@inthegarden ah I get it. Well, AP Physics it is then! D21 also taking Journalism H. It’s yearbook here too and it’s actually a ton of work in class and out. It’s a huge EC. Our book has won national awards apparently and it’s something like 400 pages long. I do think it will feel like a welcome break from the academic classes and falls nicely in the middle of the day in her schedule.
You’re smart to take your D to smaller schools during the school year if you can. We did do some LAC shopping in the summer with S and it was way easier to assess a school during the school year. Still, he ended up at a school we visited in the summer before he applied. I want to get D down to Denison during the school year. It’s a six hour drive so kind of a pain to drive down, stay the night, see the school and drive home but I think it’s best to see it this fall. I took S there in the summer and he liked what he saw but I think he would have liked it better if he could have seen more kids and sat in on classes. We have to try to eek out these visits somehow. I’ll have to see if Denison has class on Columbus Day.
@momtogkc what a waste! Hope they get it fixed fast.
We still have 3 weeks of summer, we go back after Labor Day. D21 is busy getting her summer work done. Finished APUSH and now working on AP CS Principles. Those are her only 2 APs this year. She won’t take AP Lang or Lit as she has a personal issue with the teacher and refuses to take her classes. She will take a college level English next year. She is also take 2 college level classes this year, Chemistry and Pre Calc. Hopefully she gets the “good teachers” as she says.
My D21 opted for regular Physics this year – the options were regular, honors, and a couple AP levels. He probably could handle honors (math is his favorite subject) but I heard it’s actually harder than AP because the AP classes go over 2 class periods while honors is just one so it’s very fast-paced. Once he decided to take AP Lang in addition to AP Calc and APUSH, we decided to take it easier on the science. He’s also doing French 5, Computer Science, and Computer Graphics.
His review of the Georgetown summer program was that he found the data analysis part interesting and liked the speakers but didn’t like the coding part (hope he likes it better in his HS comp sci class!), liked staying in the dorm but said the food was not good, and thought Georgetown seemed too small, reinforcing his interest in a big state school (VA Tech is currently leading choice). Decided we’ll look for summer programs for next year that can expose him to other aspects of applied math. His camp counselor job continues for a couple more weeks and then back to school after Labor Day. I’d thought we’d do more SAT prep this summer but when I learned his HS offers a low-cost SAT class in the Fall we decided to do that instead and he’ll take the test in December. He and DH are still plugging away at driving practice; he’s not eligible to take the test until Feburary so plenty of time left to practice.
Wow back to school already!! D21 has 3 more weeks. This week is the SAT prep class at the local community college- not a happy camper! She completed her summer financial lit course yesterday (brutal!) and has yet to start summer work!
AP Psych, AP Gov, Honors English and Latin, College Prep Pre-Calc and Physics this year, but we don’t get a schedule for 2 more weeks so we haven’t seen teachers yet.
@AndreaLynn That is funny, I’m glad she liked it! D21 is a fairly picky eater so I was not surprised. I think he also may have had overly optimistic expectations – the only campus where we have had a full meal in a dining hall was VA Tech and they are frequently rated one of the best campuses for food quality.
We start on Wed but that also means no summer work and the kids get out of school mid-May. I don’t like starting school in mid-August but we switched to this schedule so the kids could take first semester finals before winter break. Kids agree it’s better this way. Plus, teachers can finish AP prep before the tests so that sort of works out too.
Wow, am I the only one with a 21 who isn’t doing any academic or test prep over the summer?? It’s not often one gets down time to just be a kid, so we’re taking full advantage of that. School will be here soon enough and then he can get back into academics.
My D would love to not have to do work but it’s required with her AP classes. She was supposed to do some test prep but that didn’t happen. Her sweet 16 is in 2 months and that and her summer work have taken over. Plus she is trying to have some fun.
@eb23282 D21 did maybe eight hours of test prep at home most weeks this summer and volunteered at our humane society for two weeks. Other than that, it’s been pool time, hanging out at the mall, and being with friends and family. She needed the break. She’s fresh and excited for school to start!
@eb23282, my D21 has done very little. She reviewed a few (very few) chapters of Erica Meltzer’s ACT English prep book. She also had a little summer homework (but very little compared to last summer, where, among other things she was required to memorize all her chem ions). She participated in a nearby five-day baroque music camp, we took a couple of trips, we hosted a friend’s daughter for a week and now marching band camp. For a couple of weeks here and there she did almost nothing. That’s our summer!
