The online format will make it easier for schools to support SAT prep. DS's high school has one outdated sat prep book. The local library only carries a couple of copies. The school does have a computer lab with over 30 computers though. Online, comprehensive, test prep materials will make it much easier for teachers (or student groups for that matter) to organize a test prep session. Some kids work better with an "animated book" and it not necessarily tied to self discipline.

My son has had eczema off and on for years. This winter it has been horrible! The dermatologist prescribed light therapy and after about 4 weeks, DS's skin is markedly improved. Using the mite free pillow cases and bed case does seem to help. Also, in our old house DS had eczema problems until we replaced the carpeting with laminate. When we moved to a new house w/carpet about 4 years ago, he had renewed flare ups. But we also moved to a new state, so I do not know if the carpet is associated with his eczema (and asthma). In any case, we are finally getting the carpet removed later this spring. I will definitely be paying attention to his symptoms after switchign flooring (haven't decided if we will get laminate again or wood).

Stephanie-- Thanks for the update. From your post, I am guessing your children did not previously take Spanish with Ray. How did you decide on class placement? Did the instructor have a placement test?

My kids had some similarities to what you describe in your child. The one curriculum they enjoyed was Visual Math from: http://catalog.mathlearningcenter.org/free The curriculum is expensive, imo, but the website has many free downloads which can help fuel ideas for covering math. GL!

I'd go with the last part of your #2, even advocating taking a longer break. 2) continue on and just continue to do additional work on multiplication alongside the new topics FWIW, my son was dxd dyslexic and then nonverbal LD. He had many issues throughout the elementary years. We kept on developing conceptual understanding and as a teen, many of the stumbling blocks resolved. When he was younger I thought he would need accommodations for standardized testing, primarily due to slow computation abilities, but that turned out not to be the case after all.

Such an interesting assortment of stories. Thank you all for sharing. When we visited Grinnell my son asked about the availability of upper level course work/electives/frequency of class offerings to get an idea of what kind of material he could expect over four years. They discussed options, including independent research projects, etc. but the professor also mentioned the possibility of DS graduating in 3 years. Then last week when we visited our state university, DS asked about taking graduate level courses as an ug since his degree requirements would be completed early. The prof there suggested graduating in three years instead. He also did not encourage obtaining a MS, but going straight from a BS to Ph.D. program. So at both schools, the profs broached the subject of graduating in three years w/o any prompting on our part. As a result, I began to wonder if many students entering college with credits end up graduating in three years. Of course, the answer seems to be, as it is for many other questions, "it depends".

We were planning on visits during spring break but unexpected travel plans came up for my husband, so they have been put on the back burner. We did, however, visit with the undergrad adviser of our local state university. This was useful for DS as he decides what classes to take at the university next year (senior of high school). Thanks all for the comments on the process for your students as it gives us much 'food for thought'. :)

Many high school students from families here seem to be going into college with some college credits already accumulated. Any thoughts on the pros and cons of those students using those credits to complete a bachelor's degree in 3 years rather than 4? In my son's case, he plans on going on to graduate school so we are thinking one less year in ug could be beneficial. I'd love to hear thoughts/stories on how this has worked out (or not) from others.

Wow I am impressed with the cut. I have been thinking of going really short as well. I went chin length with 17 inches cut off recently. I am pretty happy with it for now, but also dream of just not having to mess with hair at all. Not a big fan of going in for a lot of cuts though. You look great. I hope you enjoy it...let us know how it progresses for you. :)

Ok, what an odd coincidence! In the checkout line at the grocery store last week I put my bag free bananas on the belt and the customer behind me had hers in a bag. She volunteered that putting bananas in a bag prevents them from getting too cold on the way home in the car. We have had record lows, but I have yet to get frostbite on my bananas during the winter.

Wow, some googling really pays off. :) Thanks for the reply.

8, Mind sharing how your son found out about the test based scholarship? Was it after he applied the the school?

DS completed AoPS Geometry and AoPS Alg 2 in one year (his idea and his implementation). I think algebra 2 and geometry are well suited for overlapping for high school as they are not highly interdependent. People discuss whether to do alg 2 or geometry first frequently and the order does not matter so much on the conceptual development but more on when students will take the SAT and what kind of gap they will have with alg concepts as they move into precalculus. Doing them simultaneously did, of course, mean more time allotted to math and less time for other subjects. One could do alg 2 and geometry simultaneously over 2 years. DS wanted to accelerat his math progression though. Younger son considered the same option but decided against it and is happy with where he is now. At the public high school here, kids can take a general AoPS class in addition to any of the standard math classes (the other classes do not use AoPS texts--DS did geometry and alg 2 as a homeschooler but went on to take precalculus at the high school).

