Number 1 son grads. today

[robivi3]

Well,
That day has come. Son numero uno graduates today. Did well on SAT's. Above the 1270 mark needed. In AP classes this year with 3.25 GPA for the year. However, 9th grade horsing around cost him a full scholarship and the necessary 3.5 GPA. Still, he is going to get 75% of everything paid, so, not to bad.

Son numero dos realized the mistake of numero uno and will round out 9th grade with a 3.0. Not bad for a transition year (Jr. High to High School), big cheese to little squirt. Son numero tres (also in ninth) is going to require some prodding...

Off to the ceremonies, good nite all... Next week he gets his first car ( a 96' Buick Century) and I get a $2400.00 jump in annual ins. premium!

Incidentally, the Century is listed on AIG's site as a cheaper car for beginning drivers. The cheapest (per call to an AIG rep.) are the KIA, Metro and GMC Sonoma, all of which will get your child killed in an accident, I've owned Centuries and they are fairly solid.

[edwards2]

Congrats to your No. 1 son...Where is he going to college?

We have 4 sons and a daughter. Our daughter is a CPA, married and has 3 girls; the oldest son is in the service in nuclear engr; married, baby on the way, the next son graduated from college and teaches autistic children, the next son graduated and is in the Art Dept of a local college and our youngest is 15; he attends a private school and has a 3.7 GPA. He has the academics down pact but he needs a little motivation on other things, like work. All in all we are proud too. Hope they have learned something good from us.

[jane taylor]

Congratulations to you and your son! I know you are so proud! We are trying to survive the sophomore year with our son and the 7th grade with our daughter. My son also does well on standardized tests (says they are easy), but waits til the last minute to do projects and sometimes does not do homework.

What is he wanting to pursue in college?

[Minnymouth]

CONGRADS!!!! I know you've been waiting on this!!!

And I'm sure he's waiting on his "car"................

Be "proud" Poppa, you got him this far................!!! Now a lot of the future is up to him........

Minny

[SinkingFast]

Many Congrats!!

We know the feeling well. Went thru it last May.

Our son had really good grades, 3.8 gpa, and high ACT scores, but Hubby's job change kinda screwed everything up for our son. Hubby got laid off late summer, right before son started his Senior year in High School. I remember ordering the announcement packet. It came with return address lables pre made and thinking, "I wonder if we'll be living here when it comes time to mail these."

When all the other kids were applying to schools during fall of Senior year, son didn't know what to do. Didn't know if we would still be in Missouri or if we'd have to move. Once Hubby found a job and moved, it took son a while to decide what he'd do about College. Son had signed up for a special program offered in Missouri his freshman year of high school. If you complete it successfully, you earn 2 years free college at a Community College or State Vo-Tech school. Son earned his "A+ Program" but the credit wasn't transferable outa state. Several neighbors offered to let son live with them and go to school to use his A+, but son wasn't sure about living with another family. Hubby moved in January so son finally decided late spring what he wanted to do. By that time, all the scholarships were gone. It was too late to get any money.

Our entire life, the whole family, the last couple of years has been a total comedy of errors, for all of us.

[Minnymouth]

Sinking Fast,
Thats a shame about your boy and his chance at school....
Life can really dish out some hardships on all members of the family, especially during bankruptcy or right before it.

I hope he gets to go if he really wants too...............

Can he find a sponsor??? Often businesses will sponsor a student as part of their work program....

I know we do here in our office. Several of the girls here have gone to college and gotten their degrees while working here. Office paid for it......... and they worked 32 - 40 hours a weeks also..........

Hope it works out for him... can have an impact on the rest of this life.

[SinkingFast]

Son is going to school full time. He's studying Archetectural Drafting at a local State College. The tuition is cheap, relatively speaking. $85/credit hour. Books run about $500/semester. It's a 2 year degree program that transfers to a couple of other Universities. He'll earn his Associates here and then transfer to another University to get his Bachelor's.

Son also works 32 hours a week at Wal-Mart. He's a cashier mainly, but does odd jobs when work is slow. Last semester, he had one day a week off, between his class and work schedules. This semester, he's going 7 days a week. Classes run Monday thru Thursday morning. Work schedules him Thursday evening thru Sunday. At least he's able to save enough thru the semester to pay for his tuition for the next semester.

