S had his last day of school yesterday, and I just dropped him off for a week long pre-graduation trip with his friends to the Finger Lakes. We’ll be making the drive up there in July for orientation and in August for move-in. The kids plan to spend a day in Ithaca, so he should get a chance to explore the town that will be his home for the next four years.
@3scoutsmom oh, my. Hope you stacked up on the caffeine!
Sorry some of you on the West Coast and up in the Northeast have to wait until June to be done! I imagine some of the snow storms this year (even in the Midwest) may have also added days for some. We also start early in Georgia, so first week of college will be in early August.
Unrelated note, not counting rain bands, etc., I find it interesting that S’s college state of Ohio is in the NWS’s subtropical storm’s cone of uncertainty, but Georgia isn’t. :))
@Nomorelurker our weather here in the Pacific NW doesn’t get nice until July 5th. Yes, July 5th. July 5th - September are our nicest months. If we got out in May it would be cold and rainy for most of the summer break.
We are done with the final post graduation celebrations. Final out of town guests leave today and the party is over. Orientation and class registration is next month. It’s all moving very fast now.
Braves won the afternoon game in the bottom of the ninth yesterday but lost the second game in the double header after a long rain delay. Speaking of Finals, Golden State beat the Rockets last night, so another NBA Finals with the usual suspects, Cavs vs. Warriors. I used to live in the East Bay, so I’ll be happy to see the Warriors win another title.
@PlateauMama, I am familiar with the PNW. Have several clients in Seattle and have visited several times. Not suggesting your students should get out earlier from school. I actually prefer when school starts after Labor Day and ends in June. Here in GA, it’s different but not better! That being said, it may be difficult for some families who are reading about graduations and being done, when their students may still have weeks or months left of school!
I think my son is already done with high school . . . . even though classes continue at our CA high school for another week and a half, and graduation is on June 9. Senioritis has been very real for him this semester, and he is the last kid I would have predicted would get hit with it.
I guess as long as he meets the (pretty lax) UC standards for senior year, all’s well that ends well.
@pickledginger Yep, here too. There’s a ‘zero’ or two on the School Loop portal, which there has never been. They’re still applying themselves in the classes they like, but the ones they don’t are toast.
@pickledginger don’t know if this helps at all, but my D graduated last week and I was holding my breath for her grades to come out. For whatever reason It became a point of honor (?) for me that she graduate with all As. The minute that report card came out I felt…nothing. Except maybe silly for pushing her, as the wave of knowledge rolled over me that this chapter is closed and that no one really cares about her grades anymore as long as they were decent.
On another note, my D is thrilled beyond belief that she will never have to take another English literature class in her life, and write a paper on whether the purple living room curtains represented the royalty-like social standing of the protagonist, or was a foreshadowing of the purple clouds 300 pages later that became a storm in which the protagonist ’ suitor’s mad mother was killed. I think it’s rather ironic that my D, who is a prolific reader, despises literature so much.
@SC Anteater, I have no idea how, but he is holding steady with 3 As and 2 Bs. He says even if they drop to 3 Cs (gasp!) and 2 Bs, it will be ok . . . . he only got one B in his life before this year, so this nonchalant attitude is very unexpected. Part of me is happy he has loosened up a bit because of the anxiety connected to grades all his life, but another part is now anxious that he will turn into a slacker in college!!!
@melvin123, my son is an avid reader, too (hallelujah!), but really can’t stand English lit classes, either. You gave a perfect example of why. And thanks for sharing your unexpected reaction to your daughter’s grades. I appreciate the perspective.
@melvin123 although I know that it doesn’t matter in the big picture after all the hard work and never having DD get anything other than a A for 12 years…it would be disappointing to ruin that record with a throw away last quarter senior year grade. I don’t think it would happen but I would hate to see it happen.
DD has her awards night tomorrow night. Another hurdle toward that finish line. It is suppose to be very long. Ugh. I am leaving DH home, as he will only make that long night feel even longer!
