I don't consider UF to be homeschool friendly. It is the only school that any of my kids applied to that has required FOUR SAT subject tests of homeschoolers. A student can only take up three SAT II tests at a time, which means they must use two testing dates to get these tests done, instead of perhaps retaking the SAT I to improve scores. I'm sorry, but I think that is a bit much. I suspect that many homeschoolers don't even bother applying there because of the extra requirements. There are many top-tier schools that have no such requirement. Of course, if your child does FLVS or dual enrollment, it's not an issue. But then, is that REALLY homeschooling? (Sorry, but I just had to say it)

I noticed that the clothes didn't smell as clean with my front loader. Someone on these boards suggested adding Oxyclean, and I am much more satisfied with the results.

I understand it means nothing when it comes to your comment, Milovany, I just thought I'd throw it out there, since many people lament the fact that America has lost its Christian heritage. The Puritans and Pilgrims were very devout Christians, and even they did not celebrate Christmas.

The Pilgrims, who came to America seeking religious freedom, didn't celebrate Christmas, either.

Every year I seem to detect more and more nasty attitudes coming from Christians concerning this issue. One facebook post depicted a Christmas tree with the caption "This is a Christmas tree, which you see when we celebrate the birth of Christ," followed by a picture of a palm tree with the heading "This is a holiday tree, like you see when on vacation." Then came "Get it? Got it? Good!" I felt that it was downright obnoxious and asked, "But what does a Christmas tree have to do with the birth of Christ?" The person who posted the thing promptly gave me some explanation of the tree symbolizing this and the lights symbolizing that, etc. I'm sorry, but these are man made traditions. They are not biblical. I believe that Christians are partly at fault for this "secularization of Christmas." For decades, we have rushed, glassy-eyed, through the stores along with everybody else, taken our kids to see Santa Claus, and participated in activities that have no biblical basis, and now we are bent out of shape because it has come back to bite us. If Jesus Christ Himself was despised and rejected of men, what makes us think we should fare any better? Perhaps instead of arguing about extra-biblical (and by that, I mean outside of the Bible) traditions, we should celebrate the birth of our Savior by showing the love of Christ to others, no matter how they treat us.

I have been to a Christmas pageant that had sheep, donkeys, and wise men on camels, but lions and tigers? Yikes! :ohmy:

Shirt and tie, dress pants and shoes for Sunday morning; jean and tee shirt or khakis and polo shirt for Sunday evening, which is more casual.

People don't mean to be obnoxious when they say that. They are wistfully remembering those days now that they are over. I had at least one child in diapers for 12 solid years, and the entire decade of the 1990's doesn't exist in my memory. When I was in the midst of raising little ones, people would admonish me to enjoy my children now because when they grew to be teenagers it would be so much more difficult. That irritated me, because I had no intention of having difficult teenagers. Actually, the teen years were enjoyable, and it was a blessing seeing my kids grow up. But now that they are leaving home, I'm beginning to look wistfully at mothers with young children and think, "I hope she enjoys them now, because they grow up so fast!"

Mr. Pine's Mixed Up Signs was the first book I ever read! I was in kindergarten in 1964, and I took the book to school to read to my class. My dad had taught me to read at home when I was 4 years old. I loved that book!

The John Rutter Christmas Album with the Cambridge Singers. Anything by John Rutter is beautiful!

I recently organized my closet and am learning how to bake bread. I made an awesome loaf of sourdough the other day. Thank you for all the inspiration here! I have been struggling a bit this year (my 23rd and last year of homeschooling), wondering what's next. I have many ideas, but I need to get motivated to actually do them!

We drove a used 15 passenger van for a while, before the kids started driving their own cars. There was room for the seven of us, plus the dog, luggage or cargo, or some friends. I liked driving it but, even though it was a diesel, it used too much fuel and repairs were always expensive.

Every year after we get the tree up and decorated, we take the whole crew to Macy's or Pier One and let them each choose an ornament. We have done this ever since the oldest was a baby (of course, I did the choosing then). The idea is that when the kids grow up and move out, they will have a nice collection of their own. I must say that we have a very interesting tree. Probably the strangest ornament is the one my son chose when he was about 4 years old and wanted to be an "army guy" when he grew up. He wanted a tank to hang on the tree, so we got a little matchbox tank and attached a hanger. In very tiny print, the thing says, "Eve of Destruction." A bit odd for a Christmas tree, but he still likes it. He's now a midshipman at the Naval Academy.

One of my friends is a folk-singer/songwriter. Every year she sends a card with the past year's news written in poetry. One of my nephews has a daughter (now a journalism major) who is a gifted writer. When she got to about seventh grade, she began writing the family newsletters. It was a great homeschool assignment and fun for us to read.

