Wow. Between the thieves and the laws, she is stuck in a tough spot.

I would keep quiet about the prescription and then perhaps get only one week's worth out at a time. She could keep them in a vitamin bottle if needed, so as not to advertise what she had. Certainly multiple locks would help discourage would-be thieves also.

FYI, if a rented or loaned book gets wet, you might be able to save it. Dd's supposedly spill proof coffee mug spilled in her backpack all over about $250 worth of textbooks that were loaned from the student bookstore to pseo students. I researched the problem and then used cotton swabs to gently dab hydrogen peroxide and then a weak vinegar solution on the books to get rid of the stain and restore the pH of the paper. Then I separated the treated pages with tissue and put a weight on the book while it dried. Finally, I carefully ironed the wrinkled pages smooth. It looked pretty much like new when I was done. Yes, it took a lot of time, but getting "paid" $250 for three hours work isn't all that bad in my mind. :) The ladies at the book return are famous for their hawkeyed detection of damage. They passed the books without a second glance.

I am partial to new office supplies. I bought dd several different types of "post it" notes and tabs, some nifty new highlighter markers, a couple of new pens and pencils, and a funky eraser thing that looks like a mechanical pencil but is full of just the white eraser, which comes out like the pencil leads do in normal mechanical pencils (and this has been her favorite thing from the whole gift box :huh: ) I also bought several of her favorite single serving yoghurts (she commutes to cc and lives at home) and quite a lot of her favorite fruits. Strangely enough, she also requested double the amount of fresh vegetables we usually eat, said snacking on them raw helped her to think.

Ohio University, DD of hillfarm

As I have mentioned, DD did her Jr and sr years of high school through DE at the local cc. She will have earned 60 credit hours that will transfer to the university. OU has 3 tiers of classes required by the university, then each college or school at the university has their own gen ed requirements, and then finally there are the requirements for each major and minor. It is very confusing. One interesting thing is that since she has so many credit hours already, she will be allowed to register for her classes when the juniors do instead of waiting to register with the rest of the first year students. If any here are looking at incredibly full classes that are difficult to get into, perhaps some DE credits could help your student get that critical priority boost come registration time. If you are trying to decide between DE at a cc or AP, perhaps you might be able to get some extra mileage out of the DE.

Hi, (Back after a long hiatus) My dd did full-time, DE courses for her last 2 years of high school. The program is free to us, all the money changes hand at the state level, we never even see it. However.... when we go to the community college bookstore to pick up her books, they do give us a receipt showing the cost of the books with a -0- balance due. Her last semester, for books for 5 cc classes, the total bill was $1,128.75. The biggest offender was a paper back, medium sized book, Small Business Management, which would have cost her $298.00, had it not been for the post secondary program. The instructor covered the material, and tested the students, on about half of the contents. This is inexcusable! I nearly cried when I saw that receipt. It was free for us, but my heart was broken for the people in our community who had graduated from high school and were trying to better themselves by attending the cc. How can people handle these ridiculous prices? I realize that they can rent, buy used, etc., but this system has reached the point of insanity.

nm

Role: information and entertainment, I live in a rural area at the end of a dead-end road, so it gave me a lot of mental stimulation and socialization with adults. I think it is unwise to think of anything online as a private or safe space. I doubt anyone has noticed, but I have cut way back on my presence here. And most of the time when I am here, I lurk only and don't comment. I used to feel that my opinions were welcomed and perhaps even helpful to others occasionally. However within the last year or so, I have felt very out of step with many who post here. It is not due to diversity - in other groups I participate in, I find the differences enlightening and thought provoking. Here it usually spirals out of control and quickly turns rude and spiteful. And I learned long ago not to bother when the other party is focused on taking snarky pot shots rather than truly trying to understand and willing to hear. Effective communication cannot take place in that type of environment. IMO some here are more enamored of conflict than with education or family life.

I think you are finding fault that doesn't exist in many cases. We gave our dd a cell phone early out of a need to coordinate efforts and streamline communications, not due to fear or coddling. I don't get why so many are totally willing to have their dc call on a total stranger's phone but not to have one of their own, conveniently tucked away until it is needed. That seems rather hypocritical to me. It's okay to use someone else's phone but not to own one? What's the big fear factor here?????

