Good timing as I'm prepping some slides this morning. This PDF of the Illustrated Guide to Home Biology Experiments has a good overview of staining techniques and different stains to use. (You can also purchase a hard copy of the book.) If you have a 1000X oil immersion scope, it might be worth learnng how to do a gram stain. I am preparing slides of fungi, and I'm using methylene blue, safranin O, eosin Y, and gram's iodine. You can purchase many of these at Home Science Tools or a similar science supplier.

If he likes working with electronics, take a look at the link in my signature. It has lots of resources for learning electronics on your own.

We liked the Kidpower book for teaching independence.

Check out Great Scopes. I agree with PP about getting a mechanical stage. You'll need to decide if you require the oil immersion 1000X which you can use to visualize bacteria.

You can also just let her vent and mourn what she perceives to be a missed opportunity enjoyed by other students. Hear her out, sympathize, tell her you wish it could be different, and try to be empathetic. Reflect her frustrations back to her so she knows that you understand. "I know it must be hard to see your friends going to straight to a 4 year college, while you have to wait another year. That's pretty tough." Praise her and thank her whenever she attempts to see the bright side. Buy her some nice stuff using the money she saved by not attending a more expensive school. Sometimes our kids just want to be heard.

The NY Times site is full of articles about students coping with student loan debt. Assign one per day for your student to read, lol.

I am having a hard time wrapping my head around this. Your son earned an A from an AoPS algebra class, arguably one of the most difficult algebra classes available. To me, that's the very definition of having a solid grasp of algebra. You say he started having problems toward the end of the class. Were his bars still in the blue or green areas for those last chapters? Take a look at those bar charts and ask him what in particular he feels he's not understanding, and maybe go through those problems in the textbook. I would continue using the AoPS textbook for this review; the solutions guide is excellent for self study.

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I agree! I was so disappointed after using CE, which was just lovely.

Sorry for my curt reply above! Okay, here it goes with WWW. There's a lot of non sequiturs in this text that we just plain skipped, including the pages with the single stem in 100 pt font, like on page 3. If you look ahead to List #2, on page 12 the highlighted stem is per, which isn't even one of the stems on List #2. So we started skipping those pages. We read through the stem lists, which include a list of words (without definitions or etymologies!!!) that include the stems. (So I end up looking up words that are listed alongside the stem so I can better understand how they relate to the definition of the stem. I would rather have those explanations than an essay on "War with the Persians," but that's another gripe for another day.) We will read through the list of example sentences and the Notes. I have prepared flash cards for my dd (I love making flash cards.) which she uses to study on her own for a day or two. She takes the test and we move on. We found the analogies to be cumbersome, and she didn't even enjoy the classic words quiz because it was impossible to know the correct answer which she found frustrating, so we are skipping that too. I've encouraged her to read the essays, but she's reading other things for history and isn't really interested in the War with the Persians so that gets skipped too. Notice that first 20 lessons consist only of stems, the last 10 lessons are only words. In WWW2 and WWW3, each lesson is a mix of both. HTH, and good luck.

flash cards.

I think so, too! If you need to use a calculator, either you need to learn some divisibility rules or the number is too large with too many large primes. (Then you can just google "prime factorization of XXX") I believe the AoPS Intro NT and PreAlgebra cover divisibility rules.

Thank you for posting this. Is it true that professors at smaller LACs do not do research? If your student wants to do research while studying at an LAC, they'll need to look elsewhere? This is quite an eye opener for me, and will definitely influence where my kids apply.

I try to reserve bragging for specific situations: (1) close family, (2) other homeschoolers if it might help them, (3) resumes, (4) interviews, and (5) applications. I try to teach my kids that bragging should be directed to people who are offering an award, a scholarship or a job. Or your mother or grandma. Otherwise you'll get a "my kids are doing great" platitude; more details on a need to know basis. And in person, not on social media. ETA: I never tire of hearing homeschooling success stories, so brag away here.

I'm happy to see the class for adults on how to teach math. I'll be giving a seminar on the topic at our local conference, and I will definitely refer parents here.

I can back this up with a couple of articles from the NY Times. Idaho State actively recruits students from the middle east because they don't have enough applicants from the US: "...signs of the fissures developing in this railroad town as Idaho State became increasingly dependent on Saudi and Kuwaiti students to replace income lost from steep declines in local enrollment and state funding." Some universities are so desperate for students they aggressively recruit unqualified international students who end up in remedial classes: "Western Kentucky’s deal with the recruiting company ... is a type of arrangement that is becoming more common as a thriving international educational consultancy industry casts a wide net in India and other countries, luring international students to United States colleges struggling to fill seats. "

I feel ya. I've been fighting toenail fungus for years, since I neglected to treat some athlete's foot and it spread to the nail. Some of my nails cleared away spontaneously, but I still have some stubborn ones. I haven't tried oral antifungals because the risk of liver failure, though small, isn't worth it for cosmetic reason. (Also, my feet are something of a train wreck anyway from bunions, so there's point in showing them off to the world.) What I do now is after I'm out of the shower and my nails are soft, I will file them with a gritty file board, but not perpendicular to the nail, like you would normally do to your fingernails. I file carefully on top of my nail, if that makes sense, to make the nail thinner. This accomplishes a couple of things: (1) maybe it will allow any topical medicine to penetrate better and (2) it improves the appearance of your nail, so you can put some polish on it and hope no one notices.

