<p>There’s no way I could do 22000 plus room and board. We have one in the class of 19 as well. School starts 3 weeks from today. I’ve encouraged D16 to speak to her GC about schools we haven’t considered. </p>
<p>I should have added that older son is not going there, but that was his award. </p>
<p>My '16 is just starting to think about it…definitely no LISTS yet. </p>
<p>We don’t have a list yet, but are starting to think about one. Taking S on preliminary exploratory visits so he can figure out what he might want :)</p>
<p>@29happymom26 - we will also be full pay at all schools. D got good merit scholarships from several schools she applied to, hoping to find something similar for S.</p>
<p>Celebrating here! DS passed his road test for his license today. Now we need to add that 3rd car to the household so that he can get himself to/from practice and help get DD to her stuff as well. Not thrilled about the added expenses but will LOVE having less taxi duties!!! One goal achieved from the summer list. </p>
<p>Which also brings up a question: Do you prefer schools that allow freshmen to have cars or not? Why?</p>
<p>My DD will need a car in college, she plays a large instrument and hopes to get occasional gigs, plus I’d feel better knowing she doesn’t have to relay on someone else for transportation. This was another strike against UMiami before it was crossed off the list.</p>
<p>@Cherringsection congratulations on you DS passing the test! My DD started driving on her own over spring break and it has made my life sooo much easier. </p>
<p>Thank you 3scoutsmom! I will miss getting that time with him but I won’t miss those mad dashes to practice pickup. </p>
<p>My DD and I visited WashU yesterday. This is now her #1 school. It is a wonderful school - campus is beautiful and the midwest atmosphere shines through. </p>
<p>Oh, lord. Junior year starts for DD in about four weeks, and her summer study habits and test prep are a bit too random for my tastes. It’s becoming a bit of an issue between us, and DH is on her “side.” Sigh. </p>
<p>I try to keep from nagging and nudging. But, it seems any mention of being more focused or strategic in her process is shot down. She’s reading for about two hours a day - novels she’s picked, which is just great. Then, she’s doing a creative writing program - again, great. But it’s those two afternoon-hours M-F and the weekends where things break down — where she was going to try to work on her academic skills, from keyboarding to algebra, chemistry to Spanish, grammar to…etc. It seems she just watches random YouTube videos, and who knows if they’re even mainly “educational.” </p>
<p>There’s a lot of pressure on her, in a way, to up her game because she’s transferring into a more academically demanding school for junior year, and her education has pretty much sucked since 3rd grade. Plus there’s the rampant ADHD/ADD. </p>
<p>Just venting, so as to not ruffle her feathers anymore than I already have. Trying to figure out how to approach this issue more stealthily and effectively. I should probably boil down my expectations for the next four weeks to the absolute essentials she should focus on. And, come to that set of essentials with her lead. She still SAYS she wants to do (home-based) test prep and other academic work before school starts back up, so, at least we have that. Sigh. </p>
<p>My dear S has read over 1300 pages this summer…not one page from his summer reading list and he tried 2 hours of SAT prep. He continues to not be to interested in HS.
We got his schedule and insisted on AP English ( literature) this year. He will take Senior Government class but regular (honors) US History and just write AP exam…he prep his sister last year for the test and would have easily gotten a 5…but US History is a mandatory course so he will partake in it this year.</p>
<p>This year may do me in with a raising senior and junior.</p>
<p>Summer reading is the worst! Honors brit lit-1984 (finished), Jane Eyre (finished) and Hamlet. Plus 50 pages for Honors Chem II. Ours go back in less than 3 weeks. No ACT prep–she’s starting that when school starts. And did I mention M-F 8-5 (at least) band camp starts tomorrow for the next 2 weeks? I can’t complain, she isn’t. </p>
<p>Mine also go back in 3 weeks. I am guessing the “Summer” reading for DS will also get done in roughly 3weeks but other than a reminder of today’s date vs 1st day of school, I am determined to stay out of it. 
