Thanks for posting that link, Sebastian. I've seen it before, but I had forgotten about it. My son is a junior this year, and he will be applying next year (first choice USAFA of course, LOL). He'll apply for summer seminar this year, but I'm trying to help him not be disappointed if he doesn't get it! He's not really the target audience, as he is the son and grandson of USAFA grads. I am definitely concerned about him getting an interview, much less a nomination, since we are also in the super-competitive NoVA area. I am pretty sure our representative has almost no nominations to give for next year--I need to check on that again (the reason would be because he already has his limit of people he nominated at the Academy, right?). At least ds is eligible for a Presidential nomination. He does have back-up plans for ROTC or either VA Tech or VMI. It will be an exciting year!

Ha, my son got one of those for an engineering program, also run by Envision! It was expensive, so we threw the mailing away, LOL. It sounded to me like a resume-padder thing for rich kids.

Yes, me too. My oldest took the National Spanish 3 exam last year at a local high school. I had administered the Nat'l Latin Exam (no, actually I taught and my friend administered!) a few years ago, so I had thought that was how the NSE would be, but no, it was completely different. Anyway, it took a whole lot of hassle to get our kids registered for it, and it was administered by computer. The high school had a big room with laptops, but my son's laptop didn't work! His screen didn't say what it was supposed to say. The teacher came over to try to help, but she didn't know much either. My son was mortified that everyone was gawking at him. Eventually everyone else started, and he got moved to a different computer, but he definitely lost some time, and then the teacher stood over him for a little while to make sure the computer was working correctly, which also flustered him . . . it was very stressful, and NOT a good experience at all! I can NOT imagine having that scenario for something that really counted, like an SAT or ACT! What a NIGHTMARE! (And we live in a very wealthy area--Northern VA--where typically no expense is spared for schools. And the computers still were troublesome!)

I too recently read this book, and I posted a very long, very detailed review of the book on my blog here. I read it and blogged about it for the specific purpose of being able to copy and paste my blog post to send as an email to our church leadership, so they could be aware of these issues in men, since there is a woman I am in a one-on-one Bible study with who is in a marriage with an angry controlling man who fits this book perfectly. So in my review, I am really pulling out specific things from the book that really fit this one situation! The book was very helpful for me, and it also shed light on my sister-in-law and her ex-husband's relationship. Since I wrote the post, friends have been coming out of the woodworks to tell me about friends they are really concerned about that are in this kind of relationship. My eyes have been opened as to how common a problem it is.

We have the book too, and it actually is written to the kids, not to the parents. So I read it aloud over the course of several months, a section or 2 a day, during our "character time". I think it was helpful, although it definitely isn't a magic wand or anything, LOL. You can tell your daughter it's a book about another family of siblings who had problems getting along, and they tell stories about some of their fights. I didn't even read it through myself before I started reading it aloud!

We have Corelle white plates too. I LOVE that I can have a stack of 18 of them in the same place where I had a stack of maybe 12 of my old plates. We have some of the smaller salad size plates as well, which the kids use for lunch. One of those broke when it got placed on a high chair tray by one of the younger kids, and the baby hurled it off, but that is the only plate we've broken. I really do love them!! ETA: We got most of ours at Walmart. I think we picked up a few more at the Corning Ware store in the nearest outlet mall once.

I saw someone suggest "Honors Microeconomics (AP Equivalent)" as well. I'm only giving 1/2 credit for each AP economics class, even though we are taking a year for each one; same for AP US Government and Politics. On the AP teachers forum for gov., the teachers were talking about how they add in a little bit of economics so that they can count the class as a full year credit, even though most of the time is spent on government. I don't know who legislates how much credit to give though--it may be school-by-school policies, as opposed to some official policy handed down by the College Board or something..

Yes, sort of--a topographical map that is seen from the side, if that makes any sense at all, LOL.

