Parents of the Class of 2019

[mom2rtk]

View attachment 197658 New hair color to celebrate her birthday

Happy Birthday Gumbo Junior!

 

[soccerdad72]

We now have a licensed driver as well.

 

[lilia78]

I'm joining in! My youngest DD will graduate in 2019. Her older brother is in Grade 12 and will graduate this spring. My older two are in their 4th year and 2nd year of university. My DD is the top of her class and her main sport is figure skating, we are just getting ready to start that. She skates 3 times a week and coaches twice a week so winter is our busy season. Skating starts in October and ends in April.

It is really interesting to hear the differences in driving everywhere. We are in Canada and you take drivers ed through the school. You have to be 15 by June 15th the year you take it, so most people take it in grade 9. You get your learners permit at 15 and can take your test as early as 16 as soon as you have had your learners for 9 months. Part one of you learners is for 6 months and you can only driver one other person who is not related to you. Part two is for one year and you can drive anyone but if you have an accident, a ticket or get caught driving under the influence you have to take a class and you restart part two.

In my area we don't have honours or AP classes. Kids also don't take SATs or ACTs to get into University, you just send in a copy of your high school transcript.

Good luck to all kids this year, it is already going by too fast!

 

[Colleen27]

Our school has a 'testing day' in October, where the Freshman take some sort of standardized test (like a pre-PSAT), Sophomores and Juniors take PSATs (Juniors for the National Merit qualification) and Seniors get a day off to do college tours.

Ours does the same. And they had a prep day last week to get ready for the PSAT. DD was disappointed with her PSAT9 score last year so she's been playing with Kahn Academy's SAT prep course and hoping to do better this year. And I'm working on managing her expectations because she scored really well last year IMO and I'm not sure how much improvement she can really expect to see, and I worry about burnout with the pressure she puts on herself over these things. But she's a perfectionist and not satisfied with just "good" scores.

DD had a blast at her homecoming dance on Saturday. Unlike many, she wore a $4.99 resale shop dress & sandals "because you can't dance in heels!!". She was also happy the football team won - they got clobbered last year LOL

My DD is all about the resales too. So far, through three formals at her school and one at her boyfriend's, I've spent a combined $36 on dresses. But the heels... She loves heels, and her current favorites cost more than all the dresses combined! And that's just for one pair, solid black with some funky detail, that she's worn fairly often.

We're hoping for a homecoming miracle for our football team. It has been a rough season (including one 67-7 loss).

I love your DD's hair. That is a great color!

 

[StephMK]

Gumbo-your DD is so pretty and I love her hair color!

DS is getting ready to take the PSAT in two weeks. Our school also has a testing day and all juniors take the ACT one day. He will take both tests next year because he has schools all over the country on his list.

 

[bjscheel]

Just ordered her class ring. Jostens came to school but we did the same as for her older sister, ordered from Walmart for $98. Cheaper and arrives faster! Had a heck of a time getting the site to Add to Cart, though, had to try three browsers. I almost ordered it with the inscription 2017 since I have been doing so much stuff for her sister. That would have been a disaster!

 

[Colleen27]

Just ordered her class ring. Jostens came to school but we did the same as for her older sister, ordered from Walmart for $98. Cheaper and arrives faster! Had a heck of a time getting the site to Add to Cart, though, had to try three browsers. I almost ordered it with the inscription 2017 since I have been doing so much stuff for her sister. That would have been a disaster!

We ordered DD one of the lockets from Jostens. $328 with the charms she wanted - OUCH! She didn't want a ring but fell in love with the necklace and I know she'll wear that a lot more so when she asked if it could be her Christmas present this year I went ahead and ordered it. But it should be quite lovely. Instead of her birthstone she went with a red stone for her school's color, plus a softball and a 4H clover and a cross and the year.

 

[bjscheel]

Sounds nice. DD likes rings better than necklaces, so hopefully she wears it often. She has drama on one side and music on the other. She chose emerald instead of her birthstone (peridot).

Her ring through Jostens would have been $237, so we saved $137. She said, "But you get a free hoodie if you order from them!" I asked her if the hoodie was worth $137? I'm glad I knew Walmart offered them- I got my own there when I was in school.

 

[Colleen27]

DD never wears rings so I'm glad she didn't want one. Most of her junior friends have stopped wearing theirs already. Her best friend got one that cost something absurd like $550 and says she hardly ever wears it any more. That would be a lot easier to stomach at Walmart prices than at Jostens!

