<p>My daughter worked all through college and graduated with highest honors, but she’s one of those organized kids that likes to be busy. My older son only qualified for work study his freshman year (when older sister was also in college) and had a hard time with time management. He did not work during the school year after the first year. Our rising College freshman has a tentative offer of a 10-12 hour job, probably doing IT work and I think that will work out for him. He is probably the most organized of my three kids and finds doing IT work a stress reliever. He did not qualify for work study.</p>
<p>Want to feel old…[100</a> Things Your Kids May Never Know About - Yahoo! Shopping](<a href=“http://shopping.yahoo.com/articles/yshoppingarticles/648/100-things-your-kids-may-never-know-about/]100”>http://shopping.yahoo.com/articles/yshoppingarticles/648/100-things-your-kids-may-never-know-about/)</p>
<p>S is on the fence about work study too. We feel that it’s a good idea to take a w/s job, see how it goes, and then if it proves to be too much…let it go.
I asked him the other day if he and his room mate have discussed who’s bringing what…the answer was decidedly nonspecific…looks like I’ll have to revert to nag tactics in order to know what to buy/send.</p>
<p>fogfog–yes now I feel really old. I even had to punch cards to load my cobol programs into the computer! Arghhh. All the lines of errors to fix and periods that were missing (any other computer geeks will understand).</p>
<p>And speaking about being an old foggie–I am with you all in thinking that DS should concentrate on studies but a job would be nice. So here’s the old part–did any of us even think twice about NOT having a job in college. I know it was just what everyone did (OK, I know not everyone, but everyone I knew). I took 15-18 hours every semester and had a part-time job to pay for gas, car insurance, movies, food. It was just what you did. When I got my master’s degree I was working full-time and going to school full time at night. Either we didn’t have as difficult of classes or we are selling our kids short thinking they can’t handle it??? </p>
<p>Remember when were were excited about AvonHSDad’s countdown to graduation? Anyone else dreading the countdown to college start. It seems this summer is flying by and I’m not spending enough quality time with DS. :(</p>
<p>VAMom2015 - I am so with you on the cobol & cards…we had a duplicator punch card machine so when doing projects, some cards could be copied. I was a typist so at least the typing of the cards wasn’t so bad (but no white out LOL). When I was stationed at Tinker, we were on the cutting edge and had terminals…no cards…still cobol. Won’t say the year.</p>
<p>Dreading…dreading…don’t like countdown. Sad that I’ll be missing first day of school…hope he at leasts txts me LOL. Also hoping he might suddenly decide taking pictures and sending them to me would be a good idea…oh I can dream.</p>
<p>Quality time is on my agenda for next week. Tomorrow, I will load up the mommy van (known as the spaceship to D2S and his friends) with DS2 and four of his friends. Two boys, two girls. We will tow the jetski across the state to St. Louis to my mother’s senior community. Then we will load up her ancient grandma van with her belongings. On Sunday, we drive in tandem to her lake cottage in northwest Michigan, approx. an 11-hour drive.</p>
<p>Her lake cottage has three bedrooms. DS1, D-in-L and grandson are already there in one bedroom. My mom and I will occupy the other two. The five teenagers will live up the hill and two houses over in a cabin I have rented for them from a friend of my mother’s. It barely has running water and electricty. Had an outhouse and outside shower only until 10 years ago. No TV, no internet. Just a lot of board games.</p>
<p>We will all play in the water at Mom’s, eat fresh fish from Lake Michigan, sail, jetski, cliimb sand dunes, see Harry Potter at the drive-in movie theater and spit the seeds out of fresh Michigan sweet cherries.</p>
<p>The temperature there right now is 79 with a heat index of 81. Here those numbers are 100 and 111. So, no matter how crazy I am to make a trip with five 18-year-olds, two 21-year-olds, a 17-month old and an 85-year-old, it will be gloriously beautiful!</p>
<p>My ds will be attending Harvard</p>
<p>olderwiser mom: ^^^^^^ Jealous…founds fabulous.</p>
<p>Regarding work study- my D was not awarded work study, but I had work study jobs all through college. I was an engineering major, and always carried a full load. My favorite job was working at the student center desk once or twice a week. I believe I did the same job for several terms. It was a great job. For the most part, I was able to do my homework as I gave out change and directions to lost visitors.</p>
<p>D didn’t qualify for work study. But she’s one of those kids who works best when she’s busy - so she is planning on finding a job or a volunteer opportunity on campus. Her schedule right now has three hours of lectures on MWF, a 1 1/2 hr lecture on Tuesday and a 1 1/2 hr lecture + 3 hour lab on Thursday. Looks incredibly light compared to her high school schedule of 8 hours class + 4 hours of practice each day. I know, I know - there’s much more studying to be done while at college - but I really think she needs a bit more time occupied to force her to work during the time she has free 
