Well the last two years we bought a big joint present. We both have birthdays near Christmas and often want the same thing. Last year it was a big screen TV and blu ray player. THis year it was a digital SLR camera. He got a small digital camera (non SLR) for his birthday too. It is easiest for us to just buy these big ticket items near CHristmas since the sales are usually better. I have done something else now too. I just buy gifts and decide who gets it later. That is because with music cds, one cd is usually good for all. With jewelry, it can be for either girl. For games, again either girl. Books are a bit different since they mostly read different things. Even clothes are now for either girl since they wear the same size in tops and dresses though not in pants.

I am sorry to hear about your son's problems. My dd is the opposite and she did very well in her one college class before and I expect her to have a much easier time in college since she is so auditory. I would try to find classes either online or at campus that rely on readings to a much greater degree than lectures. It will probably help if he is a math or science or something more analytically related like economics. In all those types of classes, the lectures were generally more explanatory than in classes like history or literature. That is why my dd is going into social science but why your son may do better by going into different areas.

Thanks for all your help. I will just make sure she goes to a college which has a choir she can join and then she can take some music classes as electives. After looking at what the music majors entail, it is most probable that she would be interested in Church Music or some other major that dealt with choirs. I could see her transitioning into a choir director at some point but I know she doesn't want to be a professional musician who makes their living performing. All the choir directors she has known are ony directing choirs part time. Otherwise they have other careers, sometimes in music and other times in a completely unrelated field.

No, my son didn't qualify since we were living overseas and that is the place with the highest overall cut-off score. He would have qualified in both the state we had lived in prior to us moving and the one we moved to after living in EUrope.

If your child does substantially better at one test versus the other, only do that one. WIth my oldest, he had similar equivalent SAT and ACT scores. I don't remember which he submitted but I think it was SAT because it may have been slightly higher. That was before the writing exam was introduced. Now my middle will only do the ACT. She scores so much better on it. On the ACT she is scoring on practice tests about as well as her IOWA and Stanford percentage scores go. Not so with the psat. SHe scored well below what would be the expected score. Since some colleges insist on all test scores (SAT and ACT), she won't have any SAT to give them, just ACT. She is also a very practically minded child and would rather write about policy than philosophical arguments. SHe will be taking the ACT without writing in Feb and with writing sometime later (I think that at least one of her colleges wants the writing test but others don't).

This was all put out on one list with many different sources. I wouldn't trust all the sources equally. That said, I am looking into some alternatives with the cans but don't expect to totally eliminate. I also will consider buying a popcorn popper but not the nasty air popped ones since I hated the taste. I was buying milk in Florida that was hormone free but have to check that out here. Everything is much more expensive here so it will have to be choices I make. We aren't eating enough fish as it is because of picky kids. I am not worried about either potatoes or apples.

My dd's and I saw the movie. We liked the Julia part and not the Julie part. I hadn't read the book nor the blog.

My dd who is extremely afraid of spiders asks how you can live there? I, the only member of my family who is not afraid of spiders at all, though I don't want to be bit, said if I lived in Sydney I would help capture the funnel web spiders for the anti venom program. She thinks I am nuts.:001_smile: Tell me about your interactions with spiders there, please.

Science and math are the things we don't outsource since we have the science equipment at home that is better than I had in high school and very comparable to what I had in college. Math I also don't need to outsource at least so far since both dh and I are good at math. I like to outsource writing because I find editing tedious. Each one of us decides what to outsource and what to do on their own. Many homeschoolers do the opposite of me and outsource the math and science. Isn't homeschooling great that we have the choices. Do look into outside classes of your own choosing. I think it is helpful to have 12 and up have some outside teaching and interaction with other students. That said, it certainly doesn't have to be a virtual school especially if that school makes you do everything with them.

Absolutely- I am ADHD and I drink lots of coffee to help me. Same with my dh who is probably even more mildly adhd than me. My moderately adhd son is also only using caffeine now but it is not as effective for him or the other problem may be that he isn't drinking enough caffeinated products. My middle one hates almost all caffeinated beverages (except for Jasmine tea) but she has severe adhd and does take medication.

