Wednesday. S25 literally just came and told me I think I’m ready for school. I was shocked. He’s my Sunday scaries kid.
He’s got:
Honors English
AP Euro (apparently a fabulous teacher!)
Chinese 3
Geometry
Chemistry
XC (sport is a class period)
Not ready at all. I’ll take care of everything tomorrow I suppose 
Wow that’s about a full month later then most schools around us here. Mine started today but we also have a college student move in so quite a busy day.
We live in the PNW. Summer really is July & August here. So, they start school in early September, and it goes through late June. The nice weather usually starts on July 5 and lasts through Labor Day. 
Same here, our S22’s college move-in is next week. We fly out to Rose-Hulman on Wed 8/24.
S25 started today and seems to be off to a good start. He had four periods today and said all his teachers were “great” thus far.
He took an Executive Function boot camp course about two weeks ago and seems motivated to utilize the techniques this year r/t study habits and time management. He already established himself away from his bedroom and in another part of the house to get homework done this evening.
That’s wonderful! Was the executive function boot camp in person or online? I’m considering getting an ADHD coach for my son at some point if he continues to struggle with some of these executive function issues.
We’re in week two and so far things are going well. Kiddo likes all of his teachers, is happy to be back in band, and has been very pleasant at home. Homework is still a slight struggle, but he seems to be gearing up more than last week. Honestly, he’s grown so much this past year–both academically and with the four inches he grew. It’s fun to see him maturing and growing into his personality.
Hope everyone has a good start to the year!
The bootcamp was in person. It was definitely bootcamp per my son - simply due to timing and structure. It was more of a broad strokes approach to time management, goal setting, minimizing distractions…still worth it to hear it all from someone else other than mom. We’ve looked into EF 1:1 coaching and I’ve done several initial screenings. But, everyone in my area that offers either in person or on line coaching has huge wait lists. Sigh.
Yay for band happiness! My euphonium player is glad to back in band as well!
Kid started last week.
Yoga
English
Yearbook
Mandarin 2
AP Euro
Chemistry
Honors Alg 2
Loves her teachers so far, even though there were not a ton of close friends in her classes.
I spent so much time last year trying to find an EF coach. I could not believe how hard and complicated it was. Fortunately through my sister I found one who had recently sold her EF coaching business but was willing to take on my S25 as a private client. I was really impressed with her tools.
My son has ADD/ADHD combined type and we have been struggling since third grade to find a medication that helps him. I think we may have at least landed on a new med that so far has zero side effects, but now we need to see if a higher dose will actually help him. We are basically out of meds to try at this point. To say we are both frustrated is an understatement. He wants to be one of those kids where the medication truly makes a difference.
If anyone wants to private message me the EF coach told us about this academic planner that has truly been a game changer for staying on task and time management. Out of all the tips and tools she taught him, the planner was the single most effective tool!
We just started.
Fall:
Honors English
Honors Precalc
AP Human Geo
Understanding the Holocaust/Child development (both 9 week classes)
Spring:
Honors Bio
Spanish 3
AP World
Ceramics/Personal finance (another set of 2 unrelated 9 week classes)
Tough classes, but she did luck out and get pretty good teachers for most of them. She got the “hard” Spanish teacher, but she wants to take the class through AP so she really needs the hard teachers for 3 and 4 or she will be lost in AP (which happened to D21 after she got the easy version of Spanish 3 and 4). Precalc is a bit of a wildcard, our math department tends to put the best teachers with the kids who struggle with math. Frequently the AP/honors kids are getting the worse teachers.
This teacher is a new one for us, D21’s was one of the worst teachers she had in HS. She taught herself the class, then struggled through Calc which ended up not having a great teacher either, plus our school totally phoned it in with Covid so she only had 9 weeks of iffy instruction anyway. She took Calc 1 at Amherst, guessing she would really struggle. Instead it was an easy A, Calc 2 wasn’t any harder for her. Math comes very easy for her, but our HS’s failures in that area convinced her she was bad at math.
Well, D25 starts the public charter tomorrow. All her friends at the public high school (her previous school) started today, so her “low” at the dinner table tonight was that she wasn’t with her friends at school. I think it’s starting to hit her how different her life is going to look homeschooling.
Her schedule:
Spanish Lit dual enrollment–her first DE class and it’s entirely online/asynchronous. I’m nervous about this one, although the prof has good reviews.
Alg II H (although her charter doesn’t have an “honors” option, so it’ll say Alg II on her transcript. We decided the education was more important than the transcript.)
English 10 H
Chem H
AP World (entirely online as well bc that’s the only thing her charter offers.) If anyone else’s kid is taking this and is willing to share what they are doing, I would love to chat to make sure this class goes well.
Bible Survey (this is actually not with her charter but another org from whom we thought we were going to take classes. D25 still wanted to keep the class when we dropped the rest of them. It won’t end up on her official hs transcript, so it may not get sent to colleges unless we decide to send it separately.)
PE (state requirement–luckily she can count her non ballet dance classes for this)
I’m very thankful that D25 likes her planner and organization. Even so, she’ll be managing four different platforms, school calendars, etc. I think I’m going to be a lot more hands on for the first few weeks; I’m normally the parent that doesn’t even know what the password is for parents’ accounts at the kids’ schools, so this feels weird to me.
@dadof4kids , That sounds hard that they put the worse teachers with AP/honors kids for math. I understand the motivation of the school, but if there’s more in depth info being taught at greater speed, that feels like a double whammy.
@Picklenut6 , I messaged you about the planner.
First day of school for C25!!!
(that is all)
I’m late to posting D25’s schedule (she started Monday). Here’s what’s on her plate this year:
AP U.S. History
Art Foundations: Studio Art
Ethics & Moral Decision-Making
Honors Chemistry
Honors English II
Honors Pre-Calculus
Spanish II
This year is her set-up for IB in 11th grade.
I’ll jump in too. D25 started school on Aug. 8!
Newswriting
Honors Algebra 2
Honors Chemistry
Honors English
Spanish 2
Honor Modern World History
Symphonic Orchestra
No APs at our school until Junior year.
I will also put in a plug for Project Select at Rose Hulman Institute of Technology. D25 spent a week at the camp in July and had a blast. She learned a lot and got to experience living in a dorm, eating in the dining commons, etc. I highly recommend Rose Hulman’s summer programs for any student interested in STEM.
My S22 did Operation Catapult at Rose-Hulman between junior and senior years. Cemented the school as his #1 choice.
Our S19 is starting his senior year at Rose next month. It is a great school!
I think most of our kids have started (aside from you lucky people in WA and elsewhere that are starting after Labor Day). How’s it going? D25 has started all classes aside from AP World (which starts after Labor Day). It sounds like all her teachers are good, and the classes are going to be challenging. I’m a little concerned about her workload once AP WH gets added, but she seems on top of it. She’s being proactive about trying to stay in contact with friends from her previous high school, so I’m proud of her for that.
Not sure if I posted here but here are my D25 courses for this trimester.
Only 4 days into the school year and all the kids had to do a PreACT. This is typical for their school but just always seems so early. D25 will go test optional as she has slower processing speed and does horrible on standardized tests.
My S25 will be doing only test optional/blind schools. The only time he will take any of those tests will be at school if they continue to require it.