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I'm so sorry!!! What a nightmare!! One bit of interesting and potentially good news . . . When my 2 older kids got their wisdom teeth out 20 months ago, I was pleasantly shocked and surprised that their HEALTH insurance covered most of the bills. The doctor was surprised, too. We were on an ACA health policy, and I'm guessing that something in the ACA rules about pediatric dentistry coverage and/or various medical coverage rules had triggered the policy to cover it. I think we might have kicked in a couple hundred bucks each, and/or their dental insurance (separate policy) might have kicked in a little, but most of the 1500 or so each was covered by their MEDICAL insurance. (Nothing strange or exceptional in their teeth. Both have had braces and just "needed" routine wisdom teeth extraction.) I am not sure, but I am suspicious that it covered them BECAUSE they were kids. One was 18, one was 16. I think the pediatric dental coverage stuff in the ACA goes through age 18. Anyway, that's something to consider. I have a mental note to make sure kid#3 gets hers done no later than 18, with the hope that hers will be covered, too (although with the changes in health coverage, that's not at all guaranteed, of course). Hang in there . . . be sure to apply for every sort of benefit/unemployment/subsidy/etc/etc that you are eligible for, as it sounds like you've got a few rough months ahead of you.

I'd try to build off the experience he already has. That's a fantastic help!! First, I'd have him ask his bosses at the engineering company if they know of any openings there or elsewhere for a summer job. The company might well offer him a paid position if they know he wants one. They might have some file purging / office supplies organizing / etc projects that'd welcome some extra hours from a low level worker, and might welcome some extra hands just answering the phone or preparing mailings or other clerical tasks, especially in the summer when lots of regular staff like to take off. If not, they might have an idea for other companies that could use him . . . Be sure he has set up his LinkedIn profile and works to build connections/etc there. Personally, we had an unpaid volunteer/intern at our vet hospital once for 1-2 years ages 14-16. Once she hit 16, we promptly offered her a paid position, and she worked for us for a couple years after that . . . We'd *never* ordinarily hire a 16 year old, and, in fact, we no longer even allow volunteers/observers under 16 (and *rarely* under 18) . . . But, because we knew her and hew work ethic, we were delighted to hire her . . . Anyway, I'd suggest he look for receptionist/clerical support/etc office jobs in addition to the typical teen jobs. His office experience should help him get jobs like cashier/desk clerk/etc. I affirm the need to apply to dozens of jobs. It's a numbers game at that point in his career. He has a big advantage with his internship, assuming he can get good references. Be sure to list it as a "job" in all applicable spots . . . That's what we do with my kids' unpaid internships/volunteer positions. We just note somewhere in the description that it was unpaid, to be upfront and honest and avoid any appearance of deception. My college girl's unpaid internship (at an outdoor education nonprofit school) last summer was key to her landing a very-well-paid computer science co-op position . . .

Well, I don't have any really great ideas, but I applaud your efforts to help him get a job. My only serious advice is that if he can't find a paying job, insist that he volunteer somewhere -- substantial hours, like at least half time -- to build up his resume to improve his chances for landing a job next year. That's worked well for my kids so far . . .

People at the low end of the wage spectrum generally don't move up much after a few years. Think nurses' aides, cleaning people, low end service workers, etc. They get to 10/hr and they stay there, forever. Until their body wears out, which often is well before age 60. Then they just go broke, totally. Professional people often follow the path you outline. Lawyers, doctors, etc. often make do more later in their career -- after they've paid their dues, etc.. If they're like me, then they're desperately trying to save for retirement and pay for college, etc. I can afford to pay more now, and I do . . . However, others, even professionals, get struck with illness and/or disability and/or the double whammy of caring for aging parents while also putting kids through college. I think the trouble with this issue is the variability in ability to pay. I could pay more. I don't want to, but I could. But, I'm already paying 23k this year for my family of 5 (plus deductibles, etc.) Dh just hit 50. I'm 46. We're all healthy. We are on an employer-based plan with pretty decent rates (about 25% less than a comparable but inferior ACA individual plan) . . . Just how much more can *we* afford . . . ? Ummm, not a whole lot more. How many people could afford, say, double that? 50k? After tax? Uh, huh, not many people, I'd wager. I mean, each kid costs 10k/yr +/- for public schools to educate them . . . Should only those who have kids (and use the schools) pay for them? 10k/yr per kid? Family of 6? Sure, 60k/yr . . . after tax, how about . . . Oh, and if your kid is special needs and will cost 50k/yr to educate, well then, cough it up, or keep him in a closet?? Of COURSE NOT. Whether we have kids, or don't, have one, have ten, hate kids, love kids, have healthy kids, have sick kids, whatever, we all pay for schools to educate *all* of our nation's children. That's how it should be because that's the only way it can work. . . . IMHO, health care is the same way.

