Hear, hear, Glido! Excellent advice.
Hello! I wanted to jump into this thread, have a 2018 S. I also have a 2015 D, but have just recently started actively posting on CC. (Have been a lurker for several years.) I have noticed many familiar names that have seniors and freshman this year! 2018 Sās college process will likely be much different than Dās. He is a very good, but not top, student who is interested in Engineering, vs. tip-top science-oriented D. One thing I know for sureāit will all be so much easier the second time around!
Welcome aboard ClueBus
Welcome ClueBus!
DD got the summer job she applied for, so she will not be going to summer school. That will affect her fall class schedule a little.
Hello All - another Class of 15 parent checking-in on this thread for the first time. The workload to get S15 settled has wound down considerably as he has decided to accept a national merit scholarship to our state university. After lots & lots of research, he decided that heād be most comfortable staying in-state for his undergraduate studies in mechanical engineering, and I totally agree that this is the best path for his needs.
So, now I have the energy to join the class of 2018 family! D18 has been enjoying her first year of high school. Sheās attending the same magnet STEM program that her brother is finishing up and she has done really well (all Aās) thus far. In addition, she played varsity soccer in the fall and is currently on the varsity track team. She seems to have only enough time for school, practices, homework, and sleep; with a bit of free time to relax on the weekends.
She has really adjusted nicely to the high school routine, and has made lots of friends in her classes and on her sports teams. Iām looking forward to joining you all on this thread and Iām so glad Iāve found another āsupport groupā to share with as we do our best to mentor another remarkable group of young people. Itās hard to believe their freshman year is almost over!!
Welcome LMHS73 and congrats on having a decision for Sā15. Thatās a good feeling to have.
Welcome LMHS73 and all the other recent members of the class of 2018 thread! Iām sitting in the airport with loads of time to kill so I thought Iād post an update.
I signed D18 with the online Driverās Ed in a Box but the forms from the DMV still havenāt arrived so he canāt start the class yet. Itās been several weeks and when I get back home, if the forms still havenāt arrived I have to figure out if they cashed the check or not and resubmit the paper work. Very frustrating! We had hoped to start over Spring Break.
D18 is still enjoying high school and loves his comp sci classes and Chinese but HATES Biology! He still has an A by the skin of his teeth but itās been a struggle for him.
Since the school is no longer offering flamework in their art program, and this is S18ās passion we told him he could go to a national art glass conference in Las Vegas to take some classes. He attended last year when he was homeschooled and really liked it. This year, since he is in public school, we had to work out how to get out of school as an āapproved absence.ā Boy was this PITA! Evidently he can be excused his for national ācompetitionsā but not for āclassesā. This makes no sense to me! But whatever, they have an art glass competition at this event so if he enters he can get an excused absence. Having been to this show in the past I know they have a high school level, amateur level, and professional level, with subcategories for all the different types of art glass. I went to enter him in the high school level and found out that the high school level is only for NV residents and that heād have to enter in the adult amateur level. He has been very nervous about this! I keep reminding him he is just entering to get his āget out school passā and heāll get it win or lose.
Iām flying out to today, the conference starts on Wednesday and I have his entry with me (and I back up just in case!) and heāll fly in Thursday after school so heāll only miss one day of school. Iāve very excited about my classes, my hobby is fused glass and sand carving so this will be a fun week for me:-)
I donāt know what H will do with himself this weekend, S20 will be at Boy Scout Camp and D16 is so busy with her ECās sheās rarely home.
I mostly post on 2016 parents thread, but also have S18. His sister (D16) is such a hard worker. He gets by on pure smartsālucky for him this has been enough so far, but at some point heāll need to buckle down.
I am leaning toward sending him to āthe wildernessā this summerāhe needs to get off the computer/phone/ipad.
S18 and I had a great time the art glass conference we attended. He learned some new skills and is feeling much more confident about his own abilities. He did win an award in the contest, which will make his school happy, and there was even a small cash award that we werenāt aware of that made him very happy:-) The paper work from the DMV arrived while we were gone so he can officially start learning to drive this week!
3scouts - your DS should be very proud of himself! He was competing in the adult division, if I recall correctly? That had to be a great confidence booster!
@jcc yes it was a huge confidence builder! Not only that, he took two classes (both adult classes) one listed for all levels the other listed as intermediate level and he said that one person in one of his classes walked out in frustration - these were not cheap classes! I know both teachers by reputation and they both would have done everything possible to help any students so this wasnāt a teacher issue. It was a good lesson that you shouldnāt give up just because something is difficult for you! He also felt that he was in about the upper two thirds in the skill level of his adult classmates. This combined with winning the awards, was a wonderful experience for him!
