Nope but my S20 took the PSAT this October (I’m STILL waiting for the paper score report that was promised in January!) and S18 will take March SAT test.
@3scoutsmom , nice to see you here! DD17 never received the paper score report either. She said she saw people in GC office stuffing the reports in envelopes yesterday.
Hi Everyone, I’m joining this thread after a 4 year hiatus in the parent’s cafe. LilD is getting ready for HS and so am I :). We have a college grad ('14 - the reason why I joined CC) and one graduating from college in May.
We are fortunate to be within a few hours drive to many universities and colleges. D has been visiting schools since she was young as a tag-a-long to her older siblings. We also enjoy going to the schools to watch college sports.
3scoutsmom, our D is also on the advanced math track. Our kids’ classes are very similar.
Looking forward to the discussions on this thread! 
Welcome to all the newbies. I really think this thread is going to be very helpful to me. D20 will be my first non-STEM kid and its going to feel weird for me. She’s an actress through and through. Not sure how that affects our class choices, but we will soon find out. I’m still going through the college process with my D16, so I won’t be around here much until that decision has been made. I’m really looking forward to ‘meeting’ some new faces and rekindling some older friendships.
Today we were talking about which high school should my DD '20 attend. She is currently in a 7-12th elite public school, strong academic focus, special admission for only the top students from the district, small campus with only 1000 students, but not strong sports program. Our home high school is not bad either, over 2000 students, competitive athletes program and in the same block of where we live. My DD’20 loves basketball and wanted to play for varsity and college if she could. We worried that her current school will demand too much her time in studying and also like our home school is in the higher sport division and more fun high school life. My DD’18 worries that she won’t have enough playing time on the court and also doesn’t want to go to the same school with her sister (DD’18). We have hard time making the decision but seems like she is willing to take on academic challenge to exchange more playing time in her current high school. This school is so competitive academically and I am just worried that it will cause too much stress for her.
Hi to all. Our middle child will be class of 2020, so I am happy to find this thread. She just made decisions about her high school schedule last week. She has struggled in math and science a bit, so tough decisions made there. She took Algebra I and Geometry in middle school, and has struggled to get Bs. Geometry grade is now in C territory. Those grades are somewhat propped up by homework and extra credit offsetting lower test grades. Older brother has always been the top math student, so have never been here before. We decided to have her repeat, which is what she wanted anyway. GC agreed. Anyone else been through this who could offer perspective? In the end, I just want the plan that means she masters the maximum amount of math in HS.
@LOUKYDAD - I think repeating Geometry would be a great idea. Most kids don’t see Geometry until 9th or 10th grade, even top kids. It won’t do your daughter any favors to rush her when she’s struggling… You’re a good dad for taking care to see that she gets what she needs.
Honestly it was a little bit hard to accept wouldn’t be moving onto higher math with the top math students. But I agree that she needs to go at her pace and not someone else’s. I think she will get there. She is definitely stronger at language arts and reading. A terrific writer. I love reading anything she writes.
@LOUKYDAD I agree that even the strongest math students don’t often take geo before 9th. Fwiw, I have made every single one of my kids take alg 1 twice. (That means 6 so far. My current 8th grader is completing her 2nd yr of alg 1 right now.) They retake it the 2nd yr with a much harder text than their first exposure. ( we homeschool, so I choose the textbooks.). Anyway, the reason I have chosen to do so is that upper level math difficulties tend to stem from a weak alg foundation. My older STEM kids have seen their share of friends struggling in college/changing majors bc their math foundation was weak. These are kids who just kept on forging forward w/o complete mastery of lower level concepts.
Fwiw, you might want to have her do a review of alg 1 this summer before retaking geo in the fall. (A great text with excellent word problems requiring mastery of concepts to solve is Foerster’s alg 1.
http://www.amazon.com/Algebra-I-Expressions-Equations-Applications/dp/0201860945
And, there is absolutely nothing saying that she won’t excel in math going forward. Just bc a sibling did something better earlier does not mean that the younger student can’t do something equal or superior later.
Geo in 9th is not an indication of a weak math student. It seems to indicate to me a weaker foundation, not a weaker student. 
Fwiw, my ds who is a successful chemE took geo in 9th. 
@LOUKYDAD I agree with @Mom2aphysicsgeek, to work on Alg 1 before geometry. We supplement public school at home and D21 is uses Paul Foerster text for Algebra. Really solid textbook. She is taking Alg 1 in school and all six weeks grades are 98-100. I know it is from the Paul Foerster text.