Have you been on collegeconfidential? If not, I *highly* advise going there and posting this query. Tons of very knowledgeable folks!! If you can swing the $$$$, I'm sure that MIT or similar elite technical type or general IVY schools would have plenty of brilliant professors and peers. If I could afford *any* school, I'd look at those sorts for your son, in particular because it sounds like he may be ready for grad-level work within 2-3 years of undergrad, so having elite professors may well be beneficial to him . . . I wouldn't worry for a minute about boredom/repeating classes, IF he's at an elite school. If a class is easy, he'll just have more time to do other stuff, and there'll be tons of awesome stuff to do. He'd have tons of equally brilliant peers, which makes me expect that he won't be bored, ever. There are some state schools that are exceptional . . . Maybe GA Tech? Note that many of those top state schools have zillions of out of state students. My kids going to U Alabama (not at all an elite state school, but a solid one that is advancing) has more than half it's undergrad from out of state . . . There are plenty of other great state schools that similarly have lots of out of state and international students.

To be at a vet school as an academic, she would need to do an internship (1 year) and a residency (about 3 years, depending on specialty) after finishing her DVM, both at *very* low wages (like 30k/yr) with extremely long hours, in order to become a board certified specialist. That's the path that any vet students who desire to work at a Uni follow. I'd imagine that to do genetics research, she'd likely actually need a PhD either in addition to or in lieu of a DVM. Universities do not hire DVMs, as a rule, unless they have a board-certified specialty (ortho, dermatology, soft tissue surgery, cardiology, etc, etc) and/or a PhD (not typical for clinical professors -- those who are actually practicing vet med on patients on a regular basis, but more likely for those researching genetics/pharmacology/etc) -- either of which will require *at least* 3+ years post-DVM of additional education. I doubt there are many (if any) PhDs on faculty that do not also hold DVMS, but that might be the case for things like genetics/etc that wouldn't be clinical in nature. If it's like med schools, then any non-DVM faculty are likely not tenured. (For instance, a friend of mine is a pharmacology professor (PhD) at our local med school. Neither she, nor ANY of the 3-4 other pharmacologists have tenured faculty jobs. They are contract employees, and have little standing/prestige in the med school, and have much lower salaries than the MDs. TO be tenure track faculty at the med school, they'd need to be a MD +/- a PhD, but the MD is required, period.) There might be some DVM/PhD combined programs -- those would certainly take longer than the 4 year DVM, but might get the total down to 6-7 years. I'm not aware of any such programs, but they might exist, and if not, they might crop up in coming years before your daughter is done with undergrad. I'd google that. :) Now, that said, getting funding for a PhD program in the sciences is *not* as difficult. So, if your daughter graduates debt free from undergrad, it might be very smart to go directly to a MS/PhD program (straight to PhD is possible for the most exceptional students), with a nice graduate research assistantship that could provide enough money to live on -- well to live on like a pauper -- and a tuition waiver . . . That might be very smart if she's sure she wants to go into research in genetics. Then, the next step would be to go from the PhD to a DVM program. (The PhD is NOT at all needed for clinical specialties -- i.e., she just wants to become a kick-ass orthopedic surgeon and/or work in clinical research at a university in that setting . . . But, genetics is an entirely separate specialization, and would, I'm guessing, generally be led by PhD research scientists, as opposed to CLINICAL specialists that are produced via the DVM/internship/residency process.) Getting into the DVM program with that background should be a piece of cake, assuming she checks the needed boxes and has good grades. If your daughter can live at home through undergrad and DVM, that would be a HUGE cost efficiency, and I'd HIGHLY recommend it! Typically, she'd need to live w/in 15-25 min (depending on the school's policies) for the final year of vet school, due to the "clinical rotations" that include on-call coverage and require the students to be within a certain time frame for being on call. If you don't live quite close enough, she could just get close-in housing for that one year -- by then, she'd have plenty of friends in the program and could probably get a cheap room in a friend's house and just use it when she's on call. IF she can get free housing all through her studies, then she's gonna have a