I have been thinking about this for a while, and describing precisely what we did is quite challenging. I started out with a plan, but it had to be continuously adapted. :) I used livingmath.net quite a bit as a resource when I first decided to approach math from a different angle. http://www.livingmath.net/ We did read (out loud) every math reader (e.g. Sir Cumference, How Many is a Million, books on addition, division multiplication, but not text book types--rather ones which were story based) in the children's section of our public library, checking out books based on interests or questions that might have arisen during the week. I usually picked out these books but my kids did occasionally pull themselves away from the sections on Medieval castles or the solar system, to select math related books. We did projects inspired by our readings, in a spur of the moment manner, all the while talking about what we were doing, asking questions of each other, and looking up information when we all got stumped. I commented on observations around us and talked to the kids about everything that came into my mind. "Hey, look, one of our cats has a really long tail and really long whiskers. The other one has a short tail and short whiskers." Making observations and wondering if we could find a relationship spurred them into action (in this case, getting out rulers and cat treats to help keep the test subjects compliant :)). My kids liked making charts and graphs, and did so with a large variety of items. At some point (early on presumably!), I modeled these kinds of actions to them and then they adopted them into their regular activity too. But, I did not do so because I expected them to imitate me. Honestly, I had to work at letting go of my expectation that my kids needed to produce a written output as documented proof of what they had learned (this took me about 2 years initially and then occasional struggles for another 2 years!) But by doing it so much myself, to them this became our normal experience. School was about asking questions and exploring relationships, many of them mathematical. We used some online resources too. They really did not like math games much though. Oh, they did play some dice games for a while which really did help with math fact recall. They did not particularly enjoy books with math projects or games in them. They now, as high school students, are perfectly capable of using text books though. :) Over time, I accumulated many math manipulative, e.g. 3D shapes that could be open and filled with sand or beans (and then we might weigh the material and compare the masses from different shapes--also we might compact material and not compact material and compare masses), a large pickle jar where we collected coins and counted them periodically (my kids were drawn to this jar and counted the coins quite regularly), scales and balance, ice cube trays and counters, geoboards, measuring tapes, measuring cups, thermometers, etc. Thrift stores are great places for many of these kinds of things. I kept these accessible and encouraged the kids to use them. Also, we used linking math cubes. A lot. "Hey, look, here is a 4 by 4 square of blocks made out of 16 blocks in total. How many blocks are in a 3 by 3 square?" Then we might go on to make a series of square blocks. Also though, my kids spent hours of unstructured play time with these blocks. They developed games and built empires out of them. I was not constantly pestering them with math related observations and questions. It was just one way to interact with those items. We used clay for math too. They really did prefer keeping their hands busy. They would also play with clay or things like moon sand while I read out loud to them. ETA: But just playing with clay while I read out loud was not all they did. We also made numbers (and for that matter, letters) out of clay and made sheets of clay for them to carve in and made die w/a variety of number of sides, clay ropes out of different lenghts, etc. I did periodically re-introduce standard math programs to the kids in order to see if it would finally be a good fit for them (mostly because I was still struggling with the idea that they really needed to be producing written proof of their learning). These programs continued to cause frustration until ages 12-13. Like your daughter, math fluency (quick recall of math facts) did not develop in my boys until then. But, by that age, they had tremendous conceptual development. What did we do for each grade? Not much that would be recognized as math in a class room I guess! I did not have a yearly plan. I consulted grade appropriate scope and sequence as little as possible. We did use Hands on Equation around grades 5/6. One son loved it, one son refused to do it. We did use Khan academy from time to time, but not in a high pressure, you must get 5 lessons done a week kind of way. I did make them practice writing numbers...this was a practical issue and I did not stress it until maybe 10. Hey look, I can't read if that is a 4 or a 9. Here is a good way to write out the numbers so that most people can read what you want to communicate to them: Then get out the number line, etc. And a side note here...my boys are compliant kids. They help out around the house, carry the heavy laundry baskets for mom, shovel the snow, brush their teeth w/o complaint, etc etc. The very uncharacteristic nature of them balking at curriculum caught my attention and contributed to us ending up on a different educational path. It did not instill in them the notion that they just have to whine about something in order to get their way. I mention this because of other posts I have seen mentioning this concern. My kids started in public school. By the middle of grade 1, my son was coming home from school every day in tears. Eventually the teacher mentioned that she thought he might be dyslexic. Well, I was stunned! I went to talk to the special ed teacher about what could be done for my son at the school. She told me that the way the ps taught only worked for about 80% of the kids and that there was likely nothing they could do for DS. That 20% really needed an alternative approach. OK, honestly, at that time, I was surprised by her statement and did not ask her what an "alternative approach" might look like. BUT, her words stuck with me. And when standard math curriculum was not working for my boys, I thought back to her often. I decided we would develop our own alternative approach and that it did not have to look like a worksheet based program. As the kids grew older, the problem solving and questions asked grew more complicated and much more abstract. Before my kids mastered math facts, their abstract math reasoning and comprehension of patterns had surpassed my understanding in some ways, as humbling as this is to admit. The same with spatial visualization abilities. Around age 12, older son picked up Saxon alg 1/2 and worked through the program in about 5 months. As far as gaps, he did have noticeable gaps with manipulating fractions. We used Khan academy to help work through those and it was not a limiting factor at all. Both of my kids develop quite non-linearly. So, up until those tween years, math recall was just horrendous. This worried me the MOST. How could these kids who were so smart not know these basics?? Ah, such worrying! Anyways, once they hit the 12-13 range, math fact strengthened. I assume it was more of a developmental issue for them, although recently my son (currently has a 99% in AP Calc BC at the ps) told me that he was horrible at middle school math. Nonetheless, he scored high enough on the PSAT to be a likely National Merit Scholar (as a way to say that even though computation is not his strength, he is a competent, even exceptional math student at high school level). "Is it basically that you explore so many concepts in so many ways that then when you sit down to do some formal math, say in 7th, it comes together?" So, all of this is to say, YES to the above. :) Also, as a side effect, my kids ended up liking math. After one year of school for younger son and one and a half years of school for older son, they both disliked math ( I think math is the only thing they have said that they hate--maybe older son said he hated reading when he was younger, but I think actually all he said was that he was never going to learn to read). They also both thought they were not very good in math, particularly my older son, due to that grueling few months in grade one. In any case, liking math and finding it interesting is a great motivation to continue studying it. My kids see math as a tool for exploring and developing other interests, particularly in science areas, including programming. Adopting an alternative math path was HARD for me to do, but I am so glad we went that route.

