A public service announcement about old yearbooks

I am pleased to share - my senior yearbook (1979) went to a county library. I used the post office’s book rate, shipping was very inexpensive. (My brother is now looking thru his things to see if he still has his yearbooks.)

This is not the library in my old high school town. It is actually the next town over, but in the same county. 

This library has a very large genealogy department including a huge collection of local high school yearbooks that they have scanned and put online. Their goal is to get one copy of every yearbook from all the high schools in their county. 

The 1931 yearbook, from my maternal grandfather, is posted on their site. 1931 was his sophomore year. His other three years worth of yearbooks are missing from the collection. He went to a high school two towns over from mine, but in the same county. 

In the process of looking at his one yearbook online, and (really) missing the other three of his years, it was clear the library needed more yearbooks to complete their collection. I found they had all their gap years posted on a “want list” by high school. And I realized all my own high school years (and my brother’s) were on that list. I called to verify and get the shipping address. 

The librarians were excited. I was bittersweet. I was so glad to have found a worthwhile home for my senior yearbook, but a little sad to only be shipping one book, not four.  

I thought I had yearbooks from all four of my high school years. And I thought I knew exactly where they were, in a box in the attic with my husband’s yearbooks. But mine from 9th thru 11th grade were not there, which is a mystery. 

In the process of hunting for my missing yearbooks, my mom realized she still had a variety of yearbooks from her second husband. Some high school, some college, some from when he was teaching, all of these were old. I donated them to the genealogy department my local library, they have a national collection of materials. They are very pleased to get them. 

Working on classroom supplies

Middle and I worked on bulliten boards all last summer. As an RA she had four large boards in her hall (60 girls on her end of her floor, big dorm). There were a few boards which are really only appropriate for a girls/college/dorm floor (great naked yoga article, std's, getting along with your roommate, etc). The vast majority of her boards contained holiday, seasonal or general topics that would work for college or age 3 - snowmen, food, sunglasses, turkey, etc. She has a supply for a teacher's lounge board too - reducing stress, posture, Dr Mom Says, exercise, communication.

We continue to add to her stash (great Olympic stuff on sale after they ended earlier this winter).

She has a wide variety of teaching clothes and shoes too. I worked very hard on this last fall.




Middle did not know it, but I started picking up classroom stuff a couple years ago.

I gave her these things over spring break, because she is in the classroom more and more. If you are trying to remember - duel early childhood ed (ece) and early special ed (espce) major.

She has a bin with larger size, plastic mammals, bugs, reptiles.

She has funnels and measuring cups/spoons for science experiments.

She has finger puppets.

She has three sets of animal dominoes.

Etc.




While she was home over spring break, we hunted through a great resale shop which is run by a local church.

We found a pair of large (1 1/2") dice, and Junior Boggle and Junior Yahtzee.

We found a tunnel. It needs a little sewing, but is good otherwise. She has a second tunnel we got (new) with a 40% off coupon.

We found the deal of the century on a Cranium Super Fort. We paid $44.99 for what we have seen
listed from $250-350 on ebay and amazon.

The pictures below are of her actual pieces. They came in four large totes that originally came with the set.

60 red ball joints
80 red C clamps
23 blue feet
4 purple square walls
5 blue panels
3 green panels
4 purple panels
4 orange panels
3 red panels (larger)

78 poles, the yellow ones are flexible, the orange ones rigid

these were the only broken pieces out of the whole thing -
6 poles (end connectors are broken) she is saving them for other uses

We also found this gem at a local store on clearance -

Preschool catch - where ever your thumb lands, you make the sound of that animal. They come in all different topics for many ages and are called THUMBALLS,

There is a huge flea market/garage sale event in our area (geared towards families) later this spring. We are going to attend and hunt carefully.

Also, long ago, when I packed up the kid's books, I packed up all kinds of things for middle to use as teacher reference materials - craft books, science books, lists of reading books, etc. There are two huge bins of them. I also saved actual projects the kids made in school. There are some great things in that bin too. Middle did not realize until last week that those bins existed. They are a wealth of resources too.

More college prep

I probably wrote this long ago.

When oldest was 3-4, we shopped high schools.

Literally.

We went to school fairs. We went on high school tours (with a 3-4 year old). (Oldest wasn't helping us choose, he was just along for the ride.)

When we decided on the right high school, we worked backwards thru the feeder schools.

So we picked kindergarten based on the right high school.





For us, that turned out to be Catholic/Private school system.

Oldest ended up also going to a Catholic under graduate college. Youngest probably will too.

Oldest's grad school (5 year doctorate program) is public. Middle's undergrad is public too.

Even though our kids were/are all in private high school, where almost all the kids go on to some level of higher education, the guidance department is not independently proactive when it comes to college, in my opinion.

