Wow, a lot of good suggestions here, many of which I am going to reiterate. I'm with the parents who were talking about eliminating all the elementary school courses. When my dd was 13/14 in 8th grade public school, she was taking high school Spanish for 55 minutes a day; high school Algebra 55 minutes a day; English 55 minutes a day, Social Studies 55 minutes per day, and Science 55 minutes per day. All of these were gifted classes. Some days were lectures combined with a short, explanatory video; other days would be silent reading which culminated in a discussion and an assigned (2 page) response paper due the following week. The last period was a rotational period: one day it was art, the next, computers (Excel, PowerPoint, etc), the next was home ec, the next music, and back to art again. BTW, they don't even teach cursive in p/s here anymore. No such animal. What you really want to do is start prepping your son for college, and that means fewer classes, but more challenging material and longer time periods. It's not really about quantity of work but reasoning and application. There were many "bad" things about public high school, but the good things my dd learned were: how to take quizzes and tests under pressure; how to write lengthy (10 to 15 page) papers formatted in APA form, how to work quickly in a real lab environment, and how to do research in a library with real books, NOT using wiki. On the SAT, spelling does NOT count. Nor does handwriting. My dd prints everything (except her signature) and both times she scored a 10 on her SAT essays. Also, cursive is antiquated, which is sad, as I know it greatly increases writing speed, but nowadays students tend to take notes on their computers (netbooks) or have professors/instructors provide internet links to lectures on their notes. This is not to say notetaking is unimportant! But teach your son how to take good notes, how to reason, how to extract the essence of what he is seeing/hearing/learning, and he'll do fine printing his words. Good luck. Take the advice of other parents who have streamlined their dc's curriculum. EDITED TO ADD: My dd talked about graduating school early since she was 13, but she didn't really buckle down and take her schoolwork seriously until the summer after her junior year. Then she made up for lost time and earned 2 CLEP credits and 9 credit hours all in the space of 12 weeks.

Are you saying that dd needs to mentally check back with herself--being both student and teacher--as she does each step? Like talking to oneself while doing the steps? (I know I do this--"forty percent off eight dollars is really sixty percent times eight, which is six times eight, which is forty-eight, add a zero, and I end up paying four dollars eighty cents..." all of which I mumble to myself as I am mentally calculating because hearing it for me cements it in my mind and I don't lose track of the steps. But I thought that was just my own peculiar quirk). I say nothing to her as she is making mistakes because I would hope, that as an 18 year-old, she would be aware of her own mistakes as she is making them. I shouldn't have to sit by her side--or should I? May I ask what it is in your dd 10 that you see happening, does she lose track of the steps as she is going along, is she inattentive, or does she have a problem coordinating mind and hand?

If you can give me any insight at all into any part of this, I would so appreciate it! My dd is doing a review of Algebra 1. She has NO problem with solving word problems, even the complex ones. She is excellent at arithmetic. But she IS having problems in 3 easy areas which I cannot figure out. I have gone back over her papers, re-traced her steps, and this is what I am coming up with: Inequalities and absolute values: She understands these concepts. She can do the arithmetic behind them. She seems to have errors transferring them onto a number line, i.e. her solution of < - 7/16 will become a > 7/16 when noted on the number line. Linear equations/graphing ordered pairs: She understands these concepts. She knows negatives and positives and the concepts behind them. She has done them since middle school (she is now a high school senior). She can solve the equations. What she is NOT doing is placing the dots on the graphs correctly. It is not due to carelessness, because I have been sitting by her side, watching her work and explain to me what she is doing, as she is doing it. She will say "now I'm going to put 1,3 right over here"--and her pencil goes to (wrong) Quadrant II. She doesn't recognize it as being the wrong quadrant, even while she is oh so carefully counting out the lines to place the dot correctly. Then, slowly, carefully, she goes on: "and now I am going to put 1,2 over here"--and her pencil goes to the correct Quadrant 1. It's as if there is a total disconnect between what she just did 10 seconds earlier (1, 3) and right now (1, 2). It's like she doesn't visually see the correlation between them, that 1,2 should be really really close to 1,3. The hand doesn't do what the mouth/brain are saying: Again, she will tell me what she is doing as she is doing it, and she will say something like, "now, I multiply 3/4 by its reciprocal..." and her hand will write 3/4 x 3/4 (instead of 4/3). She doesn't catch her error, she doesn't see it. She goes on and on to her answer, working very carefully, very neatly and meticulously, and arrives at the wrong solution. It would not be so bad if this happened with just one or two problems, but as it happens with about 50% of her problems, you can imagine that she is in tears by the end of our sessions. She is spending hours on these simple problems and she is devastated because she can't stop making these transcribing (for lack of a better word) errors. She does take ADD meds and she is doing well in all her other (college!) classes, but this is a stumper. Likewise, she has a similar problem reading recipes, always omitting 1 or 2 key ingredients, or doing the steps out of sequence, despite her meticulous attention to every detail and checking off as she goes along. Has anyone encountered this and what can we do to fix it?

