I am YE. I think the problem with theistic evolution is that if you accept it, you have to give up critical beliefs that are foundational to Christianity. If you don't have a literal Adam and Eve, you don't have the Fall. If Adam and Eve and the Fall are myths, what do you do with the theology in Romans? Some people say the earth is old, but God intervened and made a literal Adam and Eve. But then, was there death before the Fall? You can take or leave what Ken Ham teaches (I honestly have never heard him or read his stuff), but I think you need to be careful about throwing out a literal interpretation of Genesis.

We try to have our kids complete everything (National AP scholar, some other national award, etc) by the end of junior year for that reason. This year my son was applying EA to Harvard and was named a Siemens finalist after the application was due but before the decisions were made. He just emailed them the extra information and we know they took it into account because an admissions officer emailed him back and forth about it. I don't think there's anything you can do about awards that won't be given until after decisions are made.

Interesting ... Spanish is in a continual state of revision ...? When my dh was researching the new French exam at the beginning of the 2011-2012 school year, he was reading the Spanish teacher forums because their exam had already changed and people were expecting the French to be similar. This http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/courses/teachers_corner/50015.html says it changed in 2009. I guess I'm glad we're not doing Spanish!

I agree. My poor youngest dd did French and bio the year they changed, German in its second year, and she'll do chem next year. There's not really anything we can do about it. If we wait until they have reliable prep books and released exams available, she'll be out of high school. But as we repeatedly tell her -- everyone's in the same boat. One thing -- are you sure about the schedule above? I thought Spanish had changed a few years back -- before French and German.

My ds took it with PA Homeschoolers. We weren't thrilled with the course, but it was the teacher's first year so it may have improved. He did get a 5, but he did a lot of work on his own since the teacher wasn't doing enough test prep in our opinion.

Maybe try going in to talk to someone? My local high school doesn't even begin to think about PSAT's until mid-September. If you called now, you'd get the run around only because it's not on their radar and they're busy with other things.

Love this! Now I want to cover our 1999 E350 with quotes. And that's my favorite too! :lol: And to answer the original question -- we have 8 people. Our 12-passenger van is on its last legs and gets TERRIBLE mileage, so now we always take two cars everywhere when they are all home. It's cheaper to drive two compact cars than the van!

My ds took it two years ago. I don't remember it being any longer than the usual tests and he didn't have any trouble with it. Maybe the PP's school made the kids come extra early to fill out bubbles, etc.?

The realtor is getting paid by the seller, not by you. They are working for the seller. You have no obligation to work with just one person, even if they make you feel guilty about it. We had two realtors at once and let them both know it. It was actually very empowering. When they tried to play the "We have another buyer interested" game, we said, "We're looking at houses with Jim this evening." They worked much harder for us and we were in a much better position to negotiate. We didn't see the same houses with both of them, though. We just let each know that we had other options. We weren't in love with this particular house and we could walk away in a second.

This seems obvious, but this morning at the Calc BC exam, one of our fellow homeschoolers just didn't show up. Everyone waited about fifteen minutes for him before they finally started. My ds heard from a friend who saw him this morning that he just "didn't feel ready." He probably assumed they'd just start without him. Our local high school has always been very friendly and accomodating to homeschoolers who want to take APs. The least we can do is extend some common courtesy.

Is there some kind of internship he could do next year? That's what we have our kids do in 12th grade when they have done everything at the CC. It gives them a nice break before college, recommendations, and something to write about on their college essays. If there's not a ready-made internship available, or if it's too late to apply. you can put something together if you are creative. My oldest daughter loves history, so she volunteered at a local historical home giving tours a couple of afternoons a week, she volunteered archiving papers at the local historical society a couple of mornings a week, and she had a paid position doing historical research with a group at the community college. My next three have done more traditional internships at a government research lab. There are lots of options!

You know German has already changed, right? It was new in 2012, I think.

We did German with our kids when they were in preschool. We loved Tom: http://www.kindernetz.de/tom. There are also lots of classic children's songs (e.g., Backe Backe Kuchen) and fairy tales.

