I have a freshman and a senior as well, but they’re attending different schools. D starts her senior year tomorrow. S had his freshman orientation today and school begins next week. I spent a good part of the afternoon setting up my calendar with both schools’ events/breaks/minimum days/finals and all the senior activities. It’s going gonna be crazy.
Oh, and I started sobbing while reading http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1802164-so-i-just-finished-crying-in-the-bathroom.html.
@grlscoutmom I’ve been avoiding that thread like the plague. I’m already starting to get emotional, and I cry at grocery store commercials. Trying to hold it together . I’m not promising anything.
Same here- son is a senior and will be driving his freshman sister to school. School is about 5 miles away but in city traffic. I just hope they are not late to school as son likes to leave home at the last possible minute.
We still have 3 weeks until school starts for us.
@carolinamom2boys I get weepy during college admission presentation videos! There is no hope!
This article did me in today.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kara-lawler/to-the-parent-of-a-high-school-senior_b_7992680.html
@grlscoutmom I guess we need to buy stock in Kleenex and waterproof mascara. Boy, I am an ugly , blubbering crier. I’ve got 8 months to work on it.
DD has been reminding me of all the “lasts” coming up…last school pictures, last first day of school, etc. And there are only 44 Mondays left before she leaves…assuming she’s being general, since we don’t have any idea where she will be going or what day it starts. I think I’m ok for now, until certain songs start playing on the “oldies” station, although the “44 Mondays left” made both of us teary. They DO come back though, at least for awhile. Both of my older two eventually moved back to town. I think S being in the service and traveling the world made him just fine with living close to home after that. Right now, though, we’re just busy. Hard to get weepy when everyone in the family has three balls in the air and you can only catch two at a time.
@LKnomad Thanks for that link . You’ve just proven my point that I’m an ugly, blubbering crier.
I would stick with mentioning just the highest level of AP award. It is an academic achievement which can be ignored if you have better things to mention in that section. It is harder to assume people should be able to say you reached this level by looking at the scores. AP awards are based on averages and you could have missed it because you got a 1 or 2 on some tests that you did not add to your app.
Excuse my ignorance because I’m still
a relatively new member, but I was just notified that I’ve been promoted to " member " . What exactly does that mean?
You hit 300 posts.
@texaspg Thanks for the clarification .
Ok enough with the crying references. I have enough trouble without you suggesting it!
DS goes alone for senior pictures tomorrow. Thank heavens! That would be hard to get through without tears. Photos will be posted on line for me to cry over (the first time) in relative privacy. Just saw a picture of him from his summer program over the weekend. He looked quite grown up. I think sometimes we need the pictures from places we were not so we can truly “see” our kids. We have so any memories of them that we fail to see reality sometimes.
My friend’s child is the same age as my kids-- and he’s an only. So we’ll be doing the ugly crying together.
I joke that I’m ready for the empty nest-- and in some ways I am, I think. But it’s going to be profoundly quiet around here without S calling from the back room “hey Mom, you want to listen to this?”
@lknomad yup, I bawled behind my iPad screen. Thanks.
I’m going to hold off on reading those posts. I’m known for crying at Hallmark commercials, for goodness’ sake! And when Andy moved to college in Toy Story 3, my popcorn turned all soggy! :((
I made progress today on S’s app package! Yippee! I wrote up pages of course descriptions and got about 50% done. It’s tedious work, but I was in the groove today, so carpe diem and all that! >:D<
School starts tomorrow. So far DD is almost done with the rough draft essays for one of her EA non CA schools. I hope she will apply to this one soon and then move to the other two EA schools that use CA.
@happymochi, I couldn’t remember who the other homeschooler was here! Thanks for weighing in! The insight about the “independent” option may solve the problem. We did a bit of switching around of recommenders for the various schools’ requirements yesterday, making sure the ones currently listed are more likely to conquer the format! 
She can switch again if things change, utilizing those likely to give a stronger rec.
She is technically a public school student, so the school will be listed on the Common App. She wrote an essay in the additional info section though talking about the homeschooling, as it is a pretty significant part of her life (she has always homeschooled, never even had preschool.) Having the charter school simplifies a lot of tasks though; there is a guidance counselor, transcript, etc. We’ve gone to a lot of effort to validate her grades with standardized testing and a few courses with outside teachers (though in all honesty, with a couple of subject exceptions, her best learning is done independently. We have learned there is value in demonstrating the ability to jump through the occasional hoop though, so we let go of “best” as needed 
)
@themommymommy, that would be super annoying! Reminds me of when I spent hours putting together a cd of potential figure skating program songs for my daughter, gave it to the coach to have her pick something, and realized when competition came around that she had used a couple of my faves for her other skaters! :-/ I thought my daughter got a lesser song, lol! 
As far as talking about it, well, I really enjoy talking about the college app process, but find that there are few around here who are really into it (sometimes including my own daughter, lol). So I shut up, so as not to look too crazy :-D. I don’t really like clothes shopping at all, but I guess I like college shopping. It reminds me a bit of the early homeschool years too, and the fun of evaluating all the potential curricula choices, talking about learning styles, etc.
As far as the AP award, I think just the highest one.
Well, I have one off at college (and she was there all summer, so there is no heading out from home this year.) My 6th grader starts at the middle school on Wednesday (she began public school full time last year.) I have my senior, who is doing one class at the neighborhood school starting Wednesday, plus sports there, and has a university class starting next week. Online classes start after Labor Day, and she has a few purely independent study courses. It’s all going to be a lot, and I’m grateful that the SAT is finished for her. She needs to keep plugging away at her essays and get her music portfolio recorded, but there are several apps finished and submitted.
Here is a reality check. I just printed out the calendar for school start date a year from now as I always keep a full year posted in the kitchen for planning. It hit me that I would also need DS’s college calendar…so many decisions will have to wait until we know where and when he is going. I usually book summer vacation plans in January, but not this year. I did compare the spring breaks of 3 schools on his list to DD’s. No matches. Looks like we better enjoy this year’s trip. I just hope he has decided by then so it can truly be a vacation!!