I looked around to see if anyone else does the lockets like Jostens, but I didn't find any that do them with the school name on the face. Lots of places have Origami Owl style lockets and charms, but not as class jewelry.

 

[bjscheel]

Oh my goodness this musical is driving us nuts. Opening night is now 10 days away. Last week I asked the girls about set building because they hadn't done any yet. Well they had to wait until after the concert Tuesday that was on the stage so my girls asked if there could be set building on Saturday. Their teacher thought shop and art class would be doing it but that's not true, art is only doing the backdrop. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have scheduled a session if they hadn't brought it up. There are walls there from previous plays, they just need to be assembled and re-painted. We didn't know what would be there for paint and DD18 thought wallpaper would be good so I suggested she go to the local decorating store and see if they had any old ugly paper to give away and they did. We brought that and some paint from home and the group of kids that came Saturday got a lot done. Ran short on wallpaper but I got some out of the basement at work to finish this weekend.

While there the props girl said they would need dead flowers so we called the florist and asked them to start saving back dead flowers. Also the teacher said he didn't have a dentist chair lined up and didn't act like he had any ideas so I started texting people. A semi-retired beautician offered an old hydraulic chair and DD18 got that picked up last night. We were feeling good about the progress made.

Last night's practice was pretty bad. One boy is still using his script and the male lead was forgetting lines causing DD15 to not get her cues for her lines. Fortunately all the fall sports are over so the boys can focus on musical now. DD15 was in tears at the end from people giving her different directions and she can only follow one set and got yelled at by the people who had different ideas. The teacher doesn't bring the piano score to practice (presumably because he's not going to play for it), so he just piddles around on the piano with some chords while they sing. DD15 said it was way off for Suddenly Seymour and for Sominex and she just tried to sing over it. Turns out now that the piano player he had lined up has sprained a finger. The girls are bringing a list of possible replacement pianists to class today and are going to urge him to start calling today and get someone to the remaining practices. Honestly they don't trust him to get around to it in sufficient time because he doesn't get anything done. Who knows how much different things will be when the actual score is being played. I could probably do it but the girls said no way, don't even offer to play at practice because you'll end up doing it for performance. I'd like to be watching my kids, not playing.

Teacher's wife who is supposed to be directing has hardly come to any practices and now has strep throat and is not going to come anymore.

The trio needs at least one more outfit and I know that is hard for the costume girl because they should match/coordinate. IDK if they're going to need to go thrift shopping together or what.

I remember the week before performance usually being bad and then things coming together in the end and I hope that's true here. I will be so sad for DD15 if it comes off badly. We're doing our best to fill in the gaps though! I feel like once they have a pianist it will go much better.

Sorry this is long, just venting. Their old choir teacher who was AMAZING is going to be their substitute teacher on Monday and I bet she gets an earful. She's on the list of potential piano players and could be such a help at practice. He probably won't ask her though because he already is very aware he doesn't measure up to her.

 

[ColoradoDisneyFreaks]

Oh my goodness this musical is driving us nuts. Opening night is now 10 days away. Last week I asked the girls about set building because they hadn't done any yet. Well they had to wait until after the concert Tuesday that was on the stage so my girls asked if there could be set building on Saturday. Their teacher thought shop and art class would be doing it but that's not true, art is only doing the backdrop. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have scheduled a session if they hadn't brought it up. There are walls there from previous plays, they just need to be assembled and re-painted. We didn't know what would be there for paint and DD18 thought wallpaper would be good so I suggested she go to the local decorating store and see if they had any old ugly paper to give away and they did. We brought that and some paint from home and the group of kids that came Saturday got a lot done. Ran short on wallpaper but I got some out of the basement at work to finish this weekend.

While there the props girl said they would need dead flowers so we called the florist and asked them to start saving back dead flowers. Also the teacher said he didn't have a dentist chair lined up and didn't act like he had any ideas so I started texting people. A semi-retired beautician offered an old hydraulic chair and DD18 got that picked up last night. We were feeling good about the progress made.

