<p>Sally…I wish I had known how prevalent back injuries are for pitchers. My D has been pitching since she was 8 and gave it up this summer due to a back injury she never fully recovered from. She took a year off and did intense PT but she was never the same. The doctor and the therapist kept asking me if she had been in a car accident when they looked at her MRI. Nope, just been pitching travel ball for 7 years. It’s sad that her college softball dreams are pretty much over but at least she has her grades for college.</p>
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<p>That’s how our school does it. D is in Physics (team taught with pre-calc/Analysis) and had to drop orchestra to fit in Chem 2. It was a tough decision for her. I am not sure how some schools can teach the 3 main science APs to students without any background in the subject and others feel that one is a prerequisite for the advanced class, but there it is. She may take AP Bio and Physics 2 next year, or not. She’d much rather do that than take history or English :D</p>
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<p>My D has had similar bruises around her wrists this season but says they don’t hurt. I hope it heals for her quickly. R.I.C.E. is all she can do for that I guess?</p>
<p>twogirls, we had the problem with kids taking up the whole house with studying, puzzles, projects. etc., but unused bedrooms, except for sleeping. It’s not that bedrooms are isolated, since our house is ranch. It led to a lot of arguments. "This is a dining table and I don’t care if you were here first. I’m eating here ', etc.</p>
<p>Brain-stormed about how we could make bedrooms more inviting. Tried everything- big desks and new adult furniture, interesting rugs, new windows, repaint, plants, insulated garage ceiling underneath bedrooms. Finally hit on something last year. Always had had desks against wall or window to use space economically. We turned desks around so they face the door. It worked instantly. S spends all his study time in room now. His desk is just far enough from wall so he can pull chair out comfortably. Somehow he likes this, got his back protected, light coming in from window behind him. In S’s smallish room was tricky arranging furniture but we experimented until we figured out a way to make it work well. D had huge corner room with windows on 2 walls, one of them big picture window with great views of plantings, but I guess didn’t care to look out. When we took her to college this fall and bought a big table since desk in dorm room so small (room is enormous, but desk serves now as a frig table), arranged room the same way, table faces door and she is happy.</p>
<p>twogirls – maybe playing classical or jazz music, without words, could drown out unwanted noises without distracting your D from her studies?</p>
<p>Sally22 – my D1 hums softly to herself when she’s happy. I used to find it a bit annoying, but now that she’s away at college I really miss it.</p>
<p>celesteroberts – I used to complain about D1’s HW all over the dining table and D2’s HW all over the coffee table, and books and music/dance stuff all over the house. Now I sort-of wish someone was home to liven up all the quietness. D2 is so busy she’s hardly ever here. DH and I are talking about renting out a room or two to students at the local CC, but our open floorplan isn’t well set-up for that. I’m looking forward to selling this too-big house and moving to a smaller space as soon as we’re sure D2 is launched.</p>
<p>Be careful what you wish for in the study area department. All through last year, my D used the kitchen table as her homework area. I did complain about the mess (wonder where she gets it…) but we didn’t really need the space since we do also have a dining room table. This year she is suddenly using the desk in her room to do homework, and I miss having her out in the house. I find myself just popping into her room every so often, just because. Apparently my H does this too because she laughed the other day and said that she sees one of us about every 15 minutes (I think we are getting better about that now.). I guess when she was in the kitchen area, I just naturally saw her as we were getting dinner ready, or making (too frequent) trips to the fridge after dinner. ;-)</p>
<p>keepmecruisin
Sorry to hear that about your d. Mine gave up pitching at 14.( whew!) I wish they would regulate pitching - as they do for boy’s baseball. I feel for our pitcher. She is just 14 and I reckon pitched 75% of our innings. 7 innings in HS ball is tough on her. It would be interesting to look at the stats and see how many pitches she has thrown!</p>
<p>Celeste- my 2 took over the dining room for homework. D2 still does, and when d1 comes home from college she does the same. I think she also works at the kitchen table in her house at college. Never thought about the desk positioning. Too late now for us to change.</p>
