Yes, thank you to all who took the time to write. Wow, what a lot of great information! My 15-year-old son just recently decided he might like to attend USAFA or do ROTC ... what's so cool is that it has given him a framework and motivation for high-school academics and extracurriculars. He has just joined CAP and is very excited about it. (A week ago I wouldn't have had a clue what "Billy Mitchell" means :001_smile:) What's so exciting to me is that he has his own reasons now (it isn't just Mom saying he might want to do tutoring, go out for track, etc.; he's heard recruiters talk about what they are looking for!). Also, I love the balance the academies and military stress -- good academics, yes, but also fitness, leadership, social skills, etc. ~Laura

I would recommend an iPhone! Everyone in my family loves our iPod touches and our iPad. Unless you're very good technically, an iPhone would probably be easier to use (I've never used an Android phone, though.)

Kareni, this may be it: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=224462

Cynthia, I've enjoyed our chats :001_smile: Please stick around! I've benefited tremendously from posts by people whose children have made the transition from home school to brick-and-mortar school. Yes, I was recently "fired," too -- my older son is now in public school for 10th grade (after doing 3rd-9th at home). It came out of the blue (although I knew he was restless at home and wanted a "broader canvas"). (My younger son is happy at home, for now!) I *did* feel hurt at being "fired" -- could I have done more to make homeschooling a better match for him? -- but in my better moments I see that he is "launched" -- that in homeschooling, like parenting, we should be working ourselves out of a job ... and he is like a kid in a candy store, taking part in high-school orchestra, music honor society, debate club, science club, math club, engineering club, military club, Harry Potter club, etc. He's even enjoying PE and may go out for track! (We've done many similar activities as homeschoolers, but it requires so much driving and coordination. At high school they are all conveniently under one roof :001_smile:) The words from that poem by Khalil Gibran keep going through my mind ... Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, And though they are with you yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts, For they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday. You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth. The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far. Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness; For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable. It helps me to let go, even though it's hard. As someone pointed out above, at least he's still living at home. I think this will help me "let go" when he goes to college ... I also try to remember how *I* felt at 16, applying to colleges and eager to see the world ... ~Laura

:iagree: My husband and I would like our kids to go to the "best" university they are suited for, and that we can afford. I firmly believe they would do fine at a local Cal State university, if they end up there, but with over half of the students at Cal State univs taking remedial courses, the bright, hard-working kids are often anomalies and it must be rather lonely for them. I have degrees from two of what's now sometimes called the "HYPMS" schools (Harvard-Yale-Princeton-MIT-Stanford), and I have to say, the students there were/are amazing. As Laura says above, it was very stimulating, and I'm sure I worked to a higher standard. The professors were, similarly, for the most part incredibly nice, generous people doing incredible thinking. My husband did his undergraduate work at Arizona State, and when he applied to the top physics graduate schools (at the time, UC Berkeley, Princeton, MIT, etc.), he had NO idea what his chances were or how hard he'd have to work once admitted, since he'd been the "star" at ASU without breaking a sweat ... he doesn't want that for our kids. Yes, he graduated without debt, but I also had very little debt -- the private schools in HYPMS I attended cost me *less* than the UC I applied to would have (very generous merit/need-based aid). I've spent some time at a Cal State and at one of the "lesser" UCs, and I was frankly appalled at the level of student and at what poor grammar was allowed on essays, etc. Echoing Laura Corin above, I've been in a department that is top-5 in the US, and one that is top-20, and the difference in energy and quality was marked -- in student quality, research quality, number and quality of guest speakers, etc. A word about "prestige" -- yes, on days when I'm feeling like a frumpy housewife, it does help my self-esteem to think that I did, long ago, get an Ivy degree :001_smile: BUT ... I am encouraging my sons to consider some of the lesser-known LACs, Christian univs, state schools, overseas univs, etc. I hope they will apply to a wide variety of schools, and then choose the one they feel is the best fit -- and that won't break the bank. ~Laura

:iagree: but i enjoyed the Robert Downey film, and will check out the new ones -- they sound fun!

