Yes, Rebekah is expecting her second child, and we are very happy for her and her husband. :hurray: I just selfishly wish the timing would have been a little different so that my younger ds could have taken her class. My older ds took High School Composition a few years ago and learned so much from Rebekah. And yes, my oldest is taking AP Stats too. Our sons will be classmates. :001_smile:

Well, back to the drawing board for composition. Rebekah Randolph isn't teaching this fall. Sigh... And older ds is going to take AP Human Geography instead of AP Macroeconomics, now that he plans to major in geography at college.

We have been happy with Veritas Press Scholars Academy and they offer Spanish 3.

Does Disneyland offer character meals like Disney World does? When we visited Disney with a four-year-old, we had two character meals, and that was when we got autographs and photos with the characters. That way we didn't have to run all over the park to find them, or wait in lines at designated character spots. If that is an option for you, it might cut down on how much wheeling around you have to do. Also, we stayed at a Disney hotel so we could take our four-year-old back to the room for an afternoon nap each day. We got to the park when it opened, left after lunch for a hotel nap, then came back for supper with characters and a few more rides. Would a break like that make the day more do-able for you as well as your daughter? We also went to Disney World once over Memorial Day weekend because we were in town for a conference. The parks were so full that weekend that the hotel warned us that the parks were likely to reach capacity and we should go early in the day to make sure we would be admitted. So I would also ask about that possibility when you call Disney - if you did leave for a nap break what are the chances you wouldn't be readmitted because the park was full.

For what it is worth, my 11th grade ds has used Teaching Textbooks from Math 7 through Precalculus. He scored well enough on the ACT and the SAT to qualify for the honors program and merit scholarships at the colleges he is looking at. And he is definitely a non-mathy kid. Like other posters have stated, TT is the curriculum that allowed math to happen at our house every day and without a battle. If I had it to do all over again, I would still choose Teaching Textbooks. Aug. 2015 update - ds was accepted at all four universities he applied to, and is heading off to college in a few weeks with four academic scholarships. I'm still a Teaching Textbooks fan.

Well, that settles it - you will have to return to Cincinnati and give that talk again in 2015. I had to miss the convention this year for the first time ever, and I was so disappointed to not be able to hear your "Good Kids/Odd Ones Out" workshop.

Nope, it wasn't because a friend tried to buy it for me.

This is perfectly timed for my rising 8th grader. I would love to sign him up for a writing class this fall. Will the courses be asynchronous?

For what it is worth, my son is looking at state schools where he could earn merit scholarships and participate in the honors program. The only criteria for most of the ones we are looking at are SAT or ACT scores and GPA. A few schools list a scholarship range,versus a set amount, and mention "rigorous coursework" as a criterion. I think that is where AP courses might help earn more scholarship money. But yes, homeschoolers can be accepted into college, and earn merit scholarships, without taking AP classes.

I think another consideration is the size of the program they want to major in at the university. We are looking at some larger state schools where ds would earn merit scholarships and be eligible for the honors program. He is currently planning to major in geography, and these schools have small geography programs (between 20 and 80 undergrads). So we think that between the smaller honors classes, and few students in his major, he will not be an anonymous number.

I do not believe this is correct. Her daughters are Kayte and Kristen (according to her books). Lauren may be her daughter-in-law, but she is not her daughter. Collette Bailes is also listed as an AIM instructor. Maybe she is Lauren's mother?

Does Dr. Richman's class fill up? I understood from the website that he took all interested juniors and seniors, and because of that I was waiting to enroll ds since I am shelling out tuition for so many other courses right now. But I don't want to get closed out.

I have one signed up for High School composition with Laurel Tree Tutorials. And my older ds will take Advanced Research Writing with Lukeion, AP Macroeconomics with PA Homeschoolers, and possibly AP Stats with PAH.

Yep. And those times can come in very handy when trying to determine who visited a particular web site.

To the right of the text box where you would type in a web address, there are three black lines. if you click on those it opens up a drop-down menu, and one of the options is "history". Clicking on that will pull up your browsing history by date and time.

We do have that set up on the kids' computer, and on their ipods. But I left my laptop on when I left the house and he was able to access everything, no password needed. Lesson learned for me.

I use Google Chrome. And I have Windows 8 - not sure if that makes a difference or not.

The profiles were actually mine and several of my friends that he knows (his music teacher, mother of one of his friends, etc.) None of his friends are allowed to have facebook accounts yet. In our homeschool group it is common to wait until high school to allow facebook accounts. I think he was just checking it out because he was curious. But, he broke our rule about not getting on the internet without permission. And he continues to deny he did it. So he is going to be punished for his dishonesty. Raising teenage boys can be a thankless job. :banghead:

Well shoot. I was pretty sure that was the case, but I was hoping that maybe somehow there was a computer glitch that caused five erroneous browsing history entries. Yes, I realize how far-fetched that sounds. But the alternative is that my 12 year old looked me in the eye and told me a boldface lie. Repeatedly. With tears in his eyes. He is the child that is going to turn my hair gray. But on the up-side, he may have a future in the theater because he is quite the actor. Thanks everyone for your help.

I checked the browser history on my computer, and it shows that someone was on facebook from 6-6:15pm yesterday. The only person home at that time was my ds. He swears he wasn't on facebook, all though he does admit to using my computer. (And my husband saw him sitting at my computer when he arrived home unexpectedly.) Is there any way that browsing history could have appeared without someone actually going on facebook and visiting the four profiles indicated?

Have you considered AP US History through Pennsylvania Homeschoolers? It would meet your criteria of a strong course that is heavy on writing and has a discussion component. www.aphomeschoolers.com My son is currently taking Susan Richman's class and we have been pleased.

Since your son is planning on majoring in English, I would recommend the AP course. I think it would better prepare him for the type of writing that will be expected of him in college.

Jenn, while I believe your advice was well-meaning, your use of loaded language wasn't appreciated. I never suggested that my son's struggles with math were a "fatal flaw". And I am not assuming that he "has no chance of making it as an engineering major". If you had read all of my posts, you would have seen that my primary concern was that he not have to work so hard at it that he didn't have time for any kind of life outside of studying. And my son is a junior, not a 10th grader, so it is time for us to start looking at colleges and planning where he might want to visit. It helps to have an idea of what he may major in so that we can look at colleges that would be a good fit for him. And while I am certain that my son will continue to grow and mature, the "poor kid" does really need to start looking at colleges soon. As his parent and his guidance counselor, I feel it is my job to help him make decisions that are in his best interest, and won't cause him to incur heavy debt by changing his major, or his college, multiple times. With my son's best interests at heart, I asked for advice from this board, and got my hand slapped by you. I appreciate that you wanted to help (I think!), but please, if you can't say something kindly, then don't bother saying anything at all.

Ds's scores just arrived! :hurray:

A friend who tested with my son got her scores in the mail today, so now I am eagerly awaiting our mail delivery. I'm just hoping ds qualifies for one of the scholarships offered by dh's company. BTW, we are in Ohio.