I've seen transcripts from public high schools that had no course codes, so I doubt it's an important issue.

We're the only homeschoolers at our church. The pastor at first thought we were nuts and kept insisting we send our kids to real school once they hit high school. He was a great guy, we just disagreed on that. He's now retired and the new pastor has just had to accept us loonies. As for everyone else, I figured they could just take us or leave us. They generally took us. As the years have gone by, people who originally thought we were crazy have told me they really admire how our kids turned out. No, I never felt lonely being the only homeschoolers. We just are what we are. The only difficulty is that some of the kids have been a bit cliquish because some go to the same school -- but they were excluding plenty of other kids who went to different schools, so it's not like my kids were singled out.

Realtors have an interest in keeping house prices high -- they do work on commission. So a realtor might tell a buyer their offer would be "insulting" so as not to let the negotiations end in a much lower price. I suspect there are honest realtors out there who wouldn't do this, but the realtor we worked with certainly tried a number of tactics like this to keep us from bargaining. She also refused to show us houses that she didn't think would make her enough money, and when we did finally get her to show them, spent the whole time we were there making disparaging comments about the house. Oh, and she lied that the rail line next to one house we looked at had been closed down and was never used. (If it wasn't a lie, she'd have to be completely clueless, as she lives right near that rail line.) We didn't have time to switch realtors, so we had to make the best of her questionable tactics -- ie, we had to ignore her advice. We made a lower offer on one house that she assured us would "insult" the seller. The seller countered 500 dollars higher. We bought the house. This realtor's behavior didn't get her any referrals from us.

I haven't seen Latin to be any help in a science major. If he wants to do Italian instead, let him do Italian. There are some colleges that would prefer a modern language anyway. Although there are a lot of Latin names in biology, the field doesn't require any knowledge of Latin whatsoever. You just learn the names as you need them. When I was working on my PhD in biology, I only knew one student who considered learning Latin. He was a taxonomist, and I really think he only wanted to learn Latin out of interest. He never got around to it though, and he got his PhD and a job just fine. The best language to learn for science is English. Since getting my PhD, I've been working on Latin on my own, out of interest. Honestly, it hasn't improved my understanding of biology one bit. And I can't see that Latin would be of any help in any other science I can think of.

Does your son have an opinion? Would he rather do an easy course where he might know everything? Or a harder course that would either transfer as credit, or make his life easier if he has to take calc over again? If he's really good with algebra, I'd suggest he just go right in to calculus. If he's had the trig and other things, that will probably be enough, even if he's having a bit of trouble with the recall just now. They come back easily enough. However, a student really has to be able to do algebra quickly and confidently. If his math ACT is really high and if he's pretty confident with algebra, he's likely going to be completely bored by the college algebra course. Some kids like having a course they can breeze through, but others check out and fail the course even though they knew all the material. If his plan is to do something like physics or engineering, and if the school he eventually attends requires students to take calc before starting physics, then getting one semester of calc out of the way will put him a semester ahead in the physics sequence (which will then put him a semester ahead in the engineering sequence). This depends on the school, though. Also, calc in a smaller class with lots of support will likely be a lot easier than calc in a big class later. And even if he gets a C in calc now and feels he has to repeat it, he'll be ahead of the game when retaking it.

Thanks for the encouragement! I have to say, that paying 5000 dollars that we shouldn't have to pay is really not the best thing for my husband's health right now, so it was good to hear others have been through this.

You don't have to stay with Suzuki. It works, but it's not the be-all and end-all of violin teaching. We have plenty of wonderful teachers around here who do not teach strict Suzuki (although they may use their books). The best students I've heard did not stay with Suzuki and may not have even started with it. Do you have any other options for teachers? You might be surprised at what another teacher could do. You could another teacher/studio/group for a year and then go back to the original place (if you still think it was meeting your needs better) and request the teacher you want with fewer hard feelings. Also, I found that letting my daughter take time off lessons (but still practicing) ended up with her learning more than with a teacher. But switching teachers can also be very positive. Sometimes it helps to take a break from a particular teacher (who is telling the student the same thing all the time), either to process the information that she did pass on, or to find another teacher who will focus on different things. And it may be that your current teacher has been trying to send the message that she really wants to cut back on her students. That may be why she's been cancelling lessons.

