<p>Herandhismom, I’m completely impressed and jealous too that your daughter cleaned her room. I can’t even imagine… My kid thinks cleaning her room means throwing everything into her closet and closing the door. That is a step toward real maturity.</p>
<p>I’m not sure how I would have reacted to your dentist. It’s nice that he sees her talent but I’m not sure when it became the expectation that smart kids could only be scientists. </p>
<p>Suzy, the fact that your daughter checked her email first before coming back to you is a small step in the right direction. The art contest would have me twitching for sure. My daughter is supposed to be planning a community service project for the summer. She talks about interests and sometimes mentions a specific volunteer opportunity but she has yet to do anything as mundane as, hmm, make an inquiry or start an application. It is driving me crazy.</p>
<p>My D2015 says she wants to be a physics major, but I’m not holding my breath on that. A lot can happen between sophomore year of HS and finishing college that might change her mind. Stuff like taking actual physics classes. :p</p>
<p>No room cleaning here. I fail to understand why my D believes dirty clothes belong everywhere except in her laundry basket. You’d expect a uniform distribution to lead to one or two items landing in the basket. But it’s always empty – the cleanest part of her room!</p>
<p>@mihcal, physics is phun! She doesn’t have to major physics. There are other things she can do with a love for physics, for example, engineering. </p>
<p>Her room is clean. It may be so for one more day. At least one step forward. </p>
<p>@3girls3cats, I agree with you. The dentist doesn’t really know her. She just knows her as a smart kid and her parents are both physicists. In fact, I can tell from when she was young, that very likely she would not be doing science. but anyway, I tried. :p</p>
<p>S2’s academic conference for the junior schedule is coming up. Physics is the science course juniors take in our HS. S2 wants to take pre-AP Physics (Honors) because 1. he wants to try it to see if he can do it 2. he will like the vibe of the classroom better. I, on the other hand, worry that he will struggle in the class because he is getting B and C in Chemistry and Algebra II courses this year. In addition, he will not be a STEM major in college. So I think Physics I (regular) should be a better fit for him, but I feel kind of bad to discourage him to take the challenging course. Any thought? </p>
<p>How crucial it is for students to have good/above average algebra skills in order to do well in physics?</p>
<p>Sunny have you asked a counselor about the relative math demands of those two classes? I would think the pre-AP would be more demanding of algebra skills but also just mathematical thinking in general. The other course may be more conceptual.</p>
<p>sunnydayfun, In our school, honors physics is really not demanding at all. It depends on schools. If in your school honors courses are hard, maybe regular physics is better. like STEMFamily said, check with a counselor is a good idea.</p>
<p>I’ve got no advice for you sunnydayfun, but I think talking to his counselor is a good idea. D is starting to devise her schedule for next year too, and it’s looking like it will be pretty rough but she says she can handle it so I’m going to give her the OK.</p>
<p>sunnydayfun – I’m going to go against others’ advice to talk to the counselor, and instead suggest you talk with the science teacher your D has this year. If possible, also try to interview the physics teacher(s) to asses how different levels of physics will be taught. </p>
<p>If the honors track physics focuses on equations and calculations, that might not work so well for a kid who struggles in math. On the other hand, a more conceptual class might be OK. </p>
<p>Conversely, a lower-level class that focuses on hands-on lab work might be great for a more practically-inclined kid. Unfortunately those kinds of classes are rare, because they’re expensive for schools to operate, and difficult for teachers to teach! As a result, too many lower-level science classes devolve into babysitting kids while they get bored out of their minds watching videos and filling out worksheets. </p>
<p>If the the honors physics at your HS is too math-y, and the non-honors physics is uninspiring, then look for another alternative! Most non-STEM kids at our HS skip physics altogether and instead take either earth science or anatomy&physiology, both of which are taught by enthusiastic teachers and emphasize field trips and hands-on work. Maybe there’s something like that at your school?</p>
<p>I like Mihcal’s suggestions. Talking to the counselor might be a good idea though if only to determine whether the honors and regular classes meet at the same block/period. That way there’s always the option to try the honors class and drop down to the regular class if honors turns out not to be a good fit.</p>
<p>Is it really time for them to plan next year’s schedule already? :P</p>
<p>The main difference between regular and honors physics is in math rigor. One physics teacher thinks honors class should be OK since S will have Algebra 2 under his belt. Reason being, according to this teacher, most kids who are in regular physics classes are also taking Algebra 2 at the same time. The recommendation from GC was to take regular; S should invest his time in AP English and AP history classes since he is not going into STEM field. </p>
<p>mihcal1-it will be a nice alternative to take one of the science classes you suggested, and our HS offers them. However, S is in a plan that requires physics to graduate. </p>
<p>As S2 is truly adamant about this, I might just have to keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best.</p>
<p>^^^ If he’s truly adamant, then the only thing you can do is get out of his way and cheer him on. Part of growing up is taking charge of one’s own life. Sounds like he’s well on his way. :)</p>
<p>Hi everybody. D1 got her report card today.Somehow managed to get all As.She pulled up her Trig/Precal to an A- from B in her finals.</p>
<pre><code> We are having some issues with the school for next year’s schedule.they haven’t started planning yet officially.Since D want to take journalism she will be losing a period(she is co editior-in-chief this year) next year.she wants to be an editior-in-chief
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<p>.So we asked the counselor to let her take an Ap at local cc.But her Gc said that the school doesn’t allow that and she can take an online class and not have it in the transcript.And she said having it on the transcript is not going to help D as it would bring down her overall gpa for ranking.Now we are not sure what to do.Her schedule for next year will be
AP Eng,APUSH,AP calc AB,AP Environmental Science,Chinese 3,Journalism.
