Class of 2023 Parents

[Aladora]

I didn't even know this thread existed but I'm joining in now. We're in Canada so our high school experience is a bit different.

A little background:
DS is 15 and is in grade 10 this year. We tend to call grades by their numbers instead of freshman, sophomore, etc. He is autistic, diagnosed when he was just a couple of months shy of turning 6.

DS did his grade 9 year at a public school and he did really well with remote learning. He is a really bright kid and has always received high grades, although he struggles a lot with social issues. After he did so well in grade 9, he ended with straight "A"s in his regular courses and a B+ in his out of school Orchestra, DH and I started looking at alternatives to public school. Homeschooling was a giant NO, not only do both of us work full time but let's just say that neither of us are well suited for teaching.

We then started looking at options for private school and right away dismissed all of the ones that were faith-based. Although DS is Jewish through me, we are not religious at all and he tends to be quite vocal about it...something we have worked on with him but sometimes he tends to say something impolite regarding faith. After eliminating faith-based schools we were left with 2. One of them is in the top 20 private schools in Canada, the other is an International Baccalaureate school. We ended up picking the IB school and he has been there since school started in September. The school is pretty small, there are only 680 students from Junior Kindergarten through grade 12 and there are less than 60 students in grade 10.

It has been a bit of a learning curve for all of us, IB is quite different from regular public schooling and the expectations are quite high but so far he has been doing well. I've got parent/teacher interviews this afternoon so we will see if I am right or if I am way off base with how he is doing! Socialization is still a struggle but he has joined both the Debate Club as well as a D&D Club so that is something!

 

[soccerdad72]

First quarter is now complete here (over 4.0 GPA ) - I don't know how they're still 5 days a week in person, but they are. There's probably half the school now out in quarantine. My son says every time they get another positive test, it probably wipes out 50-75 kids from contact tracing. They come in the classrooms and list off names, tell them to grab their bookbags - they're heading home. So far, somehow, my son hasn't gotten tagged for quarantine yet.

 

[Aladora]

Totally forgot to say that school here is 100% in class. While we have had cases in our health authority, out of a population of over 850,000 people there have only been 281 cases.

 

[lanejudy]

DD's school is still in hybrid, and I'm not sure the high school will move to full-time at all this year (the lower grades have). But she's on an IEP and going 2 full days plus 2 partial days. We haven't had any cases in our school district, and there has only been 1 case of virus transmission in-school in the state (a handful of cases but all were community-transmission). It's an odd year for sure, but making the most of it.

 

[imktdqt810]

Hello All!

I will admit I also didn't know this thread even existed!

DS turned 16 last month, in 10th grade at public school but this year he is e-learning and in a block structure. What that means is that his teachers are all local teachers that are teaching from his High School. The block schedule is something the whole HS is on this year with means everyone has 4 classes from Sept to Mid-Jan (18 weeks total of school) and when it's over Mid-Jan that is it, that is the grade for that course AS IF he took it all year. The next block of 4 classes will start up mid-Jan until the end of May. No clue why the school choose this option since DS has 2 classes each at the same time and then two blocks he has nothing. All teachers give school work and some hold live conferences that tape themselves knowing that alot of kids have more then once class at the same time. But he is great at keeping on schedule himself since DH and Myself both work F/T (but we both work at home). So far he is 4.0 and doing great. He got his leaner's permit last year (age 15) and we are going to try for his license when the weather is better (maybe summer) but my gosh, the kid just DOESN'T have the motivation to drive. I make him drive me to the next town and back again (40 mins drive time total) just so he keeps driving. He also got his Eagle Scout rank this year, which we are very proud of him at achieving.

I still can't get over that he is in 10th grade and (fingers crossed) he will go to the trade school next year for their electrician program (they do 1/2 day in HS with core classes and 1/2 day at the trade school). Anyways, I just wanted to say hello and give you some background on DS!

 

[RangerPooh]

Our high school has two options this year: online only or hybrid. DD is doing the hybrid option. All hybrid students are online only on Mondays, then based on your last name you’re either T/TH or W/F. Surprisingly she has all As except one class that is straddling between an A and B.

