Susie in CA
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Posts posted by Susie in CA
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Thanks for your response. You point out some definitive pluses about a four week summer program. It will give ds a chance to practice being away. It will also give us a chance to practice being without him. 🙂
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On 1/27/2019 at 6:21 PM, Mrs.W said:
Architecture schools have high drop out rates, so it is often recommended that prospective students attend some sort of summer program to get an idea of what architecture school involves. UCLA's architecture school is highly regarded, so I would think this would be a good option, but I have no personal knowledge of it. I just saw TBA listed for the costs other than the fees, so I can't really say whether it's worth the cost. I'd just search some other schools and compare the costs of their summer programs (although I think most programs will be geared toward high school students). Notre Dame's program is one I see recommended a lot and it's $1,900 for 2 weeks. My DD is a 3rd year architecture student, so feel free to message me with any questions. She didn't attend an architecture summer program, but she did do a summer engineering program which ultimately helped her find her path to architecture--so like the others who replied, I'm a big fan of summer programs in general.
Thank you. I will let him know to ask if he has any questions.
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On 1/28/2019 at 11:19 AM, Arch at Home said:
I am also a fan of summer programs. Summer programs give students a taste of the prospective school/program/campus/city with fairly minimal investment. I am not familiar with the UCLA program but, as an architect, I can give a couple of insights.
1. This program will give your student an opportunity to explore one of the popular design softwares.
2. The program appears to focus on 2- and 3-dimensional objects and relationships. I doubt that there will be little if any building related content in the class but is building a base for future classes.
3. That said, the outings and instructors will give you a taste of the dialogue to come in archtecture school.
4. Probably most important, however, is that the program will give your student a fill for the way studios work in architecture school and also the work load. Make sure your student is prepared for working nights and evenings on his projects.
Please let us know what you decide.
Thank you for your insight. This student will be happy working on projects at all hours. Overall, it sounds like the program will help confirm (or not) his choice which is a good thing. Thanks again.
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On 1/26/2019 at 8:24 PM, Corraleno said:
I'm a fan of summer programs (DS did one in linguistics and really enjoyed it), but I would definitely check into the housing situation before committing. It looks like they do not offer on-campus housing for this program, so you want to make sure you can find affordable off-campus accommodations for those four weeks.
Yes, we are little bummed about the housing. We are planning a trip there to check out the housing options they do list.
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Thank you all for your replies. We really appreciate them! At this point it is highly likely that he will apply! If he attends we will let you know what he thought of it. Thank you so much again!
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Hi All,
My son is interested in Architecture and found this https://www.summer.ucla.edu/institutes/JumpstartArchitecture program. He would like to attend, but it is not cheap. Does anyone have experience (Or know someone) with it? What do you think? If you don't know the program do you think it is worth the money. In brief what it includes:
a chance to study away from home (ds is at the local community college and still lives at home)
Learn arch software and design concepts
meet and work others interested in the field as well as instructors and guest speakers from the field
earn UC credit
start creating a portfolio which he does need help with
We appreciate your thoughts!
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On 10/10/2018 at 11:56 AM, shawthorne44 said:
I can answer that. I think I developed a highly effective technique. Some of this applies to other topics, but I developed it in Physics classes.
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Read the book before the lecture.
- Do not write in the book or underline. That is just you telling yourself you need to learn that later. You rarely do.
- Instead read the book with a sheet of paper and write down formulas and definitions and anything else that might be super-important.
- Keep this notes_from_book to one page per chapter.
- If your notes sheet is near the bottom of the page, rewrite it before starting the next section dropping what you completely know.
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During the lecture, try to write down everything. Everything.
- Don't think too much on what you are writing. Just keep writing. Think of this as the first stage in a classical education, just a data dump.
- During the lecture, don't worry about your handwriting.
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IMMEDIATELY after the lecture, rewrite your lecture notes.
- This is when you get your handwriting legible.
- Also, you will find that you can fill in some gaps in your notes that aren't on your first notes at all.
- This is also when you mentally process the lecture. (Logic stage of classical education)
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Sometimes you come up with a question from the lecture. Ask the professor/teacher then.
- Trust me, they don't mind AT ALL to get a question after the lecture that shows that you are pondering their lecture.
- If it is an awesome question, they will open the next lecture by telling everyone else the answer.
- At this point, you will likely have internalized 90+% of the lecture and you likely won't need to reference them outside of an open-notes test.
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Homework
- Try to do the homework using just your notes from when you read the book. If you need something not there, then add it to your sheet.
- When you finish your homework set it aside, and do the homework again. Yes, Again. Using just your book_notes sheet.
- There is something about the second time through that is really helpful. The problems will seem easy and if they aren't you need to stop and study whatever your gap is.
