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AmyinMD

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  1. My 14 year old daughter wants to do sign language this coming year and I'm still not really sure what to use. I haven't found anything that looks really good for high school yet. Our community college offers a lot of sign language courses (my 20 year old took the sequence when she was there) but my 14 year old is really not ready to take a class there yet. We might try it her junior year.
  2. My son is attending high school this year mainly for the sports. His main sport is soccer which practices Mon-Fri and Sat morning. The practices don't start right after school so he will have to ride bus home and then be taken back later for practices. What we were told at orientation is that if their activity does not start at 2:30 after school is out they are required to leave school property.
  3. I will check on that. I was assuming test scores were not needed for transfers. We were at UMBC on Friday and know transfers do not need to submit test scores because we spoke with admissions rep about it. My 19 yo is planning to transfer there. That is another MD state school so I'm hopeful it would be similar for other state schools but I will check. I've been looking over Accuplacer math and really think she could pass that if we did some intensive practice right before. If she could do that then maybe she could just apply as a transfer student. If she could take Statistics in the fall she could be done with math. She'd still graduate spring of 2018 but she'd have more than 30 college credits by Dec so could maybe just apply for Fall 2018 as transfer. I think it is UMD that said if over 30 credits to apply as transfer. UMBC was fine with her applying as a freshman even with her credits but could possibly do as transfer.
  4. My question only relates to admission. I'm not trying to get her out of required coursework. For all the majors dd is considering she only needs one math class and it looks like Statistics would satisfy that. My 19 yo who doesn't really care for math although she is much better at it than my 16 yo is currently taking her one college math- Statistics for social science majors. I have looked at her book and I think my 16 yo could do it but passing a placement exam or scoring high enough on ACT Math to exempt her from the placement test are unlikely to happen. I will at least do testing and see if that will help. I'm not sure why you wouldn't want to disclose the results on an application though as it seems like it could help explain low test scores. Extra time could help her some as she did say she could have done better with more time. Our other possible thought is to have dd's tutor heavily work on Accuplacer when she is done with Geometry so hopefully she could test into Statistics or at least highest level remedial. Take Statistics at community college. Attend cc for fall of freshman year and apply as a transfer student for Jan admission. It seems like such a pain to do it that way. By that point dd might be running out of classes to take as she thinks she'd be at 51 credits at high school grad if she follows her plan. I also think a lot of schools only let you transfer in 60 credits because we have been looking for my 19 yo. She will be at 64 credits to finish AA but looks like she can only bring in 60 when she transfers.
  5. I am strongly considering having my 16 year old daughter tested for Dyscalculia. Is there anyone with any experience with college applications with either Dyscalculia or Dyslexia? My daughter is a high school junior (always homeschooled) and is taking the ACT today for the first time. The past two weeks helping her prep for the math made me realize just how bad it is and I think the math alone could sink her chances for college admission. On one practice test this week she scored a 13 out of 60 on the math section. She should get 12 right just from random guessing. She has worked with a math tutor 1-2 times a week for the past two years. My husband and I both have engineering degrees and are able to help her with any math questions she may have. My dh did math with her for years but it got to where we decided a tutor would be better. She is awesome and very patient with my daughter. She has gotten her to Geometry right now but last night my daughter asked me a question about a math problem and had no idea what an angle on a triangle was. We had worked a bunch of problems with angles the past couple weeks and she couldn't even identify one last night. She has also completely forgotten how to do slope intercept form and I know she spent months working on that with her tutor. She is very motivated and an extremely hard worker. She seems to have forgotten basic fraction operations and how to combine like terms or how to apply the distributive law. I worry she would never get through remedial math classes she will likely test into in college. I think her low math scores could prevent her from being admitted at all even though she is very strong in every other area. We choose to have her do the ACT since the math was a smaller percentage of the overall score than on the SAT but I know schools will still be able to see her likely very low math score. What complicates this is she is an extremely motivated student and has pretty lofty career goals. Right now she thinks she wants to attend Law School. Her current first choice for majors is Political Science and she really wants to attend college in the DC area (we live about an hour outside of DC). Her first choice of schools is University of Maryland-College Park which is probably the hardest Maryland state school to get admitted to but much easier than an ivy league school. Other schools she likes are American University, UMBC, or Towson. She already has 12 college credits (humanities classes) all with As and is hoping to have at least 50 credits by the time she finishes high school so having her attend CC like my older dd is doing doesn't make much sense. She is really into competitive debate which our CC doesn't have so she wants to attend a school that has a competitive debate team. She is currently competing through Capital Debate in their regional program and she has gotten awards at competitions. She also likes theater and has been in 20+ plays over the years and participates with a traveling vocal group, takes dance, and did soccer her freshman/sophomore years. She is trying to get some more volunteer hours since she doesn't have many yet. She is applying to pre-college programs this summer so she can live on campus and take credit classes this summer. She spent part of last summer at Villanova University to attend debate camp. I think she looks like a pretty strong applicant for most schools aside from math and I'm worried that will really hurt her getting in college. I was hoping maybe if we got her tested for LDs that the low math scores may not hurt her as much.
