<p>I started cleaning out D’10’s room last night (she moves out, I move in) and S’13 comes running in screaming “Don’t throw out any class notes!” I let him go through her closet (good thing she’s a pack rat) and he emerged with notes for several classes and graded tests. I just hope the teachers are clever enough to change their tests periodically. But, this year, S doesn’t have any of the same teachers she had, so I don’t think his foraging is going to help him much.</p>
<p>D’13 said last night “if chemistry stays this easy I will be incredibly bored” - I told her then she should have no reason to to bring home "A"s! She was the one that opted out of honors and in to regular chemistry mainly to avoid doing a science project and I doubt she’ll find it easy all year but I’ll be curious to see if she decides she should be pushing herself more. She has found though that she is very glad she chose regular pre-calc and not honors as those in honors are already feeling lost and she’s suddenly feeling like she “gets” it. I think this is a true example of where backing off the fast track is helping. Now honors English is giving her lots of reading and not on a book she’s been able to get into but so far she seems to be taking everything seriously so I’m hoping she’s created the right balance for herself.</p>
<p>I am very thankful though it’s Friday of the first week - we’re all exhausted from going back 
This weekend, before fall baseball games start up, will be a rare school weekend without many events!</p>
<p>S feels the same way about regular Algebra II - he finally gets it. They seem to be moving at a much slower pace - and he has a much better teacher than he did for Geometry. But he is still in honors Chemistry and that looks like it is really going to kick his butt this year. He’s not very detail oriented and the teacher seems to be stickler for neat lab journals and notes, etc.</p>
<p>In addition to 2 AP’s, S2 is taking Calc at a uni this year, 9 months after he completed Precalc. Outside of school, he just picked up a weekend side job. We’ll be monitoring his progress closely to see if he can handle the workload. He went to sleep after 1 am last night. If this pattern continues, we’ll trim down his activities.</p>
<p>Ah! Not ready, not ready, not ready! Our district has a HUGE college fair every Fall. D1 didn’t go for the 1st time until the beginning of her junior year; of course, by her senior year, her list was solid & while she went, it didn’t really serve any purpose.</p>
<p>D2 just messaged me. They are being encouraged by the GT counselors to go this year as sophomores. So she’s planning on going with a group of her friends. I told her that’s great but we’ll have to sit down beforehand to start our college discussion.</p>
<p>I really didn’t think she’d start worrying about this until the Spring. I am not mentally prepared to think about this yet! Lalalalalala, I can’t hear you :)</p>
<p>RobD…as another parent just finishing a launch, I too am not ready to start the whole college craziness for a while. Some company called to say my daughter had signed up at the school as interested in SAT prep…I answered that she may be interested but her parents are not–yet. I told D when she stopped her current 3-sport schedule in November, I would be happy to discuss a prep class…until then …she is prohibited from thinking further ahead than next week!</p>
<p>My DD’s school takes the PSAT as 10th graders. They took the PLAN last year as freshmen. What worries me is that she is a year behind in Math and so she probably won’t do well on the math portions- even her Junior year cause she’s still a year behind.</p>
<p>Octoberdana - what math class is your daughter taking?
