<p>You hit upon one of my BIGGEST pet peeves. It really upsets me when our students go to school and do nothing. Granted those time are infrequent; however, I believe there are some missed opportunities to teach our students some invaluable lessons. </p>
<p>Our school year ends at the beginning of June. Graduation is mid-May after AP/IB exams so there are no seniors in school after that. I think that most classes with AP/IB exams don’t have finals so there are about two weeks of invaluable learning time available then.</p>
<p>Some lessons I’ve suggested for this time period include:
How to buy a car New or pre-owned? Pay cash, take a loan or lease?
Insurance Car, rental, homeowners, flood, hurricane, disability
Identity theft
How and why to review your credit reports and dispute errors you find
Importance of your credit score
Getting a passport
Federal income taxes
Saving for retirement IRAs, Roth IRAs, 401Ks
Banking checking, savings, CDs, bank fees, reconciling your account, automatic savings and bill payment, online banking, overdraft protection
Power of compounding for better or worse
Debit cards vs credit cards vs charge cards
Health insurance purpose of insurance, HMO vs PPO, deductible, copay, govt plans
Medical records dates of all vaccines all major illness, any injuries or surgeries, test for STD, HIV, blood type
Free services at library books, movies, music, magazines, newspapers, librarians
Electronic newspapers
Using coupons
Generic vs brand name drugs</p>
<p>FlMathMom, I love your ideas. Watching movies the rest of the year may sound great to the kids, but there is so much they need to learn before they leave home!</p>
<p>I am so glad you don’t live in our town. They watch movies in class all the time. </p>
<p>We considered private schools or even homeschooling many times. But I think my kids have learned a lot about life in their generic ed in our basic public HS. And they certainly have champed at the bit to leave! On the other hand, they’ve done some lovely work and learned a lot. I worried more when I wasn’t sure my oldest could get into a top school, but she did. </p>
<p>I went to a more intense suburban HS and know the pitfalls there, too. Not only the overwork and stress about HYP-type admissions, but also the nosejobs and eating disorders and who drives the newest Mercedes. I know there are problems everywhere, so I figure my kids can use their intelligence to know what they need and get it no matter where they are.</p>
<p>When we moved here, the schools were much better. State funding, budget cuts, and a no-growth attitude in the town since then have diminished them greatly. It’s very sad, but we’re relieved to be done with the district in a year, and might even move out.</p>
<p>Usually our AP classes do papers and projects after the May exam, and it can be very rewarding, after “teaching to the test” all year. Everyone has exams - our new principal is hyped on that, even in art and choir classes. He thinks it’s unfair for anyone, teacher or student, to have an exam period “off.” I understand his point of view, but it gets silly. And it’s nothing like college, if that’s what we’re preparing them for.</p>
<p>I looked and S will be taking AP exams first and second week of May, not sure exact schedule, but I guess I should find out so I can push him at the appropriate times. I know he had to do some timed old AP Eng exams over vacation. It is Wednesday and he still hasn’t done them. Today is his 17th bday so I won’t push today, but will be on him Thursday. Not sure what he does after the AP exams, or if the exams count in place of finals.</p>
<p>It was ideal for AP classes back when Texas schools started in mid-August. That gave them more time before the AP exams, and less time after. Now they have to do a few chapters in the summer before school starts. Also, the state TAKs exams are now the week before APs, so the teachers actually have to finish a week earlier. </p>
<p>I don’t mind when teachers do enrichment materials after APs. In English they usually have them start on college essays, which is a good use of the time.</p>
<p>Mine is homeschooled so her history class is ended when she takes the AP test. Her writing class will end next week when she has finished editing her novel. Her British lit class will end after she finishes reading and discussing three more books (Heart of Darkness, The Dubliners and 1984). Her math and biology will continue until she finishes them (probably July). Her research class is over by mid May as well as her economics class. Her Spanish is a never ending journey.</p>
<p>I agree that junior year is just a stress-filled killer of souls. D1 keeps muttering that she’s sick of high school and that she can’t wait to get to college. </p>
<p>Our district is ending school a week earlier than planned because of budget issues. My plan is to come up with a list of classic movies for the D’s to watch, one a day. That will be modestly educational and may actually get done. If I give them too much that I say I want done, all that will happen is that they will watch old Glee episodes on Hulu.</p>
<p>MilitaryMom, if your D just read “Heart of Darkness”, she needs to watch Apocalypse Now!</p>
<p>D1 is halfway through “Citizen Kane” and really enjoying it, so maybe that. Treasure of the Sierra Madre or Maltese Falcon. To Kill a Mockingbird. Oooh, and Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, fersure.</p>
<p>My kids are funny about black and white movies, too. They both went through a rejection phase with them. Luckily it passed …</p>
