He leaves for Snowfarm on Sunday this will be his third year. Although he’s great with computers he’s not into digital art. He’s really into torch work glass. He likes freehand solid form sculpting. They have to pick two different classes this year he’ll do torch work and ceramics.
Hello fellow 2018 parents!
As an introduction: I have a son who will be a sophomore this year at a large public high school in the southwest. So far, his HS experience has been very positive and his grades all As in mostly honors classes. He is a Duke TiPster, basketball player and just became an Eagle Scout. He is learning to drive.
I am looking forward to taking this journey with all of you.
Welcome, @DerekJeter2 !
Thank you @HeliMom74 !
Here’s an update on us:
I’ll be dropping S18 off at the airport at 5:30AM to go to Snow Farm Art Camp for two weeks, the first leg of the flight is oversold and the airline is already asking people to give up seats. Not going to happen, I’m already concerned about him changing planes in Detroit. We went out to dinner tonight, his choice, local Japanese place with great sushi, and he abruptly announced that this will be his last year at Snow Farm. I decided this was not the time to ask why but I expect that either he thinks that he has “grown past” what they have to offer or that it will conflict with the Chinese class exchange trip next year to Taiwan. He also wants to look into a summer apprenticeship with a glass artist in Louisville, KY so maybe that’s it? Again, I’m not going to ask about it until after he gets back.
He says he is almost finished working through the Khan Academy new SAT prep site and he’ll be taking a local PSAT prep class in August. I’m very pleased that he is taking this seriously and not just blowing this off.
After a family discussion we decided that all three kids really need some exposure to statistics before college but it really didn’t fit into any of their high school schedules so they decided to do the Aleks.com online Beginning College Statistics course this summer. I don’t know if any of them will go to schools that accept the ACE college credit for the course but I’m thrilled that my 3 kids are taking the same class at home this summer! It was hard to let D16 move on to public high school after homeschool and harder still to let S18 move on to public high school, but even though this class is a reach for S20 (still homeschooled) he is so happy to be taking it with his brother and sister that he is willing to put in the extra effort. I’m loving having all three are taking the same class it’s just like being homeschooled together again even if it’s only for the summer.
@3scoutsmom How does Kahn help with the PSAT? Are there sections that you reccomend?
@3scoutsmom, I’m curious as to why your son is studying so early for the PSAT?
@DerekJeter2, I think conventional wisdom is that preparing for the SAT will also prepare the student for the PSAT. My HS class of 2015 student did that over the summer before her junior year and took the SAT and PSAT in the fall. I think you can find the Kahn Academy materials for the new SAT format online for free.
@suzy100 The PSAT is a very important test for us as National Merit would mean much greater opportunity for S.
He will be taking the PSAT in October of this year for practice and to get a feel for what the new test is like and then again in October 2016 when it will count for National Merit. The summer is when he has the most free time and the best time to for him to prep. I’d rather he be working on school work during the school year.
Here’s the testing prep schedule that has worked best for our family:
Summer: Khan Academy online/ Local PSAT/SAT prep class (7 two hour classes in August)
10th grade PSAT (OCT) SAT (MAR) This year the College Board is offing a new 10th grade practice SAT in the Spring, each school can decide exact dates I’m on the fence about this one
Summer: PrepScholar and subject specific prep books (PWN the Math SAT and Erica Meltzer’s Grammar and Critical reading books) to fill in any holes.
11th grade PSAT (OCT) SAT (either OCT or NOV) if they want/need to take the SAT a third time, the latest they should take it would be June so scores will be ready to for September early college applications in 12th grade
Students should heavily prep for the PSAT/SAT in the summer before 11th grade and through the fall and just get it done and out of the way.
My kids tend to take a lot of AP classes so we try to avoid testing in May and near semester finals.
This plan worked well with d16. She had a very stressful Junior year and she was so glad to be 100% done with PSAT/SAT early in the year.
@DerekJeter2 www.khanacademy.org/sat I agree with Suzy100, studying for the new PSAT is just like study for the new SAT the test are almost the same with the SAT being a little harder.
https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/new-sat/new-sat-tips-planning/new-sat-how-to-prep/a/full-length-psat-to-take-on-paper
Picked up DD’18’s class schedule today - sophomore year starts in 3 weeks. This is the last week of her summer job. Got DD the New College Board Blue Book for the New SAT - she has opened it a few times. She has not been to the Kahn Academy website yet. PSAT is over a year away.
