Parents of the HS Class of 2011 - Original

<p>madbean, you are a genius! Of course, I would expect a quick wit from a fellow Austen lover.</p>

<p>I've been ignoring you all summer, but after reading all the posts since my last visit I decided I need to tell you about S's summer!</p>

<p>S did well in his spring grades, and DID take a three week summer school course in Java, so he can do computer programing in the fall, and a two week crew camp, so I really shouldn't complain.... but the computer game thing is driving me crazy!!! How can they sit there all day and night, playing games on the computer for days? </p>

<p>He SEEMS to have friends.....Plus, he SAYS he's going to do crew next year.</p>

<p>And he's in Cancun with his best friend's family this week, and THANKFULLY his friend's mother said NO ELECTRONICS on the trip. (I love her!!!)</p>

<p>Also, his school has assigned FOUR books for him to read, none of which (according to S) have Sparkes Notes...... Sooooooooooooooo I guess I'll just keep quiet about the computer games for now and see how he handles sophomore year.</p>

<p>Meanwhile, D2 is still convinced her college mistakenly admitted her, and has not been her usual genial self (read: very moody) for much of the summer. Unfortunately, she takes it out mostly on D1, who finally (thank you!) moved into a rental house near her university. I think I am actually looking forward to D2's departure!</p>

<p>2blue, wow, great on the community service job, even with mosquito bites! </p>

<p>chintzy, hmmmm....I think "playboy" would have to be listed as an EC, not community service, though I think madbean is onto something for how it could be a community service!</p>

<p>SlithyTove, amaretto chocolate chip cookies? Did you make these? Will you please share the recipe if so? I think these need to be added to the cookie rotation here! </p>

<p>mamom, your S has certainly been busy!! Good for him!! I have a tall one, too, but he doesn't play basketball. And yes, how annoying about the clothes! Congrats to your S for being invited to participate in the history research project; that's great!!</p>

<p>madbean, wow! You see paths everywhere; that's great! When the time comes, I'll be running to you to see how S can spin his web surfing into an essay or EC or some such!!</p>

<p>cgarrett, good job for your S on the summer program! Can't help with the computer game thing; I'm sorry! If you find a solution, please let me know. Thanks!! And four books to read over the summer -- my kid has ONE, only one! (He reads anyway, thank goodness, but only one assigned book...?)</p>

<p>S was supposed to learn some stuff for his upcoming computer course in school, and hasn't yet, so far as I know. I haven't said anything to him. I think he should have spent some time on it, of course, but I have a feeling he will do okay in the class even without having done the work. </p>

<p>I like the reading selections mentioned so far: S&S, Dorian Grey, and so on. Do you mind sharing the required reading lists for your kids? I'd be interested to see them. I read a lot of the books on last year's reading list, just because I didn't know so many of the books, and oh, I thought they were awful, and this was the honors English list!</p>

<p>There were four books on this year's incoming honors sophomore reading list, one of which is "Angela's Ashes," which is the book I got for S, as it was the only book on the list I'd read. The others are "Member of the Wedding," "Road to Memphis" (reading level: 9-12 years...I have to wonder about this selection...) and "Into the Wild."</p>

<p>I'm not familiar with any of the books you listed, owlice. As far as our school's English program goes, Sense and Sensibility seems far too cheerful to ever make it in the curriculum. Over the years my oldest has had to read Lord of the Flies, Fahrenheit 451, Othello, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, The Cherry Orchard, Crime and Punishment, Silence, and 1984. Tale of Two Cities was about as cheerful as it got. I loved DG when I read it in high school and wish they included it and Candide. He just told me they read DG and he hated it, although he was sick at the time which could have contributed to that. He also adds he read Crime and Punishment while sick downstairs in his dimly lit basement. (Yes, this boy was sick a lot.)</p>

