My DS20 is doing a three-week governor’s school for Latin and then two-week travel overseas visiting family members, the rest will be again spent on swimming. And hopefully he got his learner’s permit by then so learning to drive will be another priority. Lol.
Our school starts in the middle of August so this summer will be over before I know it!
@whataboutcollege I think getting the EMT training is such a great activity! IMHO is much better than many expensive summer programs. What are some of the prerequisites?
@makemesmart For the EMT training, I think you need to be 16, and is associated with an EMS organization, has CPR and some other basic training/cert etc. S has been with our towns EMS department as a Cadet since he turned 16. His next step is to take the EMT training as Chief has just requested. He likes being able to help people and wants to do THE REAL things ( but you need to become official EMT first).
Wow, my S would love to do EMT training! Realistically I don’t think we can squeeze it in, though. He’d have to give something up, which he doesn’t want to do.
S takes his driving test May 1. I’ll be thrilled when he can drive himself, because then I won’t have to get up at 5:00 to take him to morning swim practices! :D/
Which leads me to S’s summer plans:
EF Tour to Costa Rica with some classmates.
Swim two-a-days, plus coaching the little kids.
Drumline camp.
He has a rare two week break between the end of swim season and drumline camp, so we have scheduled a whirlwind college tour of the Southeastern US. We’ll hit six schools. Gonna be a hot one!
D17 and D20 will be life guarding and swim instructing. Both have a few short breaks planned with girl scouts or with friends, but mostly they will work and bank money. D20 will self study for PSAT and will finish district required College and Careers class online. (supposed to be very easy)
I am a private math and chemistry tutor and the difference I have made in grades for capable students who had teachers they didn’t click with is pretty astounding. That makes me more willing ot shell out the dollars for Japanese!
Our D20’s public school has a pretty lackluster counseling office. She has had a total of 4 guidance counselors in less than 2 years, due to staff turnover. We pretty much figured that any help from her newly-hired current guidance counselor would be so-so.
D wants to attend a university with a large marching band, which, in our home state of California are very hard to get into…UCLA, USC, Cal and Stanford. She’s also interested in Notre Dame, Michigan and U Texas, which are also very hard admits. The counselor knows about the nuances of each of these colleges, and I think that she may be able to help D understand these nuances so that she can craft her application accordingly. The counselor is also working with our D to investigate other colleges with marching bands that might meet her academic interests.
The counselor is also helping D20 decide whether the ACT or SAT is right for her, and has access to programs that can help my D prepare for those tests. The counselor will also help with PSAT preparations. D would really like to achieve NMF, which has a very high test score threshold in California. Like you, we also want the counselor to help with application essays.
Lastly, the counselor just knows things off the top of her head that we don’t. For instance, she told us of a college fair that is taking place near us next week; I’m pretty on-top of things for the college search, and I didn’t know anything about this college fair. The counselor also is knowledgeable about any scholarships, internships and career-related activities that might be suitable for my D. My D is interested in genetics, and the counselor has already introduced my D to a geneticist that can answer any questions she has about that career field. I know absolutely nothing about genetics or anyone in that career field, so I’m glad the counselor can help with that.
@typiCAmom Besides just seeing what other colleges are out there, going to college fairs can show demonstrated interest, which many colleges track. Also, the students can introduce themselves to the admissions reps for those colleges.
@vineyardview since you are looking at out-of-state schools, look at Texas Tech. Large marching band (I know 'cuz I was in it!) and I’m certain much easier to get into the school and the band than at Univ. of Texas.
S20 is lifeguarding this summer. He’s planning to make the big bucks, he started mid-way through the season last year when he turned 15 so he’s pretty excited to get a decent raise and know the ropes. He’s also joined Crossfit and enjoying that, will work towards his driver’s license-starts driver’s ed next week, and we may squeeze in a couple of short college visits to get our feet wet. I’d like for him to do some SAT prep, but haven’t brought that up to him yet!
I’m glad to read about the foreign language stuff. I am pretty sure he’s done with language for now. He would rather take the PLTW class that he doesn’t have space for, and in the long run I think that makes better sense for him. Due to his issues this year we aren’t looking at the tippy top colleges so 2 years should be fine!
@ShrimpBurrito DS23 wants to do that EF Costa Rica trip so bad but his Jr high chose Peru for next year with a different tour company so he is hoping for high school options in a few years. DS20 did France and England with EF end of 8th grade and had a fantastic experience.
@VickiSoCal how handy that you tutor Chem and Math!!! AP chem and calc are above where I can help so we hired a tutor for AP exam review who works with DS every other weekend to go over what he feels weak in as he progresses in his studying for them. He is a strong student but in class they haven’t even finished the curriculum yet and the test is in a few weeks!!! Darn Sept starting schools.
For next year, D20 signed up for (and will most likely get):
AP Language
AP Stat
AP USH
AP Seminar
PAP Chemistry
Chinese 3
Cheer 3
Study Hall
This summer she will go to cheer camp and practice, dance nationals and practice, and teach dance. Academically, she will do either an ACT or SAT study course and our local uni does an AP prep week for math and science. Pretty excited because you get a mentor for the entire school year.
Checking in after a long time…nice info as always.
DS20 will know the schedule for next year in Aug (a week before the school restart) - but he requested following and most probably will get them:
English 3 (H)
Spanish 4 (H)
AP Micro
AP Chemistry
AP Calculus BC
AP Stats
(Edit: he has driver ed as well)
With CS/Java programming over summer (online).
He is doubling up on Math but the other alternatives aren’t great. I suggested him to take AP Lang instead of English3 and drop AP stats (that will fill all credits) but he is not too keen on AP Lang and instead wants to do AP Lit in the senior year. Let’s see how it goes.