:iagree: Advanced Spanish grammar (third and fourth year onwards) deals with verb tenses and nuances that are difficult concepts to understand. I cannot imagine that Rosetta Stone would deal with the subjunctive topics in a thorough manner. You will need additional resources.

I have been posting this same question for months. DD is now 18, a high school senior, and she did better in math when she was in 8th grade! Five years later, two Algebra 1 courses under her belt, 1.5 years of Geometry, and now she is in her 3rd go-round of Algebra 2....this is a very bright girl, 750 on her SATs.... Our dd is careless with numbers and symbols. In one problem she will do steps 1-2-3-4-6 (leaving out step 5) and in the next, identical, problem she will do steps 1-2-3-5-6, leaving out step 4. She just finished a review of graphing linear equations (PreAlgebra and early Algebra 1) and the topic is linear equations, meaning, a LINE. So when she plots all the points on the graph--easy stuff--she gets shapes that look like letter M or Z. Where are the straight lines? Like I said, these are LINEar equations and the entire chapter shows pictures of LINES on graphs. These are the conclusions I have come to, followed by what I would do differently if I could do it all over again. 1) DD is not going into the science field any time soon, despite her claims to wanting to be an astrophysicist/bioloist/zoologist. In my naivete I took her at her word revved up the pace, trying different programs to find one that would put her on the fast track and still make math palatable. I should have stuck with the simpler math program she liked using in the first place. 2) DD is adamant about wanting to be "good" in math like her boyfriend and other "smart" people but she wants it to come easily, no homework, minimal studying. Well, sorry, we can't be all things to all people, and accepting our TEMPORARY limitations can also be a sign of maturity. Besides, those almost perfect SAT scores in CR and Writing count for a lot, don't underestimate them. And that boyfriend who has perfect 800 Math SAT scores--he barely scraped by in the Critical Reading section with a 510. 3) DD wanted to rush through assignments to get them over with and behind her. I wanted her to slow down and absorb all the material. I wanted her to know the rules of math as well as she knows her ABCs. I wanted her to do college prep math. I should have taken into account her maturity and done more practical math, taking algebra in smaller, repetitive daily doses. Her brain usually shuts off in math after 20 minutes. 4) DD always insisted on doing math at the end of her schoolday. I should have kept insisting that she do a 20-minute course first thing in the morning, when her mind was fresh, and she do a 10-minute review at the end of the day. 5) DD says she "knows this stuff" and considers it beneath her to prove it. Well, I might know how to drive a car, having been doing so since I was a kid, driving the tractor around the farm, but the folks at the DMV don't care a diddle about that. They want me to take a test. 6) DD claims her math errors and inconsistencies are due to ADD. This statement has some merit. DD does have ADD and does take meds which help her in all her other college-level classes. But why don't the meds help her in math? After all, she's earning an A in Chemistry at the community college, and she has scored As on both chem exams based solely on mathematical equations and formulas. But I truly believe DD is impatient--the ADD rearing its ugly head--with math and that makes her careless and inattentive because plain ol' math is so BORING. The most important lesson I have learned is that math is a discipline which requires motivation-whether it be passion, challenge, good grades, class status, the lure of a lucrative career....My dd had none of these. I should have let her proceed at her own pace, fulfilling minimum state standards, and let her confront her math demons in college through remedial math courses. I know this goes against what so many other WTM parents feel about math study, and I believed the same, up until the other day. But now I feel differently.

