<p>Bumping to say hi to everyone. </p>
<p>We are still getting ready for the start of the school year. My D is quite nervous. I just wonder what kind of roller coaster ride I will be on for the next four years.</p>
<p>Hi fellow parents! My youngest child starts high school today. Just thought Iād check to see how everyone is doing.</p>
<p>D2016 is in a science/tech magnet school, and sheās made it through two cuts & looks to be a fledgling member of the JV volleyball team. Woot!</p>
<p>JenPam, we have something in common - we both have two girls! D2016 is starting high school next week, and orientation is this coming Thursday. We are going to help D2012 move into her dorm (at the University of Maryland, College Park) early tomorrow morning. Both of my girls are very close. I think D2016 will be teary-eyed to say good-bye to big sister.</p>
<p>Thanks to big sis, D2016 is involved in color guard at her new high school now. The next four years promises to be interesting.</p>
<p>we need more parents here.</p>
<p>I guess Iāll chime in on this thread too! My D started high school yesterday and I also have an older S going off to Stanford next month. I only found CC about six months ago or so, but it would have been helpful to be on it earlier when my S was searching for and applying to colleges. Anyway, my D is excited to have started HS and the next four years should be an adventure for both of my kids. And now I have all of the helpful parents on CC to help me navigate through this exciting time. Full disclosureāD has Aspergerās so itāll be a whole different set of questions and concerns than for my S.</p>
<p>Another parent with a D12 and D16 (plus 2 older sons). D1 starts college 9/5.</p>
<p>D16 dropped band. Again. She had been stressing all month about managing marching band, varsity swim, and school. At registration yesterday, she picked up her new schedule and it was PERFECT! Full schedule, with classes, preferred teachers, and choir instead of band. D was elated! </p>
<p>I sent the counselor (same as D1ās) a huge thank-you since I am pretty sure she personally tweaked it from what the computer generated. Guess she got tired of seeing me year after year in her office with D1. On the other hand, counselors are rarely thanked and her reply make it clear that she appreciated my note.</p>
<p>We are off to a great start! School starts the 5th, though swim has been going for 2 weeks.</p>
<p>I had forgotten about this thread! Dropped S off last week (has it only been a week?) for boarding school. He called this morning - seems to be settling down fine. First day of class was yesterday - they are on a block schedule, so he only has two major classes (intermediate algebra honors and humanities) this term. He seems excited, is going to try crew for a fall sport. Tough having him away, but a call like the one this morning makes it all seem worthwhileā¦</p>
<p>My daughter finally started high school this week. She seems to be enjoying itā¦so far. She really likes her schedule, and the fact that she has a bit more freedom than last year.
Right now sheās been exploring the different clubs to determine which ones she wants to join; the travel club is at the top of her list. Hopefully, everything will continue smoothly for her.</p>
<p>Itās funny - high school started in our town on Wednesday. Saw the school bus swing by and was weird that I didnāt have to get my son up and ready for the bus 
Heās been in school now for close to three weeks - so far, everything has been going well. Heās exploring the different clubs/sports - has decided to try crew.</p>
<p>Hi, my son is a 2016er. I also have a Dā13 and a younger daughter starting middle school. Dā13 is finishing the IB program but son is not doing IB (so far). I think he should stick with AP but he wants to try to get into IB later. </p>
<p>Sā16 is very good at math and wants to study business in college. He has known he wanted to do business since 9 years old. </p>
<p>Sā16 is taking Hon Algebra 2, Hon Bio, Hon English, AP Gov, German 2, Latin 1, Business Management, and PE. They are on a block schedule 4 class per day.</p>
<p>Dā13 has done crew for 4 years but Sā16 wants no part of all that work. He wants to do golf, FBLA, maybe debate, maybe Tech Club.</p>
<p>HI all. I have a DDā13 ā so I am all consumed with college stuff this year; however, I have a DSā16 who is absolute opposite of DDā13āand he just started High School. I am looking forward to his growing up, maturing, and eventually being able (I hope) to take full advantage of what CC and all my experience has to offer! Ha Ha!. Meanwhile, I am just trying to subtly teach him how to organize his Binder. (his middleschool choice was the 3 inch-zippered binder "so all the papers dont fall out!). So, I may just lurk on this site for a while, until he grows a bit and I have more to say!</p>
<p>Hello everyone:
Thank God for this thread, I am so excited. I have posted on this site several times, but now that S is in high school and a part of the class of 16 I feel like I am I the game now. My D graduated in 2011 and was never really a student. She went off to the local CC and is now starting to find her way. S is an honors student who has already taken the SAT 3 times (first two to apply for CTY, and in 8th grade because he wanted to). I have taken him to see some colleges already on casual visits. As a 9th grader he is currently in Mu Alpha Theta, golf team, CSF, the multicultural committee and tech club. I know it sounds like a lot the school goes 7-12 so he has already been there two years. </p>
