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My College Kid is Home--Anybody Else?


mom2att
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Moved dd home Thursday after her last final. I had forgotten how much STUFF she had, and how nice her room has looked all year with all of it gone!  Now it has taken over the house while she figures out where to put it all!

 

She's only home for 5 days, however--she leaves Tuesday for 6 weeks study abroad. And then all the stuff goes away again in August when she moves back to campus. I can't believe a whole school year has gone by already. She's had such a great year and is having the time of her life.

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Dh left an hour ago to pick up ds and all of his stuff. He will be home until the end of May when he leaves for summer research. We have a storage unit, which is a good thing bc that is where most of ds's stuff is going to end up. His room is now one of his sister's. She is moving in with one of her other sisters for the few weeks he is here so he can sleep in her room. In our family, move out and your space is gone (no guilt. He did it to his older brother's room back when. ;) )

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Got a lot of dd's stuff this week when I attended her concert and hung out while she had a review for the SoM. She finished up her finals Monday, but works as a grader and has to stay a few days. I'll get her next week, not sure which day. Can't wait!

 

I can't believe she's 1/2 through her undergraduate degree. (Well, in years, by credits, she's way more than 1/2 way done.)

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Ds got home last night. He's only here for 10 days and then he's headed back for summer session. Then we'll do the 10 day thing  again before fall. It's nice to have him home even if just for a short time. 

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Like Angie, we, too, brought home some of my son's stuff last night after attending his last concert of the year. He's stuck on campus for a few more days, because his brand new dance crew is waiting for confirmation of a time slot during a finals event. Once he knows when they are performing, we can make plans for me to collect him amd the remainder of his belongings.

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Enjoy your kids!

Mine is on a quarter system and not done until the 2nd week of June.

Yes, right there with you. Kind of a bummer when most of my friends' kids are finishing up this week. Ds won't be finished for another five and half weeks or so.

 

Y'all that have your children home in time for Mother's Day are lucky!!

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Moved dd home Thursday after her last final. I had forgotten how much STUFF she had, and how nice her room has looked all year with all of it gone!  Now it has taken over the house while she figures out where to put it all!

 

 

We called that the dorm bomb explosion!

 

Enjoy the presence of your children.

 

Regards,

Kareni

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Y'all that have your children home in time for Mother's Day are lucky!!

 

We're delaying Mother's Day by two weeks so the boys will be home AND we'll be with my mom - at the cabin she bought a week at on Lake Ontario.   :coolgleamA:

 

Hubby asked me if I thought it was important for him to do something on the "real" Mother's Day though...  :lol:   Definitely not!  But it was sweet of him to ask.

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My college guy got home Wednesday night. Dh drove up on Tuesday & stayed overnight- it's a 530 mile drive from our house. Ds had his last final on Wednesday at 8am and then they started for home. He's only going to be home for a little over a week because he's going back up for summer classes. There are two classes he especially wants to take this summer to position himself well for staying on track to complete two majors and a minor. He's also going to take some PE classes. He needs 6 half-semester PE courses for graduation, but it can be hard to fit them in around all the other courses. 

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How do their breaks work?  Just asking for possible future reference.

 

 

Breaks are between quarters - so, two weeks at Christmas, and the last week (usually) of March. Winter quarter usually starts the first Monday in January, and spring break the first Monday in April (or late March).

 

It was nice (in college, on the quarter system) to have a spring break that was completely free of any assignments.  It was an unpleasant surprise in grad school (semester system) to have not only spring break but also Christmas break occur before the semester's final exams.  My sons' breaks (they are both on semesters) are less relaxing because they always have assignments and studying to do ... whereas I was able to spend my spring breaks in college taking road trips (LA one year; OR/WA/Canada by bus another year; flying to Austria to start my quarter abroad another year ...).

The late start (early Oct.) and late finish (mid-June) weren't ever a problem w/r/t summer jobs, perhaps b/c many schools in CA were (and still are) on quarters. While I was a student (elsewhere), UC Berkeley switched from quarters to semesters (the story was, to reduce their paperwork by 33%); it's still the only UC (except for Merced) to be on semesters; the other 8 are quarter.

 

 

ETA: Forgot to respond to the OP! :)

One son comes home Monday (he's singing in a concert Sunday, so he's staying until then), but goes back a week later for summer session. The other son has dead week next week, and then finals; we won't see him much b/c he'll be on a mission trip to the Philippines for a few weeks and then has a summer job in the city where he goes to school, and will also be a lab assistant for one of the big intro CS classes (like those mentioned in the other thread!) over the summer. But we will have a busy summer, with many guests (including the boys :) ) and some trips. 

