I have a friend who has 3 children who earned their AA during high school, then transferred to a university for their remaining years. One of her sons had no problems whatsoever, one of her sons is still an undergraduate at the university, but her middle son had some issues. He was 18 or 19 when he graduated with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. His original plan was to go to graduate school immediately, but he found that employers (in the particular field he applied) were looking for applicants with a bachelor's degree, who would work for several years before getting their master's degree. So he was 18 or 19, entering the workforce as a full-time engineer, and he really struggled to find friends at work. All of the other entry-level engineers were 21 or 22 and social get-togethers after work involved meeting at bars, which he couldn't even enter because of his age. He's in his early 20's now, and it's not as much of an issue, but it was very difficult at first.

We ran outside here in Tampa but couldn't see anything in the sky from our house. Next time they launch one of these, maybe we'll go to DH's (40-story tall) building downtown to see if we can see it. If you've never seen a launch live, in person, there is nothing like it. I'm very excited to be seeing "big" things launch from FL once again.

Watching from Tampa. Hoping to actually see it in the sky when we run outside after the launch. We could see most shuttle launches in the sky from here, but my DD doesn't really remember the last shuttle launch.

All of these things are several hours away from Vero Beach, and not worth the (HORRIBLE) traffic if you have to pass through Orlando to get there. If you are not specifically going to Disney, stay as far away from Orlando as you can. I would recommend sticking to the east coast. The Atlantic beaches are great for active sports, and if you or your kids have ever wanted to surf, it's a great place to learn. Cocoa Beach (home of the original Ron Jon store) and Kennedy Space Center are about an hour and a half from Vero and are fabulous. If you are looking for a zoo, the Melbourne zoo is nice. If you are willing to drive (2.5-3 hours), St. Augustine is a great place to learn history. If you are in Vero in March, baseball spring training will be going on. If you do want to take a day trip to the west coast, Tampa has a lot to do - Busch Gardens, Florida Aquarium, Lowry Park Zoo, Tampa History Museum, gulf side beaches (which are totally different from Atlantic beaches). The Cracker Country museum mentioned above in Tampa is nice, but not so special that it warrants a day trip for itself. It is open as part of the Florida State Fair in Tampa February 8-19. Homosassa Springs and Crystal River are further north on the west coast, and the manatee viewing is usually best when the weather is colder. If you will be in FL after the first part of March, the water temps are usually warm enough that the manatees no longer need to congregate in the springs, and the viewing isn't nearly as good. Otherwise, I would just chill and enjoy the beach.

Guest Hollow has a lot of living books in their science curricula. http://www.guesthollow.com/homeschool/curriculum.html#science

Whether a university gives credit for DE courses or AP exam scores varies tremendously by school, and by program of study. If your DD wants to take an AP exam this year, NOW is the time to call local schools to secure a spot for the exam. Our local schools order their exams in February, so your window of opportunity to secure a spot to take the test is only for the next week or two. I was surprised by the fact that the high school where we are zoned told me that they would not let my DS sit for the AP Environmental Science exam this year. They are required to take allow homeschooled students who are taking AP courses through FLVS (the state virtual school) to sit for the exam, but since DS is taking APES through PAH and not FLVS, they said no. Apparently they have a large number of their own students taking this course, plus FLVS students, and the guidance counselor said they were "bursting at the seams" and only taking the outside students they were required to take. I called many other public high schools, who also either didn't offer the test, or had no room. Only a couple of private high schools offer the course, and one of them said yes. But even in a large metropolitan area, it was not nearly as easy as I thought it would be to get a seat for the AP exam. (I know other courses, like AP Language, would be easier to get a seat because more private schools offer the course.)

Shoveled snow. Or been snow skiing. Or lived in a place where it snows (except for the one time it snowed in central Florida in 1977 when I was 4 years old, that I don't remember).

I probably wouldn't include this info in a presentation, but I'd be prepared to answer the questions, "How many of your students who start out as physics majors end up switching majors?" and "What courses are considered weed-out courses or important milestones toward a successful degree?" When I was in college 25ish years ago, I was a biology major, and close to half of the biology major students ended up switching majors after Organic Chemistry I, which was considered a weed-out course. Many of those students became psychology majors.