And do not worry - this is just practice PSAT.</p>
<p>Rob, I’m jealous of how much contact your D has with her guidance counselor. My D has only seen her guidance counselor once for a scheduing change that she initiated. I’m pretty sure I’m her gc!</p>
<p>octoberdana - don’t forget the SAT/ACT tests based on standard math sequences NOT the ones you usually see on CC so it can actually be more of a disadvantage for those ahead if they are ahead enough they look to the math portions to be more complex than they are. I wouldn’t worry about it too much!</p>
<p>RobD - I agree, I couldn’t face looking at college info already again, nor fortunately could my D’13 so I think we’re safe - heck I’m keeping my fingers crossed she’ll be ready to think about it by next summer but am not worrying about it either way until then (so I say now!).</p>
<p>Blueshoe: don’t be jealous; it’s not the GC, it’s the gifted consultants. They are great. They end up acting as GCs by senior year because they’re more experienced with the kids who have aspirations beyond the state u’s. But right now they only see the grade level group of kids about 15 min/month.</p>
<p>Parent teacher conferences were today. Happy to say that all is well.</p>
<p>Shilly: we ended up having the 1st real college conversation last night. I gave her the Cliff Note’s financial spiel, then started asking her for some input: do you prefer a smaller school or a larger school? I don’t know. OK, what about weather? Can you handle winters again? Um, I’m not sure. OK, city or rural? Well…cities freak me out. Ding ding ding, we have a narrowing factor So yeah, this is why we don’t need to talk about it yet.</p>
<p>Power school is up and running and it seems we are off to a great year! DD has a tough, but doable schedule and so far she is flying. Yeah!!</p>
<p>1st full week of school oficially today and S is making minor adjustments to his schedule.</p>
<p>Dropping “reqd to graduate Ethics” for a new elective in Engineering. Mom is happy with this.</p>
<p>Adding another elective for spring schedule (hmmm – Mom not sure this is good idea given he has a huge EC that takes up every Spring weekend. That study hall in spring could have come in handy)</p>
<p>On the fence with Honors Pre-Calc and may drop to regular (actually, same class instruction, Honors kids just get different tests and extra assignments) – Mom’s thinking – there goes the coveted “most rig” course check box, but it may be a great trade off to maintain S’s sanity.</p>
<p>S goes to a private day. He needs a 504 Plan. Public district must write it. We’ve been working on it since last March. The red tape of it all is draining!</p>
<p>We are in the 4th week of school and so far, so good. This year seems to be a lot more laid back. Only having one kid at home helps, but I also think S’13 has finally figured out the homework “thing.” He’s actually checking Blackboard every night and so far, has turned in every assignment on time. And his rehearsal schedule for the fall play is incredibly sane compared to last year. But, then again, I had 2 kids in 2 different plays at the same time last year plus college applications and auditions for D’10. So maybe it was just my schedule that was insane! Son was called yesterday by agent to do some voiceover work but I think we’re going to turn it down, as it would mean missing a day of school. Nice money for the college fund, but I’m enjoying this leisurely pace too much.</p>
<p>meg, that’s cool about the voiceover work.</p>
<p>Ds got his first reporting period grades, and he said he has straight A’s (I try to avoid the online grading system). Didn’t do that once last year, I don’t think. I hope it’s a trend that continues.</p>
<p>Regular Pre-Calc and the sanity it has provided D are huge, although for this round Im not as worried about most rigorous but for us it would still be worth giving up to keep regular pre-calc as weve heard the honors kids are already floundering and this is just week 2. Hope the red tape goes more smoothly!</p>
<p>How cool on the voiceover Megpmom!</p>
<p>YDS Wow, great job to your S2 its a lot easier to be motivated to keep them once you have seen you have them so heres hoping they stick! :)</p>
<p>Yeah, S likes doing the voiceover stuff. Several kids at his school have regular gigs. It’s usually Japanese anime cartoons that they have to translate into English. He gets to see the cartoon before it goes on air, which is fun. He’s also done some video game voices (he’s got lots of crazy voices). DH works for a major video game publisher, so they sometimes throw some work S’s way.</p>
<p>DD is in Algebra 1 as a Sophomore.</p>
<p>^^to do well on the SAT she will need Geometry.
ACT on the other hand has some Trig, which SAT does not (as far as I know), so SAT might just be her test :)</p>
<p>S took PSAT as a freshman. Now we get a letter saying that since he scored so well last year, he’s been selected to do a PSAT prep class for this year’s test (which still doesn’t count for NM). We said “No thanks.” As S said, “If I already got a top score last year, why do I need to prep?” Plus, the class is Saturday mornings and he was loathe to give up that free time.</p>