MUCH better chance of getting through it with a manageable debt load. (Most smart folks advise no more debt than the expected first year salary . . . or certainly NOT more than 2x that salary at the VERY most, but at 2x, you're looking at a long, hard repayment schedule. Remember that nearly 100% of repayment will be coming from after tax money . . . ) Also, be very careful to maintain state residency in the state she wants to go to DVM (or at least SOME state!! LOL). Residency for DVM programs is generally MUCH more restrictive than for undergrad. For instance, my dh had legal residency for NO STATES AT ALL when he was applying to vet school. . . He had been state-hopping for MS & PhD programs . . . so had lost his original state residency where he'd graduated high school . . . and in general, no states (not either he'd lived in for grad school) allows in-school years to count towards residency. In state restrictions get harder and harder each year, and this is NOT gonna' change. SO, we just paid the surcharge for out of state . . . but, back then, that surcharge was MUCH lower than it is today! Today, IMHO, it would be insanity to pay OOS tuition to vet school unless you were simply **very** wealthy. If that's the case, then go for it! Unfortunately, more and more students go OOS today, because state schools have opened up MANY more OOS slots (instead of instates slots) because they are cash-strapped due to decade++ of state-budget-cuts . . . so a lot of kids today are paying 45-60k/yr in tuition . . . It's INSANE, IMHO. I've literally seen student loan reports for grads with 500k in loans . . . at 7-8% interest . . . now earning 80k/yr. They're accruing more interest each year than can be paid with the entirety of their after-tax paychecks, let alone money for food or health insurance or pet care expenses. 10-15 years from now, when these loans hit forgiveness, I guarantee we'll be reading reams of reports of students getting 500k+, even 700k or more, forgiven, resulting in 200-300k++ due-today tax bills, which will create an entirely new industry as banks offer financing for that tax debt . . . These poor kids will be in debt until they die. Very, very sad. Totally irrational and just not right! It is COMMON to hear young vets complain that they can't afford to own a pet!! Or have a kid!! Let alone a house or save for retirement . . . It is best to look at vet school/etc as a life of hard choices, precise budgeting, Ramen noodles, and roommates . . . Get through with as little debt as humanly possible, and then get on with the great life you aim to have . . . The specialists (board certified specialists -- a very specific legal definition, requiring a residency -- which itself comes after the internship) can make more than the average private practice general medicine vet, depending again on their specialty. Specialists (cardiologists, oncologists, surgeons, etc) at universities generally make more than ordinary private practice general practice vets, but not *hugely* more, maybe 30-50% more than GPs. The specialists who work in private practice "referral hospitals" likely make the most, but, again, that depends on the specialty and in particular, if the specialist is an owner or co-owner of the referral practice. I'd imagine many of those specialists command salaries more like 150-200k/yr (which is about the top 10% of private practice general vets -- and nearly all of those earning over 120k/yr are owners, not employees. Typical associate (employed) vet salaries are around 70k-80k in most areas, with perhaps closer to 90-100k in very high cost of living areas. There is not a large "up-side" on associate salaries with experience (this is in stark contrast to human med where one can expect to double their salary with a handful of years' experience. . .) Note that "matching" for an internship and/or residency is very competitive, and it is highly unlikely the student would be so lucky as to "match" for the one university (presumably UCD) that was her first choice. That would require both *great* luck and *tip top* talent/performance. So, one would assume that she'd move for her internship (1 yr) and move again for the residency (2-3 years typically). The wages earned during those positions are so low that one would *not* be able to make any headway on loan repayment, so borrowers typically take a forbearance or deferral of some sort, but interest accrues 100% of the time, as grad school loans all accrue interest from Day 1, no matter your circumstance. However, if one is savvy, you can just enter an income-based-repayment plan before beginning the internship/residency, so that those years can count towards your 20 or 25 years of loan payments. This will mean the balances get larger and larger, of course, but at least the clock is ticking towards repayment. These are the sorts of things that the vet student needs to *seriously* research