Hi. I have an ADD daughter who also has a touch of Aspergers (though she will never admit it, but she does says she gets "autism-icky" at times). She takes a super long time to process, also, though her responses generally comes out very logical, correct, and error-free than those of us who process faster and more sloppily. Haste makes waste, and despite her apparent slowness, in the long run she does better than her peers. About a typical school day: I do have some frame of reference. My dd attended public school, private school, and parochial (religious school), and I noticed some curriculum choices common among them. 1) Students do not have PE AND art on the same day. It's an either/or. Secondly, almost all younger students integrate art with their academic classes. For example, they will make picture collages for their Spanish class--my dd did this in 8th grade! One day was spent cutting out pictures of food from magazines and gluing to a poster board, and the next day was spent learning the correct words for the food and writing them on the board, next to each item. 2) The use of videos. Videos can be highly educational. My daughter's 3rd grade English teacher used videos once a week "to give the students a break from my voice" and they would discuss the video afterwards. This can run into another "class" and you can incorporate the two. For example: look ahead in your logic assignments. Is there a theme which can be integrated with a video? [The Magic School Bus was always a great resource]. 3) Quantity is not always better than quality. If your child can remember one fact from each "class", you've done well. Better yet, if you can weave topics together--making connections between topics, such as decorating paper plates to look like yummy pies, then cutting them into pie slice, and learning the Spanish word for pie, you have covered art, math, and a bit of Spanish for the day. Play some Spanish children's songs in the background while the children are working--"unos, dos, tres"--and you are doing even better. All of this takes planning, of course, and being too tired to begin with is an even greater hurdle. It's difficult enough to keep up, never mind get ahead far enough to be creative. One thing I did learn from the (short) time I have been homeschooling my dd is to ask others who have been there, done that to share their lesson plans with you. You can get good ideas from them and just tailor to fit your situation. There's no point in reinventing the wheel if you can help it. Good luck.

i hope

dadada

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None of my D's colleges did, and one of them is a very high caliber school. When I made the transcript I attached a second page listing each course, the texts used, and an "equivalence" code denoting the same course in the public school system. Example: my homeschool Honors Chemistry 101 equivalent to HCHEM1001 (state code).

I am a Spanish major and speak, write, and read Spanish quite well. I'm qualified to teach Spanish. Rosetta Stone falls far short of what is required for a non-native speaker to learn Spanish. The idea behind RS is great if you are two-years old and have no prior knowledge of the rules of grammar, but the "mature" (non-infant) mind is going to continually ask questions and try to assimilate a new foreign language in ways that an infant does not. My first suggestion: an online course. My daughter is currently enrolled in an online, self-paced Spanish course through University of Idaho. She is earning straight As and she really likes the course set-up. It is entirely self-paced, meaning the student has one year to finish the course and goes at his own speed. It has online access to the Vistas supersite, which is pretty much the universal foreign language site for high school and college students today. The cost is $400, plus books (not very expensive as UI uses older copies) but for that $400 your son would earn 4 college credits, which would also count as high school credit. The credit is fully transferable to the majority of colleges and universities within the US. http://www.uiweb.uidaho.edu/isi/courses/span101.htm.Elementary Spanish 101 is truly for beginners and assumes no prior Spanish education whatsoever. It is primarily the same as a first year high school Spanish course. Another option would be to use the original Destinos series, which is free video on Annenberg televsion, and you can purchase the used workbook and textbook along with audio CDs. This is the very best program there is, and is still used in some community colleges today, but since it was filmed in the late 80's there are a lot of "big shoulder" garments which date the films and was a turn-off to my critical daughter. If you choose to go it alone, I would suggest a common public high school textbook series, or the easiest college series (Amazon is a big help; it will take a couple of hours to narrow down your choices. Then go to eBay). You need one that is a few years old, so it will be cheap, but not too old so the components are hard to find. You will need a teacher's textbook, a student textbook, a workbook, and an audio CD. My dd has used Arriba! as well as Realidades and Como Se Dice?. Right now she is using Vistas (with UI, above). Whatever you do, it would be wise if you were to assign your son a once-weekly additional exercise of watching a Spanish video (in Spanish language) with English subtitles. It need be only 20 or 30 minutes per week. You should be able to find plenty of these, free, in your local library. As time goes on, (like, after the first few months), switch him over to watching Spanish TV shows (on television) with CC (close-captioning). What is especially helpful, believe it or not, are the commercials! BTW, I went back to the 11/08 post about RS and there are quite a few parents stating "my child won't be needing foreign languages anyway" or "she intends to be a math major, so this doesn't matter". They are wrong--it DOES matter. I don't believe there is a halfway decent college out there that DOESN'T have a foreign language requirement for every student, regardless of major.