<p>My son had 4 books to read this summer: Bodega Dreams, The Catcher in the Rye, and Catch 22 for English and The Killer Angels for history. I like to see what others have been assigned because my son loves to read and if I leave books lying around he will pick them up and at least try them. I assume most of what our kids are assigned is suppose to be good literature, or serve some purpose to further their education so if he reads these books perhaps it will somehow help him in "my" quest to get him educated. </p>

<p>Joan</p>

<p>Owlice wrote>There were four books on this year's incoming honors sophomore reading list, one of which is "Angela's Ashes," which is the book I got for S, as it was the only book on the list I'd read. The others are "Member of the Wedding," "Road to Memphis" (reading level: 9-12 years...I have to wonder about this selection...) and "Into the Wild."<</p>

<p>My S read Angelas Ashes and enjoyed it. But we are Irish and he is big into heritage. It almost sounds like these might be morality type picks. Read about others problems to help you grow as a person, but I haven't read them all so I am only guessing.</p>

<p>Joan</p>

<p>Just remembered they read Of Mice and Men and Cannery Row also. I know there are others I'm not recalling. My oldest is an extremely rapid reader which was a big help as they did cover a lot of books in his classes. I hope my youngest is able to keep up with the pace. He's much more into tech than literature, so English is not a favorite subject. One of his projects this summer has been working through a programming book on his own. He also spends lots of time reading about entrepreneurship, business start-ups, etc. as his long-term goal is to start his own company.</p>

<p>
[quote]
chintzy, I think your S has only to start a "chick-magnet" club at school, become prez, and then teach skills to needy nerds as community service. Could be a big hook at certain (can't mention or might get flamed) colleges.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Isn't this already a reality show? :)</p>

<p>Cookie recipe later, I don't quite have it memorized. </p>

<p>D1's first goldfish was named Raskolnikov. She was in 1st? 2nd? grade, asked for a fish name, I said "How about Raskolnikov?" and she glommed onto it. When she discovered last year that R is a character is C&P, she burst out laughing.</p>

<p>SlitheyTove, I was reading the Annotated Alice earlier this year. I don't know that I've ever actually read the entire books until then. I laughed when I got to the part about the sleeping dormouse; when S was very little, he curled himself up between his dad and me and did the sleepy "Twinkle twinkle twinkle" thing, and at the time, I had NO idea where that had come from! I don't know where he picked it up, but I'd completely forgotten about it until I read about it in the book.</p>

<p>mamom, thanks for the summer reading list; I appreciate it! </p>

<p>I had read "Angela's Ashes" some years ago and was glad to have read it. S doesn't like the writing. I know he wouldn't be interested in "Road to Memphis," because he hated reading the first book of that series in ... oh, it was either fifth or sixth grade. So that leaves two more for him to choose from. </p>

<p>2blue, S had to read "Animal Farm," The Communist Manifesto," "Night," "To Kill a Mockingbird," "Romeo and Juliet," and "The Odyssey" in his freshman English class. There were some short stories and (the dreaded) poetry in the mix, too. One of S's assignments was to make a propaganda piece of some kind; he made a movie. I found it hysterical, but that might be because he wore a big paper moustache for part of it.</p>

<p>I offered to take S to the library today to look at the other books on his list, but he doesn't want to go. I guess this means he'll be writing his first essay on Angela's Ashes!</p>

<p>My boys' English curriculum requires close reading (a technique I never encountered even as a College English minor) in analytic essays, and for many that can suck the life out of reading for pure enjoyment. S1 was up for it and enjoyed finding examples of biblical allusions in DG, for instance. I have a feeling S2 will just be fed up. He gets Dorian Gray this year. </p>

<p>2blue, sounds like your S is focused on his own "passion." That's wonderful.</p>

<p>owlice, your S might like Into the Wild if he's an outdoorsy type. But it has a very dark ending.</p>

<p>I must admit that I find a lot of these recommended and worthy books grim. It's like hi, your sixteen years old, the real world sucks. Clearly I must miss the point. Give me Jane A anyday. ;)</p>

