<p>I can’t find my daughters social security card which she needs before she can get her permit; the number is not enough, it has to be the card itself. I’ve got her passport, my passport, her birth certificate, and have filled out the form, she just can’t seem to get it together to come with me to the SS office about 20 minutes away. Oh well, we’ll just wait until she’s ready. Maybe once her friends start drivers ed but hopefully that won’t be too late for her to get the card (it takes about 2 weeks) and then the permit.</p>
<p>We’ve got three weeks until school starts, plenty of time!</p>
<p>I was certain that S’s school started the day after Labor Day as it always has. I started looking at school calendars today and realized that he actually starts a week earlier than I thought.</p>
<p>It gives more urgency to figuring out his schedule for fall. He needs to coordinate between hs classes and U classes which is pretty challenging. His guidance counselor called this week and left a message for him. S has yet to get ahold of the counselor, although he hasn’t tried very hard. I’ll have to press the issue tomorrow, when I’m home, as it is all rather complicated. </p>
<p>S is reluctant to let go of summer and I can’t blame him but it is time to get all of that summer homework done now!</p>
<p>School started for my junior this past Monday. The first week is over. He turned 16 in April and has had his license since May. In NC you can take driver’s ed at 14 1/2 and then get your permit when you turn 15. After you drive with your permit for a year, you can go get you license.</p>
<p>I wanted to share a book I got today. It’s called Mapquest, College Quest. It maps colleges near each other so you can plan college tour road trips. It was recommended by our college counselor. I didn’t use it for my older son, but this son has different interests, so I thought I’d take a look. It certainly looks like it would be helpful for road trips.</p>
<p>School started yesterday for my junior. We moved her into her dorm on Wed. She won’t be driving anytime soon. She has absolutely no interest, and they don’t allow cars on campus, so getting the required number of road hours, even after drivers ed (not offered at school) could take years. I think she needs to get her license before starting college (in 2 years! Eek!.) DH disagrees.</p>
<p>My daughter won’t turn 15 1/2 until October. We hope to shoehorn in drivers ed classwork on the weekends between now and then. If she’s had the classes, she can get the permit at 15 1/2. She has to have her permit for 6 months (and 50 hours of driving – 10 at night) before getting her license.</p>
<p>I agree with you, IJustDrive, that it’s a life skill and I want her to have it before she goes off to college.</p>
<p>School starts on Monday here in Broward County Florida. DS is now, finally, working on his summer AP lang assignment. Summer went way too fast for me. I turned 50 on Tuesday, the past 20 years have flown by IMHO. DS has had his driver’s license since last March, when he turned 16, and he does drive occasionally but not everyday. I am still not comfortable with his driving but not because he is unsafe, he is a good and careful driver but he is just…young (with all that goes with that).</p>
<p>We made it through the first week of school. D2 finally had her schedule straighten out, and having kids to say hello to her in school. We can laugh about it now, but it wasn’t funny few days ago. D2 went to wrong Spanish class for 2 days. The class was for native Spanish speaking students, not for IB. She could read pretty well, but not so well in speaking. She really disliked the class because she had a hard time understanding what people were saying. Of course, she freaked out when she found out she’s been in the wrong class. She finally went to IB HL Spanish and felt right at home again. I told her that she’ll laugh about it someday.</p>
<p>She started SAT tutoring over Skype today with a tutor in CA. Technology is great.</p>
<p>My 2012 daughter may have a similar problem, although she has the opposite strength. After an exchange year in S. America she is a confident Spanish speaker and has learned common vocabulary, but she may be getting in over her head this year at school. When she took the placement test at the university associated with her boarding school, she had a nearly perfect score. They asked her if she was a native speaker. They then enrolled her in their highest third year course -Introduction to Spanish literature. She has never formally studied Spanish and has never really been graded on writing or reading assignments. Her high school in S America did not grade her work. While she is officially auditing this class, the grade and credit will be on her high school transcript. I sure hope she knows what she’s doing… She would have taken AP Spanish through the high school but it conflicted with her beginning Chinese course.</p>
<p>IJustDrive - if your D gets her license you’ll have to change your screen name ;)</p>
<p>I completely agree with you about her getting her license before she goes to college or very soon thereafter. D1 (who just finished her first year of college) had no interest in HS and we didn’t push. Now she wants to learn (no doubt in part because D2 is driving) but she works summers as a camp counselor - she was home for a total of about 3 weeks this summer, so no time to learn. Not sure when/how she will learn, but my role in managing her life is lessening, so figuring this out is gradually moving into the category of “not my problem”. Except that when she is home, I Just Drive her everywhere!</p>
<p>Our local high school has inexpensive drivers ed through summer school, but somehow I don’t think she’ll stay home next summer long enough to take the class. </p>
<p>Even if (when?) she gets her license, I’ll still be driving – no students are allowed cars on campus. And then there’s the little(r) one. . . .</p>
