We've been out of the US for a very, very long time and are now moving back. My oldest is graduating. We definitely want to have a graduation party for him with at least our immediate families (which is already a fairly large group). What I'm unsure about is all the other friends we have in the area who have kept in touch with us over the years - some of whom are very close to us. What I DON'T want is for anyone to feel like we are somehow asking them for money. On the other hand there are families who have gotten to know our son when we were back in the US for an extended period a year ago, and I know they wouldn't feel that way. How do you decide whom to invite?? I wouldn't want anyone to feel badly that they were not invited, but, again, I wouldn't want anyone to feel like we are asking them to give money. I also feel very out of the loop about these things, etiquette-wise. Are there general rules to follow about this? Could I add something about "no gifts" or is that strange? TIA!

MIT OCW DS used this for differential equations and enjoyed it.

Where: Cornell University College of Engineering Why: He will be a Rawlings Cornell Presidential Research Scholar which means he'll get his own funding for research and be part of a small group receiving faculty mentorship for basically any area of research he is interested in. DS has stars in his eyes. Major: Right now he is thinking Electrical Engineering, though Engineering Physics is also appealing. Other info: We just received the reply today to our financial aid appeal (we have an unusual situation), and they came back with an unexpectedly generous package, which brings the total to far less than our EFC. DS was also selected to be a Jacobs Engineering scholar. Party in our house today!!

DS says that it was not much more prep. In addition to the material from Mr. Moskaluk, he took a practice test or two from the Barrons' review book as well as the one in the College Board SAT 2 book. He suggests taking a practice test now to see how he'll do (just know that the Barron's tests are always a bit harder than the real thing.)

DS took it in May in the midst of all the APs. He felt well prepared and got an 800. If you are taking AP Chem with ChemAdvantage, tell Mr. Moskaluk that you are also taking the Chem SAT and he will give you some extra materials to study for that.

Excited to say that DS has been invited to be a Rawlings Cornell Presidential Research Scholar at Cornell University. We had never even heard about this program before, but if we had we would never have imagined that DS could be chosen; he has zero research experience. It makes me think that someone took his essays seriously, and they were worth all that effort! It looks like an incredible opportunity, and he is very excited about it. We're happy he has some great options; will be so relieved when the decision is finally made! (Have been having difficulty logging in and it just got fixed!)

I love Dickens - nearly every one. PP was my least favorite. I think Our Mutual Friend was maybe the most fun read (and there is a decent BBC movie version). I remember reading ATOTC in high school and not loving it at the time, but I was unaware of the relevant history. DH was forced to read Great Expectations in 8th grade and detested it so much that hearing "Dickens" makes him nauseas. I feel the timing is sensitive - you need to gauge your student's interest/readiness.

Thank you! This is what I saw on their site as well. I've been considering Thinkwell for a long time but hadn't looked through the details. Looks good.

Sorry if this is a dumb question. I've never purchased a "12 month web access" type course before. If you purchase it now, does the 12 month access start now? In which case it wouldn't work if I want the course for next school year, right? Or do you control when the access begins somehow?

Hilarious!! :laugh: That's awesome.

So in reading through that CC thread it seems that if a student takes the ACT cold, with little prep, and then digs in and preps a LOT before taking it again, they need to understand that a large increase in score will necessitate them retaking the test a third time. There seems to be no record of a student actually winning a challenge of the cheating accusation (by providing documentation or character references or whatever)- they need to retest and get a score within a few points of that flagged score. This seems important information to spread around about the ACT. Don't take it without prep, and if you do work hard for a retest, understand that you might need to take it again to prove your score increase. DS has a good friend who didn't prep and got a 28. He retook it 3 additional times, with the last score being a 34. We both thought that he was foolish for actually retaking the test so many times when he could have just taken multiple practice tests. But his score increased incrementally, so now he won't be accused of cheating. If he had done what we thought was better - just practice testing and prepping on his own more, his last score of 34 would have been flagged.

DS was accepted at Georgia Tech! :hurray: Excited for him. And my thoughts immediately go to the WTM forum folks - everything we needed to know about the college admission process we learned from the generous people here. :001_cool:

My DS enjoyed using MIT OCW for multivariable (as well as differential equations). https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-02sc-multivariable-calculus-fall-2010/ He only occasionally used the textbook Vector Calculus by Marsden and Tromba.

Just wondering if anyone here is a "Premium" member at the Dyslexic Advantage site and if they think it is worth the cost? $60/ year seems high to me.

Yes, I'm happy to sit and type for her if I need to. She has used the free Dance Mat Typing off and on, but we just recently started TTRS (she is dyslexic; she doesn't love TTRS so far but I think its working.) We're a bit late to get serious about typing for her. :blushing:

Athena's Academy looks great! I wish she were interested in all things reptilian because that would be too cool if she took the class taught by your daughter, Dmmetler! My boys would have loved that. Sigh. Anyway, I love the look of their community. Do you happen to know how their Minecraft courses work? (Or even how to find the ones that use Minecraft? A simple "Minecraft" search doesn't work.) Thanks!

She's working on her typing - it's definitely not up to the level where she can do it easily. I would probably need to help her if she needed to respond real time to something.

WOW, Outschool looks AMAZING! And some of the classes haven't started yet. Since I only started looking now, I was assuming most options would be for this Fall, but if we can find short classes for this semester, that would be great. I love their classes, too - they look very fun and right up this kid's alley. Looks like the other two you mentioned are more traditional in terms of timing, but I will go through them while making plans for this Fall. Thank you!!

Does this exist? I have an extroverted 5th/6th grade DD who would benefit from a socially interactive class. Right now we're living in a place with very little available in terms of IRL classes she can take. The subject matter could be almost anything - if it was a fun class, we could work it in somehow.

I'm not familiar with the program, but we relied on their decodable readers. LOVE them! http://eps.schoolspecialty.com/products/literacy/readers/spire-decodable-readers/about-the-program

Timberly, have you started using this yet? I feel like demos always look great, but I'd love to hear from people who are actually using it. The link you included says that it is Read & Write - does that come with Co Writer? Have you used the reading function on it, and do you like it? The writing functions look awesome as well - would love to hear how your DS is using this.

I'm using Snap N Read now on my computer and on DS's. I LOVE that it can scan text in a PDF or any image. It's a bit buggy sometimes, but overall it's the best I've found. Thanks! I think I learned of it from a post you made on a different thread about it.

Ruth, I just read your posts to my son, and I think you've sold him on this - at least he's willing to give it a shot! Yay! He is 16 with a busy schedule, so not sure he can do 30 min. daily, but we'll see. My 10 year old dyslexic daughter also wants to try, but her typing needs to improve a bit first. Thanks again!

So I just realized that have something that will read Word documents already, but not something for PDFs or other online text. I watched the video from Timberly's post and see that it is actually Read&Write, which is one of the numerous things I've already tried - their free version, which has extremely limited functionality. I need to hear from people who are actually using it before I spring for the full-priced version. I've found that the demos always look so good, but the trial versions are terrible. So then I'm hesitant to pay for the full version.

That sounds awesome, but I don't see that mentioned on their website - it only addresses the writing features (which are really cool). I don't see any mention of CoWriter READING for you. Do you have a link to that info?