DD still participated in colorguard for marching band this fall. It was a hybrid show where the marching band remained stationary on the field and each CG member performed within a 10’ space. No competitions. Winter garden season is beginning and she’s on varsity this year. They don’t anticipate any in person competitions, and will submit a recording for one competition.

 

[neverlandsky]

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[soccerdad72]

Welcome! Wow, August 9th seems really early. I thought our son's school was pretty early and they start August 19th. Then again, having a soccer player means that our summer effectively ends on August 1st.

He took the ACT last Saturday (his second attempt), so we'll see how that goes. He took the first one last spring just as a baseline (no studying or prep), so hopefully, there's a nice improvement on this one.

He has AP Calc AB this year, but I think that's the only AP course. He's also got Honors Physics and Honors Spanish 4, I believe.

 

[RangerPooh]

Where we are in Tennessee we also start Aug 9th. It’s normal here, and I think it’s a week later than it was a few years ago.
Band/guard camp started up two weeks ago, so DD16 summer basically ended in July 14.
Our younger daughter has freshmen orientation on the week of the 2nd. That means we’ll have two in high school, and two in middle. Weird no more elementary school for our family.

 

[Aladora]

Our schools don't start up again until after Labour Day so starting in early August is so foreign to me!

DS decided to go for the full IB Diploma for grades 11 and 12 so it is going to be a pretty intense 2 years for us. He ended his first year at his new school with good grades with his lowest mark being comparable to 86% and his highest 99%! (I am not sure what that is for other countries but here that is straight A's.) Super proud of him, especially since it was not only a new school but IB is a totally new education system. Socially, he did really well. It has never been easy for him to make friends but he found a core group of 7-8 kids that he played D&D with and they have continued their friendship over the summer. For a kid with autism, this is amazing progress.

 

[soccerdad72]

ACT score just came in today and my son was so excited. He went up 4 points overall, from 26 to 30. And his lowest score, section-wise, was in math, his best subject, so he thinks he can possibly get his superscore up to 31 or 32. He scored 34's on both English and Science.

 

[neverlandsky]

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[RangerPooh]

Three weeks to go here until winter break. I just started looking for a photographer for senior pictures. Thinking of going with the same one a friend used for her sons pictures this fall.

Sadly we're entering the "lasts". DD doesn't plan to do colorguard in marching band season next year so she experienced her last show earlier this month

 

[3threebabies]

Mostly good here. We only have 7 more days of classes and then review days and semester exams. SAT on Saturday. DS is acing dual credit English (he has a language learning disability), pre-calculus (they had to create an extra Algebra 3 class right before the drop date because so many students didn’t learn enough last year in Alg 2), and AP US History. Jr. conference was before thanksgiving break. We moved across the country after school started last year and had some transfer credit issues, so we are looking at credit by exam for health and summer school or online for another required credit to make room for everything he wants next year.

Since we moved during covid, we aren’t used to anything here. Senior gf and ds are going to a “senior party” that is formal and not school affiliated. We know no details other than they are taking a party bus somewhere. Still hoping to get more info, but he is a 16 yo boy. So, unlikely.

Football team is in state playoff quarterfinals which is fantastic, except DS can’t play. A week before he was to be released from ACL surgery, he fell in a hole at the makeshift practice field. Retore ACL and meniscus. He even missed the 1st week of classes for surgery. Hopefully he will actually get playing time next year, but who knows. After starting varsity 1st half of last season on his old team, he only played 2 games JV and injured his knee while waiting out his 10 school day transfer period to play last season. Football in new state and at new school is a completely different level, and he will have gone almost 2 years without wearing pads and helmet. So many good things about our new home, but his injuries have really been a struggle physically and mentally.

 

[ljcrochet]

I can’t believe my girls are almost halfway done with their junior year. One is so busy with DECA. I love watching her doing what she loves. Her twin is thriving this year. Last year she was very withdrawn, so I’m loving watching her get involved and make new friends. Between sports, school clubs and schoolwork, she is so busy.

