My son is going to a cool weekend at Baylor. He will go to the comp/eng dorm and stay overnight, go to classes with the students, activities, etc. I would like to do something similar at TCU, especially with the honors dorm. It doesn't look like they offer anything like that. I've asked on college confidential just to make sure. Now.. should I e-mail his academic advisor and ask? We met the man on our regular campus visit. He is the homeschool academic advisor; however, he is also the academic advisor for students from our region. I was wondering if I should have my son e-mail the question instead of me. Though, to be honest, he isn't sure he wants to do the Baylor one.. He's not sure he needs it. I think it will be like many things we have done with him: he is reluctant but with plenty of warning he goes and has a GREAT time. (This is a pattern.) Other thing to consider. We did the TCU regular campus visit and he had a great time. He went alone to talk to the professor and had a GREAT time- he came back trying to explain what discrete numbers were ( as we have never studied them) and how cool it was. (I nodded politely.) Then on the way out, I asked the office about the counselor part of the application and if I would fill that out. They sent me to this academic advisor who invited us in... That is not what I had intended. My son didn't have any warning... He slouched in the corner at first..very awkward. I was inwardly cringing...we hadn't really prepared for this. It got better as they got on some topics that he could come alive with.. Yes, we talked afterward about sitting up straight, looking people in the eye, etc... I just didn't realize we would be doing that.... From what I saw before we left, he did better with the professors... But he knew he was going to do that beforehand. Anyway, should I email the question or should I make him???

I see the major problem with this paper as she is telling not showing. It is just a list of things with repetitive sentence structure. I took, I did, etc. Now, how you fix it. I always have trouble with this. I just had a wonderful 7th grade writing teacher give me several suggestions of books by Barry Lane and/or Fretchen Bernabei about how to add life to student writing. One title Why We Must Run with Scissors certainly peaks my interest. She is going to let me borrow a few to look at, so I'll let you know how they help the children to add life to their writings. Right now I have my kids vary their sentence structure: start with a prep phrase, a clause, etc. I might ask your child what he/she was thinking. Did she enjoy it? "This is going to be the easiest fifty dollars I've every made," I thought as I opened the neigbor's door. Leaving on a cruise for a few weeks, they left me in charge to take care of the cats and a few other chores. One of the cats met me at the door. "Hi sweetie. Let's find your food." She escorted me to the laundry room where I carefully scooped out just enough food to last until tomorrow. As soon as the food hit the bowl, the rest of the felines came running. See the difference? It isn't a list. It has life..well at least more life than the first example.. I'll let you know if I find some other techniques..

