@mom23travelers I don’t know that I’d be on CC were it not for S17. I can relate to your discipline comment, that is S19 in a nutshell.
I too believe that kids find their fit, versus fitting a find and it does work out. We got quite lucky with SS11 and SD14 with painless admissions process with a one and done small LAC easy admit for anyone and a competitive admit successful EA for the other. S17 is proving to be a bit of a challenge. I hope it won’t be a nail biter but it might be. More likely to be a financial nail biter than anything.
S19? I refuse to think that far seriously yet We need to survive sophomore year with decent grades before I will chat with him about it. He’d chat now but I’ve told him it’s not even open for discussion till year end grades are in.
My little slacker is home from school. S19 DID manage to switch two of his classes just to get a class with his GF and didn’t add Honors Chem or English after all (he claims the scheduling didn’t work out). His guidance counselor was in an elementary school until last year and is super sweet and apparently very flexible, haha.
The downside is that his World History HN teacher is basically Mr. Mackey from South Park (i.e., says “mmm’kay?” after every sentence) and he is going to have to sit through his opening day spiel two days in a row because he changed from an odd to an “even” day. He still has all the same uninspiring teachers, but seems happier, so I’ll take it. I told him I expect nearly all A’s this year with only two honors classes. (I’ve given up on him getting an A in French - glad it’s the last year!)
@eh1234 wow, that would never fly at our school but I have to give him props for getting it done. Hope they don’t break up mid year and he regrets the changes lol.
@eh1234 sounds like our kids have the same honors chem class. Very little of what is on the tests are covered in class. They have a syllabus and they are expected to keep up with the work even though it’s not checked and doesn’t count towards their grades. There is reading to be done and a workbook to complete but the teacher will never know if students blow it off. They’ve been told, though, that if they don’t do it then tests will be impossible. The class time is spent mostly on labs. Nothing like self-study for the 15 year olds! Ugh.
DS19 took Biology Honors last year and was recommended for Chemistry Honors this year. Knowing that math is not one of stronger subjects , he elected to take Earth Science Honors and take Chem Honors next year after he completes Algebra 2 this year. He plans to take Physics Honors or AP as a senior. We’ll see if his plans come to fruition .
After some scheduling issues - your are in; no, you cannot take that class; now you are in; your class was canceled, it was not canceled - DS19’s schedule is fanally settled.
He is also taking double-block Advanced Honors Chemistry and the latter part is AP Chemistry. It will be an interesting year.
@homerdog Yep, that’s pretty much what it’s like, but mine ended up staying in regular Chem after all (which means no required science fair project) The only science he’s ever actually expressed interest in is Physics so he’ll take AP Physics 1 next year. I’m hoping that regular chem will actually give him a foundation in the subject that he wouldn’t get trying to teach himself honors chem, but I don’t really know what to expect from the class. Honors Bio was really, really easy.
Maybe junior year he’ll actually blossom as a student - he’s looking forward to having room in his schedule for computer science and honors STEM engineering (with French and PE over and done with). However, he’s not a kid who is already programming or doing engineering projects in his spare time, which seems to doom him from any type of STEM major in the future, at least based on what I read on CC
@eh1234 Our S has done NO programming and is doing AP Comp Sci A this year Lots of the kids in there have some experience with Java from summer camps or self teaching. He’s doing fine. Other kids are finding these first three weeks super easy and review. It’s all new to him so I’m sure it’s taking him way more time to get through the assignments, but there are no official prerequisites for the course so he’s not expected to know anything. All good so far. He’s not ruling STEM out yet!
@carolinamom2boys I love the idea of taking Earth Science and then Physics. Our school only offers AP Physics I or AP Physics C. I think it’s important to have had a physics class but whose to say it has to be junior year? It’s unusual for kids at our school to not do the Bio H/Chem H/AP Physics/AP (Bio or Chem) as a sequence. With a tough junior year schedule, though, we’re not ruling out taking Earth Science H instead!
D was not very happy to know that she needs to self study both the APs. The teachers support if the student gets stuck. HW hardly matters in the final grade. She made her first ever C in the 1st AP Chem test. She was sulking for a day or two. She made to B+ in the next test. Lets see how she holds up as the year progresses.
My d19 is also taking honors chemistry this year. She tends to be a STEM kind of kid, so I’m hoping she likes it. She got to take biology honors as an 8th grader. It was challenging and interesting but a bit stressful in the amount of memorization and learning to write labs.