I appreciate all the interesting thoughts. :) We visited this LAC because it is nearby and the visit was at a convenient time for us. My thoughts were pretty well aligned with what you all are mentioning here--visit a wide variety of schools to get a feel for what is available and to see if some preferences materialize. Both kids were initially reluctant (my other son is sophomore and he came along for the experience) to visit a liberal arts school. So, in thinking about it, I can say that by visiting we at least established that LACs should not necessarily be immediately eliminated for my kids and this one in particular is a viable option. Son has taken physics 2 at the local, big state university so he does have another college exposure for comparison. The class had over 100 students enrolled, although Friday lectures had fewer than 50 students in attendance. Also, for the weekly discussion groups, held by a grad student, DS was often the only student to show up out of over 25 enrolled. On the one hand, he enjoyed spending an hour just talking about physics with a grad student (the guy would ask DS what he wanted to chat about), but on the other hand, it concerned DS that so many students did not bother to show up. We have an official visit with the dept. scheduled. Once he does that, it might help as a basis for comparison to the other school. On solo visits: DS won't be eligible for his driver's license until this fall. He is prone to getting lost too. I can imagine this for attending admitted student visit days NEXT spring but prior to that...I hve a hard time imagining it. Right now it has not become enough of a priority for him to have that much gumption. Not to say he is ambivalent about going to college. He is sure abour going and pursuing either physics or math. Figuring out the details of where and how do overwhelm him though. Hmm...We do live close enough to a couple of other small colleges. They are not schools I could realistically imagine DS attending but I wonder if official visits to them could still be useful. DS was initially nervous talking to the physics prof at the LAC but after a few minutes he noticeably relaxed. More visits and informal talks with profs might help him grow more comfortable with the whole process. On making appts with faculty members: Do you generally arrange this directly with the department or through the visit coordinator? At the LAC the visit coordinator made the appt and it went smoothly. The prof then offered to take DS to meet a math prof but we did not have time due to the tour.