BTDT with trying desperately to use up charter school funds. What worked for me were art and craft supplies (Discount School Supply and Dick Blick were our vendors), science supplies from Home Science Tools, and I believe Barnes and Noble was an approved vendor, so check them out. Also, American Girl was an approved vendor, but not for dolls, and they sell lots of interesting books and craft kits. I had a good long term relationship with my ES, so I could keep non-consumable items over the summer because she knew I'd be returning in the fall. You may want to ask your ES if that's possible for you.

I agree with both points here. I do want to point out, however, that med school is chock full of women, and many of them do have children, even those in academia. (It isn't easy, but somehow my facebook feed is full of cute pictures of doctors' kids.) I have a pediatrician and a family medicine friend both work part time to spend more time with their children, volunteer at school and church, etc. They have the flexibility to be able to return to work full time when her kids are older. Their incomes combined with their dh's allow them to live comfortably with much hired help to take care of the mundane chores. Plus, not all women want to have families.

Take a look at the medical school admissions requirements: "Some schools require applicants to complete a certain list of premedical course requirements while others have moved to a competency-based admissions. At a minimum, students will likely complete the following types of courses: One year of biology One year of physics One year of English Two years of chemistry (through organic chemistry)" Your student will not only need to pass these courses, she will need to do very well in them. To save money, by all means, attend state schools for undergrad and med school. I was chatting with a surgeon who was on a medical school admissions committee and he told me how impressed he was with a student who had attended cc before transferring to state U because he was able to articulate how he was able to save money while still receiving excellent preparation. Now some physicians may have some name school snobbery, but I think they are in the minority. You'll also want to encourage your student to pursue at least one outside interest in any field that interests her, but pursue it to some degree of excellence. She can do research in biology, engineering, or public health. She can pursue advanced studies in philosophy or writing. She could take some time volunteer: tutoring, working in a homeless shelter, or in a hospital. Note: she doesn't need to do all these things. Better to pick one or two related items and really excel at them. This will really enhance her application. Some of these opportunities will not be so available at a cc, but she should make the best use of the opportunities she's provided. But it needs to be something that really interests her because that passion will really be apparent on her application and interviews. Good luck to her!

I have not read this book, but heard good things about it: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott. But you'll want to preread it because I think it is written for an adult audience, and I have no idea if it's appropriate for children. "Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he'd had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said, 'Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.'" Think you've got a book inside of you? Anne Lamott isn't afraid to help you let it out. She'll help you find your passion and your voice, beginning from the first really crummy draft to the peculiar letdown of publication. Readers will be reminded of the energizing books of writer Natalie Goldberg and will be seduced by Lamott's witty take on the reality of a writer's life, which has little to do with literary parties and a lot to do with jealousy, writer's block and going for broke with each paragraph. Marvelously wise and best of all, great reading.

Yes, I have. It's easy. The MK folks are friendly to homeschoolers, and respond quickly to emailed questions. They waive the registration fee for your kids if you host a site, but you'll need to let them know when registration gets underway. You can make your center "open" to anyone who wants to register, or invite only those you want to show up, by giving them a password to the MK hosted registration site. They make that easy for you. The trickiest thing is they don't like having parents proctor when their own children are taking the exam. I usually hire a homeschooled teenager to proctor or someone from Task Rabbit. I've hosted for several years and it's been a positive experience for us. LMK if you have further questions.

It looks like this microscope has oil immersion? If so, you can use it to visualize bacteria. I would suggest doing a gram stain, and growing some fungus on old bread or fruit and staining that too. Just to be safe, I would order bacteria from Home Science Tools. HST also has a gram stain kit. The Illustrated Guide to Home Biology experiments has instructions on these stains, but you can also find lots of instructions on how to do gram stains on youtube. (I recommend printing out the relevant chapters of this free pdf guide before deciding whether to buy.) To illustrate Brownian motion, you can start with whole milk and dilute it several times before visualizing the fat globules under a microscope.

Good questions. It would be nice for her to have access to cash, but I was initially thinking of in case of emergency. I need to sort this out.

That's interesting. We received our prizes in the mail some weeks ago. But we never received certificates showing their ranks. (They did receive their standard certificates right after the exam. I suppose it all depends on who is in charge at your state.