DD was suppose to get an award for taking Latin all 4 years, but the teacher didn’t come to Honors night, so I am hoping she will get it tomorrow, it should come w/ some cash, always a good thing.
@melvin123 Interestingly my daughter was a prolific writer and had received a few awards in middle school. She said ever since taking English in high school, the classes/teachers have just killed all her passion for it.
I know the feeling – DS has had straight A’s his entire life. This semester he got his very first B in DE US History. It was an optional history course (did not need for high school credit) but turns out it will count for college credit. He has all of his English and History classes met for college. He is my Math/Science kid, so he is very happy about that. How did that first B that scarred his perfect record feel? Disappointing…but for just a minute. DS reminded me that his high school grades will probably never be looked at again. He starts college with a clean slate. A&M does not calculate DE grades into college grades…just credits, so he is off the hook. And with final GPA calculations he still managed to graduate #7 in his class of 455. I’m excited that he is in the Top 10 students and I’ll admit I was worried that the B would blow that since the Top 10 students are literally thousandths of a point apart. Funny thing is that the Top 12 students stayed the same all 4 years, all except the Val moved around within the Top 12. Val held his spot all 4 years. Impressive.
We go to College Station for New Student Conference Wed-Thur and then Friday is graduation! It’s been a fun ride!
Our S16 hated English (although a disability that was undiagnosed at the time no doubt contributed). S18 will be in a writing program next year, so it must not have crushed his spirit. It didn’t happen to me until college; but I was nowhere close to as good as S18.
D18 had her graduation ceremony today. Everything went well and they finished in two hours (700+ students). I really hate it when a student’s entourage’s cheering goes over into the next student’s name! That happened three or four times … and I wanted to yell out, “hey morons, there are other people here!”. It’s not like their kid won a freaking Nobel Prize or anything, they just graduated HS like 99+% of the other kids. Talk about peaking in HS!
D18 managed to crawl across the finish line with an UW 4.0 for K-12. That certainly wasn’t our goal but it was hers since 9th grade and DW … ahem … encouraged her plenty in the last month to accomplish it. D18’s attendance chart last month looks like a New York traffic traffic jam with all the red days (tardies and absences). The teachers know that the kids are burned out and were relatively lenient on late assignments. She had seven STEM APs and AP Lit along with the highest level district class of “Directed Study III” (which should have been an AP credit given the amount of work they did in the Fall). It’s interesting to see other posters’ kids being in the top numeric rankings while D18, with her record, finished around 80/700.
I’ve heard that the school is trying to downplay the AP arms race now with incoming freshmen and encouraging more ECs. That’s a good thing.
Those of us whose kids don’t have straight As let go of that anxiety a long time ago, LOL. Somehow DD still got accepted to a program with an acceptance rate under 8% so it’s all good.
DS has been grinding out the last few graded assignments. One more AP Chem unit test and a AP Gov assignment and that is the end of any academic work I believe. Barring the unexpected, he is going to finish ranked first and will lead the class in at graduation. I’m so stinking proud of him I will be struggling to hold it all in that day.
On the discussion of grades… my DS had self diagnosed “early onset” senioritis spring of his junior year and fall of his senior year. It is Dr. Mom’s belief that this early onset case can be attributed to the now ex-girlfriend. GPA and rank is locked here after the 3rd 9 weeks so the last 9 weeks really just need to be passing. Only really counts if they have a B average for the semester they can exempt the final exam. So it was a bit ironic that now when it doesn’t really count and when you would think he would slack off… DS had some of the highest grades he has had in about a year. Here’s to hoping that continues in college.
We’ve dropped off S at his college orientation. There was a bag of caramel corn in UNM’s colors waiting for him on the dorm bed he had been assigned. We get him back tomorrow evening. We’re hoping to see Solo that night, and then we leave for the Grand Canyon Friday morning.
We get home Sunday evening, and then he graduates on Wednesday.
Just dropped DD’18 off at the airport. She is headed for Europe (first time traveling abroad). Two weeks after she returns - it’s off to the Air Force Academy!