Thanks, CA. OK, I think I will swap that for The Miniaturist.

All of DS's outsourced classes are registered for next year. Some of them fill up within hours of registration opening. We will have to do math and chemistry through the summer. Also, I have to plan out a history class over the summer. But right now I am focused on this year. We still have a lot to do! Good luck at the sale, mama25angels.

Anyone want to help me load up my kindle for my upcoming trip to the Netherlands? We will soon be on our way to The Hague/Amsterdam/Leiden and surrounding areas. Right now, I am thinking The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt and The Black Tulip by Dumas. I've already read Girl with the Pearl Earring. I am interested in Head in Flames, but I will save that until after the trip. ETA: Wait, does most of The Goldfinch take place in New York? If so, I also will save that one for another time.

Thank you, this is super helpful. He is hoping for a TA position.

Obviously, he will work it out with his advisor. I am just having an overly excited/curious mom moment. :p

My son is going to start grad school in August, and I am wondering what would be an average full-time load. Stuff I have read on the internet leads me to think 9 or 12 credits. Does this sound right? He will be in an M.S. Clinical Mental Health Counseling program.

Of course, you are right about this. None of my kids are in the tippy-top pool, so keep that in mind with my comment. Call me shameless, but I do look for schools where my kid might have the geographical edge. I just figure all other things being equal, he might get chosen/offered money if he helps to balance the applicant pool. Never would I think that was the only reason he got chosen/offered money. For the one who was accepted to everywhere he applied, we mostly looked at mid-tiers, regional universities, in-state state schools, and CTCL-type schools. All but the state schools were out of our state. Most were out of our region. Oh, and we do have a budget, lol. I am just starting to think about the current 10th grader's list. Gulp. Maybe it would be good to start a master thread where we help each other build lists. (CTCL = Colleges that Change Lives)

I agree with Lisa - there are plenty of schools for kids who are "just" bright, but you have to be realistic. My son (finishing his BA in about a week) applied to about 10 undergrad schools, and he got into all of them. None of them were the schools that the CC kids pine after. But the list was extremely well-suited to his stats. Only two of them turned out to be out of reach financially, and neither of those two were first choice anyway. Now he is set to attend a graduate school that would also not satisfy most of the CC posters. But, it is a solid regional school with an excellent alumni network for internships and jobs. And I suspect (hope) that it will be a great fit for him. He will graduate debt-free (no loans for us, either) from both undergrad and masters.

Jean, :grouphug: AP Test prep and NHD prep. If anything else gets done, it will be a miracle. Behind the scenes, I am busy getting us ready for our trip to attend our son's college graduation. We leave next week!

:grouphug: :grouphug: to those grieving. -- I had two bookish boo-hiss moments this week: Boo-Hiss Number 1: I downloaded two Kindle samples of The Black Tulip by Dumas. One was the Penguin edition and the other was Oxford. I wanted to compare the translations before choosing, but all I got were two introductions. Not a smidgen of the actual book from either publisher. Boo-Hiss Number 2: While Arms: The Culture and Credo of the Gun was not quite as awful as I had anticipated, there was the implication that one of the mass shooters went astray because he was homeschooled.

I am sure this has been asked a zillion times...sorry. What school code does my son use for the AP Exam? He is taking the course through PAHS. The college board has a list of codes for homeschoolers. Our state code would be 992199. Does PAHS have its own code? If yes, can he use the state code anyway? If he doesn't do well on the exam, he can choose not to report his score to colleges, I think. But maybe by using the PAHS code the AP exam score is then automatically on the transcript. Just wondering.

We use Clonlara. I choose the curricula.

Since I lived in Denmark from 2011 til 2016, I feel like I should contribute something to the hygge discussion, lol. Let's see... Hygge is a noun (en hygge) or a verb (at hygge). The adjective form (hyggelig or hyggeligt) is actually used more often. en hyggelig aften: an evening with hygge et hyggeligt sommerhus. a summerhouse with hygge Det var meget hyggeligt: It was very cozy (cozy being only an approximate translation) You could use Google images with "hyggeligt sommerhus" to get an idea of hygge in the Danish summer. Granted, summer in Denmark is never actually HOT!!

