<p>Thanks Proudpatriot!</p>
<p>The doctor we like (we like the others, just didn’t have the answers). Has decided that Curiouskid needs surgery – adenoids and reducing his turbinates in his nose. He says that they’re swelling and causing him to have trouble breathing at night, and stopping his sinuses from draining, which is causing the exhaustion, headaches, and sinus pain. </p>
<p>Wrestling starts today. Anyone else’s kid playing a winter sport?</p>
<p>I also have a wrestler. They started practicing already. Weight assessments were yesterday. Mine is currently weighing around 149. He wrestled 152 in the pre season event but plans on going down to 145. I think he was certified for 138 but I don’t want him to get that thin.</p>
<p>Proudpatriot, my HS 2017 son is also a wrestler! He has essentially zero body fat and has been a steady 123 for a month; his coaches may want him to wrestle at 120 but he’s still growing and we’d rather he start the season wrestling at 126. He wrestled four years at the club level wrestled his way State once; he’s one of their more experienced freshman. The varsity our school (OPRF) is currently ranked #2 in the US and should win Illinois again. Our guy will come out with four years of incredible development and the ability to handle pretty much anything.</p>
<p>It is our hope that his time in a truly exceptional athletic program will rub off on his desire to pursue academics at a similarly high level.</p>
<p>As an aside, my ex-h wrestled in PA in high school and did major weight cutting. I always wondered if it stunted his growth as he turned out much shorter than the rest of his family.</p>
<p>ericd1112: I was wrong he was not certified for 138 so he will go 145 for this season. My son will be wrestling 145 as an inexperienced freshman. I expect that he will take his lumps this year. We really like wresting as a sport that builds good character. Plus it keeps him in shape for lacrosse which is his favorite sport.</p>
<p>TempeMom: Our coach does not like the younger kids to cut lots of weight. My son is 5’8 so 145 is a healthy weight for him.</p>
<p>Hi all. Checking in, this has been such a busy fall – DD14 has been keeping us busy with activities and college apps – that I’m just now catching up on posts. Spyboy’s freshman year is going along pretty well. He’s made friends, joined clubs and likes school so that’s half the battle.</p>
<p>No PSAT on testing day. His school gives the Explore to freshman, which is some sort of pre-ACT, I believe. I don’t think they get the results back until January.</p>
<p>A suggestion, for 2017 parents looking ahead, in light of the foregoing wrestling digression: As we all know, schools look to extracurricular activities both in how they help the individual student, with activities including sports, theater, clubs, etc., but also in terms of activities that give back to the community. The suggestion is: encourage the leaders of your child’s activities to do both - a two-fer!</p>
<p>Our son just had an amazing day yesterday with his team. As you may know, there was a truly awful disaster in Washington, Illinois recently, when an unusually large and powerful tornado cut an ugly swath through that town. My son’s wrestling team had planned its annual fundraiser as a community cleanup in our town. However shortly after this disaster his coach and the key parents who support the team pivoted - we took the boys to Washington, IL to do debris removal, to clean up in that community instead.</p>
<p>In our case, our coach already had a long-standing relationship with the Washington coach, so we weren’t just showing up and making things more difficult with no plan. Half the team in that town lost their homes. Our guys - we brought 100 people - worked a morning and afternoon session. The afternoon was cleanup at one wrestler’s home. Well, it was a home. Now it’s a floor with a stair to the basement - the home itself was gone, scattered in terrifyingly small bits around the yard. It was like they poured the house in a blender.</p>
<p>Our guys got in and did complete debris removal - got a house’s worth of shingles, smashed boards, doors, drywall, clothes, refrigerator, carpets, a few roof trusses, etc. out to the curb in a huge pile…in two hours, down to and including raking the smaller bits out of the grass. I do some disaster recovery work professionally - this was light speed.</p>
<p>As a result, our team feels closer, has a day spent not on themselves but on others, a complete win-win. The trip back conversations were a lot about what else can they do, maybe work a food bank or something.</p>
<p>Work with the coaches and teachers to add a community service component to your student’s sports or other activities. Maybe your theater company can do a dress rehearsal at a senior center over the holidays instead of at the school. Maybe your computer club can also help folks with computer problems at the local library.</p>
