I made this last night and it was very good. https://alldayidreamaboutfood.com/brownie-cheesecake-low-carb-and-gluten-free/ Instead of making the chocolate sauce, I made this raspberry sauce to go with it, but reduced the cornstarch amount and used swerve instead of sugar. https://thesaltymarshmallow.com/raspberry-sauce/ I am the only one that eats keto in our house, but this is a dessert we all could enjoy, including my gluten free ds. If anyone else has a favorite keto recipe to share, please do!

Has anyone read Lean Out? https://www.amazon.com/Lean-Out-Truth-About-Workplace/dp/1595557563/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8 We just finished Lean In and my dd found it gave her some interesting new insights. Me too.

I really thought it was unlikely that they could be healthy, if they were even real. And even if they were, I’d be afraid I’d step on the poor thing or sit on it or something. But, they do really look cute.

Can these actually be real or is this some kind of scam? https://www.poshfairytail.com/maltese I’ve been looking at this site for two years, just amazed at the cuteness, lol.

Well, my dd is heading to University of Richmond this fall and we are so relieved and happy about it. 🙂 Richmond has given her fantastic financial aid and we’re also hoping for a scholarship that would eliminate the loan part of the aid, but we’ll see. She really wanted a small to medium sized liberal arts school with a strong business and a classics department and that’s what she got. She had also been considering nursing at the beginning of this process and applied to a number of schools to keep that option open. In order for schools to be in our range of affordability, they had to either be in-state public schools (we have a 529 prepaid tuition plan for her) or schools that meet full need AND are generous in their calculation of need. She applied to: College of William & Mary - received a cypher letter (Likely letter) University of Virginia (Nursing) - accepted with fantastic FA Christopher Newport University (Honors College) - accepted with honors scholarship University of Alabama - Huntsville (Honors College/Direct admit Nursing) - Accepted with full tuition scholarship University of Notre Dame - Rejected. This was a heartbreak and tough to handle because she had to wait quite awhile before she had other acceptances that she really wanted and it left us doubting whether she was going to get into any of the private schools she had applied to. College of the Holy Cross - We’ll never know, because we have to withdraw her app, but this was another top contender for her. They have an amazing Classics department and offer a four year full tuition scholarship for a Classics major that she applied for. James Madison University (Honors College/Nursing) - Will withdraw her application Franklin & Marshall - Will withdraw application, but this was another school that was very interesting to her due to it’s cool location in Lancaster and it’s strong classics and business offerings.

We had a similar situation here as my dd applied to colleges this year. I cannot now remember whether it is on the FAFSA or just the CSS profile that you can note things like this. I did go ahead and note our change in income, though I did receive advice not to do that until after my dd was accepted to college since our lower income might impact her admission chances. I was told it might be better to appeal FA after admission. In the end, I chose to just report it and hope that “need blind” schools wouldn’t axe her because of our income. She was accepted to a need blind school and has received fantastic financial aid. We just got her aid package today and were able to go ahead and place her enrollment deposit.

My dd has always just spoken with the teacher, either before or after class, and made arrangements. As long as it is a rare absence, I’m thinking most teachers would be willing to accommodate it.

She received her acceptance tonight! I think this school is going to be a great fit for her.

Thank you so much, Alice! She interviewed yesterday and will find out soon. It’s been one of her very top choices from the beginning, but since we hadn’t heard anything from them until last week (and homeschoolers need to be invited to interview), we had assumed she wasn’t being considered. In preparing for the interview, she was reminded of all the things she loves about the school. The interview went well, so we’ve got our fingers crossed. If she gets in, that’s where she’s going.

On my dd’s transcript at the beginning of the year, I included her senior year courses like this: Great Books (12th) For the mid year report, I updated classes that were done or had a semester or final grade for her fall CC classes: Great Books. (A) I have a key on the transcript that originally said classes in (. ) were in progress. Since some of the classes were semester classes that were completed by the time I submitted my mid year report, I changed the key to say classes in (. ) were senior year classes. For second semester CC classes, I left the courses with the (12th). For all others, I put in the final grade if the course was over or the midterm grade if it was a year long class.

Thank you, May! Wow on the full ride scholarship at GMU. Too bad JMU wouldn’t match it, but I hope your dd will be happy with Mason. UVA does have a beautiful campus and I know many are happy there but I’ve also heard a lot of negative stories and have known a number of students that went there and have been pretty unhappy. I’m trying not to influence my dd with my fears about that and she did attend a summer program there for many years, so she is familiar with the campus.

TMI

I agree. She has a wide range of interests and has been having trouble nailing down what direction she wants to go in for a career. To me, if she is not absolutely positive that she wants to go in the nursing direction, then that should be out (for now) and that seems to be the direction she is leaning, with the thought that she could always do a BS to BSN program later if she changes her mind. Not the most efficient route, but the one that may make the most sense for her. Richmond is actually the better choice for her other areas of interest, I think. I’m not sure how to weed through the impact of what her financial situation will be on her experience at Richmond, but I appreciate your comments. Thank you. When you say the West End is a wealthy area, do you mean that it is going to be expensive to do things there? I was surprised to discover that 82% of the students at UR come from outside of Virginia.