I did both specific and non-specific titles on the transcript. For courses that were just a list of random stuff that didn't have much theme other than "English" I just listed it as "9th grade English" or "10th grade English". However, my daughter also did a lot of things that could be considered a "theme". I grouped those (whether she did them in the same year or not), so she had a few courses titled: American Lit, British Lit, Detective Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Writings on Nature. You could do either or both. I don't think it really matters. Jane Eyre was a pretty easy read for my daughter, so you might want to put more into that semester if your focus is going to be literature analysis. Jane Eyre is long, and it looks (at the beginning) that it's going to be quite a slog, but my daughter found it really picked up. (FWIW it's worth, I read it in one day my first time through.) I might add a number of shorter novels to get more variety. However, if the focus of your class is going to be more on composition than literature (and if a lot of time is going to be spent on composition), then I wouldn't worry too much about adding a whole lot more literature. You might throw in some poetry or plays. For composition, for my younger daughter, I think I'm going to have her read a lot of shorter non-fiction works, to give her some ideas for writing -- both style and content. We've got a book called Reading Well, Writing Well (ok, I'm not sure of the exact title) that has a lot of examples of this. Writer's, Inc. might also have some. I'm not sure I could get my kids to spend a full semester writing about Jane Eyre, but perhaps that wasn't your intent.

I haven't used this, but it's in NJ (which is only helpful if you're in the US): http://german.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.alphabet-garten.com/ Maybe they'd have a kids' version of William Tell in German? Here are some more links: http://german.about.com/library/blbook.htm

If he's already done pre-calc, he should do Calculus. College Algebra would be a repeat. Usually, the college requirements are minimums, so if he's done Calculus he'd get out of the college algebra. However, this might only work if he gets college credit for the calculus (ie, if he takes it at the cc) or if he gets a high enough score on the college placement test (if they do placement tests). (And you'd need to check with the college where he wants to go if this is true.) If he has the option to do calculus at the cc, that's what I'd do. Then he'd have the credit and likely wouldn't need to take the placement test. But I might ask the college he's interested in to be sure they will accept this. Or he could do the AP calc test, but if he has the cc option, he might find that easier than trying to teach himself. The AP test runs 80 something dollars, so if he does the Math-U-See and the AP test, it will be 200 dollars which is pretty close to what the cc course will be. Doing calculus would probably make him a more attractive applicant when he applies to college (assuming he does ok). Also, although a lot of undergrad bio programs are tending to only ask for algebra, he may eventually want to get into a school (possibly a graduate school) that requires calculus. It might be nice to have gotten it out of the way early on.

Life of Birds, Life of Mammals, The Private Life of Plants, Life in Cold Blood, Life in the Undergrowth.

Table? We have a table? Oh, yeah, right, that must be what's holding up the piles of books, mail, and loads of ripening fruit. We've been eating on the patio.

We just got a note from our health insurance company that they aren't going to pay over 5000 dollars in medical bills because they were filed too late by the medical provider asking for the money. Does anyone know if this now means that we're going to be responsible for paying them, in the eyes of the medical provider (and the law)? And, if so, how in the world do we avoid paying a thing that the insurance was supposed to pay for? Do we contact the medical provider to let them know we aren't going to be paying this? Or do we lay low and let them sort it out, only going into action if they have the nerve to bill us? Any advice?

Is it possible the neighbor mom was actually dealing with this in a positive way? Is there an indication that she never talked to the boys? Perhaps she did. And her suggestion that the OP's son play with the girls may have been an attempt to show the mean boys that if they're going to be mean, their playmates will just go off and play with someone else.

I'd also be interested in audio that I could listen to. Any ideas?

Using the graphing calculator for graphing functions is really a very useful pedagogical tool. It isn't a crutch. Having a graphing calculator will mean the student can get down to business with learning the material rather spending all their time trying to get their graphs to come out looking right. However, graphing calculators also do a lot of basic calculus: derivatives and integrals. So a student could get away with never having to learn that "stuff" if they just plugged it into the calculator. This is probably why some college classes don't allow them on tests. However, they really are a useful tool for the graphing aspect of things, which is why a lot of colleges will require students to have them. (And a lot of the homework will need the graphing capability.) The AP test now has several problems that really can't be done in a timely fashion without the graphing calculator. Some just can't be done at all without a computer or calculator. So a student really does need it for the test or they won't score as high. It's a different test than it used to be, so someone's experience on it years ago is irrelevant. It does take more time to learn to use a graphing calculator than a scientific one. A student really ought to start using one in pre-calc, because they won't have time to learn it in Calculus if they're in a standard calc course. And if a student does a non-calculator calc course, they won't be at all prepared for the AP test. However, knowing how to graph by hand is also a useful skill. Hopefully, a student will have learned this before they get to pre-calc.

