OK, my D’s school recommends but doesn’t require the Meningococcal B. Strange, though, it specifies that one dose only is needed (though I’d have her get the two). @coffeeat3, I’m happy to say that she’s now more than three weeks past her 2nd Pfizer shot so no problems there. Tomorrow I’ll dig up her record and get it scheduled if she hasn’t had it. She hasn’t had a routine check-up since Covid hit, so we’re due. Fortunately, she had a check-up (and the last HPV shot) right before, in late Feb so she should be otherwise up to date.
On the laundry front, I usually do my D’s laundry with my own because I’m a stickler for sorting ( light/dark/ pink,red,orange/delicates/towels) so combining ours I get enough for a load. I also hang a lot of clothes dry just to extend the life of them…So many of the knits these days pill easily, and cotton shrinks. Also, the nice fuzzy insides of sweatshirts get stiff when put in the dryer.But I know D’s not going to have the room (or patience) to hang all those clothes next year. I do have her do a load herself now and then just to know how to do it…it seems that every time she has to ask me what to do. I find it’s a real head-scratcher that kids who can do the most complicated things on their phones and computers get stumped by a dial and a few buttons on the washer/dryer. She has one more week of school left, though, and after that…her laundry will be all hers to figure out this summer.
I have a good friend whose 16 year old son also recently committed suicide. This year has been very tough on many kids and I do not think they get enough credit for the sacrifices they made, primarily for the elderly.
D21’s ped will keep seeing her until age 21. I mentioned that to D19 who has the same dr. and she freaked. “That’s in like 6 months!” It really had not dawned on me yet that my two 19s will turn 21 this fall. I feel especially old now.
Yeah, it’s still working through bugs though. The program that wouldn’t work according to other students is Solidworks and something else. These were all engineering kids, so I think a lot of it was they run niche software.
I don’t use Apple products so I know just enough to know I don’t know.
All these things to think about! XL twin sheets, full comforter, computers, vaccines!
S has a top sheet but you’d never know since it spends most of its time kicked down to the end of the bed, under his comforter. We have duvets here but he’ll probably just get a comforter for school. He won’t care either way and he’s more likely (but still probably not very likely, lol) to wash a comforter.
We’ve also just started researching if he needs a new laptop for school. He has a MacBook but I’m not sure it’ll cut it for engineering.
And he took himself to his last doctor appointment (he’s 18) and mentioned scheduling something a few weeks later since he’d just gotten his covid vax that week too. I’ll have to check if he’s up to date on everything.
I’m so very sorry to read this heartbreaking news. Just absolutely numbing and devastating to think of the immense pain a 16 year old is feeling to lead them to suicide.
Please note: To meet the state’s Meningitis requirement, you must submit proof of the MCV4 (sold as Menactra, MenHibrix, and Menveo) or MPSV4 (sold as Menomune) version of the Meningitis vaccine. Meningitis serogroup B vaccine (sold as Bexsero and Trumenba) only prevents illness from a single strand of Meningitis and will not be accepted to meet the state’s Meningitis vaccine requirement.
S21 will be getting his meningitis vac next week. We also have to submit his MMR vac record.
About laundry: my boys have been doing their own laundry (washing, drying, folding and putting away) since they were 9-10 years old. They also clean their own rooms/bathrooms and their upstairs gameroom. I barely go up to our second floor lol. Nothing to “teach” S21, he’s pretty self sufficient and already does his own stuff plus household chores.
Our much beloved Ped finally retired and I’m so sad. I’m transitioning the boys to my family practice now I guess. For the vac, I’m just going to take him to CVS or Walmart, it’s easier that way right now.
I once lived in a dorm that provided sheets and laundry and required us to strip our beds and put on clean sheets every other Friday. I remember we felt somewhat put upon, but when you have a roommate, it’s really common courtesy to wash your sheets once in a while, even if you do not care yourself, and that way it was taken care of. Wondering why more colleges aren’t doing that. There could always be an opt out option for kids who have allergies and need special bedding or detergent but how many will that be really as opposed to kids who just can’t be bothered?
So sorry to hear this. Unfortunately this is also a big problem in high performance schools where kids are pushing themselves to the point of severe depression, while keeping an outward brave appearance. It is heartbreaking - every year in Spring several school districts have a case or two of teens committing suicide/running away. Ivy Day is called “Suicide Watch Day”
Another school fully enrolled/over enrolled for the Fall…UVM, and this after announcing academic dept cuts in January. Oops.
