<p>Wow, I am so glad to hear from other parents with similar daughters! Sometimes I am in dispair. Our D15 was identified GT in kindergarten but has always struggled with organization. She finally got straight As last semester (after multiple semesters with one or two Bs and the rest As, always due to not turning in homework). She hit the skids this semester. I take some of the blame since I told her she could relax a little for her final semester in middle school. I meant not stress as much for both of us–I did not mean to slack off so badly she is pulling low Bs and Cs with a few As in soft subjects like PE and choir.<br>
Same issue as above posters, she does the homework but “forgets” to turn it in. How do you forget to turn in homework when everyone around you is turning it in??? I absolutely hate what she turns me into, an obnoxious nagger.<br>
Based on her ability to remember when she is threatened enough (her science grade slipped to a D+ a few weeks ago and I told her that her summer camp was in jeopardy–she pulled it up QUICK), I don’t think she is AD(H)D but I will certainly be keeping a closer eye on her as she enters high school.<br>
Thanks to you all as we begin that scary process. Is it the fact they are girls? I hate to compare, but S12 was SO EASY compared to her.</p>
<p>The other thing I would say is that having observed this in other families, it is MUCH harder to get accommodations (and accommodations with College Board) in high school, so you may want to see if the middle school is willing to do the work-up now instead of waiting.</p>
<p>Thank you all. The comments here are very helpful. I emailed the teacher. Hopefully we’ll get an appoitment soon.</p>
<p>@IJustDrive: What do you mean by “accomodations?” Could you explain?</p>
<p>Standard accommodations can be extra time, separate testing room to limit distractions, etc. . . .</p>
<p>My daughter gets extra time and separate room but only uses it for standardized tests as she finds it MORE distracting to be pulled out for every test and quiz. In our public school district, you work with the Special Education folks to have this set up. You can either request testing through the school or submit your own testing or both. Extra time reduces anxiety. Anxiety increases attention/recall difficulties. This is true of everyone but much worse for kids with attention problems.</p>
<p>Plus your D’s plan can include things like “sits in front of classroom” which can make a huge difference, but you have to make sure the teachers are actually following the plan. One thing that drives me nuts is the practice of putting kids in groups or teams to do classwork. More often than not, my D ends up doing all of the work, under the extra handicap of being distracted by the other kids who are not doing anything. Another failure of public education theory!</p>
<p>@tutor, I’m with you - we found often times group work is a nuisance. Kids like it though. But at this age they really tend to get distracted, esp. if D is put with others with no motivation. My D. is also the one who actually does the work. Last night they just did this “extra credit” to cook some French desert for the class. The two girls supposed to work together. We bought everything, the other girl pretty much just came to play. The cook part was fun though. Then they left the food on the table. After D. went to sleep, when nobody was looking, our diabetic cat went on the table and ate ¼ of that sweet stuff!!! :(</p>
<p>HAHA, is the cat sleeping it off with a big feline grin? And were you able to save the desert for the class?<br>
I agree entirely with everyone about the group project thing, somehow I always seem to be the one shlepping them to the craft store, paying for supplies, and hosting the group while D does most of the work. The worst one happened pretty recently–she did the vast majority of the work on a five girl project and one of the girls who did virtually nothing had the gall to complain about the Powerpoint that was 100% D’s work (and it looked pretty darn good to my non-techie eyes). Grrr. I don’t recall many projects in high school with S, hopefully they taper off??</p>
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<p>From post [#88[/url</a>] in a thread rueing how every April brings posts from disappointed parents and students who didn’t do a good job of financial planning for college: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/492777-swallows-capistrano-financial-aid-myths-realities.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/492777-swallows-capistrano-financial-aid-myths-realities.html](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/5781823-post88.html]#88[/url”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/5781823-post88.html)</a></p>
<p>Poor kitty! My cat D&S are especially fond of banana bread. : ) Groups can be great if the kids are well matched. This happened for my D15 for the first time and she is excited about tossing around ideas with 3 other bright kids. Only these kids were allowed to read HG Wells The Time Machine for a Sci-Fi unit due to perceived difficulty of the language and vocabulary. But that’s so not the norm; most groups are random at D15’s school. @mihcal1: Thanks for the cross-reference on this thread! That was the first advice that I got on CC about what to do re. college for my D15: get my finances together.</p>
<p>Is there any online information for FAFSA? I wonder how it works. should start planning soon.</p>
<p>It would be nice if the teacher group the kids according to their interest and intellectual ability. @Tutor, wish my D. could be grouped with yours for a project. 