My dd is 18 and a smart cookie, scoring almost perfectly on her SATs in Critical Reasoning as well as writing. Math, however...:banghead: We thought she had dyscalcuila, but she knows her math facts. She has a great concept of time and money. She is meticulous and takes her time and writes clearly. Her problem is that what she writes on paper does not resemble what her brain is thinking. This is for math only. She reverses the direction of parentheses; she puts negative signs when she means positive; she draws a line on a graph going vertically instead of horizontally. If you were to ask her what the correct answer is to a problem, she could tell you. She can also see someone else's mistake. What she cannot stop is making her hand (neatly) write the wrong "thing". When she comes back to her work later she sees her answer as being wrong and says "why the heck did I do that? That shouldn't be a square root symbol." She knows the concepts inside-out but with pencil to paper she's inaccurate about 30% of the time. In a Geometry book she does not see the 3D representations (like of 2 intersecting planes) as being 3D. She merely sees the lines on the page for what they are, intersecting lines. It took me hours of showing her, with cardboard sheets cut and fitting into one another, what 2 intersecting planes are. She still does not see illustrations as 3D but she takes my word for it that they are and she knows how to "interpret" the illustrations and use formulas to get her answer. She is on her third round of Algebra 2, having taken Algebra 1 twice in ps (got by with a C) and Geometry once (a C). Can anyone guess at what this is? What, if anything, I could have her tested for? She does have ADD and takes meds and her concentration is fine.

When my step-dd was at Emory (Atlanta) she was offered a full summer internship in a Washington, DC news bureau. The catch? She would have to pay for housing as well as a "placement fee". Total cost? $7,800-, and that was over ten years ago! OTOH, there are universities which do offer decent internships, either on the campus, near the campus, or in a low-cost/affordable program. I think it all depends on the university and how creative the student is. In many instances the students have the opportunity to design an internship, provided there is a local "source".

In our state, the comm colleges have an automatic transfer agreement with the 4-year universities. Also, in our state the DE (dual enrollment) classes are paid for by the state; two per semester. Meaning, my high school student child can take 2 college classes, free, per semester (but we have to buy the books). My homeschooled dd has taken DE courses (free) here at the local comm coll, as well as some online courses through out-of-state universities which are quite affordable (University of Idaho Independent Study Program and Clovis Community College, to be exact). She is taking an Intermediate Spanish independent study course through U I because there was no Intermediate Spanish course offered at our local comm coll. The course at U I uses the identical text and online program that is utilized here at our 4-year state universities. As a matter of fact, all of dd's out-of-state classes are transferrable, because they are through regionally accredited institutions. My dd could have opted for AP classes, as those, also, are free, from our state-run Florida Virtual School. But the AP classes--both those from FLVS and those her friends take in public high school--have way too many projects, and that is a big turn-off for my dd; she hates projects, considers them time-wasters. She prefers reading, absorbing information, processing, reasoning, and writing papers, then repeating the cycle all over again. The other negative is that many of dd's friends who have taken AP classes have failed the end-of-year exam. Although they did receive high-school credit, they did not earn any college credit. A years' work and no college credit? Though let me state that many of these students should not have been in AP classes in the first place, and they wouldn't have done very well in DE classes, either. For other students, though, AP is great. My niece enjoyed AP Lit classes because she loves reading novels (she is now a senior in college and a Lit major) and her AP was her thing. Then again, she went to a school where there was no DE option. Last thing to consider: AP exams are pricey, I think $90 (?) per exam.

