<p>Carmen – The writing courses sound fantastic. Is that an in-person class or on-line?</p>
<p>WW – The summer school course was part of a 4 year plan worked out with the science department to let her skip prereqs for certain advanced/AP courses. I think this is their problem now, not mine.</p>
<p>hmmmm D2’s summer plans will include mowing of the lawn, learning/helping to mow the fields with the tractor, much cleaning out of the barn, much library visits and reading, much sports 2 nights a week and several 3 day tournaments. Hopefully at least one traditional family summer camping trip way up in the mountains. Learning to be a sports referee to make some $$ and possibly also working at a berry farm.
Any local summer camp activities will be in our yard and our swimmin’ hole in the creek! :)</p>
<p>Most of my kids’ teachers are good/ok. She’s got excellent math/language teachers in the past three years. But this year my D. has a terrible science teacher in 8th grade. This teacher is young and (pardon me) ignorant. That’s part of the reason d. is not doing well in science. Many things the teacher teaches in class don’t make sense to D. I seriously believe the teacher doesn’t understand what she is teaching. Plus, my D. who usually loves her teachers, says “she (the teacher) hates everyone in my class.” Probably like some of your kids in 8th grade, they’re learning physical science. Basically it’s intro to chemistry, physics. It’s so important, I want my kids to love science and understand it well. The teacher is strict, unforgiving. It wouldn’t be so bad if she teaches the right concepts. When D. brings back worksheet, if they’re from internet or textbook, they’d be fine. But from time to time H. and I (who are both physics professors) would see some terrible conceptual mistakes in the stuff D. brought back home, and spelling mistakes that even I as a non-native speaker could tell easily. My H. who is a native speaker, found those spelling/grammar mistakes unbearable. We don’t want to say much in front of the kids but it really bothers me!</p>
<p>We just got dresses for D15’s 8th grade graduation and for the 8th grade dance. 8th grade graduation doesn’t seem to be such a huge deal here…no more so than elementary graduation. I do find it hard to fathom how close she and her D16 sister are to adulthood, if we can call 18 that anymore. D15 doesn’t finish at the middle school for three more weeks. Her Biology Regents (NYS proficiency exam) is the same day as their moving up ceremony. Then she will start studying for another Regents in August to hopefully join the accelerated math track at the HS. Additional summer plans are camps and family vacations…nothing for the resume this year. I have a big problem with my kids’ teachers. I made myself a pest to the 6th grade science teacher pointing out her errors; 7th grade science was a joke with a should-have-been-retired teacher who simply handed out packets and had the kids fill them in. This year is a little better but biology is not my strong point so I’m not as likely to notice factual errors. English is a mixed bag. Social studies and math have been OK. D15’s history teacher this year is outstanding. I hear that at the HS there are some very good, but also very bad, teachers. Hoping my D’s DO NOT get the bad math and science teachers. Our teachers consistently ‘earn’ > $100K and benefits @+70% with health insurance, pension, and vacation, not based on merit, but on seniority, and of course tenured teachers have 100% job security. Ours is not a system that encourages consistent excellence in public education. Nothing to do but watch carefully at home and try to plug the gaps.</p>
<p>I’ll have to say the worst teachers my D. got are the science teachers. I wonder how these teachers got their certificates! That’s part of the reason our country is lacking behind other countries in math and science.</p>
<p>Hi there - I will echo what I’m hearing from you all here. My kids have had mediocre teachers for math and science. The teachers at the middle school for math weren’t very good at all. The teachers my son has had for honors classes at the high school have been very good, but he says the teachers that teach the regular math classes aren’t great. that’s a big reason why my rising freshman is in honors Algebra II for 9th grade instead of regular. Word on the street is that the honors class is pretty difficult, but I figure with a better teacher, he’ll be better off than if he took regular. Some of the science teachers have been OK, and some have been awful, including being downright wrong on some concepts and being pretty uninspiring. The teacher my senior should