@homerdog, I would love your daughter’s school schedule. I think it’s lovely to get out in Mid-May while late spring/early summer is still fresh. An extra bonus is that traveling at that time is often cheaper with fewer other tourists to contend with.
@eb23282 my S21 hasn’t done any test prep and barely any reading. He’s supposed to do a summer assignment for APUSH but hasn’t started it yet. From the time estimate from the teacher he shouldn’t have trouble getting it done the last week of summer when he isn’t working. Really, his only academic thing, was a 1-week summer program. Other than that, he’s been working as a counselor, hanging out with friends, and playing videogames.
D23 actually has a lot more summer work – for four classes (math, English, AP World History, science) – plus starts marching band camp today so she’s been working on learning the music.
@homerdog S21’s APUSH work is to read some materials and watch some videos provided by the teacher, answer questions, prepare for a quiz on the 2nd day of school. This is to cover on their own the first unit of APUSH.
D23’s work is… English: a book to read with questions to think about/take notes on, Math: Review packet with a page of math problems to do each week of the summer (she’s going into Honors Algebra II/Trig). AP World History: Some geography review and read a chapter/take notes from an AP prep book. Science: Start thinking about/creating a plan for science project. Each one of these individually is not a big deal but it adds up quickly.
@homerdog for my D for APUSH she had a book to read and i think 6 chapters in the textbook to read and do the vocabulary for. And she has to memorize the presidents in order. For AP Principles she also had to read from the textbook and write definitions. I don’t remember how many chapters though. She also need to write the main idea of each chapter.
That all sounds like a lot of AP work! It’s really must be because the teachers find they don’t have enough time to get through the material before the test. Makes sense if the work is just for APs.
D21 had a very fun summer with very little school work. She spent two weeks volunteering at an environmental summer camp, worked at a small restaurant a few nights a week and hung out with her friends every other waking minute - it felt like we barely saw her!
She had to read two books for AP Lang - In Cold Blood and then one she could pick out of a list of about 8, she chose Glass Castle. School started today and she has not finished either one - yikes! She said they always get extra time once school starts and she knows she can finish them by next week so she thinks she’ll be fine.
We have not started any test prep yet. D did say yesterday that she was ready to start thinking about it now that school is starting, she just wasn’t ready to focus on it over the summer.
I loved Glass Castle!!!
D21 has to read 2 books for Honors English (3 if in AP) and be ready to write an essay about an undisclosed topic when back in class.
AP Psych is reading the first couple units and answering a bunch of questions and taking notes. It says is should take 3-5 hours; if it takes you 150% more time than that you should consider dropping the class.
AP Gov is reading a user friendly constitution, I think, and answering some questions on that.
Pre-calc is an optional review packet (but math isn’t her thing so she’ll do).
Nothing for Physics or Honors Latin.
Can’t believe school is starting again! We are T-2 weeks here.
D21 has changed her mind (several times over the summer!) about her schedule and is waiting for her counselor to come back this week to request a change. Her goal is to have APUSH, AP Calc AB, AP Lang, AP Physics and then replace AP Chem and Stats with Orchestra and AP Spanish (she also has 2 periods of health science - STEM magnet school). I’m happy that she’s going to have a potentially more well rounded schedule but she’ll likely be the only non-native speaker in AP Spanish (we live in TX). She’s not very excited about school this year, I think she knows it’s going to be hard.
She spent the first 1/2 of the summer mostly decompressing and watching lots of youtube but also got some SAT prep and summer AP work in. She’s been interning at the zoo for the last 5.5 weeks and enjoying that. She takes the SAT August 24th, I’m really hoping she gets a good score that will take some of the pressure off this year.
We did a quick drive-by visit of Clark University when we were up in MA visiting family (campus too small for her liking and surrounding area was not great) and drove around UMASS as well. UMASS has a beautiful new Life Sciences building that got her interested in applying. We have a lot of family in the area. We were supposed to visit UT Austin this weekend but she was sick so we had a relaxing weekend doing nothing. Those are coming to a close very quickly!
I’m starting to second guess S21 taking AP Env Sci this year instead of Physics, it seems like most everyone here as well as as his friends are all taking Physics in 11th…he was planning on doing Physics senior year…does it really matter? He’s not going to be pursuing any science related major or pre-med. His options are regular Physics, PreAp Physics and AP Physics. If he does decide to change his schedule it would be Pre AP Physics now and then AP Env Sci in 12th…thoughts?!