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Old 22-04-2012, 10:46   #1
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Did AP Classes cut into your kids summer of boating?

Daughter had AP classes and it seemed like she had school work all summer vacation long.
Brutal.

She'd be doing school work between pulls on the wakeboard, and would bust it out in the boat when beached at the sandbars.

Wondering if it was just her school, or do all AP classes require hours of daily school work during summer vacation?

Now our 12 year old is entering AP classes from a top rated school and we're not looking forward to that academic grind if it's a re-peat of our daughters experiences.
He has a head for it, but a kid needs a vacation too don't they?

Any tips, tales or takes?
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Old 22-04-2012, 11:04   #2
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Re: Did AP Classes cut into your kids summer of boating?

You're only a kid for a very brief time. Once they start working chances are good they'll be working for life. While I believe education is important, Tiger Moms, Helicopter parents, and schools that think loading kids down with excessive amounts of homework is the recipe for life's success probably shouldn't be too involved with the education process in the first place. Let your kids be kids.
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Old 22-04-2012, 11:05   #3
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Re: Did AP Classes cut into your kids summer of boating?

AP classes are taught at college level and are pretty intense compared with normal high school classes. However, at least when our son was in high school, they did not require any schoolwork during the summer. Normally, high school kids have 8-9 months to complete an AP course which in college would be given in one semester (typically 12-14 weeks) so there really is no reason to stretch it out over the summer.
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Old 22-04-2012, 11:31   #4
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Re: Did AP Classes cut into your kids summer of boating?

Ahh all four of our kid's took at sea school courses untill High school, worked at there own speed, never seemed to mind the work much !! now this was back before internet schools! so things were handled by snail mail but they all have collage educations now and had no problem getting into the schools they wished, with the grades they had ! Maybe its the NEW AGE Stuff thats going on?? I don't know, I got my education Fishing, lol but folks seem to worry about there kids being able to earn the Big Bucks when they are in Pre School !! Give the kids a break at least during the summer !! We cruised all yr long never had a permenent address, and our kids truned out great ! But I guess we were poor parents LOL
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Old 22-04-2012, 11:38   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Free Agent
Daughter had AP classes and it seemed like she had school work all summer vacation long.
Brutal.

She'd be doing school work between pulls on the wakeboard, and would bust it out in the boat when beached at the sandbars.

Wondering if it was just her school, or do all AP classes require hours of daily school work during summer vacation?

Now our 12 year old is entering AP classes from a top rated school and we're not looking forward to that academic grind if it's a re-peat of our daughters experiences.
He has a head for it, but a kid needs a vacation too don't they?

Any tips, tales or takes?
Pretty common to have summer reading assignments.
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Old 22-04-2012, 11:39   #6
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Re: Did AP Classes cut into your kids summer of boating?

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Pretty common to have summer reading assignments.
Reading sure, but the school work was way beyond that.
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Old 22-04-2012, 11:59   #7
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Reading sure, but the school work was way beyond that.
Try pahomeschoolers dot com . Well respected for their AP classes.
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Old 22-04-2012, 12:06   #8
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Re: Did AP Classes cut into your kids summer of boating?

Many countries require children to attend much more than the annual 180 or so days of classes that is the norm in the US. Their kids seem to adapt and do quite well, especially if you look at the math test scores that are periodically published in the "Are US Kids Falling Behind?" type articles.

When our kids took AP classes, as it was when I did myself (waaaaaaaaay back when), they were optional. You get invited, but you don't have to sign up. If you and your kids don't think the workload is right for them, the simple solution would be to switch back to the standard classes. Personally, I think it was well worth the time and effort involved.

p.s. just a thought that might or might not apply, but if your daughter is spending huge amounts of time studying, maybe some coaching in study skills/habits would help her learn to get more done in less time.
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Old 23-04-2012, 05:07   #9
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Re: Did AP Classes cut into your kids summer of boating?

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Many countries require children to attend much more than the annual 180 or so days of classes that is the norm in the US. Their kids seem to adapt and do quite well, especially if you look at the math test scores that are periodically published in the "Are US Kids Falling Behind?" type articles.

When our kids took AP classes, as it was when I did myself (waaaaaaaaay back when), they were optional. You get invited, but you don't have to sign up. If you and your kids don't think the workload is right for them, the simple solution would be to switch back to the standard classes. Personally, I think it was well worth the time and effort involved.

p.s. just a thought that might or might not apply, but if your daughter is spending huge amounts of time studying, maybe some coaching in study skills/habits would help her learn to get more done in less time.
Our daughter HAD AP classes.
This daughter has long since graduated and is a Professor in the UC system.
Her friends that accompanied us on boat trips all seemed to have had the same AP academic grind so her habits seem par compared to the other kids for the work assigned.