  6. So much with CC depends on the director, tutor, and community. This is our 5th year doing CC programs. Our community as a whole is very good. There are field trips planned, Mom's night out, Dad's group, planned get together activities in the Challenge group. With joining a new group it can take awhile to get to know people but if there are a lot of red flags from the start it is probably a bad fit. I would have a fit about a tarp between classes when I am paying for a class. I have lost some money on CC especially for registration fees because it is nonrefundable. This year we were going to do Foundations and backed out the week the final money was due. I had only paid registration at that point but I knew I was out almost $200. I do like aspects of CC but I also feel like it is not what a lot of people think it is when they sign up. I would suggest visiting at least twice to sit through classes before signing up. I am not a fan of the Practicums or the Window to Challenge and would not recommend signing up based on visiting either of those. Our director likes to tell people that CC is so much cheaper than private school and if she hadn't found CC she would be paying for private school. While that is true CC is only one day a week for 24 weeks and it is very expensive for the little time it actually meets. It is an extremely expensive program especially if you have multiple children in it. Last year I had 2 kids do Challenge and 3 do Foundations which was a lot. I couldn't even think of trying to do Essentials on top of how much that already cost. This year I just have one child in Challenge and two doing Essentials. It is our first time doing Essentials and while I do like it we won't do it again. They tend to repeat a lot each year. The grammar appears that they go through the same thing each year which is fine but I'm not going to pay for the kids to sit through working on the same sentences each year. Same for the 3 year cycle with Foundations. We completed the cycle but I just couldn't bring myself to pay for the identical class my kids did 3 years ago. They may have learned more than their last time through but I do not think they should repeat so much. Every year they do the same drawing lessons for example and it is just too repetitive. My son really wanted to do Memory Master again but it wasn't enough reason to do it. My 15 yo dd's Challenge group is good but it is so dependent on the tutor and group of kids in there. Her class is 10 kids and many of them have been together since Challenge A. There are 5 girls in there and those 5 get together all the time outside of class. This week alone she's been to the mall with the girls and to Bible study. Most weeks they get together outside of class at least once but a couple of the other Challenge groups only have 3 kids in them. Those classes don't seem to plan much outside of class and the planned activities for the Challenge kids are usually primarily attended by my dd's class and on other class. Most of the kids in other classes don't even show up for them. After seeing how hit and miss it is with getting a good class in Challenge we've already decided our younger kids will not be doing it. There are other reasons (cost, lack of flexibility, quality of instruction so dependent on tutor, weak science program, etc). I pulled my 17 yo this year because I was not happy with the tutor for Challenge III. She has been totally fine doing other stuff but I am spending every bit as much as I did on Challenge. So much for saving money. As far as getting money back I think CC takes all of the registration fees and none go to the community. Building fees and supply fees may have already been spent. I think the director keeps around 30% of the tuition with the other 70% distributed among the tutors. It seems like some of that should be refundable but I would probably just consider it an expensive mistake. I know of people that have pulled kids out of private school and are out the tuition for the rest of the year.
  7. We aren't really enjoying it here either. It is okay but neither me or the kids are excited about doing it. I have 3 sets of all the students books (that the kids have already written in of course) so I've got a fair amount of money into it. I just don't think I can do it all year. I'm thinking of just trying to put my own thing together for rest of the year so I don't have to buy anything new. The textbook just seems dry and the kids eyes glaze over when I get it out.
