AP Physics C is done. DD isn't happy. Apparently, most of the questions came from the harmonics and springs area, which was the one area she didn't feel solid about. 😞 Today is Calc BC -- she's extremely solid on the AB topics, more nervous about the BC. We're shopping afterwards. It's hard to believe that in one year, she'll be graduating (because after her last AP test is done, I will consider her DONE. I'm still not sure if Pokeman will do many APs. I guess I'll know in a year!

Breakfast Burrito Sale Take PonyGirl to AP exams Sit around and wait Stop by the commissary. Go home and maybe sleep.

Well, so glad to hear some positive experiences. DD has been massively stressing about her exams, especially Physics tomorrow. She has both Physics Exams on Monday, Calc BC on Tuesday and AP Eng. Lang on Weds. We are definitely hitting the pool Tues/Weds afterwards! Thursday, is a day off. No wake up times -- and just a 3 hour swim session. That's more or less my plan for finishing up here. All the school books are packed to mail. The house is ready to pack out and get it's final cleaning (whenever that happens). I'm so ready to hop on a plane and start the next chapter!

It wasn't you 😉 Cost is a huge factor at W&L... and the swim coach also hasn't yet replied to any inquiries.

Thank you! The testing won't be an issue for DD (she will have 7 AP exams and 3 SAT2s by September, with 4 more AP exams and one more SAT2 her senior year. Since she was aiming for certain Ivy-league, highly competitive schools from the outset, some of which require SAT2s, I got these on the schedule! She's doing AIM summer session with the USCGA in July, which will give her a bit of a peek into military school lifestyle, and we'll be visiting Lexington this fall (one of DD's official visits for swimming). Washington & Lee is one of about 15 schools that is gradually falling off DD's list. We're working from the swimming angle at the moment, and then will go to the department heads for math, etc. for the next round of contacts.

Happy Friday! One of my last (2) here in Italy. It's my LAST weekend of packing. Most of the trash is starting to leave the house (HUGE bags) Clean Laundry Swim Watch some television... and have a fun evening with my family before the last big push to be ready for the movers to arrive!

Not sure I have it in me to Thursday today. UGH. I have a pinched nerve. I need a massage. My left shoulder is killing me. That said... laundry...pack...clean...pack List more stuff for sale -- and get the stuff sold! Eagle Project prep Good-bye Chick-Fil-A Party @ my house in a week(?!?) School planning (because I get tired, and need to look at what is out there and GASP in horror at the cost). Go over pros and cons of virtual school with my 3 youngest and have two of them quickly declare "No. definitely not." And one declare "Maybe." Listen to my ghost a/c unit turn itself off and on all day (it never works at all during the summer -- it has been turned "off" completely, and yet, it's chirping on and off right now). Make shopping list for my husband, because we are running low on food anyone wants to eat (there is still food... but the randomness of what is left makes meals hard).

Thank you, I may. I have given him some things regarding giftedness to read as well. They helped my older daughter when she was going through some of the same issues in early high school. They helped me as an adult better understanding (and accepting myself). One of the things I most love about my son is his ability to accept other kids (of any age) for who they are. I'm reminded of a stop at the post office when a young child broke his toy and was very upset, my son went over to him and helped him see all of the ways he could play with the toy as it now was, and also that it could be easily fixed. The young mother was so grateful -- that my then 12yo boy had helped her (about) 4 year old avoid a total meltdown (it was heading that way quickly). The little boy left happy. Most of PokeMan's friends have all moved, he is now one of two scouts over 13 in the troop. He is feeling a bit lonely, but excited to return to the states and get involved and meet people when we get to the states.

Leaving for the orphanage shortly, then back to base, then home... hopefully, we'll get more stuff boxed. I mentioned no more school for most of the kids until we are back in the states (PonyGirl is the only one still studying for AP exams next week). Laundry... pack....clean...pack...clean...pack...clean. In other news, I may have a mom coming to help me (Having an adult to talk to while I sort and pack helps a TON).

