<p>Registration and school photos are tomorrow. D would never admit she is nervous about starting high school, but she is-I can tell from the way she is talking and acting. I hope seeing all of her old friends tomorrow and Wednesday at the school BBQ will help with that.</p>
<p>It is unusual for athletes on swimgirls club team who swim year round to have serious injuries. Among the swimmers on our national team ( those swimmers who qualify for Junior Nationals that usually begin swimming year round at an early age) it is very rare to have injuries that impact performance. Most of the studies looking at serious injuries in high school sports have found that the sport that the athlete participates in is the biggest factor, with football having the highest rate of serious injuries per participant.</p>
<p>Injuries: see also cheerleading.</p>
<p>There are a lot of shoulder injuries in swimming. Swimmers who put in a lot of yards often ice down the shoulders everyday.</p>
<p>Gender’s a big factor in concussions too. Girls are significantly more likely to suffer concussions than boys playing the same sports. </p>
<p>My kid’s youth football team had 3 kids with concussions last year. All 3 happened off the field – one was playing pick up basketball, one was skateboarding, and mine was snowboarding in the terrain park and hit his head on a rail (with a helmet, I shudder to think what could have happened). I think that kids who like to crash, and bang, and take chances are at risk of concussion on and off the field. I worry about my kid on the football field, but I’d also worry about him if he was getting out of school at 2:10, and up to his own devices for the hours before I get home.</p>
<p>CuriousKid announced last night that he is going to wrestle this winter because all the linemen are going to sign up together. To me, the whole “making weight” thing is scarier than football, but I have no idea if that’s rational or just because football is now familiar, whereas wrestling is something new.</p>
<p>Swimgirl swims about 6000 yards a day and rarely uses ice on her shoulders. The same hold true for other nationally ranked swimmers on our team. In order for swim clubs to do well nationally it is important to train properly to avoid injury. Dynamo swim club dominated this summer’s Junior Nationals in part because their coach trains his swimmers properly to avoid injury.</p>
<p>The use of ice usually does not indicate serious injury in a swimmer. Ice is used by swimmers to relieve the pain of muscle fatigue and lactate acid buildup, both of which are not permanent injuries. At her last meet SG used an ice bath for generalized muscle aches after a race. The next day she swam prelims, did not use an ice bath, and then swam very well in finals.</p>
<p>My ex-h wrestled in PA high school wrestling and would have to make weight. The stories I heard were scary. And I think it permanently changed his growth curve as he is inexplicably shorter than the rest of his family.</p>
<p>Hi everyone! I haven’t posted in a while. S2 starts a new school on Wednesday - Tuesday is orientation and a BBQ and bowling for the entire class. We just set up all his accounts so he can log on to the school website, including the Cloud and other resources, so I’m hoping that part of things will be smooth for him and he can focus on other things. He is doubling up in math - taking Algebra II honors and Geometry honors - hoping that he’s okay missing a study hall, but otherwise confident that he can handle the material without difficulty. He knows a few boys in the class, which will make the first few days a little easier. Keeping fingers crossed that all goes well.</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone who weighed in on the 2-sport issue. With vegaskid’s HS, he will have to decide by the end of 10th grade which sport to focus in, and the other will have to be in “backup” status. His lax coach really wants him to stay focused there, and just use XC for conditioning. Time-and talent-will tell. </p>
<p>CJ-I agree with you that arts will present the biggest challenge for vegaskid’s schedule-his choir travels alot.</p>
<p>Anyone else struggling with fitting in EC’s around the sports/arts? Mine really wants to study engineering (perhaps erospace) in college. There’s an Engineering club at school, as I imagine all you have as well. How to fit that in? The STEM kids seem to focus on classes over EC/arts/sports. As it is, vegaskid had to give up Civil Air Patrol due to schedule conflicts. Grrr.</p>
<p>Just popping in…I have D1 and D2 who are safely and happily away at college. D3 is loving being an only child for the first time in her life! I’m adjusting to being the chauffeur again! We are one month into her first year of high school and she seems to like it. She’s making enzyme models for a science project as I type. Weird to be thinking about starting this process all over again, but glad to have a breather! At least this time around, I know what questions to ask and won’t be feeling around in the dark! </p>
<p>Just to throw this out there about the 504’s…2 of my girls have had them. Very helpful for setting up things BEFORE you need them instead of trying to get things in place afterwards. In my state, there are IHP (individualized health plans) and 504. The IHP is all that is usually needed, but the 504 is a legally binding agreement. We had to do that when the IHP wasn’t followed one year. We kept it in place until one of my youngests medical issues was in remission. Now she is just continuing with her IHP in high school. So far, so good! The only issue we have had is with PE teachers!</p>
<p>Back to school night was tonight. Almost every teacher asked us to fill out an index card with name, phone number, email and “one interesting thing we probably don’t know about your child”. I had test anxiety or something, but I could think of nothing.</p>
<p>My kid is awesome, and amazing, and the sweetest teenager on the planet, but he’s also pretty mundane. He likes things lots of kids his age like, he’s bright and eager to please but presumably the teachers will figure that out on their own. </p>
<p>I was very impressed with all of his teachers, but his math teacher in particular rocked. Last year math was such a struggle because we could never get what was missed. This teacher puts everything on edline, not just assignments but the day’s slides from class, corrected homework, etc . . . and gives them a book to keep at home. I’m hoping allergy shots will kick in before spring, but if not this will be so helpful, unlike last year where Edline would say “do page 7 in the packet”, but my kid had been absent so long he didn’t actually have the packet to do the work in.</p>
<p>Checking in - great discussions. My question to this open-source think tank is about expectations management.
