@saillakeerie, At least 65! It is funny when S goes to adult tournaments and there are some young people, but not many, some kids, and many, many grandparents who tell the kids how nice it is that they are playing bridge! When we were on a Mediterranean cruise that had very few kids, all of the oldsters new S because he played bridge with them.
Wisdom Teeth
S had his out winter break sophomore year. He had all four out at once and I am glad he did. He had a relatively easy time. The doc gave him this tube sock-like ice pack thing that velcroed at the top and targeted the ice packs to his cheeks. I second the liquid tylenol or advil. S has a hard time with pills anyway, so the liquid was essential. He had a pretty easy time and was playing computer games almost immediately.
@jmek my son dropped spanish for AP Stats because that would be better for undegrad biz. He has 3 years of HS Spanish and 2 years in Middle schoo ( which counted as Spanish 1l, so the guidance counselor said as long he got to level 4 he was all set.
I think for certain majors it looks better to take some high level class related to it, versus another year of Spanish that I don’t think he’ll ever use unless he travels to Cancun.
wisdom teeth My 2 kids and I all have our wisdom teeth. Wife had hers out.
** allergies** vibes to you all with kids with allergies, another stressful thing to deal with. No allergies in my our house, but I can’t drink milkshakes or certain dairy foods anymore. No worries, I quit drinking milk a long time ago, I actually prefer almond or soy milk anyways. I only use it in cereal as is.
Sometimes I forget how (relatively) small our HS is. Our GC is being very helpful already in trying to fix S’s schedule for this year, but given 2 timeslots to work with the ONLY available social studies elective is APHuG. I need a time machine so I can go back and make S take psych at the CC this summer. I expected conflicts with higher level core classes, but I never even considered he’d have problems with basic electives.
@flatKansas …D just got a call from the GC. Her dual credit gov class has a conflict. They talked for awhile and came up with a solution: D will take a study hall period and take government through an online university (Texas Tech) program. D is sooo happy because she can work ahead with the class and get it done and therefore have at least something of an off period spring of SR year. I am happy for her as well.
We are huge game players, but bridge is something we have never played. Canasta, otoh, we are pretty cut-throat.
@RightCoaster The biggest issue is language progression. Maintaining a non-native language takes effort. If she dropped it now, she would lose a lot of the skills she has spent so much time mastering.
The good thing is today she is OK with going away. I think it is just a matter of being overwhelmed at times.
@jmek15 – is this the fourth year of Spanish in HS? Our HS considered the three years of MS Spanish equal to one year of HS Spanish, so students enrolled in Spanish 2 in 9th grade. I decided that completing Spanish through Spanish 4 would suffice for my older son, but he was not applying HYP. I have seen a number of schools ‘suggest’ four years of language. (Just read @RightCoaster’s post and I am saying the same thing.)
RE: frozen veggies as ice packs. I don’t use frozen veggies but instead bought bags to use as ice packs and discarded after use. We haven’t needed ice packs for anything else, so have not invested in better ice packs.
It does seem that the pendulum has swung in the direction of removing wisdom teeth. I wonder if that is due to all of the expensive orthodontia? I had my wisdom teeth removed at age 19 (bony, impacted) but I was the only one of four in the family who did. But I was also the only one who never had braces.
Tonsil & adenoid removal was a much rougher recovery than wisdom teeth, but then again, the boys were a lot younger when they had T&A removed.
@RightCoaster S17 isn’t taking 4rd year Spanish as well. Didn’t do that well on 3rd year, and doesn’t fit well into his schedule. I agree it’s better to take something closer to their intended major. And none of the schools is his list require a 4th year.
BUT don’t expect AP Stat’s to take the place of the Stats’ needed for a business major. AP Stats is without Calculus. And most Business degree’s do require the Calculus bases Stats class.
On the other hand S17 will take AP Physics 1 (and 2) without Calculus. (Which he has already taken). He didn’t see the point because he will have to take it again in college if he goes into Engineering (only a possibility) or something similar. But I informed him that Engineering schools would be expecting to see both a 4th year of science & physics of some form on his schedule.
No ACT-takers in my house but passing along. I think everyone here knows this already…or perhaps it was a posted here earlier this week already. I cannot keep up…
@2muchquan My son is a current student at Ohio State. May dad and I both went there. Twice each. Wife, siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins went there as well. But interestingly enough, I have never gone on an official tour of the campus. So I don’t know what they take you to see.
I think it makes sense to see the Ohio Union (was something of a dump out of the 50s when I was there but was demolished and rebuilt in 2010) and main library (atrium on first floor is amazing and top floor has study tables with great views of campus). I would expect those to be on an official tour. Most of the colleges have their own libraries. So if your child knows his/her major, you may want to check that out (as well as some of the academic buildings in that major). Business college has its own cluster of buildings and a hotel if that is an interest. If exercise/sports are an interest, they have something of a sports/exercise complex near the main library and stadium.
Not sure what they would do with residence hall tours. You could spend probably more than an hour touring different types of residence halls. North campus has more new dorms (which I suspect are still being completed for this fall as the new batch for last year was completed the week before kids moved in). Some remodeled dorms as well. South campus has dorms that had major renovation with only one new dorm to my knowledge (which I understand is popular with sophomores – looks like a hotel from the pictures I have seen).