The families need to take action, show interest, make college visits, plan themselves. The guidance department does not get the kids into college. The parents/student get the child in college.

Colleges visit our high school on a regular basis. A service comes in and is available to give families an idea of what level of college financing might be available (based on income/circumstances). Guidance is very good with meeting with the kids each year for high school class planning.

But they do not look at every single high school class a student should take.

So things like oldest's need to take high school calculus to make it through college calculus does not happen through guidance. It happens through the parents/student.

Another class similar to the calculus situation is anatomy/physiology. If a kid thinks they are possibly going into any form of health in college, they need to take anatomy/ physiology in high school. Some college programs use anatomy/physiology as their weed-out class. Kids are required to take it first semester freshman year, one chance to pass, must pass with a high grade, will flunk out of the entire program based on that one class.






Youngest and I had a very good college admission meeting yesterday. Very good.

This is the same school where middle and oldest took college classes while in high school.

Youngest is a sophomore in high school. She is planning classes for junior and senior year right now. She will also take college classes senior year. She wants to pick college classes that will count for high school and also for her four year college in the future. In order to have all that work, yes, have to figure it out sophomore year.

The college advisor yesterday made me realize that much of what we expect from high school guidance actually is available in the college admissions offices.

Yesterday's darling woman took the time to talk to youngest about the three colleges youngest is considering at this point.

The darling woman showed youngest where/how to find the course requirements at all three schools online and suggested youngest figure out 4-6 classes common to all three schools.

(All of these lists were specifically talking about freshman year for computer science majors, for youngest. The lists were very different.)

In other words, she taught youngest how to think about it.

Then (as the next step) she suggested that we talk to each of the three schools to see if credits transfer between the local school and their school. She said that the registrar is often the right department for those questions or the specific department (if the child knows their major).

For one college (this will be the one I will refer to for the rest of this post) the woman had printed out all the information to show youngest the level of math and science required in this field.

It was a major list. That did not intimidate youngest. Youngest thought two things - she was excited to see many of the classes listed and she realized she was going to pass her doctorate bound brother in level of math classes. We do not have sibling rivalry, but we do have healthily competitive kids. GPA comparisons are common between youngest and oldest (who are 8 years apart).

In looking at this list, yesterday, we realized youngest needs to take physics in high school. It was worth the appointment just to hear that one word - physics - because we might have missed it.

Only three science classes are required for high school graduation - biology and chemistry and one elective.

Youngest took honors biology her freshman year, is in honors chemistry now, is planning to take AP Chemistry (advanced placement) as a junior. We were thinking that was all the science she needed. Wrong.

She is now picking up a fourth science class senior year, one credit above what she needs, because she will be taking a lot of physics if she is in computer science at that one college she is considering.

Discrete math was also on the list for that same college. Middle and oldest both took discrete in high school. Youngest would have to drop calculus to take discrete. Oldest said she would be able to handle a college level discrete class without discrete in high school. That it was more important to take two years of high school calculus (she will have three levels of college calculus at this same college).

So yes, great meeting yesterday. The local college admissions woman knew youngest would be at her school for four classes and then moving on to a four year college. She talked to youngest about how to make sure youngest was taking what she needed in high school to prepare for college. How to take the right four classes at the local college. And how to ask the right questions at future colleges.

What I realized in all these high school/college discussions this week at our house and at the meeting yesterday is the information we (as parents) desire from the high school guidance offices is available from the college admissions offices. But one has to be talking to the colleges by sophomore (high school) year in order to implement the information.

If you are new to reading me, by the end of the summer after youngest's freshman year, she had done six college visits. Of those six, she had a real interest in three. Those six were carefully chosen. It does not surprise me that she would love the three she loved.

We are going back to one of the three (the one with the specific class list I referenced above) over youngest's spring break. We are going back to the other two (they are fairly close to each other) first thing this summer. At all three college (2nd) visits we are meeting with computer science people (we did general tours the first time). We are looking at class requirements. That will give us enough time to change her high school classes for junior and senior year.

She is pretty sure she wants to be in math/science field, but not anything in the health care field at this point. Probably in computer sciences. She was considering law at one point, but has now dropped that thought.

When I call to schedule visits, yes, sometimes I get a slight "she is too young" reaction. Not always, but sometimes. I explain, very simply why she is not too young. I firmly believe initial visits need to be done by sophomore year to be sure they are taking the right classes junior and senior year.

College Prep

With each kid, we learn a little more.

We are on the third kid.

The year before middle started high school, the oldest sat down with her and mapped out classes for four years of high school.  That class plan changed very little over her high school years. She also took one college class per semester her junior and senior high school years (at a local college). She knew where she was going to college and that she would be duel early childhood ed (ece) and early special ed (espce) major. So, we were able to coordinate between the two colleges to be sure the local college classes counted toward her long term college requirements.

