<p>tripleamom – our school starts next week. We don’t even know the calendar yet … still no word on furlough days.</p>
<p>Maxwellequations – I’d be worried about the heavy backpack. Encourage your D to wear the straps on both shoulders, instead of just one. Think about how to lighten it up. Can she combine binders instead of having one for each class? Does she actually needs everything that’s in there on a daily basis? Maybe she can just carry what she needs for the current week, instead of lugging the entire term’s materials. Also, you might consider buying “at home” copies of the textbooks so she doesn’t have to carry them back and forth. Sometimes you can pickup used textbooks online at a big discount. Last year, I bought my D2012’s calculus textbook for $0.89 + shipping & tax. (The school is using some very old books – another ramification of CA budget cuts.)</p>
<p>IJustDrive – Good luck to D on her performance! Getting into a jam and having to stay up late once is not that big of a deal. They have a lot of resilience at that age, and can bounce back from sleep deprivation or other challenges much more quickly than us old fogies. But you really don’t want late nights to become a habit.</p>
<p>Michal – There are real advantages to being the younger sib. She’s already heard all of the lectures directed at big sis. So she knows the expectations and strategies, even if it’s not in her gut yet.</p>
<p>@IJustDrive - How was the summer physics at CTY? I know you said it was great. I mean - was it hard for your daughter since she was only a rising freshman? Was she the youngest in her class? Is it an algebra based physics course? I’d like to hear more because we talked about sending ours to the physics program with CTY but didn’t do it because of a conflict, and, because I was afraid she couldn’t follow. She is good at math, had a little bit of intro to physics in middle school.</p>
<p>I’d appreciate some advice here.
My D. has very high expectations as far as colleges are concerned. she wants to go to an Ivy or that sort of college. She’s been doing well in school and CTY. The problem is our living area is very economically depressed. Most people are poor and not well educated. Therefore, expectations like what she has are very rare. Most students in her HS will be happy to go to a local college, or even a community college. There are some students who went to reasonable schools, but not many. I’m pretty sure nobody ever went to the kind of school D. wants. </p>
<p>My H and I understand it’s important to prepare her for different outcomes. We don’t even know where she got the ideas. (CTY, is what we guess.) Meanwhile, we like to help her. </p>
<p>We know we should talk to the counselor about what she hopes for suggestions and help in planning. My question is, when is a good time to talk about things like this? - She is a freshman now. Is it too early to talk about it? If not, when we talk, what are the good questions to ask? </p>
<p>We have some vague ideas. but hope to hear from CC parents. Thanks!</p>
<p>Start looking and talking now. Someone gave me the advice early on if you are ever near a college campus stop by and have a look around. It will give your daughter a feel for different types of college campuses.</p>
<p>One conversation you and your H need to have before you start this process is how much you are willing/ able to pay. Nothing worse than a student being admitted to a dream school to be then told - oops we can’t afford the $50k tuition. There are many EFC calculators available that will give you a good idea.</p>
<p>Encourage your D to follow her passions in High school rather than focusing on building a resume. Sounds like your D already knows what she wants and is prepared to work for it.</p>
<p>Instate or Out of State?
Geographic location. How far will she want to go?
Does she have a high school activity she wants to continue in college, marching band etc?
Urban or rural location?
greek?
Merit aid available? Lots of threads on this.