<p>Many schools have a community service requirement. Ours does not but our kids do a lot anyway - this approach could have systemic benefits that far surpass the baseline requirements, while also helping build commitment to their activities. I know that our busloads of wrestlers - an egotistic bunch if ever there was one - has a different take on things after spending a day in a subdivision where the only homes are in rubble along the sidewalk. At the end of the day, if it becomes a habit, if every time they’re in an activity for themselves they also think OK, what can we in this activity also give back to the community, it won’t just help colleges see their best side, it will create a life pattern.</p>
<p>Eric, that sounds like a wonderful ways for the kids to contribute. My son hasn’t volunteered with his wrestling team yet, but spent part of Saturday packing Thanksgiving gift baskets (I think really boxes) for low income families with his football teammates. Not nearly as intense or meaningful as what you describe though.</p>
<p>What a great story!</p>
<p>Just popping in to get caught up and catch up! I’ve had my college girls, plus extra roomy here all week for thanksgiving break, and we have had a blast. It’s been great having them home. My '17er is moving along nicely in her freshman year. She loves high school and is finding her niche as she goes. She recently dyed her hair pink…like bubble gum pink…and looks adorable. She has lots of friends in older grades due to her big sisters, so she’s loving that. She was 1 of 4 kids who made a perfect score on the biology benchmark right before break, and we had no idea. She never even told us. One of her friends mentioned it at a sleepover : )
Our school district is moving to a different schedule next year and a lot of parents are up in arms about it. They are moving from a block schedule (4 classes a day, then new semester after holidays). They get 8 credits a year. They have passed a proposal to move to 7 classes a day, and they go the whole year. That means they will have 28 credits instead of 32 when they graduate. The old system allows for more classes overall, but causes kids to have large breaks in classes like math and science (they might take algebra 2 the first semester of freshman year, then not take geometry till second semester of their sophomore year). Kids can suffer through a bad class in a semester, then have it over with, instead of suffering all year long. On the other hand, because of semesters system, there are only certain classes offered each time, decreasing choices. With 7 classes a day, the students will get more choices. I’m worried about more homework, though! Just wondering how other schools do it and thinking all the parents here can weigh in. It’s a HOT topic in our county, and there are parent furious over the changes. I’m seeing benefits to both, though!</p>
<p>Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving.</p>
<p>Swimgirl continues to do quite well in school. She has a couple of EC she is doing including one which regularly does service projects in the community.</p>
<p>Our high school has mostly year round classes with a few of the classes on the block system. When she starts taking AP courses most will be year round while some will last for a semester only. I think that having year round courses makes it easier to learn the material. Year round courses are also an advantage for SG because when she travels to an out of town meet (she has a major national level meet soon) she misses less classes in a particular subject.</p>
<p>I can’t believe their first semester is almost over. DS2 has finals this week. They count for 20% of his grade. He will be glad when they are over!</p>
<p>I know MG-time sure flies! Too bad this thread has gone so quiet-but I bet I know why. D is booked EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. All we do is drive, and I bet she is not the only one like this.</p>
<p>Our first semester ends at the end of January, and while they have semester tests, they don’t have finals until…finals at the end of the year. End of the semester does bring the 2nd quarter exhibitions-these are also based on their science fair projects, for which they had to do extensive research and proposals. D’s is on the influence of light vs. sound on plants. </p>
<p>Out of class, she is on the speech team-these competitions last ALL DAY on Saturdays-i do mean ALL-the most recent was 14 hours long as the kids come from all over the state and there are many rounds. She loves it. She has practice 2X a week in addition to Saturdays, dance practice, tutoring “her kids” and two choirs. We are never home.</p>
<p>The PSATs went ok-D was one of the top scorers in her school, including the juniors, but since they haven’t even had all the math needed yet, she was annoyed at her math score. Still, should get her into the colleges she’s looking at if the trend continues.</p>
<p>Grades are fine-the district chose this new idiotic system based on standards such that a single missed quiz could mean you fail for the semester. Parents at every school revolted and they have changed to averages. </p>
