ccolopy
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Posts posted by ccolopy
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I'll start preparing for DD's freshman year as soon as I finish planning Ds17's winter semester! I'm going to be busy this spring/summer with Ds17's college applications, so getting DD squared away by March/April will hopefully keep things manageable. The key word being "hopefully"!
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DS is willing to stand still for quick photos of the family, and for sports pictures, but there is no way he would participate in a photo shoot or allow anyone to take an individual photo of him. Sounds normal to me.
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DS is taking Bio & World History this year, and I'm very glad I limited him to two. He's got plenty of work left to do to be ready for May 9th!
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DS keeps himself busy playing two sports, but says he's happy with the current schedule and doesn't feel over-scheduled.
He's dual-enrolled at our local high school, taking two classes that both meet every second weekday. On those days, Dh drops him off at 8:15 (he brings his laptop and school work to do until his first class starts at 10:30) and I pick him up at 2:15. If he has homework for his Spanish class he'll do it immediately when he gets home, but otherwise doesn't do any more school work. On his off days, he does school work at home from around 8:30 - 2:30.
H e plays baseball for the public school. They have two games every week, which can fall on any week day except Monday. He has to be there by 4:00 for a 5:00 start, and the games finish around 7:00. On off days, they practice from 4:00-6:00.
Club soccer training is Monday and Tuesday nights, from 6:30-8:00.
Evenings are for watching sports on TV, playing music, reading, Netflix, and chatting online with friends.
DS coaches/umpires T-ball on Sunday afternoons from 1:00-4:00, but otherwise has his weekends free. He usually spends one morning doing school work that didn't get finished during the week, and the rest of the weekend out running around with his friends.
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DS is taking two courses this year at our local public school, and so far, so good!
In our area, it's common enough that the registration process is straightforward and the whole thing hasn't been nearly as awkward as DS feared it would be. DS has recently been talking about taking more than two classes at the public school in the future, but our official (tentative, dependent on scheduling) plan is:9th (current): Honors Spanish 2, Lifetime Fitness (.5) and Basketball (.5)
10th: Honors Spanish 3 and AP Chemistry
11th: Honors Spanish 4 and AP Physics C
12th: AP Spanish, Weight Training (.5) and Exercise Physiology (.5)
For placement in Honors/AP classes, the school requires a signature from the student's previous teacher. The guidance counselor was happy to accept my signature to allow DS into the Honors Spanish class, and a little packet of his work I'd put together to show that he'd completed "Spanish 1" at home in 8th grade.
Luckily, DS's school runs on a block schedule. Up until Christmas, he had class from 10:30-12:00 every day, alternating days of Spanish and Fitness. This semester, he has class from 10:30-12:00 and 12:45-2:15 every second day, so he packs a lunch.
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If he doesn't enjoy Latin, I would let him drop it. If you decide against that, you need to work out a way to have him move forward. Reviewing the same material year after year is painful, but reviewing the same Latin grammar every year borders on child abuse :p.
Your idea of a semester of Spanish and a semester of Latin would probably be a little frustrating because of the amount he would forget, but focusing on moving forward in one language at a time might be a good idea. We fell into that pattern this year and Ds feels that it's worked really well. In the fall, he took an online Arabic class and only spent 2-3 hours per week studying French. In the winter, the online class conflicted with sports (and he was ready for a break), so we focused on French, with 20-30 minutes of Arabic review every morning.
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I'm joining in. Currently skimming through the 8th grade thread going :willy_nilly:. Fifth grade is more like :banghead:.
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Y'all are right. I know it's not about me and I'm probably being a weinie to be so sensitive. :tongue_smilie:
I think it's hard because my dd misses her ps friends, and while I want to help her maintain her friendships, this whole evening has just been a nightmare. The kids have been really manic, crazy, argumentative, kinda rude, no manners, just generally really difficult to have around. And so having it end with somebody wanting to go home, while not surprising, just has me all shaken up - I want my dd to have friends, but maybe not these friends? I don't know, they just are all behaving in a way that's so different from our family's culture - we're all pretty nice to each other - and I'm kinda struggling with how to deal with it.
I've just had a really, really rough night. I'm not really as horrible as I sound. I should probably just stop talking now. :sad:
That does sound like a rough night. :grouphug:
I second Cat's suggestion - Dd's friends get a little crazy and/or catty in a group, so we only have one (or occasionally two) sleep over at a time. Ds's friends are much more chill, so I don't mind his three best friends sleeping over at once.
