We are in southern NY & see deer, groundhogs, bunnies-- they live in our yard and neighborhood, Robins are sitting on nests they formed on our rose bushes and garden structures. Lots of chipmunks and squirrels who think they own the place. Hoping to see a fox - not a bear or coyote (though stories of them are becoming more common) - soon!
My DS has exec functioning challenges - very smart but not good at planning long-term projects (e.g. major papers) or studying for major exams - it is a concern for sure. Has managed - with help, some accommodations and momâs active oversight - to get strong grades and standardized test scores and enjoys some ECs, but I think he would benefit from a college setting where he can get to know professors, access some assistance when needed etc. as it will be a HUGE transition for him. And hopefully he will not have many humanities requirements - he is STEM (wants EECS) all the way - but is not a 24/7 worker - needs downtime so will try to steer him away from total pressure cooker environments. Our spreadsheets are not populated with a long list of schools that seem like great matches but a few âgoodâ possibilities - lots more due diligence to do. He will need interview coaching and essay / supp. writing help to get college apps done - but no major programs this summer so hopefully can make good progress, even though he has an internship, science research project, physics 2 self-study (his choice to gear up for Physics C) & SAT-Physics to prep for and am sure lots of AP assignments. Canât wait till all the hurdles have been jumped - college app. process is grueling. For now through just focused on the next 2 weeks - 3 APs, 2 major final exams, 1 long paper, etc.
@ca1543 Have you investigated schools with really strong on-campus supports? Our 24 yos is a high IQ autistic with pretty major EF deficits. Programs like WKUâs KAP http://www.wku.edu/kellyautismprogram/collegeandcircleofsupport.php have amazing levels of support. I am not sure what is out there for just EF issues, but I am sure there are programs. Or having him at home or attend a school nearby?
Making the transition to adulthood for these kids can be a serious struggle. (Definitely has been for our ds.) Their path may need to be very different from all the other kids they know. That is ok. They may mature at a very different rate and their journey to adulthood may be unique. That is OK, too.
Put blinders on in terms of what everyone else is doing and focus on your sonâs unique level of needs.
As to bugs and wildlifeâŠhere in rural NY we have the usual mosquitos, gnats and ticks, and indoors, house centipedes rather than roaches. (I hate them both!) When our friends bring their kids here from Colorado, though, the kids get a little freaked out at the biting insects because apparently they have none there. But theyâre fine with the cougars that live on their mountain, lol.
We have tons and tons of deer (delicious ), along with foxes, bears, and the occasional bobcat. Someone said they saw a fisher but thatâs yet to be confirmed. Weâre near a river so we see bald eagles a lot too. I enjoy it all.
@2muchquan, D15 applied to a couple of top tier LACs that had supplements that included lists of books. Davidson College and Washington and Lee come to mind. That was a challenge to remember what she read because she is a voracious reader.
We live in a high desert environment and donât really have bugs (my S was the kid who has NO BUGS on his school list). We moved from east Tennessee where there are bugs a plenty. It was nice to not need a screened porch to enjoy the warm summer nights. We do have yellow jackets, spiders, ants, and sometime scorpions (are they bugs?). We also have coyote, bobcats, deer, raccoon, bear , owls hawks, various snakes, and an occasional mountain lion (I have never seen one #:-S). I donât miss cockroaches, gnats, ticks, etc.
Our kids as well. Remind me to write down all the titles of the books before I donate them to the library from now on!
We had to cut down two trees to get the squirrels out of our attic recently. I think we have just about everything in Georgia, including mosquitoes that buzz and ones that donât (ugh hate those!). My across the street neighbor had a major freak out yesterday when a 5 foot rat snake shed its skin on her driveway. I donât have snake issues, so I went and picked it up and threw it in my trash for her. She had major heebie jeebies. If I could catch the snake Iâd bring it over to my yard because Iâm currently dealing with a major chipmunk infestation.
We caught a chipmunk iin a havahart trap last year, brought it to the park about 5 miles away, let it free, and watched a hawk promptly land on it and fly off with it. My husband thought that was the funniest story heâd ever heard, lol.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek Thanks for your suggestions - appreciate them Yes I am hoping he will mature in college and also not overload himself (he has no free periods and often has lunch time course related obligations and 2-3 days a week starts classes at 7am. Not enough sleep. He is weaned off direct services now but has accommodations that are invaluable. But college will be different - I am hoping heâll be few a few hours away - can gain independence, take more ownership and geek out with his EECS stuff â and hopefully still play music some (plays strings). RIT could be fallback if needed and it seems that more schools have good supports too â just need to have some good options - hard to tell exactly how much heâll develop bt now and the start of college but he has had dramatic improvement from 9th to 11th grade so hopefully it will continue. I know though that some of his underlying traits, habits and underdeveloped adaptive behavior skills will no doubt remain challenging to manage and the expectations and the big change in structure from HS to college for courses, homework and tests as well as navigating social and recreational time will require him to adapt and take more responsibility - but he has been away 3 summers in academic programs, and on many school trips, some competitions etc. so hope to build on all of this too.