She wants to do AP statistics at the local cc. Will it be too much to handle?</p>
<pre><code> Talking about forgetting things,D forgot to register for a speech competition conducted by Lions club which give out prizes upto 10,000 dollars.In spite of me reminding her all the time ,she tried to register a week before the contest she didn’t get a reply from them.I am tired of reminding her all the time.
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<p>On a happy note D placed sixth in the stanford national debate and speech competition for original oratory this weekend.She was upset that she didn’t place in the top three.I thought she did pretty good from a school which had such a small team.She is the only participant from her school and with no help from the school thats impressive to me:)-</p>
<p>^^^ Congratulations to your D on her excellent grades and debate performance! Try not to fret too much about the missed scholarship opportunity. There will be plenty more scholarship competitions, and she will probably have a better chance of winning them when she is a junior or senior. Sometimes we focus too much on the little imperfections and forget to celebrate the 99% they do right.</p>
<p>Your D is the only one who can answer whether she is up to the challenge of taking so many difficult classes. She should also think about balancing academics with other things she wants to do (extracurriculars, planning for college, social life, etc.)</p>
<p>The nice thing about signing up for a CC class is that your D can try it and see how it goes. If it doesn’t work out, she can back out before the drop deadline, and it’ll never show up on her transcript. Ditto, for an online class. If it doesn’t show up on her HS transcript, and you don’t mention it on the college application, then colleges won’t know about it. If the class does go well, and she wants the colleges to use it when they asses her application, then she’ll need to arrange for the additional transcript(s) to be submitted separately.</p>
<p>Tripleamom, congratulations to your D! What a great job, both on the grades and on the speech competition! As for forgetting to sign up for the Lions Club speech competition, join the club. Lots of us seem to struggle with this. </p>
<p>The schedule sounds ok to me but I don’t know how your school operates. In some schools, APUSH is not terribly hard. I hear in D’s school that the current APUSH teacher announces on the first day of class that he only gives one A per class. I have no idea if that’s true or a scare tactic. (We are hoping a different teacher takes over next year, haha.) AP Environmental Science is not supposed to be difficult and gets positive reviews here. AB Calc and English are school-dependent. Everyone takes AP English in D’s school and given what I’ve seen so far, I’m certain it won’t be onerous. </p>
<p>I do like that she can drop the extra online or cc class if she finds it’s too much. FWIW, my older girls took stats in college and both said it was one of their most enjoyable classes. One is actually a TA in stats now and has gone on to take more advanced stats classes.</p>
<p>We have a meeting with D’s advisor set for the end of the month to construct D’d junior year schedule. I suppose I’ll have to read the course listing & have some level of conversation with D about next years courses.</p>
<p>At D’s school junior year has a challenging addition - the Junior Year Writing Challenge. The juniors work a large part of the year to define, reasearch & construct a 20 page reasearch paper. The goals of the writing challenge are:
Judge the students writing progress rom 9th-11th garde
Identify weaknesses in each students research skills so they can be strengthened Senior year.
In a controlled manner, teach each student to construct and complete the type of research paper required many many undergraduate collegiate courses.</p>
<p>Yep - lots of stress with this assisgnment BUT - stress in a controlled way - they are living at home, there are all the resourses necesaary and available in both the Learning Lab and with the faculty to guide and help them succeed with the project.</p>
<p>Most juniors dread this project. Most school alumni look back on it as one of the best experiences of the school - “If I can write this type of paper in high school, college papers and work really aren’t so tough” is the most common answer given to the question.</p>
<p>tripleamom congratulations on your D’s debate team performance! That’s really exciting. My D. did the debate team last year. She most likely will do it again this year.
Congrats on her good report card too!</p>
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