I will be a dissenting voice. We got my dd a cheap (around $15) Tracfone when she was not much older than that. It cost us around $10 per month to operate. So if it got lost, it wasn't that big of a deal. The reason we got it for her was because at the time, our family was doing a lot of animal shows (dogs, horses, sheep, chickens). It was quite possible that one of us would be at the other end of a show arena, coming out of a class, and needed to check to see when our next class was going to start in another showring elsewhere. Dd's phone enabled us to coordinate what sometimes amounted to some pretty tricky logistics. It would have been an imposition for her to have had to go around begging to use someone else's phone, when most of them were just as harried and distracted as we were. Honestly, other than during the shows, dd rarely remembered to even keep her phone charged up. We all thought of it more as part of our show gear rather than her personal phone. Actually, many show families used more expensive walkie talkies before the easy availability of cheap cell phones. IMO, it depends on the child, the situation and the environment. If it works for you, the heck with what others think. If it doesn't work, then at around a $30 outlay, you can toss it or give it to an older relative or family friend kid. I guess I am unclear on why so many seem to think it is such a bad idea? Other than risking a rather minimal amount of money, is the concern regarding possible misuse? Turning the kid into a phone-fiend too early in life? All I can say is that my kid seemed to have no ill effects from having a cell phone when she was 6 or 7 yo. She is a teen now, and is on one a lot, but no more, and perhaps less, than most of her peers. She never misused it, fully understanding that it was only a convenience for the show venues. She never lost or broke it. she never used it inappropriately. I say, if she is old enough to know how to use it and how to talk over the phone, and if she is obedient enough to understand and obey proper usage rules, then why not?

Regarding not being able to fail many students, I wonder what effect the performance-based funding models being adopted by so many states will have on things. Dd just did a paper on this and one of the sources she used had this, "The centerpiece of Obama's 2020 Goals include increasing the number of college graduates with all Americans completing at least one year of college." I was rather shocked when she shared that. I guess I have been living under a rock or something. Funding tied to enrollment is problematic, but lowered standards are an unsurprising defect of the performance-based models that put such an emphasis on students graduated.