Thought this might be of interest to some people here. Apologies if it's already been posted here. Article in today's New York Times. ~Laura

LOL! "My" iPad (which I'm using to do this post) was my bday present to dh :lol: well, he's not home right now :001_smile:

Had to increase the text size so I could read it (easy finger pinch on my iPad :001_smile:), but my son takes issue with their points. We've had Macs since the 1980s (Mac Plus!!!). Had to get a Dell so my computer-programming son could run Windows-only programs. It's an infuriating nightmare. My sons call it the "dinky Dell" (at least when I'm around; who knows how they insult it when I'm out of earshot :D).

Yay! :001_smile: If a child seems to "get" math and enjoy it, I see no problem with feeding him material that intrigues him. I'm chiming in late here & haven't read all the posts (6 pages -- wow!), but I have three scenarios that may be of interest. My 13yo son is doing AP Calc BC and enjoying it tremendously, and making 98s and 100s. I've read the "Rush to Calculus" article and he *has* done AoPS detours ... he just "gets" math. Working backward, I guess this means he started algebra at age 9. If anything, I've held him back. My 15yo son started 10th grade at ps this fall, and was surprised to find so many kids his grade in his precalculus class (at least 40 or 50 overall). This must mean they did algebra in 7th grade, to reach precalc by 10th. Back when I was in junior high, only 25 of us did algebra in 8th grade -- this was considered very advanced! So apparently doing pre-algebra in 6th is quite common here. My dad attended high school (elite boys' school) in Korea. All the boys, even those intending to study law, foreign language, etc. in university, studied calculus in 9th grade and differential equations in 10th. I don't know if this is still the case, but I wouldn't be surprised. Of course this is selective secondary education. ~Laura

Same here -- I signed my 12yo 8th-grader up for an SAT subject test last year. I had to write to the College Board to have them keep his score on file (if a kid is pre-high school they "flush" the scores the summer after that academic year). I don't know what happens to AP scores after four years; from what regentrude says it sounds like a hassle. There was a thread on pre-high-school kids & AP tests here recently -- maybe 3-4 weeks ago; that might be helpful. (BTW my now-13-yo ds will be taking the AP Java test this May also -- it just worked out that way. The high-school-level Java class turned out to be at 6:45 a.m. (!), and we found a great AP class.) Best wishes to your son -- also with gymnastics. (Yes, it's funny when we get what we ask for :001_smile: I used to say I wished my boys would develop separate interests ... now logistics are challenging, with one doing a 70-mile bike race the same day the other is doing a math competition an hour away :glare:) ~Laura

Lynne, I love those photos! :lol: Thanks for a laugh! ... and yes, I have two boys also ... and I've asked them to pose next to pretty flowers, too ... sigh ... BUT, they're good boys and they always cheer me up :001_smile: ~Laura

Funny you mention dance, Violet ... that's one of the things I was thinking about when I mentioned "meaningful activities". We know homeschooled girls who love, love, love ballet and as a consequence they've missed enrichment classes at Stanford Splash, literature classes, overseas trips, etc. And these are girls who have no realistic future in dance, either in a company or running a studio -- they just love to dance, and don't want to miss a single class or rehearsal. From my perspective, they're not looking at the big picture. That being said, my older son has an amazing offer from an older man at church to hang out with him at the airport and learn basically everything about planes and flying from him ... he's there every single day except Sundays. My son would love to do this, and yet his passions -- music (he's in five orchestras) and cycling -- have so far prevented him from taking this man up on his offer. I think it's a shame ... it seems like one of those unexpected "rabbit trails" that in some of Cal Newport's stories turn out to be life changing. And yet, for my son, and also with respect to your daughter's spending 15-20 hours a week doing dance, their current activities fit in perfectly with what is written in Outliers and Count Down (a book about the students at the International Math Olympiad) -- that you need to spend 10,000 hours doing something to achieve mastery. I think that works out to about 20 hours a week for 10 years. I don't know how to reconcile the things my son absolutely lives to do (playing music and cycling) with things he's very interested in and intrigued by (airplanes). The teen years are, or should be, a wonderful time to sample all that the world has to offer. Some anecdotes ... my best friend's husband grew up on a farm in the hot, dusty Central Valley of California. When he was a teenager the TV broke and his dad never fixed it. Only then did my friend's husband start drawing -- and now he's a professional artist ... Another friend of mine grew up in rural Alabama, and was selected for an academic enrichment trip to England at age 13. She fell in love with the castles, abbeys, history, etc., later studied medieval literature at Princeton, and is now an English professor. I often wonder what these folks would be doing now if they hadn't had these formative experiences :confused: I'd like to ensure my boys have time for rabbit trails ... and yet we strive for academic excellence; that takes time ... and both my boys already have passions (my other son lives for computers and math; the biggest events in his life last week were watching Steve Jobs's keynote speech, and participating in a meeting of the homeschool MathCounts team he's helping coach; he was ecstatic at both). We don't seem to have time for much more ... I'd also appreciate any wisdom from folks who've figured this out!!! ~Laura