<p>D’s school also requires that kids take the honors class in the science before taking AP. AP Chem is a very popular course among the juniors this year but those who elect to take APUSH are pretty much told not to take it with AP Chem. (AP Chem is far more popular than APUSH.) And those, like my D, who take AP Comp Sci, can’t take all three. One of D’s friends started the year with these three classes and dropped APUSH like a hotcake. </p>
<p>The biology teacher did tell us at open school night that about 60% of the basic bio class is taught at an AP level–so I guess it’s quite possible to provide the basics on an accelerated basis in the context of an AP course. </p>
<p>I had no idea the chewing issue was so prevalent! My H chews SO LOUDLY it drives the rest of us batty. D also refuses to cede the kitchen to H and I and for better or for worse, we end up tiptoeing around her. We’ve done all sorts of things to make her room a better study space but when it comes down to it, she wants company. Unless we want to sit in her bedroom with her, she’s going to migrate to the kitchen or family room. </p>
<p>Shoboe, my sympathies on the history teacher. My d had this experience in chemistry last year and it was an annoyance all year long. She is so, so happy to be rid of this guy at last. Thank goodness and crossed fingers, her teachers this year seem to be really good. This is the first year that I can say this and it’s a big relief!</p>
<p>Wolverine, I just loved this:</p>
<p>“Thanks to SomeOldGuy and the rest of the CC “online therapy group” we occasionally get new weapons in our parental arsenal. Every now and again you actually feel like you might have accomplished something as a parent. I have no illusions about the good feelings lasting though, as the inevitable “my life stinks” meltdown is surely just around the corner. But for the moment I’m going to bask in the warmth and glow of a happy household. School doesn’t end until 2:20…so I’ve still got a few hours at least!!”</p>
<p>You just have to grab those happy, peaceful moments when they come and remember them fondly when the next storm clouds gather.</p>
<p>mihcal, I don’t want an empty nest …wail… I want there to be kids here playing piano, banging the basketball against the bedroom wall. Not looking forward to this at all. Thinking of taking in foster kids.</p>
<p>The situation in our house is my husband took over the dining room to be his office when he’s at home so no one else can use it. We added extension to kitchen table so D could always have one of her big jigsaw puzzles going. That’s her stress reliever. Put a big table to eat on in family room adjacent to kitchen but D took that over for studying while S mostly studied at nearby coffee table. Finding a surface to eat was always problematic. Several times a year I pry H out of dining room so we can use room for holiday meals. But every day had to move the kids for dinner setup. </p>
<p>And yeah, checking up on S frequently, sitting on his bed to chat. Door is always open.</p>
<p>Thanks for the classical music idea to overshadow the chewing. It’s a good one! Our school allows AP physics without any prior physics class. They used to allow it for chem but not anymore. I believe that students need to be recommended or sign a waiver to take these AP classes ( waiver if there is no teacher rec ).</p>
<p>Overuse injuries in sports are a real problem “nowadays”, with so many kids playing a sport year round without a break. A friend of mine is a trainer and sports medicine professor and talks about it a lot.</p>
<p>My friend would emphasize strengthening of all muscle groups year round to prevent not only overuse injuries but acute ones like ACL tears, which can be at least partially prevented by strengthening the muscles surrounding the knee, core training which helps keep a vball hitting arm and back from injury, etc. Our school offers supervised strength training and conditioning to all athletes (and students who don’t play a sport, actually) year round after school and in summer. </p>
<p>I am glad that D plays two rather different sports (vball and lax) so there is natural cross-training and her body gets a break from jumping/blocking/hitting when it’s not vball season and from running when it’s not lax season. </p>
<p>To be honest it does hurt her game(s) somewhat to not play intensely year round, but she remains (knock on wood) mostly injury free. It is so sad to see kids work so hard in a sport for years only to be sidelined, sometimes permanently, by overuse or regular acute injuries. Also sad to see kids who are placed on travel teams and high levels of competition young only to burn out on the sport by high school - I know several kids like this. The fun of playing the game is just not there for them anymore.</p>
<p>I’ve always told D to enjoy her sports, and paid for her to do some off-season stuff, but academic work is what will get her to - and help pay for - college.</p>
<p>Then again, if I had a different type of kid, my advice to her would be different. Olympic and pro athletes have to come from somewhere :)</p>
