I feel the same way. I am getting close to giving Ds an ultimatum about getting his license!

I want to go on his class trip!

I am still figuring things out! I either have on hand or purchased all the curriculum I need (unless I change my mind), though I have not entirely finalized my plans. English 1 combination of Windows to the World, The Elegant Essay, Novels, Grammar, and whatever else I decide to throw in! This is an easy subject for me to teach. Still working on a flexible book list. BJU French 1 BJU Geography or TOG Ancients Algebra 1 w/ Jann in Tx, using Lial's (This is going to accomplish my goal of getting her doing her math for someone else and learning to do careful precise work while I can still easily help out. I can help her in Algebra 2 as well--but not so easily. I hope to get her working for someone else so I can outsource Algebra 2 b/c I don't enjoy teaching it!) Apologia Physical Science (I think. B/c she has not had a lot of science and I need something that will be get-it-done. Looking at it again today.) ***************************************************************** Still to decide about and up for consideration: Phys Ed -​would like to get her back to figure skating and horseback riding, but money and time are issues, so I have to figure out other options. Piano with private instructor and possible performances, still sorting this out. Canine Genetics and Reproduction, since she is breeding her dog this spring. Art - b/c she has some skill and I would like to encourage her Public Speaking - I want this done either this year or next and she has several speaking opportunities she needs to prepare for. I need to decide if I want to do something formal this year or not. Music History - I have been wanting to get to for several years and I also want it done early in high school Extracurriculars: ​Piano may count here, have not decided yet She works at a dog boarding kennel, grooming and cleaning up She shows several dogs in agility and showmanship which involves some traveling 4H Vice President

No classes yet. Ds is on his 2nd day of orientation. Yesterday was the honors college orientation and he had a great time. He met some kids he likes and enjoyed the trip into the city and won a $15 gift card to the college convenience store. Today I had to drop him off at the train station very early (6:15am) so he could be at the general orientation at 7am. At 8:15am I got a message that he was thoroughly disgusted with the college programming. Apparently they had a DJ and loud music and lights! Ugh! At 8am? I told him he probably isn't the only one annoyed by it. He thought they were trying to appeal to the average college kid and didn't like their idea of what that meant. He messaged me again, and once the motivational speaker got started things got better and he is enjoying the speakers. He loves public speaking, so I am sure ehe is evaluating their speeches! We are still in the process of getting books and he starts next week! Eek! And he has to double check one class that does not have textbooks listed. He's had to straighten out some glitches with financial aid and scheduling, but it seems like it's going pretty well so far.

Popping back into this thread to clarify a little. I would never give the original fb poster advice about how to homeschool and that is NOT what I did. My post (on fb) was intended to correct her information that homeschooling with k12 is FREE for everyone. I posted for the benefit of anyone reading who many consider homeschooling and in some ways for the benefit of the OP in case k12 ever does not work out for her in the future. She will know there are other ways (even though I did not make any comments about those other methods). I did not make any comments about the effectiveness or restrictive nature of K12. I have no desire to justify my own educational choices. I think K12 is working for them, and I think her Dd is self motivated. I will find out more about them b/c we will be meeting at an event in the future, even though they live across the country. I wanted to scream b/c it is frustrating when someone does not seem to want to know the facts. It doesn't matter, I posted how the funding for K12 works and why it isn't free for everyone---and so did another acquaintance who also stated she is spending a lot on curriculum and classes, so I wasn't the only one. It's out there for people to see, and that was my goal.

an acquaintance is posting on Facebook for all the world to read how she does not understand why anyone would send their child to school when homeschooling is 100% FREE! Her Dd is enrolled in their state virtual school through k12. Their books and supplies arrived today, I guess. I am dumb. I tried to explain how k12 works. She asked me if maybe there just aren't enough kids in my area. Again, I tried to explain, b/c, again, I do not seem to learn my lesson and I keep trying to educate people. Apparently this person does not understand that there is a whole world full of homeschoolers doing their own thing. ETA: It is bothering me b/c of all the money I've spent, and b/c I constantly have people assuming I am told by the state what to do and handed all the books.