before graduation, so they enter the best program for them. An incorrect choice can cost 10s to 100s of thousands of dollars, and often are IRREVERSIBLE. I'd encourage your dd to find opportunities at UCD to explore research as an undergrad, and especially to seek out any opportunities the vet school offers to meet faculty and students, etc. If they have any outreach options, especially that involve Paul Pion, I'd make it a very high priority to take advantage of that. Sitting down with one or more vet faculty at UCD during her years as an undergrad, to discuss her ambitions and get advice/mentoring would be HUGELY beneficial. Question answer: Yes, my husband loves his job. I don't think there's any other job he'd want to do. He'd be happy to be retired, though, lol, and sit on a beach -- or stand in a trout stream -- for the rest of his days. He's an owner, though, and has been since 4 years out of school, and that's the only way he'd have been happy (and the only way we'd have been able to do more than tread water financially). Owning has also allowed him to make a great income and build wealth/assets, but again, that'd dependent upon business/finance/management savvy and a lot of very hard work, taking large personal financial risks, etc. I don't think he'd have been happy earning 80k/yr with his ability to practice the way he wants to dependent on the whims of another owner or corporation. And, FWIW, corporate ownership is a rapidly increasing issue . . . even many of the seemingly-small-mom-and-pop vets out there are now owned by national corporations, which both limits the medical choices of the veterinarians and takes away a lot of the freedoms to practice that make practice satisfying. Vet med is sad and hard many days. Having the freedom (as the owner) to give away services or discount them when desired to just do a nice thing . . . or change protocols as new research comes out . . . being able to hire/fire/give benefits/etc at his whim . . . these things are *key* to his personal satisfaction in his profession. The *medicine* itself is always gratifying and meaningful, but vet med is 100% dependent on the client's ability to pay. . . . If your boss (corporation or individual owner) controls all those things, it can be disheartening and very hard. Vet med has one of the highest suicide rates among professions . . . mental health is no joke . . . My husband makes a great living for us, and we're on track to retire comfortably . . . But, he can (and does) choose to give away 10s of thousands of dollars a year to pets he just wants to help . . . When he has a nice client who takes good care of their pets but just can't swing the $1000 dentistry their old, beloved doggy desperately needs . . . he can just say, "Let me let the Needy Pet Fund take care of this for you. Let's do it Wednesday." (Our Needy Pet Fund is essentially an imaginary fund that means we, the owners, are paying for it . . . but we don't want people to *know* it's just us paying, or the whole world would be at our doorstep by tomorrow, looking for free care, and then we really would be depressed and/or bankrupt. Because he's the owner, he can do that. BUT, he can't do that every day, and definitely can't meet the endless need that exists. The same goes for staff compensation and benefits . . . We do as much as we can to be good citizens and good employers (and we do a lot), but there is always a limit . . . Being the responsible one for saying "no" to owners and staff alike . . . is the hardest part of the job. Dealign with *people* is a huge part of vet med. (Taking some undergrad psych and/or human/personnel management courses would be great!!) There are a lot of great things about being a vet. I think I'd have liked it, if I were doing it the way dh does it (being able to call his own shots . . . never *has* to decline a case due to finances, and never had to practice medicine for profit instead of for the good of the patient and client . . . You *can* do good while also doing well. He proves it every day. Oh, also, we are actually in WV!! Our kids (oldest daughter, and soon to be son, whose graduating in May) both go (or will go) to U Alabama . . . because of U A's awesome National Merit scholarships . . . 5 years free tuition ++++. We've lived with student loan debt long enough . . . that we've made it non-negotiable to go to undergrad debt free -- we have a certain $$ amount we've committed to each kid for higher education support . . . With the very generous NM scholarships at UA, we will not only be able to support them (in style) through undergrad. . . we'll also have enough parental support left over to be able to help them out during grad and/or professional school. #2 is considering med school, and so, for him, cheap undergrad is even more important, and we hope to be able to help him at least minimize if not completely avoid med school debt . . .