That was the sequence I did as a student starting in 10th grade (with no science elective). However, it was only honors Chemistry, not AP. There is a lot on the AP Chem test. I notice that a lot of syllabi that are posted online for this course assume it is the 2nd year of Chem, and that the students are going to spend a good part of the previous summer relearning the chemistry they learned in the first year so they can hit the ground running. If the student is doing Alg I in 8th, that means they are doing Trig in 11th (?). Would it be better to already have Trig before attempting Physics? I'm not too familiar with the AP Physics test. Does it presume at least concurrent Calculus?

I'm not convinced the ACT tests "what you know". The science is more of a reading comprehension test than anything. All the answers will be in the readings. The math on the ACT tends to be a little more straightforward. The SAT tries to make things hard by having math questions that are more logic problems than anything. If you see the right way to do it, they're easy. But it's pretty difficult to see the trick when you're having to whiz through the questions at less than one per minute. It used to be that the ACT didn't penalize for wrong answers, but the SAT did. I don't know if this is true anymore. The two tests seem to be getting more and more like each other, as they're each scoping out the competition and trying to get more customers. The colleges my daughter applied to all requested the ACT, but would have been perfectly happy with the SAT. It's just a regional thing, although, the super selective schools around here seem to ask for the SAT before the ACT. Either they think it looks classier, or they're trying to attract in applicants from the east and west coast who may have been more likely to have taken the SAT. My daughter took the ACT because it's offered more often where we are. If we were in an area where the SAT was more popular, she would have done that. I suspect the vast majority of colleges really don't care, but it should be easy to check with all the online applications that are available these days. If your student takes too many tests, they won't do anything else, so I wouldn't just push test taking at all costs. My daughter took the ACT once, was satisfied with her score, and moved on. Reducing unnecessary stress is an important goal, and I do think that these tests are pretty overrated.

We've done a lot of reading out loud for the classics. When we did Oedipus, we each took a part. As there are generally only 3 characters on stage at a time, this works with a small group.

If you're looking for easier selections, the 5th grade of the Tanglewood curriculum has some ideas: http://www.tanglewoodeducation.com/grade5.htm There are some meatier suggestions here: http://home.comcast.net/~tjlm/20072008T12.html We've just picked a few things here and there that looked interesting. A Greek play, Gilgamesh, The Iliad, parts of the Bible. We mean to do The Odyssey, but it hasn't happened so far. We've also done some modern fiction about the ancients: Lavinia The Penelopiad The Red Tent There are (for some reason) a lot of mysteries based in Rome. Saylor wrote a few. There is also one called The Silver Pigs, and a few others that I'm not remembering. I only read one of the Saylor books and wasn't terribly impressed, but it might appeal to others. We also watched a number of documentaries and fictional TV shows: I, Claudius HBO Rome In Search of the Trojan War (Michael Wood) Helen of Troy (Bettany Hughes) The Greeks Cleopatra (with Elizabeth Taylor) Troy these were just some of them A lot of these have questionable content, so you might want to preview. (Actually, HBO Rome is beyond questionable.)

I'd put either 1 of 1 or "not applicable". Although the 1 of 1 seems a little silly, some schools seem to need a number. However, I think all the schools my daughter applied to had an option of saying her high school didn't rank students and that's what we checked. If we were ranked back in high school, I'm pretty sure I would have known if they had let that information out to the students. Our school was very big on advertising who had won this that and the other thing (I know, because I won a lot of them). And the crowd I hung out with, unfortunately, was all about comparing test scores and such. It is possible the school ranked but that it was confidential information -- so confidential that they didn't even tell the students. I know that a lot of the school's test score information wasn't told to the students, so it's likely they wouldn't have told anyone rankings either.

