<p>Have your kids’ teachers been working with them on AP prep? Have they regularly been doing problem sets based on old exams or writing DBQs etc from old exams? Or are they progressing through the subject matter like a non-AP class?</p>
<p>For LuckyBoy, all four AP teachers have been using past AP exam questions all year. He was intimidated all fall and winter by the questions but now he is totally confident in his knowledge for calc, USH, and Eng Lang. Physics C is another situation…</p>
<p>LuckyGirl '13 will be taking APUSH next year at a different school (her brother chose the single-sex option, she the coed). She’s heard from friends that the APUSH teacher is BAD (and this is after freshmen year bad world history teacher). Everyone in that class is using outside prep books to study for the exam. We’re saving every scrap of paper LuckyBoy has brought home from his APUSH class :eek:</p>
<p>I have asked S to ask his AP Lang and Comp teacher if he would be willing to review his essay over the summer. He isn’t jumping up and down at the thought of doing that. So I think I will have to get the enforcer, DH, involved to tell S to ask his english teacher.</p>
<p>D and her friends are already talking about an after graduation beach trip next year (all female, someplace in the US like Destin.) Am I insane that I think I might let her go if the trip really happens?</p>
<p>Hi! I’m a new member, too. Lurked for awhile, but since the '14s have made their decisions, I decided to sign up and jump in.</p>
<p>My D is a Jr, no clue where she wants to go or what she wants to do. My older daughter is just finishing up her freshman year at college. #1D knew all, so it was an easy cycle. This time is going to be tough!</p>
<p>She spent all afternoon studying for the APUSH test coming up on Friday. SAT is in June.</p>
<p>My son has a theory that I think may hold some merit. The more wild the parent was as a child, the more they know how to put the breaks on their own child… thus it always skips a generation. My boys are aware that it would be unwise to underestimate me. :)</p>
<p>Blueiguana, I have to agree with that theory. Unfortunately for my kids, DH definitely had his wild days. </p>
<p>Missypie, I am so not ready to start thinking about my kids traveling with friends. My oldest is a boy, so I would be more amenable to him traveling than my D, but still. I think Blueiguana’s S hit the nail on the head, btdt and I am not sure I want my kids doing the same.</p>
<p>missypie, My daughter and 5 or 6 of her friends rented a beach house after HS graduation, but it was about a 2 hour drive from here. I don’t know how the logistics would work if they wanted to go someplace that would not have public transportation. None of the kids would be old enough to rent a car. My daughters trip was probably much more tightly leashed then most graduation beach trips. They stayed at a friends house and had to promise not to drink or bring alcohol, in fact they signed a contract saying that. They had a great time and it was a great way to bond and say goodbye. None of them were going to the same college.</p>
<p>I know a mother who never says “No” to her S’s ideas about the “kids only” trips. She knows all the other parents will not allow it, or at least most won’t and the trip will be cancelled. The kids think she is the coolest. :D</p>
<p>missypie- that’s a tough one. If you trust your daughter and her friends that’s one thing, however I might be more worried about their safety. That’s a hard one. In a few months they are going to be on a college campus where they will be making their own decisions about who stays over and what they consume. Both will be more readily available (with the exception of a select few universities). For the most part however, this will be happening on a college campus with other 18-22yo students. Not that they are not safe, however it is a more controlled environment than the beach where there are older guys who prey on teens they know will be there that time of year.</p>
<p>Sorry. Now that I’ve just made them the subject of the next episode of 20/20… Just another thought to through in the mix. It’s a hard decision no matter what angle you take!</p>
<p>keylimepie- If I was another parent in that ‘group’, I would be suspect about another parent who never says no to anything.<br>
Being the ‘cool parent’ doesn’t have to mean you say yes to everything. Sometimes it means you simply treat the teens like the young adults they are becoming, not the tweens they were. You expect them to behave responsibly, but are not blind to what kids are capable of. You talk to the openly and honestly about the things that matter in their lives… and you listen. You laugh and are not afraid to be human. To a teen that can be ‘cool’.
