Just a little vent: D joined ACADECA at the beginning of the year and I asked her how they were going to prepare/study. I learned that the students had absolutely no guidance from their coach (who I heard really didn’t know what he was getting into.) My son attended a school whose team was very competitive and made it to the state finals and I knew how their prep was organized. The schedule was very demanding yet the students were able to juggle sports, mock trial and other activities in addition to ACADECA. Long story short, D decided to quit the team and I agreed it was a wise choice. Competitions start in Feb and the team had yet to hold formal practices while I know S’s HS started meeting in Sept!
I just finished the whole college application process wth my older D and so I’m ready to begin with my younger HS Class of 2021! I learned it’s never too early to start!
@veehee can you start a Class of 2021 for us? :0)
@EGHopeful I just tried and I don’t have access to start one. Maybe a moderator can help.
Hope this will help!
To the parents of the class of 2021
It’s here!!!
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/class-20xx-community/1954065-parents-of-the-hs-class-of-2021.html#latest
D just got her final grades for her first semester of high school. All A’s except a B in Honors Algebra 2. She’s pretty bummed about it, as it’s her first B ever. She’s a hard worker, but will need to become better at time management to hopefully bring that grade up to an A, and perhaps drop an extracurricular activity or two. I know some on CC talk about grade inflation at the high school level, but I haven’t seen that at all with D’s high school. Her average afternoon/evening consisted of at least 6 hours of homework last semester, and she spent most weekends doing schoolwork. She is also taking an ASL 2 class at the junior college this semester - I’m hoping that adding it doesn’t completely overwhelm her.
^^^ that’s a lot of homework every evening! sounds like she did well. keep it up!
@bgbg4us thank you! I’m hoping that she can lessen the hours of homework by becoming better at time management. It often seemed like she was spinning her wheels…like she didn’t quite know where to start with her projects. It doesn’t also help that her friends kept Snapchatting her!
Finding a way to reduce those phone distractions would likely reduce that homework time considerably, I bet. Our DS16 had some challenges with that also and he was much more efficient with the phone in another room. They do not realize the time they are losing to each instance of distraction until they try removing the source.
APHG question: are any of your students taking it? How are they going to study for it? Any study guide recommendations?
Mine is taking APHUG. Her '17 sister also took it as a freshman and got a 5. She used the Barron’s Flash Cards and her notes from class. (Interestingly enough she only got a b in the class) I’m worried because there’s 2 teachers at their school and this one has a rep for his students not doing as well.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1438076800/ref=olp_product_details?_encoding=UTF8&me=
So they are taking an AP class before HS?
I looked up the amazon link. Human geography.
My DS20 is taking APHUG and I ordered the flash cards - thank you!
I don’t think our HS offers AP Human Geography.
@veehee this thread is for parents of class of '20 so they are in high school. 4 classes of APHUG at our school, so about 140 freshmen taking it.
@VickiSoCal sorry! Got my groups mixed up!
I am homeschooling APHG. We are using mostly Barron’s and released test questions at this point. We did a lot of projects last semester and this semester is test prep and practice. My S16 came home from college and set up a program which includes a subject each week (not a full area, but a small subsection), review questions, and an FRQ from the released questions online. So each week he reviews from the Barron’s, answers questions and does an FRQ. In a few weeks we will increase to two FRQs in a sitting, until he is up to three at a time. In April we start full test prep using full released tests as well as tests from the Barron’s book. Practice tests work well for learning content.
Since my son is dysgraphic, one of the most important things was to prep him for how to answer the short answer questions. That is a major part of what we are doing now. Writing is a problem.
@lilmom- Just getting back to the thread. That’s excellent that you have Hamilton tickets in LA. Good strategy getting your husband the biography for Christmas. That’s disappointing about the Academic Decatholon, but sounds like the right decision. Does your daughter have another club or activity she enjoys? My son is enjoying Robotics and they are gearing up for a competition in Utah so he’s been staying late at school every day. So far I’m impressed with his teachers. It’s a large high school (1800 students) and I worried about him getting personalized attention. It was a needless concern as he talks about his teachers like they are friends. Not one or two teachers, but all of his teachers. I love that he has so many mentors to talk to about science, engineering and math. I listen to him but I seldom really understand what he’s talking about- I just know he’s happy.