I was worried about the same thing too during my son's first year at TIP camp. I had to pay the balance of his homeschool class tuition while he was gone and I was a little worried that he'd come back wanting to go to a brick-and-mortar school. He came back totally recommitted to homeschooling. I think he saw how good he has it! I just picked him up from UGA for his second year of TIP camp. Once again, he absolutely loved it. He participated in the Criminal Law and Mock Trial class where his teacher was a lawyer with 36 years experience as a criminal defense attorney. She brought in a lot of guest speakers: judges, public defenders, George Zimmerman's defense attorney, a lawyer who has argued in front of the Supreme Court, etc. He learned a lot and benefited from his teacher's encouragement that he has the brains and temperament for being a lawyer. The social aspect was great for him too. He got to spend three weeks with his intellectual peers. It was a breath of fresh air for him to make all the witty jokes he wanted, knowing that the people around him would actually get them. :-) They keep the kids busy during the evening with things that interest bright kids. And for a growing boy, a college cafeteria with unlimited food is heaven. He's already talking about next year. He has to decide if he wants to go back to UGA or head to the main campus at Duke. Decisions, decisions.

Thanks, ladies. I haven't been here in a long time, but I stopped by today to see if there were any old threads about Foodsaver vacuum sealers. Seeing these birthday wishes is a nice surprise!

Dropbox isn't the problem. It's a cloud storage service that lets you store your own files "in the cloud" so that you can access them from anywhere. It's the way people are using Dropbox that is the problem.

The author recommends taking a little break, then starting over back at Apples if your child is younger than 5th grade.

There are a lot of great seafood restaurants in Murrells Inlet which is between Myrtle Beach and Brookgreen Gardens. We like Drunken Jack's, but there are other great ones around there too.

I have a friend who is the music teacher at Briarwood Elementary. She and her son took cover in a faculty bathroom. The door to bathroom was torn off its hinges and flew into her and broke her foot. Miraculously, though, the door ended up protecting them when the roof collapsed. Her van was in the parking lot and is now missing, but her house and the rest of her family is safe. Her kids are begging to move.

I know, but with TIP he was in a room with other students his own age and I got a report from TIP that compared his scores with other students his age.

Taking tests designed for older students (testing out of grade level) helps give a better picture of what a gifted or accelerated child actually knows. On a test geared towards my son's grade level, he typically will hit the ceiling and I end up with very little usable information. Since we live in a state that requires yearly testing, I figure I should at least use it to get a good sense of what he knows/doesn't know! From the Duke TIP website:

For us it is outside affirmation that the As he earns from Mommy are real and the opportunity to take the SAT in 7th grade.

I'm looking at the Mandy, 100, and Claire. Maybe even the Tablet Hipster. I have already decided to get the turn lock wallet. I need to carry two checkbooks, and the turn lock will do that. Now to decide on the pattern. I love Plum Crazy, but it's not on sale.

So I just had a hysterectomy on Wednesday and I'm pretty doped up on Percocet at the moment. Did I say something wrong, or are you saying that you can't pick a favorite? Help out this woozy invalid. :-)

I'm looking for a new purse and my mom has convinced me that I want a Vera Bradley. I've been having fun looking at all the different styles. What's your favorite? I would be fine buying one used, so feel free to recommend discontinued ones.

Everyone is right that CC uses Saxon in the Challenge levels, but you don't have to use it at home yourself. My son does LOF at home. Sometimes he'll say, "I learned how to do this in class," but usually he already knows the math before he gets to class and is able to participate with everyone else. (His class is doing 8/7, but he's doing LOF Pre-Algebra.)

I would love to see the ability to memorize the tables up through 15x15. We are in Classical Conversations and that's what they teach, but there is *nothing* out there that goes that high. We've used Timez Attack and Times Tales to learn up through 12x12, but we've just had to muscle through the 13s, 14s, and 15s using flashcards and drill sheets. Also, Timez Attack stresses out one of my kids.