What are your long term goals and or his long term goals?? My boy is really smart.. college is in his future. So my whole goal has been to get him to where he can function on his own away from me and not spend all the time in his room, alone.. So.. if a professor changes the syllabus at the last minute or some other last minute thing happens, it will not rock his world. So for me, I have been walking a tightrope between letting him have some say and making some things non-negotiable and even last minute if possible.. Yes, my dh doesn't get this either and doesn't think he is Aspie. What is working really well for me is dual credit through community college. I started talking to him about it at the beginning of 10th grade.. I REALLY want you to do Spanish at the cc. That way you get your high school credit and then you don't have to take it at your "real" college.. His first reaction was NOT positive.. But I talked it up the whole year and he grudgingly decided that would be a good idea. So in August before the class started, we went to the campus and we bought his books, got his parking sticker and ID. We then walked to his classes ( He took racquetball as well.) I had to drive him for about 2 weeks until he got his driver's liscence. Then he drove himself.. I don't think he slept before the first day of class. He was incredibly nervous.. and I think it was good that I was still driving him that week. But once he went, he realized..HEY, I can do this!! He never made any grade below 96 in that class.. So he is now in his 2nd semester. He got his id all on his own and will get his car sticker next year as well. On the first day of class, he went up to his prof and talked to her about possible conflicts between the final exam and his AP exams he is going to be taking.. He did this on his own!!!! But you can tell that this is his tendency to make sure everything is in order and he has little details worked out. But hey, he talked to an adult all on his own. He has really developed confidence this year. He is not a social butterfly, never will be. But I can text him to grab something at the store for me after his dual credit class and it doesn't rock his world. His brother and another 9th grader are taking the classes with him and he is a little mother hen to that 9th grader and makes sure his mother is there or the mom texts him and has him take him home.. CC is doing what I want it to do. I'm going to show him how to register and let him register for his fall classes and then let him do it in the spring. OH.. college visits. I started with a really good college that is 15 minutes from here. He has been there for homeschool special events as well as summer academic day camps there when he was younger. So in the fall of 10th grade, I signed him up for there college preview day for homeschoolers. He did NOT want to go. I talked it up and made it non-negotiable.. We went... he was VERY uncomfortable and nervous when we got there. But he followed the crowd and even went to classes. He REALLY liked talking to the computer professor and since it ended up being just one other boy and him with the professor, he did ask him some questions. He had a really good time and REALLY liked talking to the professor. I chose this college visit first because he was very familiar with it and it would be a good introduction into college visits. So in the spring, we went to Baylor. He's been there a couple of times since dh and I both went there. He had a ball there and wasn't very nervous since he has done it before. We signed him up for attending a computer science class, but since it was a lab, a professor spent an hour chatting with him and showing him around. He LOVED it . ( He did this without us. We dropped him at the class and left.) This past fall we went to TCU and again he had a great time. Again he visited with a professor and came out SO excited talking about discrete numbers and how interesting they were.:confused: So now our next hurdle.. With his ACT score, he qualified for a special weekend for computers science/engineering majors. They stay at the dorm for those majors and spend a day in class, spend the night, etc.. To be honest, he wasn't sure he wanted to do that... I think it will be good and help him make his decision. I also think he is going to have a blast. He has grudgingly agreed to it. I want to find something similar for TCU to help him as well. He'd qualify for the honors dorm there as there comp sci program is REALLY small there, so they don't have a dorm just for that. I just thought I would share about my journey. I see high school as the time to get them to prepare for life without me.. Do I wish he were in more extra-curriculars... YES, but he does a really good job with the computer stuff at church behind the scenes and it goes with his major, so we will call it good. He is also continuing with piano.. I know others on this board have much more severe aspie children and what I am suggesting would not work AT ALL!!! But what I am doing is working, so I'll keep at it. He is learning to cope.

What if you don't have FB or twitter????

:iagree: I've suggested this before!

I got the idea that these were two different children??? I almost posted thesame question. Distancia... are these two different situtations with two different daughters???? Otherwise, this doesn't make sense..

Ok.. it seems like most of you have strong feelings about kids not being alone with therapists... yet I think about physically abusive type people. Kids/women will not say ANYTHING in front of a person... you need to talk to them alone. Then I see senario #2 which probably applies more to the thread.. My oldest from the time he was around 2 until 6 or so would cry when I left him. EVERY SINGLE TIME. I'm talking screaming. I went to a parent's night out and it was my friend...he knew her and she had to hold him so he wouldn't run after me... Every single care provider would tell me that he would stop within 2 minutes when I left the room. I've had the same thing happen in the nursery at church..parents would just stay because little Johnny was upset... It took them 30 minutes to leave... Once they finally did Johnny was fine!!!! I really wished I could have been rude and said LEAVE NOW.. Seriously, they were not doing their child any good... Now my other 2 I could leave and they were fine. If they were ever upset about something, I took it seriously. But for my oldest that is what he needed.. So that is what I think the therapist was talking about...

We will be taking our travel trailer ( 30 ft) with our truck on a road trip in August. IT looks like Humboldt State Park won't accomodate us. We don't really like regular rv parks. We much prefer national, state or forest campgrounds. We don't need full hook-ups. Is there a place those of you from CA could recommend that would be close? Or are we stuck with a parking lot.... ( Since we have 3 kids..it just seems silly to pay 40 or more a night and then 15-30 dollars on top of that for them at a "regular" rv park!!!)

What worked for me: I needed to warn my child ahead of time, several days if at all possible. I made sure he knew it was non-negotiable. He normally had a good time. What didn't work was for us to say, "Let's go.. now.." Never worked. When he was in elementary school, he would cry but then come back from the event saying he had a great time!! The hardest age was 13/14...partially because of hormones. We had some serious blow-ups at that age. I try to let him have some choice, give him plenty of warning, but still make him do some things. This child is a junior and doing well with cc classes this year. He will never be a social butterfly, but he has improved greatly!!!

:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug::grouphug: Here are some more.. We are all in this together!!!! Hang in there!!! And do feel free to pm me.

