The first semester is over!

[BlsdMama]

I'm pretty proud of myself at the moment.  

 

Today at his birthday lunch youngest proudly announced to us, a friend (female), and her mom that the highest grade he could get in one of his classes was a C and he was expecting a D.  Why?  Because doing homework was 20% of the grade... and he decided the amount of work simply was not worth his time, so he did none of it.  :mad:   He has gotten As on the tests for the most part, so could have had a decent grade had he put some effort in.   :cursing:   The class?  His Logic class!   :banghead:

 

Why am I proud of myself?  Simple... I haven't killed him...  I merely told him later that this is not something most people are impressed hearing about.  It kinda has the opposite effect actually.  He then told me I obviously didn't understand his reasoning... and I still didn't kill him regardless of how tempting it was.

 

Lest anyone think all my kids are perfect academic angels... I'm venting sharing.  I think I might try the rest of that wine tonight...  (though I can't as it's his birthday - sigh).

 

LOL... this was my first semester and I've been (ahem) humbled.  Looked at an assignment wrong, thought I had until midnight to turn it in.  I didn't .  I had until 5:00 PM, no excuses.  Took a zero on it.  My final semester grades?  Two As and a B+.  I couldn't drag that B+ to make up for the BIG FAT ZERO I got on that assignment.  It's made me remarkably more forgiving on errors in judgement at school, lol.

 

DS has all of his college class finals - 2 As and a B+ (He's still in high school.)  DD got three As and two Cs.  We aren't thrilled with the two Cs but one was a graduate level class and she was taking excess hours and working this semester.  Next semester?  She understands the need for fewer hours (at the minimum wage job) AND is only taking 14 semester hours.

Edited December 20, 2015 by BlsdMama

[klmama]

It's finally over here, too.  Dc felt better later in the week and spent the weekend finishing up the online work for math class; it was officially over at midnight.  The grade for the online work is going to drag down dc's 95% test average, unfortunately.  Maybe I should say "fortunately," though, if it teaches dc to stop procrastinating.  Dc's final score for the course was short of the next letter grade by only 0.3 points.  :glare:  Do professors ever round up final grades? 

 

ETA:  Apparently, they do sometimes round the grades.  Dc is grateful, but still isn't pleased since the grade would have been even higher with better time management.  Dc plans to avoid procrastination 2nd semester and is already off to a good start by pre-reading the texts we've purchased.  This lesson was a good one.  I hope it sticks!

Edited January 14, 2016 by klmama

[creekland]

LOL... this was my first semester and I've been (ahem) humbled.  Looked at an assignment wrong, thought I had until midnight to turn it in.  I didn't .  I had until 5:00 PM, no excuses.  Took a zero on it.  My final semester grades?  Two As and a B+.  I couldn't drag that B+ to make up for the BIG FAT ZERO I got on that assignment.  It's made me remarkably more forgiving on errors in judgement at school, lol.

 

It wouldn't bug me nearly as much if he'd made a similar mistake or actually tried the work - putting in some sort of effort with it - but still got the grade he did.  The part that bugs me is the way he chose simply not to do all of it and felt proud that decision. :glare:   He is capable of more.

 

OTOH, he's doing a great job around here decluttering our house and with landscaping outside.  He's even been offered a job (via networking) once he finishes college in a field he wants to work in (missions - probably working with teens).  So... I'm trying to keep my thoughts in a "real life" perspective.  That one course (or even others like it) really aren't that important for what he wants to do.  He's not lazy when he doesn't want to be.  He impresses most people (that particular prof might be an exception, but who knows, his test scores were high).  He has a lot of good things going for him.  The two of us are just different with our thoughts regarding classwork.

 

It's a good thing he's not heading toward a field where high GPA matters...

Edited December 21, 2015 by creekland

[elegantlion]

 So... I'm trying to keep my thoughts in a "real life" perspective.  That one course (or even others like it) really aren't that important for what he wants to do.  He's not lazy when he doesn't want to be.  He impresses most people (that particular prof might be an exception, but who knows, his test scores were high).  He has a lot of good things going for him.  The two of us are just different with our thoughts regarding classwork.

 

 

My son is a self-proclaimed lazy person. He even put that into one of his English essays this year. I had to bit my tongue a few times as it's not a class he cares about. He still pulled a decent grade. 

[Catherine]

:grouphug:  Keep in mind that there are LOTS of different pathways to a college education.  It doesn't have to be a full-time away-from-home experience. A class or two taken at a time at a school close to home while growing/maturing and working a part-time job can lead to the same result.

 

IMHO, the ages from 18 to 21 or so is a time for HUGE strides in growth, maturity and independence. DD19 is like a different person than from even a year ago.  O

Oh yes, I am well aware.  This child has moved from the idea of "full time college several hours from home" to "less than full-time commuter school" in only one year, so he is already growing.  Granted, it took some intense pressure from us and the recommendations of some expensive professionals for him to make these changes, but he is at least beginning to acknowledge his situation and accept some forms of help.  Hooray for progress!

 

Next we need to determine if his chosen school will allow him to take a CC class, not for transfer credit, this spring\summer, for practice.  

Edited December 21, 2015 by Catherine

[creekland]

Grr... we're two for two with flight delays this Christmas.  First world problems...

 

As long as he gets here safely (ditto that with our trip to the airport and back)!