Done. Please do post a summary of your results, etc, once you are done. Living in the heart of the opiate epidemic in WV, I'm very interested in this topic.

Congratulations!!!! As the wife of a vet (and hospital owner) . . . I do want to warn you that vet school has, in the last decade, become outrageously expensive and the field is now rather over-populated due to the rapid expansion of vet class sizes along with the opening of numerous overseas and private vet schools (for financial gain of the schools, not due to a need for more vets). Vets don't make much $$ in comparison to the cost of vet school . . . So, keeping student loans to an absolute minimum, earning during summers/etc, and reserving as much $$ towards parental support (if feasible) during vet school will be necessary if at all possible. Be sure to do all you can to guide your child towards selecting the vet school that is as inexpensive as feasible (i.e., keep her instate status and don't look at overseas or private vet schools.) Also, taking some business courses during undergrad would be a very smart idea, as would be developing competence in personal finance/budgeting/managing student loan debt. My youngest expresses interest in vet med, but we're encouraging her to aim towards human med, mostly due to the financial issues. *Many* students are graduating with 200k+++ debt (some as high as 400k), and you're looking at an *average* lifetime income of around 80k/yr right now (that's including all levels of experience, not just new grads) . . . The level of debt is unsustainable for that income level. Owning your own practice *can* be (much) more lucrative, but that is highly dependent on the *business* skills of the owner . . . and requires having pristine credit in order to get financing . . . (Student debt isn't a deal breaker, but having significant cash on hand is generally needed, along with perfect credit otherwise.) These kids are coming out of vet school looking at accruing more interest each month than they can afford to possibly repay, meaning that even with the pretty generous IBR, PAYE, and REPAYE extended/income-based repayment options, they are still looking at substantial loan payments for 20-25 years and then 6 figure debt forgiveness along with full income tax due on the forgiven amount . . .meaning that even if they are very savvy, they need to save many hundreds per month in a "loan forgiveness tax savings" account . . . because they may owe a 6 figure tax debt in the year they get forgiveness (20-25 years after they go into repayment). Being very savvy about which repayment plan to select, keeping up with documentation requirements, etc, is a very important thing to be on top of, because tiny errors can cost tens of thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of dollars in increased costs . . . Bookmark this site: http://iwanttobeaveterinarian.org and be sure that you help your daughter become very familiar with all the ins-and-outs of vet school, finance, etc. This site is supported by VIN -- an incredible veterinary-only-forum/resource for vets, which happens to be founded and led by Paul Pion, a vet cardiologist from UC Davis. The VIN Foundation (charitable wing of VIN) supports this site and some other resources for vets-to-be as well as current vets, pet owners, etc. VIN is pretty much *the* best resource for veterinarians and for the field/industry as a whole, and the VIN Foundation does some awesome work. Very accurate, very honest, etc. They have a lot of details on costs among schools, etc. If my kid were aiming towards vet school, I'd spend 2-3 hours every 6 months or so with them, studying and understanding the current options for financing and repaying school debt and focusing on ways to be frugal about their education . . . and I'd pay VERY CLOSE attention to changes in the various plans, as both PAYE and REPAYE are not locked in through statute (and so are very vulnerable to changes in the political climate), so IBR (which is much less generous than PAYE or REPAYE) is the only (for now) certain option for income-based repayment options, since PAYE and/or REPAYE may disappear at any time, and the choice of plan is incredibly important . . . Getting *in* to vet school has become much, much easier in recent years . . . but surviving as a vet w/o drowning in a lifetime of debt has become much, much harder in recent years. 15 years ago, loans for vet hospital were super easy to get because vets pretty much never went bankrupt. That's not the case anymore, because the highly indebted younger vets have a much rougher time surviving in today's tighter business climate. You have to be a great vet *and* a great business person to thrive.

