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memphispeg

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Everything posted by memphispeg

  1. And in the end...isn't this what education is all about, finding a way for a child to learn what they need to.
  2. Bravo to both of you!!!! Any word from the service academy(s)? Or shouldn't I ask? Fingers crossed nonetheless.
  3. Thanks - I somehow neglected to even imagine that search!!! Middle-aged mind block? I suppose I was expecting something to come up on all those gloriously laid-out home pages.
  4. I do the same. I hate shopping and getting it over with in one go around not only saves money but time (which is money). We eat a lot of the same things over and over also, but if "interesting" stuff is on sale or in season, we change up our menu to incorporate that. My family realizes that my cooking is largely improvisational and have learned that that is part of their "luxury" of having someone preparing hot, fresh homecooked meals daily. They offer their opinions and if they are "sick of the same old stuff" offer new recipes or ideas. The kids do a lot of the "sweets" preparation. I really am not a big dessert person, though I do love a good pie!!!!
  5. You might read the classics and ask the age old question "What is good character"? We are doing something similar, Gilgamesh, The Arabian Nights (especially good on this), the Aeneid, (Odessey and Illiad), Greek Tragedies, Shakespeare's History Plays. For an Ironic and Satirical touch, the Shakespeare comedies, Voltaire, Canterbury Tales, Moliere. Adventure and travel books could help with "sacrifice" and "goal" discussions. I realize these are not directly inspirational but, they ask questions and make for great conversational and written argument possibilities. As below from Candid - sometimes you learn more from what isn't there than from what is!!!
  6. We are only doing the last 2 years of high school. But, that is exactly what we are doing - "high school". We talked about what we thought would be the best to know after 13 years of schooling and built our curriculum along those lines. Dd hates all the AP test stuff (she has never tested really well) and just wanted to learn and do projects and papers. We are having a great time this way. I have used AP test questions and review book problem sets and essay prompts in some of our subjects but, we are not teaching to the test. Dd will go to college next year very well prepared for whatever comes next.
  7. I tend to use a few v. old cookbooks like the 1970s versions of the Joy of Cooking, Betty Crocker, Laurel's Kitchen, the Veg. Epicure, etc. Most of those cookbooks use straightforward simple pantry items. My kids have learned to cook that way. We stock up on our staples as we need them and incorporate fresh or frozen foods as our weekly menu dictates. I make a menu every Thurs. and shop once a week. If a staple is on sale I buy a bit (we have a v. small kitchen). Thus our main purchases for the week are mostly perishables and just a few staples as need be. Do not be afraid to expand your cooking repetory. We have started making Indian Veg. foods this year. There is a great web-site that had dozens of straightforward basic recipes with basic ingredients. Of course this meant new spices, etc. But, we've acquired skills and ingredients slowly. Really fun. We have "curry Tuesday" each week. The leftovers are spectacular!!! Dd has also found a cupcake site (all made from scratch) we are working our way through the recipes. She has learned many new baking techniques from this experience.
  8. You might want to investigate Duke, Cornell, Penn, and MIT, they seem to have some nice liberal arts on top of engineering. Of course the big universities like Alabama will have everything available. We found that most of the 3/2 schools we examined seemed very sketchy about how valid the degree would be upon graduation. Seems that even some of the Ivies couldn't be tied down as to what happens with regard to certification and licensing. The big state schools were very clear about all the hoops and offered the most flexibility. Dd decided against going into engineering of any type, so we put it aside.
  9. You might want to look into some travel-the-world options also...mission trips, service trips, cultural travels, gap-year SA programs. There might be some that involve training in specifically useful non-academic skills as well as languages. Also, community full-time/part-time volunteer opportunities. I'm sure many organizations would love to have young people who come in everyday to help, e.g. hospitals, community centers, community gardens.
  10. Big Congrats. Likewise here about Rochester in the 70s. With the demise of Kodak, the city could be facing some big challenges which could make for an interesting educational environment. It may be that more r and d dollars will be funneled into research at the university, giving some exciting possibilities. Just asking- Did your ds look at Case Western? Not what we need here but, I'd like to know what folks thought.
  11. I guess what I mean by quality/expense ratio is getting the most bang for your buck. While some things appear to be cheaper to buy, you may get what you pay for. Mining out how things are constructed and what they are made of gives a good idea of quality. If you can decide which features are most important, what HAS to be, you can decide what they are worth by comparison shopping. Recently, we've been looking at living room furniture. There is a certain style we need to have. Next we looked at the pricey designer stuff to see what it was we liked about them. Taking those ideas, we worked our way through the affordable options. Admittedly, our choices are not perfect but, a good 90% of the features are there. Sometimes the end-point prices are higher or lower than expected, dd has learned to adjust the budget to compromise on less-critical items. Travel plans are an excellent way for kids to learn to research prices and benefits at those prices. My parents appointed me their travel agent when I was young and I really enjoyed putting together driving routes and accommodation ideas. You could assign a part of your next trip and have them do up an itinerary and budget.