Warped !!</p>
<p>On jobs, I’d say, it depends upon the kid and the need. Some kids will do well with a job whether or not there is any explicit need. Adds structure to the day, possibly social outlet as well. Others would not. I’d recommended to ShawD that she wait on jobs (yoga at the moment, research) until she see what her schedule looks like. The structure might help her and, although we don’t have a financial hole to fill, she’d value making her own money. ShawSon, who uses lots of energy on his academic work and aims to have the highest grade in the class in every course related to his major, runs out of steam and a job that was taxing from a reading/writing standpoint would be difficult for him. So, he didn’t look for or take any jobs. At the end of this past school year, his advisor offered him a job for the next two years running his behavioral economics lab, which ShawSon accepted, so we’ll see what that throws into the mix, but it also means he should be able to get funding to run his own experiments as well. I had a job all through college, but they were like ShawSon’s – tied to my major and then tied to my research. [No COBOL, but Fortran and JCL needed].</p>
<p>fogfog–That’s so funny! When my DS was being tested for admission to kindergarten (he was a week too young!) they showed him pictures of various objects. The tester was stunned when he identified a typewriter. She said that most kids called it a keyboard, if they came up with anything . This was 17 years ago.</p>
<p>VAmom & capenn, I remember punch cards too. We had a bio lab in college where we had to run a simulation on the computer, and the worst thing was to drop that stack of cards before you got a chance to load them.</p>
<p>Crud - sea air and unbelievable humidity are getting to my brain… Our dear Amanda was at orientation when I was, not Kinder… Not that it matters…but…</p>
<p>I am reminded as I look at my pink arms and legs that one can get sunburned from underneath an umbrella…lovely.</p>
<p>We are leaving work study up to Bluejr but not his first year. He’s been fortunate to work full time two summers before school. I know many aren’t able to. He does have spending/book money. I do think many kids are more organized and productive students when they work.</p>
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<p>Well I was flattered by the confusion/comparison. 
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<p>^ Yea, I just get all the fun ppl mixed up even after all this time! ;)</p>
<p>OWM: Your trip sounds wonderful. Have a great time.</p>
<p>Arisamp: Yes, we took a pink jeep tour in Sedona. We all loved it.</p>
<p>BI: Enjoy the beach.</p>
<p>We head to Bethany Beach, Delaware in 2 weeks for a week with my sister’s family. A few days ago, people were talking about their family’s place, and this one is ours. My H and I went to this resort with our parents, and we’ve been taking our girls since they were babies. </p>
<p>I never used punch cards, but I used terminals when I was a Cobol programmer.</p>
<p>Just back from a successful trip to IKEA with D! There is lots of cute, cheap stuff for dorm rooms there- some examples</p>
<p>chair cushion $7
desk lamp $15
open stock dishes $2-3 each
body pillow with cover $10
plastic glasses 4/$5</p>
<p>tons of bins, closet storage, etc all at reasonable prices.</p>
<p>Also- we got our lunch for free for spending $100!</p>
<p>Okay, I warned I read backward on the iPhone, right? Anyway this accounts for odd placed responses. </p>
<p>OWM - I just caught your post about your holiday. It sounds like heaven and worth that drive!! I’ve always wanted to visit Lake Michigan! I go to the shore for the kids but my dream is to live on a lake. I grew up vacationing on lakes on the east coast as my brother sailed competitively. The beach is fine, but to me a lake is vacation.</p>
<p>Blue - Yes, I read your comment about forced socializing at the exact same time that I was being forced to be social. It was painful but bearable knowing that somewhere, at some college function, there was another soul sharing my inner scream. Don’t mind being mixed up with Kinderny! It’s all good.</p>
<p>OWM - Sounds like my kind of vacation, put in a kayak and disappear for awhile…that would be my dream right now.</p>
<p>PAMom - My kids love Ikea and have been asking to go for a while, my youngest asked this am because we “need to stock up on meatballs and lingonberry jelly” - maybe I should get ds to go for storage. Found out his room doesn’t have a closet - only an armoire so he’s going to need some help.</p>
<p>Hot as hell and my brain has ceased to function normally, I find my mind drifting away midsentance and I swear it must be the heat.</p>
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SUNY Albany Class of 1976 - we used paper tape for Basic and punch cards for FORTRAN. This is what convinced me to not major in computers but to choose accounting. Wonder how my life would have been if I stayed in computers?</p>