Washington University in St. Louis- A rejection :confused1: I now know why DD was soooo grouchy at the beginning of March. Georgia Tech - An Acceptance :hurray: It is so hard to keep perspective in this hyper-competitive college application game. I am glad I consented to DD's request to apply 12 colleges and universities. (-15 The UC's are one application, but it costs extra $$ to send to each UC.) Originally, I thought DD's plan not just expensive but overkill. But now she feels like she has a choice rather than taking second best or being outright rejected and no plan"B". I am looking forward to the end of April when this all of this will be decided, and we can move on to AP tests.

Thanks for posting this! Writing With a Thesis in in my amazon cart.

Owned a Miele but did not like it. Own an upright Kirby. It's a tank and not as good as I thought it would be. Bought a Shark for my business. It's cheap and does the job well. I like that it is light so I can disconnect the canister from the base and hold it while on a ladder. I wish it had a longer wand. No bags. Would buy again.

I am going to continue with our two math books that I am sure we will not finish before June. I did not do math with my then rising 6th grader last summer, and I regretted that choice in October when I needed to go back and help DD relearn concepts from the past spring. Yes, math all summer.

Water and tea. Sometimes milk or a protein drink--Odwalla.

Big congratulations!!! I wish DD would have applied to MIT. She even visited, but thought it was beyond her reach.

We do use a vocabulary curriculum, but DD already knows the words even at the high school level. It just becomes busy work. DD is not a big reader either. We have used: Wordly Wise, Vocabulary Workshop, and Vocabulary from Classical Roots. My current plan for 7th grade is to go through our box of SAT vocabulary cards. I like words and use them when I speak with DD and define the words as I speak so she understands the definition in context.

Another acceptance today--UC San Diego Revelle College with scholarship $$.

Back in the day, my mother forbid my brothers and I to have soda. In DH's house soda was a staple drink. My kids do not drink soda, and they drink juice on rare occasions. Juice can be as detrimental to health as soda. It is all sugar in high quantities.

If it were me, I would start looking around for a good used grand that a piano tuner evaluates before plunking down $$. It costs to move the piano, then tune it once again when it has settled into its new home. If you find a reasonable grand before your DD is a freshman or sophomore in highschool buy it if piano still excites her; otherwise, a good upright will build finger muscles and serve your student well. Over 17 years I've seen a lot of good piano students come and go--and I mean astonishing young pianist that drop piano in high school when they realize only a few outstanding pianist get to be world-class concert pianists. Why doesn't the piano teacher work with her on the grand during their lessons? What kind of upright do you own? The U3 is awesome.

1. The Chopin Waltz for a 10 year old is standard and not extraordinary. Don't let the piano teacher mislead you. 2. A grand piano is not spoiling nor is it necessary yet, but the piano teacher does have a point about playing a grand piano vs and upright. The action is different so the quality of sound has greater depth. 3." My DD can't practice many of the things the teacher is asking her to do, and the teacher says it's because she's not on a grand. " A suspect statement and would have me questioning the quality of piano teacher. 4. Me-4 kids have played piano. 2 of the kids played piano for 10 years or until they were 15. These two quit and move onto more portable instruments. 1 quit after 5 years, and 1 is still playing. She is 11. We have 1 grand piano and 1 upright. The grand we found through a church member. The upright we bought used. Grands can be affordable. Look around. Does your child want to compete? Does your child do any kind of music exam?

My DD just got her acceptance to the University of Rochester too! She was accepted into their School of Engineering.

How does one define educational neglect? A homeschool student can be educated, but that education can be very narrow, resulting in a student being unable to attend college and able to hold only a minimum wage job, thus unable to support a family. The same can be said of a student attending public school or private school. The job market is driving the need for a better educated workforce. Why hobble your children by not educating them? Will we see an increase in adult homeschool students suing their parents for educational neglect? The question can be flipped too: "How does one define being educated?" Asking these questions is begging for governance and policing to see that homeschool families and both private and public schools comply to a definition. Mandatory testing and oversight is one way to address and define educational deficiency/proficiency. If one homeschools through a charter school one must comply with state regulations; however, if one homeschools as private school there is little or no oversight. Is oversight of private homeschoolers a good thing? Could oversight have prevented the story mamajag related? Personally, I dissuade all who ask me about homeschooling. Too often people see homeschooling as an option do whatever they want and call it school. This may work for K-3, but a young mind is too precious to waste.

