I put homeschooled. I've never given my kids high school diplomas.

I love the ease of texting, but I can't quite figure out conveying tone. Good to know it is common at my age. 🙂 My dd17 texted me earlier this week that she was going out to lunch with friends after work. I replied, "Sounds good. Have fun." She immediately called me and asked if I was angry and would prefer she not go. I clearly stated it was fine. If I didn't want her to go I would have texted something along the lines of "I really need you at home." or "Please call me first." or "I'd rather you didn't. We have plans." If I think it is fine, then that is what I type. ???? She told me it would probably be best if I just stopped using periods, altogether. And maybe use more exclamation points, too. I truly struggle. When you come to the end of one sentence and want to start another, you use a period. It feels like common sense.

I put weighted and unweighted GPA on the transcript. I add 0.5 for honors classes and 1.0 for DE classes. This way my transcript matches those of the public schools in our school district and most of our state.

Marine Biology. 🤣 I had lived all my life in Michigan and thought marine biology had to be the most interesting degree ever. After a couple of years I switched schools and changed my major to Secondary Education. I have great memories from Eckerd though. Winter term in Greece was absolutely one of my best college experiences. But those experiences can happen on any campus. I have a dd that just finished a summer term in Greece through UNF. She is earning a biology minor and took a conservation biology course there. She was also just awarded a paid internship for conservation biology through UNF. She and the other interns will be spending this Saturday kayaking through Silver Springs State Park.

I went to Eckerd College. I can say many great things about it. However, at that price, I don't think it is better than other options in the area. Most of the colleges in Florida will have biology/marine biology degrees and even some herpetology classes. The public universities will be much more affordable even for out of state students and tend to accept DE credits. USF-St. Pete is a very good option. It is only five miles from Eckerd and also on the water. New College is right on the gulf in Sarasota and is a small honors college with marine biology. UNF is quite small with a good biology program but about five miles or so from the beach in Jacksonville. I'm sure there are others. I would definitely take the time to visit others schools during your visit in November. My kids have stayed on campus for summer camps at Eckerd, and they've been fun, but none of them apply there for college. In my opinion, not worth $150,000 when there are so many other similar options for one-third the price.

Did you have a child recently register for or take the SAT or ACT? 😀 My daughter just received their brochure a few days ago. I had never heard of them. We checked out their website and my dd would be a terrible fit in every way. My thoughts were that they may have purchased a list to target homeschoolers (in the southeast?) taking the ACT or SAT.

This is what should happen. I registered my son for an AP exam today. At this particular high school the media specialist is the AP coordinator. She was very nice, but honestly, it takes two minutes. I am responsible for setting up a College Board account for my son. All of his information is in there. All she does is add him to the list of students testing under her code, take my email and money, give me the date/time/location of the test and let me know an updated email will arrive in the spring. The College Board should be capable of setting up an online registration system either for everyone taking AP exams, or at least for everyone that is studying for an AP exam at a public school/private school/homeschool that is not offering the exam on site. We sign up for the SAT online and take it at a local high school. AP exams are only once a year. It shouldn't be that hard to make the test accessible to any student wishing to sit the exam. I am grateful that registering is so easy here, but I truly don't understand why the College Board allows it to be so, so difficult for others. 😞

Wouldn't setting her back two years be the same as entering as a freshman without the DE credits? My eldest two earned a bunch of credits while in high school (one chose to earn an AA and the other just had over 100 credits) and both still chose to spend four years at university earning their undergraduate degrees. My third dd plans to save one year at university by entering with her AA.

So far about 50/50 here. In both cases the professors were given some choice on how they wanted to teach this semester. One dd has an indoor mask mandate and vaccination or weekly testing requirement. She has one class that was always going to be online, one that switched to zoom (not too happy as it is a 4000 level language class) two in-person, but one switched to one day a week instead of two. Second dd has an indoor mask mandate but no vaccination/testing requirement. One class was always going to be online, the second is in person, the third chose to do the first two weeks over zoom with the intention of switching to in-person on week three if the covid numbers are reasonable. This is a lab class, so she is really hoping they at least meet once a week for lab. Her fourth class was supposed to meet three times per week, twice for lecture and once for lab. It is meeting once per week in the lab and the professor is doing lecture and lab at that time. The rest of the week is online. We are in week two now. No major issues yet at either college.

I have found this to be true in my circumstances. I am reluctantly back in school for some of the reasons listed in this thread. Surprisingly, (to me anyway) 25% of my cohort are, like me, women over 45 with grown children, just starting a career or new career. Another 25% are women 30-45 with children at home (none homeschooled). In my local, close friend group, every single one of us is obtaining additional education or skills for a midlife career change.

Yes, we're very lucky here. The school he is zoned for told me they do not offer that exam, but gave me the name of the public school where their students who use FLVS or study independently take the exam. We actually live closer to that school than our zoned school. I reached out to them and they were fine with him sitting it there.

