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<p>Did I share about the Epic Fail cake I made for Thankgiving? The magazine recipe called for 2 tablespoons of baking powder when I’m pretty sure it should have been 2 teaspoons. The pans were overflowing like lava. I iced it anyway - very gingerly (with MIL watching closely over my shoulder - another headache!!). Apple cake with caramel icing - I hated to pitch it! It wasn’t pretty but it tasted good.</p>
<p>fireflyscout, did you hide the cake in bed with you? There are NO mistakes when it comes to chocolate! :D</p>
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<p>There are no mistakes when it comes to most home-baked desserts. I made a lemon chess pie that just wouldn’t set. I served it in bowls like pudding. still yummy!</p>
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<p>That is true, I think, as far as it goes. The more selective the school, the more strict the AP policy, but the vast majority of schools are not very selective and do accept AP scores of 3.</p>
<p>Of course, the likely schools for students who have a lot of APs are exactly the more selective schools that are less likely to accept those 3s.</p>
<p>woody, the bad course is the guy who didn’t want freshman. O101, he needs approval to take one fewer course from the Dean, who may or may not be able to make the appointment.</p>
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<p>Right. But in the amount of time it took the GCs to talk about 3s, 4s and 5s being accepted almost everywhere, they could have just as easily said that some schools accept 3s, some only 4s or 5s, at some it depends on the class, some schools don’t give credit for some, and some don’t give credit for any. </p>
<p>The school really pushes for Freshmen to take AP Human Geo and that has to be one of the least accepted APs in exisitence.</p>
<p>firefly, what a day. The computer crash would have sent me over the edge I’m afraid. Since I work for myself now, I am my own help desk and I’m not very good. Your story is a good reminder that if H gets anywhere near our electrical system, I need to unplug everything. My computer tells me it’s backing up to my external hard drive every day, but I don’t trust it.</p>
<p>S1 has always liked the energy of wild crowds, so New Orleans will be his kind of week-end. While he drinks (22 now, so it’s finally legal), I think he likes the adrenaline rush of danger as much as anything. He would probably enjoy a job as a war correspondent. Presumably, he will get the job he wants traveling around South America and it will be pretty much the same thing. I no longer expend any energy worrying about his safety. It’s his life now and I do love it when he is happy and excited about something.</p>
<p>Cardinal Fang, I’ve been thinking about you. How goes it with Fang, Jr.?</p>
<p>Shawbridge - you do way more than I am even capable of, let alone willing to do. When so much of the work of Independent study is… independent, isn’t half (if not most) of the battle supposed to be in navigating the system? And so, with complete appreciation and understanding of your unique situation I wonder: if SBSon requires so much ancillary help, is he truly prepared to do the work required on his own? As for me, I’d be a tad concerned if I wasn’t setting him up for something that might prove overwhelming without my necessary oversight (which would belie the point of independent learning). In my case, however, the loop I wish to be a part of is basically just wanting to know if S has a girlfriend or even has his eye on one. Simple stuff. I wouldn’t venture a guess of how and whom he should talk to and hope that’s what my thousands of dollars in tuition will help to teach him! (fingers crossed on that one – knocking on wood as well.)</p>
<p>Analyst - H went to Tulane and it seems very clear to me he had a damn fine adventure during his time living in New Orleans. But the game itself is being played in Miami, so are they just road tripping to NO to be part of that particular party? (Which obviously will be wild, especially if they win!).</p>
<p>A computer crash would absolutely kill me. I prefer to live in denial about that one. </p>
<p>And even AP US History is dubious, I cant imagine AP Human Geo. But I think a lot of those meetings are geared for local state schools and those parents who are really starting at square one. Not all that helpful to you and yes, beyond not letting the daughter feel like “been there done that” twice before and making the journey personal to her, I agree I wouldn’t be going. However, who knows what the lay of the land will be by the time my D’s class of 2012 gets there, so that she is a girl, has different courses and interests, I am sure I will be going (but only half listening).</p>
<p>The GCs could do so much good (in the same amount of time) if they were just honest. The parents starting from square one need to know that it is absolutely impossible to be in the top 10% of the class without quite a few AP classes (witness my own D’s 5.03 at the top 13%.) But unless your child wants to go to UT in Austin, it’s not essential to be in the top 10%. There are parents who want to tiptoe into pre-AP/AP as advised by the GC and are dismayed when their straight A student taking almost all undweighted classes is pretty far down in rank. They need to just let me prepare their power points from now on!</p>
<p>Moda, yup. A big charter bus is taking everybody down just for fun. I imagine tickets to the actual game in Miami would be expensive and not even possible to get for a huge group like this. The general atmosphere in NO is what they are going for. </p>
<p>Not quite the same, but S2 tells me kids have been standing in line since 10:00 am for the 7:00 pm Pitt basketball game on his campus tonight. He has class so can’t do the same but wanted us to note his sacrifice (and to make sure H watches the game on TV tonight so he can discuss the play by play with him–as if H would miss it). While we don’t get to watch our kids play anymore and do miss that, H tends to still talk sports with each of them ad nauseum, so stays involved that way.</p>
<p>I am feeling the empty nest D2 is on her Seoul trip, loves it went to the DMZ the other day. they are all fascinated with her blond hair. and take pics of her. I have been doing PT which exhausts me but glad to catch up somewhat.</p>
<p>Firefly, Can I have some of that cake under my covers too… </p>
<p>Analyst, I think I love your mother. And I love your ability to work around her and get some ibuprofin in her! </p>