Last night's practice was pretty bad. One boy is still using his script and the male lead was forgetting lines causing DD15 to not get her cues for her lines. Fortunately all the fall sports are over so the boys can focus on musical now. DD15 was in tears at the end from people giving her different directions and she can only follow one set and got yelled at by the people who had different ideas. The teacher doesn't bring the piano score to practice (presumably because he's not going to play for it), so he just piddles around on the piano with some chords while they sing. DD15 said it was way off for Suddenly Seymour and for Sominex and she just tried to sing over it. Turns out now that the piano player he had lined up has sprained a finger. The girls are bringing a list of possible replacement pianists to class today and are going to urge him to start calling today and get someone to the remaining practices. Honestly they don't trust him to get around to it in sufficient time because he doesn't get anything done. Who knows how much different things will be when the actual score is being played. I could probably do it but the girls said no way, don't even offer to play at practice because you'll end up doing it for performance. I'd like to be watching my kids, not playing.

Teacher's wife who is supposed to be directing has hardly come to any practices and now has strep throat and is not going to come anymore.

The trio needs at least one more outfit and I know that is hard for the costume girl because they should match/coordinate. IDK if they're going to need to go thrift shopping together or what.

I remember the week before performance usually being bad and then things coming together in the end and I hope that's true here. I will be so sad for DD15 if it comes off badly. We're doing our best to fill in the gaps though! I feel like once they have a pianist it will go much better.

Sorry this is long, just venting. Their old choir teacher who was AMAZING is going to be their substitute teacher on Monday and I bet she gets an earful. She's on the list of potential piano players and could be such a help at practice. He probably won't ask her though because he already is very aware he doesn't measure up to her.

Ugh! That's tough. We haven't heard anything about class rings for DD yet. We do have swim team starting up soon, I'm really going to miss the fact that she can't drive herself for another 5 months! DD has ended up with straight As (yep, I'm bragging a bit!) so I'm still wondering whose kids she is.

 

[Lynne G]

Yeah, I guess I am lucky, no ring offers or want one yet either. And luck would have it, her sibling that graduated this June, didn't want a ring or anything but his tassel. So, I framed it with his diploma. He has that, his crazy priced senior pictures, and his yearbook. My DD rarely wears jewelry because of sports, but I don't see her wanting any school jewelry either. I refuse to even buy the yearbook until the senior year. Yearbooks are sold starting from 7th grade.

At least 10th grade is going well. Since she is one of the youngest in her class, it kills her that some of her friends are getting their driving license. She won't even get her permit until the end of this coming summer.

She already took the PSAT, so we're now on term papers.

Nice to hear what others' kids are doing.

 

[mom2rtk]

We're not doing a class ring either. Neither of the older 2 even wanted one, so that made it easy.

Life has settled down nicely since the end of the tennis season. That was really crazy busy for a while there. Classes are going ok. AP Euro was a rough start because they had to start double timing the homework right off the bat since they didn't have a set of books to send home for summer homework. But it finally got to a more manageable level.

I do have a sneaking suspicion this teacher isn't very good at what he teaches. I think this is his second year teaching AP Euro. And he was coincidentally away at soccer matches during Meet the Teacher night and conferences so I couldn't ask him how his students did on the AP exam last year. So any of you with older kids, do you have any sort of study guide you recommend to prepare for the exam?

 

[bjscheel]

Yeah, some of DD's friends are 16 now and she just turned 15. But she does have her school permit so she can drive to and from school occasionally when needed. Right now she can ride with her sister for almost everything, but on Wednesdays they get out early and DD18 is working after school, so now DD15 can drive herself home at 2:30 instead of staying in town till 5:00.

After the musical is over, it would be kind of nice if she could get a little job somewhere, but we are running into roadblocks. Not as many choices when you're under 16, and it's a rural area with not many choices to begin with. And it either has to be right after school, or be worth me driving her when we live 11 miles out. And then she will have soccer in the spring...when her sister was 15, she started working cleaning the office building where I work. It takes an hour and can be done any weekend evening. That fits well with a kid in activities. But big sister hasn't given that job up yet and DD15 is not keen on cleaning. Even if we wait till summer she won't be able to drive herself to a job so that's a problem too. Anybody else's sophomore have a job during the school year?

 

[mjkacmom]

Yeah, some of DD's friends are 16 now and she just turned 15. But she does have her school permit so she can drive to and from school occasionally when needed. Right now she can ride with her sister for almost everything, but on Wednesdays they get out early and DD18 is working after school, so now DD15 can drive herself home at 2:30 instead of staying in town till 5:00.

After the musical is over, it would be kind of nice if she could get a little job somewhere, but we are running into roadblocks. Not as many choices when you're under 16, and it's a rural area with not many choices to begin with. And it either has to be right after school, or be worth me driving her when we live 11 miles out. And then she will have soccer in the spring...when her sister was 15, she started working cleaning the office building where I work. It takes an hour and can be done any weekend evening. That fits well with a kid in activities. But big sister hasn't given that job up yet and DD15 is not keen on cleaning. Even if we wait till summer she won't be able to drive herself to a job so that's a problem too. Anybody else's sophomore have a job during the school year?