So far so good for our freshman; grades so far are 5A+/1B+. I think we calibrated his potential in each subject pretty well, so he’s challenged in the ones he’s better at and more motivated about, fewer calories in the subjects he likes less. A freshman study hall seems to be making a big difference; he’s on the cross country (XC) team which limits his evenings. After XC he’ll do wrestling, which he plans to do for 4 years. Our varsity is projected in the top 10 nationally this year. It’s an amazing program and I hope 4 years in it will provide him with greater self-confidence and discipline. He’s done well at the club level and he’d be on the varsity at most high schools as a freshman but the program is so deep he probably won’t be until he’s a junior or senior.
The expectations thing comes in with regard to his older brother, who’s a freshman in the Honors program at a well-known Midwestern state university. He did really well in HS, National Merit, 10 APs, nearly all honors classes - and went 0-for-9 with the top-tier colleges, some Ivies, that he applied to. That said, his accomplishments got him a terrific merit scholarship and the school where he ended up.
So what does the younger one, who feels dwarfed by his older sibling, set as a reasonable goal for HS - and for his chances for college? It would be untrue to say that the prestige of a school is unimportant to the two of them, they’ve talked about it a lot. My wife and I both went to colleges whose names you know and frankly our older one’s less-highly-ranked state U seems like a better deal to us! The UNSWR rankings put it once again at #3 for undergrad teaching.
But my concern is with how to manage expectations for the younger one. How do you get someone who’s 14 to understand that yes, you can get a great education and a great future even if you’re not as high-powered as your brother, and even if you don’t end up going to a college that, when folks hear it, say “wow” about where you’re going? Sure it involves some growing up for him but I guess I want him to be happy along the way. Absent enrolling him in a rigorous Zen program I’m not sure how to get him there in a world where, well, where parents talk through their anxieties about such things in public online fora with perfect strangers in places like College Confidential.
My wonderful Indian doctor, whose two kids are high-achievers, told me to get him out of the country. He said that for both of his kids the light bulb went on only after they went overseas and really got a feel for the world. Crazy or good idea?</p>
<p>I’d say the first step is for him to understand that happiness (and even money) don’t necessarily follow prestige. </p>
<p>Do you have family/friends that he knows that he respects and who went to a variety of colleges…? Might be fun for him to to do an informal “survey” where did they do and what their advice is (presumably he has some idea…true or not of how “good” their life is)(or their kids did)…also ideally some of them went places where they can say “I never would have gotten to do X research/travel/position at a bigger name place.”</p>
<p>It’s a very different world for me in many ways, because 1) my two older kids too non-traditional routes to adulthood, and 2)my youngest does not go to a high school with AP’s tons of EC’s or honors classes, but yet gets kids into top schools every year.</p>
<p>But as the older sibling of a brother who felt like your younger one does (comparing oneself to siblings is nothing new), I would advise you to deal with it the way my parents did-and that was to nurture each kid for what THEY can do, and continue to point out that he is an different person with his own gifts and to focus on THOSE and the rest will follow. My brother took a very different path than me or my sister and he was just as successful in life.</p>
<p>As it turns out his D was like your older one-2nd in her class, the “perfect” applicant it would seem, and didn’t get into a single Ivy. Instead she got a near full-ride at a small LAC where she thrived, got degrees in three majors and landed a job right after graduation. Turns out she loved the small school, is still friends with many of her classmates and wouldn’t do it any other way. There is always another option, and you should help your younger son start to see that sooner rather than later.</p>
<p>My own kid has set her own path for some time now, and knows that there is no One True Way. And when she forgets, I remind her, because that’s true no matter what the subject.</p>
<p>“set as a reasonable goal for HS - and for his chances for college?”</p>
