No courses or job for my D19, either—we’re going to the lower 48 for a week-long family reunion and then lazily touring around Southern California (and maybe a weekend in Vegas—my wife has a professional conference there around that time), meaning we’re away from home for at least three weeks.
Not even any college tours, unless she wants to tour Cal Poly Pomona. It’s basically a summer off for her (and she already knows to appreciate that).
S19 will do a one week mission trip (urban poor to Hollywood, fairly interesting program but yes, it does have some travel perks as well) and literally that is ALL that is planned.
He may be a camp counselor again. He may not. He might go to scout camp or on a 50 miler, he may not. He might get a job. He might not. He might get his drivers license. He might not. He may, in fact, be a giant blob in his room the entire summer, never emerging and giving off the appearance of a vampire. He might not. Maybe a jazz camp. Or something else. Who knows. He was very scheduled last summer, and hated it. I’m not going to force much other than he do the recycling, composting and take care of the cat. I “may” look at a summer enrichment class but, sigh, I just don’t know with this one.
He WILL get some apps done. One auto admit in and all of the common app except the essay, done before schools starts. They will do the essay in AP lit and I learned the hard way with S17 there really is zero point in him starting it on his own, it will get shredded and redone in class. He WILL also get any summer HW done. No clue what that looks like though, but he will have some in for all classes I think.
S19 is doing the Adv Filmmaking Summer Camp at UT Austin in June. Family road trip to CA (with a couple of self guided campus tours) in July, then MAYBE football training in August.
CTE has been the sensitive topic with S19. He wants to play in his last year, but he had a concussion last season. The movie, and latest research, is eye opening.
I’ve been researching the local community college this morning. Kiddo can walk there from home, and we’re eligible to take up to 4 classes for free. I haven’t been able to find their summer schedule yet. It’s a bit of a long walk but he’s young, he can do it if sufficiently motivated.
Their placement testing is the weekend after next so if we do decide to send him, we have to make that decision very soon so we can schedule the placement. However the play’s opening night is tonight so I won’t start that conversation yet.
@ninakatarina Have you checked to see if placement tests are waived if the student presents certain SAT/ACT scores? I know our local CC has that policy in place, but I don’t know how common it is.
@eh1234 @ninakatarina Our CC does that too. And the ACT or SAT score needed is on the low side.
Hm, I will have to check. That would make things very easy.
The community college has a dual enrollment program with the county school system. Some required courses are available to take online. There is a one semester health class that the CC offers online starting in a couple of weeks but not offered during the summer. He told me a week ago that he is dreading the health class at his high school, the teacher has the reputation of being a screamer. I am thinking that I might sign him up for that to free up a semester in next year’s schedule for something more interesting.
My D got a job in spring of senior year in HS. She worked a few hours a week on evenings and on the weekend. By the time she graduated, she had a summer job already lined up. She told them that she couldn’t work for two weeks in the summer because she was taking a trip, and they were fine with it.
Day off from school, pretty bad storm. We don’t have power but we have a generator so I am like king of my neighborhood today. Downed trees everywhere. Son19 is heading into Boston later for the day and there is power there. I’m not sure about the HS. SAT is scheduled this week, so I hope power comes back on or son’s strategy to stay home and get the test over with is a bust.
After clean up here I’m going to need to go up to our house in the mountains because they got blasted by the storm even worse. Probably need a big clean up. Uggghhhh.
@romns116 Do you now of any other schools that have film making programs for high schoolers? My D21 is very interested in that but she is new to it. She probably wouldn’t have time this summer because she already has a 3 week trip planned but I would love to look into it for next summer!
Also - anyone know of good art summer programs either at colleges or regular camps? D21’s best friend is desperate to find some type of art program but her parents do not want to spend a lot of money. She is a freshman and only 15 so that ruled out some of th more advanced ones she found (I think she was looking in NYC?)
If she’s 15 she could apply to be a counselor at an art camp for younger kids, maybe? That way she’s making money instead of spending money.
Summer is pretty bare for D19. Her current job is at a tutoring company, so I imagine that it’ll stop in the summer. Don’t think she wants to find another job. No summer programs, just one online summer school class. No planned vacations except a short summer camp.
To be honest, I have no idea why she’s even taking it in the summer. She’ll only have 5 classes next year (out of 7 class periods), so she easily could just take the class during the school year. But her school offers early release if you only have 5 classes, so she can just leave school at noon.
I’d say next school year will be easy with only 5 classes, but 4 will be AP.
@gusmahler Out at noon next year! What will she do with her afternoons?
@amandakayak When they take a day of your spring break, are kids penalized for not attending? I hope you don’t have any more snow days!
D19 takes the SAT on Saturday and I’m trying not to put any pressure on her so I’ll vent here. She’s generally a solid standardized test taker, but this is her first SAT. She didn’t take the PSAT, nor has she studied at all. She ordered a giant book, but as far as I can tell, has not opened it. She’s prone to academic anxiety, so I really don’t want to push, but yikes.
Wish me luck staying calm about this!
There is only so much pushing you can do @3SailAway , after that it’s on them. You sound like you know your kid well.
@momtogkc yes! there are plenty of good filmmaking summer camps ranging from beginner to advanced types. What part of the country are you in?
Northeast:
BU AMP - $6k, App deadline 4/2018 https://www.bu.edu/mysummer/arts/academy-of-media-production/
SLC Filmmakers Collective - $6-$9k https://www.sarahlawrence.edu/summer/pre-college/film.html
NYU - $10-$11k http://tisch.nyu.edu/special-programs/high-school-programs
Columbia - SPS Filmmaking http://sps.columbia.edu/highschool/summer-immersion/new-york-city-3-week/courses/introduction-to-digital-filmmaking
Midwest:
Northwestern - $6k https://nhsi.northwestern.edu/film-video-division/
West:
USC - $10k, http://cinema.usc.edu/summer/index.cfm
Southeast:
University of Miami - http://bulletin.miami.edu/special-programs/summer-scholar-programs/
There are others, but I think their app deadlines have passed.
@3SailAway Good luck to her (and to you!!) Some kids do fine without prep - why not her? (But yeah, at least a practice test or an hour on Khan Academy would have made you feel better, I’m sure)
I feel panicked when I looks at the prices of these arts camps! My son has decided he wants to study music but he never had the opportunity for the $10,000 summer music experience - hopefully he’s not at a huge disadvantage.
@gusmahler Getting out early is nice. Our school allows kids to take classes online, and I don’t think seniors have to take the usual 7 classes, but they seem to prefer that students arrive after first period, rather than leaving early.
@3sailaway well now it’s both Thur and Fri of spring break being taken back due to the 2 additional snow days we just took. Not sure if they would penalize either students or teachers but yeah, they are no longer official days off.
Dd is pissed at me anyway since I didn’t plan a college tour for spring break - she wants to be touring the west coast and I’ve waited too long to make that possible.
@romns116 Thank you! It wold be for my younger daughter who already has a 3 week scuba/sailing camp planned this summer so it would probably be for the next year or two. I hadn’t really looked too much but did see that Syracuse had one when we were up there visiting. We live in FL but I’m sure she would love to go somewhere new. Those prices are super expensive but I guess it depends how long they are.
@homerdog she wants to get a job so she can save up some spending money for college. But she needs to learn to drive first and she seems to have zero desire to learn how to parallel park. Of course, it doesn’t help that I told her that I’ve literally never parallel parked in my life after I passed the driving test.