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Ds comes home Friday, though we picked him up this morning to spend the day at the renaissance festival. I have gently encouraged him to spend a few minutes here and there packing things up. I think he is feeling a bit sad that the year has come to and end, and some of his friends are graduating and a couple others are transferring elsewhere...makes it hard to pack up.

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Breaks are between quarters - so, two weeks at Christmas, and the last week (usually) of March. Winter quarter usually starts the first Monday in January, and spring break the first Monday in April (or late March).

 

 

 

My son is also on quarters, but gets three weeks off for Christmas and sometimes longer depending how his finals fall. For the quarter system, the length of the first quarter holiday break depends on how early classes start in the fall.

 

To the OP's question, my son won't be coming home. He's doing paid chemistry research during the week at his school and working a lucrative sales job on the weekends. We will get to see him though, as we live halfway between the locations of his two jobs. In previous summers, he often stopped for dinner on Friday and/or Sunday nights and we attended several plays and concerts together.

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My son is also on quarters, but gets three weeks off for Christmas and sometimes longer depending how his finals fall. For the quarter system, the length of the first quarter holiday break depends on how early classes start in the fall.

 

 

Yeah, I should have said "often" two weeks (or 2.5 if New Year's Day falls at the beginning of the week). That's cool that your son gets a longer break. 

And of course many schools have variations, with an interim session, etc. I just was thinking that quarter system pretty much has to have a 1-week spring break (not 2), otherwise the kids wouldn't be done until the end of June! And likewise the 4-week (or longer) Christmas break that many students on semesters have is usually much too long for a school that is only 1/3 done with its academic year at Christmas, not halfway done, as is the case with most schools on semesters.

Also, of course this holds only for U.S. schools. Oxford is well-known for its 8-week terms, for example. But here I think most quarters are 10 weeks long. I don't remember off-hand if that includes finals or not.

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We are driving up Thursday to get DS19.  He gets done on Friday, but we are going up a day early to take a bit of a mini-vacation.

 

DD21 gets in Sunday night.  She has had 7 concerts in 5 days and is actually looking forward to finals this week just to get a bit of a break.

 

DS23 will continue to bake in the sun in Texas at pilot training.  No vacations for him anytime soon.

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Moved dd home Thursday after her last final. I had forgotten how much STUFF she had, and how nice her room has looked all year with all of it gone!  Now it has taken over the house while she figures out where to put it all!

 

She's only home for 5 days, however--she leaves Tuesday for 6 weeks study abroad. And then all the stuff goes away again in August when she moves back to campus. I can't believe a whole school year has gone by already. She's had such a great year and is having the time of her life.

Enjoy your time together!  It gets so rare as they get older, doesn't it?

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I just came home from visiting dd at school and bringing home a car load of stuff. Dh is going there next weekend to get most of the rest of her belongings. Then I will drive out the following Tuesday to pick her up after her last final. Now that she has an apartment she has so much more stuff but can't store it there over the summer.

 

I have no idea where we are going to put everything. My middle daughter is transferring to a 4 year university and will start accumulating things soon for her dorm. She will be 4 hours away and will probably only be home a few times during the school year so she will need to bring a bunch of clothes. Where does everyone store college gear during the summer?

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How do their breaks work?  Just asking for possible future reference.

 

Summer break is shifted by four weeks compared to our break here at university with semester system. Finals is 2nd week of June. Classes start end of September.

Christmas was Mid-December to just after New years; they start early in January and get an entire quarter in before Spring break last wk of March. The stretch from Christmas to Summer is a hard long slog; a week between quarters is really not enough.

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My dd will finish up her last final on Tuesday, but we won't be able to pick her up until Saturday. I still don't know yet which of us will go pick her up and move her out of the dorm. I'm hoping my dh will do it because I'm proctoring End of Course exams all week and going to a job fair on Saturday morning, so I wouldn't be able to go get her until after leaving the job fair. Dh has a lot more flexibility. He doesn't want to do it because he will be driving back up there two more weekends to do some stuff with his dad.

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I brought mine home tonight. He had thought he needed to stay on campus a few more days, but the last event he was sticking around to do was cancelled. So, he called this morning and asked if we could move him out of his dorm tonight. 

 

We pulled into the driveway just a few minutes ago, unlashed his bike from the top of my car and left the rest until morning.

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Ds is coming home tomorrow! He may be leaving again on Monday, though. He decided to take a class in May that his favorite professor only teaches in the summer. Otherwise he has to take it in the fall with, as he puts it, "the worst professor he has ever encountered." :) He is trying to work out subletting a nearby apartment room just for the month of May, which would end up costing the same as gas for the commute from home, plus food. He would probably ride his bike the 2 miles from the apartment to class.

 

Anyway, ds10 and I will help him move out of the dorm in the morning. :D

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Dd2 and ds1 will finish in the next few days. They live at home, so the only change will be a lowering of stress around the house.

