This is great and kudos to your son for his hard work. I don't want anyone to think my post is minimizing his accomplishments at all. At our local university, the tuition caps out at 9 credit units. So taking 12 credits costs the same as taking 16. If a student takes fewer credits in order to work to help pay for costs, they end up paying more per credit. Just arggh!

I might head out to TJ Maxx...of all the weird places! They usually have a variety of interesting food items with nice packaging, although no clue on the quality. Any one know about jelly beans? Are they available in Germany? ETA: I was looking at the marshmallow peeps...I don't know if they would go over too well though. They are so over the top sugary and have morphed into something beyond an Easter treat.

I am traveling to Germany for a family matter and would like to bring a few gifts but need ideas. I need one "group" gift to give to a staff of caretakers (~ 6 people). I might bring Hershey kisses, as I already know they are a big hit with this group. Handing them a bag of kisses seems a bit tacky though. Opening the bag and putting it in a box seems wrong too though! A bag in a box? Also need gifts for three different govt employees who are helping me with this situation. I have emailed them but do not know them at all. We are cordial...but the situation is not very pleasant so I want to be careful to not seem as though I am trying to "buy" their good will. I want to make a simple gesture of thanks for their help in dealing with our situation. I have considered: Jar of peanuts, maple syrup, caramel popcorn. We live in the Midwest..region specialties seem to be pork rinds and corn...not sure I want to offer a bag of pork rinds! What do you all suggest? ETA: The recipients live in a rural area, over 100 miles from a large city.

My son is definitely 2e and had some EF issues throughout elementary years. He did not have major issues with self regulation, but the list below describes him until he hit puberty. He emerged on the other side, around age 15, highly transformed. This coincided with a career focus and strong academic motivation. He is excelling academically now as a high school junior, but he still needs help navigating through the logistical side of many situations. For example, he had to call the university on a straight forward registration matter, but asked me to be in the room in case anything unexpected came up. Also recently, he had to turn in a form and it took three tries before he had all the required info correct. On the other hand, he needs no help from me in completing his outside academic work and stays incredibly focused and organized with his school work. His room though...well, that is quite the contrast! As DS is now dealing with college decisions in the next year, we are debating whether or not he should stay local. He wants a bit of space, but would prefer to stay within an easy drive of home. Many of the college issues that other teens his age are handling on their own, I think he will still need hand holding. Navigating through online course catalogs is a good example. He has a hard time look looking through the scheduling info and distilling it down to the elements important for him. Now I realize my older sibling was much like my son. This sibling went to selective college but dropped out and floundered around until mid-30s. From Web MD: Warning signs that a child may be having difficulty with executive function include trouble in: planning projects estimating how much time a project will take to complete telling stories (verbally or in writing) memorizing information initiating activities or tasks retaining information while doing something with it (for example, remembering a phone number while dialing)

Only decaf makes sense for plenty of reasons. The real question is...will there be half and half or only powdered creamer?? Cannot drink coffee without milk or half and half. :)

This is what I do. Also, our Khols puts a ridiculous number of decent bras on clearance. Use the 30% off coupon and they often end up under $10 each.

I agree. I think our local U could be a great experience for DS for many reasons and it frustrates me that he does not receive more positive messages about the strengths of their programs. It is heavily geared toward medical research but still has much to offer. He thoroughly enjoys the classes he is taking there this year and is looking forward to continuing next year. Son asked about taking grad lvl classes and the discussion came back to getting a BS in three years. Even though the same suggestion arose at the LAC, I had not expected to hear this at a U with more class offering. It threw us all for a loop and we had few follow up questions though. Undergrad research was mentioned as well. ETA: Son has already said he could imagine himself attending local U and being perfectly happy. I feel compelled to add this b/c I don't want to give the impression that he is being difficult about college choice. :) I do still wish there were more positive messages from the community at large. It is one of those cases where people say, "Oh but you are so smart, surely there are better options!" He actually seems quite adaptable and resilient about doing the best wherever he lands.

This is a real concern and I am not sure how to address it honestly, particularly for this son. This is exactly how the suggestion for getting an ug degree in 3 years came up while DS was tlkaing to the profs. Our state flagship has a wide variety course offerings w/ a graduate program in his area of interest, but to complicate the whole matter, the staff and profs act as though DS wouldn't choose to attend there. The general academic adviser (not major specific but we need to coordinate DE classes with this person) told DS that the motivated DE students like him rarely matriculate at our local U. They said the U is better suited to meet the needs of a less academically geared student (I was there and nearly fell out of my chair..this is a large, state research U). Highly selective schools seem out of reach to him despite his strong academics primarily due to dyslexic and aspie qualities. Even though he is likely NMF, his standardized tests scores aren't in the top 25ht percentile for the highly selective schools (though he has only taken the SAT one time and his scores were decent, but the long test time takes a huge toll on him). He also has ECs that are unlikely to be particularly impressive to an adcom. Not to go on with the doom and gloom, but man, this college stuff is tough and very worry inducing!!! ETA: I know there are plenty of schools in between the extremes of highly selective and auto admit local U. Learning about htem them and figuring out "fit" and finances is where we are now.