Hi, folks. I am jumping in after a rather long hiatus from the accountability threads. CadenceSophia: CONGRATS!!! Jean: Ugh, taxes. We had to work on ours over Easter weekend. Nothing like taking it out to the bitter end... mama25angels: Hope you are enjoying your MIL's visit! Critterfixer: I always admire your diligence to your writing. My DS23 is a sci-fi writer. Over the last two years, I have had the privilege of being one of his beta readers (alpha reader? I am not sure of the difference). He is a full-time college student, so he has to be really disciplined to carve out the time. Those of you who have been in this thread a long time might remember that we made an international move in the fall. Things worked out really well for DS16 and he has settled in nicely. This week is a crunch, though. His first AP exam is on the horizon, and he is working on an exhibit for National History Day state competition. He won first place at the county level. :hurray: Looking forward to becoming accountable again :)

Thanks, Kareni for the Why You Should Read Books You Hate link. I have marked the article for later reading. As an adult, I have read plenty of books that I have hated. I would say that 99.9% of them have been book club books :) For the sake of a cherished book club, I will suffer through books (*). I am still new in my current city, and have joined a nonfiction book club. I have only been once thus far, so I certainly can't call it a cherished book club. But I am interested enough in the book club to read books that I do not want to read. This month, the selection is Arms: The Culture and Credo of the Gun by A.J. Somerset, and there is a reasonable chance that I will hate it. That's because I hate gun culture so much that I do not want to read about it, even from the POV of "a gun lover who's disgusted with what gun culture has become." I hope I am not straying into the political with that comment. I am just trying to explain my somewhat visceral reaction to reading 300+ pages on this subject, and why I am going to read it anyway. On the other hand... There is certainly an element of gun culture in a book that I just finished and loved so much. The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons and an Unlikely Road to Manhood by Ta-Nehisi Coates is easily one of the best books I have read this year. I picked it for my Local Author Bingo Square, and did indeed appreciate the fact that I am familiar with all the Baltimore landmarks. If you followed the first Serial podcast, it took place in some of the same Baltimore-area territory. But it is the way that Ta-Nehisi Coates writes that makes me love this memoir so much. The local connection is the least of the my reasons for singing its praises. Also finished last week: Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie. I love it when I read a new-to-me-classic. The Gunslinger by Stephen King. I was so confused in the beginning, but was really pulled in by the end. In due time, I will get to Book 2 of The Dark Tower series. *ETA, I do have a couple of triggering topics that I refuse to read.

My son has taken a lot of Bravewriter classes. The most recent one, and likely his last one, was MLA Research Essay. There was copious feedback from the instructor. The class is limited to ten students, and I can see why. It must take a ton of time to give that much feedback to each student. Do note that because the class size is so small, it can fill up within hours of opening for registration.

Very nice. Off to take a look...

I haven't seen an 11th grade planning thread, so I will start one. If I missed it, please link it below. Here is what we have planned for 11th: 1) AP English Language: PAHS 2) Physics:Clover Creek 3) Precalculus: Derek Owens 4) Russian II: Continue with Tutor 5) U.S. History: Home version 6) Cultural Geography (Fall Semester DE) / Spring DE TBD, possibly American Govt. 7) Music Appreciation / Visual Arts. Keep working on this cumulative Fine Arts credit, and ideally complete it by the beginning of 12th grade. Extras: ACT and/or SAT prep National History Day (NHD) Congressional Award efforts (personal development, physical fitness, voluntary service, and expeditions) College visits

Me too! I have had this on my mind for some time. Some of the ones I want to go through are in storage in another state (long story). . I won't be able to touch them until summer, and that has been eating at me a bit.

One of my Danish friends has been recommending that I read My Struggle (Min Kamp) in Danish. Danish and Norwegian are so close that generally very little is lost in translation. But 3600 pages in a foreign language...egads that would indeed be quite a project for me.

Patty Joanna, what a brilliant idea. And one that I am going to steal :) -- I got rid of my old, old diaries long ago. I am on the fence about the ones that I wrote after having children. By definition, these diaries are also now old :) I want to do both some shredding and some preserving. There is certainly nothing scandalous in them, but there is indeed far too much mundane drivel about young-mom-me needing to lose weight and get organized. Blech. As one who believes in the value of preserving our life stories, I really like Patty Joanna's approach.

Fandango is offering a free audible version of The Zookeeper's Wife if you purchase your movie ticket through the Fandango site with a registered account. I saw the movie last night, and thought it was great. And I got my free audiobook, easy peasy. https://www.movietheaterprices.com/fandango-free-audio-book-zookeepers-wife/ https://www.fandango.com/thezookeeperswife_188135/movietimes?intcmp=IMA_zoowifegwp_merch

I read to the 10th grader as the start of our day, and plan to continue until he graduates. I have been working off a mental list of books that just never seem to fit neatly into a class. ETA: Sometimes I throw in something short like the Orwell essay. And we did An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments earlier this year, which was great fun.

We just finished The Little Prince. He is 16. Now I am reading aloud Politics and the English Language by George Orwell. It is not nearly as fun :)

Are there any Stephen King Dark Tower readers here? I am reading The Gunslinger and I am so confused. But I think that I am supposed to be confused, and I am ok with trusting the storyteller to get me where I need to be, as long as I have faith that I will get there eventually. I am seeking some reassurance that all will be revealed in due time. I don't want to google much - I despise spoilers!