While I think Mines is a terrific STEM school, I wouldn't call it strong in humanities. More like "we gotta make the engineers do a bit of this other stuff" humanities. IMO, it does qualify for very selective (40% admitted), not a party school, and strong in STEM.

We used HaoH in 8th and 9th grade for European and American History. Here is my review (note this is 6+ years old and some things have improved): A little background on our history studies thus far: We used SOTW in 2nd-5th grades and loved it. We used History Odyssey in 6th-7th grade and tolerated it. In my search for a secular history program that that would not bore ds to death (as I had been bored to death by history all my school years), I found History at our House. History at our House website is http://www.historyatourhouse.com. The website is difficult to navigate. Scott Powell teaches history via conference call 4 days/wk, with 1 day devoted to history through art, to students from 2nd grade through high school. He teaches in a 3 year rotation: Ancient History, European History, and American History. We participated in European History in the 2009-2010 school year and American History in the 2010-2011 school year. 4x per week live participation is available for $75/mo. 1x per week live participation is available for $35/mo. No live participation (all recordings) is available for $20/mo. My son is in the junior high class. He participates live 1x per week. Pros: Passionate, knowledgeable (actually brilliant) teacher Teacher answers all questions easily History through art is outstanding Ancillary items (maps, family trees, timelines, pictures) History is being logically presented Thorough tests (administered and graded by parent with provided grading key) Occasional homework assignments (knowledge web, historical dates, written narrations, facts practice, timeline) Class notes are nice summary, but arrive late in the week Lots of review (due to drawbacks of audio only and no text), but this also insures that students retain more of the information presented Respectful of different faiths Monthly payments (as opposed to payment in full in spring for fall start) Cons: Audio only. Students don’t know how to spell unfamiliar names/places (ex. Godfrey de Bouillon). IMO, this makes it difficult to retain information because it’s difficult to remember material that has been presented. No text or reference material with a table of contents or index. IMO, this makes it difficult to retain information because it is difficult to reference material that has been presented. Class relies heavily on memorization due to no reference materials. Little assistance with supplemental literature Regular parent and/or student maintenance needed since many ancillary maps, pictures, timelines, etc. are not available until shortly before class time. Even class syllabus is not available until first day of class. Mapwork seems totally unrelated to lectures Home printer gets a workout Free technology challenges (speed dialing in the midst of a call, static on the line, noisy surroundings) Both Pro and Con: Because there is no text and there is a lot of review, the pace of the class is slow. The scope and sequence is a fraction of what a typical history class would cover, imo. OTOH, what the students learn, they retain well because they have repeated it so many times. Having completed Story of the World, I am saddened to realize that my son will not be exposed again to the Crystal Palace, the Opium Wars, samurais, and more. Overall, I appreciate Scott Powell’s engaging presentation of history. If I could change one thing about the class, I would use WebEx technology in order to have a whiteboard and in order to have the teacher and all the students able to look at a piece of art, a map, a hierarchy, a timeline, or another image all at the same time. It would be more professional, would engage my student better, and would help my student to retain more quickly the information that is being presented. At the same time, I asked my son to rank all his curriculum on a scale of 1-10 at the end of the year. HaoH received a 10. High praise, indeed, from a sullen teen. Haphazard administration during the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 years: Started 2009-2010 with oral narrations. Had to abandon them eventually because the class got so far behind. Both years, class got far behind and had to skip/skim over several topics in order to catch up. End of the year leaves a plethora of work to finish. Information/Registration at end of July for September start. Most online providers provide information/registration in February or March. Syllabus not provided until first day of class both years. During the 2010-2011 school year, Scott had very poor health. He said his poor health was in part due to taking on too much work, so he decided that in 2011-2012, he would provide live classes for only Upper Elementary and High School. At the end of July, however, he decided to provide all levels. This makes me wonder if/how his health will suffer due to overworking again. He is expanding offerings with music and science, but has not organized history so well yet. Scott decided to move to Asia in the summer of 2011. After doing so, he decided he could not find a country that was good enough to live in, so he moved back to the US. Makes me wonder if his haphazard administration is a reflection of his haphazard nature. Scott started an “Honors†History of the Americas class 1x per week in the 2010-2011 school year, but had to abandon it due to poor health. At least one client had not received a refund 4 months later. Unprofessional behavior: Occasional rants about the sad state of history education in the US or how people don't understand that this country was established as a republic meant to protect individual rights not a democracy. I think he should share these rants with his wife, his children, his peers, his friends, his acquaintances, but not his students. On the HaoH yahoo group: Message #59 (June 13, 2008), “…One reason you might want to join <the mailing list> is that many of the books I recommend are older, used books, with few copies available. For those resources, it's first come first served. And believe me, these books knock SOTW out of the park!†In 2009, on TWTM boards, he trashed SOTW. I can no longer find the post. It must have been deleted. Several people pointed out that it’s impolite to trash the forum owner.

:iagree: Stats with a good teacher is much better than any math with a bad teacher.

I just want to say that your mum is blessed to have such a thoughtful and caring daughter. :001_cool:

We drove to Atlanta from St Pete last Saturday morning. It took 9.5hrs to get there. We saw a steady procession of electric company trucks heading south the entire way. My mind boggles at the number of workers heading into the storm.

