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My DS16 starts school in two days. He has known since June that he has had AP Biology homework and was already freaking out about it. He was away at camp and vacation for a majority of the summer. But I thought he had been slowly working on this homework for the past 3 weeks. (He was in band camp for two of them.) Last night at bedtime he tells me in a panic that he still had TONS to do. Seems he has managed to get through not quite 1 chapter out of 5. The job is to read 5 chapters of the end of the book (stuff the class won't get to but will be on the AP) and fill out questions/outline for those chapters.

Over the summer he has become even more stubborn that he will do things BY HIMSELF and doesn't need any help. Very normal for a teenager and I've mostly be happy about this. So today instead of what I had planned I'm going to be babysitting his studying the next few days. The only help he wants from me is to nag him. At least it does seems like he is taking my suggestion of trying to read the whole chapter once first, and then attack the questions. ARGG..

Like in the past part of the issue is his perfectionism and overanalysis of the questions. He claims he needs his laptop to answer the questions. When I snuck a look at the homework I can't see anywhere that he needs outside sources. This is supposed to be a study guide for him, I doubt the teacher will grade this in too much detail expect that it is completed. I'm worried that this will continue to happen in this class and that he would be a lot more successful if he took AP Physics instead.

P.S. And last night I was being amused that he was engrosed in reading "Much Ado About Nothing" after watching three versions of the play this weekend.

Oh dear-- you have my sympathies. I was predicting the rest of your post right about:



Sort of how I anticipated that DD was slowly working, having "stretched herself" to choose a project for English Lit that was going to be a serious challenge...

Instead, she then proceeded to freak out that she didn't know HOW to do the execution of the project...

so she ignored it until 3 days before it was due. While she was otherwise SUPER over-scheduled. Yes, this was nearly an all-nighter, with me yelling at her about what a thoroughly dumb decision it had been to choose "yes, I'll challenge myself" and then fail to follow through, or-- you know-- ask for help.

On the other hand, the final result was SO cool that the professor BEGGED to keep it. {sigh}

Perfectionists-- gotta love 'em. When you aren't tearing your hair out, of course.

HK... is this not normal? I think you are writing about EVERY major assignment I had and what my mother put up with (bless her). I think this must be what people do. ;-)

ConnectingDots, you had me at "he has known since June". DS16 said he did NOT have summer AP work. Then I hear from other parents about it. Yes, indeed, a math packet for...was it calc or physics? He started working on Friday. Forgot how to do a couple of things. Look it up. (Pretty sure half the point of the summer work is to keep them from forgetting how to do stuff) Last night at 10:30 he still had "just a few" to go. Hmmm. I'm pretty sure there was nothing from the textbooks since I would have heard about that book pickup back in June.

It's going to be a long year.

I should have known better. He always worked better under pressure of a due date. Even though anxiety is one of his biggest problems he is capable of harnessing it. He was doing so much better last spring. And in a many ways he has matured so much the past few months. He wanted me to STAY out of it, so I was trying to let him. He was self motivated to find time to study. I could see him sitting there with the book open for quite a lot of time over the past few weeks. Such a waste that he spend so much time "studying" when he wasn't getting anywhere.

At least he decided to stick with the easier Calculus class so he doesn't have tons of summer Calculus homework as well.

And at least he has nothing else that he has to do these last two days before school starts. Just a shame he needs to spend it studying. Although I will kick him out late afternoon to take a bike ride or a run because my experience is a bit of exercise will make it easier for him to keep going.

He wanted me to STAY out of it, so I was trying to let him. .[/quote]

DS was so upset that I'd gotten involved last year, so I did stay out of it this summer. But when the summer school teacher calls ME, well, then I'm involved.

I did let DS know that he doesn't HAVE to take everything AP (well, math he does, because of the course progressions). But HE thinks he does. Expectations and all.

Edit: clearly I need to work on the Quote options.
Edit 2: and on my typing or detection of auto fill.

DS isn't taking ALL AP.. He is only take two Bio & Calculus. He is taking a "lighter" load than many of his past classmates many whom are taking 4-5 AP courses this year. The rest of his schedule is regular English & 3rd year Spanish, band and marching band. (Two courses and a lot of time till Nov.) In the spring a TBD semester course will replace marching band come spring. I'm pushing for a ROP Engineering course. He isn't required to take any Social Studies this year and we are taking advantage of it. His H.S.'s normal school day is 6 periods, but one can take 7 (zero period) if you are taking an art/music course which is he but we decided it's unnecessary.

I'm hoping that this lighter load will mean he has the time to dedicate to the homework in the classes he is in and therefore keeps up the good grades he got last semester. It's a balancing act to try and manage stress while keeping the transcript looking good, while on the other hand not boring him to tears.

Just (((hugs))). We are two weeks in and have already experienced a typical epic fail (DS lost something that wouldn't fit in backpack) and had to trace his steps to find it.

It's a bummer to get these reminders of places that seem so difficult to remediate. Still, I'd cut yourself some slack on trying to give your DS more independence on these things. You won't know if you don't try and we do have to wean them from so much oversight if we want them to succeed as young adults, right?

I think the schedule you describe sounds like a really good balance between challenge and anxiety/EF overload. I'm taking notes...you are a few years ahead of us.

Lots and lots of supportive thoughts in your direction.

How does one decide? The kid tells you over and over that his high school honors classes are too easy. So if the only option that is harder is AP. He is still just a kid with a life after school. So how do you balance the busy work of AP...what is the magic number of AP classes? 9th grade he took one and got a five on his test. This year 10th he is taking 2. I anticipate he will take two or three next year and it is possible to take 4 or 5 12th grade. But is that what he should do?

Depends on the class, but my personal experience was that AP students generally had less homework, not more. I found that endlessly amusing, and always took the opportunity to mention that whenever my friends complained about their homework loads in their non-AP equivalents.