<p>Kinda scary how similar many of our households sound…pun fully intended. Our chewing noise issue occurs primarily whenever we have chips of any kind. I’ve never figured out how people are able to create a noise that carries across the entire kitchen and into the living room just by eating a chip!! Nothing makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up more quickly than that…darn…noise!! Mrs Wolverine will laugh out loud when she sees me flinch at the sound (shudder).</p>
<p>Our sports injuries have decreased quite a bit since D2 gave up gymnastics. Every girl on her team had AT LEAST one broken bone, many of them had multiple breaks. On top of that, the constant pounding that the sport puts on their joints was always a concern of mine (think Mary Lou Retton with her hip replacements), as well as the effect that the over-muscling of their bodies at that young of an age could have. She now runs cross country and track so there’s always the sore muscles, achy joints, and the occasional bout of shin splints…but I don’t worry about long term complications like I used to. Funny…the complaining still sounds the same regardless of the sport though. :)</p>
<p>My kids take after me regarding study environments, which (luckily) in our house doesn’t cause many issues. All of our kids enjoyed having music or TV on in the background while they were studying, so they’ll usually set up in the living room or upstairs family room and the normal daily activity around them doesn’t affect their studying. D2 always amazes me with how she juggles homework in multiple classes while watching a TV show and carrying on a conversation with her bf on the phone. Multi-tasking at it’s finest!!</p>
<p>S has had so many soccer injuries over the years starting about 5th grade, I’ve lost count. Most due to growth related/congenital issues, like knee cap that had cartilage where bones should’ve fused together, Osgood-Schlatter, Severs. Those have all resolved, though the ongoing long term nature of the diseases have changed him, not the hard charging guy he used to be, really sad for me to watch. Soccer is a huge part of his identity. He just dropped year round club soccer this next year, doing only HS varsity season. Don’t know what he’ll do with himself once November comes. Trying to get him interested in track or rec basketball. Over winter break he’s having surgery to remove an extra bone in ankle, os trigonum, that gets inflamed and puts him on the couch for weeks at a time. If he weren’t an athlete, none of these things would ever even have bothered him. On the bright side, he hasn’t had concussions since the injuries have transformed him into such a careful player. Many of his friends have had a couple of concussions.</p>
<p>Maybe he’ll pick up those guitars gathering dust under the bed.</p>
<p>Celeste I am sorry that your son is having these issues. My daughter’s friend was born with missing bones in her ankles and she seems to be doing ok. </p>
<p>Today was a good day!! Physics went well and my daughter is staying. She actually came home in a great mood and she is very excited about a research paper that she has to write for US. </p>
<p>My husband is home early today which means there is more time for chewing. Hopefully she will not freak.</p>
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<p>I heard her being interviewed today. She said if you find your high school senior avoiding you from September to January of senior year, you may be over involved. </p>
<p>Re chewing, my wife tells me my table manners in general are such that if our dinner were a date, there might not be another one. But we’re on our 25th year, so I might have some redeeming values. </p>
<p>My 2015er is our third, and only one not in college. I wouldn’t mind if he got into and went to the local uni to avoid the empty nest. I promise I’d pretend not to know him if I passed him on the street. My oldest will graduate this year, so, who knows, maybe we’ll have a boomerang. But as an actuarial science/computer double major, employment and financial independence may not be an issue. My middle-child daighter is one hour away at a non-suitcase school, but proximity means we see her more than we imagined.</p>
<p>Latichever, you are lucky. One of my girls went to school an hour away. It might as well have been a continent away. She was always busy with friends, classes, internships, ski team trips. She did text a lot but visits were limited. </p>
<p>I kind of wished for a boomerang but it didn’t happen, at least not yet. The one thing I look forward to with an empty nest is the ability to visit the older girls on a somewhat freer, non-school schedule. </p>
