Do you think you could have done it this way if you had homeschooled younger children? As I recall you started homeschooling somewhere around middle school, yes? I like the idea you present but am not sure it would work as well for children who are learning to spell, read phonics, form letters, etc. Along the same lines, do you think you could pull off the same methods if your kids were not accelerated? I'm not trying to make you defensive! :) It's just that I've seen you post things that sound so wonderful and I've always thought they would be great but wouldn't work here because my children are young and not accelerated.

Sooo... Any updates on this situation? I know it's an old thread but it stays in my mind because I feel bad for the victims.

Here's something I found wrt RttT. Maybe this is what 8 was talking about: This is from http://www.nacacnet.org/media-center/briefing/commonstandards/Pages/RacetotheTop.aspx at the web site for the National Association for College Admission Counseling. It sounds like if you agree that the test can be used to bypass remedial courses, you get priority over RttT funds. So it doesn't sound as if it's required, but there does appear to be a link. I still can't tell if the decision to participate will be at the state member level, the district level, or the postsecondary institution level.

I can only add Fantasy Island. :coolgleamA:

(Sorry I can't seem to un-bold or fix the fonts.) It seems muddy. It's like the first sentence says they've agreed to guarantee this, the second sentence is asking them to start in fall of 2016 to what they've already agree to, and the third sentence makes it sound like the agreement in the first sentence never happened. Maybe I'm not reading it right. I dunno.

Maybe something like this from http://www.smarterbalanced.org/higher-education/ : That sounds to me like the goal is to have the member states agree that their schools will not administer their own assessments but will agree that the CC test covers readiness for credit work. Note that they clearly say elsewhere this is not a replacement for the SAT. Also this from http://www.smarterbalanced.org/achievement-level-descriptors-and-college-readiness/ : I do think it sounds like there is a desire to replace CC assessments with a Common Core test. What happens if the college takes the student into a credit class based on their test score and then they do not perform satisfactorily? Then can they be moved to a remedial course? Perhaps that will be negotiated as states agree to participate.

Reminds me of a section from Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman. Dr. Feynman was put on the committee to help select CA textbooks.

Its funny how life can turn out in the end. My aunt married a very conservative man who wanted a son. When their daughter was born he refused to even go to the hospital and visit her until other family members forced him to go. He was totally against her having any higher education and wanted her to be married as young as possible. Fast forward 20 years. She and her mother fought for her to get an engineering degree. Once she had the degree in hand she was offered a very prestigious position in an expensive, world-class city. She moved there and flourished. Eventually her parents grew older and could no longer support themselves so they moved in with my cousin. Now she is completely supporting them, they live in a fantastic area in a fantastic city, and they are both proud of her. The outcome would have been so very different if her mother had not supported her. As a shorter anecdote, my grandmother didn't have the same conflict with her husband about educating her daughters, but she did have that conflict with her brothers and own father. Eventually she and her husband took their family and moved to another country to get away from the pressure. All of her children but one (she had many) ended up with masters degrees or doctorates. She's my hero.

My set arrived a few days ago but I opened it last night. It looks fantastic and I'm going to start reading the guide later today. (After football. We have priorities, you know.) I'm excited but a bit overwhelmed trying to figure out how to fit this in with what was supposed to be our next project: reading the Lang fairy books. Maybe I can make my way through Bookland but switch to Lang as a replacement for the fairy stories, using Bookland for non-fairy stories until we're through Lang. Hmmm.

Update: I tried using a bleach cleaner but it didn't work. New info: I saw that some people put car wax on the tops of the oven doors and sometimes on the window to make it easy to wipe off. Am I the only one who thinks this is a bad idea?

The magic eraser got about half of it off! The rest is still on there but I have to do some errands so I can't try the other things until later. It's not sticky so I'm worried it's baked on and permanent. :-( The self-clean cycle doesn't get everything clean so I use the oven cleaner to spot-clean. Is that a problem for a self-clean oven? It doesn't seem to have caused any damage.

Thanks. I'll try the things mentioned. I'm in a bit of a panic because the owner is very detail-oriented and I'm angry at myself for not noticing this before. Yes, the oven is white. It matches a cooktop built into Corian so it's very difficult to replace. She had mentioned that to me when we moved in and I've taken good care of everything. You can't see the stain much unless you're at the correct angle but once you see it you can't help but see it. It's very light but over the width of the door. Off to try the suggestions...

