<p>I was a teacher at Concorcia Language Villages the summer after I graduated from college. I had a 2 week group and then taught a whole year of Spanish 1 to a group of kids for the 4 week session. It was a fun experience and I learned so much more Spanish because so many of the teachers/ counselors were native speakers. </p>
<p>I remember big big big mosquitoes in Northern Minnesota.</p>
<p>(Bumping up this thread so it doesn’t get “lost”).</p>
<p>Anyone else out there with a rising HS freshman?</p>
<p>We don’t start school here until after Labor Day, will some of you be starting sooner? Are your
kids getting excited/nervous/dreading it?</p>
<p>So glad to hear the positive report on Concordia. D3 (2014) leaves Sunday for St. Croix with a friend for the Spanish program and they’re both very excited!</p>
<p>Finishing up summer reading here. Brushing up on Java & C++ for an EC S3 will be ‘starting’. He’s been working with the club for a while as a younger sib. He’s glad to finally be an actual member. He’s enjoying his last days of hanging out with his buddies. I find I’m much more easy on him than his older brothers. They go out and walk down the golf course at night…I just tell them to stay out of the sand traps, be quiet, and away from the lake. Carry your phone and be home by 11pm. His older brothers just gawk.
A parent in another thread compared children to waffles… sometimes it takes a few to get them right. I love this analogy. S1 didn’t fit the mold, S2 fit the mold perfectly in every way, overflowing in one area, S3 is a nice toasty brown 'lil waffle…easy to enjoy because there’s no rush.</p>
<p>I’m not sure how many of you have older siblings and have been there/done that, but as my 15yo starts to do some age appropriate growing (ok acting like a jerk sometimes!), I was reminded of an awesome book that both my Dr. and another friend recommended back when S1 was giving us fits. It covers many topics from attitude, lying, cheating, drug use, etc. It is applicable for both boys and girls and tells you why they go through these years differently. Anyway, It’s an easy read and a great reference. I have given many away! Thought I’d mention it as something I’ve found to be a good resource with 3 teenage boys.</p>
<p>Get Out of My Life, but First Could You Drive Me & Cheryl to the Mall: A Parent’s Guide to the New Teenager</p>
<p>[Amazon.com:</a> Get Out of My Life, but First Could You Drive Me & Cheryl to the Mall: A Parent’s Guide to the New Teenager…](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0374528535/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0374523223&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1DP5F15NDPKW6DM1H7G8]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0374528535/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0374523223&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1DP5F15NDPKW6DM1H7G8)</p>
<p>Peace.</p>
<p>^
I am going to check out that book. Thanks blueiguana.</p>
<p>Actually I do have an older child (D in college), but different kid, different issues.</p>
<p>No worries. I don’t know if you heard of the Amazon shipping offer for college students? Your college student is eligible to get a year free Amazon Prime membership with an active .edu account. It doesn’t have to be the email on the account. You only need to access it once to verify. It gives you free 2-day shipping, upgraded to next day for $4/item. If your daughter had an account, you can add your card as a pay option, and the home address as an option…I guess it would be possible for other things to be ordered and find their way to your home for free shipping :)</p>
<p>Not everything in the book may apply, but it really, really helped me. I am not a ‘self-help’ book of the month kind of gal, so I was very skeptical. I hope you find some useful things in here. If you have a Kindle App, there may be a version to dowload a few pages/chapter free to check it out before you buy.</p>
<p>^ I had no idea about the amazon prime membership.