Liberal arts or engineering school?</p>
<p>Make sure your D has the required standardized tests- SAT / ACT/ SAT 11 subject tests. Most Ivy’s like 3 SAT 11 subject tests. If your D is taking an AP class go ahead and schedule the subject test. College board offer these exams 3 times a year, it can be difficult to schedule these tests as these kids get busy/older.</p>
<p>Start a spreadsheet with awards etc she earns over the years. It is surprising what they " forget" they were awarded as a Freshman. Keep track of summer activities/ volunteer hrs. Also, have her create a file on her computer for college essays. If she writes something good, have her save a copy in that file. It will give her some good ideas to work on when it is time to write ALL those essays.</p>
<p>The college process is interesting. We launched D1 a month ago. Where she landed was very different from where we started.</p>
<p>Well my daughter finally started school yesterday. They gave her a cooking class since due to budget cuts she can’t get into the Technology or Art class required. This will throw off her entire four years. She was adamant I didn’t contact the GC about it but after much thought and discussion with my husband I did send an email. The GC is the same one I had to deal with for my Class of 2011 son-who finally starts college classes today.</p>
<p>I don’t think I can take another four years of this. I wanted to send her to a private school after four years of doing this with my son but she was very opposed-so much so that it would have done more harm than good.</p>
<p>So here we go again. I know what I am going to hear-sorry but…no room…freshman low on totem pole. I have all this knowledge I gained with my son and knew all the right things to do schedule wise-never thinking they wouldn’t be able to provide two very low-level and common classes she would need freshman year to make it work.</p>
<p>herandhis this is a prime example of why it is never too early-especially if your child has high goals.</p>
<p>I haven’t posted here much, but had to stop by for Pepper!</p>
<p>Pepper–so sorry for your troubles. Did the call to GC have any effect? I have to say that you really need to have a sit-down with DD about what is most important to her. I’m sure she’s thinking about leaving her friends. Maybe your DS can provide some insight for her too. I’ve found that I’m going to miss DS being able to help DS2 with questions/issues at HS since they have no overlap. </p>
<p>As for my new HS freshman, all is well but he had a significant amount of Algebra homework on day 1. Hope this isn’t the norm, or we are going to be in trouble. He won’t be able to handle all that homework along with hw in several other classes every night. I’m not sure how much was supposed to be done in class since his class has a split with lunch (1/2 class, go to lunch, return for rest of class) so I’m sure it was chaos today. (Did I mention I don’t enjoy that split lunch???)</p>
<p>Thanks VA! I sent her an email-not expecting much. </p>
<p>She is very shy like her brother was-I think if I had moved him it wouldn’t have been good for him-but his class had a lot of kids like him in it-serious students-and he never had to take a cooking class. Nothing wrong with that but she needs to be in an academic class. I tried to talk to her yesterday and last night and she just starts crying-but I feel very conflicted. These budget cuts aren’t going to improve. I also have concerns about her class-it just isn’t like his was. She doesn’t like most of the kids anyway so it wouldn’t be so much about leaving friends-although she does have a few very good friends there who are wonderful kids-it’s about her social anxiety and fear of going to a bigger school in a city setting. She would also have to leave the soccer team-I know these things are important but I just can’t accept this.</p>
<p>I do wish her brother was here-he could help her through this. I hope they see how ridiculous this is and squeeze her into what she needs-but if not I am dreading what I may have to do. I won’t go there yet-not until I get an answer.</p>
<p>Hope your kids are doing OK-I hope the HW settles down-the first few days are chaos. :)</p>
<p>Pepper, sounds like a stressful start. Does your school allow children to skip lunch to pick up an extra class to make things work in later grades? I ask because my D who is a HS junior scheduled an extra class last year into her lunch period because she was really interested in the class but did not want to drop another. It worked for her since she is organized. My S who is a freshman, was offered the opportunity to take an extra math class in lieu of lunch so he could get two years ahead. He declined (thank goodness).</p>
<p>Do many schools offer cooking? I haven’t heard of it at the HS level here so I am just curious if it is a regional thing.</p>
<p>Lunch is only 24 minutes! We have a great Home Ec department-they must have seniority since there are plenty of classes still available. </p>
<p>She went in yesterday and they made changes-that made it even worse! I called my husband and we all went over this last night-since he was dropping her off this AM he went in to meet the GC with my daughter in tow-and they put everything back to where she started and then managed to get her two acceptable classes and get her settled-what a mess. They lost two teachers and the place is in chaos.</p>
<p>I have already had numerous dealings with this GC with my oldest and can’t take anymore. I told my husband he needs to get a little more involved with her education this time around because I am burnt out at this point dealing with this place.</p>
<p>Oh well…she is settled at least for this year but I am going to have a solid option going into next year as I think the situation is only going to get worse with the financial situation. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, between soccer and all this upset she is stressed and exhausted-so I am glad we could at least force the issue today and get it resolved.</p>
<p>The financial situation right now is a killer. We lost a number of talented teachers. My S is in Spanish 2 with a teacher that barely speaks spanish- teaching out of the text book. I have calls into the school board and administration. Kids are in a gifted school in an urban school district. They pulled this teacher from one of the regular publics. Her syllabi read as if she were teaching delinquents. Things like “Do not wander the classroom” and “No profanity” , and the classic “You must have a pen and paper” were in the syllabi instead of the expeceted, “Here are the topics we are going to cover”…</p>
<p>I am now stressed that we opted to stay in public instead of private at this point.</p>
<p>@Gibson, Thanks much. Now we have some ideas to talk about with D. and her counselor.