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Study for exams:
- Idly flip through your notes and say to yourself, "I know this. I know that ..."
- Get a good night's sleep.
- Shortly before the exam, make a list of all the formulas you'll need and make sure you have them memorized.
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At the exam
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The first you do before even looking at the problems is write the formulas you memorized on the test.
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The first you do before even looking at the problems is write the formulas you memorized on the test.
This is fantastic! Thanks for writing this out. I forwarded this to both dss.
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Read the book before the lecture.
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On 9/27/2018 at 9:32 AM, MysteryJen said:
Thanks, Lori. I appreciate your comments.
Homeschooling for sports gets the side eye around here. Mostly because we live in a sort of upper middle-class pressure cooker town where teens have to excel at everything they do. We heard plenty of comments about "unfair advantage" for dd2. I ignored most of them, but it did bother me.
I guess the issue is that he "might" like high school after a while and regret his choice.
An extra paperwork hoop is not really a problem as long as I know I have to do it.
Well, we also went back to homeschooling for sport. My ds loved the high school sport, but disliked almost all else. He too is an introvert. We were able to complete high school with a charter school as an independent study student; essentially like homeschooling. He continued with the sport every year and loved it. He, too, had almost all A's at the high school. He never regretted the choice. He graduated last year and is now a full-time student at our community college on track to transfer within two years to a university. He is doing really well. And we are more than happy with the choice he made.
For what it's worth I actually made him finish the year probably because I didn't want to 'quit' and I wanted to see if maybe he started liking it after a while. He never did.
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It depends on your daughter. My son did in much less time then they allow in one sitting. He was done so early I was nervous that he didn't pass. Well, he passed without any problem the first time.
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On 9/4/2018 at 9:53 AM, Arcadia said:
How accurate do you think is the placement test? Did any of your sons sit for the SAT German subject test? DS12 doesn’t mind state university so we need something to check off the a-g LOTE box for him as he is “slower” in languages.
How self paced is it? DS13 likes to do work during major holidays like Thanksgiving break, Winter break when he doesn’t have any brick and mortar outsourced classes. DS13 can handle dual enrollment German at a local community college before his senior year for the a-g LOTE requirement so I’m not as worried about it.
The placement test seemed pretty accurate to me. Both my sons took the placement test to place into German II as they did already know quite a bit of German. What they were missing mostly was grammar. For that reason, I believe, it was the right choice to put them into German II. There was enough grammar review from German I for them to learn while at the same time they did not have to go through the very basic vocabulary of German I.
Neither of my boys took the AP exam; only one took the AP course. However, just as we were ending our journey with OSU online were getting UC a-g approval. I cannot remember which levels. You should definitely check into that, though. A couple of years ago they got approval for, I believe, two of their German courses. Maybe the others got added on in the meantime.
It is very self-paced. Nothing is due at any particular time. My sons worked on it completely at their own pace. This was good for one; difficult for the other. Neither of them took the SAT German subject test because we chose to go the community college route.
Hope this helps.
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We used OSU German 2 - 4. One son also did AP German; though he did not take the AP exam. Overall, we were happy with the program. Both sons took it for level 2 - 4. Both learned a great deal. They are both taking German again now in college and have no problem with it at all. They do not have live classes, however, the program includes weekly skype sessions. The skype sessions are optional at the lower levels and required later on. Even if they are optional I do recommend doing them. Sometimes these sessions merely helped the boys stay on top of things; sometimes they did answer specific questions. Either way it is a good thing to do. The program is very much self-paced. This was difficult for us at times. Overall, I definitively recommend the program. I would use it again.
Hope this helps.
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She will have a fantastic time and learn so much! Yes, she will be ok. :-)
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reflective listening that is supportive of how she's feeling:
- "I can hear how upset you are about this."
- "Gee, that sounds frustrating."
- "Wow, that must be challenging."
- "You sound very excited about this. That's great!"
- "Sounds like you're doing an awesome job!"
encouragement that keeps her in charge:
- "How were you thinking of taking care of that?"
- "Did you have some ideas for how to get this done?"
- "Interesting! I'm looking forward to hearing how you tackle this!"
- "Cool! Thanks for sharing about what you're doing for that project."
supportive guidance available if she chooses to use it:
- "Let me know if there's something I can do to help out."
- "Great work! If you feel like you would like an extra pair of eyes on that, I'd be happy to look it over tonight."
- "How do you suggest we schedule this? Here are deadlines that the rest of the family has, so we don't run into time conflicts."
Thank you Lori D. for the above phrases! I MUST practice these more. :-)
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I would really like some UGG boots. :-)
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Who's ready for Monday? Mostly ready. Completed grocery shopping today. All gifts are here; just need to wrap.