I *feel your pain* . . . I'm aggressively giving things away. My college girl has a fully stocked kitchen and multiple sets of linens, courtesy of Grandma's stuff. A local refugee got a brand new set of Corelle, for 6, last month, courtesy of Grandma . . . I give things away every time I can find someone who can benefit from it. I have taken to torching the cards/letters/yearbooks/etc of my own. A basement flood got me started, and now I'm on a rampage. Who could possibly be interested in my high school year books? I'm not!! So, out they went!! I admit I haven't torched Mom and Dad's memorabilia, still mostly in boxes and cupboards, but I *have* torched the "signature only" cards and the from-someone-noone-knows cards, etc. Little by little, out it goes!!

I've used quite few PAH and AOPS courses, and I've never messed with any official transcripts, etc. heck, my boy is doing this year at public high school, and I'm not using a transcript from them, either. My school, my transcript. ..

I think this is very variable kid to kid . . . I'd guess 5-8 per week for my kids. I'm sure they could have gotten away with fewer, but they both love the material and the class.

I also recommend Molly Olsen at PAH. Two of my kids have taken it. One 3 years ago and one now. Awesome class. Very well done!

I keep TWO nice sets for every bed. This allows you to change the bed all at once -- very handy when someone is sick or you have a million houseguests and need to change lots of linens all at once (especially if you have back-to-back guests!) Just yesterday, I wanted to change my son's sheets right quick while he was in the shower, because he has the flu and is living in bed at the moment . . . Couldn't wait to wash/dry the sheets!! Plus I keep a couple spare sets and misc. pillow cases for random sleepovers for the blow up mattress/etc. These are the sheets that my kids are allowed to drag around on their sleeping-piles-of-pillows-etc that they make in the basement during sleepovers. And, if they are really nice sets in larger bed sizes, I hold on to the sets for my teens for when they set up households . . . When my college-dd got a Q bed in her new house, I had lots of nice sheet sets for her to choose from -- two perfect, complete, like-new sets went with her for her new bed, plus a great duvet set. Saved us $500 or more for all those high quality linens . . . (My mom had passed away not long ago, and she had a zillion sets of nice sheets . . . so I saved most of them for this purpose.)

Get a car with heated seats -- this is the one and only option I *must* have on my personal car. And, if you're really cold averse, why not go ahead and get the remote start option as well. 4WD/AWD really depends on the snow removal and road conditions in your area. Here in WV, it is critical, as our roads are terrible and snow removal is very spotty. We now *only* buy AWD or 4WD vehicles -- we have 4 drivers and 4 AWD vehicles, and we'll never go back. And we put on snow tires in the winter (unless the car is brand new and has less than 10k miles on the all season tires, in which case, all season tires seem fine along with AWD). We lived in northern UT for 3 years with small sedans (no AWD) and regular all season tires . . . and never had a problem or got stuck in the snow. We had chains for accessing the ski areas, as some of those roads require chains or snow tires . . . but that's it. So, really, it does depend on how good your area is about snow removal. Plan for a winter sun-shine vacation to minimize SAD. Buy some fancy "sun" light(s), too. Get a house with a good sized dedicated play-rumpus-balls-and-bouncy play room. Not a combo play/school room. A PLAY room where the kids can run and jump and make a mess. This is **critical** if you have more than one child under 10, IMHO. Put a bouncy thing in there, room to roll and play and jump, nerf balls and nerf bats, soft couch, and nothing very breakable. This makes living in a cold climate much more bearable when you have young kids, IME. But plenty of warm clothes/layers/etc for winter. Don't skimp!! Oh, and . . . an aside. RESEARCH and UNDERSTAND the entire student loan picture. DO NOT put your head in the sand. Research, understand, know all the income-based-repayment options backwards and forwards. I can't tell you how many vet students simply ignore their loans, make their payments, and years later realize how much money they set on fire by not thinking intelligently through the options. Oh, and also, don't forget to have a life. Student debt sucks. Debt sucks. Make a plan, make a budget, but don't forget to live a little.

Cavalier King Charles Spaniel!!