I'm teaching about landforms to 1st and 2nd graders in our elementary co-op on Tuesday. I remember seeing (*somewhere*) sort of a cross section of the US, showing Atlantic Ocean, then the land rising to the Appalachians, then the flatter, but higher plains, then the Rockies, etc. Since we're going to be talking about hills, mountains, plains, and so on, I thought it would be neat to show them how all those shape our country. But I can't find anything like that anywhere! I'm not a real terrific googler--I tried things like "cross section map of the united states", among other similar things, but no luck. Any suggestions? Thanks!

I had my kids use the Barrons test prep book. It was pretty good for the SAT II (the AP one was worthless).

I love the name Peter! That is what I wanted to name our last boy, but unfortunately my dh grew up in an uncouth part of the US that uses that name as slang, evidently, and he thought his family would tease our son for having that name. Knowing his family, they probably would, even though here in Northern VA, Peter is a fairly common name. Also, as an Air Force brat myself, I have moved around a lot, and I have never ever heard anyone use Peter as slang. Dh is from a state with no Air Force bases, so I never had the misfortune of living there, and this state also has draconian homeschool laws, so we'll never move there, LOL. But alas, I doubt we'll ever have a Peter. I'm hoping for a grandson with that name!

This is exactly what I did as well. I've submitted biology and US government (and gotten them approved in just a few hours both times). I think it makes it easy to see I have included all the required elements.

You know, I had trouble with that part as well. I think I ended up calling the help number somewhere on the site, and I talked to a very nice gentleman who walked me through the rest of the process. I wish I could remember exactly what I did, but I can't, and now that I have an account, I can't get back to that screen. I do remember that the code they want is the same as the PSAT homeschooling code for your state. It was confusing! I hope someone can help!

Another military family here--although we actually retired here! I never in a million, billion years thought we would retire here. We live in a different part of town than most military people because my dh wasn't stationed at the Pentagon when we transferred here. So we are out west more, as opposed to more south. I definitely hate the traffic, and how you really can't do much socializing in the evenings because everyone gets home so late. Most things happen on the weekends. And it's expensive. Everything. But we also have a fantastic church, and also not one but two amazing co-ops! One is for elementary kids, and the other is a small one we started with 3 other families for junior high and high school. This is a highly-educated area, so it's possible to find people whose educational goals are similar, so you can start a rigorous high school co-op, LOL. So as far as homeschooling goes, this area has been really wonderful, and that is one of the main reasons we stayed when dh retired (that, and his clearances were worth more here than anywhere else, unfortunately, so this was the best place for jobs). Also, there are so many extra-curricular activities for homeschoolers here. Lots of sports opportunities (even not-so-popular sports like fencing or archery), drama groups, musical orchestras, debate, art opportunities, etc. That has been really nice as well. My dh now works at the Pentagon since he retired, and he takes a bus in. It is a direct bus, so he drives to a metro park-n-ride lot, gets on the bus, and drives straight in to the Pentagon. It takes right around an hour, door-to-door, but he has time on the bus to read, chat with a friend that also rides, or nap. He comes home a lot less than stressed than when he was doing the actual driving! So that hasn't been terrible, like I thought it would be. Yes, it would be lovely to have a 5 minute commute (or even the 20 minute commute we had when we first moved here, and he was working in Chantilly), but it's been okay.

I've had 9 natural, unmedicated births, most of them in military hospitals. I found The Birth Partner to be very helpful, and it's what I recommend to a lot of the first-time moms who come over and talk through natural childbirth with me sometime in their last trimester. I have several handouts and whatnot I give out and talk through--I wish you lived close to me! :) I tend to breathe really deeply and slowly as long as I can. I focus on something like a spot on the wall, and just go really deep within myself. I switch positions a lot, and do a lot of the asymmetrical swaying and rocking to get the pelvis to open up and the baby to be able to do all the swiveling he needs to do to be born. I also drink liquid calcium during labor, which helps. Then when I get to transition, I usually lay on my left side, so my husband can put his fist in my back and give me counterpressure during contractions. Sometimes I have to breathe faster and shallower to stay in control during the really intense contractions. Like others have said, though--each birth is so different. You just never know! With my last birth (#9!), the baby just would not move down, and I would not dilate more than 6, even though I felt like I was going into transition. It was the middle of the night, and I was really tired, so I asked about trying an epidural. I figured I might as well scientifically compare! Well, they decided to put an internal monitor on the baby's head before giving me an epidural, so that took a little while. After they got that hooked up (and confirmed I was still at 6 cm), I rolled over to wait for the epidural guy to come, had one more contraction--and felt the urge to push! The doctor confirmed that I was in fact complete, and the baby was born about 4 minutes later! I say it's so the birth stories don't get mixed up! :)