  8. I really disagree with you on all 3 of these. Foundations really doesn't help much with the 3 Rs. Two of my kids did the full three year cycle and got a lot out of it but we definitely did our 3 Rs at home. I had been homeschooling almost 10 years when we joined so it wasn't that I was lacking confidence in my ability to homeschool. We were already a part of a different homeschool community at the time and my kids do lots (maybe too many) outside activities. The community we've been a part of has been nice but since it is a program you have to pay for I have found that very few families stick with it long term. The other group we are a part of has many more long time members I think in part because it's costs are minimal. One of the downsides for CC for us my kids will make friends and then the family won't return the following year either because they find it too expensive or they have already completed the three cycles. While CC pushes repeating the cycles I found I was kind of done with it after we'd been through all three cycles once. I think it enhanced our homeschool studies and the kids enjoyed it. I would never recommend anyone stretch to pay for it because it is a must have. It is an extra that can add to your homeschool if you have the time for it. My son has done memory master but I don't require it of my kids and I don't spend much time on the program outside of the actual class. I have a love/hate relationship with CC. I like a lot about it but I also don't like how they market their program and the constant push to open new communities. Our community had around 40 children last year so we were nowhere near full but still two people from that community opened new communities. One of them only has eight children. It makes absolutely no sense but with the CC model there is constant pressure to grow. While I decided not to do Foundations this year our community only has two Foundations classes now because of the new communities being opened. There wasn't a need for them but yet people felt to add communities they can't even fill. My teens have both been a part of the Challenge program which they have really enjoyed. We give our kids the option to attend public high school but both my older two have picked Challenge instead although my 17 yo is doing other stuff this year. They were both in very nice classes and they made a lot of friends there. My 15 yo loves the Debate classes at Challenge which is a subject I couldn't do well at home. I really dislike the Science though and I find it extremely weak. We have had to supplement it in a major way and my younger children will not be doing the program because of my issues with the science. Part of the reason my 17 yo isn't doing Challenge 3 is because the tutor teaching it really doesn't seem to know Chemistry. She did try to find someone to come in and just teach the Chemistry but she didn't have any luck so I pulled my daughter out instead of spending money on Challenge and on a separate Chem class.
  9. We tried it for a few years but didn't see any marked change. My son has many of those things and more. We did have some luck introducing new foods after seeing a Nutritionist though. My son was referred for feeding therapy but our insurance refuses to cover it and the program recommended was intensive and extremely expensive we can't afford it. He has awful dark circles around his eyes all the time. The one thing that has helped with sleep is the prescription Clonidine. It is very inexpensive and would be something that you'd see a mainstream doctor for (we use a Developmental Pediatrician). A half a tablet of that before bed makes all the difference in his sleep. It is actually a med for high blood pressure but we use very low dose and find it pretty effective for help with sleep. After years of having ds awake at 3am super hyper or screaming I really need him to sleep at night. My son doesn't do well on dairy and it causes diarrhea for him so we do keep him off that. He has had chronic issues with diarrhea/constipation though aside from dairy. I have Celiac Disease so I don't allow gluten into our kitchen so I keep him gluten free out of necessity. He loves to drink out of my cup and doesn't understand cross contamination. Our latest doctor stop has been Neurogenetics because my son continues to lose skills so his case may be unique even among kids with Autism. His speech was better 5 years ago than it is today and that is with hundreds if not thousands speech sessions. He has about 10 words left where he had about 100 or more before he started losing.
  10. There is a lot of things you can choose to include or skip with America the Beautiful. I'm using it with 6th grade twins (one with dyslexia and has a hard time with writing) and a 3rd grader (very strong academically). We haven't gotten too far into the book yet but we usually do the Lesson Review book and the Student Workbook plus the maps and timeline. I have omitted most of the writing assignments so far since my 6th graders are taking Essentials and my 3rd grader is a little below the recommended age for it I don't think she needs to do as much. We will probably do the recommended Literature list but the number of questions in the program is pretty low we do more in depth Literature units throughout the year. I may just have the books as an option for the kids to read on their own. There are 5 questions for each lesson in the Lesson Review book that pertain to the reading. I usually read the lesson aloud since I have 3 kids sharing one set of books and then we work through the questions together. They mostly do the student workbook on their own but it is a lot of word puzzles and that kind of thing which seems more like busy work to me the kids like it.