I think the things you went through is very different from this. The range of situations at this point could range from him staying home and doing homeschool high school for another year, to him moving out and supporting himself completely. Living at home and taking classes at CC is very much closer to the first. He sounds like a great kid who has arrived at CC readiness despite obstacles. Congratulations!

We rent so I don't own my oven. I've kept the inside of the oven clean using a combination of the cleaning cycle and oven cleaner. As I was walking by this morning I noticed that the outside front has become dirty. It's kind of a brownish/yellowish stain and is unevenly placed. Some of it is around the vents at the top of the door and extends high enough to get on the keypad and digital display. It's also on a plastic lip. I think I'm dealing with metal, glass, and plastic for sure, and the display has tiny raised dots for texture; those may be rubber. It's a vertical surface and there are different materials so I'm not sure what to use. Also, the top of the door is dirty, but is has vent openings in it so if I spray it or put something on it unless I'm very careful it could go inside the door. Any ideas?

Sorry things are so tough. Make sure you don't underestimate the value of your donations when you claim them: http://www.bankrate.com/finance/money-guides/tax-valuation-guide-for-donated-goods.aspx

A student can get into UC based on test scores alone. But the requirements are very high so you're taking a bit of a chance if you go that route, depending on when you take the test and get the scores. http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/freshman/requirements/examination/ So a kid with a perfect SAT would practically get in somewhere in the UC system, but they don't guarantee anything like they do in other circumstances: http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/freshman/california-residents/index.html

I don't remember the NYE deal, but I remember regretting I had bought some things earlier in the week. Nonetheless, here's my order from 12/31/12: Great Battles of the Ancient World (DVD) Set: Discrete Mathematics & Joy of Math (DVD) Set: Mathematics Describing the Real World & Understanding Computation (DVD) I got these 5 items (2 sets + a single) for $271.80 and $30 shipping and handling (!) I think there were some free shipping deals but using another code gave me a better deal.

Please post how it goes if you can. I've been on the fence about this one and am in the same place as you wrt Latin experience.

I also finished that book recently. What did you think of it? I think much of teaching critical thinking has to do with talking about books, math problems, etc. and expanding beyond what's given. Asking questions beyond the problem by changing it, asking "what if" or "why". Basically hanging out at the higher levels of Bloom's taxonomy: http://www.teachthought.com/learning/249-blooms-taxonomy-verbs-for-critical-thinking/ On a more utilitarian level, you can get books like these: http://www.criticalthinking.com/building-thinking-skills-level-1.html It's also useful to solve puzzles like Sudoku, logic puzzles, etc. I've had this open in a tab but I haven't had time to read it myself: http://mres.gmu.edu/pmwiki/uploads/Main/CritThink.pdf

A friend of mine went to Boston Latin School and it sounds up your alley. He loved it. It's public, rigorous, has German, and is a feeder school for Harvard. However they start in 7th grade so you'd have a gap. Plus there's an exam for admission so you'd be taking a risk moving cross-country. But I thought I'd try to help so there it is.

Awesome! I've lost 8 lbs and am looking to you for inspiration. :party:

How did I not notice this before? I believe you have saved me a quite a bit of money and you could make an argument for me to send you a cut. :)

Thank you so much for your response. This is very helpful. I've been loaning our discs to my brother without watching them so I didn't realize the lack of writing/visuals. The only series I have watched was an astronomy one and the teacher did draw. One example I can recall is a drawing of the change in angle of refraction of the sun's rays and how that caused the different colors of a rainbow. At least I think there was a drawing. It's possible I made one myself. Now I'm doubting everything! :o My kids will have an opportunity to take college courses if it works out. We live near a world-class university and there are 5 or 6 easily accessible CCs. I just don't know what the future holds when they're so young and are (so far) average kids. I think I'll cross-reference my GC list with what's on Audible and only get the difference from GC.

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

We opened a few presents we received from the Christian part of the family and called them to wish them a merry Christmas. Then we cleaned the house, ate lunch, did Singapore and DS is finishing WWE. Kids will go to the neighbors to play with their presents later. I will be watching Die Hard later, my favorite Christmas movie!