Right now actually we chose to start again in Algebra 1 her freshman year. She passed Algebra 1 her 7th grade year with a B, but based upon her test grades and especially the final I don’t feel like she really mastered it. I can’t recall the exact specific requirements, but I remember she needed a B in the class plus a certain score on the Algebra 1 final to move on to Geometry, and she just barely squeaked by.
It may have worked out in the end to just repeat Geometry rather than Algebra 1 also, but didn’t want to take any chances. The GC said that if she blows Algebra 1 out of the water this year and wants to speed up, she could take Geometry and Algebra 2 together during the sophomore year. I just want her to have the best run possible at the ACT by the end of her junior year, and I know the more algebra and geometry she knows by then the better. Getting to Pre-Cal and learning some trigonometry will be helpful too I know, but we will see how it goes. The good news is that they do have some really good math teachers in our local high school, which I know from her older brother’s experience (DS18).
Thanks a lot for the confirmation and for sharing your ideas, much appreciated!
@LOUKYDAD I think you have made a wise choice. I do not let my children progress w/o mastery. Too much depends on that solid algebra foundation–all upper level math and science.
Don’t second guess yourself. Be confident that you put the purpose of education, learning, before status. In the long run your dd will be more confident and successful.
Hi All, I’m happy to finally stop lurking on CC and join this forum! We have been talking about college with D20 since she was a kindergartner, lol. She is a very motivated student. She’s maintaining a 4.0 gpa while taking the most rigorous courseload available at her school and she has never missed a day of school. She really enjoys her extracurricular activities and elective classes, so we are letting her take Spanish and PE at our local junior college this summer to free up her Freshman year schedule. So along with 2 band classes and a leadership class, she will be taking Honors English, Honors Biology and Honors Algebra II next school year. Our high school doesn’t let Freshmen take AP classes. We offered to let her look at some private high schools, but she preferred the strong school spirit that our local public high school has within our community. Knowing our kid, she will probably want to join a bunch of clubs, too:) We really don’t have any idea what her college goals will be, but we are encouraging her work at her best level so that she can have lots of choices when it comes time to select a college. I look forward to the next several years with all of you on this forum!
@khmamma - welcome and great first post! Your daughter sounds like a great student. Hope she has a good adjustment to HS. She is on the same math/science/English sequence as my DS18. He was able to AP HG has freshman year. 3 APs sophomore year, and from here on he can essentially take everything. Hopefully she is able to do the same eventually if she wants to.
Welcome @khmamma!
I totally agree with what you did. My D21 was in an honors PreAlg for 6th grade and I just didn’t feel comfortable with the level of work they were doing. Plus I wanted her to take Geometry in HS not in MS. However, I pulled her out of private and sent her to our local public school which I totally LOVE. What they have done, due to the lack of preparedness at the HS level by previous students (school that’s connected to our MS). MS students in any honors class, the grade is based on 70% tests/quiz score 30% everything else (so homework, projects, ect). No A or B in class, you do not get to take honors the following school year.
Tonight was my DD’20’s 9th grade registration night (she attends a 7-12th grade school), the schedule is out and we have one week to request change classes. My DD’20’s 9th grade schedule is:
English 9 Honor
Biology Honor
World Hisuand Geography Honor
Math 2
Chinese 2 Honor
PE- athlete (she will play varsity basketball)
She wants to request changing Math 2 to Math 2 Plus Honor so she can end up takin AP Calculas BC in her senior year. Time flies and she is ready for high school!
Hm, all this talk about math is making me nervous for D. She’s a pretty well rounded kid who doesn’t really “love” math but she does well enough in it to be recommended for the highest math class going into HS. I feel it might be best for her to start at the next level down but her GC says its easier to move down after school starts than it is to move her up should the regular class be “too easy”. We will be traveling this summer so she won’t be able to take advantage of the summer math program that the high school offers. There, she’d be able to review algebra.
Any suggestions for online programs or courses? I will look into the books recommended up thread, as well.
@lilmom Does she need review? My 11th grader does not like math, but it is her easiest subject. If you want an easy to use curriculum, I would suggest Thinkwell. http://www.thinkwell.com/student (Just click on the select a product link.)
We use Aleks.com you can pay by the month and switch levels/classes during the month at no fee. It’s not for everyone though. Unlike most math classes start with an explanation and then present practice problems, Aleks starts with presenting the problems and if you need help then you click on a link to for explanations. This works well for my kids.