My brother is a high school freshman and I just got him the College Essay Journal book for Christmas. I did it this year before filling out my applications and wish I had it way earlier. Maybe it’ll be helpful to you all.
2 Likes
Mine wants to take chemistry at the Junior College over the summer, like his sister did 4 years ago. I’m not wild about it because it takes up so much of summer, but it will allow him to skip ahead in science sophomore year.
He will also be a CIT for his beloved day camp for 2-3 weeks after summer school.
1 Like
Neither of my kids are math whizzes (D24 & D26). But D26 texted me during her lunch period today to say that she got a 94% on her big cumulative math test from 2 days ago. Huge confidence boost for her since most of last year in math class, she got C’s and an occasional B on the tests & quizzes. This year’s class is a different teacher than last year and she just understands the material a lot better based on his teaching style.
1 Like
Hi All! My daughter is a freshman this year. Her classes are:
A English
A History
H Bio
H Geometry
B Spanish 2
Choir
H Foundational Components of Athletic Training & Physical Therapy
25 hours clinical internship
Her main extracurricular is Allstar cheer and did participate in HS cheer (hated it) and is thinking about spring track. They don’t rank freshman but she is in the top 18 out of 350- only 18 students received high honor roll.
For 10th grade she is planning:
AP seminar
A History
H Chem
H Algebra 2
B Spanish 3
Culinary or dance
H Pathology & Prevention of Sports Injuries
50 hour’s clinical internship
She plans to get a job over the summer and possibly coach cheer- I am pressuring her that she needs some leadership opportunities. Her Allstar schedule is intense and I asked her to only cheer 1 team next year so she Has more opportunities for clubs, etc. I being in the gym 4 day a week min doesn’t leave a ton of time for anything else.
Also trying to convince her to take A level Spanish- she was recommended for honors but refuses.
2 Likes
Welcome! we’re glad to have you here!
1 Like
My daughter did Allstar for 6 years and decided not to continue this year so she could concentrate on high school cheer and have a chance to do other high school sports. Allstar would have prevented her from doing any of that. She definitely misses it, but really loved being on varsity cheer this year (was one of only two freshman who made the team) and is loving so much free time. I miss my cheer mom friends and comp weekend 
1 Like
Glad she is enjoying it! I wish she would make the switch to HS but I don’t foresee it happening this year. The coaching is not great and the amount of injuries is really frightening - we have never seen the amount of concussions in all our years of Allstar combined.
OMG same!!! Unfortunately D26 was one of them 
Coach is terrible, but the girls on the team are all wonderful and close and the dynamics have been so much better than Allstar. We were also at a tiny D2 gym (only 21 athletes total on two teams) so no room for growth. In fact, her J3 team she was on had to drop to J2 this season b/c so many higher level athletes left. So now it is one J2 team of 14 girls.
How is everyone doing?
Robotics competition season is over and D26 has decided that she’s not going to do it again next year. I told D26 that’s ok because you’re supposed to try out different stuff, and she tried this out, and decided that it’s not for her. 
she said that she likes building the robot, but doesn’t care for the competition part of the process.
We are back to reality today after a week off for February Break (Massachusetts does a week off in Feb and a week off in April). D26 was not impressed with her 6:30 am wakeup this morning. She enjoyed visiting U. Miami with S24 on Friday and really liked the campus. She wants to go to nursing school and was impressed with their 100% NCLEX pass rate. Course selection for next year begins this week. It is a month long process and they get courses recommended to them by teachers, then parents have to sign a form that they agree (or not) with recommendations. She needs to figure out her electives but otherwise her cores will likely be AP Euro, Honors English 10, Honors Spanish 2, Geometry, and chemistry. She is counting down the days until April Break when we head down to ATL and visit more schools for S24.
1 Like
It’s almost time for second semester mid terms (we are on block schedule) and scheduling for next year. I brought up the latter the other day and S26 was pretty clueless about what he needed/could take 
Remembering D22’s schedule, I’m pretty sure about Algebra II, Spanish and probably Chemistry. Not sure what’s happening with English as in the past they forced the advanced students who had taken English I in 8th and English II in 9th to hold off for a year and either take Creative Writing or AP Seminar before they could continue with English III Jr year. Then there should be a social science AP and I have no clue about the rest.
