@CT1417 , my DD keeps us on “need to know basis” on those activities too
Thank you @Ynotgo for the explanation !
Snow day for S! I’m sure he is excited (but, as far as I know he is still sleeping). The questions really is how will this affect the finals schedule?
Happy winter break to you all! What are your kids doing with their free time?
Our relatives arrive and depart on various days. Two cousins don’t arrive until the day after Christmas, which is also DS’s 17th birthday. My kids say we should just call the 26th Christmas Eve, 27th Christmas, and 28th DS’s birthday. Those are the only days everyone is here. Grandma isn’t on board with that plan, however.
DS doesn’t have too much homework over the break, I think. His semester doesn’t end until January 22. I gather that a lot of schools have their semester end before winter break.
He is scheduled to take his driver’s license test next week. He has ACT prep and starting on some summer applications on his official To Do list. His FTC team will meet to rework some things on their robot. FRC kickoff isn’t until January 9.
I have cleaning the house before relatives arrive on my To Do list.
S’s birthday is in Dec. also, but before Christmas!. It makes for a crazy month. S is done with the semester. He is happy to relax. He did bave a bridge tournament this weekend (yes… bridge!) His FRC team has been meeting regularly already to build their mascot and go fundraising (they are a 2nd year team, so still have basic stuff to do.) He also finished his Eagle Scout project (finally) and is supposed to be working on his last badge over the break. D15 came home from college for her break so the two of them have been lazing around watching movies and playing computer games. I am not going to make him do much except for the Boy Scout badge because when FRC kicks off he will be BUSY!
Happy Holidays/Merry Christmas to you all.
S has overloaded schedule for first week. preparing for two science competitions, trying to complete two android apps and then practicing for two speech events 
However he gets to enjoy beach during the second one.
3 days at indoor water park! + HELL week of swimming practices + essays and applications and contests
DD FRC kick off is also Jan 9th.
I just sat down to seriously try to plot out the Feb & April break visits and my head hurts! These colleges do not make it easy for students to visit when the students are off from school. One only offers info sessions on Sat & Sun during Feb break and then only on Tues & Wed during April break. Several only offer one session per day, so impossible to visit two schools on same day even though in same area. One wants interviews but does not have interview schedule on calendar. Mind is spinning after cross-referencing five college admission pages and flights and hotels for both breaks. Giving up for now!
Semester grades are in and D got a B (88.9%) in APUSH. Many tears have followed. She has a winter break assignment for the class that includes reading a book and creating a short presentation. She has decided to take an Arts and Crafts approach and is making dolls and sewing period cloths to represent the dress of women from different social/economic groups and time periods. She is not the Arts and Crafty type and really doesn’t know how to sew. I think she is finding working with her hands good therapy after so much reading and writing during the semester only to come up short of her goal of the coveted A in APUSH.
@CT1417, try emailing the school admissions office or the area rep to see if an interview can be set up since there isn’t any way to schedule online. Better yet have your son do it if he is the proactive type.
@CaucAsianDad An 89 in APUSH is great! It is a notoriously hard course.
Happy New Year everyone! I hope 2016 will be a great year for all of our juniors.
@CaucAsianDad - I feel for her. DS got a 89 in APUSH. He was really bummed out… so close and now his 89 is just he same as if he had a 80… ugh.
Update on my D… Grades are great, first semester of Junior year over, and she still has a 4.0 ish (not sure how much AP and honors classes add now… it’s changed since my older girls went through). We’ve done several college visits, She LOVED SCAD hated Ringling, and her in-state choice she says is a “no-way”… soooooo lots of visiting to do in the future. She was VERY busy up to and over break. She started a business turning people’s children/families into digital art pieces. (some realistic, some more like super heroes or comic characters). It was very successful and she made a lot of money… and now that people are posting their Christmas gifts on FB she has gotten a lot more orders. I’m really proud of her, she’s worked very hard. Finals week was rough because she has so many gifts to finish and concerts to be in and that pesky studying… but she did it! She’s taking AP art next semester and the first thing will be to get her portfolio ready for Governor’s School application. I can’t believe she’s halfway through her junior year! Next semester will be so much better for her. She’ll have orchestra, AP art, AP english and AP stats, she’s going to take personal finance online so that she can play in orchestra next semester. She’ll take ACT in spring with rest of class. She didn’t do PSAT (our school is really weird about encouraging kids to take it) and I didn’t even find out about it till 2 weeks before the date, and she just didn’t feel prepared. She’ll take the SAT at some point after the ACT in the summer or fall. Hoping for good news about Govenors School! On a side note… her big sister was accepted to med school! Not a 2017er, but we are all so happy and relieved!