The garden center where dd20 and ds18 worked starting when they were 15 are begging dd15 to work. However, she has xc every day after school in the fall, the HS musical is in the winter, and she has track every day after school in the spring. She also has a 2 1/2 hour dance class almost every night, plus teaches 2 classes a week ($10 a class). She really wants to work though! She has meets and dance competitions on the weekends, plus teaches CCD on sundays.

Maybe this summer...

 

[mjkacmom]

We're not doing a class ring either. Neither of the older 2 even wanted one, so that made it easy.

Life has settled down nicely since the end of the tennis season. That was really crazy busy for a while there. Classes are going ok. AP Euro was a rough start because they had to start double timing the homework right off the bat since they didn't have a set of books to send home for summer homework. But it finally got to a more manageable level.

I do have a sneaking suspicion this teacher isn't very good at what he teaches. I think this is his second year teaching AP Euro. And he was coincidentally away at soccer matches during Meet the Teacher night and conferences so I couldn't ask him how his students did on the AP exam last year. So any of you with older kids, do you have any sort of study guide you recommend to prepare for the exam?

The teachers have always told the kids what book to buy, just have your DD ask.

 

[bjscheel]

By next fall, DD could have both of her sister's jobs, and that's what I would like her to do. DD18's other job is secretarial at a law office after school and in summers. DD15 is not sure she wants to do office work, but we keep telling her she's not going to find another teen job at $10/hour with no weekends or evenings, so she may be convinced eventually. But that's almost a year away.

The only other place in town she thinks might be okay is Subway. I don't know if they hire 15 year olds though. And again, with not being able to drive until end of next summer, makes it really difficult. She needs some online work of some sort . There aren't any kids around to babysit for miles around either. Once she gets her license, she'll have only 2 years to work and save money for college.

 

[bjscheel]

Class ring arrived this week. It fits and she likes it.

Musical starts tonight! Last night I ended up doing more running around for props! They still needed a jacket with a glove sewed on the end for a fake arm so my mom got to work on that with a jacket she had in her closet. I picked up a leopard print scarf for $1 and cut it up into an arm sling (they had a black one, but leopard print is better), and borrowed a serving tray from the consignment. Today DD texted to ask if they could cut a hole in the jacket for the real arm & puppet. Nothing like last minute but after last night's practice it sounds like everything will go off okay. There's just one action the teacher's wife is wanting DD to do one way and had her practice last night, and DD thinks that doing it another way would be more fitting to the character, but she's afraid to approach her about it. We'll see if she does today but I think she has a good case for doing it her way. Guess it will be a small matter in the end but DD's way would probably get a laugh from the audience. The teacher is playing piano himself and it must go alright. Can't wait to see DD perform!

Their speech group has a field trip on the 21st to a college for theater workshops and to watch a performance so that should be great fun for her, and a chance to see if she's interested in that college.

 

[bjscheel]

Musical was a great success after all the last minute issues! She misses it already- the practices, the performing...she had so much fun being Audrey. It won't be long before Speech contests start though- so she will have a one-act and a musical theater song to work on for that. Her old speech teacher that moved away and had kids in school with mine came from 3 hours away to watch their friends. I guess we are going down to see their musical Saturday for a little getaway.

 

[ColoradoDisneyFreaks]

I can tell everyone has been busy with the holidays! That's and awesome pic from the musical, your DD is lovely!

We're still working on driving, swim team has started, so practices are "fun". She's got a meet in Golden this weekend, which should be lots of fun, especially since they have a snow day today because of the wind chill and it's still snowing now. Of course with snow, also comes ski season, they don't have a ski team, but skiing has definitely kicked off, and they've gone a few times. So DD got a packet in the mail that was an invitation to attend a conference session for the National Leadership Council. Specifically for her bio-tech class. It sounded pretty cool, but was not cheap, and it turns out didn't actually offer any new science that she hasn't already done and based on reviews doesn't affect anything from a college acceptance standpoint, so we passed on it. We're thinking that we're going to send her back to Space Camp this summer instead. She really liked it, and wants to go back so it'll be a surprise.

She hasn't decided on a job, we're encouraging her to look at life guarding at the rec centers in our development so we'll see what they say.