Interesting (from Princeton's site): Is it possible to transfer to Princeton from another college or university? No. At this time, Princeton is not able to offer transfer admission. Any student who has graduated from secondary school and enrolled as a full-time degree candidate at another college or university is considered a transfer applicant and isn't eligible for undergraduate admission. Also interesting, just below that question: Does Princeton consider applicants who have been home schooled? Yes. We receive and consider applications from home schooled students every year. In fact, the valedictorian of the Princeton Class of ’02 was home schooled before entering Princeton. Review our tips for home schooled students.

I loved it. Thanks for posting. I often re-read this similar NYT piece: "Young, Gifted, and Not Getting into Harvard" (I may have heard of it here!). It too inspires me to "let go" :001_smile: ~Laura

Interesting ... the reverse doesn't seem to be true, at least (*cough*) 25 years ago when I was at Stanford. You could "stop out" anytime (take a leave of absence) & come back when you felt like it. A number of students "stopped out" and did a semester or two at their home-state university to save $$. A good friend of mine did fall semester of sophomore year at the Univ of Alaska (her home state), then came back to Stanford for winter & spring quarters. A boy in my dorm did his entire sophomore year at his state univ (Washington state, I think). The credits must have transferred, b/c the whole point was to save $$$ by going to a cheaper school for part of the four years ... ~Laura

Hi, Kareni! I'm still in the middle of this book, but he makes a lot of good points and I recommend it also. The most useful one for me so far is that students should carve out free time in their schedule; only then are they in a position to take advantage of serendipitous opportunities. I see this with kids we know -- the ones who are overscheduled, even with meaningful activities they enjoy, don't have time to pursue interesting rabbit trails -- one of the fun things about being a teenager, especially a homeschooled one! He gives good advice about studying more efficiently, too. ~Laura

My son told me he just wants me to be his mother ... I want that too! I love my new role, supporting him as he makes his own decisions. (BTW I still have one at home. A very interesting situation, but it's the best for each child right now.) Anyway, just wanted to encourage you. My son (15) asked to go to ps for 10th grade, and he started two months ago. He loves it. He's made some new friends (really nice kids); we've both been pleasantly surprised by how nice & normal most of the kids are, and how dedicated the teachers are. My son has surprised me by taking full advantage of many of the opportunities at the high school, all under one roof -- orchestra; music honor society; math club; science club; engineering club; Christian club; debate club ... this last one (debate) I *never* would have imagined. A year ago he was stressed about giving *one* speech to our little homeschool group. In fact, I'm sure that if it had been *my* idea for him to do homeschool debate this year, he would have resisted. Somehow seeing his peers doing all this fun stuff has motivated him to try these things. I almost fell off my chair when he told me he had participated in a debate in front of an audience and that he'd loved it :lol: Another unexpected advantage is that he & his little brother no longer bicker. In fact, they're eager to see each other now. Plus they actually have stuff to talk about :001_smile: So, it's not what I envisioned, but it's exactly right for this son. He had also said he wanted to challenge himself and see how he did in a big, noisy school (2000 kids) -- that it would be good practice for college. ~Laura ETA: I forgot to thank Angela for posting. I came here to encourage the OP, Karin, and ended up greatly encouraged myself by what Angela took the time to write. Thank you!!!