@mtrosemom I looked back at my notes, and it was in fact Davidson that I was thinking about that ask for a list of books, although some others ask about âfavoriteâ book read. D used to read for pleasure, but just canât fit it in anymore, so maybe itâs a good thing Davidson came off her list.
I picked up a book âNeuroscience for Dummiesâ at Amazon for D. I wonder how that would look on the list?
Just picked up sons tux for Prom this weekend. Itâs going to be a long day for him. Has to be up early AM to catch a bus to a lacrosse game, come home, shower and change, off to Prom dinner, then to after prom party until 5 am. Whoa, thatâs going to be a long day. Itâs good to be young.
My Dâs Physic I teacher gave the class a two day exam made up of sample AP test questions. My D got 78% correct, which is great considering it should take about 70-75% correct to score a 5, a 3 gets her college credit for Physics w/lab at the State U.
Now here is my issue, the test score was recorded in the grade book as an exam with a score of 78%. This tanked her 95% average and she will be lucky to pull an A in the class, yet it looks like she might score a 5 on the exam.
The Physics teacher is not only teacher to do this, in fact all but one teacher has or will give an AP exam practice exam and record the raw score in the grade book. One teacher converts the raw score to the numerical score and gives an A for a 5, and B for a 4 and so on, this seems more appropriate.
Is it typical? I am afraid the teachers are willing to hurt GPAs to motive kids to score higher on the AP exam. Schools are ranked partially by AP pass rates, not GPAs.
Re: Study groups and difficulty of college
My kid has not learned to ask for help or to work in study groups. It makes Spanish difficult for him, because no one at home can help and it doesnât come so naturally to him. Iâve offered to find a tutor, but get the âsmart kids donât have tutorsâ response. Working in study groups is a goal he wrote down for the summer program heâs attending. (They asked for goals, and they say that study groups are necessary to complete the problem sets.) He doesnât think there are many study groups at his school aside from boy/girlfriend âletâs study togetherâ things. But, heâs not so clued into these things and doesnât need them for most classes.
He does know that college will be more difficult than HS, because he talks with friends at Caltech and other places. (But one is ridiculously accelerated in math and physics even for Caltech.) Pretty sure one friend will choose MIT within the next 3 days, so heâll have reports about course difficulty from there also.
Re: Grades
We need to decide if we should do anything about DC21âs grades beyond nagging and some removal of electronic devices. S/he had two Fs but has brought one up to an A-/B+ because the teacher doesnât penalize for late work. The other F is now a D because the teacher deducts for late work (several other issues with that teacher, but I wonât go into detail). I havenât pushed that much about Bs, since DC is a different child than DS.
Re: ACT @greeny8 Did her ACT superscore go up? Some colleges superscore or at least look at the highest subscore in areas of interest.
Re: Animals
Here in coastal CA, we normally place 2nd for number of species in the annual Audubon bird count. We have the normal mammals like raccoons, skunks (lots), opossums, coyotes, occasional bobcats, and with the drought a very occasional mountain lion (or whatever your area of the country calls them) will come down from the mountains and have to be relocated farther away. Rattlesnakes are not completely uncommon if you go hiking on certain trails when itâs warm. There are also a few black bears in the backcountry, but it is very rare for them to be on the coast side of the hills. There are a lot of insects we are seeing fewer of because of the drought. NoCal got plenty of rain this winter, but we didnât.
@dfbdfb We had a nice trip to Alaska last August, and saw numerous large mammals in Denali National Park.
Re: Reading
I should tell DS to keep a list. Do Dungeons and Dragons manuals count? It would be interesting to know what colleges on his list ask on applications along these lines, so he could try to remember.
Depends on the grading scheme for the class. The 90â100%=A scheme isnât universal, and even where itâs held to, there may be a curve of some sort applied that changes things a bit. (For exampleâthough this is a college class, not high schoolâIâm teaching a class right now that assigns an A to final scores of 90â100% but where, pending what my students do on a couple tiny little end-of-semester assignments, due to the curve an A looks to actually be effectively a grade of 81 or 82â100% pre-curve.)
TL;DR: She should ask the teacher about it, non-confrontationally.
p.s. I know of no system where either AP pass rates or GPAs are used to rank high schools.
@CaucAsianDad My Dâs teachers are all giving mock AP exams this week. (My poor D is seriously sleep deprived as a result of prepping). All her teachers are doing the same thing as your Dâs physics teacher, which I donât understand. They are using raw score as a major test grade, and some are using it as the final. So my D has been busting her butt to get Aâs on them. I agree that it is unfair given that AP exams donât require 90% on the MC section to get a 5 on any test.
Interesting about AP scoring. I just got a text this morning that D got 82% on MC for AP Lit practice, and she seemed happy about that. I was like, OK, whatever (no, I told her âwonderful!â of course). Now Iâm wondering about the same thing, @CaucAsianDad.
), along with foxes, bears, and the occasional bobcat. Someone said they saw a fisher but thatâs yet to be confirmed. Weâre near a river so we see bald eagles a lot too. I enjoy it all.