The only cruise our family has been on was Royal Caribbean, and it was wonderful. The Cruise Critic website was very helpful to get tips and info about where/when to go, what to do, etc. March is going to be full-blown Spring Break in Florida. If you can wait, September was perfect for our cruise - the kids are all back in school, crowds were very low, and prices were at their lowest (but the downside is that September is the peak of hurricane season). If you don't want to wait that long, you may get a great last-minute deal on something in February, keeping in mind that President's Day weekend will be busy as well. I agree that a longer cruise length will help to weed out some of the party crowd.

I appreciate the requests that start with something like, "We appreciate your service but don't want to presume that everyone can continue at the same level as last year/event..." or something like that. Absolutely. And the people who did a certain job get first dibs to switch to a different role if needed, before recruiting new volunteers.

I was in an accident in September in which my 2011 Odyssey was totaled. (Other car pulled right into my path and was 100% at fault, but I hit him going 45 mph.) I was seriously impressed with the safety features - airbags, crumple zones, etc. They did exactly what they were supposed to do, and I walked away with just bruises. My van was an EXL trim level, which did include leather seats and sunroof, but was the minimum trim level to get the power liftgate. I absolutely LOVED the power sliding doors, power liftgate, and backup camera. There were pros & cons to leather seats (easy to clean, but HOT in the summer), but they were a package deal. I barely used the sunroof. I had no issues with my Odyssey other than just routine maintenance. It also held its value well. We had the 8-seat version, and while I agree that bucket seats make it a bit easier to get in & out of the 3rd row, it wasn't much of an issue. If we had kids who used the 3rd row every day and car seats in the 2nd row, I might want bucket seats for sure, but the 2nd row seats slid forward pretty easily to get into the 3rd row. The separate climate control was nice but not a dealbreaker for us - we live in FL so the A/C runs constantly about 11 months out of the year. It had a TON of room for both passengers and luggage. After the accident, I replaced my van with a Honda Pilot, only because DH asked me to choose a new vehicle that I would plan to keep for 10 years. My kids are now 15 & 13, and while I loved the Odyssey, we have outgrown the real need for a minivan and I don't want to be driving a minivan that long after they are grown. I do miss the room I had in the Odyssey, since my kids aren't driving just yet.

I had the same experience. I was totally grossed out when my mom gave me back all of my teeth, so I've never saved my kids' teeth.

We are longtime Sonlight users, and after the first year or two, I never bought brand-new whole Cores. Once I knew what I was doing and figured out what worked for us, I bought used IGs and bought used books piecemeal, then spent a year pre-reading the books myself. (So, for example, the year that we did Core B as a family, I was buying and reading books for Core C. Because I had read all of the books myself before my kids, I could discuss them without needing the discussion questions from the IG.) After we finished a Core, I'd re-sell the IG, usually for the same price I paid for it, since I had purchased it used. Some of the books are still sitting on my shelves because my kids (now 15 and 13) begged me NOT to sell many of the books. We tried SL's LA and Science, and they didn't work so well for us, so we used other things (BJU for English, then a combo of BJU + IEW; mostly Apologia for science, but not until around 3rd grade or so). My kids were combined until they were in 7th & 5th grades, then we separated them. By then, they were both ready to be working separate from each other. I even put together a year-long study of state history, modeled after Sonlight's style, when my kids were in 4th & 2nd grade. Just wanted to let you know that if you do want to continue with Sonlight, there are much less expensive ways to make it work. If you want to look at other options, however, I'd consider My Father's World, Heart of Dakota, Simply Charlotte Mason, or other literature-based curricula. Bookshark is the secular equivalent of Sonlight, with almost all of the same books, minus the Bible portion.

I live in Tampa and we avoid Clearwater Beach at all costs during March. It is a total zoo with tons of drunk college kids. The local schools are on spring break a bit earlier in March this year (Hillsborough County spring break is the week of March 12). Yes, the temps in June will be around 90, but on the beach itself there will be a sea breeze and it won't feel that hot. There will be afternoon thunderstorms pretty predictably every day, but they generally last less than an hour. You'll have more daylight in June, and the water temp will be more comfortable for swimming. If you really want a boardwalk-type scene and things to do, Clearwater has everything your DD's will want. A compromise might be to stay in Pinellas county somewhere south of Clearwater, like Redington Beach, and drive to Clearwater to sightsee (about 20-30 minutes). All of the beaches in Pinellas County are beautiful and they're all a bit different. A bit farther north is Tarpon Springs, which has a neat little shopping area and would be a fun day trip to walk around, eat Greek food, and sightsee (without spending a ton of money). Another fun day trip would be a drive to Sarasota, about an hour south.