 

Ds1 will graduate with his master's in 8 days, but he will not be marching in his graduation due to an issue with regalia.  Ds2 and dd1 will be coming home for his graduation -- a family mini-vacation is planned. :-) :thumbup1:

 

Then dd2 will spend the summer working, practicing, and preparing to leave in the fall to the college she is transferring to, which is about 4 hours away.

 

Ds1 will hopefully spend the next few DAYS job-hunting, after which time he will have the job of his dreams. (I can dream, can't I?)

 

Does anyone have a kid waiting to hear about a summer job? A close friend of dd2's is still waiting to hear, and I think this is RATHER late!

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 Where does everyone store college gear during the summer?

 

My guys' stuff has all stayed at or near where their colleges are.  Oldest's college had a place students could use for storage.  Middle stayed there working in a lab his first summer (so kept his stuff with him), then has kept his stuff with a friend who lives in the area last summer and this summer.  Youngest is going in with friends and renting a storage pod for the summer.

 

To us - with kids far away at school - it's a bit easier to keep most things there rather than carting back and forth.  Hubby and I did the same in our college days (renting a storage area with fellow students to split the cost).

 

One week from yesterday youngest comes home.  One week from this coming Monday middle comes home.  I'm looking forward to both.

 

Youngest does not yet have a summer job.  He'll see what's around when he gets home.  It's difficult for him to look while he's in FL.  If nothing else, I saw a sign that Walmart is hiring... but other places are too, so he'll get to figure out what he wants to do.

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Does anyone have a kid waiting to hear about a summer job? A close friend of dd2's is still waiting to hear, and I think this is RATHER late!

Dd was in that situation last year after her freshman year. She started applying and interviewing in March and wasn't hired until late July! She was soooooo frustrated.

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Where does everyone store college gear during the summer?

 

My daughter left most of her big stuff at school. Her college had some storage available to students, which was assigned loosely on a "who needs it most because she lives farthest away," first-come-first-stowed basis. She would bring home one carload of belongings each year (and keep in mind I drive small cars), but large items had to be stored on campus.

 

My son goes to school about 90 minutes from home, and he brought home all of his stuff this year. We are in the process of packing up the house for a local move at the beginning of June. So, we have just added his boxes to the existing pile of boxes and are coping.

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I picked up my dd yesterday. She did a good job packing everything before I got there. It only took two hours to get everything out, clean the room, and get checked out by the front desk. I was still gone a long time since it's an 8-hour round trip, but at least my dd did half of the drive home.

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Drove to visit son on Mothers' Day for a late breakfast. He still has one final, and we go get him on Tues. He'll be home all summer . He's hoping to get a job, and possibly take classes or study for a Chemistry clep. I'll be making sure I have space in the garage for all of those boxes. He's hoping to buy a car this summer, so this may be the last time moving back and forth. I can't say I'll miss the moving part, but certainly will miss the long talks we have had while driving him home or to school .

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Dd will be home tomorrow. She was here for dinner Saturday for Mother's Day and my father's Birthday, and brought a huge suitcase full of clothes home with her. 

 

Some of her stuff will have to fit in the garage somehow.  She only told me Saturday that she was done Tuesday and I have plans to clean out in the garage NEXT week, so we'll have to just find space and then I'll rearrange next week.  She shares a room with her younger sister so things will be disrupted for a week or so until we get back into a new routine and she finds room for all the stuff she needs inside, then she leaves the end of June for her summer camp job.

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My daughter comes home next week, but for only a week, and then heads off to camp for the summer to be a counselor.  She'll barely have time to unpack (or maybe she won't!), before packing for camp.   Camp is only 45 minutes away though, so I do plan to see her.  ;-)

 

She didn't have too much with her at school.  Her biggest item was her down comforter.  Shouldn't be too difficult to just store everything in her bedroom here.

 

 

 

 

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Youngest made it home fine last night and spent a good part of the day outside assisting with farm and lawn things today.  It was quite nice!  Now he's out with his girlfriend.

 

Middle is still on track to return home Monday.  He's done at school now and having a blast with his free time.  He has to stay there through graduation since he's an RA.

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Dd came home for nine wonderful days last week. She took the Megabus from her PhD program in GA, and ds (bless him!) picked her up from the train station and took her back to the bus station. We had a wonderful week. It reminded me of how truly wonderful a daughter she is. She spent group and individual time with each person in our family, went on bike rides and walks with her siblings, played games, and helped in the garden and with cooking.

 

She left Saturday. I miss her already, and hope she can come home for a week in August.

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We picked up middle son last night from Baltimore's airport.  We drove through practically endless car washes (installed on the local roads and highways  :glare: ) to get there, waited for his plane to be delayed and waited for them to finish getting luggage off the plane as they had to stop due to another thunderstorm. Of course, my guy's luggage was among that last load.

