Parents of HS class of 2020

So DD decides this morning that she wants to go to homecoming dance UGH. Of course the ticket is way more to go. I told her she has to work off the difference and wear the dress she already has from last year. Ive probably come out ahead in all honesty but man I hate last minute changes.
 
So DD decides this morning that she wants to go to homecoming dance UGH. Of course the ticket is way more to go. I told her she has to work off the difference and wear the dress she already has from last year. Ive probably come out ahead in all honesty but man I hate last minute changes.
A 14-15 year-old girl changing her mind? Go figure! :confused:
 
Just found this thread, so thought I'd join in. My youngest is a freshman this year. His older sisters are both in college, so he's like an only child (at least in the house) now and he for the most part loves it! He is a young freshman and won't turn 16 until the summer after his sophomore year. Most of his friends have their drivers permit already, but he won't get his until fall semester begins. Probably the worst part about being one of the youngest in the class as far as he's concerned!
 
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Just found this thread, so thought I'd join in. My youngest is a freshman this year. His older sisters are both in college, so he's like an only child (at least in the house) now and he for the most part loves it! He is a young freshman and won't turn 16 until the summer. Most of his friends have their drivers permit already, but he won't get his until fall semester begins. Probably the worst part about being one of the youngest in the class as far as he's concerned!

Your son is 16 and a high school freshman?? What?? My DD is a freshman this year and just turned 14 in November...she is the youngest in her class as most kids were turning 15.....but 16? I just an't fathom that. I wasn't 16 until the end of my sophomore year! That would mean he was 8 when he started first grade???
 


Your son is 16 and a high school freshman?? What?? My DD is a freshman this year and just turned 14 in November...she is the youngest in her class as most kids were turning 15.....but 16? I just an't fathom that. I wasn't 16 until the end of my sophomore year! That would mean he was 8 when he started first grade???

Oops, I wrote that wrong (I'll edit original post). My son is currently 14 and won't turn 16 until after his sophomore year. I typed up my post too fast - at our school, you take drivers ed and get your learning permit the quarter you turn 15. Most of his friends have turned 15 and therefore can drive with their parents, but since his birthday is in July, he won't turn 15 until the summer and therefore can't take drivers ed until first quarter of his sophomore year. He's young for his class, not old. Sorry I messed that all up lol!
 
Oops, I wrote that wrong (I'll edit original post). My son is currently 14 and won't turn 16 until after his sophomore year. I typed up my post too fast - at our school, you take drivers ed and get your learning permit the quarter you turn 15. Most of his friends have turned 15 and therefore can drive with their parents, but since his birthday is in July, he won't turn 15 until the summer and therefore can't take drivers ed until first quarter of his sophomore year. He's young for his class, not old. Sorry I messed that all up lol!

We started our middle kid early (after seeing her older sister breeze through bored out of her skull the early grades)-so she will turn 15 this fall (sophomore) and won't be 16 until 2 months into junior year. She is handling being the youngest in class just fine but not having another driver for 1.5 years is gonna kill me with her activities! her and sisters birthdays are in October, so oldest was older for her grade and middle is younger for her grade.
 
Youngest of 4 is a freshman. I have a senior in college and a senior in hs. Also a freshman in college and youngest dd is freshman in hs. If ds#1 gets accepted, we will have three in college next year.

Can't even begin to think about youngest dd and college yet.
 


We started our middle kid early (after seeing her older sister breeze through bored out of her skull the early grades)-so she will turn 15 this fall (sophomore) and won't be 16 until 2 months into junior year. She is handling being the youngest in class just fine but not having another driver for 1.5 years is gonna kill me with her activities! her and sisters birthdays are in October, so oldest was older for her grade and middle is younger for her grade.

Same with my DD. She has a mid-November birthday and started early and is now a freshman. She just turned 14 while her classmates were all turning 15. Thankfully we are withing walking distance of the school so she is not too concerned about driving yet!
 
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We started our middle kid early (after seeing her older sister breeze through bored out of her skull the early grades)-so she will turn 15 this fall (sophomore) and won't be 16 until 2 months into junior year. She is handling being the youngest in class just fine but not having another driver for 1.5 years is gonna kill me with her activities! her and sisters birthdays are in October, so oldest was older for her grade and middle is younger for her grade.