I am nearing the end of my homeschooling journey, as my dd is now doing a full-time DE program for 11th and 12th grade and will then proceed on to 4 yr college. Regarding this question, if you want to know what an acceptable level of education is, contact half a dozen employers in your dc's chosen field and find out what they require for new hires. This does not account for kids who change course midstream or those who will find themselves working in areas that do not currently exist, but it will reveal the basic requirements your dc is most likely to need. What type and level of education would make the child employable in their chosen careers, what would it take to make them able to successfully compete against other applicants? It can be a real eye opener to be standing in the admissions office and find out that your dc cannot take any of the math classes he needs because he can't get a qualifying score on the math placement exam. Or needs to take several semesters of remedial English to place into the needed English classes. Or to be standing in the office of the local electrician's union and discover that they strongly recommend certain math or physics classes that you didn't require your ds to take so that the applicants can pass the basic certification exams. I know of homeschool families who have experienced all of these, and none would have considered themselves to have been neglecting their dc's education. The future admissions officer or employer doesn't care whether Mom couldn't make Sally settle down and learn how to write a decent paragraph, they don't care whether the family had a rough year when there were several illnesses in the family. They don't care whether the parent educator was suffering from severe, clinical depression and didn't bother to teach most of the time, nor whether the family put more stock in "lifestyle skills" learning. They care whether Susie can achieve the minimum score on her placement exam or jump in and be able to demonstrate mastery of the basic skills needed to do the job she was hired to do. From what I have seen lately, if Tommy can't measure up, there are dozens of other kids who can who are competing with him for the opening. There re always stories of exceptions, but they are just that - exceptions, not the rule. Most of our dc will not be admitted or hired because they have some special snowflake trait that makes them worth accepting even though they are not qualified. Most will be told to go home and pass Algebra 2 (or whatever class/skill they are missing), then come back and try again. I think that we have lost our way because we see education as an end, in and of itself, rather than a tool to reach a desired end. So we quibble over whether anyone should require Johnny or Jane take geometry or calculus, and argue who is qualified to judge their progress. We miss out on the fact that the future employer or academic institution has every right to determine what is required for employment or admission and will absolutely sit in judgment of our dc's grades, courses studied, quality of education, etc. I recently saw one sad case where the student was told to go back and do a couple of years of remedial courses. Of course this was terribly demoralizing and instead he got a minimum wage job in fast food service. I don't know if he will ever be able to rise above the circumstances, pick up that knowledge on his own, and start college several years later than his peers. There's nothing wrong with food service, if that is what a person wants to do, but it is so sad when they had such big dreams but were blocked by inadequate education from pursuing them. Regarding the OP, I don't think additional legislation or government regulation is the answer. I do think that if we, as homeschoolers, want to avoid that, then we do need to cultivate a culture of diligence rather than neglect. It may not be the ultimate answer, but it will perhaps delay the changes. When someone laughs about taking a month off with the dc to deep clean their house as a "home economics" project, then we need to communicate our surprise and ask how they plan to make up the missed school work, not chuckle conspiratorially and share how we bent the rules and labeled babysitting younger siblings as studies in "child development". We need to share how we decided to administer a standardized test on our own (not at all state-mandated) to get an accurate snapshot of how our dc are progressing and to get a good overview of skills that need to be addressed. We need to help lift everyone up, not use our accomplishments to beat others down. We need to communicate, "Anna did really well in the county spelling bee last year. Would your dd like to come and participate with her this year?" instead of, "Anna did really well in the county spelling bee last year, too bad your little darling struggles so in that area. Some kids will just never get it and it's silly to keep beating your head against a brick wall." We need to come alongside new homeschoolers and encourage them to set realistic expectations and help them find real solutions if they get stuck on something and their dc's education is not proceeding well. When critics complain, rather than circling the wagons and vilifying the critics or ignoring them, we need to listen to what they say and look for kernels of truth, then open a dialog within our communities regarding how to address the problems. A rather snarky acquaintance of mine complained how so many homeschoolers are so poor at public speaking, since they never address a crowd outside their own family. So our homeschool 4-H group moms decided it was a valid concern and we worked hard to remedy it. For several years, our dc dominated at all the county public speaking competitions and got a firm handle on that important skill that they had formerly lacked. Regarding those who are truly neglecting their dc's education, I'm not sure what can be done. As so many others have said in this thread, if we turn them in, who do we really trust to make things better? Who is qualified to evaluate the claims of neglect? What "correction" is appropriate and enforceable? Other than seeing to our own households and encouraging our friends and acquaintances to also strive for educational appropriateness, if not excellence, I'm not sure whether anything else we can do would have the desired impact of stopping the neglect without initiating infringement upon the freedoms that the rest of us enjoy. No easy answers.

We did traditional homeschooling from K through 8th grade, then one of the online public schools for 9th and 10th as a "halfway house", and then dd started a dual enrollment program at our local community college for 11th and 12th. She is in 11th right now. One of the striking differences/benefits I noticed was that most of the other students (young people through adult ages) are not trained to think. Dd was able to fall back on some of the things she remembered from Fallacy Detective and Thinking Toolbox from back in 6th and 7th grades. So with my homeschool mindset, I got the books back out and she reviewed them again. She consistently gets top marks for "well thought-out" essays and papers. This is an instance of using homeschooling review techniques to polish a skill in an area where she was already strong. Unfortunately, math is not her strong suit and she needs to be able to place high enough on the Compass entrance exam to place into the math classes she needs for her major and for her high school credits. We will probably homeschool Algebra 2 in order to prepare for the test. I like knowing that we can supplement whatever we need, whenever we need. Having homeschooled previously has made me aware of what types of curricula are out there and given me the confidence to know that we can use it at will. So far as the impact of parent-directed education, I have a strong commitment to achieving a particular quality standard for dd's education. Even when we were homeschooling, if she wanted to study something I couldn't teach myself, I would outsource it (Chinese language classes, for example). In a lot of ways, I think I consider community college to be outsourcing taken to the highest degree. I still consider myself to be responsible for her education and I still evaluate the quality and appropriateness of all of the classes she takes. I monitor her grades closely. It is my intention to slowly transfer the reins over to dd during these next 3 semesters so that she will be ready to be independent by the time she leaves for 4 yr college. I hope that she will still discuss various administrative and academic topics with dh and I during the time she will be in college, but I believe that by that time, she should take responsibility for her decision making and consequences.