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Thankfully, pranks are usually funnier in real life than they come across when you explain them. I'm glad it went over well!
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I call the parents, and don't think it's uncommon, or a big deal.
Dd's best friend has come here to sleep over and decided to go home in the middle of the night four times. The first time, she called her father without telling us, and we were woken up by the doorbell ringing at 3am. The next time she came to sleep over, we let her know that it was okay to wake me or Dd up if she wanted to call her dad, and she's done that each time since. He doesn't mind coming to get her, and even brought her back for breakfast once when we had a special breakfast planned. Dd has slept at this friend's house dozens of times (they're 10 and 11 now, started sleepovers around 6/7), and has never called home. If she did, I absolutely wouldn't mind coming to pick her up.
We've had to pick Ds up from sleepovers at least twice because he wasn't feeling well, and I don't see this as much different.
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Woah, your 13yo did Physics B? I'm impressed! I didn't let my own touch Physics before he was 16, and yes he was an accelerated child (algebra at 10)
Mind you, one of the reasons was laziness. Physics is a lot of work, and he would rather be playing video games. Congrats on your son for choosing a different path.
Ds's competitive spirit overpowers his laziness from time to time, and it was definitely the case here! He was originally supposed to be a "tag along" in a mini homeschool class (5 boys) and had no intention of writing the exam until his teacher suggested it. At that point, he just had to take the exam. I'm still not sure that devoting this much time to one subject was a great idea, but he enjoyed it and has even agreed to spend the next few weeks in "writing bootcamp". :)
I'm surprised to hear so much AP drama! Ds took the test at a local public school with an entire class of Physics B students and three other homeschoolers, and everything went very smoothly.
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Yes he does. And they need to be 4 or 5, but mostly 5's. And right now he's aiming for mostly 4's. That's not good enough for admission. It's our luck of the draw that our local university is "almost" Ivy League. And it's definitely one of the top 3 in Canada. And we get it for less than 3K per year. Yup, 3K$ per university year. It's hard to consider going elsewhere at that price. So he's got to get in!
Wow, that is a lot of pressure! Good luck to your son!
Ds's first AP exam, Physics B, went well! He had a "Mom, I don't know anything! Nothing! Zero, as in zero percent of the material!" freak out last night, but walked out of the school with a sheepish smile on his face. He enjoyed the experience and is happy with how he did, but it'll likely be a couple years before his next AP exam.
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The first rule does seem a little odd to me, but at her age I would let your Dd decide whether she's interested in taking the class and agreeing to follow the rules. It isn't in Ds's nature to contradict or argue with a teacher, so I'm sure those rules wouldn't bother him at all.
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Ds is in 7th this year, but working at a higher level in a few areas, so those subjects can be more time-consuming. We switched things up at Christmas, and he's now spending a solid 6-6.5 hours, 5 days a week, along with some assigned reading on the weekend.
Dd is in 4th and hovers around 4 hours.
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My Dd had her first "real life" crush this past summer, when she was 9. It was the first time she'd ever asked to invite a boy over (along with a few other friends), so we knew something was up. We haven't seen much of him during the school year, but he came to Dd's birthday party last month and she's been texting him occasionally since then.
I had my first crush in 3rd grade. He had dorky glasses and was known for being the smartest kid in our grade, but somehow he ended up playing on the national rugby team for a few years? Anyway, I liked him for most of the 3rd grade, then didn't have another real crush until 7th grade. I'm hoping Dd follows my example and takes a few years off. :p
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Poems to Read to the Very Young (Eloise Wilkin) was one of my kids' favorite books when they were little. By the time they were 3 or so, they'd memorized many of the poems, just because I'd read them so many times. As they got a little older (5 or 6), they really enjoyed The Children's Classic Poetry Collection, A Child's Garden of Verses, and anything by Shel Silverstein. I didn't worry about incorporating poetry into "school" until they were a bit older (9 for Dd and 11 for Ds). When they were younger, we just read poetry because it was fun. :)
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Ds13 (7th grade) will be taking the AP Physics B exam this year. A friend of ours is teaching physics to a small group of boys, and suggested after just a few weeks that Ds consider taking the AP exam along with her own son. This is the last year Physics B will be offered, and I couldn't think of a good reason not to have him take the exam. I doubt he'll take any others before 9th grade.
