<p>Nice job on the grades for your DS, GoAskDad!! We haven’t received ours yet.<br>
DS starts drivers ed next week.</p>
<p>I second the congrats on grades for your S, GoAskDad! Grades are in here, happy with the results.</p>
<p>We are in midwest and got pounded by high winds on Friday. Are on day 3 (night 4) without power. D is not happy to return to unairconditioned house after summer school gym. I don’t blame her - it’s getting up to 93 today. This too shall pass, though. I just hope it passes sooner rather than later. ;)</p>
<p>Suzy100 - hope your power comes back on soon! </p>
<p>Thanks for the nice remarks about DS’s grades. I should add that there are likely other students also ranked “1st unweighted.” Any of the students in the Honors sequence, who make straight As, would be ranked “1st” also. And at DS’s HS, an A = 90-100, while I’ve read on other threads that an A at some HSs = 95-100! Big difference there. The math-advanced students (which DS would never, ever be!) have more HS credits (presumably As) and will therefore always be ranked ahead, so long as they keep their grades up. I never understood all the fuss in our feeder system regarding math advancement, but now I do. No way DS would have been qualified to skip a year in math, but some parents really push to have their kids moved up. Another mom explained to me that math advancement is the driver for Val and Sal, which wouldn’t have occurred to me.</p>
<p>On the topic of driving - here’s an odd one: Our neighborhood borders the state of Missouri, though we live in Kansas. Therefore, the main road to access the world beyond our ‘hood is actually 1/2 in KS and 1/2 in MO. So if one drives North on this road, one is driving in MO and southbound traffic is driving in KS. Never really thought about this until DS came home from driving school yesterday. Apparently, MO does not honor KS drivers’ permits (and I don’t really blame MO because one can start driving in KS at age 14, which is insane IMO). The driving school warned that any KS “permit driver” found driving in MO would be ticketed and the car impounded. I called the driving school to confirm and it’s true! The man told me to have DS take a round-about way and avoid MO at all costs. Glad I found that out before DS & DH drove down the street!</p>
<p>GoAskDad–that is crazy about the whole 2 state driving thing. Also, wow, 14 is kind of young, although I get the intention behind that for the farming communities.<br>
At our school an A is usually 95-100, A- usually 90-95. I say usually, because ultimately it is up to the teacher but that is the general guideline.</p>
<p>@herandhisMom - no, juniors can go too: [Courses</a> - Global Issues at Princeton (Grades 10-12) | JHU CTY](<a href=“http://cty.jhu.edu/summer/grades7-12/princeton/catalog/courses.html]Courses”>On-Campus Overview | Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY))</p>
<p>D2015 finished online Driver’s Ed. That’s one check-box done on her summer To-Do list. :)</p>
<p>I’m very jealous of those of you whose 2015 kids can drive soon. My D. won’t be able to drive until she is a senior. She is a young high schooler, and in our state, people get drivers ed when they’re 15. (she is turning 16 during her senior year.) </p>
<p>@ohiobassmom, Thanks for the information. We may check on that next year. </p>
<p>We just learned that D. got a 5 in her first AP exam. (government) we’re all happy. 
Next year she’s taking two hard APs - chem and APUSH. She’ll have to work at them seriously.
