D19 has 5 1/2 more weeks of school. She has successfully caught up with all school work that she delayed due to the theatre production. However, she has a new distraction as she received a Cappies nomination last night. The Cappies Gala is on June 11, so I told her to work on schoolwork to get her mind off it. :-j
Found it extremely humorous that the University of Chicago sent info and a poster to my S19. There is not a chance in heck he would even get in. I guess they saw his PSAT scores and assume he is the super-student they are looking for.
@sdl0625 be prepared for 18 months of marketing onslaught. My son17 is about to graduate and still gets notes that schools have open slots and are accepting apps.
I donāt mind receiving some of the marketing. My favorite pieces are the school āmagazineā type. Sone of the schools do a nice job explaining their school to you, some of them itās just postcards that get tossed in the trash.
@sd0625 Univ. of Chicago is one of the worst when it comes to the marketing materials. They sent a bunch of stuff to my D16 who didnāt even have decent PSAT scores. D16 said a couple of schools are still sending her stuff by email and she just finished up her freshman year!
Current challenge is to get S19 to fill out all the information College Board wants from a first-time SAT registrant. Also, still trying to decide between the August and October SAT for him. The year is going by so fast. He still has 5 weeks of school so Iām wondering if heāll have enough time to even prep for the August test.
The intense marketing efforts by the U of Chicago and other schools, notably Stanford, have paid off for them in higher application numbers and lower acceptance rates. This hasnāt paid off as well for the thousands of students who have been disappointed and for the parents who paid the application fees. Itās difficult, however, to tell a child that the school isnāt really interested when they have sent him or her 6-10 glossy pieces.
D19 is being honored as being among the top 10% for chemistry at an upcoming regional chemistry society event. Her team also got 3rd place at a county wide environmental competition. This was the first year her school competed and the judges seemed very impressed with how well they did. I think sheās doing a good job at doing her own thing and it just happens to show her STEM love.
She also had a job interview over the weekend, her first! I donāt know if she will be offered something because of her already busy schedule for the summer (itās lifeguarding and they seemed to be mostly focused on swim lessons through July in the mornings when she has already registered for health classes-- a grad requirement that she is trying to knock out over the summer). But at least she had it a shot and did well with the interview.
I usually feel like rest of the school year flies by after Easter break but this year itās dragging so slowly!
We are done with school year. I removed all the alarms and boys got up 9AM this morning. :))
We have 2 more weeks of both school and sports caraziness, and then just school for the 1st 2 weeks of June ( no sports) Kids get out 6/20 or so, I donāt even know exactly, having a hard time planning week to week at this point.
With a senior and sophomore this has been the most action packed Spring of all time.
@payn4ward jealous!!
Good news in the mail today for son19, he is getting some kind of award at the Rising Students night at our school in June. No idea what is is, but itās not perfect attendance 
Dās lax team made it to the finals. Sigh. Was really hoping they wouldnāt; is that bad of me? :-SS
Hopefully theyāll lose Wednesday and not progress to regionals - thatās 90% certain, as the team theyāre playing is way better. Thereās also the local āTonyā awards for high school plays, big red carpet ceremony and televised event - the night after the finals.
And then, oh joy, back to actual education, with two weeks of finals and school ends around June 8.
@Gatormama I used to always pray for lightening and thunder when our kids were little so we didnāt have to go to soccer. :))
Five days of school left for us. Two days of regular school and three days of finalsā¦and then we officially have a junior in our house!
First of the state SOL tests today (SOL ā āStandards of Learningā and not something else :-j ) in Chemistry. D19 has extended time accommodations so she may end up missing her Theatre Tech class today. She has project work to do so the Memorial Day weekend will likely be spent finishing it up. Next SOL in Algebra 2 is a week from today.
