Today I took our little yorkie to the vet. I'm going to have to sell one of my children to pay for his knee surgery, but that's a whole 'nuther story! :lol: (JK--really!) The usual vet was not in, but a young lady vet (maybe in her late twenties?) was there to see Jack. We were talking, one thing led to another, and the next thing you know she tells me she was homeschooled as one of the first wave of homeschoolers in TN. She and a friend were the first two homeschoolers to attend her vet school. She was very affable, communicated *very* well, and was even more approachable than the usual vet, who (?) I have liked very well. We talked and laughed until the nurse came in to tell her that the next appointment was there. What an encouragement!

Term life insurance is very inexpensive. We have some written as a 20-year level premium policy, meaning it won't get more expensive as dh ages, to cover til I get the kids through w/ homeschooling, then it will end. Just a thought...

Pat, You mentioned that this person is an audio learner. I don't know if you had thought of having him/her read along with the books where appropriate, but I have found that it is very important not to allow a student to primarily only *listen* to books. They gain so much by both seeing and hearing the complex vocab and proper names. There, I've kept it to two cents' worth. :)

the all day sail/whale and dolphin watch/snorkel with Trilogy catamarans (to Lana'i) was just awesome. They provide all food and snorkel gear. Be sure to take an underwater camera, even if it's just a disposable. Every single employee we encountered went above and beyond the call to make it memorable for their guests. Sunrise on Haleakala was definitely overrated -- we also biked down, as we are a biking family, but it is not for young children or for the faint of heart. I would not recommend Mountain Riders. The Molokai helicopter ride was the best. I'll see if I can find the name of the helicopter company and pm you. The Molokai cliffs are probably the most outstanding cliffs in the world. We also flew over the Na'apali cliffs on Kauai, but while they were beautiful, the Molokai cliffs were truly breathtaking. We did not get to see the lava flow. PM me if you have questions, OK?

I have not used Abeka materials other than their grammar program and a year of elementary math. However, I remember several friends saying that their history, and in particular in the older grades, was very America-centric, going past a providential view into almost a manifest destiny interpretation of "America's chosen" place as God's tool in evangelizing the world. I don't know if this is true in the more current versions, so a current Abeka user's input might be very helpful. Additionally, BJU materials (history, geography) are very hard on the Catholic church.

This is still April, and there are several months of summer still left to sell. Ask your realtor to give you the skinny on timing from her experience. So, while from your perspective, this game may be in ghastly OT already (the bad news), from another perspective, the market should get livelier on into the summer (the good news). Hang in there!:grouphug:

:grouphug: I took ds13 to buy an electric guitar yesterday. After weeks of research and listening and playing, he had finally settled on *the one* but he wanted a pick guard installed on the guitar (that'll be on his dime, TUVM!), to protect the front. The store owner shows him his own 20yo guitar that is all kinds of beaten-up. Young whippersnapper of a store clerk says, admiringly, about the old guitar, "Did you see the MIDI pickup on the back of that thing? It was one of the first ones out. I wasn't even born then!" :blink: Store owner and I were speechless... LOL! Happiest of birthdays!!!

Maybe I can invite you to finish the book, if you think it is wise, then take a break. Take a few days without thinking about college planning at all. Then come back to it and start with re-examining why you are homeeducating and what your goals are for your student. What do you want to accomplish with this child. Does that align with the picture you are seeing in the book? If not, then where are you going to stake out your claim for your homeschool and in particular, for this child? My husband has been challenging me on this, recently. He says that if I live by what others think I "ought" to do, it will completely suck the life out of me and the children, and we'll completely miss what God wants for us/for each particular child. I wouldn't be afraid to implement the suggestions in the book that make sense or algin with what you feel is important for your student, but start from there, not from the angle of pleasing colleges. Peace and blessings!

nt

from this morning's Dallas Morning News: CPS is working to put most of them in faith-based foster care, such as Catholic charities, Presby children's home, etc. The facilities are being given guidelines to try to diminish the culture shock, such as what the children's schedules should be like (two devotions/day with hymn-singing), helping to keep technology from being in their face, since they weren't allowed to watch TV, housing them in a more private or restricted portion of the campuses with others from their group, and ***continuing to homeschool them*** Kind of interesting, huh?

We have a great state hs organization that is very vigilant. Nothing would happen without a huge fight, b/c in the homeschooling community here in TX, the memory of the struggle to win that freedom is kept very much alive. It was a courageous and hard-fought battle, and it wasn't that long ago.

This is the brand she tried and liked! Thanks!

Thank you, Lynn, Lorna and Kalanamak!!!

:smilielol5: Gasping for breath!

I think a prof should make it very, very difficult to earn 100%, so that kids can count on what they've been getting all along. FWIW, I don't like curving grades *up* either. Thanks for you input -- if I were one of your students, I'd appreciate your consistency. ;)

Dd has discovered hummus. In general, my children do not care for beans/legumes. I am trying to find more ways to add them to our diet. I'd like to encourage her interest! :coolgleamA: Can you make it with canned garbanzos, or should it be with dried & cooked ones? Thanks so much!