Both are now licensed drivers, which makes my life easier since with chemo I never know what I’m ups to.

 

[soccerdad72]

The year has been going pretty well. Soccer season ended a month or so ago - and he jumped right into club season now. We're off to FL for a tournament this weekend already. He got honorable mention for the area at the end of the season, but he's not satisfied with that (he called it a "pity" award), so he's pushing for 1st team next season.

School is moving along - a couple more weeks before Christmas break, then midterms in early January. It will be interested, since it's been 2 years since they've done any sort of midterm / final exams, so prepping for those tests will be tough, I think.

 

[anjuan]

Just saw this thread and am joining in. My daughter is taking ACP Sociology, ACP US History, AP English Lang & Comp, Physics Honors and Precalculus. She's currently doing club swimming, teaching swim lessons twice per week, and managing the boys swim team- I don't know how she does it all but she has over a 4.0 and wants to do everything. She's thinking more and more about college. She took both the ACT and SAT and didn't do well at all. She gets so anxious for testing and has some visual learning issues (but not enough to qualify for extra time on the test). So I'm encouraging her to look at more test optional colleges. She's also doing tutoring and will take the SAT again in the spring. Her school decided to eliminate end of the semester testing after they stopped it during the pandemic, which I was happy to hear. I can't believe how fast time is going. She's my only child and going to be off to college before I know it.

 

[3threebabies]

Just saw this thread and am joining in. My daughter is taking ACP Sociology, ACP US History, AP English Lang & Comp, Physics Honors and Precalculus. She's currently doing club swimming, teaching swim lessons twice per week, and managing the boys swim team- I don't know how she does it all but she has over a 4.0 and wants to do everything. She's thinking more and more about college. She took both the ACT and SAT and didn't do well at all. She gets so anxious for testing and has some visual learning issues (but not enough to qualify for extra time on the test). So I'm encouraging her to look at more test optional colleges. She's also doing tutoring and will take the SAT again in the spring. Her school decided to eliminate end of the semester testing after they stopped it during the pandemic, which I was happy to hear. I can't believe how fast time is going. She's my only child and going to be off to college before I know it.

I don’t wish to be too forward, but MP3 audio is a new option for College Boards—at least it is for testing at our school. PSAT this fall was the 1st time it was offered. It is time intensive. Testing is spread over 2 days. DS was irritated during the math portions because he didn’t need it, but he was quite relieved with the freedom the extra time and audio file provided for the language sections. My son has a language processing disability and oral testing and assignments helped him make huge bounds in elementary school. All the questions are on an audio file. A hard copy of the test is still supplied. After speaking with the school counselor who works with College Board testing, she completed the accommodation request with his time and language issues in mind. He was approved quickly on the initial request. Granted, we did have a 2021 battery of testing to verify his IEP qualification as was required for our new state to receive special educational services.

 

[soccerdad72]

Bumping this up to see how the summer is going for everyone.

Son has been busy between work (he's doing maintenance work with a friend of ours back at his old middle school), some college tours and summer workouts with the soccer team. We have our last two college tours of the summer next weekend (NC State and Elon), because once August 1st rolls around, he'll be full time into soccer season.

He's already working on filling out a lot of the Common App - his goal is to have it completed by the time school starts (August 18th), so once the school's open for applications, he can pretty much just click 'Submit' and send them off. Looks like 6 or 7 schools he'll be applying to, with a couple of them (Purdue and Clemson) being ones we haven't toured, but if he gets in, we'll work on booking admitted student tours.

Good luck to everyone on their senior years!

 

[3threebabies]

We have visited our #1 college choice twice now, but nothing else is planned. ApplyTexas app is mostly done and CommonApp started. ROTC scholarship apps are also begun, and 1st interview day for Navy/Marines is early September.

Football started yesterday, and school starts the 15th. We are just crossing fingers, toes, etc. that knee holds up and DS actually gets to play football this year! It is hard to believe he hasn’t played a game in 22 months due to multiple surgeries, so this season means a lot.