Perhaps it's the school she attended that piles it on too thick were our thoughts.

Sons school is top rated #1 with a hiccup short of 100% college admittance and graduation for the alumni.
He just returned from a school sponsored visit to Yale and Harvard and a few other colleges and AP is the way to roll for admittance to the schools with any juice in todays job market.

BTW, Daughters high schools tuition was $850 US per month,, it's now flirting with $3000 per mo for the son.
I tossed the Lamborghini brochure in the trash this past weekend.
It'll never happen now.

Thanks for your tips, tales & takes.

The Professor:
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Old 23-04-2012, 05:41   #10
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Re: Did AP Classes cut into your kids summer of boating?

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Originally Posted by Tellie View Post
You're only a kid for a very brief time. Once they start working chances are good they'll be working for life. While I believe education is important, Tiger Moms, Helicopter parents, and schools that think loading kids down with excessive amounts of homework is the recipe for life's success probably shouldn't be too involved with the education process in the first place. Let your kids be kids.
Ditto on all that.

I've become a big believer in "unschooling", but I don't think you want to hear about that.

Unschooling - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Old 23-04-2012, 06:13   #11
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Re: Did AP Classes cut into your kids summer of boating?

Hope she enjoys honors/ap coursework and not family/peer pressured into it...
1) Honors & AP coursework will generate a higher GPA which
2) if combined with excellent SAT/ACT scores will
3) land your daughter in the university or college of choice...
4) recruited by huge corporate criminals to potentially warp her values and
5) she can generate piles of money that she won't use till she's old

Of course, this could happen without honors/ap courses....So kep telling her you love her and taking her boarding!
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Old 23-04-2012, 07:26   #12
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Re: Did AP Classes cut into your kids summer of boating?

Quote:
Originally Posted by JimmyP View Post
Hope she enjoys honors/ap coursework and not family/peer pressured into it...
1) Honors & AP coursework will generate a higher GPA which
2) if combined with excellent SAT/ACT scores will
3) land your daughter in the university or college of choice...
4) recruited by huge corporate criminals to potentially warp her values and
5) she can generate piles of money that she won't use till she's old

Of course, this could happen without honors/ap courses....So kep telling her you love her and taking her boarding!
Having just completed this grind myself I am having second thoughts about steering my son down the same path.

After 29 years of working for a major company, (70-90hours a week), one year before I qualify for a pension, and lifetime health insurance, they decided to shut down the plant, and move it to China. I got a thank you letter, and a couple of months pay. (and a keychain).

The CEO traded in his 280ft yacht for a 300 footer with the 30million dollar bonus he got from closing down the plant.

Oh and I got a few hundred dollars bonus in my paycheck for each of the inventions, and patents I did that made his new yacht possible, (and a thank you letter from those also).

My kid is in AP also, some areas I've lived in the AP's are done better than others. He has assigned reading, and an essay, but not the sheer volume you are describing.

Take a long hard look at a course designed for the top 10% with an IQ of 160-200 by a school official with an IQ of 80-100. Just saying.
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Old 23-04-2012, 08:05   #13
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Re: Did AP Classes cut into your kids summer of boating?

I took AP courses in school. Course that was a decade ago. I didn't have the level of homework that your describing. (I also didn't have the highest grades so that's probably related.) On the other hand, I did score well enough to qualify for a number of scholarships and used them to pay for about half my college expenses. I also pasted 3 failing only one of my AP tests. On that one test it was test over two semesters of material, and for what ever reason the school only had the first semester taught.

I'm doing the "work for corporate America" thing now, and there can be no question that corporations are not to be trusted. Why anyone believes that they will pay out pensions is beyond me. I know maybe 2 or 3 people that managed to get their pensions. I know probably a couple dozen that didn't get them for one reason or another. In my opinion those are not good odds. Why anyone buy's much in their employer's stocks is also beyond me. I know of only a handful of people for which it paid off, and likely a couple dozen that have been screwed by it.

On the other hand, it is possible to work ones way through college with no debt. I know because I did it. With no debt when getting out of school, it make it possible to being accumulating capital from the month one starts working.

It is possible to get a fairly well paying job in the developed world with or without a college degree. Without a degree you have to be willing to do things that other people aren't, but it's possible. My brother has done this, as have many of my co-workers, but it does require taking some nasty jobs that no one else is really willing to do.

If one pays their cards right, they can keep the amount of work to a minimum. The math works out that one can build up enough capital to live off the resulting payouts for the rest of their life in about a decade of work. I know that I appear to be well on my way for that, it's just important to keep from getting wrapped up in a "keep up with the Jones" mentality.

I'm not sure what the other alternative is. We all have to eat. And if we're not born to a trust fund, then we have to work to eat. There is no way around that, just gotta keep the work to a minimum.
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Old 23-04-2012, 12:19   #14
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Re: Did AP Classes cut into your kids summer of boating?

