<p>As far as college admissions go, you do not need an ACT if you are happy with your SAT.</p>
<p>KALee94 - No, our state doesn’t have any scholarships specific to the ACT, but that exactly what I’m wondering - if he doesn’t take it, will there be some school somewhere with some little niche scholarships based on ACT score? He wants to take it, so I guess that’s that. </p>
<p>In the meantime, I sure wish I could figure out something he wants for Christmas! We have apparently raised very non-materialistic kids, which is great most of the year, but really - none of them can think of anything they want for Christmas!</p>
<p>Tickets to a major league game, musical or concert are usually big hits with teens and don’t collect dust!</p>
<p>Some ideas from the last few years at our “teen” house:</p>
<p>1) noise cancelling headphones - DS loves these.
2) ipod clock radio (good for college too!)
3) x-mini II capsule pop up speakers
4) Archos 5 Internet Tablet - electronic device for music, videos, GPS, internet, Wifi
5) guitar music
6) external hard drive
7) mocasin slippers (suprisingly a big hit)</p>
<p>Happy holidays everyone!</p>
<p>I get the worst mom of the day award. :(</p>
<p>D had 2 track practices on Saturday, plus lunch with the coaches. She was hardly home. So, in the process of doing all the decorating, I made the mistake of getting the ceramic nativity out of storage and arranging the pieces. That’s her job. She was heartbroken that I didn’t wait for her. I felt soooo bad.</p>
<p>pathways - I love the ticket idea. I did get my 2012 son tickets for a show I think he’ll like (the student price was only $20, and i didn’t put the cost of the other ticket for me into the budget for his gifts this year. Maybe a little cheat, but that’s OK ;)), and last year we gave our older son tickets to a football game that he loved. I actually thought it would be fun to give the two older boys a pair of pro football tix, but my husband didn’t like the idea this year. We may do that if we don’t have a better idea!</p>
<p>geogirl - I gave all the boys and my husband nice slippers last year that were a lot like mocasins and they loved them! I’ll have to snoop around and see if they need any techno gadgets. I have gotten my 2012 some sweaters for this Christmas, but really, how exciting is that going to be? And I’ve gotten them each some books, but I’m still trying to think of a main present for both the 19 and 17 year old. I’d gotten Bezzerwizzer for our annual new family board game based on someone’s recommendation on another thread, but I broke down and brought it out over Thanksgiving weekend! It was really fun.</p>
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<p>Oh DougBetsy - I’ve done that kind of thing too! It’s really hard sometimes to know if those little traditions still mean a lot to the teens or if they’d rather you just go ahead and do it. sigh.</p>
<p>DB, Don’t feel too bad about it. I know it too well. Have done many similar things. This year I am trying my best to wait with getting the tree. Part of trimming is my D’s job but she has a few concerts and a masterclass coming up shortly.</p>
<p>Some gift idea’s for your 2012’er (or what we gave DS for the eight nights of Chanukah):
- Gift card to EB Games/Gamestop
- Fossel watch (casual)
- Fushigi Ball
- A Ball of Whacks (cool magnetic thing, last year we gave him Bucky balls and he loves them)
- Roger Von Oech’s X-Ball (also very cool magnetic toy)
- …drawing a blank…I just can’t remember what we gave this night.