I was looking on line and this article said that while you can usually do better on SAt with studying, you can't with ACT. Well I had my dd do a practice test about a month ago and she scored very averagely. WE went over the questions, told her not to assume she doesn't know and try anyway, and taught her a few things. WE did another one today. She improved in everything by a lot except English which dropped a point. I am buying her the Real ACT book, having her practice more tests, have her watch the relevant sections of the SAT prep course by CHalkdust, and then I think we will be set for FEb. Between the first practice test and the second, she improved from 23 to 27 composite score. I think she will be able to get a 28 composite if we keep working. That is all she needs to probably get into the level schools she wants along with her GPA and some good essays.

I don't play, sled, decorate the tree, do lapbooks, shovel snow, landscape, or make decorations. I do bake cookies and other things, garden (not much now in the cold), and teach. I also cook, sometimes shop, and do part of the care of the animals, My kids do the other part of caring for animals, decorate the tree along with dh, play, sled, shovel snow, and make any decorations that they want. I don;t like to decorate trees, play, sled, do lapbooks, make decorations, or shovel snow so I don't. I do teach, do most of the cooking (at most one meal a day), do some of the shopping, do some of the laundry (usually my own and linens), all the gardening since that is what I like, and most of the baking (I like that too). THe others like to decorate and I don't so I don't have to. Even if I wanted to go sledding, I don't since snowy weather and my arthritis don't mix well.

Hi all, My dd has been singing before she spoke and is a very musical child. She loves to sing but doesn't think it will be her career. On the other hand, I don't think it is something she should count out. I know she wants to go to a college with a good choir and I am thinking that maybe she could minor or double major in music. (I am really thinking of portable careers because her overriding desire is to be in a military family and if she can't be the member, she wants to marry someone in the military). As I think I understand it, there are two kinds of music majors- theoretical and performance, is that correct? WHat kind of requirements are typical for a vocal major? Is it like other instruments where they also need to play the piano? She had years of piano but stopped when she realized that she would never be able to read music quick enough when the music she was playing had multiple notes at the same time. SHe has a vision problem which normally isn't much of an issue but reading four or more notes at a time is a problem. Any advise?

My dh is in the AF but he has one of those jobs that many people don't know exists in the military- he is a physicist. There are not only physicists, but chemists, biologists, mathematicians, statisticians, enginners, material scientists, and behavioral scientists (not clinical psychologists though there are plenty of those in the medical branch). Just some more ideas about jobs in the military.

I think you are right, Martha. I know that much of the science and math teaching at the local CC in space coast, FL was considered good too. That is because they had a lot of retired and part time teachers associated with NASA , the Air Force Space Program, and another highly technical AF agency (AFTAC) plus large concentrations of high tech firms firms.

My son went to college when we were stationed in Europe. His father flew back with him for the beginning. Dh rented a car. He was able to help our son buy and transport a few items we hadn't been able to get beforehand in Europe. My son had the military ship him a a small shipment to his dorm. Other things they brought on the airplane. We had already found out that he would be able to store things in the dorm storage area. We don't yet know where we will be when dd goes to college. Most likely she will choose a college next year for FAll of 2011 and we will move in the summer of 2011 before her college. Not knowing where we will be living, we can't figure out anything about shipping. We will be inquiring of her potential choices about such matters because we are not shipping things overseas or across the US every summer.

I don't track anyone and don't plan to. My youngest is not going to places I don't know. My middle is busy buying presents and I don't want to know that. My oldest is an adult and I don't feel it is my business to track him. I think it is outright creepy to track one's spouse. Either they cheat and you should hire a professional to get the evidence or they don't and you are just a possessive jealous person.