I haven't thought too much about what his transcript will look like, but I imagine it will have a section for high school-level courses taken before 9th grade, where we'll list "Physics" along with his math and foreign language courses, and a section for test scores, where we'll list "AP Physics B - his score (2014)".
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For us, it's math and foreign languages. That's really all DS seems to be doing this year. :unsure:
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If a textbook like Essential Mathematics is intimidating, I'd suggest Math Mammoth. It would be very manageable to do on his own, and it's not cute or babyish at all.
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I could use something from the Middle East - I've got Asia and Africa (thanks to Aurelia!) but nothing from the Middle East. Again, I'd like to find something that gives her a flavor of what life in the 20th century has been like in that part of the world, without being specifically about war, bloodshed, etc. No Kite Runners!!!! I still have bad dreams about that book. Any ideas?
Has she read The Breadwinner, by Deborah Ellis?
I haven't put DS12's modern literature list together yet, so your list is very helpful! I'll post ours as soon as it's settled.
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I'm not great at judging reading level, but some short books DS12 has enjoyed in the last year or two are:
Treasure Island
The Invisible Man
Around the World in 80 Days
The Call of the Wild
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
The Pearl
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Are you looking for one from a specific time period?
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What interests do the boys have in common? My DS does different things, depending on which and how many friends are over. Three of his best friends are really into sports, so they'll often play soccer, basketball, or street hockey. Sometimes, they can spend hours just throwing a football or baseball around. Two of these guys are really into music, so the three of them can easily spend an entire rainy afternoon playing music, writing songs and goofing around with Garage Band. Another friend loves to work with his hands, so I give the boys projects and jobs around the house to do, or they come up with them on their own. DS and this friend (14yo) still play Lego, but they wouldn't admit it to the other guys. All of the boys watch sports on TV and usually put in a movie before bed (at least two of these four friends sleep at our house every weekend), but we don't own any violent video games, so they usually go somewhere else if they're in the mood to play.
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DS's 7th grade plans are pretty well set, but DD's are a work in progress.
DS 12 - 7th Grade
Math:
AoPS Introduction to Geometry (finish)
AoPS Introduction to Counting and Probability
Science:
Physics - A friend is teaching this to her two sons, DS and another boy. She hasn’t picked a textbook yet, but I’m glad the decision is out of my hands!
History:
K12 Human Odyssey, Volume 3
English:
5 units from Excellence in Literature: Introduction to Literature
8-10 other novels, a few speeches, essays, poems, etc.
Writing With Skill 2 (possibly only half)
Caesar's English 1
Arabic:
CTY online course in the fall, just reviewing after Christmas.
French:
En bonne forme/Grammaire progressive/La portée des sons
A few novels and films
DD 9 - 4th Grade
Math:
Math Mammoth Dark Blue - Fractions & Decimals
Life of Fred - Intermediate & Fractions
Science:
Oak Meadow 5 (finish)
Winter Promise Equine Science
History/Geography:
Sonlight Core F
OUP World in Ancient Times - China & South Asia
English:
MCT Town
Writing With Ease 4
The Creative Writer
French:
Grammaire progressive/Alex et Zoe
Aziz Anseri situation
in The Chat Board
Posted
I just had a discussion with DS17 about this topic after he brought the article to my attention. It was a really great conversation - I'd encourage you all to bring it up with your older teens! We're both big fans of Aziz as a comedian (and DS enjoyed his book, which I haven't read) but we both felt like he really blew it in this situation.
When reading Grace's account, without really paying attention to who either person is outside of this encounter, they both made mistakes. He was overly aggressive from the beginning. She was unclear with him about what she wanted much of the time. He resumed his advances shortly after she made it very clear that she wanted him to stop. They both also did some things right - she called him out on his behaviour once she had collected herself, and he made what seemed like several sincere apologies.
It's when you consider that she was 22 years old at the time and he is a world-famous 34-year-old multimillionaire that the whole situation seems very imbalanced and, well, gross. If she had been on a date with someone her own age without Aziz's fame and power, I suspect she would have responded very differently to that type of behavior, shutting him down more forcefully and likely ending the date early. Aziz seemed totally unaware of this power differential, which seems to be a big part of the problem right now.
I don't think the article was written to get revenge or out of malice, but I also don't think that naming him did any good.