That's wonderful! Congratulations to your daughter.

Thank you for sharing this!

She's just beautiful, and you and your husband look so happy. Congratulations! Now I'm going to go read more on your blog about you journey to this happy point.

:grouphug: Much love for you and your family.

We all (kids, husband, and I) want to experience other cultures and really get to take in a place. Ideally, Id like to live somewhere for a year! If we do this, we'd all fly over with my husband, then he'd return to Alaska for work and the kids and I would stay. He'd come join us again when he could, probably in 1.5 or 2 months. Besides wanting to stay and really take in the culture, the airfare is so expensive a longer stay just makes sense for the cost of getting there. LOL But the hang-up is the cost of housing. I've been quite discouraged lately looking up rentals. Thank you, Lily_Grace and MBM, for your input.

What if a person wanted to stay for 3 months in Rome? Or anywhere else in Italy? Is there any way to find longer term and less expensive rentals? Or perhaps the problem is that we want to go in the summer which is probably the most expensive time of year.

I have never felt at home, that sense of belonging, anywhere that I have lived. Note, I'm not referring to the houses, or the home that my children, husband and I make together, but to the larger sense of belonging in the town, or even state, where I live. We've been in this current town for 10 years. I imagine that it would be wonderful to feel that sense of place here, but none of us do. My kids, born and raised in the state, feel no sense of attachment to it, or this town. I do wonder how much of that has to do with my kids having been on the "outside" for their early years, being homeschooled in a small rural town. But what I most wanted to mention, in case it benefits anyone else who doesn't feel that sense of rootedness, is that the first account I read that described how I felt was in the description of what many Third Culture Kids feel. Kids who live several years in their home country, the in another country, then possibly another or back home... and as a result don't have that sense of being rooted in any place, that sense of belonging. This can come about in more ways than the example I just gave that involves country hopping. For example, someone whose father is of one culture and mother of another may grow up not only not feeling they don't fit in either culture, but not feeling a sense of being rooted anywhere, even if they spent their entire childhood in one town. Anyhow, it was nice to read about it, and see that I wasn't alone. Wanted to toss it out there in case anyone else in the "No" answer group would be interested. (I haven't been on the forum in ages so probably no one remembers it, but I'm the one who asked years ago about "Where should we move to?" and lots of wonderful suggestions were given. We are still here though, still wanting to move, only now the kids are older, we don't have horses anymore, and we're thinking about spending time outside of the US together before all of the kids have left the nest.)

Yes, some of it was not knowing the grammar vocabulary being used, but a lot of if was definitely stuff she had never seen. (Not to say she wasn't exposed to it in reading and translating, but she was confident she had never gone over it from a grammar angle, discussing it, learning what it's called, etc.) And there was a lot of Latin vocabulary she didn't know. I found myself torn - Start again with Wheelock's with Lukeion, or see if I could find a college Wheelock's class online. Ultimately it came down to her schedule this year, and she decided to go with Lukeion. One of the instructors at Lukeion wrote about her experience with having taken an immersion approach to Latin in her undergraduate studies, and wrote, "I quickly discovered that while my graduate school colleagues had a firm grasp of grammar and syntax, I had precious little. My 'reading immersion' introduction to Latin was flabby and boneless. In the middle of an already hectic graduate school schedule, I started over with Wheelock." If you'd like to read the entire thing, it's on this page under Do We Teach Classical Latin or Late Latin at Lukeion and a bit more under Why Do We Use Wheelock's Latin. Amy also said she wouldn't think of it as wasted time. Still, it's a shock.

Well, I have a very sad girl on my hands. She stopped the Latin 3 preparedness test halfway through as it was so apparent she did not know the grammar she needed to know. She feels as though she has wasted three years. (Yes, three, because she then went to take the Latin 2 preparedness test and found there were grammar questions on there she didn't understand.) I feel just sick about it.

Thank you, everyone! I heard back from Amy Barr about Lukeion's Latin 4 AP class. My daughter is going to take the Latin 3 placement test today. Amy said she'd need 80% or better. Both my daughter and I are curious to see how she does after three years of Lingua Latina with The Potter's School. My daughter is unsure of taking an AP class this year. She took AP US History class last year and it took up a lot of time. And thank you also for pointing out that taking college Latin 1 wouldn't look good.