<p>Celeste, I’m sorry your son has to go through all this. It is to his credit that he’s been able to manage the issues and continue to play and not suffer a concussion. (I know two kids whose concussions set them back pretty severely, both in their sports and in school.) My eldest had a serious skiing accident that required major surgery and kept her from participating for a year. It definitely made her more cautious. Even so, she has a tendency to overdo and then the old injuries flare up. I hope he finds the right balance and maybe picks up those guitars. :)</p>
<p>Twogirls, gotta love those sunny days 
I’m glad she decided to stay in the AP class. It’s the right place. </p>
<p>I’m both tempted by and afraid to look at the Lacy Crawford book. Maybe I’ll wait for it to get to our library. In my neck of the woods there will be about 600 holds on it before I see it.</p>
<p>Anyone else worried about your kids falling apart this year? My son seems so stressed from the school work and the pressure of all the standardized testing (SATs, SAT 2s, APs it feels endless). They have started having junior college meetings and its only adding to the pressure. </p>
<p>I feel so bad for him. He asked to drop one of his very time consuming EC’s and I agreed. I hate that he can’t do this program since not only does he love it, but its something that I think he would enjoy doing in college. But I can see how it would free up a lot more time for his work. Now he is asking if he can also drop another thing. I don’t want him to fall apart, but I think he needs to have something left. Junior year is so hard.</p>
<p>DH and I agreed with each other not to talk about possible colleges because we think its adding to the stress. Its making me an avid CC reader since we can’t discuss it at home.</p>
<p>stemmmm, I try not to talk too much about colleges with my D either and thus mostly just talk about it here. 
October is very heavy on standardized tests here, but D doesn’t seemed stressed about those, but instead is finally starting to worry about her grades. (She’s climbing out of a big hole in AP English Lit.) Hopefully things will smooth out soon for your S and he can still find time to enjoy the ECs that he likes.</p>
<p>Stemmm, YES. There is so much stress on our kids. The workload is more demanding and now there’s all this college chatter that is picking up. I may have mentioned that my D was hysterical over the prospect of the SAT. I’d hoped she would take it this fall and maybe be finished with it. But she is worked up to a froth over the essay and no amount of talking has helped. When she took a simulated timed test this weekend, she finished with one mistake on the entire multiple choice sections of the test: math, critical reading and writing–and couldn’t finish the essay. She barely got to the 2nd body paragraph. She just freezes with anxiety and emotionally she just isn’t ready for this. So she will not be taking the SAT this fall. In the meantime, I’m trying to get her to understand that this is not as high stakes as she imagines. I showed her some scattergrams on naviance for less selective schools that I think she’d love along with some descriptions of what those schools had to offer. It helped her to relax when she realized that there were wonderful places to go to college that are probably within her reach. Do you think that might actually help your son? Sometimes the fantasy of what is expected becomes terribly distorted. </p>
<p>I would also look at dropping the EC he likes as a temporary thing. Maybe he can fit it in later in the year or even next year as he adjusts to the stress of this year. My D had to drop orchestra this year to fit the other classes she wanted. She will try to fit it in on an ad hoc basis later in the year and pick it up again next year.</p>
<p>I definitely need this therapy group!</p>
<p>@stemmmm - what worked for us in the past and the approach we are using with D15 is breaking junior year into two “phases” - between now and end of Dec, and Jan to end of June. Between now and Dec, I asked my kids to focus on nothing but SAT, ACT, PSAT, and school work (no SATIIs, APs, IBs, finals,…etc.). During the second half, focus on APs/IBs, SATIIs (no SAT/ACTs), and school work. It worked for our kids b/c small pieces are easier to manage than trying to manage the “whole thing.” It worked well for us. Something you may want to consider.</p>
<p>Wow 3girls that is an outstanding SAT! I think she would do great even if she messes up the essay. I know she does not want to hear that. Hang in there- </p>
<p>Stemmmm my 2015 falls apart all the time. I feel like I am walking a tight rope between " my day is great" and “I am going to get a zero.” Last year I had her in therapy so I definitely understand the falling apart thing. Thankfully she is doing better this year. She has an AP physics test tomorrow and is quite calm about it - shocking. My friend already warned me that the tests get curved. </p>
<p>FromMD I am kind of trying to do the same thing. Trying to get SAT/ACT out of the way by the end of February. After that she can focus on AP tests, finals and SAT 11. </p>
<p>Oh- and she wants to take her road test in November. Ugh. I told her that she can take it when she is ready.</p>