each kid gets have drawers? If yes, is there room to store paper, pencils, stapler, etc -- or is it just one of those tiny pencil drawers? Does each kid get a closet? If yes, does it have a door? (I was reading somewhere that some dorm room closets don't have doors). Finally -- what kind of desk chair is provided? We were thinking of getting him a chair pad to make it more comfortable if it is a hard/wooden chair.</p>
<p>hellosunshine -- my son is also using the pile method of sorting things. He has piles in just about every room. Hopefully we get a bit more organization after this weekend. We are working on school supplies, dress clothes and linens tonight.</p>
<p>hellosunshine - you sound very organized... Will your aunt be bringing you to school? I can't imagine if my son had to fly. He has more clothes than my daughter. </p>
<p>My son wants to bring his desktop. He probably will unless we manage to get him a laptop before school starts. That might make a nice Xmas gift. </p>
<p>The funniest thing is that my son has been spending a lot of time in his room. His youngest brother asked me today if he had gone away to school already!!!
I'll have to force him out of that room to spend a little time with the family.</p>
<p>My life is in my room, haha.
It makes me feel guilty whenever I read an article on how your room should only be for sleep, whereas I have my play (computer, TV, books), work (computer for HW, HW), and music and stuff.
If I had a fridge and a toilet, I'd live in here. I read about apartments in say, Tokyo, that have only marginally more square footage that my room and I think... Awesome! I like cozy spaces, kind of... My old room was HUGE, I didn't have enough stuff for it. When we moved, we went from a 2500 sq ft house (two stories, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths) to a one story house with less than half that sq footage, 3 beds and 1 bath, with 2 more people than before.
I like it soooo much better, haha.
CONCLUSION:
Tiny dorm rooms won't bother me until I start having to sit on books to keep my bookcases from breaking with weight.</p>
<p>Saer - you sound just like my son. He would like a fridge but we had to draw the line somewhere.</p>
<p>Warriorboy, thank you! I wish I was half as organized as that probably sounds. My dad and my brother and I will be flying out to JFK, and then staying at my aunts house for a day or so, and then going over to NMH. I'm shipping a lot of things beforehand (bedding, towels, etc.) as to make it easier on us while flying. I will definitely dominate the "two bags per person" rule. No way are my dad and brother going to be able to take more than a carry-on! My parents are separated, and my father is seriously considering moving to Boston, because his whole family is on the east coast and right now he has very little tying him to the west. So it's possible that next year I'll be loading up an SUV and driving two hours to school. </p>
<p>Saer, I know exactly what you mean. I actually completely dominate and survive in one area of my house while my brother is at school. We have a cluster of three rooms (my room, my brother's room, and the guest room) I have designated my brother's room for homework, my room for sleeping and clothing, and the guest room for entertainment. My brother is overwhelmed with the set-up whenever he comes home for breaks. I wonder what these rooms will turn into when we are both at boarding school? I can definitely imagine my dad's set up already. Hellosunshine's room for work out equipment, ****'s room for guitar restoration, and the guest room for spare motorcycle and car parts...Oh dear. As the only girl in the house I believe it is my responsibility to be afraid for the carpets. : ) </p>
<p>--Hellosunshine</p>
<p>Yeah, right now I'm interneting and watching the Olympic 100m quarter finals in my room, while I should be reseting my sleep rhythms.
Crap.
I have 2 weeks of preseason before school, and that starts Monday. I have those two weeks to get adjusted to waking up before noon and going to bed before midnight.
I'm doomed.</p>
<p>Well at last we have begun to pack for school. I bought 2 under the bed storage boxes with little wheels on them. Now if I can get my son to start putting some clothes in them. I have a feeling that I will probably end up doing most of the packing while he is at the soccer camp.</p>
<p>My son is really curious about his roommate. I think that is a little stressful for him. Even though there are 5 kids in the family, he is used to his own space and time.</p>
<p>I think that if he's nervous, he should try to think of things that he can work out with his roommate to make the process of adjusting easier-
When they are going to sleep, how loud music can be, etc. Though it sounds anal retentive right now, he'll be glad he thought of these things later.