Anybody else child taking APchem and APUSH next year?</p>
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<p>In theory that is a big difference, but I am not convinced that it works that way in real life. What I mean by that is that I think teachers have an idea in their head as to whether a student is an “A” student or “B” student, etc, and that they adjust grades accordingly (maybe even subconsciously) on things like participation, or on subjective items like essays etc. Even on objective things like tests, I believe that teachers look at grade distributions and adjust subsequent tests etc accordingly to get back to where they think the class range should be. At least I know my kids teachers have done this.</p>
<p>herandhisMom, I’m jealous of the drivers too! My D doesn’t turn 16 until next May but that would be rough if we had to wait until she was a senior! Truly, all of the driving around is making me crazy. (This includes me having to pick her up at 12:15 from summer school for the next 2 weeks and taking her home. It’s a pain because I work outside the home.) </p>
<p>The only AP course offered to sophomores is APUSH, and my D is taking that next year. I just found out about a little perk she is getting because she’s in Student Council next year. Her advisor let her see her schedule and request changes on the premise that she has to be available at the 2nd period lunch for Student Council meetings. She had originally been slotted to take APUSH with a new teacher, but was able to change it. Now she’s going to see if she can switch her Chem teacher too - got one that was OK, but I’m hoping she can change into another teacher’s class. This woman has a fantastic reputation. I admit I feel a little guilty that she is getting to do this.</p>
<p>D’12 didn’t take drivers ed until senior year, so we pushed for D’15 to start this summer. As of Tuesday, I’ll have 2 girls with learner’s permits (and zero with licenses). This does mean that D’15 will be able to get her license close to her birthday. She’s in a drivers ed class that meets on Sundays, every week until you’re done. I don’t know how they’ll deal with missed classes and make-ups, but this isn’t really my problem (yet).</p>
<p>I called in for D’15’s AP score and we were happy with the results. We’re waiting on the mail for the older sister. She doesn’t want to know. I’m not sure it makes a difference. D’12 is still trying to figure out what she wants from HS. I wish she’d decide already!</p>
<p>I just realized that in order for D to take an AP Chem or and AP Physics course, she will have to take a “regular” class in each of those first. That’s sort of a shame because I don’t think that she will be interested enough in either of those to pursue them further. Is that the case for anyone else’s kids? It doesn’t look to be for herandhisMom’s D. Just curious.</p>
<p>D’12 is still trying to figure out what she wants from HS. I wish she’d decide already! </p>
<p>IJD, do you mean D’15?</p>
<p>Learners permits here @ 16, driving @ 17. With all the traffic & congestion, 17 is marginally old enough.</p>
<p>Suzy- same rule here. I noticed that too and assumed they had already taken the regular course somehow a year or two ahead of schedule, but maybe they don’t have the same requirements.</p>
<p>suzy - in our high school, kids can go straight into AP Physics B as their first Physics course, but they do have to take Chem before they take AP Chem.</p>
<p>S just got his permit. And I think my manual transmission has lost a couple years from its life already. (Can you hear the gears grinding from your house???) :o</p>
<p>Congrats to those students with 9th grade APs under their belts! Great for them to have that experience already. Congrats to all permit drivers, too, and Good Luck to all of us parents as we bite our nails thru this process. </p>
<p>DS15’s HS offers AP Euro to 10th graders (only AP option in 10th) and DS will take that. No pre-req for AP Euro except school “suggests” it to certain students via letter mailed to parents. For other APs, which are offered in 11th & 12th, I “assume” there are pre-reqs - at least for the sciences and languages - but haven’t thought that far ahead. Not sure DS will ever take an AP science. I’ve heard horror stories from parents about non-science-focused kids taking AP sciences at the HS - but we’ll need to investigate further. DS is not a math/science guy at heart.</p>
<p>HS soccer camp starts tonight and it will be hot, hot, hot! He’s practicing his cello now, then off to his camp counselor job, then straight to soccer from there. So he’ll have a busy week. </p>
<p>Have a great week, everyone!</p>
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<p>Yup. Sorry for the typo. That’s what I get for posting from my phone.</p>
<p>Interesting how different schools are but it’s nice to know we’re not outliers here.</p>
<p>IJD, my D15 doesn’t know what she wants either. I think it would be much easier if she were clearly a STEM kid, but she’s not. She’s good at it, she just doesn’t like it.</p>
<p>We went to McDonlads the other day and saw one of my daughter’s friends who is a rising senior, working there. I suggested that maybe by the time D. finished up junior, she could work there in the summer as well. D. said "do you realize that means you will have to drive me everyday to work because I won’t be 16 by then so I can’t drive? " 
A friend of mine has a 17 year old son who just finished high school. She told me when the boy was 16, he got his licence. Soon he got his own car, and credit card, and became independent. I was like WOW! </p>
<p>@suzy, D. got permission to “skip” honors chem to go directly to AP chem because she is taking a summer crash course with CTY to do chemistry. She is having a lot of trouble in CTY this year with chem. She doesn’t like the teacher. I don’t know if that’s because the personality conflict, or the material is just too hard for her. I am nervous about AP chem for her. But she still insists she can do it. Everybody told us AP chemistry is one of the hardest APs.</p>
<p>Driver’s Ed starts for S tomorrow! He is a little late starting, which is ok for us.</p>
<p>S had his first paying bass gig this weekend. He got $150 for about 4 hours work. I am so proud of him…great money and to be able to do what you love? Fabulous! It was a classical quartet and everyone else was probably 50 or so. His professionalism is impresseive. He just goes in and does his job–no fuss, no muss.</p>