This is all interesting. My oldest just took the SAT for the first time (no prep) in May, and he got a 770 on the critical reading part. He was not an early reader, and in fact he has some of those "writing gates" I read about, where the info is in his head, but he can't write it down. He has terrible handwriting still. He did take off in reading when he was 7, and he has always enjoyed reading a wide variety of material, but literature is not anywhere near his favorite class! I attributed his good score, well, mainly to the grace of God, LOL, but also to all his reading, good vocab work in our little co-op, and lots of Latin growing up. I read aloud fairly often when he was young, and we listen to a lot of books on CD when we travel. I need to read aloud more now to my littles . . . this is a good reminder to make that more of a priority this school year.

LOL, I agree! I used some textbook comparison website, and I found a used copy (of the year I needed) for I think $40. But everywhere else even used was around $90! Sebastian is right though--a lot of kids are looking *right now* to buy their books for their classes. I found the same thing last year when I was looking for used Campbells Biology books. I bought 2 used really cheaply in April--but when I was trying to find tests for the other kids in my class in July/August, I couldn't find one easily for less than $30 or $40! But by December, prices had plummeted again.

Potters School uses The American Pageant (by Kennedy, Cohen, and Bailey) for its US History class (non-AP). We have the book, but my son is taking the class this year, so I don't know about slant.

Okay, I am finally back! It should be just fine to keep using the same biology text. All the info is in there, along with a ton of stuff that isn't needed anymore. Here are a couple of links for you. This first one is from the College Board. Whatever biology book you are using, click that tab, and you will see a breakdown by chapter of what needs to be covered. But be warned--it is an almost 200 page document! With that in mind, this second link is to someone's syllabus. On page 9, she has a beautiful, one page summary of what chapters and even what sections in those chapters need to be covered! So the first link gives tremendous detail, and the second link gives the big picture. Basically, chapters 1-27 are important, but all of the phyla chapters (28-37) are not covered at all. Only 3 body systems are covered: immune, nervous (partially--on a cellular level, primarily), and endocrine. Evolution is HEAVILY stressed. Cell signaling is another important theme. Genetics and ecology are also very important. Plants are really not covered much at all, except as examples, esp. of cell signaling and hormones. As far as what to teach differently--I'm not sure. I am still really thinking about that (and I'll be teaching chemistry next year, and then AP bio again the following, so I probably won't really come to any conclusions until next summer, LOL). I think, as I mentioned before, that the best way to prepare for the new exam is to prepare students to think logically. I think that is the advantage for homeschooling classically. The kids I taught had already studied logic, several years of Latin, etc. They were all very logical and analytical thinkers. I know they all did well on the multiple choice section. The free response questions are I feel where they lacked, especially since that was what the big report from the College Board said (that the lower scores were because of poor FRQ answers). Other than doing lots of practice FRQs, which we did, I am not sure how else to prepare for those. I think my kids were familiar with the scientific method, setting up good experiments, etc., although I know there is always room for improvement. Some of the problem with the FRQs seems to be that there is now a pretty inflexible rubric of answers they want, which would lead to lower scores. Here is the thing though--although the percent of 5's was so low (5%), the actual raw scores from this exam were NOT lower than they have been in the past. But the cut-off for a 5 was much higher! I'm going to paste a quote from a teacher on the AP forum: No, what happened is that the grading standard changed, BUT NOT THE STUDENT PERFORMANCE. (going from a historical average of 18% 5's per year to only 5% this year). Based on the percentage of raw points earned, STUDENT PERFORMANCE NATIONALY WAS BETTER on this year's exam compared to past years. Here is what I mean: from 1990-2012, (23 years of data) to get a 5, a student had to get around 60% of the raw points. (Some years, like 1999, the percentage was even lower). Historically, only 17-18% of the students could get 60% of the raw points or better. This year, 26.8% of the students were able to get 65% of the raw points or better!! Based on this, the test WAS easier for students as a whole, compared to past years. This is driving me crazy! By making the cutoff for a 5 so much higher, it makes it appear that the test was harder for the students than it actually was. So basically, it really is just that much harder to get a 5. People who would have gotten 5s before--didn't. And none of the teachers on the AP forum were prepared for that. Most teachers on there had only 1 or 2 5s, and many of who they considered their best, most diligent students only got 4s. It was even worse for 3s. Hardworking students who had A averages (but maybe not the most innate intelligence) got 3s, while lazy students, who rarely studied and had C or D averages--also got 3s. The teachers were very frustrated. I think it will take a few years of getting test results to really see exactly what the College Board is looking for. Hopefully each year, the test prep books will also be able to become more helpful. They were a complete waste of time last year. Well, with all that rambling, I probably didn't really even answer your questions, so please feel free to ask me more, and I'll try to clarify!

