Parents of the HS class of 2010 - Original

<p>Queen's Mom - I'm sorry about your D's meltdown the other night. As Jackief said, I hope those nights are the exception rather than the rule. It does seem like every so often a really busy night, or even week or two will crop up. They are not fun! </p>

<p>Interesting - so the teacher is hung over, not tipsy (unless she's hungover in the morning, and tipsy again by the time your D has her ;). ) At least she's a decent teacher, even if she's not at her best. </p>

<p>I believe my D has only had one really late night so far - otherwise, she's been in bed by 11/11:30 most nights. </p>

<p>Jackief - nice that your D got some syllabi - I think all teachers should hand them out - but D gets none.</p>

<p>Happy to report the DD Junior's teachers are all sober, and appear to be adept at making that shift toward making the kids little scholars. </p>

<p>The work is more intense, but balanced by being more interesting.</p>

<p>What I find interesting is that the Honor's work does seep to me more interesting (D loves Chem) but the AP is just more work. Maybe it will get better as the year goes on.</p>

<p>Queen's Mom: Okay, so I'm not a parent, but a student of the class of 2010. It's been an interesting lurk, though. Popping out of hiding to ask enviously how your D can get 8 hours of sleep if she goes to bed at midnight. I only get 6 if I stay up until then, which is close to my still-functional limit of 5 1/2 hours. Never pushed it to 5, I think, but we'll see what happens this year and next.</p>

<p>I never said D makes it till 12 am. 10 pm is about her breaking point. School starts at 7:15 (we live about a block away, so she leaves the house at 7:10).</p>

<p>Ah, that makes more sense, then. As well as school being closer--mine starts at 7:50, but for various reasons I have to leave the house at 6:40, which means getting up at 6 am.</p>

<p>Parents with student athletes in certain sports know the early AM routine. My son is on the varsity water polo team and the coach just announced "voluntary" weight training on Tuesday and Thursday mornings starting at 6:45 am.</p>

<p>For those who are wondering about this, think of water polo and being kind of the equivalent of playing rugby in a pool. This week, I decided DS may need a mouth guard. He wears braces, and during a practice was accidentally head butted by a teammate. He had to leave for the locker room to unhook the inside of his lip from the braces. He came home and asked what he could take for the swelling ...</p>

<p>FAP- I watch water polo during the olympics, that's as close as I get. Mouthguard seems like a good idea. And welcome Keilexandra, pop up from your lurking every so often. I hope you aren't chuckling at us parents too much. </p>

<p>"optional" (ie not really if the rest of your boat is attending) Saturday morning rows starting soon. At least this is the last season before she gets her license. Between that and the student teaching she does one Sat per month, it will be nice when she can take the car for the morning.</p>

<p>Yeah, I always loved "optional" as in, if you want to be in this production you WILL do "optional" tech. ;)</p>

<p>Yes I love optional morning weight lifting :)</p>

<p>In DS case he had a new coach his senior year and it was at 6AM 5 days a week - which meant leaving the house at 530AM... oh - and baseball practice lasted until dark (730-800)... they did implement a study hall period after school and before practice when grades started to slip (I can't imagine why)...</p>

<p>There's a football game at D's school and I can hear the cheering out the window. Poor D is in bed reading. She says Friday night is the only time she can read for pleasure and she is not giving it up for some game.</p>

<p>Interesting about the "optional" training for sports. D participates in 3 sports during the school year - but no optional training's involved. I guess they feel that the 2-3 1/2 hour practices 6 days a week are sufficient. </p>

<p>Keilexandra - welcome! And my D gets about 5 1/2 to 6 1/2 hours of sleep each night, depending on how much work she has. Just curious, how did you end up on CC? I can't get my D to look at it!</p>

<p>Queen's Mom - there's a football game at D's school tonight as well, and she was planning to go until she remembered it was raining very hard outside!</p>

<p>this conversation jinxed it, optional Sat practices start tomorrow 7am! H is away so I get to drive her.</p>

<p>Oh, sorry about that Jackief. D's school doesn't offer SAT practices as far as I know, so that probably won't be an issue for us. S does have football practice tomorrow at 7 AM, so we'll both be on the road at that time. For some reason, D's practice was canceled for the morning, and I am not complaining!</p>

<p>Can you guys give me some advice? My worry of the day is about physics.
D is in the IB program, but she's only the second class to complete the entire program. When she started the school, the program wasn't up and running so they had the required science track of honors bio, honors chem, honors physics and then whatever AP (or two) the student wanted. So they had honors bio, honors chem, and now IB HL bio for two years. I've been looking at some random schools and they seem to want physics. Should I try to force physics as her senior elective, or am I imagining a need for it that doesn't exist?</p>

<p>Zoosermom - I'm not familiar with the IB program at all. I know most top colleges expect the students to have taken bio, chem and physics. Not sure if you should force it on her though, given the schools she's interested in and the fact that she's not planning on being a science major.</p>

<p>Do you think the lack of physics is a door closer in the even that she does decide to reach higher?</p>

<p>LIMOM, sorry I was unclear it is Saturday practice (for crew), not SAT practice. ZZZ</p>

<p>I'm not a GC but I play one on CC...</p>

<p>zoosermom, I'd heard the "wanting physics" thing also, one example though a bit old is "The Gatekeepers" (excellent book for these who haven't read it)</p>

<p>One of D's friends is not taking physics but is taking non-science electives this year and anatomy next. Originally he wanted pre-med, now is all over the map. I've been cautioning him when I see him that he may wish to rethink this, without being overbearing. I hope the school would have also counseled him in this area.</p>

<p>Back to you zoosermom :-) In your D's case, she will have 4 years of science and two are HL. And she's not interested in a career in science. I would think she would be fine! When you have changes to talk to admins face to face, you can ask them about your specific situation. </p>

<p>Other side of the coin is D who is in physics this year and will not take a science next year ending with three. But we have a more limited number of total courses able to take, so I hope that will give weight to only 3 years. Also not planning to be a science major.</p>

<p>There are plenty of anecdotes around here of kids not having the whole set of "recommended" and doing ok. It could be risky in some cases but if the rest of the schedule is strong and it doesn't look like she is trying to take the easy way out as a senior (another thing that seems to catch their eye) I wouldn't worry about it.</p>

<p>(sorry about incoherence and rambling, its early and haven't had coffee yet... must drive to boathouse..)</p>

<p>D has a similar problem with physics. She took a stupid matter and energy class which was a waste of time, so now she is a year behind, She can take physics next year, but would rather take AP Chem. It then becomes a scheduling issue.</p>

<p>I am pushing for physics anyway. I think it is an important class to take. I am not sure it will impact her college choices, but if she is even minimally interested in science or engineering, she will be behind others in college.</p>