 

Then, after a fast food supper (is it still called supper when it's that late?), and a return through more rain (though not the car wash variety), my family is as complete as it's going to get with oldest married.  It feels really good having the two home and having "family" conversations again.

 

Of course, I might feel differently when I nod off later today due to 4 hours of sleep and then just overseeing testing today (long 2 1/2 hour time periods), but breakfast consisted of a bottle of Mt Dew along with tea (NO FOOD due to still being stuffed from last night!) so we'll see how it goes! Caffeine to the rescue!  ;)

 

And tonight?  Prime rib at a local place we love!

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Middle son briefly had his first B, a B+ in Physics... Being the perfectionist he is, he was curious what he got wrong and went to look at his test... he looked at it with his prof - and found out the grader had actually graded his paper incorrectly on the very first problem and one other section...

 

So much for his first B (ever in his life).  He now has a legit A- instead - meaning he still has a 3.96 overall GPA.

 

I'll admit I'm sometimes jealous of his ability - 6 classes, two TA classes he does, his RA job (in a freshman dorm), his research lab work, his dance troupe, ASL club, a Christian club, and his work study.  He even talks about free time with his friends.  How he does it all remains a mystery to me.

 

My other guy (youngest) hopes for Bs... fortunately, he got them this semester (even an A,  maybe two).

 

They're each their own person.  I love them both!

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Ok, adding that youngest also got a C- in one of his classes...  Yes, son, it would have helped if you had completed and turned in ALL the papers due.  The 88 on your final exam would have had a much larger impact overall if it weren't balanced with zeroes.   :glare:

 

I still love them both, but I'll also admit I hope he's learned a lesson and will remember it next semester.

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Ok, adding that youngest also got a C- in one of his classes...  Yes, son, it would have helped if you had completed and turned in ALL the papers due.  The 88 on your final exam would have had a much larger impact overall if it weren't balanced with zeroes.   :glare:

 

I still love them both, but I'll also admit I hope he's learned a lesson and will remember it next semester.

 

My ds learned this exact lesson in dual credit classes while he was still homeschooled. He told me he got a C in what was an easy class for him. I thought for a second, and asked if he had ANY zeros at all. "Only one or two," he said.   :eek:  Yep, he learned.

 

AND this year, his first year away at college, his grades were not stellar at all. All Cs or better, but mostly Cs. He told me he'd better spend more time in the library. I asked what difference that would make, and he said he would not have his laptop (i.e. League of Legends), and would spend more time studying.

 

It was a great opportunity for me to discuss (again) what it means to be a man, and that he needs to think about how he's preparing for his future family. He'll have 2 sciences and a foreign language next semester, and this is a great opportunity for him to work on his character by disciplining himself and focusing on his studies and not gaming...or the girl he likes.

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Ds came home May 8. It is good to have him home!

 

He got a summer job as a ride operator here. He is making more than minimum wage, which is good, and more than they advertise that they pay for that job. He is getting a little stir crazy here at home, so starting work next week should be a good thing. I've even suggested that he get a second job delivering pizzas once or twice a week. He certainly could use the money.

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Yay! I *finally* get to post on this thread!

 

Ds flew in yesterday. Dh picked him up at the airport, and we surprised him by having five of his friends meet us at a restaurant for dinner. I would say about half of his closest local friends are in town for the summer.

 

He will have around three and a half weeks to decompress at bit and will then be interning in our Congressman's local office. Has three weeks in England and Wales for his summer study abroad which is themed around the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta. Then home for about a week before he heads back out in September. The summer abroad seminar worked out perfectly timing-wise as it fills in that gap period when his semester schedule friends (which are ALL of them; no one else is on quarters) have started back but he has not. His summer is a great mix of down time, interning time, and travel time. Lucky boy! Oh, also taking piano lessons and will work in a visit to see his grandparents.

 

I haven't really talked to him much as he was focused on the friends last night. They came back to the house to have a dessert I had made. :) He is sleeping in while I am doing his laundry (probably the only time this summer I will do it for him!). Piano starts early this afternoon, and I imagine he will sleep in with only enough time to eat lunch before he goes. I am eager to have long, meaningful chats. Even though we talk on the phone weekly for about half an hour, it is really hard to work in conversation that is very deep in such a short period of time.

 

Ds truly had a fantastic first year. His grades thus far have been outstanding - he already has an A+ posted for one of his spring quarter classes! He has thrived socially and seems to have really managed his time well and found a great balance between work and play. I am happy for him.

 

Very glad he is home!

 

Regentrude, is your dd home yet? You are one of the only other quarter parents I know of!

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