At least in Candyland you can sneak those awful cards out and slide them under the board so the game doesn't go on forever. Chutes and Ladders is way worse -- no way to cheat!

If I were you, I'd make it all about learning Swedish. Look for worksheets, vocabulary lessons, easy readers, etc. to use when they are bored. Let them watch Swedish kids' shows on TV. Have them each keep a simple journal in Swedish (3 year old can just draw and your dh can write Swedish words to go with it; 7 year old can draw and someone can write simple sentences for him to copy.) Encourage your inlaws read them stories and play games with them. The kids might surprise you. I remember having similar worries about staying with older friends in Germany with my six kids. We weren't there half an hour when youngest dd (maybe 5 at the time) came up and told me in German that she was hungry. She knew she wouldn't get any sympathy if our hosts didn't understand her. The kids LOVED hiking in the woods and playing German games and watching soccer and eating yummy foods and trying their best to chat with our hosts. They even surprised us by picking up the local dialect much better than dh and I ever have managed to, and we lived there for a year!

The first three test in the book are actual exams. In my experience, they are pretty accurate. The other tests are less accurate.

Our kids earn their own spending money from their savings and term-time jobs and make their own decisions on how to spend it, so I don't know for sure. It seems to me that they spend an awful lot. Oldest dd had wealthy friends and went out to nice restaurants, to NYC, etc. a lot. Middle dd spends a lot on clothes. Both boys have gfs, so they go out, buy gifts, etc. Middle ds especially spends money on the train and bus for extra trips to see her. Like I said, though, it's their money that they have worked for and they are budgeting it. If it's going too fast, they cut back or add more work hours. Is it possible to use the loan for something that's set and let him earn and manage his spending money?

The only reason the CB won't let you sign up online for kids under 13 is because of online privacy laws. I just fudged my kids' birth years so I could sign up online and get the complete report, then I corrected it after they were 13. I wasn't interested in Talent Search but wanted them to have SAT practice off the record.

My oldest two went to the same school, and my middle two are currently at the same school (different school from where the older two went). We never planned it or pushed them that way; it's just the way it worked out. My kids are close and they enjoy having a sibling nearby. They don't room together or anything, but they might meet for dinner once a week, see each other at Christian Fellowship events, etc. They each have their own group of friends, though there is some overlap. I can't think of any disadvantages.

Any test center will give all of the subject tests offered that day along with the regular SAT. You can check the CB site for when the various subject tests are offered.

Mine (four kids applying to maybe eight schools each) have been roughly fifty/fifty. I think in your daughter's case it's the equivalent of flipping heads five times in a row -- not too likely, but it happens.

Sorry, but you just don't understand conservative Christians. That's not what we believe at all. The problem with PHC isn't that they believe Christians don't sin, it's that they've tried to build a reputation as a place where conservative, homeschooling parents can send their very sheltered children where they will be safe from the temptations found at secular colleges. Stories like this can hurt business.

I disagree. We have our kids take an AP after having a cc course to back up the grade and showed they've mastered the material. The AP score is completely objective, while the quality of cc courses varies. We did find that our kids had to do lots of extra prep for the APs though, because the cc prof often didn't get through all the material or cover it deeply enough. You can get prep books and find old exam questions and released exams at AP Central. ETA -- I just noticed the OP is talking about a university and not a cc. Still, when it comes to college admissions, you want the people making the decision to be able to easily compare your child to his peers. APs are a great way to put the education you've given him into a language they understand.

I had a conversation about this recently with my two youngest dc (dd15 and ds17). They were frustrated with social things being cancelled because friends were grounded. They asked why they're never grounded. I said, "Because we spanked you when you were younger so you respect us." Dd said, "That's a much better way. It gets it over with without so much drama." They do lose devices and screen time if they break the rules or don't finish their work, but I don't know if I'd call that "grounding."

Three of my kids took AP language exams (French or German) in 8th grade, and my youngest dd took AP Computer Science as well. They all got 5s on all of them. We didn't include ANY 8th grade classes on the transcript, because we have heard that colleges care about what students are doing in grades 9-12, but we did list the exams. My middle ds took AP Music Theory with PA Homeschoolers, but we weren't thrilled with the course. The teacher was very knowledgeable about music theory, but pretty clueless about the AP exam. That was her first year teaching it though, so it may have improved. As far as prep time, it's hard to say. This teacher gave a lot of what ds felt was busy work. Still, he didn't put all that much time into it -- definitely not more than an hour a day.

Last year my ds took German and US History, which were given at the same time. I just went in and talked to the only school in our area that offers German. They were willing to give him German on the regular date and US History on the late day. It was much easier to arrange than I expected. I just asked, and they said it was no problem. I guess it's something they're used to.

I definitely wouldn't do APUSH and AP Euro the same year. They both involve a lot of memorizing and they are given back to back on the same day. We try to balance classes that require a lot of studying/memorizing with those where you master the material and you're done (e.g., languages, calc, comp sci).

This is what I was thinking too. If I called my district, I'd probably get some secretary or administrator who would just say no because in most cases homeschoolers can't participate in any activities. If I call the individual school and talk to the AP coordinator, it's a completely different story. They are welcoming and used to homeschoolers taking the tests. Do you know homeschoolers in your area who have older kids and may have experience with this? Is there an oversight person you deal with who could tell you if there are homeschoolers around who have taken APs? You could also try contacting the Richmans at PAH. They may have had students in your area. Don't give up!

Definitely! That's the whole reason we have our kids do APs. Colleges recognize them so they are an objective way to show that your child has taken a rigorous curriculum and mastered the material.

Howard Richman's Macroeconomics is a great course. We had our kids take it senior year, mainly so they'd have good grasp of economics. We didn't worry about the exam because by that point they'd been accepted to schools that don't give credit. It is equivalent to a one semester college class, so we gave our kids a full hs credit for it. After the class finishes, some kids go on to study for the Microeconomics exam.

My dh taught them some image processing and this past summer he had ds23 who is a comp sci grad student teach them web design. This year ds17 is doing some android programming for a science fair project he's working on.

My kids self-studied using the textbook Big Java, Barron's, and materials from the College Board. Dh is a computer engineer, though, so he was helping them. It's a pretty easy exam.

In our experience, there are very few schools that will not reduce your need-based aid if you get outside scholarships. They say you can pay x amount and they give you the difference in grants. Outside scholarships count toward their contribution, not yours. There are some schools that will let you "keep" outside aid for the freshman year only. Our kids' schools let outside scholarships go toward the student's part of the family contribution. So, ds19 has about $20K per year in outside aid that he won through science competitions and National Merit. That would be enough to cover our entire family contribution, but they only allow him to use 5K of it that way, because that's how much they expect him to contribute from his summer earnings and savings. The other 15K comes out of what the college is providing us in aid. We've found that schools that will let you keep even this much are the exception. It's something you have to look for when comparing financial aid offers.

If he's planning to apply to highly selective schools, I'd plan to have him take as many APs as possible. The colleges expect to see them, and the students he is competing with for admission will be taking them.

You could have him take both Physics C tests his senior year. They are given on the same afternoon, one after the other, and are really half tests. They just make you pay for both!

If a school requires subject tests, they won't accept AP scores as a substitute. We did both.

We used to have mice, and no matter how often and well we cleaned the cage, they just stank. It wasn't the cage; it was an odor the mice were giving off. We solved it by putting some newspaper over the cage. It let enough air in for them but contained the smell.

This is for your current eleventh grader? Then definitely yes. We haven't had our kids take any AP exams in 12th because by that point, so far at least, they've all been admitted to schools that don't give credit anyway.