If you are doing a special meal for Christmas,what will it be? Well, on Christmas day we'll be visiting dear friends and have dinner there. We are contributing Scalloped Potatoes. I am considering a quiche for Christmas morning, though I have never made one. Christmas Eve will be our special family dinner at home. We voted and Filet Mignon it is.
Plans for the weekend? Mostly spending time with family and friends. On Christmas Eve day we will be going bowling; it's known as Christmas bowling around here. We have been doing this for 18 years. We all look forward to it.
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Thank you! More ideas are welcome!
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https://www.amazon.com/Inflatable-Lounger-Vansky-Portable-Backyard/dp/B071L9QJ8G
This was a huge hit last year. It folds down into a small bag, perfect for bringing to the beach.
Love this!
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My oldest is a clothes nut, so that's what he's getting.
My 2nd is so difficult, but he's getting a pair of jeans, Christmas Captain Crunch and a pepperoni stick, 2 25 pound weight plates, The Histories of Middle Earth, one of those stainless steel double insulated water bottles to keep his water super cold, and bouncy balls (he was bouncing his brothers Nerf Rival ammo recently and was lamenting the lack of bouncy balls in his life).
Speaking of Nerf, my older boys still love to have Nerf wars. We have a huge arsenal, and the youngest still requests guns for gifts so we have plenty, but if this wasn't the case I'd definitely buy them some Nerf Rival guns and extra ammo.
Machi Koro will be a family gift, but it's a game that my boys have played with some friends of ours and have been begging for it.
They are both big on clothes this year. We do have that covered. Thanks for the weight plate idea...that brought to mind some exercise equipment.
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What are their interests? My older teen loves to bake and adores Alton Brown. Each year we get him kitchen tools recommended/used by Brown.
Gift certs for food are usually liked by teens.
Subscription to Audible.
Artwork or other bedroom decoration. My younger teen loves Lamborghinis so I bought him a copy of a vintage Lamborghini license plate to hang in his room.
Do they like sports? Books? Drawing? Hiking/camping?
The car idea is good for one of them. I will look into that. Thank you!
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Hello Hive,
My dss are 18 and 17. We are stumped for 'fun' non-electronic X-mas ideas. Electronic stuff is easy.
What are some cool books or games or.... these days? Any ideas would be very much appreciated. What do your older teen boys like.
Thanks,
Susie
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Yes, discipline is the biggest issue with online classes. Lots of people have a difficult time with self-discipline when they do not have to go in to SEE the professor. However, if you do the work online classes are great. My younger ds (he is now 17) has done several online classes since he was 13 and always received an A. However, he is super disciplined and organized. His brother could never do that and, in fact, says so himself.
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I agree that most of this process is gradual. Like you, and others, we have always had conversations about what life might look like as an adult. We, too, used to have a more or less set bedtime for a very long time. Around 16 much of this changed gradually. Dss started go to bed later, when they got their license they went out more often and sometimes later, etc. That said the most important thing we talked about was respecting the family as they grow into adults which simply meant that they let us know where they were going and when they would be home. This way we would not need to worry or wait with dinner etc.
When ds graduated from high school and turned 18 last year he decided to speed up this gradual process and simply asked us what his curfew was now that he was 18 and done with high school. At this point we definitively started to have much more of an adult relationship with ds. We told him he didn't have a curfew and to just let us know what he was doing. That summer he did stay out extremely late a couple of times, but after that not much anymore. Is he an adult to us? Not entirely. We do give a lot of advice, however, that advice comes much more from adult conversations. And, of course, he is not required to follow it.
In short, the process was gradual at first. In the end it was sped up by ds.
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Congrats! They look fabulous. I wish you had them a couple of years ago as we were really struggling with Chemistry. Hopefully, many others will be able to take advantage of your courses.
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And then there's kids like my youngest that in this scenario will purposefully impale themselves on the sharp pointy stick, then look you straight in the eye as they stand there bleeding and say 'look what you made me do'. :rolleyes:
LOL. He does do this at times as well. I am going to say I have a 60% chance of the stick working and 40 % chance of your described scenario. :-)
God help us all. LOL.
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can we have a thread w/ on-campus/in-person experiences?
in The College Board
Posted
I so appreciate the hard work you are doing. I know at my sons university they are trying to be positive and provide opportunities you describe.
The challenge I see from my son is that he is online already hours every day. He just doesn't really want more online structured time. I don't really have a solution. He is currently living on campus, but is re-evaluating if it isn't better to live at home next quarter if he can get all online courses. It is a difficult situation because on the one hand you can't have everyone on campus do whatever they want, however on the other hand these are young people many of whom feel really cooped up (at best) and very bored, lonely and even depressed.