DD will take PSAT in October (it’s given to all 10th graders in our school system) and then again junior year when it will count for NMF. She will take October cold so she can get a baseline and then study over the summer before junior year. We are not aiming for NMF because it is very difficult in our state (I think cutoff for DS 2014 was 223). I mean, if it happens it happens, but I don’t want to put that pressure on her given the very high bar. The studying is really for SAT purposes, rather than PSAT.
Just dropped DD off at XC camp. She is so happy to be spending time with her teammates. School starts up again in 2 weeks!
DD picked up her schedule today, and sophomore year starts Monday! She got all the classes she wanted when she wanted them, so hopefully this year will go well. Her schedule is:
1st Semester -
Wellness (gym)
Honors Chem II
Honors French III
Honors Trig/Precal
Honors Eng 10
2nd Semester -
Honors Am Gov’t
AP Chem
Honors French IV
Honors Trig/Pre-cal
Honors Eng 10
It looks like a ton of homework to me, and her main school sport goes from mid-August to February. Lessons in time management! She will also take the PSAT again this fall. Not sure how much studying for it she’ll do - might just use this as a “baseline” since the test is new and then study for next year’s.
Didn’t know AP Chem could be offered as a half-year course paired with honors chem. It’s a full year course around here. That would sure speed things up and open room for other classes. Is the track record with the AP test good with this approach?
I would love to hear about one semester AP chem too. The only class they offer as a one semester AP here is AP Micro (Macro not offered)…
I think it’s mostly semantics. Yes, AP Chem at DD’s school is a one semester class, but it has two prerequisite classes - Honors chem I and a honors chem II. You aren’t really gaining anything by taking the one semester AP - it’s essentially just a continuation of honors chem II. But, for the record, they have good success with the AP test using this format.
Edit: I just went and looked at her course catalog, and there are a lot of AP courses that are one semester (but full credit) courses due to the block scheduling her school employs - Art, Calc, Stats, Bio, Chem, Macro, U.S. history, and all languages (French, latin, span, German and Chinese). It does free up lots of time for kids to take a wide variety of classes, although again, most do have prerequisites.
I would be concerned about retaining information for one semester AP classes taken in the fall since the exams aren’t given until May. But since your school has a good track record with the exams I guess they know what they’re doing!
DD’s school is an IB school so no APs for her (older sibling 2014 went to a different school and ended up taking 8 APs all of which were year long with the exception of Micro and Macro Econ).
DD doesn’t have her schedule yet (we don’t start until after Labor Day) but she will be taking:
Gym
Spanish III
IB Chem
Honors English
Honors Algebra II/Trig
Journalism
honors History
It should be manageable. She played two school sports and a club sport year round last year, along with managing one in her “off season” and also singing in the chorus program so she definitely learned to manage her time,
She is in her last week of her online class and then sports tryouts/practices start next week, for both school and club sports.
DD’18
Pre-Calc./Analy. Geom.
Art/ Ceramics
Theology II
Hon. Bio.
Hon. English II
Hon. Spanish II
Hon. World History
She runs cross country in the fall and track in the spring. She is a service club and a math club.
@2014novamom, fall semester is Honors Chemistry II and spring is AP chem. She also had Honors Chemistry I spring of freshman year, so will have had three straight semesters of chemistry prior to the AP test.
Our school will starts in Aug 31st, my nephew school starts 9/14.
My DD’18 doesn’t have the finalized class schedule yet, but the tentative one as following:
Hon. Pre-Calc
Athletes- golf uv
Hon. Chem *
Hon. English II
Hon. Chinese II
AP World History *
- is weighted class.
She/we can’t get up early enough to take zero period, and golf team practice after school, so no 7th period.
We will choose AP Bio or AP Chem at 11th grade, depends on which science class she enjoys more, or she can take Physics .
It’s interesting that golf counts as a class – I assume in place of Gym. I wish our school system would do the same for sports because it would free up another slot in DD’s schedule. As it is many kids end up taking gym online either over the summer or as an extra class during the school year so that they can take all the electives they want. We considered doing that for DD but opted for the required personal finance class instead after hearing that online gym is more difficult than regular gym. The physical component is easy (they give you a heart rate monitor and a target) but apparently there are a lot of essays and class work as well.
We have 7 periods in the school day but Gym takes up 1 of them through 10th grade and then you have required English, math, history, and science plus a foreign language leaving room for only one elective. And scheduling get tougher as you go if your goal is an IB diploma. Juniors have to take the required Theory of Knowledge class after school to squeeze all the requirements in!