<p>Just sitting here waiting for the claims adjustor to call…</p>
<p>Is it time to take the bus to Barcelona/Paris yet???</p>
<p>Ughhh…D2 just called in tears. Thinks one of the gum grafts has failed…hurts, very sensitive to cold liquids, can’t see the attached tissue. This seems to be “a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad” week. (Anyone else rememer Alexander???) ;)</p>
<p>dte…how cool that D is enjoying her trip to Seoul! Glad to hear from you! Good luck with the PT!</p>
<p>Having my book club here tomorrow night. We have soup and salad and then discuss the book. Can’t seem to focus to get my house clean. Wonder what it would be like to have a week where not one thing goes wrong or not to experience any stress??? Bet I would be very thin! ;)</p>
<p>Funny about the info given at the college nights. I have learned to take a lot of what is said at the parent events with a grain of salt. Recently I attended the meeting for parents of rising 9th graders and the head GC made a point of telling us that you cannot change class selections after June. I was sitting next to a friend (we both have older D’s) and we looked at each other and whispered “not true”. When you’ve been there awhile you know what to believe and what not to.</p>
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<p>There was a guy sitting near me who asked the difference between Class A and Class B. He got such a convoluted, not true answer that later on I slid in next to him and whispered the *real *answer in two sentences. Like I said, in a few years they’ll have me on a list to not let in the room.</p>
<p>What’s funny (not really) is that while the HS GCs are pushing APs like crazy, the new GC at the middle school is telling them that if they’re in any ECs, they shouldn’t take any APs.</p>
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<p>My son actually got PoliSci credit for APUSH. Of course, when he enrolled this semester in PoliSci I had to remind him he already has credit for it on his transcript. Sheesh!</p>
<p>Our HS GC had her heart in the right place, but all she knew about was the CSU and UC admissions process. With public schools so overwhelmed, I would love to volunteer to help guide some kid’s college app process, but there doesn’t seem to be an avenue to do so.</p>
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<p>Me too, me too! It would be so easy to share information in a roundtable format. There could be a bunch of tables, based on type of school - small LACs, private universities, Ivies and other highly selective schools, large in state, large OOS, Evangelical Christian, Catholic, military academies, trade schools, community college. Kids or parents could sit at a table for 20 minutes or so and the parents with experience with that particular type of school could share whatever wisdom they’ve gathered.</p>
<p>Moda, I see two separate and very different sets of skills that you are conflating: 1) managing the bureaucracy of a new institution (when trying to set up an cross-departmental independent study when he’s never set up an independent study before); and 2) the substantive work of learning an area and doing research or writing a paper as part of an independent study with a supervisor. I’m not worried about the substantive work. The work of the course will be right up his alley. But, having once been a professor, I was worried about the bureaucracy and alerted him to it, which woke up his advisor. A cross-departmental independent study is a tricky one when the professor is in a department that isn’t the natural fit for the course. Even ShawSon’s advisor didn’t know how to handle the administrative aspect of things and kicked it to the Dean. There is no reason to believe that a college freshman should know how to do that or should be able to figure it out under time pressure the first time out of the box. Indeed, I think that one of the things some of the parents in this thread (missypie comes to mind) are reporting is frustration that their kids are not getting any guidance on how to manage the administrative/bureaucratic aspect of school. </p>
<p>I view what I’m doing as teaching him the skills to navigate the bureaucracy himself. I did the same thing at the beginning of HS and by the end, he was doing it all himself – the Superintendent of our school district wrote a recommendation for ShawSon that explained how effective he had been in advocating for his interests with her (as well as saying he was wonderful generally). In this case, when he called this morning, I told him, you need to get in to the Dean today and he said, “I already got myself squeezed in to his schedule for this afternoon.” So, he’s started doing it himself and will be doing it all himself. Interestingly enough, when ShawSon was tested as a senior by a neuropsychologist, the neuropsychologist told me that he had never tested a kid who believed so strongly that he could negotiate to change the environment to enable him to be successful. This actually ties in with one of the keys to success that Gladwell identifies in Outliers – and according to Gladwell, distinguishes kids from upper middle class families from kids from working class families. I’m not succeeding for him. I’m equipping him with the skills to be successful. He’ll be able to do it himself the next time. Do you see the distinction?</p>
<p>And, the problem was solved: The Dean said, OK, I think your proposed course fits best in my department. I’ll be your supervisor along with Professor X. Take the form to my department chair and ask him to sign it. Here’s a note saying that I will meet with you every other week and that your advisor will meet with you every week. </p>
<p>ShawSon said, “Well, now I really better do a great job on this one. But, I think I can do that. I’m going to look tonight to find books on the subject that I can start listening to as soon as possible.”</p>
<p>Wow, chatty bunch here today! I’m in CT, so the very first thing that came to mind when reading about spouses & wood chippers was The Wood Chipper case here. Some stuff you just don’t forget … We have a garbage disposal that H won’t let me use for much of anything since we have a septic system, and he’s convinced the two don’t mix. (So why did the original owners who built this house put one in???) </p>
<p>The oven is fixed, but I’m trying hard to avoid all baked goodies since that doesn’t go well with the “Diet/Exercise/Health/Wellness Support Thread” over in the Cafe.</p>
<p>Yes, when does the bus leave on the overseas trip?? I’ve really had enough of this snow and cold!</p>