I wouldn’t go for my S being at the house where the parent doesn’t say no…</p>
<p>My H was the wild child. Our poor kids…no senior beach week for them </p>
<p>Anyone taking AP today?</p>
<p>LuckyBoy’s first is on Wednesday, calc. He’s got another APUSH study session today, 5-7 after sports/activities. I think they’re doing post-Vietnam to the present tonight. His Stressed Friend has scheduled another review session tomorrow night for calc but I think S will skip that in favor of vegging with his computer! He’s come to realize that last minute cram/review sessions do not work for him.</p>
<p>The first draft of the common app essay is pretty decent. It’s going to need several revisions because he writes everything like a lab report or a scientific abstract! I am SO SO SO SO SO grateful that the school makes a first draft an assignment for all juniors. I won’t have to be a meanie in the late summer trying to get him to start----I’ll just have to ask if he’s revised the essay :)</p>
<p>His Austrian exchange student will be here in one week. He cleaned his room yesterday (gasp) and vacuumed (double gasp). S is really looking forward to hanging with his friend again as they had a great time while S was in Austria in March. It will be interesting adjusting my cooking to accommodate another male teenager :D</p>
<p>^^ as for cool parents, “yes” parents etc…
a good friends of mine and I–and both husbands do think that If a parent had a wild-sih past (high school years, college etc) to some varying degree or another–
IT IS likely they will know all of the “tricks” and keep a closer watch/say no…</p>
<p>However–we know of several parents who are pretty liberal and one set of parents who are whild-ish now–where their social life is pretty important to them…</p>
<p>I am not sure these parents really know what their kids do–For example–a few of the kids have been kicked off a social network site multiple times for inappropriate content…
we only heard about it because the kids mentioned in passing to our student how they had to get a new email to re-up their profile etc…</p>
<p>We hear about other stuff in passing…</p>
<p>All in all- our student’s friends generally don’t get into trouble–not like kids in other groups…
If you want to know whats what–check the “wall” and pics–then you really know…</p>
<p>I’m impressed that so many kids are taking the AP’ s seriously. Maybe my kid’s just a slacker, but I haven’t heard of any study groups. I feel like the biggest nag in the world, constantly asking him to prepare.</p>
<p>Also, around here, post-prom/graduation trips are the norm. My feeling is that we have to set certain limits, but let them find their way.</p>
<p>^^
All of study guides are on our student’s desk here at home–however–don’[t kow how much use they are getting–as the teachers are still reviewing at school…</p>
<p>I am begining to think that was money not well spent–and these guides are are brand new…</p>
<p>We went to my older son’s college graduation this weekend and younger son (Class of 2011) moaned the whole time about not being able to do his homework or prepare well for the upcoming AP tests. Of course he did NOTHING on the 6 hour drive down, but did try to work once we were there when there was some down time. He was unhappy to miss the comp sci study group on Saturday and worried about 2 tests today that he said he had no time to study for. ugh.</p>
<p>There would be moms in the beach house. There is one mom who still won’t let her kids go on a field trip (in 11th grade!) unless she is a chapeone, so she would definitely go. (And according to D, she’s “no fun.”)</p>
<p>D usually hates “used things” but she’s willing to use her brother’s AP study guides since they’re in pristine (untouched) condition.</p>
<p>My D is doing a lot of reviewing in class and is using the books I bought. Phew! She took an AP practice test - without essay - and got a 5. No promises, though, and she knows that. I think she’ll study as hard for Bio, but doesn’t feel as confident about it. Luckily she has friends to go through this with. </p>
<p>I tried to have the “what are you aiming for” conversation with her yesterday, but couldn’t think of how to say it. She just said, “I’ll do my best and see what happens.” I couldn’t figure out how to talk about the choice between trying to nail one or two of the tests as opposed to treating them all the same; this is relevant (as has been mentioned here before) because some of her schools only give credit for 5’s and some for 3’s and up. </p>
<p>I think in the long run she’ll be in the best shape if she tries for at least a 3 on everything, because at those schools she’ll want the credit for Gen Ed (which could be kind of basic classes) whereas at the schools that want a 5 the classes are bound to be at a higher level overall. My D1 just missed placing out of 1st year Bio by a hair at school that required 5’s, and she’s very happy to have taken it again, thinks it would have been a mistake to bypass it under any circumstances. </p>
<p>In the long run this is just musing on my part, because it will be what it will be. I’m proud she’s taking them; her senior friend was here yesterday and says she hasn’t taken exams with any of her AP classes, doesn’t plan to get any placement in college, which is a reasonable and personal choice. I’m glad my D is still motivated to see how she’ll do.</p>
<p>She’s a jr. but she and some senior friends talked for months about a grad trip to Disney World… No need for me to do anything but say, “Oh, really?” Like that was going to happen! I just let her have her little fantasy and let it go - she knew it wasn’t happening, either.</p>
<p>I do find it funny that in a world where a hotel won’t sign a room out to anyone under 21 that someone else who owns property would take that risk. The kids might be great, but the liability if someone they can’t control comes onto the property is just too high. We still won’t let our D have people over when we’re not here (except a girlfriend for an hour or two) - don’t want people getting hurt in this day and age, sad to say. D was home alone at age 12 when a tornado hit, just missed us by half a mile, so she knows that things can get pretty weird in the blink of an eye.</p>
<p>My d has not touched the ap review books I bought for her as her teachers are giving her review homework to do. Learned my lesson. Next year I won’t buy any!</p>
<p>I don’t think that most homes are knowingly rented to kids. Parents are the ones that do the renting. For us, it was through a friend who knew my daughter well. At the time my daughter and her friends were graduating HS, they were all anti-drinking anyway so that wasn’t the fun they were looking for, they just wanted a beach to enjoy along with each others company without parents.</p>
Just another thought to through in the mix. It’s a hard decision no matter what angle you take!</p>
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