I think you are right about the social stuff. I’m just really wanting reassurances. I think she is really leaning against nursing as her undergrad degree. I think she wants more time to explore and discover her other areas of interest and was thinking she could always fulfill many of the prerequisites for nursing during that time and then do a BS to BSN program if that is what she decides she really wants to do.

Does anyone here have experience with this school or know someone that does? This school has been at the top of my daughter’s list but she just unexpectedly was accepted into the University of Virginia’s nursing school. Plus we also recently visited James Madison and she really loved it. Basically, she needs to decide in the next few days because she switched her application to early decision II for Richmond. She could withdraw her application or switch to regular decision prior to decision releases. After decisions come out, she is contractually obligated to attend Richmond. Academics at Richmond are great as long as she decides against nursing for her undergraduate. It is more the social life I am wondering about. I keep reading about the wealth of many of the students and we are not wealthy. It would only be possible for her to attend because they offer such great financial aid. I’d love to hear any thoughts about Richmond, positive or negative, that I can pass along to her. ETA: The things she loves about Richmond are: Beautiful campus small liberal arts college opportunities to take classes in any area, including business and fine arts, which are often limited at other schools the students we met all seemed very nice academics are strong classes in all of her languages are offered

I guess the main reason I bring up the wealth is because I don’t know if it will leave my dd left out because she wouldn’t be able to afford to do things the other kids are doing? She does have a substantial savings from working over the last couple of years, but I’d hate to see her pressured to blow through it so that she can socialize. Right now, she is very frugal and saves most of her money. I’m not going to be able to give her a lot of spending money.

Thank you! We have visited all of these schools. She instantly disliked VCU because of it’s placement in the middle of the city. She loves the URichmond campus because it is actually in the suburbs. That being said, she loves to go to NYC, so it’s not about being uncomfortable in the city. She just wants a campus that feels like a campus and not just a part of the city. She really has wanted a smaller liberal arts college with a close-knit community. That’s what UR advertises, but I’m wondering if that’s really the experience, at least the close-knit part. This is really just me starting to question this because of her acceptance at UVA. The nursing school has a very low admissions rate and we were not feeling confident at all about her getting in. I guess I’m really just looking for reassurance that UR will be a good experience before she passes on UVA. Thanks for your thoughts!

Does anyone here have experience with this school or know someone that does? This school has been at the top of my daughter’s list but she just unexpectedly was accepted into the University of Virginia’s nursing school. Plus we also recently visited James Madison and she really loved it. Basically, she needs to decide in the next few days because she switched her application to early decision II for Richmond. She could withdraw her application or switch to regular decision prior to decision releases. After decisions come out, she is contractually obligated to attend Richmond. Academics at Richmond are great as long as she decides against nursing. It is more the social life I am wondering about. I keep reading about the wealth of many of the students and we are not wealthy. It would only be possible for her to attend because they offer such great financial aid. I’d love to hear any thoughts about Richmond, positive or negative, that I can pass along to her.

I printed the unofficial college transcript (since I had direct access to it) and wrote “official transcript will be provided upon acceptance” and uploaded it along with my transcript. So unless someone asks for more than that, I figured we’d only pay to send the official transcript to the whatever college she winds up attending.