  12. There's some older editions on Amazon used, that would just cost the price to ship. You could get a copy and then copy out the relevant pages. It looks to be that about 2/3 of the book is "truly" useful.
  13. This may be a bit redundant. Dd has gotten some college acceptances. I have been looking around at college confidential and other web-sites to find out about the ACADEMIC atmosphere at the colleges. (The big Mommy criteria). I am wondering how/where to find out how easy it is to excel academically. Specifically if there is a culture of co-operative studying/study groups, reliable high-quality tutoring availability, accessible professors/teachers, and a nurturing non-competitive environment. Dd wants to go into the sciences but, does not enjoy an atmosphere of cut-throat competitiveness. I want her to feel comfortable within a nurturing/creative scientific community that will take her ideas seriously. Does anyone know how to go about finding this out, either in reality or in cyberspace? Don't want to be too helicopterish about this, it really is a matter of me being confident that she will be able to succeed in her plans. I'm bumping this, we are still looking for answers around the web and in the guide books. We will be doing our visits soon and need to know how to capture the campus academic zeitgeist. Any questions we should be asking, or things we should be looking for when we visit? Again, I want to be more hummingbird than helicopter about this.
  14. Reading the NYT Week in Review and saw the big article about data mining. Sounds like statistics/language skills might be a great combination of skills to have that would be useful in many contexts.
  15. Frugality has always been built in to our family behavior. We have been researching home-restoration products lately and the dds are masters of finding the best Quality/Expense ratios on the web. Cooking and food preparation are important to know, period. These days that is, in and of itself, deep frugality. We have begun to get into local food and regional cooking as the best answer to those home economics questions. Love the Tight-wad books. They raise v. good questions and present great ways to work things out. I think they also encourage creative thinking which is probably the best frugality skill to learn. I also think learning some simple mechanical skills would be helpful...like how does the house work? When/how simple maintenance must be done? How do you find people to do the work for you if you need to? So many things along those lines. It is a great idea to give kids a simple research task or planning and execution task as you do the book learning. They really do love responsibility. Re: education. We went to the library and looked at various textbook styles before making our purchases of used books on Amazon. Dd analyzed what looked to be most in-line with her learning style and was easy on the pocketbook. She had a big part in planning our curriculum...frugality all the way there.
  16. There was a cool story about a girl who works for Voice of America last night on the PBS Nightly News Hour....If your kid is creative, there's lots of scope for the imagination there.
  17. Finished here as well, 2 CSS, 2FAFSA, 3Taxes.... now we wait. And hey, I get to grade and plan in the evenings now. Good luck to all the homeschool parents in these financial endeavors.
  18. Bravo!! Looks like one nifty competition.
  19. She could draw up a really good resume and get recommendations from key administrators and staff and then present that to the financial aid office along with her financial aid application materials. She should try to "sell" herself as a worthy "investment asset" to FA. Don't know if this is how it is done but, I also think finding out about how elite athletes are recruited/retained/financed at colleges in general might be helpful.
  20. Tea (celestial seasonings has some throat and cold tea formulations) and honey and dry lemonade powder and cough drops. Also broth powder. Vicks vapo rub for that feeling that mommy is there!!!! Dd was quarantined for a week last year...she really needed pain medicine, cold meds (whichever work best for them). Talk with them for a few minutes a couple of times a day....they can feel free to get weepy that way.
  21. Super duper big congratulations!!!!! We've only hsed for 2 years and doing the college applications seemed scary but, I have hope - given your son. You had some great comments on the threads during the application process that really helped our thinking. We are awaiting our "big gun" private college results....unusual transcripts and applications there for sure!!!!!
  22. Maybe a studies skills class/tutoring session is due. Have someone help him put together a "review-for-test" routine...organizing class notes, doing representative problems, thinking of the larger picture (popular in science testing), practicing/memorizing nec. information. Not everyone organizes things in the same way but, he could get suggestions and work out what works best for him and the particular class. This may be hard to find for a specific class but, there may be someone who could help with "science" study skills in general. These ideas worked for my dh and me in undergrad. and grad. schools. It does require some work and patience before finding out what works best.
  23. Reading classics can make teens aware of the world at large and its issues. Reading Dickens and the like can also make them aware that young people have always been naturally self-involved. Reading non-fictional and fictional adventure and exploration literature can inspire them to look beyond their front doorstep. Reading science fiction can inspire them to dream of the future. Reading the latest YA literature should be "just a phase", it can be a good jumping off spot to dig into more "worldly" topics...eg, what is good, what is evil, what does being a "citizen of the world" entail, what is "love". What turns me off about a lot of the new YA stuff is the violence and sordidness. Life is beautiful but, maybe that doesn't sell books (or tv shows and video games, etc.).
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