Schedule Set
Zoë decided to stop year round swim. That leaves her with one soccer team, and Girl Scouts. It's the lightest schedule ever and will hopefully help her manage her courses this year.
They've also passed the add/drop period, so her course schedule is set.
Honors Latin is her favorite course. They're running through a grammar text (Latin: an intensive course) and will be finished by the end of semester so the second semester they can work on Caesar. Last year they did Cambridge (Books 1 and 2), which is an easy and fun Latin intro. I was a bit concerned the jump into a serious Latin grammar would be daunting but so far she's taking to it like a fish takes to water. They are already stretching what I remember from my Latin.
Honors Math is pretty much the same as last year so far. She occasionally asks me to work a problem with her, but probably less than once a week. She has the same teacher from last year which is good. She actually pulled out her old notebook from last year and is keeping it at the ready, which I am hopeful reinforces the idea that taking notes and showing your work can be beneficial in the long run. They started the year with some of Exeter's Math 1 to help transition new students into the Harkness Math method, and are going to work through Math 2 this year. I like their integrated method of doing Geo, but they are apparently going to have to do some formal proofs this year.
Honors English is trucking along so far. So is Honors History, which she seems to be sort of enjoying. French is ok. She's the only Freshman in the class and that's taking up the bulk of her thought processes about it right now. The PE she signed up for is Tennis and PE Games, she didn't have much choice given her schedule. And that leaves 3 or 4 study halls in the 10 day cycle. It's what she wanted (she doesn't like study hall) but the work load of classes-instead-of-study-hall is a challenge.
Honors Biology is going to be good for her I think. The instructor is an old-school science teacher which means several of the kids are coping with getting low grades for the first time ever. Even the "I'm a 1st generation Asian-American being raised like a 1st generation Asian-American" kid is getting some grades under 80. The kids who make it through still legitimately enjoying science are getting a really good foundation. There's also a lot of hands-on which is perfect for her.
STEM is taking more work than expected. She's the only kid doing double language + STEM (not just among Freshman, but the entire school) so it's a good thing she's pared down her extra curricular schedule. This semester is statistics, and next semester is robotics, if they don't shift things around. She's not particularly thrilled with statistics ("we're doing stupid things with excel") but it's early in the semester yet.
She's frustrated with no arts in her schedule, so I'm expecting some change for next year. We'll see if she sticks with double language + STEM. Next year they also have the option to do double science. But assuming she sticks with just one science, she could drop one of her foreign languages or STEM and have loads of time for arts. Right now she says that's not going to happen.
And I have to run the Journey for the Girl Scout Seniors who want to get started on their Gold Projects. Trying to make a Journey not a hateful waste of time is hard.
They've also passed the add/drop period, so her course schedule is set.
Honors Latin is her favorite course. They're running through a grammar text (Latin: an intensive course) and will be finished by the end of semester so the second semester they can work on Caesar. Last year they did Cambridge (Books 1 and 2), which is an easy and fun Latin intro. I was a bit concerned the jump into a serious Latin grammar would be daunting but so far she's taking to it like a fish takes to water. They are already stretching what I remember from my Latin.
Honors Math is pretty much the same as last year so far. She occasionally asks me to work a problem with her, but probably less than once a week. She has the same teacher from last year which is good. She actually pulled out her old notebook from last year and is keeping it at the ready, which I am hopeful reinforces the idea that taking notes and showing your work can be beneficial in the long run. They started the year with some of Exeter's Math 1 to help transition new students into the Harkness Math method, and are going to work through Math 2 this year. I like their integrated method of doing Geo, but they are apparently going to have to do some formal proofs this year.
Honors English is trucking along so far. So is Honors History, which she seems to be sort of enjoying. French is ok. She's the only Freshman in the class and that's taking up the bulk of her thought processes about it right now. The PE she signed up for is Tennis and PE Games, she didn't have much choice given her schedule. And that leaves 3 or 4 study halls in the 10 day cycle. It's what she wanted (she doesn't like study hall) but the work load of classes-instead-of-study-hall is a challenge.
Honors Biology is going to be good for her I think. The instructor is an old-school science teacher which means several of the kids are coping with getting low grades for the first time ever. Even the "I'm a 1st generation Asian-American being raised like a 1st generation Asian-American" kid is getting some grades under 80. The kids who make it through still legitimately enjoying science are getting a really good foundation. There's also a lot of hands-on which is perfect for her.
STEM is taking more work than expected. She's the only kid doing double language + STEM (not just among Freshman, but the entire school) so it's a good thing she's pared down her extra curricular schedule. This semester is statistics, and next semester is robotics, if they don't shift things around. She's not particularly thrilled with statistics ("we're doing stupid things with excel") but it's early in the semester yet.
She's frustrated with no arts in her schedule, so I'm expecting some change for next year. We'll see if she sticks with double language + STEM. Next year they also have the option to do double science. But assuming she sticks with just one science, she could drop one of her foreign languages or STEM and have loads of time for arts. Right now she says that's not going to happen.
And I have to run the Journey for the Girl Scout Seniors who want to get started on their Gold Projects. Trying to make a Journey not a hateful waste of time is hard.