@Gatormama if it makes you feel better, the first thing I said when d got 3rd place on her environmental competition was āIām glad it wasnāt 1st because then you would have had to miss at least one day on school right before finals for the state competition!ā
Funniest part, she said the next day that her teacher/coach also didnāt want 1st place and that the team that did win 1st declined their spot in the state competition and the 2nd place team is going instead.
Itās just a rotten time of year for stuff like that.
I know! If they keep this up theyāll be edging into finals! Aiyee! STOP WINNING!!!
Brag alert here: D19 got a perfect score on the National Latin Exam. How do I know? Because I read it in the principalās weekly email where among other things (heās a little longwinded) he lists academic and sports accomplishments of the week. When I asked her about it she said, āOh yeah, I forgot to tell you.ā
@Gatormama I breathed a sigh of relief when Sās soccer team lost the weekend before last and didnāt make state this year. They would have had to travel 5 hrs away and miss a day of school if theyād made state. As it was they played 17 games in 2 months. Seemed plenty to me. Also once you get to the knock-out rounds, HS soccer is a combat sport and the players drop like flies. So instead he is off to San Diego this weekend for a soccer tournament with another team. Sigh.
S got the U Chicago poster too! Heās starting to stress about college. Heās worried that heāll seem āboringā (his words) because he wonāt have done a semester away. ?! Where did he get this idea?
It took 6 visits to DPS but my S19 finally got to take his driverās test (he passed). Officially done being the taxi driver! Off to the insurance office to see if we can still afford to eat.
@ollie113, Congrats to your son! I had called Geico to inquire about how much my rates would increase when D getās her license. They said basically increase of 2000.00 a yearā¦yikes.
Congrats, @ollie113 - can I also confess, as long as Iām revealing my secrets, that I am passively-aggressively NOT helping D learn to drive? Sheās still 15, turns 16 in October, so she hasnāt fully started pressuring me, but I am not eager to see her driving - not where we live. Itās half mountainous two-lane roads and the other half is highways filled with Indy 500 wannabes. No nice and flat suburban developments where we live.
I used to have to commute 90 minutes each to my job along the exact same roads she will take to school, and I developed calluses on my palms after a while from gripping the wheel. It is not a fun drive, and Iāve obviously got decades of experience to help me out.
@liska21 - I feel ya. Lots of Dās friends are doing lengthy school trips to, like, London and China, which we canāt afford. We have told her that she will be interesting to colleges if she shows that she is interested in things - and that will not be predicated on the places sheās visited.
@Gatormama My D (who is 19) does not have her driverās license. She did driverās ed, took the 1st test, and decided she wasnāt that into it. No, I donāt chauffeur. She bikes and takes the bus places or bums a ride from friends. However after a year at college, she seems to be interested again. I donāt like the insurance hike eitherāand I dread the hike if she hits a car. Anyhow, I found out today that it is only $230 a year to add her on our insurance with our companyās āOOS studentā discount, compared to $750 if she was living at home.
For S19, well Iām just ignoring the whole driving thing. Most of his friends have their licenses, but unless he wants to do it, Iām just going to ignore. Iām sure heāll get a license eventually and hopefully by then heāll have a job and be able to pay his own insurance, gas, etc.
Re overseas, well my in-laws are in Europe. S has been traveling over there for 2-4 weeks every year since he was young. But itās not āsemester-awayā. But those trips are just the cost of airfare as opposed to the ca-ching, ca-ching that it costs through his school. He says thatās visiting grandparents not a cultural experience. Hmm, I told him he should volunteer in the south part of townāthat would be a 1000% bigger cultural experience for him.
My S19 got his permit recently, but hasnāt really done any driving yet. Heāll be 16 in September and canāt get his license before January, so it doesnāt feel like a lot of pressure at this point. Most teens around here seem to be waiting until closer to 17. I just want him to be driving by next summer.
As far as I can tell, his classes are pretty much done with new content with one month of school left (probably as a result of having a whopping one snow day this year!) They are doing their state standardized tests in the next couple of weeks and hopefully will have plenty of time in class to prepare for finals.