Same with my DD. She has a mid-November birthday and started early and is now a freshman. She just turned 14 while her classmates were all turning 15. Thankfully we are withing walking distance of the school so she is not too concerned about driving yet!

That is so interesting. In our school district they absolutely will not let you start early. Our cutoff is September 1. You have to be 5 years old to start Kindergarten by that date. My niece's birthday is September 4th and they would not let her start. My sister inquired about her taking Kindergarten at a private school and then 1st grade back in our district, but they would not allow it. I'm not sure if they could have pushed harder, but she was definitely ready to start and would have been just fine.
 
That is so interesting. In our school district they absolutely will not let you start early. Our cutoff is September 1. You have to be 5 years old to start Kindergarten by that date. My niece's birthday is September 4th and they would not let her start. My sister inquired about her taking Kindergarten at a private school and then 1st grade back in our district, but they would not allow it. I'm not sure if they could have pushed harder, but she was definitely ready to start and would have been just fine.

My school district is the same...but my daughter was showing signs in the beginning of pre-k that she was above what was being taught and the teacher suggested to us that we move her up to Kindergarten instead, so we did (at 4 years old). So fast forward to May of her kindergarten year and we had to decide whether to push for her to go to first or have her repeat Kindergarten again. The teacher of kindi went to bat for us and we had a meeting with the superintendent, guidance counselor, 1st grade principal, etc. They took my daughter into a private room away from us and tested her on numerous things...it was a long process! When they came out, they all said "she needs to go to first grade...she could academically be in second grade, but we don't recommend that for social reasons". So fast forward to freshman year and she is in the gifted program...she is in all honors and AP classes and is doing very well, Distinguished Honor Roll so far and will most likely graduate early.....but, socially she is far behind what her classmates are. She has no desire for boys, makeup, nice clothes, etc. She doesn't like to go out and hang out socially, she would rather be at home reading, drawing or listening to music. Being smart has it's perks, but it is also very hard to be smarter than most of your peers. She doesn't really relate to her classmates and prefers to be around adults. And I can honestly say that she is way smarter than me and it's quite exhausting.
 
My school district is the same...but my daughter was showing signs in the beginning of pre-k that she was above what was being taught and the teacher suggested to us that we move her up to Kindergarten instead, so we did (at 4 years old). So fast forward to May of her kindergarten year and we had to decide whether to push for her to go to first or have her repeat Kindergarten again. The teacher of kindi went to bat for us and we had a meeting with the superintendent, guidance counselor, 1st grade principal, etc. They took my daughter into a private room away from us and tested her on numerous things...it was a long process! When they came out, they all said "she needs to go to first grade...she could academically be in second grade, but we don't recommend that for social reasons". So fast forward to freshman year and she is in the gifted program...she is in all honors and AP classes and is doing very well, Distinguished Honor Roll so far and will most likely graduate early.....but, socially she is far behind what her classmates are. She has no desire for boys, makeup, nice clothes, etc. She doesn't like to go out and hang out socially, she would rather be at home reading, drawing or listening to music. Being smart has it's perks, but it is also very hard to be smarter than most of your peers. She doesn't really relate to her classmates and prefers to be around adults. And I can honestly say that she is way smarter than me and it's quite exhausting.


Wow, it's definitely a good thing they let her go on to first grade then!
 
Me! DS, our "baby," is a Freshman this year. He is in cross-country, but doesn't really like it. He is very smart, but we thought he needed some activities to round out his future college applications. We have two older DDs--one is a HS Junior and one is a college Freshman, so we have two in the Class of 2020!

Joining this thread!

Arkansan, your DS sounds a bit like our high school freshman. Also a great student, we encouraged him to go out for cross country too to meet people and add some extra curriculars. He didn't exactly love the running part itself, but he did well and did meet some nice kids. He plans to run cross country again next year.
 
Haven´t heard of that one.

What's worked best for our boys is maximizing their ACT scores. Oldest ds got a full ride scholarship and 2nd ds has paid minimal out of pocket so far in his 2nd year. 3rd ds has similar scores and is on a similar track as the other 2.

I've heard the ACT scores are really important too. What type of score is necessary to get any kind of scholarship? DS has always done well on standardized tests, but I'd really like him to start practicing early for the ACT. We are in Illinois, there has been some talk that they were going to switch from the focus on the ACT to the SAT here. I understand why, since the Ivy League schools prefer the SAT, but I kind of hope they don't do it. Not sure if we should be sending DS to classes in both the ACT and SAT at this point?
 