7)Xbox live Kinects sensor - xbox sports games for Kinects</p>
<p>On a sour note, DS did it again. He pulled an all nighter last night doing homework. ARGH. He started his HW about 1 PM Sunday. On a positive spin, he seemed fine this am for school…</p>
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<p>Well, at least he stayed up and did it instead of blowing it off? </p>
<p>Thanks for all the ideas. I will check out the Ball of Whacks and the other items that seem similar. So far i seem stuck on #6) drawing a blank…</p>
<p>Thanks Gwen, Lilmom and Psychmom for your comments (had to scroll back a few pages to find them!)</p>
<p>I will think about it some more before deciding…you all make good points. A poorly made grilled cheese in the cafeteria could sour an unaccompanied teen’s view of a campus! Yikes. so this in another thing that goes in the “cross that bridge when we get to it” category.</p>
<p>About the benefits of tutoring…I think it depends on the student’s attitude and the need. My D took a Kaplan SSAT prep course back in the fall of 8th grade to prepare for her hs placement exam. She went reluctantly…and the improvements were small (20-50points per section). I think a $25 practice book would have worked just as well as the $800 class. Unless D asks me to fund an SAT class or tutor I won’t be encouraging it.</p>
<p>My other D is a different story …she is a poor standardized test taker and knows it. She agreed to a Sylvan test prep program and made huge gains on the SSAT. Her motivation was important to her success. $1000 well spent. </p>
<p>In our area tutors/classes are the norm and families pay large sums ($5,000+) for prep. The SAT is not a fair assessment given that some families can afford high-end prep and others can’t. I sincerely hope that colleges look at the whole picture when evaluating our children.</p>
<p>Congrat on all all of the good PSAT news! How exciting!</p>
<p>DD has not gotten PSAT scores yet. I’m told they hand them out at an all-Juniors assembly (so they’re all together) the Friday afternoon before finals. Boarding school means that there’s no escape from classmates, and this time of year is even more than usually pressure-filled, since finals are before winter break. At least for kids who go home for the weekend, there’s a little relief. All of this seems unnecessarily cruel to me. I was hoping that they’d mail them home so that kids could decide whether to share or not. Some kids are keeping score, and some are not. Not that there are many secrets in a boarding school.</p>
<p>As for dropping classes, I’m told that the Senior year schedule is set in stone in spring of Junior year, and they can’t change it at all, not even to add classes. Also that the college list is set in stone early in the fall, and kids can’t add schools after Dec. 1. That certainly makes EA strategy more difficult.</p>
<p>While all schools take both ACT and SAT for admissions purposes, I think, as I read their web site, that our state flagship requires ACT scores for various scholarships (merit aid). So perhaps DD will need to take the ACT after all. (The SAT plays much more to her strengths.) I’m thinking that the June test date after school has finished would be the best for that. A week of sleep is better than any amount of studying for these things!</p>
<p>I hope everyone is enjoying their December. I drove over 200 miles through heavy snow this weekend. Fun times. And the snow blower died. With a 200 foot long driveway, even more fun times. </p>
<p>We did the family latke party while DD was home yesterday and with the 4 y.o. cousin. I’m now ready to abandon fried foods for the rest of the year. I made 3 lbs of russets and 3 lbs of sweet potato latkes, and then fried jelly doughnuts.</p>
<p>We are very light on gifts this year. I think they’ll live without them.</p>
<p>I hope you all are having fun!</p>
<p>About that bad grilled cheese. My D does that sometimes. When she does that, it is often about something else. She didn’t like something that is harder to verbalize and focus on something else that is easier to complain instead. </p>
<p>Kids at my D’s school also get extensive test prep, at a testing center or more likely with private tutors. I do think colleges give less weight to scores these days. I am sure they are aware of mushrooming testing centers and rising tutor fees. Some kids get tutored for AMC type tests as well. They won’t go far in AMC that way but could be one of the best in school that they can put that under awards.</p>
<p>ok, it’s progress. I mentioned to D that she should plan on ACT/SAT writing prep beginning right after the holidays. She didn’t protest. It’ll be a busy winter/spring!</p>
<p>PinotNoir, i read that board game thread and went straight to Amazon to order a couple! The last game we played was Apples to Apples and our family loved it!</p>
<p>Good morning 2012-ers! I thought of one more thing to get my 19 & 17 year olds - I think we’ll pick them some nice cologne. Time to move on from Axe if you ask me…</p>
<p>lilmom - I was bummed yesterday when I decided to buy The New Yorker game for some relatives. It had been $9.99 during that thread, but it’s back up to about $25 now. Should have moved quickly!</p>
<p>We are having unseasonably cold weather here in the Midwest. highs in the upper 20’s? That’s more like February weather. I hope we get a warm spell soon.</p>
<p>in the mean time, my son is working hard this last week of regular classes. Finals are next week and then an actual break - YAY!</p>
<p>My D’s first B in HS. In Latin of all things. She took to Latin as fish took to water. After hearing how important junior grades are, I am worried but maintaining cheerful outlook not to discourage her. Hope she can pull it up in the next two trimesters.</p>
<p>Latin is really hard, igloo! Is this her first year taking it? if that’s her first B, she already has great study skills and knows how to figure out the right way to study for this class. My older son had to take 4 years of Latin, and it was hard for him all four years!</p>
<p>Ditto to what PN said… both of my boys take Latin and after the first year it gets VERY challenging. I think the colleges know this. If your getting a B in Latin your really doing something. My DS is not taking latin 4 this year because there was a conflict in his schedule so he has to take it next year… I’m scared to death for him to take it after a year off, but he is really enjoying his schedule this year without it. It was always his hardest class.</p>
<p>Latin is hard! DS is taking Spanish 4 this year and has a B too. It’s a hard class and there is really nothing to say except “good job”!</p>