:iagree: Our dd was recruited by some top universities and colleges, including H, because she has a very unique extracurricular that put her in the pages of a national magazine. Her text scores in CR and Writing are really really high but Math is average (that's why there is remedial math at Harvard, folks!). I know for a fact she was contacted because of her one EC that makes her stand out from the "average" overachieving valedictorian/NMF type of student. I was told by the recruiter that they saw her featured in XXX magazine. Homeschooling has not been detrimental to our dd. In fact, I wish we had started earlier, instead of in 11th grade. ___________________________ DD - freshman fall 2011 at New College of Florida

nd4judge - DS#1 Furman University (attending), Sewanee - University of the South (accepted), Univerity of Alabama (accepted), University of Alabama in Birmingham (accepted), Birmingham- Southern College (accepted) Blue Hen - ds - University of Delaware, Case Western Reserve, CO School of Mines, Drexel (PA), Lehigh(PA), Rose-Hulman, Tulane, RPI (NY), Stony Brook University --- all acceptances. Brigid in NC - ds - accepted @ Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, North Carolina State (attending) CherylG's ds-UCLA, graduated, UCSB, UCSD, Westmont, all accepted. UMD-attending for master's in engineering. CherylG's dd-SBCC school of nursing-graduated. Chris in VA ds--attending VCU. Got into the Cinema program sophmore year. CindyMarsch's dd#1 - Grove City College - attending CindyMarsch's ds - Grove City College - attending CindyMarsch's dd#2 - Grove City College, Gordon College, Union University - all accepted, she's choosing UU CO Mom -dd- George Fox (will attend in fall of 2010); Taylor University, Northwest Nazarene University accepted. Creekland's ds - Covenant College - attending fall 2010, Union University, Calvin College - acceptances Deb in NZ's dd - Bay of Plenty Polytechnic (begin Feb 2010) Distancia in FL--dd: New College of Florida (the State Honors College)--accepted and will attend in fall 2011; USF (accepted) dkholland- ds - Covenant College (will attend in fall), Patrick Henry College (accepted) Grove City College (accepted) FloridaLisa -- ds1: accepted to: University of Florida, Florida State University (attending) Gwen in VA -- Washington & Lee (attending); acceptances from U Chicago, U Pitt, U Dallas, U Delaware, Hillsddale, UVA, William & Mary, College of Wooster, Case Western HeatherH -- Belhaven University (accepted w/scholarship; won't attend); University of Montevallo (same); University of Alabama at Birmingham; Samford. Still deciding between UAB & Samford based on $$ award. Jenny in Florida -- Mary Baldwin College early entrance program (Senior) Kate in FL-ds1-Cornell University (accepted Early Decision so all other apps had to be withdrawn) Kate in FL-ds2-Savannah College of Art and Design, Ithaca College, Drexel University, all acceptances Kathy in Richmond - ds - MIT (attending), also accepted at Caltech, Carnegie Mellon, U Michigan, and UVA. Kathy in Richmond - dd - accepted at Princeton, Stanford, MIT, Caltech, U Chicago, William & Mary, and wait-listed at Swarthmore Katia - ds- Ellsworth Community College (AA Computer Science) , Anderson University-attended , University of Northern Iowa (BA Computer Science), Kansai Gaidai University, Kyoto, Japan-attended Katia - dd#1- Hilldale College-attending , accepted at: Luther College, Ball State University, University of Northern Iowa, Oberlin College Conservatory of Music Katia- dd#2 - applying to: Hillsdale College , Warner University (accepted) Lady Lorna - dd accepted at Fordham University, Hillsdale College, The King's College, Middlebury College, St John's College, Thomas More College of Liberal Arts, Thomas Aquinas College, Trinity College. Waitlisted The University of Chicago. Still waiting to hear from Columbia University, Harvard University, Princeton University, Yale University LaJuana - dd#1 University of Dallas - graduated Summa cum Laude. Also accepted to Hillsdale. LaJuana - ds#1 University of Dallas - graduated Summa cum Laude. Also accepted to Hillsdale. Attending Westminster Theological Seminary (MDiv). LaJuana dd#2 Attending Oklahoma City University Bass School of Music (Musical Theatre and Vocal Performance). Also accepted at Samford University (AL), Whitworth University (WA), George Fox University (OR), Covenant College (GA), Houghton College (NY), Oklahoma Christian University. LaJuana ds#2 Attending Whitworth University. Also accepted at University of Dallas. (Except for dd majoring in MT and VP, my dc knew where they wanted to go, applied to two schools only, and were accepted at both.) Laughing Lioness - DS -Boyce College (KY) attending. Accepted to Augustana College (SD) and St. Mary's School of Nursing (SD). Lisa in TN's dd - Vanderbilt University - attending. Also accepted to Hillsdale College, Belmont University, University of Memphis. Lisa in TN's ds - Washington University in St. Louis - attending. Also accepted to the University of Pennsylvania, Duke University, Case Western Reserve University, University of Alabama, University of Tennessee. Liza