<p>The best part is, I am a teacher at his school so I get to see him everyday and go through high school with him. The worst part, he is my youngest and in 4 years he is gone. </p>
<p>I look forward to conversing with all of you and I am glad there are some of you on here who have been through this before.</p>
<p>We are almost to the end of the first quarter, and son does still not quite have the hang of things. He has ADHD, and things are a struggle. We are meeting with a teacher tomorrow to discuss what is going on in class, S has an F. He is not an F student, but is having a hard time taking more responsibility for his work. He started with separate binders, but has reverted back to the big, zippered binder. Not sure it is helping, things are still āin his lockerā all of the time, which probably means they canāt be found 
On the upside, he is really enjoying being on the high school XC running team, and is learning alot. </p>
<p>Between S16 and his '13 sister I might just lose my mind this year ;)</p>
<p>Just now saw this thread. But itās been in existence since Feb! I thought about searching for it but decided to wait for it to pop up. </p>
<p>DS is in the Class of 2016. DD was in the class of 2011 and now is starting her sophomore year at Stanford. DS is not as driven as his sister and is organizationally challenged yet. But he cares about school. We are in the biggest school district in our state and we hardly have any AP classes though there are some honors classes. No one around here has heard of IB. The private Catholic school isnāt obviously better. Nearly everyone attends the state colleges. Itās like an enclosed universe. I wonder what my kidsā HS education wouldāve been like if we were in a different state, but probably our geographic rarity helps admissions at out of state schools.</p>
<p>DS plays JV soccer now and may to speech coming up shortly. He is interested in computers and law enforcement.</p>
<p>I am looking forward to sharing the adventure with you!</p>
<p>DD is in HS class pf 2016. She is the first in the family to go through High school education in the US and eventually college admission. We are an immigrant and I went to graduate school in the US.</p>
<p>Itās all a new experience for us. I will surely we asking a lot of questions on CC.</p>
<p>^^^Oh, being organized is the hardest part, right? You donāt want to stress them out, but we know they donāt want to be in the situation of kicking themselves about this year later on. And I think figuring out how to be organized and manage their time is such a big part of a successful transition.</p>
<p>My son uses a zippered thin binder that is just clear pockets (no three ring). Assignments to be done go on the right side pocket; completed assignments on the left. Individual class papers may go in the separate binder for the individual class (He doesnāt like a giant one and most of his teachers this year want binders that they can look at if need be). We tried several different systems in middle school, and this one seemed to work the best. No more shuffling through a million papers to find his homework, or more importantly, to find it to turn it in.</p>
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<p>ldwendy, how is your D2012 liking College Park? My D2012 loves it, though she was very homesick for the first couple of weeks. Her twin brother is in her dorm, which helps. </p>
<p>High school is coming along fairly well so far, but we still have nearly a full month of the first quarter. Iāve noticed D2016 is missing a few assignments. Sheās not as, er, organizationally blessed as her older siblings! Iāve reminded her to check the online portal regularly. </p>
<p>She made the JV volleyball team, so sheās really busy with that, and sheās auditioning for a childrenās chorus role for an opera company next week.</p>
<p>Good to see more of you here!</p>
<p>We are halfway through the first term. Report card was posted online and so far, everything has been good. S is taking Honors Intermediate Algebra and doing ok so far - but might need more work as the term goes on. We are headed out there next weekend for Parents weekend - looking forward to seeing him after six long weeks!</p>
<p>JenPam - not sure if you see this with the younger sibling. In our case, we are finding that S while generally very laid-back, was very aware of his GPA and very annoyed that he didnāt do the best he could have. I think this is primarily from having seen his older sis go through it all - he āgetsā the import of this GPA game.</p>
<p>DS seems to be concerned about his grades! This is a big turn around from middle school. He has even approached teachers. Not sure each teacher is as responsive; but we shall see. So far his worst subject is english. Organization? Binders? āwhatās that?!ā
I like the idea of a binder just with pockets! Did you make that yourself, or do you buy that somewhere?</p>
<p>JenPam wrote:</p>
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<p>My D2012 is enjoying College Park. I think being in the Gemstone Honors program and dorm really helped her to settle in and she has made a good group of friends. We will be attending Parent and Family weekend tomorrow at UMD, and D2016 is pretty excited to see big sister.</p>
<p>I fear my D2016 also isnāt very organized either. Since school started, sheād lost her lunch, came close to losing her glasses . . .</p>