While I understand it can be both -- he was also evaluated (albeit briefly) as a young child. He actually does very well in social situations, makes friends easily, embraces change, likes challenges, and likes to engage with a variety of people (both initiating encounters, and responding to conversations initiated by others -- in fact, his willingness to engage with adults is one of his most often positively commented -upon quality) He doesn't always care about strictly following social norms, but he recognizes they exist and when he's not following them (mostly because he's either feeling pretty silly at the time, or because he thinks they are stupid). His concerns with autism stemmed more from executive function issues and following schedules (which is usually more of an issue with minimizing distractions...), imho, his scheduling issues are fairly common both for boys who love video games and boys in his age range.

spend 3.5 hours at the vet...there goes my day! (one of the things I won't miss about Italy is the just show up and wait...I like appointment schedules. We showed up at opening and waited 3.5 hours for a check up on the dog). Kitchen Laundry More packing...wish I had another adult to pack with (get my chit-chat in and make the process more fun...I really hate packing) Sending PokeMan to get Mozzarella di buffala, because I soon won't be able to get the good stuff anymore. Trying to eat as much of this as I can. Finish cleaning out my room (I may go do that now).

Pretty sure there is no way I could take the job - not sure what a tax person could tell me that would change my mind (the job would pay roughly 1/4 of what my family would need to live, as my husband would not be able to get a job (at least not in the near term).

I haven't really been on this board in years, but today I had something that belongs here. Back when LEGOManiac and PonyGirl were very young (and I think even a bit with PokeMan), agonizing over everything (I confess, I still do that to an extent). But, my children's gifts became less of something I needed to talk about or worry about as I grew more confident (or maybe it was ignored, because I had 5 children and was just struggling to keep a semblance of order. Whatever the reason, I've been very absent from the accelerated learners board. Let me preface this by saying you won't see my kids entering college at 10. I haven't had a child with the inclination or desire (or need) for that. There are no PG kids in my household. HG/EG maybe (only have had one tested). My middle son is 15. He's probably the most intense child of the five. He's also the most emotional and driven to more extremes in terms of expressing his feelings about things. He came to me today and asked if he could be tested for ASD (specifically autism and/or aspergers). Being keenly aware of his differences from others -- he went searching for reasons and possible explanations for those differences. I went back to my old resources and pulled up some checklists and walked him through -- he had never associated the possibility of his differences being due to gifteness. I explained that you can't take a trait in isolation -- but instead you're looking for clusters of behaviors, and that personality and other intensities can work together to LOOK like something else entirely. I ended the session by explaining the fact that he recognizes his differences and went searching for possible explanations and then was asking for potential interventions underscores what we were told by the developmental psychologist when he was very little and my mother in law insisted he was on the spectrum -- he is gifted. We aren't sure to the extent, but know he's somewhere between HG and EG. His worry dissipated, he was relieved to know that his "symptoms" are just part of his normal development. Of course, then I sat down with Pony Girl and went over a bit of her developmental history, showing her the websites and some of the articles and checklists -- she immediately recognized herself and was also filled with a bit of relief. All of this is to say is that sometimes our gifted children (perhaps especially the older ones who have become a lot more acutely aware of the differences between themselves and others), need to learn to understand why they are they way they are. They may come to you (like PokeMan did), or hold their observations and concerns closer to the vest, feeling more comfortable writing them down in their journal (PonyGirl), or even have convinced themselves that they really aren't that different from their peer group (LEGOManiac). These older kids still have needs beyond the academic, and I forgot about that. Anyhow... lessons learned along the way.

...for a job in Dubai. Unfortunately, I don't think it will come close to paying enough to support our family (as my husband would be jobless) so I had to turn down the opportunity.

Good luck (our week is next week....)

Taking old, worn out clothes to recycle bin. Taking old, good clothes to thrift store Taking bag of shoes to the orphanage Medical office to see if they will sign off on DD's physical form for AIM (daughter is going) Medical office to request records NEX Admin office to see about collection day for son's Eagle Project (son is going) Orphanage (paperwork & drop off) Swimming