Q's dd - Saint Francis College - attending. Kings College, St. John's University, Brooklyn College - accepted Luann in ID ds1 and ds2 - LeTourneau University - attending (They both knew they wanted to go there, so this is the only place they applied.) Mandy in TN-- ds Berea College (attending beginning in Aug) Margaret in CO--dd accepted to Western State College for dual credit, accepted to Hillsdale College, graduated, accepted to CU Boulder School of Music, finishing Master's Margaret in CO--dd accepted to Western State College for dual credit, accepted to USNA, attending finishing Firstie Year, accepted to flight school, acceptances: Hillsdale College, USAFA, USCGA, ERAU (on NROTC), School of Mines Margaret in CO--dd accepted to Western State College for dual credit I'm going to stick my should-have-been-son-in-law (killed last spring), accepted to Hillsdale College, transferred to WVU, graduated, accepted to Toledo Medical College. Martha in NM-- ds --Central New Mexico Community College; he's already planning his transfer to a four-year institution Mary in GA ds: Clayton State University (attended & transferred) Georgia Tech (attending) Michelle in GA ds- University of Georgia (accepted); Berry College (accepted); Georgia Tech (currently attending) Moira in MA dd -- Acceptances at Dalhousie U (Nova Scotia), McGill U (Montreal) Mommyfaithe's dd #1 (accepted College of St. Rose (NY) attended Sage College Albany, NY Graduated Summa Cum Laude Mommyfaithe's dd#2 Attending Russell Sage College. Accepted SUNY New Paltz, SUNY Albany, waiting to hear from Simmons College in Boston Mass. MSPolly's dd- Acceptances at Covenant(TN), Union U(TN), U of MS, Belhaven U(MS) - ATTENDING Collaborative Piano/Pedagogy major WAHOO! Ms. Riding Hood ds1- MIT (attending), Texas A&M, Rose-Hulman, Purdue Musicmom –ds- accepted at Carnegie Mellon (attending fall 2010), Cornell, University of Minnesota—Twin Cities Honors Program Newbie -dd- Accepted Chatham University(PA), Carlow University(PA), Mills College nrg - ds#1: attending BYU, accepted at Cal Tech, Stanford ds#2: attending UC Santa Cruz, accepted BYU ds#3: junior in hs NYKatie -- Dd 1, Union College, Schenectady, NY (attending) Osmosis Mom -Dd 1, Wellesley College (attending), accepted to Merrimack College, BU, Simmons, Emmanuel College Osmosis Mom -Dd 2, Mt. Holyoke (attending Spring Admission 2011), accepted to Merrimack, Clark, Simmons, wait-listed at Smith, NYU, Northeastern Outtamyshell - BYU Provo Quiver0f10-dd#1-attending NWACC Quiver0f10-ds#1 attending University of Arkansas Quiver0f10-ds#2-attending NWACC Quiver0f10-ds#3 accepted to: Missouri University of Science and Tech, University of Arkansas, Embry Riddle, Oklahoma State University Honors College, Texas A&M Ruth in NC ds accepted St John in NM, Oberlin w/scholarship, Colorado College, Boston U, will attend UNC Chapel Hill, offered waitlist at Vanderbilt and Emory Ruth in NC dd accepted NC State, UNC Asheville, Appalachian State and Earlham w/scholarship, on Oberlin waitlist. Still deciding. Sepuld - DD 21 attending Bryn Mawr, acceptances U of Chicago, Haverford, Boston College, Bowdoin, Lehigh, Lawrence, ST Olaf, Catholic U, Villanova, Sewanee, William and Mary DD 20 attending Swarthmore, acceptances Wheaton (Ill), Lawrence, St. Olaf, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke, Smith, Wellesley DS 19 attending St. Olaf, acceptances Lawrence, Wheaton (Ill), Concordia (Mn), Hope College, Gustavus Adolphus, Susquehanna Sharon in MD's ds-Drexel University -attending; UMBC-Meyerhoff program, UMD-College Park-College of Engineering, Messiah College- acceptances Spock - ds – accepted at Liberty University (plans to transfer after attending CC for a year) ssbmem - dd - accepted: Duke Univ, Fordham Univ, Univ of Texas at Austin (Business Honors), Texas A & M Univ (Business Honors), Houston Baptist Univ (Honors College); waitlisted: Washington Univ at St Louis Susann-dd-Rose-Hulman, Purdue, University of Evansville, Trine, Taylor, Cedarville-acceptances Susie-Knits ds1 - Valparaiso (attending), Rose-Hulman, U of Evansville, TN Tech - acceptances Sylvia in CA - dd - attending Biola Torrey Honors, accepted at UC Davis, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Westmont, Azusa Pacific Sylvia in CA - ds - accepted at University of Pacific, Biola TerriKY- dd- attending: Georgetown College, KY; accepted: Centre College, Eastern KY U., ds#1 - planning to attend: Cedarville U, OH; Accepted: Transylvania University, KY; Greenville College, IL TransientChris's DS- George Mason U,attending; Hillsdale College- attended, Abilene Christian, Hampden-Sydney, St. Olaf- accepted Valerie(TX) - ds UT Arlington attended Valerie(TX) - dd accepted Biola (CA), Messiah (PA), Belhaven (MS), Mary Baldwin College (VA), UTA (TX), Hardin-Simmons (TX), Univ. of Mary Hardin-Baylor (TX), and Ouachita (AR). ATTENDING--Hardin-Simmons ZooRho- ds#1 attending Bryan College (TN), accepted Pfeiffer University(NC), Eastern Mennonite College (VA) Maverick's ds #1 - accepted to West Point, will attend starting summer 2011 KristinaBreece- Lee University (TN)-class of 2006, Ohio University Med School-class of 2009