 

And I just finished making the cookies.  So what if he made some himself.  Mom's are better, right? :lol: :cheers2:

[MariaT]

DS18 came home last Dec. 17, but still had finals to complete and send back to the school. His last final was in essay form, but the final itself wasn't released online until noon Eastern time on Dec. 18, with 36 hours to complete the exam. He finished all his finals in time for us all to see Star Wars on Saturday. He said the semester was pretty intense, and he is just starting to decompress. He thinks he will get mostly As with maybe 1 B.

 

Still, Christmas this year will be rather dreary. First, I discovered that DD13 had neglected her 2 online classes for weeks. They are asynchronous, so she just has to do the work, BUT the workload is heavy and if you don't keep up it is easy to get buried. She will have to stay home from the family trip to our cabin to get it all done before the second semester of the courses start. And I will have to stay home with her. Which is sort of ok, because I don't really like going to the cabin-- no electricity or running water, and it is a 16-hour drive. And that means we don't have to send the cockatiel to my SIL, and the dogs will stay home with us, and we won't have to rent another car. And she will get more lesson time at the stables with the barn manager, and more practice time for orchestra. But still, not a break for either of us. I have to sit with her to make sure she does the work. I made her move her seat so I can see her laptop screen (no chance to watch Youtube) and I took away her phone-- she will get it back when the courses are over in May.

 

THEN I discovered over the weekend that DS16 had completely ignored his one online class. Completely. ignored. As in, did not do ANY assignments!!! Did not even check the course website. Sigh. After a tense standoff, he told us what happened: This semester he did 2 CC courses, which he LOVED. And he kept putting off the online course to focus on the CC classes plus his calc study and Spanish. But in the online course, all the assignments built on each other. It was a programming class, and the instructions assumed you had a laptop, not a Mac. He has a Mac, and had to guess which keys to hit to do the programming. He very quickly became overwhelmed, but instead of yelling for help,  he ignored it. Sigh. He was embarrassed. Anyway, he asked the online provider to let him withdraw from the course--it was an elective, not a core course.. They said yes, he can withdraw, and it won't be on his transcript. So that is OK. And, he is getting As in the CC classes... 

So Creekland, I know exactly what you are going through. I also kept my temper. What can you do? Just love them, I guess.

 

 

[Mom22ns]

Still, Christmas this year will be rather dreary. First, I discovered that DD13 had neglected her 2 online classes for weeks. They are asynchronous, so she just has to do the work, BUT the workload is heavy and if you don't keep up it is easy to get buried. 

 

I did that last Christmas with dd. One online class took the entire break to catch up.  :glare: I have watched her more closely since. She does great with her DE classes, but online high school classes get pushed aside. I did learn my lesson. I'm not sure she did though.  :lol:

[creekland]

 

So Creekland, I know exactly what you are going through. I also kept my temper. What can you do? Just love them, I guess.

 

:grouphug:  Best wishes with it.  It definitely helps when they voluntarily do as much work helping around the house and farm as my guy has been doing (without my asking him to do it).  I've no idea what button to push or words to say to get that "feature" activated though.

 

Middle son came home last night keeping us entertained with stories from classes, doing papers, meetings with pre-med advisers, shadowing doctors, and from being an RA.  There is a huge difference between my two guys and what they focus on.  

 

That said, I can understand youngest having to survive and thrive in middle son's academic shadow.  That can't be easy, yet they remain great friends as well as brothers.  It is good that he has his own niche he's happy with, but still... not any of the classwork?  I'll freely admit that part still boggles my mind.  Why all or none?

 

Today we get to move on with Christmas break with almost all of us here.  (Married boy isn't coming home.)  Today's agenda includes breakfast at the local Market, then the two boys are doing their Christmas shopping and we adults will be coming home to fix a proper turkey Thanksgiving meal - something we missed having together at that holiday.  After that the guys will decorate our tree and we'll get out a Christmas video or two.  Games of all sorts will be involved too - Rook, Farkle, Three-Thirteen, Boggle, Wide World - oodles of options, both nostalgic and newer!

[daveswife]

My daughter's grades are all in for her first semester and she made a 3.69. :) She's absolutely loving school (she's at our local Penn State branch) and thriving in the campus honors program!

[Granny_Weatherwax]

Part of our growing pains  - DS is locked out of his college email and Webadvisor accounts.  He was supposed to change a password a week or so ago and evidently didn't do it correctly.  He has a message in to IT but may have to wait until after the New Year to look at his grades.

 

 

[MerryAtHope]

Part of our growing pains  - DS is locked out of his college email and Webadvisor accounts.  He was supposed to change a password a week or so ago and evidently didn't do it correctly.  He has a message in to IT but may have to wait until after the New Year to look at his grades.

 

oh ouch, hard to wait!

[magic]

We are relieved to have made it through last week.  We were hit by a blizzard on Tuesday that left a foot of snow on the ground.  Our son works at a movie theater and had to work the midnight showing for Star Wars.  He had 2 finals on Thursday, went to work at 10 pm, arrived home a little after 1 (he worked concessions only), asleep by 1:30, up at 6 to drive on icy roads, 7:30 AM final, 11 AM final, home to rest, back to theater at 5 for official opening day, worked until 11, Saturday & Monday worked from 3-10:30, and is now done with work until Saturday.  He had been worried about his Friday finals because he was so tired and felt like he couldn't focus.  Final grades were posted last night and we are happy to announce that he is maintaining a 4.0.  He made it through a week of blizzard, more snow, icy roads, finals, and opening weekend for Star Wars.  He has earned a bit of a break.