I did not see that. I will have to check it out. Thanks!

Oh, that is a really good price. I just looked and we pay about $8 for a half hour. My dd has a particular person she really likes working with right now at Spanish121, but if she wants more speaking practice over the summer or next fall, I will have her try out italki.

I don’t know how Spanish121 compares with italki as far as price goes, but we’ve used it happily for many years.

I think there can be a balance and that you can still be involved in your children’s education, but also give them opportunities to develop the organization and planning skills they will need to be successful in college. I worked with my ds on math from kindergarten until he went off to college. I also worked with him on personal finance and macro and micro economics his senior year as well as many other classes over the years. But, he also took a number of classes at our local one-day-a-week homeschool coop during high school and he was very motivated for an outside teacher. He took it seriously and always had his homework done. He had the one day a week of class, but then he had to plan out when he would do the work and have the discipline to follow through with that. That’s how college classes work and I realized sometime in his junior year, that more than half the battle had been won when he could do that. Not to say that all kids need that practice before college, but, in my mind, it really has given him the skills he needed to be successful. And, of course, you can accomplish that without outside classes as well if your children are still motivated to meet your deadlines. Once my kids added in outside classes, though, I found mine were no longer a big priority for them. So, they will do the work I ask of them, but I have to frequently prod or remind them about it. And there were a number of subjects where I thought they would have a richer experience with an outside teacher.

My dd is interested in taking Japanese. Does anyone have any experience with the CLRC class? I’d also be interested in hearing about other online classes. Thanks!

Ah, I thought you were going to try and ship it.

I’ve sent my ds his favorite cake at college by implementing the “cupcake-in-a-jar” idea.

My dd started Latin in 6th grade at a local homeschool program and used Lingua Latina. This school prides itself on its Latin instruction, but, in reality, very few of their students make it to the AP level. I think that part of the reason my dd has done so well with it is that I really worked with her to make sure she actually memorized all the conjugations and I stayed actively involved with checking her work and making sure she understood everything through middle school. Many of the parents at that school get excited about the program, but then are very hands-off with their elementary and middle school children’s homework and I think they just get lost somewhere along the way. I think languages are very similar to math from the perspective that if you don’t have a strong foundation in the basics, you will only get weaker as you move on. The main reason she did well, though, was her aptitude and interest in studying foreign language. I began introducing Spanish and Latin in middle school because she was a bright kid who needed further academic enrichment and those subjects really sparked her interest. After completing LL, and trying a couple of other online Latin providers, she joined Lukeion the second semester of Latin 3 and really thrived in Sue Fisher’s class and then Amy Barr’s. She loves Latin and has continued with Lukeion’s self-study class and is currently reading Ovid in Latin. When I asked her what classes she wants to take next year, the first one she mentioned was Lukeion’s self-study Cicero. She has had similar success with Spanish. We really took our time at the lower levels and now she is reading books in Spanish. On the other hand, my other child had no interest in foreign language, so we focused our attention elsewhere.

I really look forward to my first cup of coffee in the morning. A couple of months ago, I started forcing myself to unload the dishwasher and start a load of laundry while it’s brewing. Now, it’s a habit. I work for a few hours in the evening and I’ve started to immediately clean and straighten my kitchen as soon as I get home for the evening before I go and chill out. I think I may try adding in cleaning the bathrooms each morning after I’ve gotten dressed. Or maybe right before?

I would definitely contact any school we were considering applying this way and discuss finances with them first, but it is interesting to hear what others think.

We’re not done visiting schools yet, but I think she will wind up with two or three schools she is very interested in. I was thinking it might be wise to pick one of those and apply ED since those applications have substantially higher admission rates. However, I have wondered if that is simply because they take a lot of full-pay students during that period. It would be interesting to know how many ED applicants get financial aid at the schools she is interested in. I will have to see if that info is somewhere on the common data set website.

My dd will be starting the application process this summer. I understand that early decision applications are binding. Does this mean that you can only apply ED to a school that you can afford to pay full freight to? What if it is a school that fully meets need and based on their online calculator, we can afford it? Is it still risky? Is there any way to get a better grasp on the actual costs prior to applying?

The benefits for my ds’s program (leadership vs honors) have been scholarship money, early registration (very important at his school!), better housing, being grouped with the more serious students, being forced to join a club and to find volunteer work (which he loves, but wouldn’t have likely done without being required to). The only downside from my point of view is that he has to minor in leadership studies which puts an extra academic burden on him and removes the possibility of him minoring in something else that might be more useful to him.

This is what my dd is doing. She has World History from all the Omni classes she’s taken, and Roman History from Lukeion, but as of this January (of her junior year) that’s it. So, right now, she is reading through all of Hakim’s History of US Books and then will take the SAT II subject test for History this spring. In the fall, she will take US Government at the CC. Like your dd, she has a ton of foreign language credits, so something had to give. She did have a lot of history in elementary and middle school, though, so we haven’t completely neglected the subject.😊

Dp

My dd was also very interested in taking an A&P class this year and had taken chemistry and physics, but not biology. I contacted Apologia to see how necessary it was to take bio first since anatomy was being offered at our local coop and they strongly discouraged attempting anatomy without bio first. The coop felt strongly about students having bio first as well. In the end, she took A&P I at our local community college, loved it and excelled in the class. She’ll take A&P II this fall. She won’t take regular biology in high school because she won’t have time since next year is her senior year.

Really? I took what she said to be rather mean spirited. Not sure how it could be taken otherwise.

Bless your heart.

Well, please, list all the things that Australia does so wonderfully. Because I'm pretty underwhelmed right now. But, that's enough for me. I keep my mouth shut most of the time, but I notice many other people are as well, and every once in awhile I just have to say something. I am patriotic and I'm not ashamed of it.

Okay, so since an American started it, then it's okay and it's not bashing. Just because an American started it, doesn't mean I have to agree with it. We are not all one and the same over here. And if the Aussies are so laid back, why do so many of them jump in on threads like this?

No, I am not saying she is bashing, and I hope regentude doesn't read it that way. I do not take offense to her post. I am simply responding to it. Or is that not allowed any more? I think I was pretty clear about what I considered bashing.

Yes, I am well aware of that. I am simply pointing out that I do not agree and I have to wonder why she would point the finger at Americans when a number of the people who seemed to feel the strongest in that thread were not even Americans.

Well, suggesting that Americans are wimps and then expecting that we should all just agree with it, for example. What if I started a thread titled "Are all Australians wimps?". I bet that would be quite contentious.

Pointing out differences isn't bashing, but suggesting that Americans are wimps is bashing, isn't it? It would be nice to see Americans stand up for themselves a little from time to time.

Yes, the US has been very prosperous in recent years, which has led to higher expectations. I can see the changes that have occurred since my childhood. Personally, I believe that is going to shift in the opposite direction and we will adjust our expectations accordingly. But, I suspect that if another country experienced the increase in the standard of living that we have, they would increase their expectations as well. As far as medical care and education go, I'm not going to debate you on that. I've heard enough about how much more "high minded" other countries are and the wonders of their government systems to last me a lifetime.