@eh1234 I hear you about the foreign language. Some of the LACs on our list will let S19 pass out of the requirement with as low as a 3 on the French AP. Wake is the worst when it comes to this. I think you have to take a year of foreign language no matter what. In that case, I’m not sure what S19 would do. Maybe start all over and take another language? He may like starting from scratch. I guess it will depend on how he’s feeling about French at the end of high school.
My older D (HS class of 2015) took 3 years of Latin in HS and hated it by the end. She was glad that the district’s only Latin teacher retired and wasn’t replaced. When she got to Pomona, she started over with Spanish and enjoyed it much more. I’m sure the 3 years of Latin helped at least a little. The college class moved much faster and was more interesting to her.
D19 started out taking French her freshman year but stopped after one semester. She then took online Latin. She’s about to finish the second semester of Latin 2 which she is taking through Florida Virtual School. Then I have to arrange to have the credit transferred over to her high school so that it appears on her transcript. Most likely she will stop with Latin 2. Our three in state universities (Arizona) all require two years of a foreign language. I emailed the admissions departs at the honors colleges at ASU Barrett and the University of Arizona. Both said that stopping at Latin 2 would not hurt her chances of admission to the honors colleges as long as she was replacing Latin 3 with something rigorous.
We’re going to go to a local college fair for the Colleges That Change Lives. I’ve looked at the admissions websites for some of the CTCL colleges. It seems that there are plenty that are okay with 2 years of a FL.
Of course she may need to do more FL in college, but that’s a problem for another day as far as we’re concerned.
My D16 had only two years of spanish in high school (also two horrible years of latin in junior high). No AP. She hated every minute of it and couldn’t wait to quit. Fast forward two years and she chose an LAC where she had no trouble being accepted–but she was starting from scratch on a two year foreign language requirement in college. She started again in spanish 1 (after a placement test proved she’d either learned nothing or forgotten everything studied previously), and had a much more pleasant experience. She followed the first year with a study abroad summer spanish program that gave her the second year’s worth of credits in an immersion setting. What a change! Now she loves to learn language and would like to learn another.
S19 took Japanese for two years, and loved it but has stopped this year–something had to go in his schedule and that was the only thing that wasn’t necessary for graduation or for a potential music major.
S19 sorted out his schedule finally and made his own choices about his course load. It looks like a rigorous year, but it is very similar to what D16 and S13 took, and they survived, so I feel okay about it. He will be taking AP English Lit, AP Bio, AP Chem, IB SL Math, IB SL German, AP American History, and IB HL Film. He took AP Music Theory from the choir teacher last year, and she wants him to play piano for A’Capella, so he’ll be taking that class too only for the first semester before he needs to plug in the required IB Theories of Knowledge class during second semester. I hope he gets a lot of sleep in the next few weeks before school begins and that he also says goodbye to all his friends, since it seems unlikely he’ll see them again until Winter Break unless they participate in one of his extracurriculars. No college list for us yet, but it’s time to start talking about it. This is my kid who likes warm weather, which may determine much of his list. His sister was accepted to four schools in California but chose a school in the Northeast with a lot of rain and snow–which seemed illogical at best to him!
Wow @EastGrad - tough schedule! Good luck to him!
Meanwhile, those of us with theater kids, this story right here is what gives me nightmares about the whole process. I’m really hoping those of us on CC who’ve made it a mission to educate ourselves can help our kids avoid this:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/07/theater/harvard-graduate-theater-debt.html
That looks pretty brutal @Eastgrad!
I’m worried about mine taking just two (maybe 3) APs this year, but that might because I’ve rarely seen him study for anything. Some happy medium between that approach and doing homework 8 hours a day would be nice, and I think he’s going to have to find it this year.
Sign me up as another parent worried about their child’s work load. We’ve always told the kids that their ECs need to be seen as also their social time because, when school starts, there’s really only time for those and studying if they are going to get enough sleep. S19 taking APUSH, AP Lang, BC Calc, French 4 Honors, Adv Painting Honors, and Earth Science Honors (he wanted AP Physics but we said no way too much - plus he needs to figure out if he’s really interested in environmental stuff).
It will be a lot of work for a kid who doesn’t get home until 5:30 every night. His schedule was pretty hard last year too, but managed to get to bed by 11:00 at the very latest last year. Hoping that will happen again this year. He does not do well without sleep. School starts in one week!
I’m also a little worried about throwing D21 into the studying mix in our house this year now that she’s starting high school. The two of them do not study well in the house at the same time. I can separate them on the first floor so they don’t even see each other (one in the kitchen, one in the home office) but they still find a way to hear each other breathe or turn a page of a book. Both have desks in their rooms but that was a waste of money. D21’s is full of pictures of friends and make up and S19’s is covered with camera lenses, cracked pieces of pastels, and candy wrappers. They’ve both said they don’t like working up in their rooms. This will be interesting!
Hahaha @homerdog! “hear each other breathe” – I’ve heard the same thing from my kids if they’re on the same floor of the house. They want to study in their rooms and I would rather they don’t, because I don’t think they study well (always on devices of one sort or another). S24 has an immaculate desk with every corner precisely aligned, but D19 “studies” in her bed, with her phone surgically implanted in her skull, and the room like a tornado around her. Sigh. So different, my kids.
Their punishment if they get a bad grade or do something horrible is to have to study in the dining room where I usually am.
^^^, Desk in D’s room complete waste of money. D studies at dinning room table.
“hear each other breathe or turn a page of a book” cracks me up. My parents had 5 kids in 6 years…
@homerdog that sounds like what happened when my older D was in middle school. She fought constantly with her little sister. It made family vacations very unrelaxing because of the enforced togetherness.You have my sympathy! They get along much better now.