Thank you!

Here in the A**** household "we" are tackling exponents and "we" have a question. #1) When we simplify the fraction 2n^2 / n, we get 2n #2) But when we simplify 5^4/5 , we get 5^3 We understand that in the first problem the 2 (numerator) is being divided by an invisible 1 in the denominator; hence, a final answer of 2 (with the n coefficient) But in the second problem, when we divide the 5 (numerator) by the 5 (denominator), we don't get a "1". Why is this? I have worked out the second problem mathematically to 5 x 5 x 5 x5 = 625, and divided that by 5, to arrive at 125, which is 5^3, the correct answer. But set up the way it is as a fraction, why are we not dividing (reducing ) 5 by 5? Thanks!

Are you talking about my daughter? No, seriously, I am having the same exact problem with my dd, in math. For years she went to public school and then we had to (medical reasons) begin homeschooling her in 11th grade. She's great in everything except math. I now have her taking online math Alg 2 courses (NOT from me) and she is experiencing troubles in the easiest of the subject, Pre-Algebra stuff. I began tutoring her a week ago, going way back to 7th and 8th grade concepts. I remember reading an article a while ago and it said that 95% of high school students' problems in math go all the way back to fractions and/or exponents. These concepts are taught in middle-school, which is when students--especially girls--are NOT paying attention. Anyway, all dd has wanted to do was rush through the exercises and get on with her life. She wanted to know how to solve a problem only to move on to the next, know how to solve that problem, and move on. When it came to learning the rule or looking into another book for a clearer explanation--I have something like 7 books piled up, and if the answer isn't clear in one, we move on to another--she didn't want to do it. But I made her anyway, because it was all avoidance on her part. She's like a wild horse and my mission is to break her! When I asked her to show me on her whiteboard an example of a "term", an "expression", a "monomial", and a "factor", she had a problem differentiating between them. She didn't know the 2ab in 2ab/4a was a factor, and she didn't know it simplified because they were not "like terms". She was getting all her rules mixed up. Her definitions were inaccurate. So I made her look up the words in the glossary of not one math book, but two, to see if they matched. The first three days of this week were filled with tension, as dd would fiddle with her pencil, sigh, stare at the ceiling, look out the window, and then burst out with an angry statement such as "you're asking that question because you think I'm stupid!" But I have persisted and today I think we have finally made some progress. DD is realizing that doing the math isn't about solving problems in a half-cocked manner, but grinding through and stopping to look at the answer, check an example, or two, or three, consult different sources, work the problem in a different way, go back to the preceding problem... In other words, it's WORK. And it's humbling for an 18 year-old to go back and do this material thoroughly and carefully and not be lazy or careless about it. And it's even worse to have MOM sitting across from you and insisting that you do it slowly, carefully, and find out how to solve it on your own. What I have realized in this short time is that it is better to work on one topic and one topic only, to mastery. Because her inclination is to gloss over something, I am taking the opposite approach. For these past 4 days we have been working on NOTHING but exponents. Starting with 2 squared, to 3 cubed...going on to a^m/a^n = a ^m-n kind of thing. Over and over again. Sometimes spending 5 minutes on a particular problem. Good luck.

