That sounds like a good number of books to me. Too many and it seems like you just gloss them over without much thinking. It also seems like a good mix of boy/girl books, too.

She didn't advance -- she was a little frustrated, because advancing to finalist depends on the state you live in. If she had lived in our old state (Ohio) she would have advanced, but living here in Maryland, she was just under the cut off. I guess it's the top x% (I forget the number) that continue on to finalist, and if your state has lots of high scores, the score you need to advance is higher. Oh well! Being commended did get her her applications fees (for the state schools she applied to) refunded. That was kind of nice.

It really was interesting for both of us. The study guide has questions and suggestions for writing papers, so she just chose one topic each time and wrote on it. It got a lot of good discussions going in the family, and hopefully cemented her viewpoints on lots of big bio-ethics issues before she goes to a huge public university.

the book we used to see the Catholic viewpoint was "Beginning Apologetics 5: How to answer tough moral questions -- abortion, contraception, euthanasia, test-tube babies and cloning" by Chacon and Burnham. It's a thin paperback. Plus the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

So true! Thanks everyone!

My dd is going to be in a program at a huge university that's a "living and learning" program. It has only 90 students in it, and she'll have her basic freshman classes (bio, chem, Eng) with these same students, plus a colloquium each semester. All but two students (my dd and another student, who are both commuting) will live on the same floor in a dorm - together. There is a study room there, and the two commuters will be able to use it. Our dd is already texting with kids from program, and I'm expecting that she will make good friends there easily. She won't be living with them the whole time, but I imagine that she will stay there to study, and probably sleep over sometimes too. So for her case, I don't think she will feel left out - she is taking a dance class, plus choir, and wants to join the ballroom dancing club. At orientation, she enjoyed the camaraderie with the other students, but when they wanted to go to the bar, she opted to stay with the "let's order pizza" crowd. I do see the point about responsiblities at home, and juggling the two worlds. We'll try to have clear rules about what she has to do, and then try to not nag (!!) in the meantime and let her do it at her leisure. She has homeschool friends that have commuted to the same school, but they, honestly, were only interested in the schoolwork and their boyfriends (sigh). We'll see.

We mentioned my dd's commendation everywhere! In her achievements, in my "counselor's recommendation" letter. PLUS I put a photocopy of it in her transcript. Because the commended status, she didn't have to pay application fees at several colleges! (They sent the money back! - cool!)

my dd is going to be a neuroscience major at a huge public univ this fall, but loves theater, dance and music. So, she is taking modern dance for two credits, and choir for one credit. Supposedly this school really has very little choral for non-majors, but she is going to try out for the choirs. They will place her in the appropriate one.

Here in MD, at least, it matters whether you considered the cc course part of their high school or whether it is above and beyond the minimum hs credits and therefore "concurrent enrollment" For HS cc courses, I put them on the transcript (unweighted, but with a major asterisk saying they were cc courses) and for college cc courses, I mentioned them on the transcript as "concurrent enrollment" but didn't give a grade. Instead, I included a copy of hte cc transcript. The credits for the concurrent enrollment courses transferred.

I have one that will be part time at cc, and a 9th grader who will be doing some classes at our homeschool group's tutoring academy and some at home.

I am tutoring a girl who is public school (a good one) for Algebra I. She has definitely not had all the material my kids did in Algebra 1! As far as college goes, my kids have taken classes at the community college in math when they were high school seniors and they did great! No problem not knowing the prerequisite material.

My dd had finished all the regular lit courses (American Lit, British Lit and Shakespeare Intensive) offered by our small co-op, so we made up our own lit class for her senior year. She is going into biology, so we made up a "Bio-eithics in Literature" class using an interesting spine: Bioethics and Medical Issues in Literature (Exploring Social Issues through Literature) by Mahala Yates Stripling Plus a book about what Catholics believe about these issues. So the literature she read was: Rappaccini's Daughter, Brave New World, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and several more I have forgotten! It was an interesting class.

I've always had good luck with used books, but it's good to know. I'll start getting the newer versions!

:iagree:------ As I said above, this turned out to be true. This was for East Coast/Mid-atlantic states.

Colleges take your transcript, pull it apart and re-assign the grades (if they are going to use homeschool grades, anyhow). They do this for all students, not just homeschoolers, because so many schools use "bonus" grades that totally inflate the actual grades. so if a class is honors, make sure it says "honors" on the transcript, and the college itself will add the extra points. That said, my dd who is starting college this fall had NO honors classes, ap classes (she did take an AP test, but only after being accepted to college) or clep classes. She got into great schools -- ones which are not known for being "homeschool friendly." She also got scholarships. Her GPA was fine, but not super compared to her friends in public school who had 4.35 averages.