You will be inundated with emails if your child eventually takes the PSAT and signs up for the Student Search Service. I learned to put THEIR emails on there -- not mine. They like getting twenty messages a day telling them how brilliant they are. LOL! I'm pretty sure the parent's email is recommended but not required.

You got me. That's why I could never get 800 on the thing. :huh: I've worked with lots of bright math kids though, and this isn't just a random fact they've memorized. They know it because they really (unlike me) understand geometry and trig. And sure, they've memorized their formulas, their square roots, their powers of two, etc. They love math and they really understand it. And they usually ace the SAT!

I disagree. Kids who know the math inside and out and have good math instincts (who for example, know right away that if they see a 30-60-90 right triangle, the shortest leg is half of the longer leg) can EASILY do the math section in time without a calculator. My kids always have time to go back and check and double check. They get them done quickly and rarely miss a problem. It just takes practice. And an 800 is meant to set the kids who are really good at math apart from the kids who can sludge through it and get the right answers, isn't it? Also, public schools provide calculators and spend plenty of time teaching kids to use them. The problem is, the kids don't understand the math well enough to breeze through the questions.

I think this only applies if you take time off and then apply to school. It must be that four years after your last test the scores are archived. Tests my ds took in 8th grade were on the report that went to the colleges along with all the others. I didn't have to pay a fee or make a special request or anything. In 8th, my kids took one of their languages (either French or German) and dd14 also took computer science. We only saved exceptionally high (over 750) subject test scores. We did need scores for DE, but they didn't need to stay on the record for that -- we just took the score report into the CC.

You are right about SATs, but it is not the same for APs. Three of my kids have taken them in 8th grade, and they stay on the record. You don't need to do anything.

Yes, it counts for admissions and for scholars recognition. You don't need to do anything special. It stays on their record and is just listed along with everything else.

My dd goes from DC to Princeton by train all the time. She always takes Amtrak to Trenton, then a commuter train (NJ transit) to Princeton Junction and then the Dinky to campus. It stops right across the street from her dorm. You can take Amtrak directly to Princeton Junction, but there is usually just one train a day.

We don't have stickers on our cars, but I do have a "Harvard Mom" sweatshirt that my ds bought me for Christmas when he was a freshman. I mostly wear it around the house because it feels like showing off, UNLESS we are going to be around people who look down on homeschoolers, like when our basketball team plays an elite private school. Then it's kind of fun!

We always had our kids take the SAT in middle school because it is good practice and does not stay on their record. Our local high school has a special room for all the 7th and 8th graders taking the test and my dc have always had friends taking it with them.

I agree completely. The approach dh and I have always taken is to give our kids an education that won't close any doors for them. What they choose to do with that when the time comes to apply to college is up to them. We also look at lots of schools and make sure they have great choices they'd be happy at if they are like the vast majority and don't get into the reach school.

Despite an SAT score of 2120? Someone needs to tell her that's not all that high if you're expecting to get into schools like Princeton and Yale.

This is true, and when our oldest dd was applying, we encouraged her to look at whether or not a school offered merit aid when she applied. Of the schools on her list, only Harvard didn't offer merit aid. And, other than Emory, where she got a full scholarship, guess what school ended up costing the least? Harvard! Don't just look at whether schools offer merit aid; look at how much they offer. My dd got one nice-sounding "scholarship" that turned out to be a $3000 grant to do summer research. Well, thanks, but that's not a lot of help! So don't discount the top schools because they don't offer merit aid. Their financial aid offers are very generous, even for families that are solidly middle class. The admission rates are low, it's true, but some kids do get in! My kids are white, with college educated parents who can't come close to paying. They are legacies at Yale (where dh went to grad school), but of three who applied there, only two have gotten in. In fact, Yale sends a letter to legacy parents telling them their kids get no preferential treatment. My kids haven't started a charity or gone to the Olympics. In fact, ds18 had NO significant community service at all. What do they have? Amazing test scores, a record of incredibly hard work in high school, great recommendations (we use the CC for that), an internship senior year, and some kind of national award (ISEF, Siemens, USAMO, etc.). Oh, and they were homeschooled! We encouraged our kids not to set their hearts on the top schools, but to have other great schools they'd be happy at, but we also encouraged them to try for the best, and so far four have gotten in. So it is possible. =)