The joke around here is that the entrance requirements for our CC are that you have to be "18 and breathing." California's 112 CCs serve an amazingly diverse population. Until fairly recently they were free (now they're still cheap - $26/credit full price). With such a huge range of abilities in the classes, the level of instruction has to be compromised. The director of admissions at Caltech told me they don't consider CC classes to be the level of a good honors or AP high-school class -- specifically, that the oft-quoted formula of a semester of CC being equal to a year of high school was NOT true, in his opinion. He definitely recommended AP physics over a CC class. (Also, Caltech allows NO credit from any source; all freshmen start with zero credits. It may be possible to test into higher levels, however.) Interesting thread! I think it all comes down to what works for your kid and what philosophy you agree with ... we have so much choice in this country (unlike in countries that have taxpayer-funded tertiary education for those who make the cut -- sometimes decided in 5th grade ... but that's another story ...). There are so many different ways to get a quality education in the USA. If you don't like a college's policy, vote with your feet! This came up recently in a yahoo group I'm in -- the poster's daughter had something like 9 APs by junior year and USC still wanted SAT IIs, just because she's homeschooled. The mother politely but pointedly informed USC that her daughter would not be applying there. ~Laura

I don't know about actually reading the book ... but my boys were 7 and 9 when we listened to it on tape, read by Martin Jarvis. He does a wonderful rendition; we still laugh about the voices he gave Mr Jaggers, the Aged Parent, etc. I would think your son would enjoy it. I read that Bret Harte devoured Dickens as a young boy (and later wrote very funny, affectionate parodies of Dickens, Jane Eyre, etc.). ~Laura

My kids have taken online classes and it was very disconcerting mid-term to see such a low "final" grade from so many good marks ... I looked at the grade list and it was taking into account the zeros listed for upcoming assignments. I was flabbergasted -- pretty unsophisticated software :glare: Heck, *I* could have written a program that took into account only completed assignments ... The only explanation I can think of is that it's easier for the teacher to replace zeros with an actual grade, and it handles missing and late assignments better ... ?? If it's any consolation, the opposite method can also be a bit dismaying ... My older son asked to return to ps for 10th grade, and the school sends an email every day (!) with his current grade in each class ... His "grades" have steadily dropped from all 100s to more normal 95s, 91s, 89 ... ~Laura

My son and some of his homeschooling friends use Errands to keep track of their assignments. It's a free app (I'm pretty sure it's free) from the iTunes app store. It allows you to create different assignments and set due date & priority for each, and there's a list-view and a calendar-view. He really likes it, and it allows him to track stuff without me being involved :001_smile: Here is some info about Errands, including some screen shots of the list-view, calendar-view, etc. It also says: Please note that Errands requires OS 3.0 or above. Some features (e.g., Alerts and Multitasking) require iOS 4. It runs on any iPhone or iPod Touch device. ~Laura P.S. I rely on my iPod Touch for scheduling, but I just use the built-in calendar. It's so handy for making appointments when I'm at the doctor's ... no more making an appointment, coming home to look at the paper calendar (which I still use, at home) and finding a conflict, calling the office back, etc. :D

I'll be interested to see how it goes. Our situation is a bit different because my older son (10th grade) decided to go to ps this year, after 7 full years at home, and it's quite possible he'll take the test in the room where his English class meets. My younger son (9th grade), who's still homeschooling, will benefit from getting used to the testing environment before it counts in 11th grade. Also, I called today to check what time they're supposed to be there, and I ended up volunteering to help check the kids in at 7:45 ... when I went to pay, a few weeks ago, the woman running it (the career center lady) recognized me from the ps my kids attended 8 years ago. (It's a small town :001_smile: ... and even if my older son hadn't started attending this school a few months ago, he would have recognized a lot of the kids from church, youth orchestra, etc.) The school as a whole isn't very homeschool-friendly, but I've had nothing but graciousness from individual staff members. So I'm not anticipating any problems -- we'll see! ~Laura

Well, we can't have too many threads about science :001_smile: The only reason I noticed is that I had printed out the earlier thread and was looking through it today! It's nice to get more updates, a few more weeks into the year! It's a bit overwhelming, sometimes, trying to choose ... but it's great we have so many options. ~Laura

Hi, Kathy! I was actually going to pm you today :001_smile: but I saw this thread and had to post, since I'm fine-tuning our chem & thinking ahead to physics. (And this way everyone can benefit from your advice!) I feel good about next year now, thanks to everyone's advice. And I don't feel so bad about not doing any physics yet. I didn't realize until recently that AP Physics B is *not* calculus-based, so it sounds like it will make a good first high-school physics course. What would I do without the great advice from people on these boards?! ~Laura