I thought class ranking was just to make people feel bad.

My daughter didn't apply to a state scholarship program (I'm not aware of one here) or a state university (she wasn't interested). If she had applied to something where it was a strict GPA cutoff and lots of weighting, I might have thought about labelling a bunch of classes honors, even though I thought it was a little silly. However, for the 2 colleges where she ended up applying for the honors program, I don't think a weighted GPA with lots of honors courses would have helped her, because I don't think they were making decisions about who to invite into the honors program based on strict cutoffs. They seemed to be putting a lot more emphasis on interviews and recommendation letters. I think there were cutoffs above which all students would be invited to apply -- but that didn't mean that kids below the cutoffs wouldn't have been invited if there seemed to be something "special" about the student. And special could mean anything from great academics to odd hobbies to coming from a disadvantaged background (which, by the way, although it seems to be enough to get an interview, isn't enough to get into the honors program by itself. The interview still had to impress). Big universities might not do that, but small colleges don't seem bound to the GPA. Or at least, the small colleges seem to be able to work with GPA calculations that are all over the map. As I recall, when filling out her applications, she was generally supposed to indicate whether the GPA was weighted or unweighted. So I suspect schools either deal with them differently, or try to balance the playing field between them. They're not just taking the two and comparing them directly, although it is possible large universities don't distinguish. I wouldn't have any knowledge about that because my daughter didn't apply to any of them. The problem I see with labelling some classes "honors" is that it kind of implies that the rest weren't. But, for my daughter at least, I think any class she did had enough work in it to be called honors. But I didn't want to call them all honors as that might look ridiculous. So I went the route of calling nothing honors. Anyway, would a college believe I knew what an honors course was? They might take my word for the grades, but I thought calling some classes honors was stretching believability. I mean, what does honors mean,precisely. There is a general consensus that an A might be around 90% and above, but how does one define honors? I haven't a clue, and I've been in a lot of those classes. I think having a short description of our educational philosophy was probably more effective than randomly calling some classes "honors". (Truthfully, though, I probably know more about what kids are doing at the local high school than any admissions officer knows about that specific school, and probably more than the vast majority of the parents of those kids. Kids tell me what they're up to in their classes, things they would never admit to an admissions office, things their parents don't ever bother to ask about. Also, let's face it, I was in high school once myself and I know exactly how little work one can get away with and still graduate with an impressive gold star on one's diploma. Even at a good school that people are fighting to get into.)

If you can get the kid into the school without too much struggle, it may just be adjustment issues, as others have said. However, I got to the point with my youngest where I couldn't physically get her into the school building without committing a crime. The only way I was going to get her in there was if she were unconscious, and as I wasn't willing to knock her over the head, we were stuck. I had to get my husband to take her in. Until he discovered that she was also stronger than he was, unless he wanted to hurt her. We just weren't going to go to that extreme. So we talked to the teacher instead. Whose main contribution was to tell us what terrible parents we were (ok, there was a lot more, but I'm not going to go into it except to say that I had a sudden, dawning realization why my daughter didn't want to go to school). Now that it's all water under the bridge, the only thing I blame my husband for was insisting that we had to get our kid into that classroom because the kids were "so well behaved."

When my kids were in school, a large part of the problem with keeping the classroom supplied was that kids stole stuff. I don't know what they did with it, but all kinds of things disappeared. Was the local pawn shop dealing in school supplies? The teacher had to buy his own stopwatches to implement a new reading program the school had bought (don't get me going on why you need stopwatches to teach reading). The stop watches all disappeared within a week. Although, one year, one of the kids was found out. When the teacher cleaned out the kid's locker there were nearly a thousand pencils in there. And as an aside -- my own calculator leanings: Really, by the time a kid is in high school, they should know how to use a calculator. I can't tell you how many people I knew in grad school who couldn't manage basic manipulations on a calculator. So it does make sense to introduce a calculator early, as long as kids are expected to do enough of their math without it that they don't HAVE to have a calculator when they're adults. (Although when you get into really advanced math, a calculator doesn't help that much anyway.) You really don't "need" a calculator for the SAT. I suppose if you're going to answer a lot of questions by plugging in all the available answers (as suggested by the prep books) then it might save some time, but the math itself isn't really calculator heavy.