He expressed an interest in continuing his sport at college and that’s a hot mess. I hope he will change his mind as time progresses. Finding a college that would recruit him, that we can afford and that he would like at the same time seems like a needle in a haystack 
1 Like
Our robotics competition season is just starting!
He came home with his scheduling info yesterday, but we haven’t looked at it together. I know some of what he will take, but there are a few choices still.
1 Like
It’s hard to believe, but apparently it’s already time to pick classes for 10th grade! D26 came home with a packet of info about elective options.
Their school eliminated AP European History for next school year and no longer offers AP World History as of a couple of years ago (it was at same time that College Board changed around the World History curriculum…don’t remember why the school eliminated the class though). Instead, all 10th graders will take an honors modern world history class.
- English - all 10th graders take AP English Language. The teacher for that is awesome. D26 has her this year for honors english language. The other English teacher is equally as awesome.
- Math - D26 is taking Precalculus A this year, so I guess it’s Precalculus B next year? Don’t know the name of the class, but hoping she gets same teacher as this year because that guy is awesome (pretty sure he teaches both).
- foreign language - will be spanish again.
- 2 science classes - AP Bio and she’s hoping for honors chem also (instead of honors physics)
- elective: can take 1 or 2 electives. D26 wants an a.m. elective because she can get extra homework done at school while waiting for us to pick her up. She has to submit 3 choices in order of preference, so she put down #1 choice as AP Comparative Gov’t & Politics, Art Studio Ceramics as #2, and third place is Art Studio Drawing.
D26 is warming up to the idea of joining the debate club/team next year.
1 Like
So interesting that all kids at your school take AP Language as sophomores. Our school only offers 1 AP to sophomores—AP World.
Mine will take AP World and honors Advanced Algebra (there is also no way to pace over the math curriculum unless you take math online—some kids do this).
S26 will take drawing, Japanese (taken dual enrollment), science, PE, English. Things don’t get really customized to interests until junior year at our school
He does rock climbing, and is in astronomy and chess clubs. Not really a joiner, but trying to encourage him.
1 Like
Our school only allows AP Euro for sophomores, no other AP classes. That said, she has no interest in that so is taking Honors Western Tradition instead. Will also take Honors Chemistry, Honors English 10, Honors Spanish 2 and Geometry. Electives she wants sociology, intro to psych and film studies. Plus they have gym half the year and health half the year.
1 Like
We just did scheduling last week here too. Our school has AP and IB, but no honors classes at all. I wish they did. My son will take AP World History, AP English Language, AP Calc AB, Chemistry, Chinese 4, band and an elective we are still figuring out. He’ll be my first to take Calc, as the others were a year behind where he is and then they did the IB route. I’ve heard nothing good about the Calc teacher, so it may be an adventure.
1 Like
FYI in case it’s helpful, Modern States has a free Calculus course online. At the end of the class, they give you a free voucher to take the CLEP exam. My D24 has been using it as an additional way to study/reinforce the material she learns in class.
Thank you. I will keep that in mind. I keep hoping another teacher gets assigned to teach the class.
We just returned a couple of days ago from a short road trip to TX to check out 2 small LACs for my older daughter (D24). Prior to the trip, D26 protested a lot and asked to stay home. We dragged her w/us and she was a good sport about it.
On the drive home, D26 said that after the 2 college tours, she’s been thinking about how she has “these 2 big ‘things’” that she’s interested in (computer science stuff & US history/law) and now she’s wondering how can she translate that into what to study in college.
DH & I told her that she has plenty of time to figure it out, but there are various options at both public universities and LACs. Also encouraged her to talk to a relative who’s a lawyer. some options we talked about were:
- major in computer science, minor in history
- major in MIS, minor in history (LACs usually don’t have MIS as a major, though)
- double major in MIS & history
- double major in comp sci & history
- major in history, minor in comp sci or MIS
- major in business administration, minor or double major in history
How is everybody doing?
D26 took the AP Computer Science Principles exam yesterday, but we won’t find out results for about 6 weeks. She has no summer plans at the moment other than lounging around the house and is too young still to get hired anywhere part time. Won’t know which elective she got until just before the school year starts. Final exams are underway right now and once Friday is done, she’ll have just her math final exam some time next week.