Have her try the ACT practice tests. My dd is scoring similarly. I think the ACT will be better for her since in it the math is only 1/4 of the total score versus 1/3. Not only that, since two of the sections are reading (one is reading lit and social science, and the other is reading science and interpreting graphs) she will do well on both of these as well as her English which is more attuned with standard English and less with grammar. ALso, check if the problem is that she is answering too many wrong. I tried to help my dd with this by telling her to skip problems she had no clue about but I can see from the booklet that she normally had some clue but not enough. (SHE would narrow down to two with the right choice being one of the two often but she would choose the wrong one). THe ACT also doesn't penalize for wrong answers. Now it is equally hard, if not harder to get the very high scores in ACT. FOr my dd, I will be totally happy if she ends up with a composite of 28 or 29.

may I respectfully suggest that you look into a book called "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" by Thomas S. Kuhn? I am going to look into this book but not for evolution debates. I took a class from him in college and it was extremely interesting. Thanks for the memory.

I would say that the first thing you need to do is figure out what your own beliefs are. Are you a young earther- use the Answers in Genesis material. If you aren't, I would now suggest using their material. Look into material such as Darwin's Black Box, or some of the newer titles.

I agree with Amber and with several posters who reflected that while young children can be excused, older children are being rude. It is up to the parents to properly teach the children. It is rude to stare or ask personal questions of strangers or casual acquaintances. It is rude to ask another person about someone else's issue (wife about her husband's missing leg, child about family's income, etc.) It is quite a different matter if you have a need to know such as you need to know about a child's problem to help them in SUnday School. I don't need to know if they come from a wealthy family or poor family unless I am requiring monetary expenditures. Even then, we never ask but set things up in a way so no one is embarrassed or put on the spot. Do we fiund out about others? Sure. HOw else would we know that some fellow students have diabetes, have had a parent commit suicide, had two parents disabled and money was very tight, etc, etc. But we don't pry and don't put people ill at ease as best as we can. WHile a three year old can be excused and taught that we don't say "I smell stink" in a museum where a certain patron had a pronounced body odor, a 8 year old is just plainly rude.

My family knows what I like and they can get me that. Others don't and I usually don't like it (or am allergic- I am allergic to lanolin which is in many lotions).

I am not sure she knows why we don't have more kids, not that it is a secret, just that I haven't really brought it up. I have a chronic disease that went away when I was pregnant but came back worse after giving birth. I probably had it before my second, but definitely had it and was diagnosed before my third. After she was born, I had to go on medication that ruled out children while I was on it. Since it was what was keeping me able to take care of my children (and with an active duty husband who frequently travelled), this was not a hard dilemma. I went on the medicine so I could take care of the newborn. I had spaced my kids several years apart so I would have the energy to deal with them. I also found out that I had another medical condition that increased my liklihood of miscarriages and blood clots. I hadn't had any miscarriages but had had a blood clot. I never got off that medication and have in fact, gotten on even worse medication for pregnancy. We won't have any more natural children. I would just hope that even families who do think that everyone should try to have large families would teach their children grace and not to ask such personal questions. We have made it a point to teach our children not to ask other families why they have a lot or only one or ask married people why they don't have children. They may be curious but as middle schoolers and high schoolers, they should have learned not to ask everything they are curious about. Oh, and my daughter was amazed by the question because it was asked more than one kid and in a way like there was something wrong with her or us. She has been homeschooled her entire life and been in many homeschool groups. All the ones we have ever been associated with had at least half of the families being small to medium sized and this group is no different. I can't blame the parents though since they may very well have no idea there kids got the impression that large families are the only worthy ones or some such notion. Kids can get very strange impressions and ideas.

Prayers and :grouphug:. Could the darkness also be getting you down? It does that to me.

This one was a new one for us in our 15 years of homeschooling. My middle is in a co-op class with three other kids. All those kids come from large families. I think the teacher stepped out to get photocopies and these kids (all are middle or high schoolers) started peppering my dd with why our family only has three kids. My dd mumbled something about how having 2 adhd kids was enough (the oldest two are but the middle wasn't diagnosed until after the 3rd was born). That isn't the real reason but one that she came up with at that moment (probably because I had said to her that there is a reason most families with 7 or more kids have calm kids- they wouldn't have had 7 adhders.) Just a note to families with lots of kids, just like my kids aren't allowed to make rude comments about large families, other kids shouldn't be make rude inquiries about our medium sized family or someone else's one child family. (We do have a number of one and two child families at this co-op and our family is not that strange having three kids either. In fact, with a quick look through our co-op directory, the average seems to be around four).