<p>Three sons here: DS1 got great grades,scores and AP’s … and now is a freshman at a great engineering college. DS2 is a freshman in high school and now has to “follow” in his brothers footsteps. However DS2 is not the engineering type and probably won’t have as many AP’s or all A’s … Anyway they are only freshman. I think a reasonable goal is just for them to do the best they can but not put pressure on them at this point about college. There will be plenty of time to talk about college when they become juniors.:)</p>
<p>They had an activity fair at school this week, and CuriousKid made some interesting choices. My favorite is that he signed up for the “Latino Student Athlete club”. I guess he figured that he fits 2 of those 3 descriptors. He’s a student, and an athlete, but has no Latino heritage that I know of on either branch of his family tree (birth or adopted). I looked for the mission of the club, and it says “mostly we just go to each others’ games and cheer for our fellow Latino students”. He told me he signed up because it’s “good for college”? I swear he didn’t get that from me!</p>
<p>He also signed up for breakdancing, Magic: the gathering (a card game), stock market club, and minority scholars club. I’m not really sure how he’ll fit it all in.</p>
<p>hello, new to this thread. Sis now a freshman. D1 just graduated from College and is living in the work world. D2 is a sophomore in college.<br>
My question is about GPA and its calculation. S is taking three honor classes. He is having a small bit of trouble in 1. Our HS does not give a 5.0 scale on honors classes until junior year. He is not getting extra credit on GPA for these three classes. Does this seem unfair to you? How do your HS calculate honors? Will my son be better off dropping a b in honors, for an A in regular. They appear the same in GPA calculation. Or will colleges see that he challenged himself? For top colleges, how many honor and AP classes should he take each year. MY S is our best student. Some of these issues are new to us. Thanks for your thoughts and suggestions</p>
<p>Our high school doesn’t have honors they have gifted classes. They do not give any extra weight to the classes either. Do I think it’s fair, NO. Some colleges are going to ask if they are taking the most rigorous classes that they can. DS1 took the gifted classes and was fine. DS2 is currently taking the gifted classes and I have already decided that next year he will be taking regular chemistry not gifted because it’s entirely possible he may to end up with a B this year in gifted Biology and I’m pretty sure he would have had a better chance at a A in regular… At the end of the day for automatic merit scholarships it’s all about GPA. As far as AP’s it really depends on how many your school offers. DS1 took 8 by the time he was done. Some kids take more others take less.</p>
<p>Our school adds a .5 to the grade for an honors or AP class. However, most of the ‘accelerated’ classes offered to 9th graders do not receive the .5 bump. When the students move on to the honors course in 10th and later grades, then they do receive the bump. Every honors/AP/Accelerated course has entry requirements, but a student can place into the 10th grade honors from the 9th grade regular class. A higher grade is needed from the regular than from the accelerated, but placement is still possible.</p>
<p>My opinion on the mix of honors and non-honors has always been to try to determine how much pain the honors course is inflicting, both on the GPA and the strain of the added workload. Not every student can handle multiple honors and I don’t think it is worth the ripple effect out to other courses. </p>
<p>I have one child who has to be very selective about his mix of courses, and still struggles, and another who can excel at all honors. Earning a B+ in an honors class only produces a weighted 3.8 whereas the A in a regular class would be 4.0. It is a tough call and I wish I knew the answer.</p>
<p>Our school weights a lot of classes with an extra 1.0. To give you a sense, I was looking at Naviance, and the average kid going to community college from our high school, goes with about a .5 difference between their weighted and unweighted GPA. My son, who is a very middle of the road student, has 4 of his 7 classes weighted this year. The top students in 9th grade generally have 6 of the 7 weighted, that everything but PE, and may well have all 7 weighted in 10th and up.</p>
<p>I’m not sure how it all plays out for college. I kind of figure that the colleges know that a 4.0 weighted from my son’s school, where 38% of students score higher than 4.0 isn’t the same as a 4.0 from a school that’s more conservative in their weighting.</p>