I'm so sorry about your husband. Life can be extremely difficult and unfair. I know what it's like to be a caretaker for someone and not be able to leave them for any length of time. I took care of my father-in-law with ALS for the last years of his life. I know about lifting someone who weighs more than myself, changing adult diapers, and feeding and dressing a grown man who is totally helpless. I also know about financial struggles. I know what it's like to be on food stamps, to have the electricity turned off because we couldn't pay the bill, to drive vehicles with 250,000 miles on them, and never to go an a family vacation. My kids were born and raised in Florida and never went to Disney World. There are no guarantees in life. Sometimes things don't work out. Other times we happen to be in the right place at the right time. But I do know that America has been a blessing to many, many people who came here with nothing and, because of the freedom we enjoy and the opportunities they were given, were able to make something of themselves. I will not apologize for America.

I never said that wealth = success. But I would venture to say that the person who spends his time drinking, gambling, watching reality television, and eating nothing but junk food, without attempting to make himself a better person, is not successful. Again, the point of the blog post is to show us things that we could improve in our lives. Many people just go about their days without examining what they are doing or why they are doing it. We can sit around with our bag of chips, drown our sorrows in alcohol, and make excuses, or we can try to actually do something about our situation. Obviously, the homeless man living under a bridge is simply focused on survival, but that is not who is reading the blog. In America, it is possible to change one's situation in life. I have seen it happen many times.

I think there is a big difference between assigned projects and student-led projects. When we noticed that our children seemed especially interested in something, we tried to think of ways they could really explore that subject in-depth. It wasn't a "Here's what you are going to do" kind of thing, It was more like "Maybe we could do this or this." An interest in birds, for example, turned into a life-long love of bird-watching, hand-raising baby lovebirds, and keeping a flock of racing pigeons (which included designing and building a loft -- a good chance to use math/geometry skills). An obsession with King Arthur turned into an opportunity to learn fencing with a former Olympic coach and travel to national tournaments. I could go on and on with examples of projects we did over the years. Yes, a person can learn by reading books and doing worksheets, but homeschooling allows us to do so much more!

First of all, Dave Ramsey didn't write this; it was something he posted from another blog. Second, if 80% of a group does something, that means that 20% does not. Nobody said, "All rich people do such-and-such." The point of the thing is just to cause us to examine our habits. If we want to be successful in life, maybe we should consider trying to improve ourselves by setting goals, educating ourselves, and eating right, rather than filling our time with mindless television and our stomachs with empty calories.

It is easy to get bogged down in the traditional schooling mentality during the high school years. After all, we will need transcripts and such when it comes time to apply to college. But homeschooling enables us to be so much more creative. It allows our students time to pursue their passions in a way that typical schooling does not. Our oldest was able to spend one day each week working at an animal hospital to explore her interest in veterinary medicine. Our second chose to dual enroll his last two years (although, to me, it just seemed like sending him off to school). Ultimately, for him, I believe this was a mistake, but that's another story. He was also a fencer and was able to compete in several national championships. Another child enjoyed writing and art, and she was able to get seriously engaged in those areas. My fourth was heavily involved in Boy Scouts and Sea Cadets. We found ways to incorporate his interests with his school work (working on merit badges can kill two birds with one stone). He had a resume a mile long by his senior year and was told by both senators' committees and our congressman's committee at his service academy interviews that his was one of the most impressive applications they had ever seen. My fifth, like my second, is a techie. The two of them have built computers together, and the older taught the younger computer languages and programming. Socialization took place at church, ballet, scouts, Sea Cadets, fencing, art classes, etc. And senior projects, as described in TWTM, really give homeschooled students an excellent chance to specialize in an area of interest. Of course, there's no reason why those have to be reserved for senior year. Why not do research or a special project every year, making the requirements more challenging each time? This gives the student a chance to really become an expert in some area of interest.

DH told me a few years ago that nobody wears wrist watches any more. So when mine died, I tried to get by without one. I was constantly pulling out my cell phone for no reason other than to check the time. After about a year of that, I decided that it would be so clever to just have the time attached to my arm, so DH bought me a nice watch. I am much happier now.

Just a heads-up for homeschooling parents: USNA requests course descriptions with the transcript. I spent a very intense summer before DS's senior year coming up with four years of course descriptions. I never needed to do that for my other kids when they applied to college. It might be wise to begin getting that together during junior year. I have seen quite a few public schooled kids try to get into service academies their senior year, having already missed deadlines for Congressional nominations. Many of these deadlines are in September or October and require several essays, in addition to certain minimum SAT/ACT scores. If an applicant doesn't take these tests during junior year, it may be too late for those nominations. A better plan is to take the SAT/ACT in junior year (multiple times, if necessary), apply for the appropriate summer seminar as soon as the applications open, spend the summer completing the academy application process, as well as getting the applications in for nominations. Then during senior year, you can focus on your "plan B" applications, nomination interviews, and taking additional tests - I believe the academies will accept scores from tests taken through December. In DS's case, this turned out to be an excellent course of action. He was the principal nominee for our congressional district and received his appointment in early December - best Christmas present ever!

Good luck to your son on his interviews!

Ironic...I guess it's a good thing she "submitted" to her husband!

Woohoo! Congratulations!

I'm so sorry. :grouphug: Prayers for the family.