I’ll try that. Thanks, blueiguana!</p>
<p>S2 turned 15 in July - we did not send him as early as we could have. It was a tough call but has worked out for the best. Class leader, Jr. NHS, athlete. One of the best things, which we had not thought of, was that it put him four years behind his brother, so their respective HS experiences were/will be all their own. </p>
<p>All the teachers ‘can’t wait’ to have the brother of S1, but what they don’t know is that they could not be more different-marvelously different. S2 has his work cut out for him, since S1 hit quite a few high notes on his journey. But we are confident S2 will hit just as many or more - in his own way, at those activities or subjects on which he chooses to focus.</p>
<p>DD has just about finished up summer reading…and is reviewing notes for the first day essay the students have to write. The tests on the books come over the next class meetings. She’s also finished up her vocab flash cards for the first few chapters in Bio, World History and her first assignment in History as well. She’s a bit anxious, and says it feels different knowing that her peers will be in the building she’s ‘grown up in’…like they are ‘invading her space’…(yes, she’s a bit dramatic!!! :)) I keep reminding her that in 2 weeks, it will all be like they have all been in HS forever! She’s also been redecorating her room after a paint job and new carpet, and trying to get those last minute sleepovers, etc in. Tick Tock on our countdown clock…Aug 17!</p>
<p>Hope everyone has a smooth beginning!</p>
<p>PlanAhead, your D sounds like she plans ahead, too. Wish my S did. He finally started reading one of the two books he needs to read, but I have a feeling he will be finishing them both at the last minute!</p>
<p>Lucky kids who get to watch Star Wars or read Three Cups of Tea! What great choices for summer assignments. DD will have the same honors English teacher that DS had four years ago. She’s a wonderful, demanding teacher but for some reason she always assigns The Scarlet Pimpernel for summer reading. As you can imagine, excitement is running low. I have a feeling DD’s procrastination will continue right up until the last minute on this one.</p>
<p>zandari, maybe you can pique DD’s interest by having her watch the movie, and/or listen to the soundtrack of the musical. I agree, otherwise it’s a tough read. </p>
<p>A month for us before school starts. I’ve gotten D2 hooked on the Colin Firth version of “Pride and Prejudice”.</p>
<p>I didn’t know there was a movie. When did it come out?</p>
<p>I was thinking of something 1930’s era, but there is one circa the 1980’s and an A&E network adaptation as well. If you have netflix, several of these are available in the instant queue.</p>
<p>Hello - mother of two freshman, one high school class of 2014, one college. Big year as the oldest heads off. I’ve been here for a couple years - reading more than posting, but found this board to be incredibly helpful in for the first one. Here we go again!</p>
<p>S1 has “1984” by Orwell for English. He’s finished the book.
“Mountain Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a man who would cure the world” by Kidder for Human Geography is in progress.</p>
<p>Zandari, our DD is a visual learner, so in her case, we have always had her read the book(s) first and take notes for later review, then watch the movie (if available), and finish up with the CliffNotes/SparkNotes discussion questions after reviewing the notes closer to the actual test dates. There was a version of The Scarlet Pimpernel with Jane Seymour and Anthony Andrews done in the early 80s (I think) that’s pretty true to the book. One of our English teachers just LOVES Rebecca…the students, hmm, not so much, tho DD didnt think it was too bad. ANd The Road was just SO dark…leaves me wondering why THESE particular books, with so many great, classic reads out there, KWIM???</p>
<p>Another source of review questions to take a look at is the Literature Units on Edhelper.com (subscription site), tho DD has noted that some of the questions refer to topics that do not happen in the chapters the review sheet refers to. One thing that she has noted is that the movie versions help her visualize the story as she reviews it, but I’ve also encouraged her to make a list of differences between the book and the movie, so as not to confuse the two. Some of my colleagues purposely plan test questions to see if the students have actually read the book vs. read only the CliffNotes/SparkNotes, or just watched the movie.</p>
<p>For DD we’ve found that using all 3 approaches seems to work best. If your student is more of an auditory learner, maybe the book on tape would be an option (check the local library)…he/she could listen and read along…just as they may have done when younger…many of my HS students like this option…they say it doesn’t feel like as much 'work". DD also found that making a daily reading/study schedule helped break the reading down into manageable chunks, FWIW…she can be a good procrastinator too!</p>
<p>Hope you can find an approach that seems to work for your family!</p>
<p>S2 needs to turn in his summer assignments for English in a week – the boy will cut it close. Still reading A Separate Peace. He likes the book, but he is dreading the five assignments he must complete. He’s already done with the work from Edith Hamilton’s Mythology and all his world history work. Got his schedule the other day, and he was just delighted. His school is on 4 by 4 block, so he must take eight classes this year. He thought he would take a gamble and put down that he wanted to take biology and chemistry, along with the required earth science. He got all three subjects, so I do not think I’ll hear the word bored this year.</p>
<p>When he is not reading and writing those summer assignments, he is training for cross country. Has his first scrimmage in six days. All this activity will keep him from missing his older brother, who already is at college.</p>
<p>PlanAhead, thanks for the great suggestions. DD is quite an avid reader–unfortunately, The Scarlet Pimpernel just isn’t the book she would choose. So far her reaction has been that it’s bad enough that she has to read the book, she doesn’t want to spend time watching the movie or listening to it on tape, too. I think a big part of the problem is the terrible review of the book that she got from her older brother and the loud complaining of her classmates. If she had just picked it up on her own without any input, she probably would have sailed through without making a big deal of it. As it is, I have a feeling she’ll be dragging it out and making sure that I feel her pain right up until the last minute. </p>
<p>I’ll have two freshmen this year, one in high school and one in college. Does anybody else have a similar situation? Do you feel like your high school student is being overshadowed by your college student? I know the ropes of our high school, whereas sending a child to college is completely new to me. I’m afraid my son’s been getting far more of my attention lately.</p>