<p>I am not yet ready for my S to drive even though he is of age. He himself knows he is not ready. Also, when he does get his license it will be that he drives himself some places but not all right away. It is mostly about him and his level of confidence in driving as a skill. He’ll get there.</p>
<p>At any rate, I can’t even begin to list everything going on these next couple of months. S is beyond busy, so much so that we don’t know how to fit his bass lessons in! Starting last week, there is a music festival, performance, retreat, competition, all-state, etc every weekend, most of which are overnighters or longer for the next 2 and half months. He loves what he is doing though–bass, bass and more bass!</p>
<p>sbjdorlo, under those circumstances I’d really really want him to get the surgery. Hopefully he’ll reconsider, although I still sympathize.</p>
<p>I can’t believe how busy some of your kids are people, but it sounds like they are all enjoying what they are doing. I’m wishing my D had something like that.</p>
<p>momsings, my D isn’t a confident driver and is going to need lots of practice. Let’s just say a bush was involved in our latest excursion.</p>
<p>I’m glad to hear that your father has found a wonderful outlet in audiobooks.</p>
<p>Yes, my son has loved them since he was very little. He listened to authors like Charles Dickens, Jane Austin, etc. since he was about 5. I wish very much I had found the right professionals when he was little. My 8 year old has the same thing but we’re fighting to keep his eyes from going south.</p>
<p>Yes, the surgery would be life changing, I think. His surgeon is well known around here and I trust him very much. (Penn grad, Yale med school, I do believe)</p>
<p>At one time, he considered it but alas, he’s not at this time. He’s an Eeyore and will always see the glass half empty…</p>
<p>Oh, and just so you’ll feel more sympathy (ha-ha), he’s got a bilateral hearing loss. One ear’s worse than the other but there’s something that’s a bit fishy so he’ll be seeing a specialist in March. (And did I mention his T1 diabetes? LOL) </p>
<p>It’s really hard to find a balance between allowing him to have challenges but still having high expectations because he’s a really smart kid. One day at a time, right? :-)</p>
<p>sbjdorlo, that is a lot of challenge for one kid to handle and it makes sense that he’d take on some of that Eeyore thinking. On the other hand, I tend to veer toward Eeyore thinking myself with no real basis for it so some of it is just wiring I guess. I hope the hearing specialist can offer him some help without suggesting anything drastic and that he finds the right treatment for his eyes when he is ready. I hear that there is a lot of research being done on T1 diabetes. Maybe this next generation of brilliant young minds will develop some breakthroughs on all of the above. </p>
<p>The day to day thing? I’m right there with you. My youngest is a very difficult temperament and invariably I feel like I’m stepping lightly around and on eggshells.</p>
<p>eggshells … I used to feel that way with D1’s learning/attention challenges when she was in elementary & middle school. We did a lot of scaffolding! Slowly, things got better. Partly she outgrew it, and partly she learned to cope. </p>
<p>The funny thing is that even though D1 is away at college now, DH and I still online-chat instead of talking out loud in the evenings. (We used to sit with her, while she did her HW at the dining table, so we could help her stay on-task. However, any conversation would instantly derail her. So even though we were sitting right next to one-another, DH and I would IM instead of talking.) Old habits die hard!</p>
<p>Drivers licenses, the continuing saga. D1 took so long to even think about drivers ed (not a bad thing in her case – she’s a klutz) that she finally got her license while home over the break. Our state requires a LOT of hours of driving, so we sort of got used to being driven everywhere. Ironically D1 STOPPED driving once she got her license, since we aren’t insuring her for a while. With a learner’s permit, she can’t be insured, but once she’s licensed, she must be. So she drove to the DMV (to warm up) but couldn’t drive home from there.</p>
<p>Because of D1’s experience, D2 started drivers ed this summer, but it’s ended up being a hassle and dragging out. She’s now done with the classroom component, but needs to drive with the teacher AND drive with us. We’ll see if that all gets done by her 16th birthday.</p>
<p>Part of the reason for her to be able to drive is to give us all more options for the summer. Last summer she had a job in a lab where she had a ride there, but had to be picked up every day (and how D1 got many of her driving hours). We thought that she might go back this summer, but it sounds like that’s not an option this summer. So now we’re looking for other summer options. And the drivers license has diminished in importance.</p>
<p>My hairdresser likes all of this practice driving – I need his services much more than I used to!</p>
<p>Softball girl called for us to come pick her up this afternoon. She has been back in school a week and is sick again! YUK! She has never been so prone to all these nasty bugs going around. And yes, she did get the flu shot back in November.</p>
<p>Boo to sickness! I confess I just got around to getting D her flu shot TODAY. Hope your D is better fast Sally.</p>
<p>My D will turn 16 right before summer starts, and I want her to have a job this summer so she’s going to need her license since I work full time.</p>
<p>sbjdorlo, it does sound like your S has a lot on his plate with health concerns. :(</p>