I've lived in TX for 16 years. You have to know that in addition to the Texas drawl (there's probably a better word for it, but I try not to dwell on it), there is this funky Texas pronunciation issue. Montague is Mon-TAIG. (I kid you not.) Joshua has three syllables: JOSH-oo-ay Palestine is PAL-es-teen Mexia is Muh-HAY-uh So, no, they weren't mistaken, the west Texas town is correctly pronounced, Texas-style, as El-dor-AY-do (all run together, not two words) I don't make this up, I just report it! :ack2:

I posted this on the high-school board, and have gotten a couple of responses there, but I'm posting it here as well. I really need WWYD? thoughts tonight, as ds has his next class with this prof tomorrow morning: So ds is taking a CS class dual credit at the univ where he will start fulltime as a freshman next year. This class is a required part of the engineering majors. He has scholarships that are renewable based on GPA, and the GPA requirement gets higher the junior and senior years. His prof has been all over the board in the way he has presented the class requirements--no plan, no syllabus, no consistency, lots of polling the class on how they want their grade made up, when to schedule tests, etc. He told the class the day *after* census day, so they could no longer drop without it appearing on their transcript as a drop (they can only drop 9 hours throughout their entire college career), that they had better study hard, as last year he failed 75% of the class. So ds has studied very hard and has been making good grades. So far he has over a 100% average, when you factor in the weighting of the hmwk with bonus points. He is seventh in class rank out of ~40. So Tuesday, the prof says that the final grades will be a combo of their scores and their class rank. Ds has concluded that this is going to be a bell-curve deal, that the prof will probably only give out six As, many more Bs and Cs, although he hasn't stated that explicitly. I have a real problem with a bell curve being applied and with a kid's grade being arbitrarily adjusted based on class numbers. A work is A work. If you have too many As, then you adjust the work to be harder or score things more stringently. This should have been a class that was a straightforward A for ds; and it really matters toward his GPA, which will matter in his being able to keep scholarship money. Help?? how would you handle this? Thank you!! Valerie

This prof has renigged (spelling error, I'm sure) on a commitment he made to ds already once. Even the TA tried to intercede on ds' behalf, b/c the prof didn't keep his word. I'm in a real bind, because if ds were to raise a flag in any way, I'm afraid he might find a way to either score ds' final badly, such that there would be no way to protest, or he might adjust the difficulty of the final so that everyone's grade went down tremendously. Based on what I know from experience with guy already, I don't trust him. Ick, ick, ick!

oh, never mind...it would be more heat than light

:rant: So ds is taking a CS class dual credit at the univ where he will start fulltime as a freshman next year. This class is a required part of the engineering majors. He has scholarships that are renewable based on GPA, and the GPA requirement gets higher the junior and senior years. His prof has been all over the board in the way he has presented the class requirements--no plan, no syllabus, no consistency, lots of polling the class on how they want their grade made up, when to schedule tests, etc. He told the class the day *after* census day, so they could no longer drop without it appearing on their transcript as a drop (they can only drop 9 hours throughout their entire college career), that they had better study hard, as last year he failed 75% of the class. So ds has studied very hard and has been making good grades. So far he has over a 100% average, when you factor in the weighting of the hmwk with bonus points. He is seventh in class rank out of ~40. So Tuesday, the prof says that the final grades will be a combo of their scores and their class rank. Ds has concluded that this is going to be a bell-curve deal, that the prof will probably only give out six As, many more Bs and Cs, although he hasn't stated that explicitly. I have a real problem with a bell curve being applied and with a kid's grade being arbitrarily adjusted based on class numbers. A work is A work. If you have too many As, then you adjust the work to be harder or score things more stringently. This should have been a class that was a straightforward A for ds; and it really matters toward his GPA, which will matter in his being able to keep scholarship money. Help?? how would you handle this? Thank you!! Valerie

my dd is very long waisted, so she almost always layers a long cami under a shorter tshirt or blouse, covering her jeans by a good two inches or so. The layered look is in, and it's one way to keep her covered up, since it is very difficult to find jeans that are not cut very low. Another way in which they help her remian modest is that they layer nicely under button up shirts, providing more coverage in the V of the shirt. We came to an interesting realization about the layered look, though. For Sunday mornings, when she is around many of the elderly folks in our church, she won't wear a layered look if it has lace on it, because for many of that generation, wearing lace showing on the outside of an undergarment is like wearing your underwear exposed. When it is just with her own peer group, there is not the same connotation, so she wears whatever she wants.

Jean, Congrats to both of you--mom/teacher and student! Way to go! Val

LOL

If you are enclosing room space within the attic, you have control over how much insulation you install to protect the area that you enclose. If there are areas that are going to be "tight" to squeeze in insulation, you can use closed cell blue foam board or spray in foam insulation, making all the difference in the world. Regardless of how well you insulate the rooms, you will have to make sure you have very good air circulation in the attic, perhaps by adding soffit vents, a ridge cap vent, attic fans, or some other way of *moving* air. Many companies are all over the radiant barrier bandwagon, but if your attic is well-ventilated, there's no point, because your attic will not get that much hotter than the ambient air. Old houses often have better attic ventilation than new ones, particularly if the new houses have discrete attic spaces that are sealed off. We are planning to install more attic ventilation in our home before summer hits; we need it badly! hth