Made it back home from Atlanta today. We left before 3am. Long lines for gas the closer we got, so we used our spare gas can. Lots of tree branches down, but no damage to roof, windows, house, car. Electricity is on and a/c is running. Even food is okay in freezer and fridge. Hurricane blew through east of Tampa sparing us the worst.

Aww! We evacuated to my brother's house in Atlanta. Neighbor across the streets says no windows broken, no roof damage, no car damage. Backyard unknown. I *think* our electric is back on. We will attempt to return tomorrow early. Hope to avoid gridlock. Afraid we won't. Note to self: Leave the front porch light on next time you evacuate. :sneaky2:

My experience with femur. We were at an outlet mall on vacation wasting time before we headed to the airport. Ds was 3.5yo. Ds had a t-shirt in a bag. I was in the changing room. Dh was looking at clothes on a rack. Ds was entertaining himself by putting his feet in the bag and jumping around. He fell over. Dh picked him up and set him on his feet and he fell over again and again. Broken femur. It's the 2nd strongest bone in the body. He was in a body cast for 8 weeks. I don't think they do that anymore. They use plates and bolts I think. I'm glad nothing showed up on the x-ray, but please follow up with another x-ray or ultrasound if it doesn't improve. This is so familiar. Ds didn't want to go to the hospital when he broke his femur. Good advice to go to the children's hospital.

This gives me hope. TMobile says I have to turn on roaming and texting + data is free. Calls are 20c/min, but wifi calls are free. Theoretically, I'll be fine.

Any tips on how to use a US-based cell phone out of the country? I followed T-Mobile's advice a few years ago in Costa Rica and it barely worked even on wifi. So, I don't really trust what they might tell me if I call to ask this time. Heading to Australia in a few weeks. Thanks.

I've always heard that Colorado Springs is the most affordable option in CO. Do you think the 2 circles represent Denver area and Colorado Springs area? I think the map is way cool, but I like maps...

Inquiring minds want to know the name of the city bearing the light green dot in CO... :bigear:

Not sure if it would serve your purposes, but we used Derek Owens for 9th grade physics. You may read my review here. He also offers a physical science class. And, he has many free videos on youtube.

Dh used Exploration Education with ds back in 6th/7th grade. It looks like the program is more comprehensive than it was when we used it 8+ years ago. I don't think they had an Advanced version at the time. Dh/ds used the Standard version. Because I didn't use it with ds, my knowledge of it is minimal, but I do remember that they enjoyed it. We used it in conjunction with Science Explorer for the hands-on aspect of science class. HTH!

My son is in D2 basketball. I remember freshman year, he was asked to provide 10 names for email solicitation. As far as I know, he has not been asked since then, but that doesn't mean they don't reuse the names year after year.

Wow! That's very exciting. Congrats. I'm only a little bit jealous.

I borrowed it on DVD from the library.

My sister's MIL decided it was time to go, hired a palliative care doctor, and stopped eating and drinking. She passed away in 10 days. 28 days sounds unusual. :grouphug:

Most of the books I know of are geared towards adults. Michael Pollan famous quote: Michael Pollan has a Young Reader's version of Omnivore's Dilemma I hesitate to suggest anything else. In my self-education about nutrition, I learned more than I ever anticipated about how animals are treated, how our eating habits are affecting the planet, etc. Not sure if you/they would be interested in those rabbit trails. You may want to pre-screen the following videos. Some may be more pertinent to adults, even though those habits are formed so much earlier. King Corn (recommended by my college age niece) Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead Food Inc The Men Who Made Us Fat/BBC on youtube Sugar: The Bitter Truth/Robert Lustig on youtube Vegucated Weight of the Nation/HBO Sugar is a Toxin/Robert Lustig on youtube The Beautiful Truth/youtube Genetic Roulette/youtube Planeat

Eeek! I would have enlisted the coach's help...

Correct.

Not sure what you mean by best/worst recruiting methods? What the coaches did or what we did? Agree with MysteryJen. Ds had a website and brochure that we emailed/snailmailed to coaches. Ds went to "exposure" camps and and academic summer sport camp and played AAU and USAAA in the off-season We looked for a team that was fairly successful at a school that was a good fit (no fun to play for CalTech who broke their 10 year losing streak while ds was looking) We looked for a coach/team that ds could stay with for 4 years (statistic: only 1 in 4 college athlete is still playing their senior year) Ds felt the coach was fair and ethical Here are some things I realized with 20/20 hindsight: Make initial contact with head coach and assistant coach. Over spring break junior year, set up unofficial visits at schools of interest if known and possible. Official visits for Div 1 and Div 2 (even Div 3 though they don’t typically pay transportation costs) should be discussed/arranged as soon as classes start senior year, especially before high school season starts because once the season starts, you cannot practice with the college team. This probably only pertains to winter sports. HTH!

Thank you for sharing. I can relate to the writing struggles.

I switched from Allstate to Geico probably 5 years ago. Allstate kept raising the rates for no reason. After I left, they tried to win me back by matching the Geico rate. I wondered why they kept jacking my rate up if they could match Geico after I left. I've been happy with Geico. Dh drove into water that was too high one tropical storm day and ruined his vehicle. Geico was quick about replacement. No rate change either.

Do you have a recipe? Sounds yummy.