Kindercare (Minneapolis, Mankato, Wayzata: buying, high school, university)
Minneapolis - St. PaulTwin Cities
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ok, as far as curriculum, I have heard that 6 year olds at Wayzata are stressed out with their load. T me that's unfortunate. Sports - I think it's too bad that a lot of kids that want to play probably can't because of the size of the school. Attitudes - I'm over this one. I agree that there are probably hundreds of nice kids and I'm just not that concerned about this anymore. I have raised my kids to be polite and caring and they will find the kids that they want to be friends with. Glenfield, it's hard to have a discussion with you when you clearly are not seeing the big picture here.
So would you prefer a small district? Unfortunately, I don't think there are too many that are in the closer parts of the metro area - certainly you won't see Hermantown-sized graduating class (I believe you mentioned Hermantown before...I graduated as one of 158), but if you go a bit further out, you might be able to find something that would give more opportunities.
A forum is a place is discussion where people can talk about topics and agree or disagree. All we want is for you to find the best place possible. And we don't want to steer you away from a potentially nice place because some people see it as snooty.
Golfgal. Your school has to compete in National History Day. Each student does it once in high school. See http://www.mnhs.org/school/historyda...ults11_000.pdf
Notice zero kids are listed from Blaine, Coon Rapids, Cottage Grove etc. There are a lot of public school finalists. But only one was from Wayzata West Middle School. But notice how many are from Breck, St. Thomas Academy and a public school called Stewartville Middle School. All I can say is those schools place a lot of emphasis on history and they obviously have a strong program.
When I was speaking to the importance placed on sports, I was talking about averages. Of course academics has a strong focus with a subset of parents. The band students (and parents) get it! But the majority of parents (even good loving parents) place a lot of emphasis on sports and to a lesser degree academics. But making a team creates a level of competition that gets more mind-share than hitting a class rank. Without question Blaine, Mora, Champlain and Hermantown etc all have a subset of students that are focused on academics.
Parents look hard to find the best hockey camps. But did the parents search and send their Kid to Boys or Girls State? Mine did. Did the apply to Gopher Business Camp at the CSOM and get in?? Mine did. Did they apply at the Medtronic Engineering summer student program? Mine did. That's just the start. So to prove my point, look at the amount of Kid's that attend sports camps versus academic camps. It should be obvious that parents place a larger emphasis on sports versus striving to do your best in school.
Just as you need to search for opportunities in hockey and tryout for Select Teams, you also need to search and tryout for academic programs. I talked to other parents to see if they were interested. In every case it conflicted with golf, hockey or some other sport camp. Some thought Boy's State was too nerdy.
re: the ACT. With most students, a point of two on their final ACT score isn't going to matter. For instance if you KNOW you want to attend St.Thomas, an ACT of 28 is plenty good. But an ACT of 30 probably isn't good enough to go to Stanford or 30 other colleges. So that $1000 price tag was a three year open program that got you unlimited classes. Some of which was a small group of 4. The class gave techniques that could give you more time to get that better score. The "free" ones teach it but you don't perfect it. That $1000 was well worth it for my Son. It opened up all kinds of (granted) scholarships. His undergrad bill will be zero. They also have a $99-$299 program and in hindsight that would have been good enough. But do realize that a year of "Breakfast Club" at MN Made (see The Breakfast Club | School Year Clinics | Minnesota Made Hockey ) costs over a Grand a season. The result WILL give you better hands on the ice. It might be just enough to make Johnny standout on the ice so Mom and Dad don't have to play as much politics. Now Mom and Dad can sit in the stands during high school knowing that Johnny made the team. How can you put a price on THAT.
Golfgal. Your school has to compete in National History Day. Each student does it once in high school. See http://www.mnhs.org/school/historyda...ults11_000.pdf
Notice zero from Blaine, Coon Rapids, Cottage Grove etc. There are a lot of public school finalists. In fact, (only) one was from Wayzata West Middle School. But notice how many are from Breck, St. Thomas Academy and a public school called Stewartville Middle School. All I can say is those schools place a lot of emphasis on history and they obviously have a strong program.
