<p>The best thing you can do is hussle to produce quality work to catch up and be sure to stay focused throught the rest of this year & when you start college. No excuse will cut it. Just own up to messing up and talk about the concrete steps you’re taking to improve, your schedule for getting completely caught up. Make appointments with your counselor & all your teachers to get agreement on your proposed schedule to catch up. Be sure your grades are good enough not to jeopardize your college options.</p>
<p>Good luck!
By the way, regarding family trips/vacations, there is a time & place. The family needs to weigh the benefits vs. the costs, including disruption to the student. The last vacation we pulled S out of school for was during his 5th grade year. The teacher literally gave him 2 inch stack of work to do & he came back to school a month AHEAD of his class & found school even more boring than usual for a long time. It was at S’s request that we never did another trip that conflicted with school. By the time they reached HS, their chronic illnesses did not make travel much fun. We have NO REGRETS for any of the wonderful family trips we took and it did greatly broaden our kids’ perspectives on life; we are so glad we did travel when they were healthy enough to enjoy it, as it really helped sustain all of us through some very gloomy times.</p>
<p>For our D, we allowed her to come to Parents Weekend with us when she was in her 3rd semester of CC because that was the college she would be attending in a few months. She worked with all her instructors so she didn’t fall behind and she found it invaluable to re-connect with her HS friends who had just started at that U. For us, the tradeoff was well worth it & she only missed a few days with all her instructors’ blessing. D was SO glad she came–it was a prolonged orientation visit with her best friends! It made her January transition so much smoother!</p>
<p>It is ALWAYS the student’s obligation to be sure to work out with the teachers AHEAD OF TIME what they’ll be missing and how to keep up so they don’t dig themselves into the hole you’ve found yourself in. Procastination is deadly and really limits your ability to have options, like taking trips during school time without falling FAR, FAR behind. </p>
<p>Time management is key and you have a weekend to try to salvage what you can and position yourself so you’re closer to caught up come Monday.</p>