I really appreciate your help.

Does anyone know the difference between the workbook and the textbook of the Amsco book, Vocabulary for the College-Bound Student? I can't seem to find out how the two differ. Thanks in advance for any insight you can offer.

Did you ever report how your geometry study went? I'd love to hear.

...that is humorous out of the ones that I have read (I've read all but Same Kind of Different) is The Help, but it might appeal more to feminine tastes since all the well-developed characters are female. If he wants humor, though, The Help would have to be the one. It's light, easy reading, hilarious in points, and it captures a bit of the South as it was in the 1950s and 1960s. Leif Enger's book is good. In contrast to The Help, it is filled with male characters. Although the author is from Minnesota, the work has a slight resemblance to works by the Southern "grotesque" authors like Flannery O'Connor, but it's also been compared to To Kill a Mockingbird with a young boy as protagonist. If your son isn't convinced that he needs to read something humorous, I'd recommend he choose Peace Like a River. It's a significant book, easy to read, redemptive, and he'll remember it. Night is good, but so dark and depressing, even though it does show the resilience of the human soul. I don't think The Color of Water is as enduring a work of literature/autobiography as Enger's book will prove to be. Can he sit by the pool and read as if he were reading for the sheer pleasure of doing it?

don't like to award aid for room and board expenses is that that money is then taxable for the student. So, if you were to receive a scholarship that covered the room and board costs, the federal (and state) government can each take a bite out of your income, and the college is just giving away money to the government. In the end, you're still left with a bill for room and board. When you think about it, it's reasonable that a person provides for his own room and board. The Financial Aid office may be open to a hardship waiver if you can find housing for a lot less by living off campus. I would advise working as many hours as you can this summer to help pay for your room and board in the year to come. Often you can work part time during school, too. I know students working three part-time jobs in the summer to try to avoid taking on those huge debt loads. It's worth pounding the pavement in earnest to avoid debt, and the more you work in the summer, the less distraction you'll have by having to work during the school year, though many students also have to do that, too. Blessings to you as you try to figure out how to make this all work. It's incredibly challenging. From the IRS publication for students at http://www.irs.gov/individuals/students/article/0,,id=96674,00.html Taxable Scholarships and Fellowships If you received a scholarship or fellowship, all or part of it may be taxable, even if you did not receive a Form W-2. Generally, the entire amount is taxable if you are not a candidate for a degree. If you are a candidate for a degree, you generally can exclude from income that part of the grant used for: Tuition and fees required for enrollment or attendance, or Fees, books, supplies, and equipment required for your courses. You cannot exclude from income any part of the grant used for other purposes, such as room and board.

...in reading this article about the very young Portland Trail Blazers interim coach and his path to this position. He's done some pretty great things already with the team which had been losing consistently. He says that his path to becoming interim head coach was through videography. http://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/index.ssf/2012/03/kaleb_canales_takes_charge_of_trail_blazers.html

Men of Iron by Howard Pyle Jane Eyre Rolf and the Viking Bow by Allen French

...the application forms seem to require graduation from the local high school. Many years ago when oldest dd was a senior, she contacted the sponsors of some of those local scholarships to ask if she could submit an application since she was graduating from our homeschool, a legal alternative form of education in our state. All the agencies she contacted said yes, and she won two of those local scholarships. The rest of my children have all won at least two local scholarships during their senior year of high school. Our community is very supportive of education, and they recognize the achievements of homeschooled students as well as private- and public-schooled students. And, yes, Lisa, homeschooled students qualify for excellent scholarships from colleges as well as from local sponsors. I don't think there is any disadvantage in competing for scholarships for well-qualified (good test scores, extra-curricular achievements, and active community service) homeschooled students.

...I would try another approach. One of the ways that schools evaluate credits is by the textbook used. If a publisher considers its textbook to be a full-year high school course, the college will usually accept the publisher's evaluation of the text. You might ask if the admissions folks need documentation from the publisher that each text is a full-year course. Accrediting agents like NARHS accept a course as a one-credit course if the student has completed a textbook the publisher considers to be a one-school-year high school course. Hth

...about how you transfer an inherited IRA. If it is not done exactly right, you can find yourself owing taxes on the entire amount rather than being able to take distributions over your own life expectancy.

...has two courses that work well for appreciation/history rather than performance courses in musical theatre and opera. My children enjoyed these. Great American Music: Broadway Musicals and How to Listen to and Understand Opera Attending some live performances and adding written assignments makes these courses worth ½ credit each. We also have enjoyed the History of European Art course from Teaching Company. Add visits to museums to see the works in person, written work, and you would have a good art history/appreciation course. I have a student who loves architecture, and though he is a little younger, we are working through The Annotated Arch by Carol Strickland (ISBN 0740710249). With the addition of some written assignments and observations of local architecture, that book would also make a fine art course for a non-artsy student. Hth

...is that we finally broke down and added a texting plan to our cell phones. Being able to text his siblings who are away at college helps them all to remain close despite the great distance. They text short messages almost every day and usually multiple times, and he does the same. They are just as close now as they were when they were all at home. We also enrolled him in a single class at the local private school where he also plays a varsity sport, and he has developed lots of friends among the students there. These two things have helped ease the pain of missing his siblings. There was a period of transition, but things are great for my youngest now at the end of the second year of being the one left at home. Hth

...on a transcript, I suggest defining what makes an Honors course clearly on your child's transcript. A clear definition removes questions about the Honors designation. I defined Honors courses as courses that met several different standards I thought were reasonable (college textbooks, more than 1,000 pages of reading, cumulative final exams, etc.), and I clearly listed those standards on my dc's transcripts. When we define our terms, college admissions personnel or scholarship committees can accurately evaluate our children's work. If their definition of an Honors course differs from ours, they can remove the Honors designation in their own assessment of the student, and if they agree that our definition is a reasonable one, our children will gain the credit for the Honors course that they might have missed if we had not defined the term Honors. It's a no-risk solution to a potential problem.

...all the Intensive Practice and Challenging Word Problems books along with 6A and 6B? My student is also a 6th grader, and he has completed all of 5B, 6A, and 6B this year, including all the Intensive Practice and Challenging Word Problems books. The reason I ask is I'm wondering if NEM 1 would still be too hard for him next year in 7th grade, given his mastery of those tough, tough Intensive Practice and CWP books. I don't think he's quite ready for Foerster's Algebra I, which is what I used with all my children for Algebra. I'd rather wait a year until he's in 8th grade to begin that. I could use BJU Pre-algebra, which I think is an excellent textbook, but I really want to keep him thinking mathematically in that wonderful Singapore math way. Any further thoughts or advice? Anyone else?

...for 7th grade in the Singapore series? I have a student finishing up the sixth grade level of the primary math series, but I'm not sure what to do next.