S24 took same AP exam yesterday and is “hoping for a 3” It’s been a tough class for him. D26 just came home from school today and is now saying she wants to switch her classes for next year. Want AP Euro instead of Honors History and nervous about Honors chemistry. I am trying to convince her to keep it as is. She wants nursing and I think the Honors chemistry is important. It also may be too late to make any changes.
I am also super excited b/c I got Taylor Swift tickets this morning D26 was a verified fan and got a special code back when they originally went on sale. They entire Ticketmaster debacle meant tons of stress and not tickets. They emailed out new codes this morning to verified fans for the show next week and the stars aligned. I am usually at work Tuesday but work asked me to work Friday so I happened to be home, she happened to get the code and text me and now I have tickets. Cannot wait! Both of us are huge fans and my friend and her daughter are coming as well.
Hard to believe end of freshman year is around the corner already. We are looking forward to some good family vacations (we have the east coast and Alaska in our plans, plus a Europe trip with just me and my older kid before her senior year college), and in the in between spaces X26 will be doing counselor in training at the same camp they have been going to and loving since first grade, haha. Will be their second year CIT (they need to be 16 to get a full counselor position, and X26 is only 14). Hope you all have a fun and relaxing summer too!
So many kids change their majors once they’re in college, not sure it’s worth stressing about all that now. With those interests her best bet is probably just get into a general college of arts and science type school, and see how her first year (or two) go - that will probably narrow down her real field/s of interest.I will say, that from other threads on CC not sure a LAC is optimal for an intended compsci major as it seems bigger schools have many more course options etc, but again you have plenty of time to figure that out. My older kid loves programming for fun (funny seeing you guys talking about AP CSP, she aced that one because it was fun for her) but hated the college comp sci courses and quickly decided that she didn’t want to major in that.
I can’t believe S26 is nearly finished with freshman year. His school doesn’t offer any APs to freshmen, which I appreciate. They offer one to sophomores—AP World History, which my son is excited to take next year. He’ll also take Honors Advanced Algebra. He’s math and science oriented, and we are looking for ways for him to pace ahead. That said, good math instruction is so important so I’m not inclined toward self-taught online classes, though I think he would do alright.
This summer, he’s taking an art camp at the College of the Arts in San Francisco, and he’s taking a physics class at a 3 week residential camp at the University of Chicago, and he’ll spend 2 weeks as a CIT at his beloved summer camp. The rest of the weeks will be lounging, video games, sleeping in, etc. He takes Japanese with a tutor so he may start that up in August.
We hope to play tourist in Chicago and perhaps take a drive somewhere nearby for a long weekend before or after his summer program. We did a big trip to see the northern lights in February, so our summer plans are mellow. Probably Tahoe, and a beach weekend near LA when we move our daughter back to school at UCLA.
You’re also from the Bay Area? Yeah, we’re thinking a weekend in Tahoe at some stage might be nice. We go so seldom in summer but it’s lovely there at that time.
We are in Marin County I love Tahoe in the summer. Last summer we found some of the most perfect beaches up near Incline. The water was so clear, the temps were perfect, they were not crowded. We aren’t big skiers so summer is even more fun for us!
Just found this sub-group now as 9th grade comes to a close. S26 had a great freshman year!
9th Grade Schedule
Geometry Honors
Biology Honors
History Honors
Japanese II (third year, took Japanese A/B in 7th and Japanese I in 8th)
English
Theater Production (elective)
PE
Sophomore Schedule
Algebra II B
Chemistry Honors
Neuroscience Honors (elective)
Modern World History Honors
Japanese III
English
PE
D26 is still able to take theater production after school even though he chose to lean into a second Science class as his elective for 10th grade.
Summer:
CIT for theater production camp
Was accepted to a pre-college program
Looking into additional opportunities to volunteer
Vacation
Happy to be here with all of you 2026 parents. College is going to be here faster than I want it to be.
D26 decided not to continue her year-long club sport for the 2022-2023 season as she had several injuries and was just burned out. It was a good year of reflection for her, and while she really missed it, she realized what she really missed was being in the atmosphere, the energy of competitions, etc. So after much reflection she has realized she wants to coach the upcoming season. I am really excited about this as I think she will be a great asset to the program. She is in the process of interviewing in the next few days. Tryouts are this weekend and she hopes to be “official” so she can attend tryouts with the other coaches. She will then attend their practices all summer, babysit, and attend her own high school sport practices which are a couple mornings a week (captain’s practices). Things are slowly coming together.