@moonpie, big congratulations to your daughter’s acceptance to med school!
A little bumped with DD’s ACT score as it was much lower than her practice tests. The reading section dragged the composite down. What is the best way to improve ACT reading section?
@4beardolls do you have tutoring available? I know in our area there are several centers, however there is a lady that does group and individual tutoring that is very successful. I have friends who have have children who went to her and they all raised their scores 3-5 points. My D2 had a 31, and her math score was the lowest. Even though the tutor said my daughter was better at math than she was, she taught my daughter how to rule out answers and read problems quickly, and improved to a 33 (which she felt she needed because her college average is 32-34- I was thrilled with a 31!). With another child (one of my best friends daughters) she had the most trouble with the reading section. She taught her how to take the test… how to quickly read passages for content, and then decided what was really being asked. Her score improved from a 19 to a 23! I would ask for recommendations from friends or guidance counselor (I really believe this tutor is better than the cookie cutter centers, because she assesses each child individually, and she only charges $25 hour!)
@moonpie – BIG congrats on D’s med school acceptance. One friend has two children in med school and I have been amazed listening to how grueling the application process is. I never paid attention 30 years ago when friends were applying so do not know if it was always that difficult but boy, they really have to jump through hoops. I don’t know how students can complete all the application work and interview travel while enrolled in college, so congrats to her! Of course, it pales in comparison to how much they work once in med school…
Re: SAT & ACT tutors. $25/hour…oh my. They seem to start at $250 for a 90 min session around here. I do think there is a benefit to one-on-one tutoring, especially once a student has spent some time practicing on her own. To make most effective use of tutoring time, I would have student analyze the types of mistakes she has made to identify own pitfalls. Does she run out of time? Stumble on vocabulary? I agree with moonpie’s description above.
@4beardolls – did your D request a copy of her QIR for the Dec ACT?
http://www.actstudent.org/scores/release.html
The problem with group classes is that she will have to spend time listening to areas she does not need help with. Not saying she wouldn’t learn something but less efficient.
I should say that I have no experience with ACT as both boys took SAT, so I am applying SAT prep experience to ACT. Older son had semi-private tutoring and younger son prepped by himself.
2017 son is thrilled with Dec score so standardized testing is behind him, other than perhaps one more subject test (took two already) and the inevitable AP exams. Oh, forgot—mandatory administration of new SAT in school in March for everyone in CT. But we did recycle the reams of SAT practice tests he had printed out.
Happy New Year all!
Checking in too. S had his best semester ever and got all As, even in the dreaded history and English classes! We are so proud of him! <:-P As for the standardized tests, he will take the ACT during district-wide testing. Last year was the first year our district used the ACT as the benchmark test. I think the amount of studying will be proportional to what’s going on with robotics. His SAT score is decent, so he is probably good to go if push came to shove.
I hope you all had a good Christmas and will have happy New Year’s!
Thanks for the ACT feedback. I will start looking for a tutor but don’t think can find a $25 one around here. 
My son used the eprep website and we were very happy with it. He really just used it to improve his score on the ACT grammar section but he went from a 33 composite to a 36 and didn’t spend much time working on it. It was around $100 for the short period of time which is a lot less than tutors or full courses. They take pre-tests and then there are short video tutorials for the things they miss.
I know it’s crazy for the $25 an hour… I live in a small community outside of Nashville, so very lucky. My daughter’s boyfriend tutors high school kids, and he gets $60 an hour (but he is in an affluent are of Nashville). I think 1:1 is worth it if you can afford it, however I will definitely look at @dcplanner’s suggestion of the eprep website! My oldest and middle both got above 31 just using the sample tests, but I think the eprep sounds like a good way to organize studying! Thanks for the congrats on the oldest’s medschool acceptance. It was a grueling, expensive process I had no clue on. Thanks to CC med parents group, I was able to navigate it without bugging the crap out of my daughter! My middle will be going through it next year, and I will be much calmer. @4beardolls if there is a college nearby, you may be able to get an eager student who can tutor in areas of need!