School is going well. She just joined the French club. Is anybody in French club? What do people do in French clubs in different schools? I’m curious. D. said yesterday they just had a 30 min. meeting introducing each other and ate cookies. They meet once a month only.</p>
<p>nellieh I completely understand your concerns. My daughter is also in Spanish 2 but at least the teacher is competent. </p>
<p>I opted to stay in public more for the social parts-if it was a straight academic decision we would have been gone with my son-but it worked out well for him in the end and I hope it will be the same for her. If he had gotten decent advising he may have done even better but I know so much more with her that at least we won’t make the same mistakes-of course if she can’t get the proper classes that’s something that will make staying not possible. At least for now though we can take a deep breath.</p>
<p>Hi everyone, Our HS freshman started school three weeks ago. We have had two schedule changes since then. The schedule is not perfect but doable. Our school district offers e-school (online school) so it helps a lot when a student can’t take the required classes at school. He has Geometry HM everyday. He is also in Frensh and planning to join the club, but they have not started.</p>
<p>My heart went out to you – wanting to support your child’s high aspirations while still protecting her. I think it’s an oft discussed challenge on CC and that you can get lots of information here. Many of us want our children to dream big (because of course, without those dreams and the work that goes with them, the best can’t happen) but don’t want them to be crippled if those dreams don’t pan out. </p>
<p>There is a lot of information here at CC to help out people who aren’t immersed in the social circles already. Other sources of information can include your guidance counselor, but, also, potentially, faculty at nearby institutions. If your daughter has a special passion, I urge you to contact faculty who might share that interest and talk to them. Many might not respond (being too busy or not interested). But one mentor whose attention is sparked might help your daughter a lot. I have also found listening in and trying to understand the forums/information at the CTY web site useful, in addition to CC (mostly the parents forum). Occasionally I’ve found useful information at private school sites – sometimes guidance counselors write information that’s publicly accessible.</p>
<p>herandhis the most important thing right now it to make sure she gets the classes she needs so she can take the most rigorous schedule available. If she wants Ivy type schools they require Subject Tests which we knew nothing about so my son was always trying to catch up on those-if we had known then what we know now he would have taken different classes earlier and would have known when to take the Subject Tests.</p>
<p>You will learn a ton on here!</p>
<p>My daughter has no interest at this time in Ivy level schools but in case she changes her mind I want her to have the option to at least be a realistic candidate. I am sure you are aware the odds are very long at schools that accept less than 10-15 % of applicants but if that is what they are interested in they may as well try-you never know. :)</p>
<p>My son in 9th grade wasn’t even thinking about college!</p>
<p>Hello All !
DD is back after two and half fabulous months in Europe. Her Spanish is amazing, so I can say that she can speak three languages fluently. Her Spanish 3 teacher (long sory about why she is taking Spanish 3) does not believe that she is not speaking Spanish at home!
Money well spend, I would say.
She started French 2, although French is a totally new language fore her. So far everything at school is going well.
She made varsity cross country, so we have meets almost twice a week now, plus daily after school practice.
I am planning on signing her up for PSAT, just for practice/exposure. Our school allows for that, as long as you cover the cost. Still debating whether she should take SAT/ACT through talent search. What are your thoughts? These scores will stay on the record…</p>
They meet once a month only.</p>