Now that we are somewhat settled, we can apply for aid for the fall.

[Kam]

My oldest daughter granulates the end of May. She has shown an interest in science since her first ACL repair in the 7th grade. She took three years of sports med in high school and is interested in med school or nursing. She screwed around though throughout high school, earning just below a 3.2. NOW, she's earning the high grades, but will graduate with about a 3.17. She blew her ACTs but they were adequate enough for her to enroll in our local university. She has a bad case of senioritis and has been working part - time since she was 16. She will register for classes the end of this month, and I'll be too busy advising and helping to register *my* students that I can't be a part of her registration activities. (sigh).

I hear you about the financial aid. We are applying for lots and lots of minority scholarships, but wouldn't you know that *most* of the scholarships are only good at HBCU (historically black colleges and universities)! And *those* HBCU's are in the southeast!

Costs for being a senior? Senior pictures = 550.00 (basic package). Graduation announcements = 207.00 (basic package). No class ring, although she has regrets about that, so we'll check out what Walmart has to offer. No letterman jacket since her second ACL injury in the 9th grade ended her basketball career. She has a car, signed a lease for a new two-bed room apartment (only 500.00 a month!) beginning in July. Grandmother promised to take her to the Virgin Islands after graduation so she can meet some family.

Interestingly enough, oldest daughter has been doing her damndest to get kicked out of the house. She's old enough to live on her own and I think she wants to, but is too scared to make the big move right now. Hubby and I refuse to "kick her out" which irritates DD even more. When I was her age, I was ready to move out and did so. DD doesn't have the same bravado to strike out on her own, but that's okay. I can enjoy her being at home for a bit more.

Then, there's our youngest daughter, waiting and watching.

[SinkingFast]

We didn't do the FAFSA for 2004. It's required to qualify for anything in the way of financial aid. With Hubby getting a severence and son not knowing what he wanted to do for school, I fig'd the FAFSA wouldn't help at all anyway. It would look like a ton of money on paper when there wasn't any money there.

Same thing for 2005. Hubby cashed out his IRA so we could pay off the 2nd on the house. Gonna look like a ton of money on paper again. But I'm gonna file it this year. One daughter will be in college full time come fall, and the other will be in college part-time as part of a special High School program available here. They can go in their Senior year of HS. Maybe that will help with the income issues somewhat.

Son tried to get a job at school to fill in dead time in his class schedule. Work as an aide watching over independent study labs. The College doesn't have enough money to pay aides outa Department budgets. Those jobs go to work study program students. The Dept Head told son to have us fill out the FAFSA and he could get a job thru work study.

Isn't it just amazing that you gotta have a 4.0 gpa and score 30+ on the ACT anymore to get any assistance??!!

[robivi3]

Howdy, thanks for the congrats, the post is very old though. Already at BCC and going into NOVA after that. My son is a Meschiach (no, not a messiah, I don't think I have the spelling right), the guy who does kosher meat and inspects to make sure the animal was killed right. He works for a local Rabbi and Koshers (is that how you say it?) meat for a Jamaican Kosher deli owner, talk about the UN!

I am not Jewish, never have been. He is messianic but goes to a sephardic synagogue. Not a fad, four years into this. Fluent, Greek, Hebrew and latin and of course Spanish. This is a LOOOOOOOOONG story, has even spent several weeks at 770 in New York. Hat, beard, whole nine yards. He fell in with several hasidic kids in school. They and a Palestinian boy were on his level intellectually and they all became fast friends. The palestinian young man is beyond genius level and was valedictorian. These guys grew up together since junior High and so i have a kid who goes to Church and Synagogue alike. He drives a Buick Century so when he goes out with his brothers the middle son says "our Rabbi is driving us around" and refers to him as "Rabbi Sexman". I'm not going to explain so please just take it all as I've said, I've told you all before we are an odd family. I have had wierd challenges in life but have had no problems with kids who are in trouble, morally adrift or bringing shame to the name. No drugs, little division, and all three brothers stick together like glue, mess with one problem with all, they are that close, laugh in family ok, make a comment about the Jewish son, you get a remark in return from a quick witted middle son (Surfer, Paintballer, California type). One Jewish, one Commando, one an Engineer by nature who knows firearms manufacturers and specifications back to freaking ancient China and knows every modification ever made to any factory produced T-bird. Most of you know i did most of my adolescent years in on Orthodox Jewish street on miami beach, so i did my share bar Mitzvahs, Cedars and my Mom did PR for a lot of entertainers so maybe it's a rub off, who knows?

