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SharoninTennessee

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  1. Just a note, if you do drive, allow plenty of time. We just got back from DC this past weekend. Our daughter was staying at the Cosmos Club in the Dupont Circle area (she was there receiving an award) and we stayed at a hotel in College Park. It was only 10 miles from our hotel to her, but due to the traffic set up (street lights at every city block, crazy roundabouts, and tons of pedestrians and cabs everywhere), it took us over an hour to get to her awards ceremony. It's not difficult to maneuver about DC, but you do need to allow more time than you would ever dream possible.
  2. Thanks! We have an accountant and that's what he said, but something about the way it was worded on FAFSA made me second guess it.
  3. How are you supposed to handle scholarships on your taxes? Do you list the scholarship income and then list the expenses or do you just list any scholarship income that is in excess of tuition? What about books, do you factor in their expense? If you do include scholarship income, where on the tax form do you list it? We were told that you didn't list scholarships since they're covering expenses, but the FAFSA very clearly asks how much scholarship income you claimed. Want to make sure we do it right. Thanks, Sharon
  4. Don't give up hope. My daughter also struggled with math. It was so frustrating for both of us, but no matter what curriculum we tried, nothing made sense to her. When she finally finished algebra 2 with a very low C, we were ecstatic. The state schools here in Tennessee seem to only require 1 math for humanities majors and that can be Math for Liberal Arts, so that's what she took her first semester of college. Well, suddenly it clicked. And not only that, but she actually enjoyed it. She ended up with a 97 average and decided to take Statistics just for the fun of it. Now she's working ahead in it and loving it. She's even considering taking Calculus for Business so she can minor in Marketing. So just know. There is hope. Sharon
  5. I know community college so often gets a bad rap, but I just wanted to share a positive experience. My daughter was totally not ready to go away to college this year and so she chose to go to the local campus of a community college. She felt good about her decision until she watched all her friends going away to college. Then she began feeling like a second class citizen. That feeling lasted until the first day of class when she realized what a perfect fit it was for her. Now she's done with her first semester and it's been obvious the entire time that she is exactly where she needs to be. The campus is brand new and it's a beautiful building. The school has eight thousand students, but this campus has only 500, a perfect number for a homeschooled, timid girl. She received the college's academic scholarship award which requires all scholarship recipients to work 5 hours a week on campus. 3 other students received the scholarship at her campus, 1 of which was another homeschooled girl. Working at the front desk with those other girls helped to make her feel like she truly belonged. Because it's a small campus, the classes are small. Which means she's been able to rise to the top and really connect with each of her professors. They love that she comes prepared every day, knows about the subjects, cares about the subjects, and participates in discussion. It's not been easy learning time management and figuring out that you have to work ahead sometimes in order to not get behind, but she's finally mastered it. Final grades haven't been posted yet, but she'll either have 3 A's and 2 B's or 4 A's and 1 B. There's a slight chance that she could end up with straight A's! Next fall she'll be going away to the state university an hour from here, and she'll be ready. She'll have had this entire year to prepare and go out with confidence and excitement. Oh, and what's really cool is that with the state scholarship and the school scholarship, her entire school costs this year were covered, including books, plus she ended up with another $400+ in cash left over! Hope this helps anyone who feels like community college is the right choice for their child, but is feeling pressure to send them away prematurely. Community college doesn't have to be a lesser choice. For some, it can be the best choice.
  6. If you're with Homelife Academy, she'll be considered a private school student and not a homeschooler. We're also with Homelife and my daughter graduated last year. This year she's going to a community college and she's already applied to go to a state school next year. For both, all they needed was the Homelife transcript.
  7. Just a proud mama update to say that at Nationals last week my daughter was awarded the Legacy Prize. http://creativity-found.org/legacy-prize/ Which means she's representing NHD along with representatives from the science fair, Harvard, some inventors contest, a school of the arts, and some music college. In April she'll go to DC for a reception at the Smithsonian and an awards ceremony at the Cosmos Club. Then they have a roundtable with Nobel Prize winners, Pullitzer Prize winners, and other recognized scholars. How cool is that? We were totally shocked when they announced her as the winner.
  8. I tried to respond, but it kept acting funny and it doesn't show any sent messages in my box. Or maybe you got a ton because I kept trying and maybe it sent them all. Let me know if you didn't get it and I'll try again. Sharon
  9. Sebastian, Just wanted to let you know that the national competition is this upcoming week and starting Sunday you'll be able to go to the website http://www.nhd.org and check out the websites and paper entries. My daughter's website is in senior individual website and it's on "Ephraim McDowell", the doctor who performed the first ovariotomy in 1809 (or sometime around then.) After the contest they'll delete the links, but if you bookmark the pages, you can come back to them later. That's what we did and really studied the websites that won. It was VERY helpful being able to do that. Also, on Thursday morning, History Channel will be streaming the awards ceremony on their website. Even if you don't want to watch the whole thing, I would encourage you to watch the parade of contestants at the beginning. It's a really neat thing to witness, all the kids in their state shirts carrying their state flags.
  10. My daughter raised her score 6 points. Math and science were her weakness, so she brought her score up by focusing on English. The most useful book series we found was Top 50 Skills for Top Scores. They have one for math and one for English, reading, and science. She gained 4 points from those books alone.
  11. My daughter has competed for the past 4 years and is hard at work on her project for this year. She's competed at the district, state, and national level and her desire is to make it to nationals again this year. National History Day has been her favorite activity in school. She's had a wonderful time creating the projects and has learned much not just from her research but from other students' projects as well. National History Day also opened up the door for her to have a week internship with our state Secretary of State. District competitions won't start until January or February and so they won't open up registration until a month or so before the contest. However, you can go ahead and contact your state or district coordinators and they'll send you a packet of information. I'm not sure what state you're in, but here's a link to our state page with plenty of helpful information to get you started including sample projects. If you scroll down to the bottom of the sample websites, you can see my daughter's website from when she competed at nationals. http://www.tennesseehistory.org/historyday.htm Let me know if you have any specific questions. I've worked with 23 students, 12 who made it to state and 5 who made it to nationals. It's a great program and homeschool friendly.
  12. Debbie, We're also in Tennessee with an umbrella school, and I've been wondering this very thing. I'm pleased with our umbrella school, but I'm not crazy about the formatting of their transcripts. Also, one of the scholarships my daughter is applying for requires that students include their ranking. Our umbrella ranks based on ACT since so many homeschoolers have 4.0. However, I don't feel that is a fair ranking compared to how other students are ranked. I would love to just do a homeschool transcript and not use the umbrella, but I wasn't sure if we could do that since technically in Tennessee we're considered private school students and not homeschoolers. How have others dealt with this? Thanks, Sharon
  13. Ecce Romani is readily available used for cheap. It's a little harder to find the teacher books, but they can be found. They're a fun way to do Latin and each level is a high school credit.
  14. I agree that if we weren't in Tennessee, I wouldn't bother with an umbrella school.
  15. The way Tennessee homeschool laws are set up, most homeschoolers go through an umbrella school, HomeLife being one of the more popular ones. With HomeLife, students are considered private school students rather than homeschoolers, so that might make a difference for some colleges.
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