  11. The book Making Simple Robots looks pretty good. We just got it and there are some good looking projects in there. It does look like we will need to purchase several items to make some of the things in the book. At least one of them uses Little Bits though. We do have one Little Bits set but it is an expensive item for a book that claims to be "simple". http://www.amazon.com/Making-Simple-Robots-Exploring-Cutting-Edge/dp/1457183633/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1438607485&sr=8-2&keywords=kathy+ceceri This book is by the same author and uses very simple items. It does have an art vibrobot in it. The items are all cheap enough I'm planning to use the book for a class for our co-op this fall. http://www.amazon.com/Robotics-DISCOVER-TECHNOLOGY-PROJECTS-Yourself/dp/1936749750/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1438607800&sr=8-1&keywords=kathy+ceceri The Maker Mom blog is pretty good and has given me some ideas on things to get for my son. http://www.themakermom.com/ Makezine.com also has a section on robotics I've found helpful. http://makezine.com/category/electronics/robotics/ Quirkbot is an inexpensive robot that uses Strawbees. We backed it on Kickstarter and it is due to come out this month. Since we haven't gotten it yet I can't offer a review of it yet but it is under $100. http://store.quirkbot.com/product/robotic-qreatures
  12. My 11 yo son recently built a Pi-Bot and it is around $99. We are just getting into the programming but he is learning a lot from it. He loves anything robotics. This one is by far better than any other robot kits we've purchased. Many cheap robot kits you can't program. Some have controllers but it is more like building a remote control car than a robot you program. On this one you even get to build the gear box which was a very good experience. http://pi-bot.org/products/pi-bot 4H near us offers a Robotics club but it wasn't a good fit for my son. We attended meetings for months before they actually got into any building and that was about the time spring soccer started and he then missed all of the actual hands on stuff. He isn't doing it next year. It is too bad but because it was mainly a time conflict for us. He plays club soccer and pretty much all the games are Sunday afternoons and we were originally told the robotics club would meet Sunday evenings but the group leader had a conflict and moved the meetings earlier and then we couldn't make them anymore.
  13. We have just gotten started with Scratch at our house. My daughter did a 2 hour class on Makey Makey which is programmed with Scratch. We need to dig into Scratch a little more but my daughter really got into Makey Makey and wants to learn Scratch so she can use it with the Makey Makey. I think I will try to get one of the books listed above because we need to become more familiar with Scratch. http://www.makeymakey.com/ Tynker is another option for beginning programming. We joined the Kickstarter campaign earlier this year and it is just now becoming available so we haven't had much time to play with it. My son and I just worked it for the first time yesterday. We got a drone as part of the Kickstarter program that we will be able to program with Tynker. It looks like there are a lot of things that you can design with Tynker. https://www.tynker.com/
  14. My older two girls didn't get much elementary science because I had so many younger kids at the time that getting the basics in was about all I could manage. We have been part of co-ops since almost as soon as we started homeschooling and I would always sign them up for any science classes offered at co-op and that was most of their science for several years. I would do a little at home but I don't think we ever completed a full curriculum. Both are doing fine with high school science so far. I love science though so it isn't that I don't want to do it but having time with the older kids was hard. My dh and I both have engineering degrees. With my younger kids we have done a lot more science. I still don't like programs that require that we pull tons of stuff together and I find it doesn't get done. We have a very busy schedule and I really like having everything I need in a kit. Nancy Larson Science 4 might be an option for ages 10 and 11 especially if they haven't had a lot of science. NLS is the only full program elementary science program we have completed here. We even finished it in April. I was quite happy to actually finish something especially so early. My 10 yo son was a little bored with the level 3 last year but he did learn some new stuff. It is very scripted though and kind of on the expensive side but it is easy to get done. It has very few experiments. There are some but most of the items come in the kit. It wasn't all that we did last year and we would do some other short units. One thing we did was spend about two weeks doing candy experiments at the end of the year. The kids loved that and it was easier since it was contained to a couple weeks.
  15. I'm graduating my first next year. We started homeschooling for Kindy in 2003 and aside from attending school for 7th grade she's always been homeschooled. 12th grader AP English Literature (outside class) Chemistry (online is most likely- leaning towards WTM Academy course) MUS Pre-Calculus CC Classes- probably one each semester Health- still needs this but haven't decided on what to use yet MUS Stewardship Extracurriculars: lots of dance classes, guitar and voice lessons 10th grader MUS Algebra (outside class) CC Challenge II Extracurriculars: performs as part of a theatre company, voice lessons, soccer
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