</p>
<p>Ok, we now have an adjusted plan for these coming 4 weeks before school starts. Ah, much better. She drove the plan. Prep for Algebra II, prep for Chemistry, bone up on citations/attributions for intellectual property, notetaking/study skills, history of the major religions, history of China, test prep for PSAT SAT ACT, and work on starting her little service business. The writing program will wrap soon. She’ll replace it with volunteering for a sport program and with an advocacy organization. The boyfriend is grounded with no texting privileges. And her 16th birthday is coming. So, now that she’s looked at the calendar, decided what she wants to do to be ready for her new school, I get to step back and butt out. Much better. If she does even half of this stuff, ok. Venting, but with a good vibe. :)</p>
<p>@Hoosier96 – Keep the faith. It’s a marathon (as you already know), not a sprint. All your efforts will pay off. . . Your son doing all of that reading on his own over the summer speaks really well for him. It’s important to realize what rarefied air we occupy here on CC. Most high school kids haven’t read a single book for pleasure this summer. . . . </p>
<p>Similarly @dyiu13 – Both your daughter’s plans (pre- and post-adjustment) are remarkable. The fact that she’d even consider doing those sorts of things in her remaining 4 weeks is fantastic. As you said, if she gets even a fraction of it done she deserves a lot of credit. . . With S14’s ADHD we found that the most important piece regarding his tackling a difficult workload was not the work itself, but his lack of organizational skills in terms of figuring out what he needed to do on a day-to-day basis. He would typically dig himself a hole at the beginning of each semester as we tried a ‘sink or swim’ approach, and then would dig himself out as we helped him get organized. By his senior year (when we backed off entirely) he was better, but not great. So if she’s moving to a more challenging school you might want to keep on top of her assignments with her, at least to start.</p>
<p>Here, S14 is doing everything in his power to make sure that he won’t be missed when he leaves for college in 4 weeks. And S16 is not exactly keeping up with his PSAT/SAT prep schedule, but I’m cutting him lots of slack. He watched his older brother go through the whole college admissions process, and he knows that these scores are important. I’ve told him that I’ll give him the framework of how I think he might best prepare, but I’m not going to breathe down his neck. Unlike S14, he’s figured out that his actions (or lack of actions) have consequences.</p>
<p>DS just off for his first solo driving trip. He has reached his destination and texted me that he arrived. I am sure he will lose patience with that soon but given there are tornado warnings for us here it seemed a reasonable request for tonight. :-SS </p>
<p>@AsleepAtTheWheel Yes, The organization skills are the ones most important this summer. While she’s been planning each week, she hasn’t been logging in much detail, so she doesn’t have much sense of when or why she goes off the rails. I’m hoping that natural consequences will play out over the next four weeks and she become convinced she needs to plan and monitor her progress better. Trying to now give her space for that. Fingers crossed. </p>
<p>Btw, I’ve read that students leaving home for their first year in college unconsciously sully the home nest to make it easier (for all) when they leave. Could that be at play?!</p>
<p>@dyiu13 I just read your post to my S, we have the same discussions here. The lack of effort drives me up the wall.</p>
<p>@Cheeringsection - that is a huge milestone!! We’re not there yet. In fact, I am not in a huge hurry to transition from permit to license, now that I found out the insurance hit will essentially double our rates (!).</p>
<p>@dyiu13 - I’ve heard that too, about people who have a move ahead, unconsciously making negative patterns with their current home/friends…</p>
<p>Band camp starts today. I’m not ready for this. It means school is only a couple of weeks away.</p>
<p>Band camp today as well!!</p>
<p>@dyiu13 – “Fouling the nest” is a phenomenon that is oft-discussed these days on the Class of 2014 thread. In our case I think it’s my son trying to spread his post-high school wings a bit too early (and demonstratively). Yesterday I saw the movie “Boyhood”, a unique magnificent movie about a boy’s growing up (from age 6 to 18), filmed with the same cast over a twelve-year period. I came away with a bit more respect for my son’s having survived high school without a major disaster, and a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach as I realized he’ll be out of the house in a few weeks. So for now he gets a reprieve for his bad behavior.</p>
<p>Free-associating (my wife would call it ‘loose-associating’) there was a note on the Class of 2014 thread today from a 2015 parent, noting how much she’s benefited by reading the 2014 thread over the past year as all those kids went through the application/admission/choosing-a-school process. Our family has the benefit of having done this once, but I thought that it might be enlightening for some of you to check out the Class of 2015 thread (a truly prolific thread) every so often once the process gets going in earnest this fall. Just a thought.</p>
<p>Finally, to those of you with new drivers: We have a 1998 Chevy Suburban that is as old as S16. We rarely drive it. But we keep it around because listing the Suburban as our teenage son’s primary vehicle saves us hundreds of dollars a year on our auto insurance premium. I don’t know if that is the case in states other than CA, but it might be worth adopting a clunker just this reason.</p>