S18 still thinks he wants to do something in computer engineering but I donāt think he realizes just how much he knows about the chemistry and physics of glass. Itās my hope that as he gets into AP Physics and AP Chem that he might expand his idea of a major to include glass. Just look what Gorilla Glass has done for cell phonesā¦
He could also look at something along the lines of ceramics or materials engineering, or optical engineering. All very techy fields that might satisfy the computer nerd in him, while also utilizing his knowledge of glass. Lots of great options!
@ClueMom and @LMHS73 I also have a D15 and S18. D15 is coming down to the wire on her choices, both of which involve NM awards. S18 has a chance to be in that mix in a few years but for now is concentrating on the spring musical and getting his grades where they need to be. Summer will be family vacation, drivers ed and summer sleep away camp. Not too different than my own summer when I was 15!
Hi, Iām another D15 and S18 mom. Done (at least with the decision) with D15 and ready to start with S18. I never really discovered the Class of 2015 page and itās already up to more than 1700 pages, so I canāt catch up. I decided I should get on board with this group now while itās early. My biggest issue will be that I could read my daughterās interests like a book, which made it easy to find the right type of schools, but my son is more of an enigma. A few days ago he told me that he happened onto a college website with a very specialized program and thought it really sounded good. I view that as a victory because, even though I donāt really want him to go to such a specialized college, he actually looked at it on his own.
Hi all! Iām another D15 and S18 mom (also a D21ā¦butā¦yeahā¦not ready to get too far ahead here). Anyway, my two oldest could not be more different as students if they tried. Never had to guide my daughter much: she just naturally took charge of her education, is very organized, has wicked time management skills. My son? Has yet to meet a test or quiz he couldnāt smoke, but cannot for the life of him remember (or in some cases, bother) to turn in homework or classwork. Work he DOES. Itās mind boggling. Care level is low, low, low.
I think seeing his sisterās journey this year has woken him up a bit, but I will not be abandoning the prayers for him to have an epiphany.
@catmatmc, I hear you! D has limited time management skills, but is an intellectual with extreme passion for her schoolwork. S has excellent time management skills, but he has a ādone is goodā attitude.
Welcome 1518mom and Catmatmc! Congratulations on getting through the ordeal with your '15s. Time for a well deserved break.
Hello fellow members of the 15/18 club:
@vistajay: Good to hear D15 is close to making a NM award choice. My son is already locked-in, also with a NM scholarship & itās been really nice to be able to take a breather! Iām looking forward to comparing notes with you over the next couple of years.
@1518mom: Like you, I didnāt find any of the Class of 2015 pages until much later in the game. For me, I found them after my son made NMSF. So I know what you mean about feeling behind. I remember feeling like my head was spinning last year when trying to catch-up on all of the information I didnāt know about! It seems like a luxury now to be on this page early.
@Catmatme: I am a S15 and D18 dad and our stories are the same, except that the years are switched. Like your D, mine is a mature, organized, & motivated student. She even plays two varsity sports and does speech & debate which all take-up a lot of time, but I NEVER have to get on her for homework or anything ā straight Aās, and all of that. This next go-around is going to be so easy for me!
As for your son, take heart! Mine is the same as well. Heās innately intelligent, totally unorganized, lacks motivation, etc., etc. The best thing the school system ever did was to allow the parents to go online to see the studentās grades throughout the year! Iād go on there over the years & see his grade as a āCā or a āDā and then ask him about it. About 80% of the time his poor grade was the result of not doing his homework and/or other assignments. There were even times when he had several completed homework assignments in his backpack and just didnāt hand them in! Sound familiar?
So, like your son he could smoke any test he really put his mind to, and he luckily did so on the 11th grade PSAT. He wound-up (mostly with my nagging him) keeping his grades decent (about half Aās and half Bās), made NMF and now has a full-ride lined-up for college. Heās 18 now and I really do think he has matured a lot, but he still has a ways to go; I also believe he will actually apply himself in college (taking mechanical engineering).
From my experience, youāve been spoiled having D15 go first, and now your work will get a bit more challenging. My advice is that they are all different and have different strengths, weaknesses, and levels of maturity. You just have to go with the flow and strategically pick your battles to keep them on track. It really helped me to compare notes with other posters (my sanity took a turn for the better when I found this site) & realize that some of our kids are not really different than others in many regards.
I said hi earlier in this thread, but with all of the 15/18s coming out of the woodwork, I thought I would again.
S15 is mulling over his decision before it is official. He is a high stats hard working kid. D18 is intelligent but not as hard working as her brother. She does not have the thirst for knowledge that he has. But so far so good for her too.