Ds did have a clear favorite, but he was so aware of finances that he kept an open mind. I told him he was exploring options and to be sure he had a variety of colleges to choose from. He didn't want small, so we visited large and medium sized, expensive liberal arts colleges and state schools and one large university (he really didn't like). He was content to apply and see what happened. He had very large scholarships to his 2 favorites and both would have been extremely affordable (beyond most parents wildest dreams affordable). One would have been living away form home, and the other commuting. There was one he loved from the start that he just decided was unrealistic b/c of the cost of living away from home, though we had a relative he could have stayed with. I gave him some of my thoughts once the offers rolled in, but it was his decision. In the end, he choose the state school he never thought he would go to b/c they gave him enough scholarships to cover all of his tuition, plus, after visiting he really liked the honors college. So, yes, it changed and I am glad he had options.

I was interested in reading this, but the link does not work. Anyone have a current link?

Can you please tell me if you found the audio cds to be a necessary component? I need to cut costs this year, but I want Dd to be successful in learning French. I am wondering if there are other ways online to hear the pronunciations so that I can save the $115 plus I would need to spend on CDs.

I have not had a child successfully take AP French or pass the exam. That is my disclaimer. However, I do have Dd who wants French to be her language throughout high school. Our finances are a mess and I cannot provide her with the online classes Ds had. So, this is what I have decided. Potter's School uses BJU French for French 1 and 2 classes. Furthermore, they split BJU French 2 into 2 years. You can see their scope and sequence on the website. For this year I am having her proceed through BJU French 1 with my guidance. If I am able to afford French 2 with Potter's School next year then I will sign her up and she will study for the placement test and hopefully pass it. If money is still a problem, I will have her work on Chapters 1-9 of the BJU French 2 curriculum. I'll decide about year 3 at a later date and this plan will keep Potter's school open as an option for future classes.

Quite a few books, legos, a couple of American girl dolls, 2 Madame Alexander 'pussycat' dolls Dd named Maria and Martha and tried to take with her everywhere. Also quite a few stuffed animals. A dinosaur collection and quite a few horse and animal figures. We will be going through a lot of these again this summer.

Wow! So this really does happen. I am so naive!

You are correct--the person who contracted me is not the parent. She is simply a professional who will be present at the competition. She has helped both the young girl and my own Dd in the past. It is unethical what she asked. I have not known her do do anything like this, but I don't know her very well. I am not going to do anything further about it unless I see some sort of pattern. I am fairly certain the girl and her parents have nothing to do with it. The woman who messaged me does not have children and I believe this was a one time error in judgement based on her feelings for this little girl. I would not want to ruin her reputation b/c of it.

Yes. There are some similar competitions that would be less competitive. My dd did some of them a couple of years ago. If I could still fit those in I'd be happier. I like a less competitive atmosphere. I thought about suggesting them, but I want to just stay away from the situation right now. I am afraid it will not come off well.

Unfortunately Dd heard me discussing how to handle it. I had to see if I could find out if this was just the adult wanting to protect the girl and not shatter her hopes, or if the family of the girl was involved, b/c we were just going to do something else that weekend if it was a pervasive attitude shared by the competitors in that area. I was not going to spend my weekend with a bunch of crazy people who would be angry at my Dd. I have talked with Dd about it and I am hopeful that she will not hold it against the girl. But I am wondering how on earth this adult can expect that the 2 girls will be friendly now. I am very disappointed in this person since I have thought very well of her in the past. I am trying to think that her own feelings for the young girl clouded her judgement. Imo, she let an opportunity to teach a very important lesson go by. My Dd has gone into some competitions like this, feeling she would not win b/c of who else is entered. We talked about it, about finding some good in the situation, about being gracious and courteous to the other competitors, about being friendly. About how your worth is not b/c of winning. These are really important things. I hope they were addressed.

I thought about that too, but she did not share anything with me. I can't decide when Dd will compete based on which child is going through the worst stuff though. I was as kind as I could be, but I think it is a weird thing to do to ask that of someone.