At your request the College Board will send ALL scores to the college(s) of your choice. It is at the discretion of the college whether to choose the best scores overall, or from one sitting only. It appears, from my research, that appx 90% of the colleges do "superscore", meaning, they pick the best of the scores from different sittings. It works very well to the benefit of the student. The ACT does not superscore and that is a disadvantage to the student.

I do my own haircoloring--very easy. I can understand paying for it if you need a triple-process or something, but just for a single hair color, like root touch-up? It is so easy to do at home! The massage, mani/pedi and spa treatments I have had done when given as a gift. But in my case the mani/pedi is a total waste because I garden and do yard work and my hands and feet take a lot of abuse; within a day or so the mani/pedi looks like it never happened. Burning dollar bills, in my mind. The massage is great and I always ask for one as a Christmas gift and a birthday gift. We have intro specials where I live and I can get an hour for $39. Not an expensive gift for hubby to buy me. But he usually ends up giving me electronics gadgets like USB cables or wi-fi boosters or something practical :( The spa treatment....haven't experienced it yet. I allocate all my $$ savings from the above ^^ and put it toward travel. Ditto for money saved using coupons and eBay sales of used clothing, etc. I usually manage to "piggybank" between 2K and 3K a year. I am a real budget traveler and my annual savings can pay for a month-long summer trip to somehwere in Latin America, if I plan it right. We also have done home exchanges in Europe for $2K or so--the last one was 5 weeks in Lake Como, Italy. So yes, my fund allocation priorities are "different" than most.

Lisa, I sent you a PM--

My dd took the SAT in October of her junior year. Her math score was 510 and her English was 650. In December of her senior year her math score went up to 540 and her English went to 750. Her writing score (not usually counted by colleges) remained the same at 690. She did nothing to improve her score; she did not prep. The only thing that happened was that her math skills expanded simply by having another year's worth of math under her belt (and by the way, she is terrible in math, her scores were better than her true abilities--she's a good guesser!) and her critical reasoning skills improved (probably due to age and maturity). Conversion Scale/Increase in one year: Junior SAT 1850 - ACT equivalent 27 Senior SAT 1980 - ACT equivalent 30 Those extra points are worth a big difference in scholarship money. If we were to do it over again--too late now--I would have homeschooled dd back from middle-school onwards, as she suffered in math class at public school. So if you can help your son improve his math, go for it.

Thanks--I did send in a copy of dd's 155 volunteer hours on the letterhead from the volunteer agency. However, the person who wrote the letter (the volunteer coordinator) wrote the letter the wrong way, but the FL Bright Futures Homeschool Rep said she would take care of it. Probably a clerical error; I'll make a call tomorrow. Thanks!

Those of you in Florida and knowledgable about Bright Futures--do you know how it works with homeschooled students? According to the Bright Futures site http://www.floridastudentfinancialaid.org/ssfad/bf/homepac.htm it appears that homeschooled students with an SAT score 1270 or higher need only have the 1270 score to be eligible for the Florida Academic Scholars award, while to be eligible for the Florida Medallion Scholars award a student must have a 1070 or higher SAT score. Am I correct? Today we received notification that dd is receiving the Florida Medallion award, but her SAT scores were higher than the 1270 score. Does that make sense? Has anyone else encountered this with their child?