Grin... it depends on the goals for your children. If your goal is Harvard or Yale, then you will regularly find kids who start taking them in 9th grade and kids that take 4 or more each year their junior and senior years... I would never put that much pressure on my child. Some people NEVER do any AP's, but do dual credit instead and their kids get into a university with no problem. Some people do nothing. My oldest will have doen 6 AP's.. He will also have taken 7 classes at the cc. I don't think my middle one is going to have that many AP exams, but he will have more cc classes, I think... But as I said, you do not necessarily NEED the AP's to make your kid stand out. Maybe they are an excellent horseman and spend a lot of time doing that. TCU said they had a lot of homeschoolers who were gifted in equestrian or music and chose to do homeschooling because it gave them more time to focus on their passions. They considered those children to stand out as well. Enjoy the journey.

I've never counted hours.. When they are finished, they are finished. Example: my oldest does Chalkdust math.. He typically finishes early around Feb or March.. It is looking like he will finish Precalc in April at the rate he is going.. On the other hand.. I'm guessing we will still be doing Geometry all summer and into the fall for my middle child. He will only get 1 credit for Geometry, even if it takes us 18 months to finish. As I said, my oldest did it in about 7. I have a syllabus for each class. When they have finished the material, they earn credit.

I called our local high school to see if I could arrange for my oldest to take his AP Chemistry exam. The counselor was really sweet, but she just doesn't know if anyone will take it. There are 22 people in the class. I guess the state has subsidized it in the past, so their students have only paid 25 dollars to take the exam. This year they have to pay the original 87. She expects that to hurt the AP exam. She said, people will pay 25 dollars on the off chance that they will score well enough to get credit. They won't do that for 87 dollars... She could let me know in March as she won't order the test until April 1st if she orders any. ( Last year they had a smaller class and no one took the exam.) I thought... "Off chance they will score well enough to get credit???????" When I took AP, you were ostracized if you didn't get a 4 or 5... I think most of the people who take the PA homeschoolers do well... Why bother to take an AP class if you are not going to take the test... How can you call it AP?? I found another district near me that was very friendly and would do both AP Chem and AP Gov.. Our lady was nice, but if no one had taken it, I might not have been able to find a spot in March...

Congrats!!! A 28 is AWESOME. Way to go!!!!:D

I'm betting your sons could get a free ride at cc.. I was just looking at our cc. For low income there are TONS of scholarships. PLUS.. there are academic scholarships if your ACT is 25 or above... I'm guessing that your boys could score that if what you are doing with TOG is any indication at all. I know several kids going to our cc working temporary jobs: college bookstore, tutoring center ( I bet your boys might be good at that too!), some work at our local downtown little bitty restaurants.. I have a college student that takes care of our animals when we go on vacation or to visit relatives.. One of my friends have sons that run their own lawn care service.. So they mow elderly people's lawns.. They are going to our local cc as well. Don't despair!!!

Ok.. what I would do: I would sit down with said 15yo and I would ask him what his goals were.. Then together look around at the options.. No.. I would not be planning on a free ride.. I'm not.. Look at apprenticeships, vo-tech, etc.. Financial aid might very well be possible for things like this. Would he be 1st generation college? Many times that might be possible. He could also work part time and go to community college. ( I know several kids doing that here.) Vo tech.. There are often financial programs... the state of Texas gives lots of money to those in financial need for programs like this. Are there any where you live??? If you could pm me some info, I'd be happy to look. I've been finding tons of scholarships for my friends.. Our electric co-operative gives scholarships based on financial need.. Then they have one where you ust show up to the meeting and they draw one 1,000 scholarship from the hat.. Rural co-operatives all over give scholarship money. I neverk knew that.. and you don't have to use it for a state college.. You can use it to go to our community college and do some of the trade courses for air conditioning and such... 60 percent of the kids in our public schools are on free lunch... They have tons of programs around here to try to encourage low income students... I promise.. not everything is fr middle class!!!

Yep.. that is what my dad told me. He wouldn't let me work in high school. He told me I would have my whole life to work. School was my job. He did expect me to get a summer job, but I had to quit when school started. My oldest is definitely following that route.. By the time he graduates he will have 18 hours in AP credit and 18 hours in dual credit.. So he will have already saved me a year of tuition. His scholarship potential is good, though I won't know for sure until next year..

I don't know it is part of Stephen F Austin university.. So I doubt it. And no I'm not looking for competitions right now. I was just trying to figure out what people did for high school... A lot could happen between now and then. By the time she gets to high school, they boys will be out of college.. So private school attendence might be workable!! She will be my only one left.. I'm just trying to give her the best base right now..if that makes sense..