I hardly even know where to start and I am sure this will get long and ramble-y. :willy_nilly: Short version: We went on our first college visit and I am debating whether or not to schedule more over spring break. Loooong version: DS (high school Junior) is definitely a STEM guy, but we visited a LAC known for undergrads going on to grad school in the sciences. DS met with a physics professor, went on the campus tour, ate in the cafeteria, etc. He did not sit in on a class due to scheduling issues. So what did we take away from the visit? We caught a glimpse of the kind of individualized attention an ug could get there. When we arrived to meet the prof. he and another prof. were meeting with a current student and discussing that student's independent research. We learned about the flexibility of the general ed requirements. The prof even discussed the possibility of DS getting a degree in three years based on the math and physics classes DS will complete by the end of senior year. Many facilities were quite new with well maintained buildings and grounds. Students were helpful and friendly. The dining hall was packed during lunch hour. I was a bit worried when DS picked an iceberg lettuce salad, 3 sticks of celery and an apple for lunch, quite an uncharacteristic lunch for over 6ft DS with the hollow leg. He said it was a defensive move against institutionalized food. All those jokes about Italian mothers pestering their kids about eating enough food came to mind! Students piled up their backpacks outside of the cafeteria with no worry about theft. We saw some examples of the school's self governance policy, but I don't know if DS really had a notion of how that might impact him compared to the kind of situation one would encounter at a big state school. DS said he could imagine spending four years there and that the level of individualized attention was impressive. Of course, he has also said he could imagine attending our local state U (30k plus students vs the LAC with under 2K). Overall, after the visit none of us (including DS) can say whether or not this school would be a good fit for him. It would certainly be workable and we realize the school experience depends on the student's mindset and effort. Clearly, the experience at this LAC would be vastly different from our state flagship U, although that is not to say that it would be automatically better. I cannot confidently say that he is more likely to have a meaningful mentor at the LAC. What if he ends up having basic differences with the primary prof in his area of interest (I actually find this hard to imagine since DS doesn't tend to stir up trouble at all..but still...something odd COULD happen...yes I am a perennial worrier)? At this point, we don't know what criteria he should be looking for or how to identify whether or not the schools have the elements that will help him grow and develop during his college years. How can we determine if it is a school with a community well suited for him, it is a school where he will feel at ease and welcomed, part of the *tribe* so to speak? He is quite introverted and a 2e king of kid (gifted with LDs). He has very strong analytical/critical thinking skills/concept synthesizing abilities, but is also more of a slow and methodical thinker--where does a kid like that even fit in? How in the world can one even begin to determine this types of issues from a visit? So far DS has said he would prefer a school where professors are willing to take the time to talk to students (and not act as though this is burdensome) and a school close to home. Also, he hopes to be around fellow students who do not complain if the instructor covers material that is not on the test (this came up a few times when he took physics 2 at our local university). That's all I have from him so far concerning preferences. Sometimes he says a warmer climate would be good, but he can't really have a warmer climate and still be close to home...unless we move. :) We have been considering visiting a few more colleges--within about 3-4 hour drives. For us, that would probably mean over night stays, particularly if we went to the Chicago area and visited more than one school. Currently though, I am not strongly feeling that the effort is worth it. I am thinking time might be better spent working with DS to come up with a master list of potential schools and then narrowing down based on info available online. We can go from there.... On the other hand, right now he has a lot of free time since he is not taking any classes at the U this semester. Senior year, travel will be restricted due to class schedules. So yes...thoughts? Ideas? Advice? Commiseration? Chill pills offered?

I agree! I would even radically suggest you drop the curriculum for a while. I read TWTM when my boys were in early elementary, but it was not a good fit for them at that time although the general principles appealed to me. Going into middle school/preteen-early teen years was a better time for them to start with standard curriculum. And you know what? Even though we used little elementary curriculum, the kids were able to jump into middle school work with few problems. Kids really do not need years of worksheets to be able to transition into pre-algebra and algebra and move onto high school and college level math. My kids did hate math in early elementary when I tried to drag them through saxon and singapore. I finally dropped those programs and adopted a living math approach which mostly consisted of using math manipulatives and eventually checking out every math book from our library. One son is a high school sophomore and loving algebra 2, other son is a high school junior rocking through AP Calculus BC and he is genuinely excited about taking Linear Algebra at the university next year. Also, kids really can become diligent and self-motivated learners in classes with strict deadlines even if they did not have that kind of education structure during the elementary years. I know there have been a few threads recently about relaxed schooling, eclectic schooling and unschooling. I strongly suggest reading through a few of them.