Unfortunately she is always grouped with people who don’t know much. They find their own group. The teachers never assign groups. Watching them, I’m amazed how ignorant some of those girls are. My D. doesn’t mind. she has a very soft heart, so she attracts people who can’t do but want to do things. She is very young in her class, so she is kind of an easy prey - it’s not an appropriate analogy, I know. One girl who wants to do everything with D. is about 3 years older than D. They did one project together and we found out that girl can’t contribute anything. Even D. was unhappy. but she still wants to “help.” I don’t know if she can really help her. Once I heard that older girl telling D. that for an English project in which they were required to read a big book “you don’t have to read the book. There are things online about it you can just copy and paste.” I was afraid she is actually going to influence D. in a very bad way. So they stopped doing project together because I wouldn’t let them</p>
<p>Herandhis, and everyone else on this thread whose oldest child is a class of 2015, please, please go to the financial aid and scholarships forum and start reading! There are quite a few senior members who post there frequently, and who know what they are talking about. Unless you’ve saved $250K per child for college, you need to educate yourself now, before it is April of 2015, and you find yourself looking at eight acceptance letters from DS’s dream schools, and realize that you can’t afford to send him to any of them.</p>
<p>CC has a section devoted to financial aid [info[/url</a>] and [url=<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/]forums[/url”>Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums]forums[/url</a>]</p>
<p>A lot of posters seem to like finaid.org – start with their FAQ:
[url=<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>FAQs about Financial Aid - Finaid]FinAid</a> | Answering Your Questions | FAQs about Financial Aid](<a href=“http://www.collegeconfidential.com/financial_aid/]info[/url”>http://www.collegeconfidential.com/financial_aid/)</p>
<p>The College Board has a nice intro-to-financial aid section, too:
[Pay</a> for College - College Scholarships - Financial Aid - School Loans - Easyplanner](<a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools)
where you can experiment with EFC calculations:
[EFC</a> Calculator: How Much Money for College Will You Be Expected to Contribute?](<a href=“http://apps.collegeboard.com/fincalc/efc_welcome.jsp]EFC”>http://apps.collegeboard.com/fincalc/efc_welcome.jsp)</p>
<p>So helpful! Thank you. We’ll start checking now.</p>
<p>oooooooh yeaahh–definitely read up on finaid and run some of those number estimations. </p>
<p>And go to a few college websites of schools you think your kid might even be remotely interested in to look up their total COA (cost of attendance)</p>
<p>Thank you for the financial pages!!!</p>
<p>Follow up with my story about D.'s science grade - Well, We went to meet with the teachers and the counselor today. Nobody there thinks it’s even remotely possible that D. has AD(H)D. They think we worry too much. About those low scores on class work, the science teacher says it’s because D. is not motivated. The counselor made some suggestions, but basically the teachers/counselor tell us it’s a developmental stage, give her support and talk to her but don’t be overly concerned. Oh well… It’s just so abnormal for D. that we worry and are afraid things will go downhill. Everyone in the school says “she will be fine in high school.” Sounds sanguine. I’m still not convinced. Would like to hear from you all.</p>
<p>This site: [College</a> Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics](<a href=“http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/]College”>College Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics) has a calculator that allows you to put in the year your child will go to college and from that projects the sticker price of a particular college over 4 years. Lots of other financial data as well. @Maxwell Things might be different in HS. I recall that realizing my grades would be on a transcript colleges would look at made a big difference in my motivation. Plus, many of my friends tell me that HS is a positive change for their kids because they are influenced by a broader group of peers. If it’s any consolation, I thought my kids would be the ones sailing through school at the top of their classes, and that hasn’t been the case, despite my husband’s MENSA status and my multiple degrees. And maybe that’s not a bad thing. Check out: [Q&A:</a> ‘Final Jeopardy’ author Stephen Baker on Watson, IBM, the future of e-books and the fate of humanity - GeekWire](<a href=“http://■■■■■■/kowB5k]Q&A:”>http://■■■■■■/kowB5k) ruminations on why our fact-centric education machine may not be nurturing the qualities that will help our kids succeed in the future.</p>
<p>This site: [College</a> Search 2.0 - The next generation of college search at eduLAUNCHPAD.com](<a href=“http://www.edulaunchpad.com/EduMainPage.aspx]College”>http://www.edulaunchpad.com/EduMainPage.aspx) lets you put in your financials and student academic information (test scores, GPA) and projects an “actual cost” based on likely financial aid. Requires free registration. Even if your student doesn’t qualify for financial aid this site can help identify less-expensive, but still desirable, colleges.</p>
<p>Maxwell, same story here. I think a lot of it may be that this final semester of middle school is somewhat meaningless unless your D is taking HS level courses. No honor roll, no public recognition of great grades, school burnout etc. My D15 is suffering an extreme case of “senioritis.” She is (in her words) “SO SICK OF MIDDLE SCHOOL.” She is going to a high school that very few of her current classmates will attend and she is very happy to get away from some of her “frenemies.”<br>
She can’t wait to start even with my warning that I will be all over her for at least the first year or two to finish assignments, get her homework in, take notes, study for tests, and in general be a lot more organized. I hope it works out but I am dreading it. Luckily, her ambition is to attend a UC school (not Berkeley) so I am hoping a sprinkle of Bs won’t doom her (unlike S12, whose dream is Stanford and who is sweating out a 89.6 in AP Calc right now with a final still to come).<br>
P.S. And yes, we have researched the cost and if he gets in, we can swing it–painfully but doable.</p>