<p>One movie that always impresses people that my D2 has seen and can talk about is “King of Hearts.” It’s the Alan Bates film with him as a WWI British soldier who has to disarm a hidden German bomb in a French village, where everyone was evacuated except the residents of the insane asylum. Wonderful quesions about who is crazy and who isn’t. It was in the office of the director of a college program she visited, and they had a nice chat about it. You do have to be OK with subtitles, although a good chunk of it is in English. Teenage girls will love it because Alan Bates is so cute, and boys will like Genevieve Bujold.</p>
<p>SLitheyTove, I do plan to have her watch this. In 9th grade she took a moview and literature class where they read a book then watched the movie. Reading Heart of Darkness and the watching Apocalypse Now will be like a little recreation of that class.</p>
<p>S just informed me that once he takes an AP exam that class is over for the year. At least 2 weeks left til finals for non AP classes start. I guess he could use the extra time to study for his non AP classes, but I won’t hold my breath.</p>
<p>One of my S’s AP teachers is requiring that they take a final exam, so they will be doing review for that, the other teacher is doing…I have no idea, I should find out.</p>
<p>I like the classic movie ideas, we’ve done a few of these already. Although each time the kids liked the books better.</p>
<p>Finally meeting with LuckyBoy and his guidance counselor this morning. For Junior Advisory homework he had to complete a bunch o’ interest surveys through Naviance last night. Very interesting that “law enforcement” showed up as one of his top potential career paths :eek: He’s more interested in public policy!</p>
<p>We had a good meeting with the guidance counselor this morning I didn’t learn anything new about the “college process” but dh did (does the man listen to me??? ) LuckyBoy was forced to listen to someone else tell him the same things I have been talking about!</p>
<p>The guidance counselor really stressed the importance of the essays. The boys will start working on essays next month and are expected to return to school with (hopefully) polished essays. I’m glad that the school will be the “bad guy” this summer instead of me when I remind him to work on that…</p>
<p>He spent a long time talking about choices with S (open vs core curriculum, size, rural/suburban/urban, distance from home, quality of life, weather etc), potential majors, schools of interest, and so on, taking detailed notes. He said he’d come up with a list for S to consider BUT S is also supposed to come up with a list himself. Guess that will be post APs!</p>
<p>And my favorite------he talked a LOT about outside merit scholarships and the importance of applying for them In the fall the boys will be given a book of scholarships specific to our state and will be expected to apply to those for which they qualify.</p>
<p>In S’ AP classes no finals…in his Eng Lang class teacher will go over summer essays, ideas, tips etc… in his US Hist.(a very tough teacher) they will do other assignments to help boost up their final grades, not sure about the others. </p>
<p>We did the round of college fairs over the weekend. S was very turned off by some potentially great schools because their rep was not very impressive. He did come away with 3 new schools that were not originally on his list. </p>
<p>Prom is this weekend and next week will bring on the chaos of the end of the school year. S has been warned to expect the extra homework load in his non AP classes and the big push to review for AP exams…plus all the extra end of year events taking place that will pull them out of class (awards assembly, NHS induction,jazz festival competition). My boy is stressed and thinks June 3rd cannot come soon enough!</p>
<p>I never saw “King of Hearts” though I remember seeing the trailer when the film first came out, so it’s now on the Netflix list. </p>
<p>Klucky, let’s hear it for GCs talking sense into our kids! :)</p>
<p>D1 now would like to apply to a smaller group of schools. Her feeling is that she can best “package” (her word, not mine) herself and work on her essays if she’s targeting a smaller number of schools rather than a laundry list. For her, that’s probably the right strategy. In her ideal world, she’d just apply to three schools :eek: She was actually prepared to drop applying to UCs entirely, but that seems foolish, especially as the application is very straightforward. Now watch her end up at a UC. “Smaller” is a relative term in this day and age of applying to 9-12 schools, but here it could mean under 9 applications.</p>
<p>GC yesterday said he recommends a minimum of 5 schools: 1-2 reaches, 1-2 matches, 2 safeties (<–wrt to both finances and admissions) He also does NOT recommend ED, as the kids can change so much from the fall of senior year to the start of college.</p>
<p>Most kids from this particular school apply to 6-8, depending on their situations (lop-sided or applying to super-selective schools or chasing merit, etc). He had one guy apply to 10 this year.</p>
<p>Slithey-
My D only wants to apply to three schools. I’ve convinced her to add a couple more, just in case. She has her heart set on one particular school which also happens to be a safety for her, and we are hoping for significant merit money from them.</p>
I didn’t learn anything new about the “college process” but dh did (does the man listen to me??? 
) LuckyBoy was forced to listen to someone else tell him the same things I have been talking about!</p>
In the fall the boys will be given a book of scholarships specific to our state and will be expected to apply to those for which they qualify.</p>