I betcha' if you post it here, maybe with a googledoc that allows comments . .. You'd get people editing like crazy and get some good ideas. I love a challenge. :)

You could hang a quilt on the big wall . . . and you could add some sort of acoustic tiles/foam/whatever behind the quilt to increase the impact. Quilts are classy and pretty and are washable. :)

Well, the apples to apples might work for middle-to-low scorers, but top scorers can't be apples to apples, because the PSAT maxes out at a lower score (1520, or 760 on each section) than the SAT (1600, or 800 on each section). Anyway, it's very close, but if your kid is in the mid to upper 700s per subject, then you can't know for sure what your kid's top SAT possible score is until they practice or take the SAT. This is because the PSAT is slightly less challenging than the SAT, despite covering the same content. Essentially, for instance, say your kid knows all the content of the SAT quite well, but it is still likely that they might make a few random errors due to sloppiness or simply not remembering every single topic/technique perfectly every question . . . In that case, your kid might score 1480/1520 on the PSAT and then score a 1560/1600 on the SAT, etc.

I will research Tom Richey. Can you give me some links to investigate? Thanks!! The PAH World teacher is the same one that is currently listed as the only world teacher at PAH . . . Initials are G. S.

Oh, no apologies necessary. :) It's complicated, lol.

TBH, that's an insult to hillbillies. I think you meant she seems like trailer trash / white trash. -- a proud WV'ian hillbilly . . . from the state where we embrace our hillbilly nature . . .

When I taught high school chemistry (using Spectrum), I used these two resources to teach/review and/or practice concepts: https://www.amazon.com/Homework-Helpers-Chemistry-Career-Press/dp/1601631634/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1488048166&sr=8-1&keywords=chemistry+homework+helper https://www.amazon.com/100-Chemistry-Joan-Distasio/dp/1568221878/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1488048222&sr=8-1&keywords=chemistry+worksheets I used the worksheets a lot, and the homework helper book more as background to explain ideas. Hope these are helpful!

So, I've got just one last homeschooler, and she starts official high school next year. I've been very satisfied with how we've done every subject with my older two . . . EXCEPT . . . history . . . Epic fails abound in our journey with trying to do high school level history. We've just muddled through high school history with very mixed success. We survived, and the older two are both excellent students, smart kids, off or on-his-way to college . . . but their history educations after middle school were miserable. We loved SOTW when the kids were tiny, as we then had great access to a library and it was delightful overall, with all the hands-on activities and reading, etc. Then, we loved SonLight for elementary-to-middle school (although I culled out the religious content), but SL is not for us for high school. So far as high school history courses we used . . . we tried PA Homeschooler's AP World History (total disaster, awful teacher, very unlike any of the other PAH classes we've used) . . . we tried Oak Meadow syllabus for World History (not sure why this was a reject. Maybe it was just dull? Maybe my kid wasn't self-directed enough and I wasn't involved enough? Maybe I should try it again?) we did Thinkwell's AP Econ along with mom-led-book-discussion of another econ book. That was satisfactory and got dd college credit on the AP exam for microecon . . . could use that again, but was definitely not a history course and wasn't very substantial, IMHO. We own a lot of Great Courses video series, and used a world history series as a quick-and-dirty history credit one year when some other curriculum was rejected . . . I have plenty of those video series around for world/western civ/etc . . . Could use them, but they aren't exactly a full course . .. So, now, I'm looking at our 9th grade plan for next year, and I want something better for this kid for history. Can y'all give me some suggestions?? Criteria: + High quality materials, high quality work, little/no busy work. + Dd is very bright and advanced intellectually. Works at 11-12th grade level in general. Can read anything, college+ level, no problem. BUT, I wouldn't want her to have the quantity of a college level course, that's for sure. + As self-directed as possible, as I'll be hands-on teaching biology and literature/writing, and it'd work better not to have the history also require hours/week of my input. An hour or two a week of mom-time is totally fine, but not hours/day or lots of mom-time preparing stuff. + We tend to over schedule and over commit, and next year is going to be more full than ever. I'd prefer history to be at most 5 hrs/wk or so of time commitment. + We're liberal politically and also atheists. We can work around minor religious content or a religious context (think SOTW or Rod and Staff), but we have zero interest in using a curriculum that has as a primary intent of promoting a Christian/evangelical worldview and/or right wing/etc politics. (I.e., we're done with SonLight.) I'm open to any region/time period content, as dd has a solid history background up to this point, and we've got 4 years of high school to cover the bases again . . . Suggestions?? Thanks. :)