have for AP Physics C next year is supposed to be good. </p>
<p>All in all, it feels like a struggle to 1) make sure they aren’t learning incorrect concepts (especially since we don’t really get very hands on with their homework at all) and 2) try to keep a love of science alive and convince them it’s really cool. My two oldest love math but don’t really like science. I’m convinced they just don’t like science as it was taught to them. They like scientific thought and like other people doing good work in science, but they have no interest in becoming scientists themselves. My hope with my rising freshman is that we can keep a love of science alive in him. </p>
<p>So here’s a question - S will be taking Biology this year. Any great ideas to keep the love alive? Movies to watch, books to read, things to do at home to just show the fun and cool side of biology? I’m not talking about home study in biology, but just cool things for family conversations and activities that will spark an appreciation for what the study of biology can look like.</p>
<p>@Pinotnoir, Get a small microscope and look at things at home through it could be fun. Esp. if he learns something in school, try to get something similar to play with your home microscope. My H. bought one for the kids, they’ve had all kinds of fun with it.</p>
<p>PinotNoir: To foster a love of biology, watch anything by David Attenborough and read Stephen Jay Gould.</p>
<p>Hi, new to the board, S is doing a middle school away camp thing they do at his school to celebrate graduating from middle school. It sounds like fun! He is going to be doing Google CAPE this summer, which is a computer camp sponsored by Google, and a rowing camp. He’s got a lot of down time also, which he is probably going to fill with basketball, an online programming course, and maybe some online math. </p>
<p>I wanted him to also take an online essay writing course through CTY, because he’s a good writer but hates writing essays, but when I discussed it he got that “I will do this if you insist, dad, but it will crush my spirit” look in his eyes. He worked really hard in 8th grade in math club, rowing, and school, so I figure he has earned some time to relax and follow his inclinations. </p>
<p>I might get him to read some minor classics, too, like “Candide” and “Farenheit 451” – he doesn’t have enough time to read for fun during the school year, and when he does, he tends to read YA fiction and nonfiction, so I thought I might expose him to something more unusual that I think he’d still like. </p>
<p>He will also be practicing his instrument and I got him some guitar lessons as a surprise – he got a guitar for Xmas but doesn’t know how to play it yet. I think that will be a great thing for a summer hobby.</p>
<p>Thanks herandhisMom and mihcal!</p>
<p>Welcome Laurelhurst!</p>
<p>Kudos to you for listening to your son. Kids need some “breathing space” and summer is an ideal time for that. If you have any doubt of that, go see Race to Nowhere!</p>
<p>I just saw my DD’15 fly off to Europe for the summer. I am freaking out about it.
I know that it is a huge opportunity and wonderful experience for her, but nevertheless I am freaking out! I am so used to talking/texting to her at will and impromptu - it is going to get some time for me to adjust. I begged her to call me after getting to her destination in Madrid - well, she texted from an unknown number (good for her) - "I can’t call now but I am alive 
"
Later in the day I got an e-mail saying that she is purchasing a cell phone tomorrw. Hope things will get easier 
This is going to be it for her this summer - Europe - for two and half months ! She did take her summer reading assignment with her, after all she is coming back a week before the school starts!</p>
<p>Hi, This is my first post on the thread and I need a rant. My D15’s class had a meeting last night about option choices for grade 10, slightly different system to US schools, they choose only 2 subjects as options all the others are compulsory. The rant is about the parents, there were 10 parents 3 kids and 9 teachers. I was embarrassed by the lack of interest the parents took. This is a private school so you would think the other parents might have been vaguely interested in what their kids were going to do for at least the next 2 years.