I tried searching, please forgive me if this has been covered and I failed to find it. My daughter took Latin I - III with The Potter's School using Lingua Latina. This is her senior year. She wants to keep studying Latin so she doesn't lose what she's learned. I was thinking perhaps she should just go ahead and take an online college Latin I class, but I'm not sure where to start, or what materials to look for. For example, would you look for Henle over Wheelock's or something else? Do you think taking a college class is a good option, or is there something else you'd recommend? Thank you! :)

Thank you, AmeliaB! I'm off to read it now.

Thank you all for your thoughtful responses. To answer some questions - She doesn't have a writing group, nor has she had her work read and critiqued by anyone outside the immediate family. Yet. We have talked about how she might support herself while writing. Not from her writing, but from another line of work that would allow her time to write. She has been writing fiction and sees herself continuing to write fiction. This school year will be her 3rd for Latin, 2nd for Spanish, and 1st for Japanese. We were hoping to spend 9 months in Spain so we could all really learn the language (and other wonderful benefits), but that was before I learned of the 90 days out of 180 in the EU limit. Rosie, not being gamers I had to look up what GURPS means. Sounds like fun. :001_smile: This isn't so much about her earning a living as a writer as my wondering what more I could do to support her in her goal. I've been at a loss, other than a good general education, giving her time to pursue her writing and other interests (the living life part), and foreign languages. I really appreciate everyone's input. Thank you.

My 16 yo daughter writes every day, and wants to be a writer - she sees herself writing for the rest of her life. She is strong in English and has used many of the MCTLA materials. She reads a lot, both modern and classic. She has been writing for the past four years; she's definitely serious about it. I've talked with her about ways she might support herself while writing and we've brainstormed on that. When we (universal we) talk about a someone who wants to go into medicine or engineering we talk about what they need to be strong in by the time they graduate HS, and what they might major in in College. What are these things for a writer? What do you think she should be well grounded in, what do you foresee would be of the most benefit? And if she should go to college and study for the sole purpose of being a better writer, what would you recommend? Thank you in advance! :001_smile:

I don't know if this is the case throughout the state of Alaska, but where we live now a student can not play sports on a public school team unless they are enrolled in that school district's charter school or one of its public schools. We are very rural and there are no team sport opportunities outside of the public school here. So I enrolled both my 7th and 5th so they could play sports. I find the paperwork and reporting to be a hassle, but my kids love playing basketball and volleyball. With the charter school we are with, (not IDEA) I can use whatever I want to teach my child, but the charter will not reimburse for religious materials. My neighbor is with IDEA and I know she has accepted the secular biology text (for example) from IDEA, but then used Bob Jones. Whether she has to pretend to use the secular materials or not, I don't know. ~The kids are tested yearly in reading, writing, and math. ~In order to play sports I send in eligibility reports every month for the high school student, and every week for the middle school student. These are simply lists of grades earned in each subject for the week or past month. ~I assign grades for my children. ~I do not turn in work samples. ~In order to graduate from the school district, the student will need to pass the Alaska Qualifying Exam (I think that's what it's called). ~In order to graduate from the school district, my students will have to have fulfilled credit requirements. These are basic, but I do find it to be a pain, such as when we are studying history one way, and they want it broken down another way. I would not say my rights are being eroded. The right to homeschool independently is guaranteed in our state constitution. I've chosen to use a charter school and to jump through some hoops so that two of my three children can play sports. I've been told that many of the changes have come about due to public school parents - that there were complaints that homeschoolers were being reimbursed for religious materials, when religious materials weren't allowed in the public school. On the high school level one can not count team sports towards logged PE hours. Why? I was told it was because public school parents wanted their children to be exempt from PE since they were playing team sports, in particular football. Whether any of that is true, I don't know. The article addressed the changes within the charter schools and I would say that yes, from the time they started to now, parents with charter schools have let go of some freedom and independence. But it's an exchange, whether it's done for the reimbursement money or to play sports, and one the parent has willing entered into, and one the parent does not have to take any part in. One can still homeschool independently in this state. Hope that helps!