I would check out one of the 3 official dining locations (they call them Traditions). There are something like 30+ locations on/near campus where you can get food on a dining plan. My son had an unlimited plan which allowed him to go to any of those 3 Traditions locations as many times as he wanted during the day (and they were open until midnight 5 days a week and opened early in the morning and stayed open all day so its not like an old style dining hall open for 2 hours for breakfast, then 2 hours for lunch and 2 hours for dinner. They are really food courts. Not sure how much your child cares about food (my son really doesn’t) the unlimited plan was the best value (he ate one or two meals a week outside the traditions locations). A walk through there would give your child an idea if that would be appealing.
Wexler center for the arts is on campus if that is something that appeals to your child. Mirror Lake is a pretty area on campus. Area just south of campus has a lot of art galleries and shops if that is appealing.
How is that?
In terms of friends thoughts about visiting campuses, my wife and kids are visiting Michigan State today. Something of a thorn in the side of the Ohio State football side recently. And when my son showed my dad his acceptance certificate from Michigan, my dad gave a somewhat pained laugh. But Michigan would have been something like $160/180k (who offered no merit) more expensive than Ohio State for him. My first house could be bought today for less than that. Carnegie Mellon would have been cheaper than UofM. But in the end, guess my kids were born and raised Buckeyes. Though my daughter is chasing Big Macs for sure.
^^^^
He knows he’ll take stats again in college. He is just taking Pre-Calc this year. He did H Alg1, H Geom, H Alg 2, and now H Pre-Calc. He’s decent at math, but doesn’t have a passion for it. He took Honors Physics last year and liked that. He’s just studying business/finance in college so I think he’ll be OK with his HS course selection.
Hey!!! @saillakeerie I love bridge and am way under 65! :)) Funny thing is, as an avid card player, I usually have to play with people much older than me. I wish more young adults would get into cards (and a couple of my other hobbies that are not seeing much interest from the younger generations). I told my D she is absolultely not allowed to go off to college without knowing how to play at least play spades. She knows cribbage already, but that’s also a game that mostly older people play.
I need to find time to get D’s 4 wisdom teeth extracted. I had originally planned to do it in July but we couldn’t make t work. She needs to spend the rest of the summer working on apps, working, and doing summer homework so it will have to wait for some break next year. She absolutely can’t do it in the summer after senior year as that’s all booked already.
@itsgettingreal17 …I scheduled Ds over a three day weekend in Feb. She was “sick” that Friday and then had the whole weekend plus Monday (school holiday) to recover. It worked out well.
OMG, cards are huge around my house. All sorts of games that I don’t know. With ties to Michigan, of course everyone plays Euchre. We would play cards long before watching a movie or playing a video game. I’m not a card player myself, by the rest of the family for sure.
@saillakeerie Thanks for the info, that’s perfect! Looking forward to the visit.
So, with all this talk about languages I have a question. D17 is signed up to do an independent study in Mandarin next year since she does not have an AP class at her HS…it only goes through 4th year, which she did last year. So, would her independent study (or rather ‘should’) be considered an AP class if the focus of it is to study for the AP test, as well as some other smaller goals (student teaching, some other things)? I put it on the super duper SRAR as an AP class, but I’m not sure how the HS will look at it. Should it be AP? H? Regular? Opinions? I’ve also considered having her skip it since she may not need 5th year language, and may not major/minor in it at college, although I would love her to do so.
@itsgettingreal17 – RE: not pursuing FL in college. My son will wait to see where he will be attending school. If that school has a FL requirement and if they will accept Latin as a FL, then he will sit for the Latin subject test in May or June of Sr year. Latin is not widely accepted, so no real point in sitting for the subject test not knowing if it will be used.
He may have to satisfy FL b/c he will be applying to A&S programs, if CS & Math are under the same umbrella.
@2muchquan – how will the independent study appear on her transcript? That is a tricky one, and I could argue for either approach, but another non-response does not help you!
@itsgettingreal17 I don’t know if the schools D is considering will have a gen ed requirement for languages.
I took intermediate spanish 1 this spring after not having had a language class for 20 years. To say I was rusty was an understatement. It super sucked, but I did fine (got an A). If older D ends up with a language requirement, I have no doubt she can do the same. Younger D is taking Latin all the way through 12th grade, so she’ll probably continue it in college.
Right now Cards vs. Dice and Sequence are the games we’re playing. Occasionally we’ll play Munchkin, but that’s a pretty involved game.
Sometimes I can’t keep up with this thread either-right now I’m fine since I’m literally bored to death (I finished all the CS stuff and I have three paintings drying, the house is ridiculously clean, and it’s too hot outside to garden or wash the car), but once classes start I don’t even try to keep up-I’ll go back 3 pages and read from there when I can.
We also choose games over TV. Last night we played 7 Wonders. This weekend we played a huge game of Settlers of Catan and cards. Dominion and Civilization are other favorites. Far more fun than thinking about college applications!
Though my daughter is chasing Big Macs for sure.