Super excited- D26 got the coaching position! She interviewed Tuesday afternoon and then they asked her to stay and do a “working interview” to be part of tryouts. They even let her help with team placements. She is beyond excited about this next journey.
Today is the last day of 9th grade - my DD26 will be a 10th grader in 2 hours!
We made a few changes to her schedule for next year.
A English - passed on AP seminar
AP History
H Chem
H Algebra 2
H Pathology & Prevention of Sports Injuries
A Spanish 3 - bumped up to A level (B was a waste of a year)
Wind Symphony - she was so happy she can fit it in her scheduled - she has played flute since 4th grade.
50 hour’s clinical internship
For extras:
Switched Allstar Gyms and she applied to be a Jr. Coach - fingers crossed. She will start HS gymnastics this year.
Continue with 2 clubs (Interact and sports med)
Student volunteer at Vacation Bible Camp
Is this Allstar cheer? D26 will be a junior coach this year for her former gym. She is only doing cheer at high school and stopped Allstar after 6 years. She is super excited!
D26 had a great freshman year and ended with all As. Going to a much tougher schedule for soph year. We are just starting down the recruiting path with her for soccer. She is a goalkeeper and doing several college ID camps this summer. Recruiting for sports is so different than regular admissions! Will be interesting to see how it all goes. My oldest D19 is graduating next weekend from UCLA. She will start vet school in the fall. My middle D22 is just finishing her freshman year at Cal Poly
D26 Freshman year-
Honors Geometry
Student council
Spanish 1
Honors English 9
Art 1
Honors Biology
D26 Soph schedule-
Honors Algebra 2
AP World History
Honors English 10
Honors Chemistry
Student council
Spanish 101-102
Report cards came out about a week ago. D26 got a mix of grades from B- to A’s. She’s really happy with how she did. We are not sweating the B’s and B-'s.
No summer plans. Not headed out of town for a vacation…older sister D24 is working a part time job all summer. We took D26 to southern CA over Memorial Day weekend, went to LA Fleet Week and visited the USS Midway aircraft carrier museum in San Diego (D26 loves military history). Rest of D26’s summer plans involve sleeping in and playing video games. Next summer, she’ll be 16 and I’ll make her get a part time job.
“Fall” officially starts for us 8/2 with 1st day of school and on 7/31, we pick up class schedules, get locker assignments, and all that. Right now, the classes we know of for sure will be:
AP English Language
Spanish 3
AP Bio
AP European History
Honors Chemistry
Precalculus AB
Plus an elective, but we won’t know for sure which elective she got into until we pick up the schedule. She asked for AP Comparative Gov’t & Politics (she leans heavily towards a history nerd with a side of computer nerd thrown in as well). Had to submit 2 backup elective requests (I don’t remember which ones).
She did VEX Robotics last year, but will not be involved in that this next school year. Hated the competition part. Liked designing, building, and troubleshooting it, but totally hated competing. She’s probably going to join the debate team. Tried to convince her to join the leadership club at school, but participation in that requires you to attend all school dances and she’s very much an introvert who HATES super social stuff like a school dance, so that’s a big no.
D26 has declared already that she does NOT want to major in engineering or computer science in college, but MIS and History are definitely on the list. (since D24’s been talking about college majors, that’s the only reason D26 was thinking of it…I think 15 is way too early to decide on a major, but it’s good that she has definite likes and dislikes!)
It’s been a tough class for him. D26 just came home from school today and is now saying she wants to switch her classes for next year. Want AP Euro instead of Honors History and nervous about Honors chemistry. I am trying to convince her to keep it as is. She wants nursing and I think the Honors chemistry is important. It also may be too late to make any changes.
D26 was a verified fan and got a special code back when they originally went on sale. They entire Ticketmaster debacle meant tons of stress and not tickets. They emailed out new codes this morning to verified fans for the show next week and the stars aligned. I am usually at work Tuesday but work asked me to work Friday so I happened to be home, she happened to get the code and text me and now I have tickets. Cannot wait! Both of us are huge fans and my friend and her daughter are coming as well.
I love Tahoe in the summer. Last summer we found some of the most perfect beaches up near Incline. The water was so clear, the temps were perfect, they were not crowded. We aren’t big skiers so summer is even more fun for us!