For once, a non-electronics question that I have personal experience with!!!!


1)
Quote:
Originally Posted by capn_billl View Post
Take a long hard look at a course designed for the top 10% with an IQ of 160-200 by a school official with an IQ of 80-100. Just saying.
Ahmen to that!!

Around 1970 (?), I myself switched, from public school, to a private college prep school for grades 6 - 12....and I took mostly AP classes throughout high school...
And I did A LOT of school work while out cruising with my parents, but NOT much at all during the summer, except for some light reading....we cruised both during the school year AND during the summer.....
Sometimes we'd send some of my school work back to the school with friends/aquiantances flying back to the states, etc.....once we even had an BWIA pilot deliver some of my school work....sometimes the school would just wait, 1-3 months, for me to return to give me a few tests, etc.... (some of my classes had only 4 - 5 students in them!!!)
This was before the days of a FedEx office on every street corner, 'ya know....let alone fax machines and the internet!!!
These were NOT homeschooling classes, nor correspondence classes, but real AP classes taught at a real private school (tuition back then wasn't too bad, but the same school is now $27k / school year!!! the same as Free Agent's son), and my parents were typical depression-era high-school grads / business owners, who wished to help, but found having a genius son to be a bit more than they bargained for...
Was in Mensa for a few years (found the people lacked personality!)....
I went Ivy League, majored in Physics.....
(Took a year and a half off between high school and univ.)

(Started my own electronics business in early 80's, and have never been "downsized".....and, professionaly, have never used my expensive / AP / Ivy education!!!)

Yes, I did have summer reading for AP English / AP Lit (did most of it) and AP History (and I think I did have to write essays for AP Pysch as well as AP English), but there was NO summer school work for AP Physics, AP Chem, AP Bio, AP Calculus, AP Trig, AP Geometry, AP Algera, AP Sociology, AP Gov't, etc....
(Although I found having taken AP classes to be "of some help" in collerge, getting credit for them, etc.....to be honest, they weren't that important....)


I learned MUCH more cruising and voyaging with my parents (and later on my own), starting in the mid 1960's.....than I ever did in all my AP classes!!!!
Perhaps more than all my schooling combined!!!

And, to be blunt about it, in my experience in almost 30 years in business and dealing with any number of Fortune 500 execs, military officers, career gov't officials, etc. along the way, unless your son (or anyone else reading this) is looking for a career in Ivy League acedemia, or possibly the upper echelons of law, what classes they take in high school, and WHERE they go to univ. has very little to do with their success.....

So, if it were my son who was considering AP classes, I'd simply take him cruising, and teach him how to communicate well (writing and speaking).....and I'd be 100% assured of his success in ANY school and in ANY career.....
Voyaging / cruising to far flung locales, interacting with widely varying cultures, etc. will teach him so many things that are NOT in any textbook, or the internet....

ANY college admissions dean reading your son's application and essay, and seeing details about a life spent traveling by sailboat, and years experiencing different cultures, etc. will easily find himself pushing his application forward regardless of what class work there is (AP or otherwise) and regardless of what test scores appear on a piece of paper!!!






2)
Quote:
Originally Posted by capn_billl View Post
My kid is in AP also, some areas I've lived in the AP's are done better than others. He has assigned reading, and an essay, but not the sheer volume you are describing.
I'm with capt bill again on this one.....

And, Free Agent, perhaps things on the left coast are different??? and/or if yearning for a career in acedemia, your daughter was being extra agressive....but, what you desricbe seems odd to me!!!!








3) Free Agent, Please take Tellies words to heart!!!!
He speaketh the truth!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tellie View Post
You're only a kid for a very brief time. Once they start working chances are good they'll be working for life. While I believe education is important, Tiger Moms, Helicopter parents, and schools that think loading kids down with excessive amounts of homework is the recipe for life's success probably shouldn't be too involved with the education process in the first place. Let your kids be kids.
Ahmen to this as well....Couldn't agree more!!!!




Free Agent, Fair winds and good luck!!!
And don't sweat the AP stuff....take your son cruising, let him learn things that will make him the envy of all around!!! You CANNOT "buy" this education in a classroom!!! (believe me, I know from personal experience!!!)


John
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Old 23-04-2012, 12:26   #15
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Re: Did AP Classes cut into your kids summer of boating?

All for AP classes, I just don't see the benefit of all summer long too.
Perhaps this new school the son is entering looks at it and handles it differently.
His biggest complaint of public school was apathy for learning from the other kids.

I believe life is like golf; the better players that ya hang with,,, the better your game gets too.
So,, off to bright kids school for Maynard.
But summers will be reserved for our boating adventures.

Thanks again for the tips, takes and tales.
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