Youngest is a sophomore. She and I sketched a four year plan for high school classes when she was in 8th grade. She made several adjustments to that plan last year, looking forward to her next three years. Earlier this week, we adjusted that plan again, looking to her junior and senior years. We also have a call into the same local college where middle and oldest took classes (while in high school) to talk about possible classes for her senior year. It looks as if she will be half days 3 classes at high school and 2-3 college classes each semester her senior year. The college classes count toward her high school credits, so planning is required to make sure all high school requirements are met.

We have learned to really plan ahead, looking at college as they are in high school.

An example of learning the hard way -
Oldest did not take calculus in high school and it bit him in the butt. It was difficult for him to do well jumping into required calculus class at the college level. He ended up using a tutor for the entire semester. He knew it was going to be tough, so he hired the tutor before the class even started. He also attended all study tables organized by the calculus class teaching assistant. He passed with an -A. He didn't retain much. But he passed with a good grade. The skills from calculus do not apply to his current doctorate work. So that class was simply all about doing what he had to do for his GPA.

Middle did not need calculus as ece/espce major.

Youngest might need calculus at college level. We don't know. We are prepping as if calc will be required at college. So we talked to the high school math department head (summer before her freshman year) to make sure of which math classes she needs each of the four years. Youngest rechecked with that same teacher (who she happens to have for honors adv algebra this year) to see which level of calculus she should take junior and senior year. If you have not been around high school in a while, there are several levels for many classes. So for example her teacher suggested pre-calculus/trig (honors) her junior year and then depending on how she does will determine what level (there are two levels of AP) of AP (advanced placement) calc/trig she takes her senior year. There is also a college level calc/trig available to her senior year, but we suspect that might be too stressful. We think it might be better to take two years of high school calc and then take it in college (if required).


When we looked at high school classes when youngest was in 8th grade, she was not sure what she might want to study in college. She also did not know what college she might attend. Now she thinks she is interested in some type of computer degree. And she probably will attend one of three catholic colleges.  So we reworked her high school class plan to allow her to take computer classes offered there.

When we meet with the local college, we are asking what computer classes might be available there.

Oldest took English comp, business, psychology, and maybe a history class at college, two per semester, his senior year in high school, while going half days to high school. I think all these just counted toward his electives at college. He did not know his major in advance.

Middle took psychology, eng comp, speech, and one other class, one per semester, her junior and senior year in high school. She went to high school full time her junior year but had one study hall. She went half days her senior year. At the Christmas break her sophomore year in college, she was a junior (class credit wise). She takes 17-18 hours, easily, deans list each semester, at college.

Yes, college classes are offered at high school (now). But I think being in an actual college classroom, with a college professor, prepares the kids for college better than a college class at high school. It is just not the same.

Even if the college credits (earned while in high school) did not count toward their college (not all credits transfer to every college), the experience of doing the college level work is really valuable to their long term success.

Youngest has talked to oldest repeatedly about high school class choices, local college class choices, potential future (4 year) colleges.

My husband and I both went to college and each earned a BA. But we were not smart about it. We would have done many things differently if we had known. And this is not hindsight speaking. This is the fact that we did not have guidance at the time. We certainly did not have parents or older siblings planning with us. I have no older siblings. Husband has one of his three older sibs who actually could have been a mentor, but wasn't. All four parents were no help at all.

There are a lot of things we could have planned better for oldest, but for the first kid, we did not do too badly. He is in a doctorate program (and doing well, knock on wood) after all. But yes, we know and he knows there are smarter choices we could have made.

And as I said, even though he is far away on the east coast, he is very involved with the girls.

He was coordinating with middle's new car all fall. He told me she needed a Garmin and which one to get too (he was right, and actually I went and got it without arguing, I trust his judgement).

He is coordinating with high school/college planning with youngest all these four years too.

I think that is important for the girls (he is a wealth of information, if something happened to my husband and I, they would be used to counting on/coordinating with oldest already) and also important for his growth as a man (men should love, honor, serve the women in their lives). 

Clothes that children with autism would consider friendly or fun

It is never Autistic Children.

It is children with autism.

You might remember middle plans to work in a specialized clinic/school, one on one, with preschool children with autism.

I watch for clothing these children will appreciate.

We call this first one the Dr. Seuss sweater. Can you see why?

(actually Put Me in the Zoo was not written by Dr Seuss, instead it was written by Robert Lopshire).





Children with autism tend to have favorite things.



Sometimes these are numbers -

Sometimes these are dinosaurs -

She has both the numbers and dinosaur sweaters from Target. Don't get your heart set on them, they are mostly gone now.


We are on the look out for a great solar system shirt or sweater. So far, those we have seen have been too arty or abstract. The kids will be happier with something in more of a classroom poster format.



She also has a collection of (actual) costumes including cowgirl, witch, gypsy.