The comments have provided interesting 'food for thought' not only on the issue of 3 year degrees, but also considerations for college fit, degree progression and general educational goals. As I said, the question of a BS in 3 years was not initiated by my son, but by the professors he met. He will finish high school with 6 college classes (including completing 2nd year suggested courses for 2 majors) and 6 APs. While he does have a broad range of interests, he also has a strong drive to delve deeper into his specific areas of interests which is primarily why the 3 year degree piqued my interest. At our state flagship DS spoke to the ug adviser for his intended major and it was right after reviewing the best class progressing at the U for DS during his senior year in high school that the prof mentioned a 3 year degree, leading me to believe it was logistically possible. In any case, DS hasn't mentioned the 3 year degree outside of the initial meetings, although he is pretty quite on the entire subject of college. He is busy but I also think going off to college still is removed for him, with only vague notions swirling through his mind. This discussion has given me plenty to consider though in my role as his guidance counselor. Thanks again everyone for sharing your stories and thoughts.

noooo! Dh loves their fog chaser coffee.

One year I carefully blew out eggs and then poured in cake batter and baked them. They still looked like hard boiled eggs but were actually cake inside. It was far more work than I expected but everyone thought they were hilarious.

Oak Meadow? My boys didn't like the "touchy-feely" aspect of OM, especially for science, but I do recall many outside activities.

Coursera Computer Science 101 is a great starter class. It covers a few CS principles plus a gentle intro to coding. http://www.codecademy.com/tracks/web has HTML and web page building courses. Are you near any community colleges with intro classes? Coursera and Udacity have many programming classes, but the last time I looked into them, I didn't see a strong progression. I found starter classes in phython then intermediate classes in C++ for example.

You might be able to start a makers club as a 4H sub group. I'd ask the person who oversees 4H clubs at your local county extension. The people here are making an effort to include more science and technology in 4H and they also seek out grants and funding for clubs. We have several mindstorm kits for our 4H robotics club (which I started, totally clueless!) thanks to their generosity.

Have you tried Khan academy? Kids seem to have a love it or hate it reaction. It was incredibly helpful for my younger son.

The way you describe the conversation, yea, that would bother me too. And I would wonder. And I would think it was pretty rude of them. I also would try to let it go, but I would vent to DH about it. :laugh:

Me too! I just had to come see what I knew would be links to great gowns. I also love lurking in posts about dresses for mother of the groom/bride. So here I am virtually window shopping with you all. :hurray: :hurray: :hurray:

:laugh: :laugh: I kept thinking, "desirable trap" but I knew it wasn't right!

I was just going off to look up the specific wording for "attractive nuisance" because I couldn't remember the exact phrase.

So sorry you are going through this. I want to say, as gently as possible, that I think the punishment to me seems out of proportion to his actions though. Yes, I understand he directly disobeyed you, but the missing of an EC activity, in particular, would not be my preferred action. Also, it apparently isn't an effective punishment b/c he did the same thing again. We also had no tv and limited computer time when the kids were younger. I would definitely lock the phone w/ a password so that he simply cannot access it. Then I would talk about trust and why it is important we can trust each other in the family. I actually would not impose any additional punishment.

I agree--the new classified is not nearly as good as the old system.

I also have a high school junior. Just a few months ago he had zero preferences. Seriously! I think he simply did not have any frame of reference. Visiting an LAC and our state flagship did help some preferences emerge. We also talked about how different his college years might be at the different types of schools. Some things he is considering: proximity to home flexibility in general education requirements size of campus -- this was a huge difference between the LAC and the state U (where you need to take campus buses to get from one side of campus to another) how the school might help him prepare for graduate studies opportunities for undergraduate research where his test scores/gpa place him relative to other students weather collegedata has been interesting to browse, but I have been looking up statistics for specific schools.

Look into the admission requirements at the CC. Does she need to take the SAT or ACT? Any requirements for scholarships offered at the school? Life skills depend so much on the individual student. I have a junior and a sophomore and we are just getting into driving, banking, etc. Hope she has a great senior year!

Yep, the collective Hive Mind is an awesome resource. :) Sometimes I google topics (hs or totally unrelated to hs) and include "well trained mind" just to get hits from the board.

Lots of timed practice tests in setting similar to the testing day to help her get over the anxiety. :grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug: