<p>^^My MIL just bought a Walkman type CD player at Walmart yesterday. It cost about $28.00. There were a couple of brands/styles available.</p>
<p>Hi - I took D2 to see UMD as well as Penn State UPark recentlyā¦she fell in love with both of themā¦next week we are visiting BU and Northeastern in Bostonā¦she has several more on the list but I am waiting to see her test results before we visitā¦I donāt want to waste anyoneās time unless she is with the āstrike zone.ā So far we have focused on matches and safetiesā¦</p>
<p>Hi Nellieh,</p>
<p>We havenāt visited UMD-CP. Daughter is pretty adamant about not being interested in a school that big. Iāve been debating making her look at it anyway. Iāve heard so many good things about it. But yes, the size is a concern. </p>
<p>Grades should be coming to the Mailbox in the next few days but according to Edline, D1 has made straight As by the skin of her teeth. Several classes were 91%. At her school 90 and above is an A. Very proud of her- she has a tough schedule and spent the first few days in tears and āI canāt doooo this!ā</p>
<p>Checking in. S3 had his final cross country meet yesterday. He ended up about mid-pack and PRād which was nice. Cross Country is over. He will start working out with the tennis team but the season isnāt until the spring. Grades are very good. He seems to be handling junior year much better than his siblings. We signed up for the December SAT last night. We went to a football game at S2ās school (UCLA) on Saturday, S3 got to go on the field prior to the game, sit in the student section, participate in the card show, and a flash mob and they won. So it was a very good experience. </p>
<p>I talked to a āeducation counselorā. They want $1800 for Junior year and $2500 for senior year. I think that is out of our price range. I feel like I have a good handle on most things, I just HATE the admission essay writing part of the process and would like some help with that.</p>
<p>TX5: Congrats on your Sās PR! What a nice way to end the season. Will he be running Track in Spring?</p>
<p>MD: He plays tennis in the spring, last year he did both track and tennis, but track kind of took a back seat. Probably he will do both again, because he enjoys track. The last two years he played basketball in the winter, but he dropped it because he added production drama and something had to give. Hopefully without basketball he can spend more time on his tennis and running.</p>
<p>TX: WOWā¦I thought my kids were busy with their sports!! Once Track season gets closer, we should compare Track schedules. You never know, we may be at the same Invitational, etcā¦
:)</p>
<p>MD: What events does your son do? He must be fast if he is being recruited. S3 is a long distance runner. D1 used to run the low hurdles, the 400 and did the triple jump. She was good for our league, but would get smoked at CIF.</p>
<p>TX5: He runs the 110 & 300 Hurdles and the 4x400 relay. The Coach has asked him to run the 4x100 as well, but that isnāt final yet. He had a great season last year as a Soph and is pretty focused on going back to State, so he has his work cut out for him.</p>
<p>tx5athome, Could your childās English teacher (or a former English teacher) help with the essays? I was at parent-teacher conferences yesterday and my younger sonās AP English teacher offered to help him with scholarship essays. She mentioned that she often has seniors return to her for help even though they were her students in junior year. I bet you know as much as any āeducation counselorā after spending time on CC! We donāt need any stinking education counselors, do we? ;-)</p>
<p>Hi everybody, havenāt posted in a while. Did anyone elseās child get an email about Lead America? I am feeling a little concerned because it makes my son feel like he is getting a special invitation but I have the feeling that it is some kind of money making organization preying upon kids and familiesā desires to feel special. It is frustrating because when I suggested to my son we should do some research on it before jumping into it I think he felt like I was not supporting him rather than helping, all because they made me him feel like he was picked specially, and I think he is one of thousands that probably got this email. Any one else have experience with this?</p>
<p>Ds got snail mail about it. I threw it away without even showing it to him. He gets that itās just marketing. Flattering marketing, but still just marketing.</p>
<p>David, D got this email as well. Feel the same as YDS. We dispose of all such recognition that want thousands of dollars from us.:)</p>
<p>If he got snail mail I also would have thrown it out. I canāt believe that organizations can get away with this, because the way they went after his emotions with that email was outrageous. They make it look like it is associated with the government somehow and that he was picked. Normally I think he understands marketing very well but this was really sinister! I feel like complaining to some regulatory agency or something.</p>
<p>TX congratulations on the end of track and your sonās accomplishments. </p>
<p>Dās soccer season ended yesterday-won their division, but they are not moving on. So glad it is over. She was starting to feel overwhelmed with her other activities. </p>
<p>D came home with some great news yesterday. She was selected as the student representative to a district wide committee about school issues (representing about 7 high schools). I am so proud of her! She has been a āleaderā in her school since her āweeā years, but this is a whole new level. It will be a big committment and is certainly something that is going to help during admissions time. She will be working with administrators, school board, parents, teachers, and community leaders. </p>
<p>I just hope she doesnāt burn out since she is unwilling to drop any other committments (of which there are too many). Hopefully she will be able to maintain her grades.</p>
<p>I just complained to the BBB about them.</p>
<p>David, I dugthe letter out of recycling. It says at the bottom āYour name was provided by The College BoardStudent Search Service.ā I assume my ds was likely targeted because when he took a test he scored well and indicated that he was in Model UN or class president or some such. So itās not totally random that your kid got an e-mail but, of course, itās not indicative of any particular honor beyond reaching their threshold of a decent score and what other marketing demographic theyāre trying to hit.</p>
<p>My son is a runner, too. Heās looking forward to indoor track (1600 and 3200m) because itās not run by our high school athletic association and he can run as āunattachedā. Heās ineligible to compete for his new high school, because heās a transfer student. Today he reported that they had a food fight at lunch. Isnāt that just lovely?!! This is supposed to be a good catholic school. There were never food fights at his old public school. Someone tipped him off in advance, so he was able to remove his new (and expensive) sweater before the fight began.</p>
<p>just thought I would bump our little thread to the first pageā¦a really bad cold has made its way through our family. Gosh what sniffles and sneezes! Unfortunately it was finals week making it more miserable and also Dās first SAT II (spanish with listening). You would not believe the saga for that darn cd playerā¦ a friend offered hers but we were unable to connectā¦I go to the cvs and buy one on Friday afternoon and D and I try itā¦doesnāt work. Take it backā¦it turns out the manufactured date was 2005!! so there is one more in the store. I open it in the store and all the clerks try to make it work. No go. It is now 8:30 on Friday night (D is at home with hot water bottle and cold eeze)ā¦I go to Target (we do not stock those any more!), Radio shack (it has been over a year since we had those!), I start driving aimlessly looking for a Walgreens, etc and then I see āToys R Usā and think, āPerhaps I can buy a disney cd player?ā It turns out Toys R us is open on Fridays until 10 pm (what kind of parent takes an 8 year old shopping on Friday at 9pm?) and I see it! practically glowing! A sponge bob square pants person CD player! I am ecstatic and then I see a WHOLE ROW of plain pink and blue cd players for $14.99! I insist on buying and trying it out and it works perfectly. I am a little sad about the sponge bob one but it was $19.99. Still, so tempting to make D take the SAT II with sponge bobā¦</p>
<p>How frustrating and hilarious, famm! I bet he would have rocked that Sponge Bob player.</p>
<p>Ds2 gets his braces off tomorrow. Exciting! And he got a call from the congressmanās office where he interned this summer, and they asked if heād work over the winter break. He jumped at the chance.</p>
<p>I think tomorrow Iāll register him for the January SAT. This week is the end of the reporting period. Have no idea how the grades are going.</p>