My D19 is taking American History (regular), AP Language & Composition, AP Calculus AB, AP Studio Art, Anatomy & Physiology Honors, and Criminology (non-honors elective where the teacher said his goal is no homework, do it all in class, yay!).
Looking back at my older D’s high school schedule, I feel a little bad because she was on the “most rigorous” track for highly selective colleges which meant she had very little room for electives as a junior/senior and certainly no room for any non-honors class. Electives were slots for more AP’s!
It’s kind of freeing to have a kid who is smart but not on track for HYPSM level colleges. Want to quit Latin after 2 years? That’s okay. Want to take the non-honors Criminology class that promises no homework? No worries.
I studied a lot on my bed, both in high school and in college. This idea has not occurred to either of our kids. S19 likes the living room couch, though, and has managed to ruin our glass coffee table by scratching it with all of his 3-ring binders. Makes my husband completely bonkers. During the school year, it’s a nightly occurrence for H to be yelling at S19 to get to a desk or a table instead of the couch.
@Corinthian I love everything about your post (except the sisterly arguing part of course). I can’t even imagine taking another AP as the elective. Ugh. After math, science, English, social studies, and French, S19 only has one spot left and for him it will always be art. Your D is taking AP Studio Art? Let me know how that goes! S19 will take it next year. I think they have to produce something like 44 pieces. It’s a lot. He’s taking a painting class first semester and AP Portfolio second semester and I think he can use some pieces from these classes for his AP Studio Art portfolio.
Is your D considering art school? S19 is not…he will submit portfolios where accepted just to show his interest in art and, hopefully, showcase his ability.
I gave up on having a quiet study space long ago. Last year, it was not uncommon to find S19 doing a French project on a Chromebook while texting back and forth with his project partner, while playing Overwatch on his PC with a friend, while Skyping with another friend who S was helping with his Algebra 2 homework (that S said he hadn’t finished yet). I also love the 11:00 pm double bass practices.
He always gets everything done on time and his grades are pretty good, so I don’t micromanage his study habits, but sometimes I don’t know how he does it. Maybe it’s the ADHD but he would go crazy sitting at a desk in silence.
S19 is kind of forced to take APs as electives because he has no interest in taking the Lit/Lang, History/Gov APs that so many kids take. So may end up with Physics (maybe 1& 2), Chem, Calc BC, Psychology, and then one or two of Stats, CS Principles or Music Theory. Actually, I think there are 5 he would like to take next year, which is why he’s thinking about adding a third one this year instead.
S19 schedule seems pretty basic: Eng3-AP, AP Physics, US Hist-AP, CompSci2-AP, PreCalc-PreAp, Athletics, Orchestra 3. I’m a little concerned about balancing all the school work/SAT practice when football is in full swing. Good thing S19 is so laid back about everything unlike his mama. He will also take his speech/health requirement through accelerated learning before/after school once football season is over. We made the decision to remove him from track for a couple of reasons: he needs to study for the AP exams & he needs to get heavier for football and running doesn’t help with that :). Evidently S19 being 6’1/205 lbs/DefEnd isn’t big enough for TX! Luckily he hs plenty of time to grow!
Regarding studying, S19/D20 do not get home until after 6:30. The TV doesn’t come on Mon-Fri. After showering/eating/studying there is no time. We DVR and catch up on the weekends. They study at either the kitchen table or dining room table. They are in bed by 10 but must be at school by 6:30am (football/band stuff). Oh, and their study spaces are not quiet as they are usually listening to music on their phones.
This is the first of my four that will end up taking more than 1 AP in HS. My first two only had one AP in Sr. year, but neither were going for selective schools so I didn’t sweat it. To be honest, it wasn’t until the end of my oldest’s HS career that I even found CC so I was completely clueless on the whole college process. Have been taught well since then though, so taking a different route with my D19 since more selective colleges are on the radar at the moment. She will be taking Adv. Math+Trig-H, AP Bio, AP USH, Eng 3-H, Adv. Choir, Theology, PE and ConEcon.
In terms of studying, she is kind of all over the place, but mostly is either in her room or at the kitchen table. She has a nice study nook on the floor under her loft bed she likes to sit at, and a desk (when it’s clean enough to actually see a flat surface) but like others have said, WAY too many distractions. I find it takes her half the time to finish her homework if she is in the kitchen, so I will be attempting to sway her into that option more this year.
I forgot to add that next summer S19 will take Spanish 1 at our local CC. CS is counted as a foreign lang for TX public HS’s/colleges. But private universities are looking for spoken foreign lang…so we had to get creative 
He doesn’t have time in his hs schedule due to Orch/Athletics and his CS program!
Ugh, just got the info for the school’s trip to China next summer. We couldn’t afford it this summer; I have no idea how we’d afford it next summer, and they need a $2k deposit by Oct. 1. She really wants to go. Sigh. I think we’ll be saying no again.
@Gatormama I completely understand that issue! My D20 daughter wants to go on the band trip to disney and both S19/D20 want to go on the orchestra trip to Colorado. We definitely cannot afford all the trips! It would be a stretch to pay for the both of them to go to CO! It’s stressing me out!
@4MyKidz We don’t have the tv on during the week either. My husband and I get a lot done while the kids study so that’s kind of a bonus. The house is pretty quiet at night. I find that my friends with younger kids have multiple shows they watch each week, but our tv watching has dwindled to just a few things we watch on Netflix on the weekends for fun. Our newest favorite (and S19’s too) is Sherlock. 