Nope, Dd is competing at her appropriate level. She is trying to qualify for the next level. The younger girl wants to be the winner of the entire competition when all the winners from their individual sections have to compete against each other. The woman who contacted me wants there to be no entry in the older kid category so that the younger girl will become the champion of the entire event by default. ETA: I guess she is banking on no other kids my Dd's age entering. We are not from that area, so I had no idea who might enter. I just assumed the kids would enter and the best kid would win. And if I did make Dd sit out, then some other kid her age could just enter and win the whole thing. And that could happen anyway and my Dd would lose too--and she would have to deal with it and learn to be happy with whatever positive things she did accomplish that day.

It makes total sense to give people a drink before they shop. I probably wouldn't be so upset about breaking the budget if I had a drink first.

Okay, good. I am not crazy. It is really weird that I needed someone else to tell me that.

I am keeping this a little vague to protect all involved. I got a message asking me to keep Dd out of a competition so that a young girl just starting out will have a win. Apparently the girl heard we were traveling to this competition with friends and she got upset b/c my Dd is more experienced and has had a lot of success in the past year (and a lot of failures too). The person who asked me did it b/c she 'just feels so bad for the poor girl' and she saw how the girl's face just dropped when she heard my Dd was going. I have no idea who else might enter and wins are certainly not guaranteed. I politely said no after I said I would consider it. (Which I should not have done.) The young girl who is feeling so threatened is 4 years younger than my Dd and just starting out. I am annoyed by the thoughtlessness of the person who asked me. My own Dd had many many failures when she was just starting and she has had to work very hard to get to where she is today. Wins at this competition (which is 2 days) would help my Dd move on to a higher level--which she is trying to achieve. We are sacrificing a lot to help her work toward that level. The younger girl is nowhere near that level and not that serious. A win (should she get one) will not help her in any way. When I pointed that out, the woman responded that the girl doesn't care about the win counting for anything, she just wants to be able to say she won at the event. I struggled for over an hour about how to answer this request in a way that wouldn't offend. I made some phone calls to determine if we were just really ticking people off by traveling out of our area. I am just flabbergasted by the whole thing. I felt very bad for my Dd when she had to deal with some difficult failures, but I never asked a competitor to stay out of a competition so she could win. Has anyone ever encountered anything like this?

I will add that my Dc and I witnessed Dh lose his job of 25+ years. Dh's experiences in the current job market has affected the way I approach education with my teenagers. I see that knowing how to interact with people, learning how to push yourself out of your comfort zone, and learning to take advantage of opportunities are going to be important skills for them in the future. That has colored my thinking a little. Competition is a fact of life in our area, and knowing how to handle it is something kids need to learn. And I mean, learning to be happy with their own level of achievement-- not necessarily learning how to be the person on top! Dc became quite passionate about their activities once they realized they would have to give them up or pay for them themselves. They have both found ways to pay for them--and their desire to achieve and their willingness to work towards achieving became greater once they were using their own money to fund extracurriculars. Still, I think it was a good thing we could afford to pay in the beginning b/c they would not have realized that some money has to be wasted on failing in the beginning in order to succeed later, and they may have wanted to give up too soon. Hopefully I am making sense here. This is a very complicated issue, and our family has learned an awful lot through competitive activities. It's hard to put it all in words. That's our experience, fwiw.

Yes. We found that the top 2 choices for Ds both stack outside scholarships. In one case it is going to result in a substantial credit to his account (even after books), which we have been told will be refunded to him. I am hoping that was not the deciding factor in his choice! One of the scholarships is only good for a year, the other is 2 years. Every little bit helps.

:hurray: Just feel the need to applaud this statement. I have long held the same beliefs. More people need to think through the implications of getting everything as cheaply as possible, where that leads, and the far reaching implications of such a mindset.

Ds made a decision on Friday, but I am giving it another day or so to be sure. He had it down to 2 schools already. I thought we would be down to the wire. This is still cutting it close for me!

My cat dogs plants, indoor in the winter, garden in the summer An occasional lunch out An occasional movie night at a theater (2-3 times year probably, b/c I don't often like current movies) good quality black tea books, of course fresh vegetables and fruit, good cheese