<p>I have some questions and would appreciate any input here. My D is in APUSH and will take the AP exam May 14. SAT Subject Tests are administered on May 4 and June 1 and she’ll probably be taking two of those: Math II and US History. The June test is the Saturday after they get out of school for the summer. I think it might be smarter to have her take the SAT IIs in early May, but don’t know if that extra few weeks of instruction would matter. Does anybody have thoughts on that?</p>
<p>I’m thinking that it probably wouldn’t matter much either. For the APs, the kids aren’t required to take the AP exam but if they do, then they don’t have to take the final course exam. I don’t know how many kids historically have NOT taken the AP exam, but I guess if there’s even one the teacher will have to continue with instruction for the rest of the year. It’s a weird situation really.</p>
<p>Any of your kids starting to get emails from colleges? DS suddenly received emails from 5 different colleges today. Looks like it is connected with having taken the PSAT last October but we have no idea what score he got because we can’t . get . the . school. to . give. us . his . scores!!!</p>
<p>Okay, taking a deep breath here… We just want to see if we should consider investing in some kind of prep for next year’s test.</p>
<p>Why won’t the school give you the scores STEM?</p>
<p>My understanding is schools can get scores in a range but not the exact score of the student. So for instance my nephew who scored higher than my daughter will theoretically get different schools and/or the same schools but different sales pitches. I really wish I have reminded her to not allow mailings and not allow her name to be sold-</p>
<p>I cannot wait until she gets her license as she right now haw something 6 evenings a week-all soccer/sports related-it is quite ridiculous really how this has gotten so out of control. Because of her birthday date and after school activities it is going to be very hard to get the classes in so she can be at the DMV on her birthday for her permit.</p>
<p>I wish our school did a History fair-she is trying to survive the Science Fair which is required and it is is Biology which she loathes.</p>
<p>I think testing depends on the school. My son self-studied for the AP exams and since they are given in early May and his school runs through mid-June there were topics on the AP exam they hadn’t covered in his class until after the exam-so in that case it would also affect the Subject Tests I think. I wonder sometimes what is going to happen the last month of school now that the school offers AP classes-what will my daughter be doing in those classes after the AP exam is over? I hope something productive.</p>
<p>sbj that just seems like your kid has way more than his share-:(.</p>
<p>STEM - did your S get an email from PSAT/NMSQT with a link and access code? My S got one on Jan 4 to the email he had used for the PSAT. if not, call college board - I think we’re at the point where you can access them directly. I can’t imagine why your school is sitting on them this long.</p>
<p>PSAT scores: I don’t think the school is intentionally sitting on them but doesn’t know where they are. S asked in the counselors office and they told him they didn’t have them. I emailed his counselor and have gotten no response. A friend told him about the email but we understood that it came from the school, not directly from the college board. Regardless we didn’t get one. Thanks PinotNoir, I will call the CB.</p>
<p>Pepper03: I believe you are correct about colleges just getting a list of names and not actual scores. I forgot to have the discussion with my son too but, on his own, he avoided putting down his email…He put down ours instead :eek:</p>
<p>I think colleges can get names by score range but not exact scores-so a school might want to buy the names between let’s say 180-200 for example. I am not sure and don’t know the actual process but if someone does it would be interesting to know.</p>
<p>My D got a high score on the PSAT but has not received any emails from any colleges and she “thinks” she checked the box that would allow the scores to do to colleges. Luckily (upon advice from wise people on here) she created a new email address only for college stuff so I’m not getting spammed on my email - that would be bad!</p>
<p>Sally – D got to stay home sick for 2 days as well. What fun. I think the kids aren’t used to being around each other and pass all the viruses around the instant they’re back in school.</p>
<p>D is getting college mail, but not a lot of it.</p>
<p>No college mail here at all. D assumed on her own that she should avoid the onslaught of mail and opted out. We’ve raised our suspicious teen well, haha. STEM, if she’d provided our email address, I would have pulled my hair out and maybe hers too. I really like the idea of setting up a new email address dedicated only to college email. Don’t some colleges provide waivers for application fees or “fast track” applications if they want to woo the student? For that reason alone, it might be worth putting up with the spam. </p>
<p>Sally and IJustDrive, so sorry about the sickness. I’m just waiting for it to hit here too. I dragged my college D and HS D out for flu shots last week, and when I say dragged I’m not exaggerating. We waited about an hour for the shots and I had a protracted fight with the @$^%& insurance company during that time. The last thing college girl needs is flu while she’s writing her senior thesis. Her answer: everyone’s already had the flu so I’m safe.</p>
My 8 year old has the same thing but we’re fighting to keep his eyes from going south.</p>