Grade 6 What Worked: Singapore Primary Math 6A & 6B Horizons Math for review CPO Earth Science The Human Odyssey combined with The History Odyssey--Excellent combination outlining and summarizing The Human Odyssey and extra reading in The History Odyssey. Memoria Press Geography-Best so far. What Did Not Work: Daily Paragraph Editing--too repetitious Vocabulary From Classical Roots--DD knows too many words. I guess we will start going through SAT vocabulary flashcards. What Needs Improving: A more focused approach to literature study. Considering Lightening Literature for 8th grade because I know she would enjoy the book selection. A more focused approach to writing. Considering Writing Companion

I found the above to be true for me too, and it is one of the reasons I started swimming, but swimming laps is not the same as swimming with a coach who is pushing you to meet intervals. I never knew a person could sweat while swimming until I started doing masters swimming. Has it helped with weight loss? Yes and no. I have lost most of the belly fat a woman gets after menopause, and cardiovascularly I am fit. I do not get winded when hiking up from the beach to the cliff top, but the scale has not budged. I spend over 200 min. swimming a week/3+hrs. I've added weights on the off days. I walk around the land a lot gardening, firewood, animals, etc. Over the age of 50, taking off the extra weight is hard if you're borderline overweight. An obese friend was successful on the Paleo Diet. She lost over 50 pounds by cutting out carbs, and she has kept that weight off. My MIL 70+ has kept slim by eating very few calories. She eats only one meal a day-a salad. DH slimmed down and has kept if off by surfing and eating one and a half meals a day. He drinks lots of water and eats lots of seeds and nuts, and he's hungry most of the time. My take-away on the weight loss conumdrum: After 50 exercise is great for keeping your body fit, but without scaling back your diet and making every calorie count, a person will have a difficult time losing weight.

Our local K-8 school is very small. Less than 50 kids total. Everyone knows each other. My first son went to 5th grade at this local school, and my second son went to 7th & 8th grade at the same school. For these two young men, the local high school was a disaster socially. Homeschooling had/has a bad reputation in my community. Teachers and others feel homeschooling inferior to public school, and those in the community that homeschooled in the past set a poor example of academic excellence. The school also bemoaned loss of revenue. As much as I requested to be involved or offered help at our K-8 school, my requests were met with polite smiles and a "No thank-you." Curiously, my son's 8th grade teacher though he was the best educated homeschool student she taught. He could write and connect historical events with current events better than her other students. However, this son was not good at the housekeeping of school--handing in work that followed the rubric of expectation for a given project. Overall, I've found no openness to what a homeschool parent may have to offer a classroom, teacher, or school. Yet, now that my oldest daughter has applied to top ranked colleges and will likely go to one of these colleges, folks in my small community are realizing that homeschooling is not always a negative. In a community where few graduate from high school without going to a continuation/alternative high school and where even fewer go to community college and beyond, a homeschooled child getting into college is an anomaly. It just might change the way people think about homeschooling. Neither of my daughters have attended public school because of our experiences with the K-8 and high school social issues.

Masters swim workout 2x (75 min each) and one session of lap swimming (60 min). Erin O'Brien's Strong Body Fit Body DVD 3x during the week. I am really liking this DVD and am convinced strength training is a must as a woman ages. I watched a 65 year old woman /neighbor try to negotiate the path down to my house and the uneven steps to my front door. The big steps were a challenge, and she needed a hand. Balance is a big issue. I realized if I want to live in my house into old age I need to stay fit.

DD did an EF Tour to Costa Rica with a high school group. No problems.

SLO

Now is the time acceptance will start rolling in for DD. First acceptance to safety school: Cal Poly Electrical Engineering.

6th grade here. I am making a big push for more writing across subjects in the second half of the year. I have a few bigger projects that I want polished writing for, but mostly I increased the journal entry, summary and personal response stuff, as well as short explanatory essays for science and current events. On a weekly basis it amounts to many short assignments(4-5) of a paragraph or two.

Ohaus is the way to go be it a triple beam or digital. Triple beams are useful because one can visually see the balance. Your choice depends on how you want to use the scale outside of school--kitchen scale. I've read that weighing cooking ingredients is more accurate than measuring.

I came across this resource to share. Article of the Week is an effort to get kids to read current events from a variety of sources. Kelly Gallagher's list of articles is set up with a teacher in mind. Site articles include response/discussion questions for readers to answer. another helpful site:http://www.teachingthecore.com/article-of-the-week-assignment/

I am traveling 2 hrs. one way. Each exam is $91. Call around fast. Most schools I talked to wanted their $$ by the beginning of March.

Which identity theft insurance did you choose?