It was a local class. There were two or three papers a year. I’ll post the reading list for the years he did below. It’s okay if he is missing some of the broader themes,. I’m betting most students do. The idea is to prepare them to be able to read and analyze on a high level, but it is a process. I’m not going to say my kids have enjoyed everything they’ve read in these classes, but they have always been fortunate to have some other engaged students in the class with them, which really helps, I think. I think focusing on raising those reading levels is the most important thing I did for my ds. He had a pretty average looking transcript in that he didn’t take any AP or DE classes or have any awards other than for Eagle Scout and his volunteer work, We stuck mostly with the basics and he met the normal requirements for a high school diploma. He really stands out in this area in college now and he stood out at another local coop in 11th and 12th because he has strong reading, writing and math skills. Many of the other students he’s got in his classes have struggled because they have not been challenged to read difficult material. It’s been a major confidence booster for him. My ds has really struggled with things when compared to my dd, and he does have some lds, but he really shines now because of all the work he did in high school. As far as writing goes, I always preferred an outside writing class as well. I found it really tough to work with my kids on that. My ds took IEW classes locally through middle school and then we floundered a bit. The type of writing he did in 11th and 12th was similar to what Sue Ellen encourages in answering the discussion questions. It involves making a claim, supporting it with an example from the reading (a quote) and then explaining/analyzing, This is an important and great skill to develop but it takes time. It is the key to writing papers with substance and goes beyond just focusing on style and structure. It’s about making strong arguments. I’m not sure any of this is helpful to you because every kid is different, but this is my experience with my ds, who I thought would always be hindered by his lds and never able to write papers in college. It doesn’t sound like that is the case for your boys at all. I’m just trying to illustrate how really focusing and putting time into the basics helped him. He was accepted at every college he applied to — GMU, CNU, UMW, etc. Mostly state schools, nothing super selective, but all good solid schools. He wound up with a 29 ACT score, but his reading score was a 34 or 35. Here’s the reading list. It’s probably got fewer books each year than some of the online classes. Omnibus I: Ancient Cultures Required summer reading: George Orwell’s Animal Farm Unit I: George Orwell’s Animal Farm -- the power of language & introduction to the Paideia discussion method Unit II: Homer’s The Iliad & Odyssey -- the oral tradition, story structure, heroic themes Unit III: Herodotus & Thucydides (selected readings) -- transition to the written tradition, the beginnings of the study of history Unit IV: Plutarch, Livy & Suetonius (selected readings) -- moral biographies, comparisons, studies of character Unit V: Vergil’s Aeneid -- creating a composite history; the written epic, the secondary epic Omnibus II: Medieval and Renaissance Required summer reading: Famous Men of the Middle Ages Unit I: Introduction to the Paidaea method, Medieval drama -- Everyman -- a medieval morality play Unit II: Bulfinch’s Age of Charlemagne -- the Song of Roland -- introduction to the Middle Ages: the rise of education, culture Unit III: Beowulf (Trans. Seamus Heaney) -- Anglo-Saxon England, Old English, the heroic epic continued, the Dark Ages transition from pagan to Christian culture Unit IV: Bulfinch’s Age of Chivalry, (the Arthurian Legends) -- the heroic quest, the Crusades, Saxon England continued, Norman England, Chretien de Troyes Unit V: Dante’s Divine Comedy -- feudal Italy, the beginnings of the Renaissance, classical allusions, courtly love continued Unit VI: Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (selected readings) -- the triumph of Middle English, the tumultuous 14th century, William Caxton brings the printing press in England, the pilgrimage, the romance, classical allusions, Medieval drama Unit VII: Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet -- early Modern English, blank verse, iambic pentameter, rhymed couplets, Pyramus and Thisbe, Elizabethan drama

This is not a reason to avoid it IMO. I would avoid it if you think it will be too much for your kids, but I really wouldn’t miss it because of fear of a grade on the college transcript. (My thought as the Mom of one in college and one applying to college right now. I would have had the same fears as you when my kids were younger too, but I can now see how unfounded they were.)

And I want to say that this class would have taken my ds a ton of time had I put him in it in 9th grade. He could have done it and it would have been good for him, but I would have had to really pare down his schedule and I probably would have had to help him, especially with the writing. Keep in mind this class is worth at least a full literature credit AND a history credit. Sue Ellen also says you can give a composition credit. Instead, he took an Omnibus class in 9th that included heavy reading but MUCH less writing than the GB class and then in 11th and 12th took a Literature class that had him doing tons of reading (that was easy for him after a couple of years of the Omni class) and tons of writing that he was much more ready to do at that point. He always struggled horribly with writing when he was younger and now he’s in college and easily cranking out really good papers. It amazes me. And my dd who loves GB, took AP English in 9th and loved the class BUT spent an absolutely crazy ridiculous amount of time on the class. Very stressful because she had way too many hours of schoolwork that year. That was a big mistake on my part. I see your boys are taking TPS classes and I know those are very good sound preparation as well.

My dd is in the class and it takes her about 5 hours a week, which is about as long as I believe Sue Ellen expects it to take. I think if your child has done a lot of reading over the years and isn’t new to writing, and isn’t especially young for the class, 5 hours is on target. My dd did spend extra time when she first started the class getting acclimated to the writing requirements, which are fairly heavy. The teacher is scaling back a little on the writing requirements in my dd’s class due to some students feeling the workload is too heavy. Some students are happy about that and others are not, but anyone who wants to keep up with the current amount of writing can still continue to. Look at the books and see if they are ones you think your student will enjoy. My dd’s classmates are very active and engaged in the class and most seem to really enjoy the material, but some of that will depend on the luck of the draw, of course. I can honestly say this has been the best and most worthwhile class my dd has taken in all her years of homeschooling. Sue Ellen invests a tremendous amount into offering something really special, IMO. She has also been absolutely wonderful about writing college recommendations for my dd. She has written a number of them and has done them very promptly after my dd has asked, which is a huge blessing to us with all the other stress that goes on with college applications.

I was just there a few weeks with my kids for skiing. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express. We checked out the college while we were there, but spent most of our time at the ski resort, so I really can’t recommend things to see beyond that. We were impressed with how nice the area was. Very pretty surrounded by all the mountains.

I can’t wait to try the chicken shawarma recipe!