When I was speaking to the importance placed on sports, I was talking about averages. Of course academics has a strong focus with a subset of parents. The band students (and parents) get it! But the majority of parents (even good ones) place a lot of emphasis on sports and to a lesser degree academics. But making a team creates a level of competition that gets more mind-share than hitting a class rank. Without question Blaine, Mora, Champlain and Hermantown etc all have a subset of students that are focused on academics.
Parents look hard to find the best hockey camps. But did the parents search and send their Kid to Boys or Girls State? Mine did. Did the apply to Gopher Business Camp at the CSOM and get in?? Mine did. Did they apply at the Medtronic Engineering summer student program? Mine did. That's just the start. So to prove my point, look at the amount of Kid's that attend sports camps versus academic camps.
Just as you need to search for opportunities in hockey and tryout for Select Teams, you also need to search and tryout for academic programs. I talked to other parents to see if they were interested. In every case it conflicted with golf, hockey or some other sport camp. Or, they thought Boy's State was too nerdy.
re: the ACT. With most students, a point of two on their final ACT score isn't going to matter. For instance if you KNOW you want to attend St.Thomas, an ACT of 28 is plenty good. But an ACT of 30 probably isn't good enough to go to Stanford or 30 other colleges. So that $1000 price tag was a three year open program that got you unlimited classes. Some of which was a small group of 4. The class gave techniques that could give you more time to get that better score. Sorry, free classes at the school isn't the same. That $1000 was well worth it for my Son. It opened up all kinds of (granted) scholarships. His undergrad bill will be zero. They also have a $99-$299 program. But do realize that a year of "Breakfast Club" at MN Made (see The Breakfast Club | School Year Clinics | Minnesota Made Hockey ) costs over a Grand a season. The result WILL give you better hands on the ice. Now Mom and Dad can now sit in the stands during high school knowing that Johnny made the team.
Do you teach at Kaplan or something? Funny thing is, the teacher that does these classes at our school also teaches the SAME CLASS at Kaplan . Maybe our school is just different but ACADEMICS are king. It IS important to do well in school and every parent I know would not allow their child to participate in sports/activities if their grades were suffering. One of our best athletes last year only got into Brown, Yale, Harvard, Cornell and Notre Dame, dang, too bad his grades were so poor because of Football. I am sure he is really struggling with all of his classes at Harvard this year, and he is NOT on an athletic scholarship.
I don't know where your child went to school but here the top athletes are the top students.
As for National History Day, maybe they do, I have never heard of it and we have one through high school and 2 juniors??
Do you teach at Kaplan or something? Funny thing is, the teacher that does these classes at our school also teaches the SAME CLASS at Kaplan .
Kaplan writes the ACT's so it is logical to get the instruction from Kaplan. Every school gets these "free" Kaplan workshops by Kaplan teachers. Part of their goal is to show you that a free class isn't enough for some students. For some students it is all you need. Last year an Anoka Kid got a 36 (perfect) his 1st time (now a West Point) and never took a prep class. Many professional hockey players never attended "breakfast club" either. The ACT material isn't hard per say but it's a skill to test fast. If you don't have that skill, you need to relearn a procedure that they teach that will shave off a lot of time. You will never do problems like that again in your life so it is a learned skill set that CANNOT be obtained in a free class and it take practice and practice and practice.
For what my Kid wanted to do, he felt he needed at least a 32 and he has the rest of the package (GPA, class rigor, class rank, etc). To be clear some do well with timed tests and others not as well. Hence, he completed at least 15 ACT practice tests. The 6 week class for instance, you take the test 6 times working on these (odd) techniques. It worked. He went up 5 points.
If your child takes exams fast, then that courses value is diminished.
Last edited by MN-Born-n-Raised; 11-03-2011 at 06:54 AM..
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. Maybe our school is just different but ACADEMICS are king. It IS important to do well in school and every parent I know would not allow their child to participate in sports/activities if their grades were suffering. One of our best athletes last year only got into Brown, Yale, Harvard, Cornell and Notre Dame, dang, too bad his grades were so poor because of Football. I am sure he is really struggling with all of his classes at Harvard this year, and he is NOT on an athletic scholarship. 
