8th Grade, Oh My!

My 13 year old is now an 8th grader, and today I have received no less than 3 emails from his school BEFORE 9am. These were just from the head of middle school, not to mention the teachers blogs and checking grades and upcoming projects on the schools website.

The first one – If you have not contacted your district’s public high school for enrollment info, please do so as soon as possible. PSAT testing starts soon. — Back in the day, I went to what was considered an excellent neighborhood public school. We didn’t take PSAT tests until sophomore year…maybe junior year?  I will have a discussion with an expert soon and share the results of why this is done at 8th grade and how to prepare in a later post.

The second one – Parents of 8th graders: please remember to have your student share his/her high school interest form with the current school. — It’s not even officially Fall, and we have to share intent for high schools. Now I must say, since 6th grade the school has been prepping the kids and parents for high school through a variety of activities. There have been High School Fairs where there are no less than 20 schools represented. They range from public to private to military to nearby and elite boarding schools in attendance (the military school rep kinda scared me so that category is out of the running). One of the things I learned from attending these fairs was from the Thatcher School representative. The school is in California where kids are given horses on their first day at school and they care for these horses their entire stay. The Thatcher representative told us, look at the fit of the school for your child and don’t worry about costs…many of these schools are well endowed if there is a financial need. Our current middle school, Quest Academy, also had alumni visit the middle school kids and parents and talked about how they selected their high schools. The alumni represented were either in high school and there is usually a college kid. The middle school kids were so engaged with the alumni because they were able to relate to them in a way they wouldn’t if it were an adult. They were held in the evening with pizza & soft drinks and highly interactive.

The third one – Reminding us it’s time to know the details about the high schools, dates for testing, and the process for placement at our child’s preferred school selections. You can get this information from the Student Services office of your child’s intended school(s) to make sure that you are enrolled. We are encouraged to schedule times for our child to shadow schools of interest. — okay, I feel awful right now because my son wants to be homeschooled like his IBF’s (International Best Friends) so he can dedicate his time to piano practice and performances. The reason we put our child in a variety of programs in the summers was to expose him to golf, tennis, fencing, basketball, music, technology, game design, museum, zoo, stock market, and other camps all of those years, was to enrich his experiences. My other selfish plan was to have him on the Ivy League track. But you know, I’m working with an old paradigm…many of the new billionaires and people changing the world didn’t finish college and some not even high school. It’s a brand new world out there.

One of the big lessons for me has been, never limit yourself because of your current circumstances and PREPARE yourself and kids to think about high school and college. I know in my heart it will all work out in the end, but in the meantime, I’m working hard to be that good enough mom so that my child has a solid future to contribute to the world something meaningful.