Hi Tibbie, I'm not blue-collar, but I hope you'll let me chime in. How old are your children? What do they WANT to do when high school is over? What are their long term goals? Now, as far as being a drain.. I have two teenage boys: 14 and 16 ( both have birthdays in March). I do not take them hither and yon... I buy clothes for them, which isn't much: jeans at Walmart or JC Pinney, boring tennis shoes at Academy, they tend to get t-shirts... That is it... My kids tend to get 200-300 dollars total in cash/gift cards for Christmas and birthday from various relatives. I don't give them an allowance or any spending money.. My husband will occasionally pay them to do a chore like painting our shutters or chopping up wood and stacking it from a 200 year old tree that blew down.. To be honest, they never spend all of their money. They just don't do much. We go to movies as a family maybe 3 times a year..maybe. I'm not sure what they would spend their money on... They don't really go or do anything. Yes, homeschooling high school CAN be expensive, but it doesn't have to be. Yes, my oldest is taking PA Homeschooler classes, which can be expensive. For him it works. For my younger boy, the cc is working better. Our local cc is only 30 dollars an hour for dual enrollment. So I'm paying 90 dollars each semester for them to take Spanish. Dual credit is BIG around here with our cc. LOTS of homeschoolers have their child take enough dual credit in high school that they graduate with a high school diploma and an associate's degree. I'm thinking that may be the route I go with my middle child. They drive themselves to the college. They do all of it themselves. I'm not really involved anymore.. I'm showing both of them how to register when it is time to do it for next fall, so they will also do that. I don't know how the rest of your curriculum is, but if you attack ALL of your curriculum with ALL of your children with all the enthusiam/energy that you do with TOG as you described on the high school board, then it can be expensive and energy draining. What you do sounds SO AWESOME!!! But if you are feeling like you have to buy the resources and give that amount of time to every subject, I can see where that would be draining.. I would also wonder if the kids would expect learning to be that AWESOME all the time... I put my energy into a few things, but some subjects are just "get er done" Will history at the cc be as good as I could do at home... No, probably not. (I'm a former history/English teacher) But it will be good enough to get my son into college and save the mother/son battles, so it will be worth it to me.. But my goal has never been Ivy-League... College..yes.. And see that is the other question.. What will they be doing. Some homeschoolers go the trade route and our community college has some GREAT training programs: fire fighting, police, air-conditioning, computers, etc. They have great job placement as well. I don't know where you are in the country and part of this may be a location problem... If you are located in downtown Detroit that will be much harder than where I am in rural Texas... Look around at local community colleges and/or trade schools. That said, if your boys WANT college, then have them go for it... I guess I see high school as a time they take responsibilty for what they want to do. I am succeeding with my oldest: He is very driven and although he will not have a job, it is looking like his academic focus will enable him to pay for at least half and maybe all of college... I'm not there with my middle one, but he is only 9th grade. I am seeing glimmers.. My boys do their own laundry, cook and pretty much can run/have run the house.. They have learned that partially because I'm gone with my daughter and earlier in our schooling to take care of my father... I just couldn't do it all and had to have their help.. My boys don't do a lot of extra-curricular and sometimes I think they should do more... Still working on that part for me. I can't figure out how to get my middle one involved in SOMETHING... He has no interest... That is my struggle Just a few random thoughts... I may be asking you for some of your great TOG ideas when we start back with it again next year for year 1.. They sounded great!!!!

Yep,, this threw me for a loop as well. I've already started this. Plus, we are going to a music prep academy for the choir and violin lessons once a week ( But it is a FULL hour of driving away!) They have music theory in a music lab. Unfortunately it is the same time as her choir... When she gets too old for the choir, we might do that instead.. But then we may not do choir.. I can't handle that drive more than once a week. There was one week I was supposed to go every day in December because of performances with her violin and choir..

Just get ready. Our insurance went up 2,000 a year with our new teen driver with USAA

Ah.. so she goes to class there to participate.. Sigh.. then that won't work. These schools are too far away to go daily.... You don't know any in the Longview area do you??

Jean, If it helps I'm right there with you. For the first semester he made A's in Spanish and racquetball at the cc. He made a B in everything else. His English grade if very close to an A, however. He does enough, but he has no desire to do it well.

How involved do you have to be in the private school?? I looked on the list and there are not any schools listed from around here. There are a couple of schools in a town an hour away....

Grin.. I didn't stay in for long. I just hate making people mad.. My husband gets so upset. If he makes a small comment, I take it really hard. I always want the perfect grade.