Start a FREE NCSA profile. https://www.ncsasports.org/ If you want, you can set up a recruiting information session -- be forewarned, they will way over promise what they can deliver. The costs (IMO are exorbitant). But, many families need/appreciate the assistance. I will PM my daughter's profile page (hopefully that will work for you. Here are a couple of decent articles on the process. https://www.collegesportsscholarships.com/college-cross-country-recruiting.htm https://www.milesplit.com/articles/199585/a-parents-guide-to-the-recruiting-process https://distancerunningrecruiting.com/articles **some of the information on the recruiting process has changed, especially with regard to contact/official visits** Running and swimming have a bit in common, since there are times involved. We started by comparing my children's times to the times of entering freshmen at schools they were entering (for us, collegeswimming.com pooled this information). If that type of system isn't available for you, you could try looking at NCAA results and comparing D1/D2/D3 programs to get some idea as to where he would fit -- look at Conference Championships (D1/D2/D3) He's still got some growing to do, so a lot is still guesswork, I know. Start making your list of schools and ranking them as reach, match, safety (schools he really has to drop a significant amount of time for, schools that he seems on track to be a good fit, schools where he's pretty much a good fit now). You have to do a similar thing academically for each school. Look at the academic aid available, costs (we ran net price calculators on every school in DD's top 25), and visit as many schools as possible. They don't necessarily have to be schools he wants to attend -- but more types of colleges (HUGE D1 program in an urban setting, small liberal arts college in an out of the way setting, etc.) to help him gauge how he feels on certain types of campuses. My daughter quickly realized the *hates* urban schools in Wilkes-Barre, PA (not exactly a booming metropolis), she just doesn't like campuses that are more integrated into a town or city. So, we were able to eliminate schools based upon things like that. She also hated U of AL -- as it was huge but spread out (she loved LU which is also a large campus and a large school, but everything felt more close). Make sure colleges have the areas of interest he's looking for (many schools recruiting my oldest had 3+2 programs for engineering -- and no one could tell us how the scholarships would work, let alone the swimming -- we eventually just gave up on 3-2 programs). For his situation with JUCO, make sure you look into how the admin will handle that (once you get down to 25ish schools through the other things). Once we had our list of 25, DD filled out questionnaires, and emailed coaches a bunch of questions. More than half have emailed back, one has essentially said, "don't bother" (a D2 school that wasn't high on DD's list anyway, but a school that had invited her to apply now for fall 2020, before the official application window even opened). You can learn a lot about the coach and program from an email! We also kept programs on her list because of the coaching. These were schools DD didn't initially seek out, but having a profile at NCSA (even the free one) helps coaches find you. Our next step in this process is to follow up with the schools she hasn't heard back from (with a -- "not sure if you received my email from XXXX date"). We hope to eliminate 10 schools from her final 25 this month. She will also follow up with a few schools with additional questions and clarifications, a few have requested phone calls, and she will set those up for when we return stateside. It's just easier when you aren't 6-9 hours ahead. Hopefully, some of this will help.

Which sport? We're swimming... NCSA has some resources, but to really take advantage of what they have, they require $$$$. If you don't feel comfortable working the process yourself (which honestly, is contacting college coaches, filling out questionnaires online, visiting, attending a camp or two, and following up -- most of which needs to be done by your son), the paid services can be helpful. Just keep in mind, that especially for most men's sports, there isn't a lot of $$ for scholarships -- so the academic/school match (even with girls) should come first.

We've been here almost 6 years. So, there is going to be quite a bit to get used to. We were back for a couple of months in 2017, and things went pretty well, but we were also back in an area I've mostly lived in since 1993... so a lot of familiarity. This will be the first time we've had a major move as a family (other than Italy) for everyone since 2001. Italy has been home, but it's also felt a bit like a vacation. So, this move is stressing me out more than I 'd like. Making matters worse, the changes to the EU internet policies make it very difficult to research a lot, because we're blocked. I can't look up contact information for schools, NOI, a lot of news is blocked... makes it kind of frustrating.

Sometimes, I have time to edit, sometimes I don't...

The only restrictions I've come across (looking at the homeschool & NCAA FB page) have to do with the college, not the NCAA.

You don't have to do the paperwork until you pay for the NCAA account. We started with a free account, because it assigns you an NCAA Clearinghouse number, which all of the recruiting forms ask for. I think you can get a copy of the homeschool toolkit from there -- if you can't, send me a PM and I'll email it to you, just so you can get a feeling for what you will need to do. The forms tend to change (I had to do 3 different ones for my oldest), but these aren't needed until Junior year at the moment. We'll see if they up the due dates based upon changes to the recruiting rules.

The best thing to do is go start the registration process at the NCAA eligibility Center -- start the process. NCAA rules were just changed to allow for contact during sophomore year. There is a bunch of paperwork that needs to be done, and your son needs to start identifying schools/programs he'd like to attend and reaching out to college coaches. You don't need to do the paid option until later, but at least get his number and start looking through the homeschool tool-kit to be prepared.

I am looking through the NCAA site for the exact place it says this... but if he is considered a high school student -- the number of hours earned have no impact on eligibility.

No, Dual Enrollment has no impact on NCAA eligibility. Just provide a transcript, and for any core courses (math, English, social studies/history, or science) he does through DE, you don't have to worry about the Core Course Worksheets.