<p>We did our official celebration last week since we had club soccer matches this Sunday. My daughter’s coach was very sweet and bought roses for each girl to give her mom at the conclusion of the game. </p>
<p>I spent Saturday night chaperoning at a Taylor Swift concert. It was actually a fun time with my thirteen year old. </p>
<p>I’m not sure why my DS is having such a relaxed time these two weeks. I guess it’s a testament to how rigorous and demanding his school really is. He says studying for APs is easier than his regular classes, and since the exams are spaced out, the workload is much lighter than ordinary school days when he has homework in nearly every class plus reviewing notes and pre-reading. </p>
<p>He spent Saturday at an all day training session for his fall sport, club soccer match yesterday, and another miracle of sorts - - cracked open the ACT study guide! I also heard him helping his sister with her algebra homework. </p>
<p>This week starts playoff season for his spring school sport and he could end up playing three nights this week. If they go on to regionals that means at least one more week of play the following week. Never a dull moment around here!</p>
<p>Sounds like everyone had a busy and enjoyable Mother’s Day…evidenced by the lack of posts on here! My family took me on a picnic and hike (my favorite things to do on a Sunday afternoon!), then we took my parent out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant with outdoor seating when we got back to town. Beautiful weather all day!</p>
<p>DS went to school early today because the AP Bio teacher was serving breakfast! I saw someone post that earlier and I thought what a great idea … glad my DS’ teacher thought of it too! He felt good about the test. He is NOT looking forward to the APUSH test later in the week! The way he talks, he would be ecstatic with a 3 on that one! Not his favorite class!!</p>
<p>@ gildo - must be something about the APUSH teachers. S3’s had a test last monday during the AP Comp Sci test. He was allowed to stay after school Tuesday to make it up. I realize there weren’t a lot of kids affected by this, but it would be nice if teachers could avoid tests during AP tests.</p>
<p>S3 got called today for an interview for a summer job. By the time he saw the message and returned the call (5pm) they were gone for the day (his phone was off because of the AP exam in the morning). He’ll call again tomorrow. Fingers crossed!! :)</p>
<p>Argh. So DS is not the only one whose teachers assign homework and tests on the same days as APs? I am beside myself regarding how it seems the kids who take the APs are almost punished for it by the lack of consideration. Shouldn’t you expect that teachers of AP classes should ban together and have a pact that they won’t schedule tests while the kids are taking the other teachers’ AP tests? So much work is given during the classes that normally meet during when the AP tests are
given that it is actually rewarding the kids who don’t take the AP tests. I just don’t get it. Then to top it off my kid comes home with homework from the class in which he just took the AP test that day. Can they not have one day off as a reward for writing the test?</p>
<p>Our teachers seem to be nicer about not scheduling anything too major during the AP exam weeks. Thank heavens. I think DS would have broken down if he’d had anything major to worry about beyond the exams!</p>
<p>My son’s BC teacher assigned a project that was due today, but he got a break. He told me about it last night, saying he was not sure when it was due. He was pretty tired from the AP Bio exam (which was a royal pain) and the cold he’s battling, so we called the teacher. She got back to us right away (we’re on the same staff) and told him that since he had missed three of the past four days with AP exams, she would give him an extension. </p>
<p>BTW, the AP Bio teacher’s spread before the exam was wonderful, my son said. Lots and lots of great food. Nothing left, either!</p>
<p>Momreads, I’m so glad the BC Calc teacher recognized the extenuating circumstances with your son and is giving him more time. Obviously when making decisions teachers know the kids who are slackers and who aren’t. Hope he’s feeling better soon. My son also thought the AP Bio exam was a bear, moreso then the subject tests or any of the other APs so far. Just APUSH to go!</p>
<p>S3 is on his way to take the government AP test - his last test this year. Hopefully he does well. He goes to school until June 11th…wonder what they will do in the classroom now?</p>
<p>My son still has finals coming up, the last three days of school the first week of June. I guess it’s good they do it that way – definitely no phoning-it-in the last few weeks of school!</p>
<p>He got his letter jacket for marching band yesterday… It’s 85 degrees + here, and he won’t take it off, lol. I’m surprised he didn’t sleep in it. It was kind of poignant, though… first he said, “Wow, I really feel like a Senior now!” Then he said, “It’s crazy… it feels like yesterday that I was a Freshman, looking at those Seniors in their letter jackets and thinking how cool they were and how much older they seemed than me… and now I’m there.” <em>sniffle</em></p>
<p>Busy weekend with prom, Mother’s Day and loads of homework for DD. Another crazy week ahead for her with tests, projects and the APUSH test tomorrow. Received an email from Spygirl’s counselor yesterday with reminders for the Almost Seniors. Aackk! How did this happen so fast? Not quite ready for the final high school year for Class of 2014.</p>
<p>S14 felt that all studying he did for AP Bio was a total waste of time because the test was like the ACT Science section, not based at all on prior information. Apparently he missed a page of free response questions because his classmates answered more of them than he did. Oops. </p>
<p>BarnardMom, D said that the test did not require Biology knowledge at all, a lot of questions interpreting the graphs. She never took ACT before and will be taking in June. I will tell her ACT science will be easier for her now </p>
<p>Good luck for APUSH!!! She loves APUSH but is worrying about remembering all the details. She has Pre-Cal final after this, SAT subject tests and ACT.</p>
<p>Mother’s Day at our house was indicative of the distraction and stress that is abounding in my household. D14 had two APs last week, an honor’s Bio project due yesterday, two concerts yesterday and tomorrow, two more AP tests today and tomorrow, plus homework! Seriously? Homework? Plus getting ready to go to the Science Olympiad National meet on Thursday (airport at 4:30?!?) On top of finding out she didn’t get into the competitive physics camp she has applied to two years in a row </p>