I'm on my way out the door, but when I get back this afternoon, I promise I will respond!

You can go to the National Latin Exam site and print off copies of past exams, plus the answers. Those are so helpful in preparing. Also, someone on here (magistrahahn) posted a list she had made of common culture questions on the nle. My boys studied that, and it was also really helpful. Here is the link for the list.

Ha! This was me a few years ago too! My mom brought a huge box of every paper I ever worked on from elementary school! What really made this amazing was that I grew up in an Air Force family too, and we were stationed overseas, so all. this. paper. actually was counted toward our weight allowance in a few moves!! What in the world?! I went through all the stuff, and there were a few cute things in there, like a little picture I had drawn of my dad in his flight suit, and a story or 2. But a good deal of it was worksheets. Other than to point out to my boys how very much nicer my handwriting was at various stages than theirs, I tossed it all immediately. And haven't regretted it at all!

We have friends here in VA who did the religious exemption. I thought she told me that it was for people who were never going to use the public school system. She and her husband never were, because they believed they were responsible for the training of the children in all ways, and I was under the impression (may not be accurate because to be honest I never really thought about the option or asked many questions) that she didn't think that, having taken the exemption, she could ever have her kids be admitted into the public schools. I'm sure that's not totally accurate, and there are ways to get out from under an exemption, but just saying that maybe the family in this article had that impression too. My friend did, however, test each year, just for herself, because she wanted to keep track of progress and be aware of weaknesses, so obviously not at all the same situation with her kids!

I am the test coordinator for our big co-op. We use Stanford, but we order with BJU, so it would be the same. This year one of the students wrote in the book (and I didn't catch it because it was an 11th grader(!!) who has tested many years with us, so I wasn't looking too hard by the time I got to her booklet, grrrr), and I had to pay I think $5.00 to replace that test booklet. So technically the cost is $5.00 a booklet, although I always figured if the box got lost, and we had to retest, I would want insurance to cover the cost of the tests that the parents paid ($30ish?). I usually send back about 40 booklets and tests, so I insure my box for $1300, which adds not too much more to the cost of shipping--about $6.00 or $7.00, I believe. I have each family give me $4.00, and that covers the shipping and insurance costs.

Well, our friend's son got the bronze medal, and his camping trip was at a state park. It wasn't even that far away! I haven't really looked at the requirements for certificates. I think my son is planning on the bronze medal, and possibly the silver. Like I said, camping trips are the only thing on his radar screen!