Sorry for the rant, but I feel better now. Quick question do you find this same apathy in your schools?</p>
<p>IJustDrive to Carmen – The writing courses sound fantastic. Is that an in-person class or on-line?</p>
<p>The Loft currently offers only in-person classes. Here’s a PDF of this summer’s offerings:
<a href=“https://www.loft.org/images/LoftImageArchive/Classes/Youth/youth-summer-catalog2011_web.pdf[/url]”>https://www.loft.org/images/LoftImageArchive/Classes/Youth/youth-summer-catalog2011_web.pdf</a></p>
<p>Send them an email, as The Loft listens to ideas and try to incorporate them into the course offerings. Online classes would be awesome!</p>
<p>@Pinotnoir Biology this year for my D15 didn’t involve microscopes as far as I can tell. Lots of memorization about genetics, though. A good book on brain chemistry is Brain Rules…good read for anyone. @WelshPixie Could just be that the parents feel they already have the information they need, and will follow-up as appropriate as time goes on. I know I’m not big on attending school-organized meetings. I usually find it more productive to read the available information and direct any questions to guidance or the administration later. Plus, parents sending a second child through the same program will be less likely to attend. @Kelowna I’m jealous of your DD’15! Details, please. What a fabulous opportunity. My D15/D16 are so not ready for a summer away anywhere, much less Europe on their own. @Everyone: What assigned summer reading do your SD15’s have? My D15 has:</p>
<p>Guns, Germs, and Steel (selected chapters) for AP World History
Great Expectations (required) for 9th Grade Honors English plus one of the following:
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines</p>
<p>I think my D15 might like “Into Thin Air”. Out of the list I’ve only read The Secret Life of Bees, and don’t think she would enjoy this book. It is a good book, just not her style.</p>
<p>My daughter has to pick from this list:</p>
<p>Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
The Stranger (Camus)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde)
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
The Martian Chronicles (Ray Bradbury)
The Joy Luck Club (Amy Tan)
Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
The Once and Future King (T.H. White)
Big Fish (Daniel Wallace)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime (Mark Haddon)
The Jungle (Upton Sinclair)
Les Miserables (Victor Hugo)
Great Expectations (Charles Dickens)</p>
<p>She’ll probably start with Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and I’ll encourage Great Expectations. I think it’s kind of a weird list, but there are plenty of good options for her to choose. She actually only has to read one from the list, but she’ll have plenty of unstructured time this summer and will probably read a couple more.</p>
<p>Her other plans this summer include being at CIT at a sleepaway camp (only 1 week), a youth group work trip, and a week of outdoor adventure camp (they do whitewater rafting, hiking, etc.). Plus a family vacation to New Orleans and maybe a trip to the Smokies.</p>
<p>My D’s classes haven’t given them summer list yet. They have three more days of school and they’re still doing exams! </p>
<p>I know they’ll have Great Expectations. I think my D. will like that book. They will be given a 9 page question sheet to analyze the book. I looked at the question sheet through a friend. They’re very good questions, require a lot of writing.</p>
<p>@Kelowna, Bon courage!!! It’s going to be a great summer for her. Yet I admire your courage. My D. went away for 3 wks last summer. At the end of those weeks I felt like I couldn’t stand it anymore. This summer she’ll be away for 3 weeks again. I think it’ll be easier for both of us.</p>
<p>@mihcal, I looked at amazon for David Attenborough’s movies. They look very interesting. Could you recommend a couple to start with? Are they about life science or they have more?</p>
<p>^^^ Start with David Attenborough’s original series “Life on Earth” </p>
<p>Here’s a description: [Life</a> on Earth (TV series)](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_on_Earth_(TV_series)]Life”>Life on Earth (TV series) - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>You might be able to get it from your library, or else watch it online, e.g. [YouTube</a> - BBC Life on Earth: The Infinite Variety- Part 1/6.avi](<a href=“BBC Life on Earth : The Infinite Variety- Part 1/6.avi - YouTube”>BBC Life on Earth : The Infinite Variety- Part 1/6.avi - YouTube)</p>
<p>Once you’re hooked (and you will be hooked ) you can watch the rest of [The</a> Life Collection](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Life_Collection]The”>The Life Collection - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>I am lifelong David Attenborough fan and all the programmes he makes are fantastic, another suggestion given to me by a maths teacher was The Story of Maths (DVD). We are not big on maths in our family but we were all fascinated by it.</p>