I'm sorry. I don't want to sound like I am complaining when others cannot find a spot to take the exams, however, my local public school says my son can take the exams for $96 per exam. That seems high to me. None of my daughters took AP classes. Is that a reasonable price?

Is this a private school? I cannot imagine any public high school approving such a plan. What I would do - Tell my daughter exactly what I've been told, including what she would be doing and who would be driving, and ask her if she would like to participate.

My son took Algebra I last year and is taking Algebra II this year. Yes, the bulk of the teaching was in the live lesson (but last year there were two live lessons per week) and yes, they were optional. There is no penalty to watching the video recording instead or just doing the assignments without any instruction. Some kids just didn't need the direct instruction and never came to the live lessons. There is usually a discussion board question each week and a response to those is always required. Last year there was one study hall per week, but this year there are three. Study halls were great, too. The instructor would go over whatever the students had questions about. Those were also optional.

I'm seeing the same thing here. I'm in Florida. And in this county the public schools start back in two days. No surprise seeing an increase in homeschooling in these two states. 😞

Neither - by subject only.

The cheap spiral notebooks from Walmart/Target. We buy a bunch each August. Mostly college ruled, but graph paper spirals for math. My kids use a separate notebook for each subject. At home, the kids also use one folder per subject if there are any loose leaf papers involved. My dd in college prefers one slim accordion folder with several pockets for all loose papers. She still uses one notebook per subject. But, honestly, my kids do most of their work and keep most of their notes on the computer. Only math needs multiple notebooks in a year - usually three or four.

She originally had an appointment at the local hospital, but the negative test must be within three days of flight. So she needs the results to be back in under 48 hours in order for the test to still fall within the three day requirement for her connecting flight. Only the walk in clinics can give results that quickly. Many people are in a similar position and flying out at the same time. She was there for a term at university. The dorms are closing and everyone needs to leave the same week. All of the US students were just notified last weekend that they would need the negative test. She plans to be there when they open on Monday, but I would imagine many students will have the same plan.

You will need a negative COVID test to fly back to the US, even with a vaccination card. I have a daughter flying home next week. When she left only a vaccination card was needed, but now she needs to get tested this Monday. I'm not too excited about this as she has to go to a local medical clinic to get tested. The clinic is a walk-in only. I cringe to think how many people (and germs, not just COVID) will be at a no appointment, walk-in clinic. And she has to get the results printed in English (as well as the local language) which they were not able to confirm they could do. (At least you shouldn't have that issue.)

Or just sign her up for a standard ACT or SAT. You don't need permission from the school for either of these.

It sounds like an open door or open window alarm. If you are starting to leave your windows and doors open the neighbors are probably doing the same. It could be that it is an older person/couple that lives in the house and they cannot hear the alarm anymore themselves. If it is going off at night when you are trying to sleep you can call the police non-emergency number. In our county they will go out and investigate for you (assuming it is a slow night for them.)

I had this job while in college. The pay was decent then, not union in Florida though. At our center it was 16 hours a week. 4am - 8am four days per week. There were all ages there. It was a part time college job for many, but also a second job or extra income for many people 30s to 40s. It is loud as there are lots of belts running and semis unloading as you load all the trucks. Some of the packages are heavy. You have to be able to quickly read zip codes/addresses in order to sort/load the packages quickly. It was a little stressful, at least where I worked, because there is a supervisor standing on a deck above all of the workers. The supervisor takes daily recordings of your loading speed (number of packages sorted or loaded in a specific amount of time) and if you aren't working fast enough you will be fired. I believe you could take one five minute break per shift. I have no idea whether all of that is standard or just the way it was run where I worked.

All three of mine started in Intermediate Algebra despite PERT placement. The pace for both Intermediate and College Algebra is much faster than high school classes. I wanted them to get a solid math foundation and acclimate to the amount of material and homework covered in a week before jumping into all new information. I also don't trust the PERT to be particularly accurate at placing students. In this county students can also dual enroll the summer between junior and senior year, so they have five semesters. Maybe that is an option for you as well? Statistics is a good summer course.

I've found that one of the real benefits of homeschooling, when it comes to college applications, is the ability to decide on an individual basis what the high school transcript will look like. My son will have 16 elective credits - all of them fine arts credits. I felt this was a way to really showcase the depth and variety of his arts background and support his portfolio. I am not putting any additional electives such as health or PE as I feel it would take away from the transcript and those type activities will show up in other areas of the application through his jobs, volunteer work and extra-curricular activities. I made different decisions about what the transcript would look like for each of my children based on their differing focuses while in high school. ETA - Each of his art classes is a 0.5 credit, though eight of the sixteen classes will be DE classes, so a total of eight credits of fine arts on his high school transcript. 🙂

How far are they running and biking? Most kids triathlons are fairly short distances. A mile run and three or so miles on the bike. It doesn't sound like any of the training is too intense. If they keep with triathlons, it does become an issue later on. And it is important that they get enough sleep. Trying to give my son the amount of time needed for sleep has been our biggest challenge in high school.