I've heard the ACT scores are really important too. What type of score is necessary to get any kind of scholarship? DS has always done well on standardized tests, but I'd really like him to start practicing early for the ACT. We are in Illinois, there has been some talk that they were going to switch from the focus on the ACT to the SAT here. I understand why, since the Ivy League schools prefer the SAT, but I kind of hope they don't do it. Not sure if we should be sending DS to classes in both the ACT and SAT at this point?

Each college has their own score theresholds. Our boys have done well with 32s on the ACT. Some community college scholarships start at 25. But the good scholarships at 4 year universities in our experience have started at 32.

We are in the South and the ACT is what is pushed here. Our current hs senior took the SAT and found it easier in some regard, but Math and science come fairly easy to him.
 
Didn't know this thread existed until now. My oldest is a Freshman this year, 14, plays Lacrosse in the spring and is on the quiz bowl team. She's also in the Fina Arts club and she was in the writing club, but the girls in charge of that club were too bossy so she quit. I can't believe that she's halfway done with this year and the rest of the year will go so fast. Her first two terms were brutal with most of her core classes done. This term is so much easier with English, art, choir, and gym. It's good though because it won't get in the way with Lacrosse. Next year she will take double math and science. She only took it once this year to transition easier to high school.

I also have a 12 year old who is in 7th grade, so I'll have a class of 2020 and 2022. Should be interesting.
 
y sister inquired about her taking Kindergarten at a private school and then 1st grade back in our district, but they would not allow it. I'm not sure if they could have pushed harder, but she was definitely ready to start and would have been just fine.

This is what we did with our middle-started private kindergarten and 1st grade. We knew we were moving states so we figured this was the way to get her ahead on her grade level. It took several years before the teachers stopped verifying birth year LOL.

I've heard the ACT scores are really important too. What type of score is necessary to get any kind of scholarship? DS has always done well on standardized tests, but I'd really like him to start practicing early for the ACT. We are in Illinois, there has been some talk that they were going to switch from the focus on the ACT to the SAT here. I understand why, since the Ivy League schools prefer the SAT, but I kind of hope they don't do it. Not sure if we should be sending DS to classes in both the ACT and SAT at this point?
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My oldest's college had fellowships for 32 ACT and above-however it is a composite score. Takes the best of each section if take a couple ACT. She didn't know it was a composite score so she didn't apply!!! I was furious with her for not even bothering to apply-told her you don't know how they choose people - but she refused because her highest ACT overall was 31 (composite of her best sections was 32 or 33). She missed out on major money because of that. So don't automatically assume if you don't reach that magic number you are out of the running-especially if one time the math section has a great score and next time math down a bit but science (or whatever) goes up.
 
My oldest DS is also a freshman this year. He's handled the transition pretty well. It helps that his middle school is the only one that feeds into the high school.

He's also in marching band, so that been a fun experience. Every four years they do a trip to WDW and march in the main street parade, so of course this is the year they are doing that. Wasn't sure if we'd be able to go see him, but it's looking like we might. :yay:
 
My oldest DS is also a freshman this year. He's handled the transition pretty well. It helps that his middle school is the only one that feeds into the high school.

He's also in marching band, so that been a fun experience. Every four years they do a trip to WDW and march in the main street parade, so of course this is the year they are doing that. Wasn't sure if we'd be able to go see him, but it's looking like we might. :yay:

DD15 is also going to march with her hs band March 29-April 2. DH is the band director so he's going too. They also went to Japan this year with jazz band-my senior ds and college dd also went. Big travel year.
 
Joining the thread late! I saw the "Parents of the Class of 2017" and how they've all been posting since their kids were freshman. I was like "oh that's nice...let me find the 2020 one!" So here I am! I have a 2020 and a 2021. This year has been pretty good transition wise. DD did cheerleading but didn't like it enough to tryout for next season. She did audition for Drill Team (kickline here in Texas) and made the team! She also does orchestra. Have your kids all ready started the college talk? When the year started we had to fill out a questionnaire for the guidance dept listing career goals and schools she was interested in. At the time it was places like TCU, then she took a money course and realized how expensive college is. Now we are at local state schools...LOL
Hope to have a long fun time with ya'll!!
 

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