This article is from The Chronicle, might be paywalled but I think one can view a certain number of articles per month:
"The University of Vermont announced cuts in December in its College of Arts and Sciences, arguing that a structural budget deficit exacerbated by the pandemic made it necessary to eliminate programs. But the college is now grappling with a new problem: A surge of incoming freshmen committing to the university has left the college understaffed.
After factoring in likely melt among committed students, administrators anticipate that more than 1,425 freshmen will come to campus, “well above the 1,250 that we built the fall schedule for,” the college’s dean, Bill Falls, wrote in an email to the staff. The university expected around 1,300 deposits by May 1 but received 1,640, a “significant jump,” he told faculty members in the college at a Tuesday meeting.
Now, the college is clamoring to find professors to teach first-year seminars and large-enrollment courses for this wave of new students. College leaders have reached out to three lecturers who were not reappointed in December to ask them to teach and have asked full-time faculty to take on additional work."
I don’t think it is fair to judge teens who let grades slip to a few Bs or Cs at the end of senior year after 13 years of busting their butts to get As. It has been rough, there has been so much stress with this application cycle and navigating senior year during a pandemic. Why judge them? It really does not matter in the long run as long as they learned enough in their classes to be successful in their freshman courses. I don’t fault kids for trying to focus more on getting some independence out in the world with their friends now that most are vaccinated and the city is opening up with more for them to do and experience.
Also, kids with anxiety should just stay home and not go to college? We have an obligation to our kids to try to identify issues and get them any assistance with therapy and medication when appropriate but these kids also should be encouraged to thrive and grow just like all the other kids. Yes, it may be too much for some of them, and many will choose to not go away to college, but implying that any kid with anxiety/depression will fail at college is a bit harsh.
I think at least some of the dropping of academic standards this year may have to do with burnout on the part of some teachers, too…not blaming the teachers, either, exactly…teaching remote and in-person at the same time is not a piece of cake, and the teachers have had major personal stressors to deal with too this past year.
A few days ago my D was crying in frustration over her calculus…she said that her teacher (who was never the best resource except for those gifted in math) has pretty much stopped explaining anything altogether. In past grading periods he has given them at least four tests…this grading period just one minor quiz so far and there will be only one test…40% of the grade (with homework and class work averaged in. That’s a lot of pressure riding on the grade when the student isn’t confident about the material. My D is fortunate that my H can step in and tutor her (though he doesn’t know the exact methodology the teacher expects). So far she’s hanging on to an A but I’d be willing to bet she might have sunk quite a bit in grades and motivation if she didn’t have a willing tutor at her disposal. I really feel for the students who don’t get It intuitively and don’t have a parent who can step in to help. I doubt she will need calculus for anything in the future…if so, she can repeat this level again (didn’t take the AP test) so it doesn’t matter for her in the scheme of things. This year we will have to be happy with any small victories. Staying healthy through all this is the greatest one!
Thank you so much! I doubt we’ll need to call on you though, with one week of school to go (and my H is basically on vacation as his teaching semester is over.) But maybe if it’s a methodology question or H is out on his bicycle I will call on you!
FYI, S21 is in bed with fatigue, headaches, and dizziness from the meningitis B vax. Same symptoms that he had with the second COVID vax dose. That, or he probably stayed up til 3am last night playing games.
@inthegarden I feel you on having teachers who aren’t so great at teaching the subject. S21 had this freshman teacher who zapped his confidence in math for a while. I went through three tutors and the last one, we got a teacher from the district. He was amazing. S21 pulled a B out of that class, but the most important thing was the tutor finally taught him the concept. His freshman class teacher took a practice exam once and she got a C-. Then she taught AP CS where S21’s friend ended up teaching the class. I mean, total craziness. I had shared my concern with our GC and she didn’t do much. Probably because I was a mom of a freshman with no experience. Then her son had this teacher for math his freshman year. Let’s just say when my D24 got to the high school and I requested she didn’t get this math teacher, there was no protest. Not only that, she also made sure D24 didn’t have the Spanish teacher S21 had his freshman year. The one who fell asleep in class on a Wed and said he had a long weekend. Even the kids who recently had him as a teacher thinks he doesn’t speak any Spanish. Luckily, S21 had a great Spanish teacher his sophomore year, who didn’t speak much English, and S21 said he learned more in his first two weeks with her than he did his entire freshman year.