Coursera's online Microeconomics course recommends the McConnell-Bruce textbook. https://www.coursera.org/course/ucimicroeconomics The same instructor has a Macroeconomics course as well. I was just looking into these for my son. :)

We started homeschooling in CA and I initially signed up with a charter. Having access to a variety of classes, support materials and curriculum was wonderful! I loved many aspects of being in the charter but I did always feel tied down to a degree. When we moved out of state, charters were no longer an option and I felt immensely FREED upon not using a charter anymore. After going without a charter, I realized how much it had influenced my ideas about how to educate the kids. We have been pretty eclectic and relaxed all along (and really the charter school was very accepting) but you still have that pressure to keep up with state standards. BTW, at one point I requested a new EF from the charter and the new EF was a much better fit. Still though, not dealing with the charter at all was a huge relief! My son did love Latin classes though--probably the best benefit from using the charter. :)

About the rabbits--when Daryl and Beth first walk past the spot, the camera focused in on a log in the foreground. It looked as though there were mushrooms growing on the log. It seemed odd that this became so noticeable. Later, this is the log where Lizzy sees the rabbits. That scene was pretty confusing (and brief) though and I wasn't sure what was even happening. I think I only paid extra attention because of the log from the earlier scene.

My 15 yo and 16 yo have shown zero romantic interests in girls...or boys for that matter! I seriously wonder sometimes if they are asexual. DH was a late bloomer though and he assures me we will one day have grandchildren.

I'd encourage you to revise your daily/weekly goals a bit for him. Instead of having a certain curriculum he needs to accomplish, how about having an option of various learning goals related to content (biology, earth science, geology, physics, robotics, etc), skills (observation, critical thinking, analytical reasoning, graphing, sorting etc), general good habits for science exploration (safety issues, cleaning up after your experiments, keeping supplies where they belong--and I say this very loosely because I know at 7, the whole world can be an exciting science lab!) and then support tasks for you (providing supplies, linking what he is doing to library books, videos, audio books, finding outings to science centers, researching and answering questions that arise during the week, etc). So each week, you might want to ensure that you all hit one subject in each category, or even only one in two of the categories. This way, you have some goals, but you are not doing a lot of planning or using a curriculum or fretting over whether or not he gets worksheets and specific labs done. If you'd like a framework or guidelines, I would generate a very basic list of concepts to cover. It might look like: Week 1 Liquids Week 2 Gases Week 3 Solids Week 4 Other interesting states of matter Weeks 5&6 Temperature Weeks 7&8 Weather, etc etc. And during the corresponding week, check out materials from the library to delve into these topics, read about the subject online, find a brainpop video, etc. So many science books for kids have experiments in them, your son will probably be drawn to some but not to others. I have two STEM focused kids and prior to high school, we did not use a specific science curriculum. They have taken honors and AP classes at the high school as well as science classes at our state flagship university and they have not suffered at all from not using curriculum prior to high school. We did the same for math up until grade 8 when they both started algebra. Good luck and have fun!

My high schoolers have also taken DE classes at the local university over graduating early. BUT, for us, the university it near our home and the cost of classes (~$1000 per semester class) is covered through the PSEO option. If we did not live close to a university or CC, or we had to pay for individual costs out of pocket, I would have looked into early college.

We are considering PA Homeschoolers APUSH next year for my son who will be a senior. He has no US History credit for high school so far. This year he is in AP American Govt at the public school and doing exceptionally well in the class. I'd appreciate any feedback from parent of students who have taken this class and care to comment on the experience and/or the instructors. DS would decide between Susan Richman or Lisa Hawkins as instructors. He does not care for a class taught from a Christian perspective so the third instructor is not an option. He is also considering taking AP English Language from the same source and we have appreciated the recent feedback on that class. Ms. Inspektor sounds like an incredible instructor. :)

Do you have any large, life events on the horizon? Wait, isn't your son getting ready to go to college (I read the high school boards a lot)? And wasn't something up with your daughter (moving or??)? I think these looming events can cause the sudden overwhelming feelings you describe. :grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug: i hope they pass soon. I sometimes get overwhelmingly crabby, and I am generally a very easy going person. I freaked out over the weekend. Here, I blame part of it on winter, but I am in the snowy midwest, not FL. :)