(I've shared rooms before, though with family, and setting down ground rules the second or third day made the entire 3 weeks of vacation together work out much more smoothly.)</p>
<p>Spent the morning at the thrift store -- very successful! He has sleep pants, shirts, pants, a suit, 2 ties, 5 decks of cards and the geekiest pair of pajamas you have ever seen. He wants to wear them the first night as a joke -- they are at least 20 years old, yellow and gold with mod gold diamonds all over, high waters with the lapel front. I will wait and see if he actually wears them or just chickens out. I love the thrift stores around here! Where else can you buy a nearly new Hart Schaffner and Marx gray wool suit for $5?</p>
<p>Stef, that is a great idea and very funny! I don't think D has given more than 5 seconds' thought to what she should bring. Oh, except her cell phone. That was very important to her. She bought herself a new cell phone. Spouse and I rolled our collective eyes at that one. Our understanding is that NMH is strict about the cell-phones-in-dorm-rooms-only rules. I think that her packing is going to be like that Steve Martin scene from The Jerk: "All I need is this thermos. And this chair..." </p>
<p>We are having a stalemate at our house. D's room remains the horrendous pigsty it has been for, well, years. As a result we have no idea what she owns. We have told her that we are not buying her anything for NMH until we figure out what she already has. I know it sounds harsh and confrontational but actually it's pretty lighthearted. I wonder if her plan is to stuff everything on her floor into some heavy duty Hefty bags, dump them out on the floor of her new room, and call it home! </p>
<p>Now that I think about it, maybe her plan is to do no laundry before she leaves and save it all up for the NMH laundry people to deal with.</p>
<p>laxtaxi - My son's room is a pigstye. I think he could live in there and never come out. He did sort through all his clothes to determine his "needs". I think he's all set for summer. He grew since last summer so I know he will need winter clothes. </p>
<p>He really needs to get stuff for soccer - new cleats, shin guards etc. That'll be the priority for now. I might try to accomplish something while he's at soccer camp.</p>
<p>Bag #1 is packed, tagged with his identification and a green ribbon (so we know it is his luggage at the airport) and weighed (49.5 pounds). </p>
<p>We are currently sorting and washing clothes so the we can assess what he has and what he wants to bring. We did the initial sort of his room into three piles: stuff he really doesn't want (donate), stuff he wants to keep but doesn't want to take to school (box up) and stuff he wants to take to school.</p>
<p>Our next project is linens -- we will buy pillows when we get there, but we have all the other linens. We are washing and folding -- and sewing the duvet cover (hope I can get this done in a few days).</p>
<p>I am definitely going to rent one of those luggage carts at the airport -- I think we will each have a carry-on, plus 4 pieces of luggage that each weigh 50#, plus a long-board and a small bag. Yikes!!! We leave Saturday at 6am and I really don't think we will be ready.</p>
<p>Stef, I'm laughing out loud reading that. We are so far from ready. Last night we had another "stand off" conversation in which, again, I told D that she's not getting anything - ANYTHING - new until she organizes what she has so we can figure out what she actually needs. She is really ticked off! Her room remains a Superfund toxic waste site. I'm convinced now that she is going to take the large Hefty bags, stuff whatever is on her floor into them, carry them into her dorm room, and dump them on the floor. Some kids are planning what their dorm walls are going to look like. My D is only envisioning what her floor is going to look like - not that she and her roommate will ever see it under her piles of clothes.</p>
<p>I am trying to figure out how to organize all this stuff -- he will need stuff to wear at football camp (still no info on whether he needs towels, sheets, etc at the camp), plus freshman orientation stuff packed separately, plus what he wants to wear the first day and then all the other stuff that needs to be moved into his room. What I don't want to happen is for him to unpack all 5 bags at football camp because he needs something and can't find it.</p>
<p>He is just now starting The Bean Trees -- so he is definitely pushing it on the summer work and I think we still have forms to fill out and send in, so we are going through paperwork again today.</p>
<p>I got the fabric cut for the duvet cover -- tonight I start sewing. I am hoping to pack linens and room organizer/decorating stuff tonight. </p>
<p>As far as clothes -- he has tons of shorts but only one pair of casual pants, think that will work until we visit in October? He doesn't get cold very easily, but we are going to try and buy him one more pair of pants/jeans.</p>
<p>stef- I think he will be fine with the shorts as long as he has a hoodie to wear. I believe they have a bus that will bring the kids to the mall if it gets cold quickly and he needs something or you can order online and have it delivered.</p>
<p>My son has completed Bean Trees either. He plans on reading on the trip up and back from NMH soccer camp and then he has 2 days to write his paper.
He wants me to find out what else to bring to camp besides soccer clothes. I assume he needs some "regular clothes". The big thing I really need to know about is whether there will be sheets, pillows etc. I also need to get directions to the other campus. My husband is probably bringing him on Friday so I have to have everything very organized in order for it to happen correctly...</p>
<p>We just returned from vacation; my son's room is atrocious. He is working the next two days and I guess I will be doing the majority of his packing while he is at soccer camp.
I believe the soccer camp is also on the Northfield campus. Which way do you come in to the school? The Northfield campus is also on route 10. You pass the Mt. Hermon campus and go over the Connecticut river. Take a left and go about two miles through the town of Northfield. You will see the campus on your right. I am not sure where to check in. I am expecting we will here from the coach in the next day or so. My son will bring his soccer bag, ball, shin guards, water bottle, and a couple pairs of cleats. The camp is four days and I imagine two sessions a day which means he will bring 6 pairs of shorts, 8 shirts, 8 pairs of soccer socks, and a couple pairs of compression shorts. I am sending him with a set of sheets and a fleece blanket, a couple of towels, toiletries, and a fan. He usually brings gatorade as well. I have already purchased a few cases of bottled water and gatorade for his room, so I will send some for the camp. Don't forget a couple of non-soccer outfits and a pair of jeans.</p>