Her first day is today! Fingers are crossed that it’s a good one.
The world would be quite short on STEM majors if they all were really coding before their sophomore year of HS. Not to mention many STEM kids have zero interest in coding or engineering projects. Hard to imagine, but there really are other STEM fields and careers beyond CS and Engineering. LOL!
One thing I will say regarding math/science paths. We have found that Physics is best taken after pre-calc if possible. Some of the math in Physics, at least at our school, was stuff they’d not gotten to yet in Pre-Calc. My S17 took both at the same time and while it leveled out eventually, the Seniors in his AP Physics class had a much easier time than the Juniors. S19 had wanted to take AP physics this year, versus chem or honors chem and we (and the AP Physics teacher) talked him out of it as it would have been concurrent for him as well. While he’s a stronger math student and it may not have been an issue, why risk it.
^^^
That is interesting about precalc > physics path. Son17 took honors physics last year, and did OK, but had a challenging year with it. He is just now taking pre-calc. He took Alg1 Honors, Geometry Honors, Alg2 Honors and now pre Calc honors. He’s not taking a science in senior year, chose to take AP stats and AP Gov instead, but he’s not a STEM kid.
Son19 is definitely STEM, and enjoys engineering and math, and sort of likes science but not as much. I will have to consider your strategy and see if it works in our High School.
Coding:
Son19 only tried coding for the first time this summer. He and his brother took a class learning to code IOS apps.
Son19 thought it was kind of fun to learn, but said he has no interest in doing that for a career.
@eh1234 My D16 just started college as a computer science major and she never took a comp sci class and really didn’t mess around with it much either so not everyone arrives at college self taught.
S19 had his first day of school. I’m super excited that he has his good friend in Chem. and English (both honors) because she’s the type of kid who always knows what is going on and I’m friends with her mom. We joke about my son that he communicates as if he is sending a telegram and has to pay for each character.
Just looked up our Physics options. School only offers AP options. Not sure what’s up with that.
AP Physics I has a prerequisite of Algebra II/Trig
AP Physics 2 has a prerequisite of Algebra II/Trig and AP Physics 1
AP Physics C has a prerequisite of Calc AB or BC.
So, the College Board offers three different AP Physics tests. Sounds like most kids who want to take Physics, take AP Physics I junior year and, if they want another year (which I personally cannot imagine!), they take AP Physics 2 senior year. The kids who are ahead in math and take Calc AB or BC junior year generally wait until senior year for Physics and take the AP Physics C class.
I hated Physics so all of this talk about it makes my head hurt. On the flip side, I think our S will love it so I’m trying not to dampen any impending interest.
@VANURSEPRAC she took earth science honors.
She considered skipping it and going right to Chem honors (a couple of kids did) but her science teacher said he thinks it’s better to be more well rounded in science and not to skip earth science. Also, chem is harder and most of her friends were in earth science. Since 9th grade would have its own stresses and since if she started out off track from most of her friends, she likely wouldn’t be with any of them in most science classes for the rest of high school, she decided to go with earth science. It turned out to be a great decision. She enjoyed the class and had a fabulous teacher.
Thanks @mom2twogirls, I am paying around with ideas for science progression for D21. One idea I have is preAP (that is what our school district calls H classes) bio and preAP chem in 9th grade while taking preAP Alg2.
I think Alg 2 will be easy for D21 and the bio is easy at the high school. But not sure if this is doable or not.
The reason is: this would allow AP chem in 10th and APphysics 1 in 11th and APphysics C in 12th.
Yeah, my d19 is debating whether to double up on AP Chem and AP Physics next year and then AP Bio in 12th or 1 science next year and then either one or two of the remaining sciences in 12th. She is hoping to have an opinion by about December based on how the first part of this year goes.
My d22 is watching how things go with her sister and then will decide. Our school already changed the advanced math track a bit between them and now d22 is planning on probably doubling up on math in 9th grade. She isnt sure whether she wants to skip earth science in 9th or double up on sciences in 10th. It’s a bit early for her to make a real decision so I just let her ponder aloud her options and give opinions occasionally.
We need to survive sophomore year with decent grades before I will chat with him about it. He’d chat now but I’ve told him it’s not even open for discussion till year end grades are in.