<p>Owlice, I know I don't have an incoming 10th grader, but I was peeking at this thread and saw that you were interested in other summer reading lists, so I went onto our school's website, and copied the 10th grade reading list: Into Thin Air, by Jon Krakauer; Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel; My Brother's Keeper, by Patrick McCormick; The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahari; Othello or Taming of the Shrew; Sense and Sensibility; Shaving Lessons: A Memoir of Father and Son, by Kurt Chandler; and Summer of '49 by David Halbertam. The kids going into regular English 10 read one book and the kids going into Honors English 10 choose two books. I believe there is a writing assignment as well.</p>

<p>madbean, S's favorite shirt reads "Keep Out of Direct Sunlight" ... ~~~ sigh ~~~</p>

<p>LIMOMOF2, thanks for the list! That's a good one. Two books is perfectly reasonable, too.</p>

<p>SCHOOL HAS STARTED!!!!!! YIPPEE!!!!!</p>

<p>(I'm happier about this than S is. :D )</p>

<p>On the book front, exH bought "Into the Wild" and dropped it off when he brought S over on Friday. S read it on Saturday but wants to reread it, as he read it so quickly. (I read it, too; sad, though a good read.) It held his interest; I don't know which book, that or "Angela's Ashes," he'll write about.</p>

<p>But what I <em>really</em> wanted to say is..... amaretto chocolate chip cookies, please? :)</p>

<p>My S returns the Friday after Labor Day. He is OD'ing right now on video games. Book reports are done. Only thing occupying his time is football 4 hours a day, six days a week till school starts. In his favor he is reading up a storm, a lot of history, historical fiction and sports right now.</p>

<p>Got his schedule last week. He is in 4 honors classes, no AP's offered in sophmore year. We are considering having him drop honors chemistry for regular because of the teacher. There are 4 honors classes and two teachers, one teacher has a bad reputation for never, ever giving out A's, giving out ridiculous amounts of homework, putting trick questions on the test, etc. School will not let him switch to other honors teacher but will let him transfer to regular chemistry. I expect an honors class to be more difficult than a regular class, but getting an A should not be insurmountable. S has an apptitude for math and science but will probably end up majoring in history or some such thing in college, so I can't see subjecting him to this teacher with the bad rep. We should have thought this through better when he sign up in the spring.</p>

<p>School started yesterday and Daughter had four summer assignments:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Read Oedipus Rex...done about a month ago.</p></li>
<li><p>Read Man's Search for Meaning and write a two page paper about it. Book finished Friday, report done Sunday afternoon.</p></li>
<li><p>Do something or other for chemistry. Done a month ago.</p></li>
<li><p>Watch a movie depicting a historical event and be prepared to discuss movie vs. reality. Yes, THAT is what we were doing Sunday night in lieu of watching the closing ceremony of the Olympics.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Sophomore year starts Thursday, so D is cramming in all the "House" episodes she can before returning.</p>

<p>It sounds like she got a break on her summer reading list. She got to pick "When You're Engulfed in Flames" by David Sedaris. We both read it and enjoyed it.</p>

<p>
[quote]
Yes, THAT is what we were doing Sunday night in lieu of watching the closing ceremony of the Olympics.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>AAAAAAeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!</p>

<p>:: needs paper bag for hyperventilating into ::</p>

<p>S1 was delivered to college last Weds. He's doing fabulously well, but we at home all felt a little blue, including (and unexpectedly to him) S2. His high school requires no summer work, so it's cold turkey when S2 begins next week, Sept 3. I expect a very tough start. Oh no!</p>

<p>I'm not the baker that Owlice is, but I've brought my freezer filled with Dark Chocolate covered Pomegranate Ice Cream Bars--to the end of summer!</p>

<p>:: unwraps ice cream bar ::</p>

<p>Hear, hear!</p>

<p>This may be my last post on this thread, because when I kill S I will no longer have a member of the class of 2011! ;) School starts Thursday, math packet is not done, and his strategy for completion seems to be sitting at the kitchen table and acting pathetic/annoying in hopes that I will do it for him. Pass those pomegranate ice cream bars!</p>