We filmed our own "Stargate" episode in Markham Park last week, WP 90 (Stargate Automatics) Airsoft rifles, fatigues and all. Can't post the pics right now, new computer, need to add a serial port for the old camera.

[SinkingFast]

I didn't notice the dates, Robivi. I did think it was an odd time of year to be graduating, but different schools, different places, different dates.

Your brood sounds about as eclectic as our crew. 3 kids, same parents, you'd think they'd be similar. Nope. Different as daylight and dark from each other.

It can be a real challenge for parents to deal with such different personalities and characters. What works with one doesn't work with another.

I love the "That's not fair. So and so got such and such." They are individuals and we've always treated them that way. One may need something that costs more money, while another needs something that's less expensive, and the other one just requires time. Took them a while, but they've finally caught on that being treated fairly doesn't necessarily equate to spending equal dollars.

They are good kids. We have been truely blessed that way. No drugs. No drinking. They pick good friends. They call and check in when they are gonna run late. They call and ask permission if plans change just to be sure it's OK first. If it's not, they say OK, tell friends they gotta go home, and they're on their way home. They always let us know where they are and who they are with. They may fight with each other, but if someone from outside picks on one, they get the other 2 in the bargain.

[SinkingFast]

It was a lot of work to hopefully produce such good people.

We have only had one main rule. "You don't lie. You don't cheat. You don't steal." That's it.

The rest, we'll work with. Doesn't mean they won't get punished, just means it goes better for them. If they lie, the punishment is MUCH worse than if they'd told the truth. As they got older, we'd let them decide their own punishments sometimes. They were always far harder on themselves than we woulda been.

I remember when son was young, he'd take stuff from the displays that line the check-out at stores. We'd get out to the car and he'd have candy or gum or a little toy. Unload stuff into the car, and walk back in to return what ever item he'd taken. Telling him the whole time what he'd done was wrong.

One day, I'd had enough of his little antics. I scared the BeJesus outa that boy. He'd taken something from the check-out at one of the Pharmaceutical Superstores that's kinda like a dept store. I was PO'd to the max. Unloaded the bags into the car, grabbed son, and we MARCHED back into the store this time.

I wasn't Miss Nicey Nice like before. We went to the Customer Service area and had to stand in line and wait our turn. The whole time I'm telling son what a bad thing stealing is. That it's not the right thing to do. That God doesn't like it when people steal. That he can go to jail for stealing.

We finally get up to the Customer Service window and I got a great store rep. The Lady played along with me real well. I made son tell her what he'd done. She asked him if he knew it was a crime? That he could go to jail? As she asked that question, she pointed to a uniformed security person who looked like a police man to my son. Son's eyes got as big as saucers. Face went white. The Lady talked to him a bit about how stealing is really cheating all the customers. How everyone has to pay higher prices because of stealing. Then she softened and told him because he'd been such a brave and good boy for coming back in, confessing what he'd done, she would let him go this time. But don't let her catch him doing anything like that again. Then she looked at me and I mouthed "Thank You" to her. She said, "No. Thank You." to me.

I felt bad at the time that I'd been so harsh with such a little kid. But it worked. Son has never stolen another thing, ever. And I don't think he coulda got a better lesson, short of actually going to jail.

I had a friend who's son was much older. A teenager. Shortly after that, her son got arrested for stealing a pack of gum from a store. It was all a stupid joke. The kid had the money. Coulda paid. My friend had to pay restitution to the grocery store. For a pack of gum?? I thought. Well there was attny's fees, criminal charges, lost wages, other stuff tacked on. That pack of gum wound up costing nearly $1000. Plus the kid got probation and had to do community service. Thankfully, he was still a minor at the time so when he turned 18, the records were sealed and no one will ever know.

[robivi3]

My oldest once stole a keychain (4-5 years old?) from the corner grocery in North miami. My wife took him to see the owner (Kuko) and he played along, scared the living you know what out of him, plus what I did when i got home.

No problems since.