Making Sure

JT has had a problem finding the perfect fit in a college program for what he wants to do with his life. Actually, the perfect program does exist, at Berklee, which is well beyond the range of what we, and he, can afford for a college education. The Bachelor of Music in Contemporary Writing and Production with a minor in Video Game Scoring would be fantastic, but... money.

Since he doesn't want to be in debt for the rest of his life, we have come up with an alternative plan. He will get an associates degree from Luzerne Community College. While Music Recording technology is not quite what he's looking for, we think it will allow him to start on the path to where he wants to be. Yesterday at JT's music theory lesson his teacher suggested he look into the music program at Bloomsburg University. They do offer a B.A. in music with an audio/video recording track. But as we looked over the program requirements, we saw that like most music programs he has looked at, this one is more focused on performance than the composition component. The audio/video track does offer a few courses in music production, but honestly, the community college has a much more robust program for that. Even though he won't have any music composition classes there, we can continue with private lessons to develop those skills further. Once again, we are assembling our own education plan.

I feel like I've spent so much of my energy on JT's future, that sometimes it feels like poor EM has been left in the dust. But I know he will eventually be in the limelight as we work on his plan. Next year he'll be a 9th grader; it will be time to begin researching his options. For now, I just want to get JT's plan fully developed. If only I could have the confidence to know he is making the best choice.

Snowed In

You might have heard about winter storm Stella. She came to visit this week and dumped a ton of snow on us. I definitely got my exercise this week!

Last week was spring break for JT's community college. We decided to take the week off for our work at home as well. Unfortunately for JT, all of his instructors gave him projects to complete during his week off, so in the end, he did more work on his week off than he had the rest of the semester. Monday he returned to class, but that was the only day of school he had this week. The snow started Monday night, and by the time it was over, we had 20 inches of snow, plus drifts up to 5 feet. The college has been closed since Tuesday.

We didn't get out of our house until Thursday because of the drifting. This picture shows our township snow plow trying to clear the windiest corner on our road. I never mind being trapped at home so it wasn't a problem for me.

We completed JT's registration for the fall semester. In the end, we added one more class than we had planned. He decided to get the survey of math class out of the way in the fall semester so he'd be able to take a money management class in the spring. He will have 4 classes, for a total of 11 credits in the fall. This will be the most classes he has ever taken at once - very nearly a full time course load. He's been doing a good job keeping up with the work (with some nagging from mom) so I think he'll be fine.

The countdown is on for the end of the year. As of today, we have 31 days of school left for 2016-2017. JT will continue a few weeks beyond that with his college courses and finals, but our 180 will be finished on May 1. Then I have a couple weeks to wrap up portfolios and pack for our vacation to the beach. When I made it out of the driveway yesterday I did a little shopping while JT was volunteering at the library. I bought two new beach chairs. Just a little summer dreaming during the snowy mess!

What next?

Registration for the fall 2017 semester has just opened for JT's community college. We spent some time this week looking over what will be available and making a plan for his senior year of high school. The end is so near!

We have a few things to consider when choosing classes for JT. First, he needs to meet the requirements for his high school diploma program through PHAA. In order to meet those for his senior year, he needs to take two semester of English courses, choosing from composition, speech, or literature courses. We are running into a problem for next year because the satellite location he attends for the community college only offers three English courses. He has taken two this year, so he only has one left. We think we can solve this problem by adding a distance learning course the college offers in the spring of 2018. He will also need an art course to meet the last of his high school diploma requirements.

The other thing he needs to consider will be the program he plans to enter when he officially begins his college years. He's trying to take as many of the courses in that program as he can while still in high school. The remaining courses offered at the satellite that fit those requirements would include a math, sociology, and health course.

Our plan for fall will be that he take art appreciation, advanced composition-contemporary issues, and nutrition and wellness. In the spring semester he will take survey of mathematics, cultural anthropology, and the distance course, western lit. At the end of his senior year, he should have no remaining general ed classes for his associate's program remaining. If we lived closer to the main campus, he would be able to get some of the other courses out of the way, but it's just not going to work that way until he is going to the main campus full time. As is stands he will graduate from high school with 32 college credits under his belt. He still hasn't decided if he will go straight to college after he graduates or if he's going to take a year between to work and save some money. Those are decisions for the future. Right now I'm just happy that his first year taking college classes has gone so well for him. 4.0 grade point average in the fall semester and classes this semester seem to be going just as well so far. The future is looking bright!