<p>The first homecoming dance ever is this Friday at the building HQ for the foundation that started the school-D and her best friend are too excited for words. Then a blessed 2-week break!</p>
<p>DD is also busy with finals. No word on PSAT scores yet.</p>
<p>^ Our school waits until sometime in Jan. to give them to the kids. I tried to look online for DS2’s but I need to wait until Jan 15th? I think that’s the date anyway…</p>
<p>Today is the last day of school for both CuriousKid and me, and neither of us has ever been so ready for a break in our lives! He’s got wrestling practice almost every day, and a ton of catch up work to do because he ended up missing 3 weeks of school between surgery, complications, and snow days, but it’s still going to be a bit of a break.</p>
<p>As we move toward another year closer to HS graduation I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas - or whichever holiday you may celebrate, good family times!</p>
<p>My '17 has a few days off from wrestling practice; he “wrestled up” with the sophomores last weekend and again won the tournament, 15-0 on the year. Our varsity - to which he asprires - placed 3rd out of 88 teams at the huge Ironman tournament in Ohio and is still currently ranked #2 nationally (they had a couple of starters out with injuries). Academically it seems that he rallied quite well from a mediocre semester and may end up running the table, but more likely at least one B. Looking ahead to college, feeling that he’s unlikely to get the merit aid his brother did at Miami U., he’s brought up the subject of ROTC. One of the juniors on the wrestling team is aiming for the Naval Academy and while he doesn’t expect to have the grades for it, he’d be a solid candidate for (in his case) AFROTC. Between cross country and wrestling he certainly will have no trouble with the physical requirements. He’s also likely headed for a STEM field, which they want. So we’re keeping an eye on that and we’ll see what the new year and the next 3 bring.</p>
<p>Hello All. My name is Colleen, and I live in Brooklyn, NY. I just found CC and this thread. I thought I was the only crazy person thinking about college already, and it’s a relief to know I’m not alone. I am just starting to find my way here, and just starting to learn about this complicated process. I’ve read through this thread, and it is interesting how different high school is in different parts of the country. DS started high school in September, and his grades are all good so far (slow start in Spanish, but that grade is steadily improving). He attends one of the specialized high schools here, and the course work is pretty demanding.</p>
<p>He has not joined any clubs in school this year so far because he plays travel hockey. He has been playing hockey since he is 5 years old, and is on the ice much of his time after school. Hockey will be winding down (not completely because he never really stops playing) soon, and he is now interested in spring track. The sports teams in his school require about 2 hours of practice time after school, and while he is playing hockey, that is not doable. He will be participating in College hockey showcases this summer (as he did last summer,) and I’m hoping he will find an internship/volunteer gig for this summer. He is your typical lazy teenager who would like to get by doing as little as possible. He’s usually pretty motivated when he sees how he can benefit by doing something. I actually showed his some of these threads to prove to him that just having good grades and a challenging course load is not enough now. He’s just starting to understand the importance of the other “stuff”. Luckily … we do have volunteer work that he still continues to do … much of it comes from the hockey league where he is a student coach (volunteers to teach children how to play hockey), along with the various charity events we do throughout the year that the kids have to organize (Breast Cancer Skateathon, Toys for Tots, Food Drive and the latest care packages for the military where the kids had to gather the items and package them up to be shipped overseas.) I’m getting lots of ideas from this thread 
Thanks!!!</p>
<p>I’m looking forward to chatting with you parents some more over the next few years! </p>
<p>Question … is anyone looking to have their DC take the SAT Math 1 subject test. DS is in Geometry now, and I was wondering if it worth taking the Math 1 subject test, or should he wait and take the Math II subject test later?</p>
<p>My oldest is a college freshman. He took the SAT Math II, Physics and Spanish. Since your DS is only a freshman I don’t think I’d bother with the SAT Math I. I think most colleges that require subject tests are going to want the SAT Math II. Plus the Math II has a better curve so it’s supposedly easier to get an 800 on it. I’m not having my 9th grader take the SAT Math I ,however he is in Gifted Biology and so I may have him study and take the SAT Biology-M in June.</p>
<p>My DD does not plan on taking the Sat Math 1 subject test this year. I agree with MG-better to wait and take Math II.</p>