<p>So when S17 gave me some flowers (cut from my garden) and a homemade card at the dinner he and DH had made, D14 burst into tears. Poor thing is so overwrought and overwhelmed she didn’t remember that it was Mother’s Day. We had all been trying to support her and tiptoe around the house as she muscled through these past couple of weeks, she forgot. As if I care. I spent the rest of the evening trying to explain that I couldn’t care less about Mother’s Day trickets and that she was doing enough (MORE than enough) by just putting her head down so she can put her best foot forward – just loving her through.</p>
<p>Truly, my head is reeling watching her work this hard and care so much. From what I’m reading on this thread, all our kids are making superhuman heroic leaps through this arduous junior year! What better evidence of loving and supporting families is there? </p>
<p>Well, this is the new AP Bio exam, so to my knowledge even the teachers didn’t know exactly what to expect. S3 hasn’t taken the ACT so it makes sense it seemed foreign to him. They still have another month of school, with state exams, and finals. Every class will keep cooking until the last day. For APs it is so inefficient. We start later so they have summer work to try to ensure they cover all material by May. Then they have a month of school with projects and papers assigned simply to keep them busy. I don’t really blame the teachers, they can’t let the kids sit idle for a month, it’s just a lousy set up.</p>
<p>Oh, PortlandiaParent! Your poor DD!! She’s under so much stress, and then to realize she forgot Mother’s day was just too much. This is the time of year they just hit the wall and all you can do is be there to hold them and help them take away, literally and emotionally, the extraneous. Otherwise they feel they are under such weight and they just don’t know what to let go of. Sending big hugs.</p>
<p>DS’s team won their first playoff game last night and qualified for regionals so will have at least two more games. </p>
<p>He is more concerned with the playoff game on Wednesday than APUSH and I can’t say I question his logic. His head coach is a guidance counselor and one assistant is an APUSH teacher and they have given the kids good perspectives on the AP exams. They don’t get you into college, they don’t affect your final grade, and lots of schools don’t accept them. So no need to stress out. </p>
<p>And there is a bonus for the kids next week that we just found out about. You have heard those of us in Virginia talk about the SOLs, which are scheduled for next week. Turns out they are administered in the morning so kids who don’t have a test scheduled have the option of coming in at the normal time and heading to a study hall, Or opting to come in at 1030! DS only has one SOL so guess what he is choosing to do the other days?</p>
<p>Not been a great week or so here. The illness my son got stricken with “may or may not be” mono. Parts of tests were positive, parts negative. Whatever, it still knocked him down and gave him fevers and fatigue. Track districts were bad news. He got pulled off of his secondary competition to focus his energy on his best and he still didn’t make finals.
English teacher doesn’t believe he was ill and is threatening not to take work. Says he didn’t turn in preliminary paperwork for a major essay and when I said I was looking at it and it had “teacher writing” on it, he back-pedaled and said “oh, we’ll, yeah, but I didn’t mark it down” and is blaming my son for not following through. Turns out paper didn’t originally have my son’s name on it, but my son immediately claimed it and spoke with the teacher when they were returned. DS probably should have said something when he noticed other kids all had their work critiqued (teacher sets individual appointments to help edit major essay and he never set one for my son because he didn’t mark down the prelim paperwork as complete) but he is a sick teenager with a lot on his plate. The teacher is still messing with him and won’t make a decision one way or the other. Can’t he just deduct a few points and move on?
AP Physics was yesterday and the studying was sporadic, due to a real need for sleep, so that was probably bombed.
Missed the year-end concert with fever and the director was “sad because he (DS) had worked so hard on the music.”
Lots of projects due - classes end in a week, followed by finals. No let-up on homework during AP season here.
APUSH tomorrow.
Sigh.</p>
<p>Chrysanth and Barnard- I am so interested in what your kids said about the AP Bio. S14 didn’t say much, except it was similar to his practice test. He thought the free response were easier than the multiple choice and was surprised by that. Why would the Bio test not be about content and bio knowledge? </p>
<p>Portlandia-awww. I hope your D is doing better. I feel like we are all experiencing the same things. I just can’t wait to get through the next 2 weeks-end of sports season ( pressures to win) and the APs. At this point I can’t even think about the SAT IIs and ACT. I don’t think that there will be any time to study and have resigned myself to thinking he will have to re-take something in the fall. UGh. Though he probably could “stick” on the SAT I–if he only got 10 more points on one of the sections-- it would be a no-brainer. I hate that my thinking has come to this. Really 10 points shouldn’t matter, should it??</p>
<p>THey don’t offer APUSH at our school so S dodged a bullet there. Good luck to everyone taking it!!</p>
<p>Awww, Maryjay. So sorry to hear about your week. Things will get better. Mono is going around here, too. No fun. I still remember it 30 years later. This is no time for finals and that teacher is being horrible. i hope he can get some rest and that his other teachers are more understanding. Often times it seems they can be hardest on the kids that are top students with expectations so high that they don’t give them a break when they are sick or have a state competition or something. Some of the kids who get sick a lot or don’t have as great of grades often seem to get more leeway around here…</p>
My family took me on a picnic and hike (my favorite things to do on a Sunday afternoon!), then we took my parent out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant with outdoor seating when we got back to town. Beautiful weather all day!</p>
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