<p>We plan to let our D drive alone as soon as she gets the license. We’ll probably follow her around in another car for a while as someone earlier mentioned. I would prefer if she becomes comfortable at driving before she starts college.</p>
<p>We let our D set the pace for driving. She’s nearly ready to take her driving test. We really prefer that she become comfortable driving before college. </p>
<p>School starts in a couple of weeks, she’s finishing up her APUSH assignment and her SAT prep. Along with a few additional volunteer events. She hasn’t done as much as she wanted this summer–she got a sinus infection that turned into pneumonia. Took a while for it to completely clear up and for her energy level to return to normal.</p>
<p>mathinokc -
Yes, it was Ross. It was his 2nd year attending (this year as a JC) and he loved it! He hopes to return as a counselor when he is of age (must be starting college).</p>
<p>We are now rethinking whether or not DS should take the October SAT. Private College advisor says NO. It is too soon and that many of the Ivy schools do not want to see that you have taken it more than twice. DS has SAT prep all summer BUT was not motivated and did the HW last minute if at all. College advisor says to have DS take a SAT simulation (timed at their office) and see how he does. This sounds reasonable to me, if he does OK, then Oct SAT is a go but if he still bombs in critical reading (his weakness) then we cancel or postpone (can you do that?) his test until January and do more prep. IDK. His aspirations are so different than my other two kids, who were happy to go to Florida state schools (where they don’t care how many times you test as long as your highest scores are in their range). I really am not sure that he is Ivy or even top twenty material…he has such time manangement issues (even though he is motivated). I think I may step back and let him work this all through with the private counselor. I am just too tired to be on top of this or to do this. I just want him to live a healthy, happy, well balanced life and find a college that he can flourish at someday. My relationship with him dosen’t do well when I am too involved.</p>
<p>seiclan, sounds like you’ve made a decision to let him lead. Maybe you should ask S how he feels about the Oct vs Jan SAT and discuss what the ivies like to see in applicants. (You may have already done this.) If he is really interested in attending an ivy, he’ll make the choice to wait and study harder. Or he may surprise you and do well in the practice test. My S was always surprising me! Good luck, I know this is a critical year and all you want is the best for him.</p>
<p>I am trying to figure out how much SAT prep my son really needs and is a private tutor worth the cost. Tutors are running around $85 - $100 an hour. That seems outragious to me! We live in an area that the majority of students go to college, but most go to one of the good, but not great, state schools. Most kids are not being privately tutored. My son took a SAT prep course offered at the high school for 8 weeks last Jan. He didn’t put that much into it, so he didn’t get that much out of it. His practice scores were ok, but not great. He is a better student and “smarter” than his scores would indicate. I think he is now recognizing that he will need to work a bit harder than he has in the past and he is asking for a private tutor to help him raise his scores. Is one on one tutoring worth the cost (if he will put the time in)? How many sessions do kids normally have? We are planning on him taking the SAT for the first time in the spring. He can retake it in June and the fall of senior year. What do you well seasoned CC parents think?</p>
<p>Yes, it is a lot of money, but…and not all tutors are created equal. My nephew couldn’t break 2000 after doing private tutoring with one company, especially his writing section. He went to a different tutoring company, his writing went from low 600 to high 700, and his scores on the second sitting was close to 2300. He had a tutor for math and a tutor for english, it was 2-3 hours per week for 6 weeks. He also did tutoring for IIC and got a high 700. I don’t think he could have done it on his own. $85-$120 is the going rate depending on where you live.</p>
<p>If he is taking SAT in Spring, it’s better to take it in Jan, then continue to study through Feb just in case if he needs to take it again in Mar. It’s not optimal to take SAT I in June because of APs and SAT IIs. Also factor into when your son has his winter finals, if it’s after the holidays then Jan may not be a good time.</p>
<p>D2 is shooting for Oct, and she is doing tutoring because she is not a good test taker, and we want her test scores to be at par with her grades.</p>
<p>My son is signed up to take the SAT in November. He would take it in October but we’ll be camping that weekend. We aren’t paying for a tutor, but he’ll take a practice test or two at home if we can squeeze it in before November! We kind of meant to have him do one over the summer, but it flew by two fast! He started school two weeks ago - he’s already on week three. I wish he started this week or next week - it seems so early to start August 10! </p>
<p>My older son took the SAT twice - October and March of his junior year, and that’s about what S2 will do as well. He won’t be shooting for Ivy’s, but he will need some scholarship money!</p>
<p>D finished her SAT prep class and her score did improve over the six weeks. She has admitted that she did not put as much time into it as she should have. I am thinking about a private tutor to assist D with some of the areas. </p>
<p>School starts in 2 weeks and D has to get 4 chapters of APUSH completed before then. She is definitely sad about summer ending. The weather was so cold here in SoCal this summer and it has only been nice at the beach over the past couple of weeks so it does not seem like summer should be ending yet!</p>