My niece's husband is stationed there now, and they bought their first house in St. Mary's. They will be very close to some gorgeous places to visit - Fernandina Beach, Cumberland, St. Simons, Savannah are a few great day trips. Jacksonville is very close for amenities that you can only find in a big city, like sports, shows, shopping, etc. The weather is also very mild. They will get only a handful of freezes each winter, and can wear shorts & t-shirts (when not in uniform!) the rest of the year.

I live in Tampa, and I would personally avoid the Keys during Spring Break. Have you looked at Sanibel or Captiva? They will probably be busy and crowded that time of year, but more so with snowbirds than drunk college kids. Sanibel is one of my favorite places in Florida for an adults-only trip. I would definitely avoid Clearwater, Panama City, and Ft. Lauderdale during that time.

My kids did SWI A when they were in 5th and 3rd grades, and it worked well for us. I watched most of the videos with them so I'd know exactly what the assignments were, and required more from my then-5th grader. I found that a few of the source texts were a little "light" for my 5th grader, so I did swap a couple of them towards the end, but the program was flexible enough to make that easy. They went on to do the SWCC A after SWI and both did well with the program.

My printer just died. We've had an HP Office Jet Pro 8600 that has been a workhorse for me for close to 10 years, and it has just died. I need to replace it *quickly.* Can anyone recommend something that does the following: Duplex (copies on both sides of the page) Prints in color Scans Copies Prefer something with individual inks, rather than one generic cartridge for colored ink Wifi printing from 1 desktop, 2-3 laptops, and several iPhones Thank you!

Thanks for asking this question. My DS will get to Calculus by the time he's a senior, but I was wondering about having him take AP Physics 1 & 2 next year vs. just a good Honors Physics course for 11th grade.

For those who chose either Maya Inspektor or Kathryn Walker at PAH, could you give me some additional specific details as to why you chose one over the other? For instance, rbk mama's mention of "weekly assignments as opposed to daily assignments" is very helpful. My DS will most likely be taking one of these two sections for AP Eng Lang and one specific thing he anticipates needing is a letter of recommendation from his 11th grade English teacher for a couple of very selective universities (service academies) he plans to apply to.

My grandfather fell and broke his hip *while living in assisted living* and stayed on the bathroom floor all night because he wouldn't wear his call necklace/bracelet at nighttime. It was annoying, and he thought he was stable enough to get out of bed by himself to use the bathroom.

My kids really enjoy Ancient History, so I found a scope and sequence for high school that includes 1 year of Ancient History and 1 year of World History. You could call your two years something like Ancient World History and Modern World History, or something along those lines. All of the colleges I've looked into require at least 3 credits of history, and specifically want to see World History, U.S. History, plus 1/2 credit each of U.S. Government and Economics. I think your plan sounds good as long as you have all of the history credits required by colleges.

My MIL had double first cousins. I had never heard of it until I met my DH. I thought it was pretty neat, and MIL loved telling the story.

I am a USF grad and am currently working on prereqs for a graduate program there. I also live in Tampa. USF has grown tremendously since I was first a student there 25 years ago, and their business school has an excellent reputation. I agree with everything that has been mentioned about the campus. It's huge and he will need a bike to get around campus, and a car to get anywhere else not related to school events. (There is, for example, a bus service from campus to football games, which are about 20-30 minutes away.) I'd highly recommend living on campus at first if he can. Tampa is a fantastic place to live. Beaches are about 30-40 minutes away from campus, Busch Gardens is about 5 minutes away, Orlando is an hour away. There is something to do here all year long and the weather is fantastic (it's in the 70s today while much of the country is freezing). He can get away with wearing shorts and t-shirts (quite literally) about 50 weeks per year.

Our co-op does Apologia science courses. We meet 24 times over the school year, and spend 1-2 weeks per module. The students do all of the reading, OYO questions, and Study Guides at home, and class time is used for experiments, some lecture/demo, going over the study guides, and supplementary videos. They do roughly 1 experiment per module, so a few of the class sessions don't have experiments.