I am very much pro-gun. I live on a farm where a gun is a tool to keep predators from killing our livestock and I am a certified shooting sports instructor. However, even I think this is a bad idea. I agree that guns, alcohol and immaturity are a terribly dangerous mix. I am also a women's self defense instructor and I think that would be a much more practical and effective solution. Teach young people how to defend themselves with their bare hands or with "found objects" (rolled magazines, chairs, hard back books, pens, etc.). Because a large number of women I know who have concealed carry permits do not carry their gun on their person. It is often in a purse or briefcase. Which usually is not close at hand during a party or date situation. There are so many factors contributing to the problem of rape on college campuses. Everything from the "boys will be boys" attitude, to predatory use of drugs and alcohol, to recreational use of drugs and alcohol by victims, to a serious lack of situational awareness and application of common sense, a lack of concern on the part of administrators, and sometimes even a lack of urgency on the part of law enforcement (evidenced by the 400,000 untested rape kits languishing in law enforcement evidence lockers). This is not a simple problem and it will not have a simple answer. Guns will not provide the "magic bullet" in this case.

This is one of the reasons I really like the PSEO/dual enrollment option. For 11th and 12th grades, dd is taking all her classes at the local community college. We both realize that cc is not exactly the same as the local university, but more like a halfway measure. She is learning how to manage her own communications with administration and faculty. She is slowly learning to manage her own work load and schedule. She is learning what to expect from various professors. I do feel it is good preparation. Way back when I was in college, I worked 3 summers as an RA for a dorm of provisional students. They would be admitted full-time if they could get a C or better in 2 summer classes. I'm sure most of them had received plenty of parental input about working hard and making the grades. As their RA, I was very clear in my introductory speech about what it would take to get the grades and what to do if any of them had difficulty and needed help. There were special tutors on campus available to help them. We offered study groups and learning circles. Faculty offered extra office hours and meeting times. We did everything we could think of to help these kids achieve academic success. And yet, after 5 years, the program was discontinued due to such low numbers of students achieving the necessary grades to continue on. IMO, the problem stemmed from the fact that few of these students had actually bought into the relationship between their college education and their future. They saw college as a reward for doing well in high school, not as a launch pad to prepare for their future careers. Excessive partying was rampant. I think most of them had little experience with dealing with negative consequences of their own making and minimal experience with self control and delayed gratification. Several seemed in total disbelief when they failed to meet the grade requirements and were refused admission. I think they really thought either their parents could fix it for them or that the college administration would give them another chance. As a parent, I am trying to ease my dd into a role where she freely and frequently discusses her educational options and struggles with dh and I, but one in which she realizes that she is the person actually driving the situation. I am trying to give her lots of practice in identifying work load and balancing that with her social life and other obligations. I frequently introduce her to recent graduates who can give her insight to the fact that college is just the beginning, not the wrap party. So far, with a few bumps in the road, it seems to be working. After having said all that, I must add that if I am contributing substantial financial support to ANYTHING (dd's education, a charity, a business investment, etc.), I fully expect to receive periodic and accurate evaluations of how things are going and areas that need improvement. I refuse to bankroll anyone, particularly my beloved dd, and enable them to run headlong down the road to ruin.

I worked this from the other side. I was a tour guide at a living history farm that hosted hundreds of school kids each week. To be honest, none of us tour guides wanted to take the homeschool group tours. Too many people who thought the rules did not apply to them and too many little, self-important "geniuses" who were looking for an audience. Sorry, kid, I don't really care whether or not you come from a family of free thinkers and don't like to obey rules; when I tell you that the wagon on the tractor swings wide and you need to stay well off the path, I am not joking. And no, Jr., I don't really care to hear your thoughts on heirloom seeds, regardless of how impressed your parents and grandparents may be. I have only 30 minutes to explain some important information that did not come from a cable gardening program to everyone in your group. The purpose of this visit is for your group to learn about historic farming practices, not for you to practice your public speaking skills. So zip it. If you do have an honest question that is not intended to be a thinly disguised attempt for you to go into orator mode, I'll be glad to answer it as we walk from point A to point B or at the end of the tour. Hey, folks, if you ignore my repeated requests for everyone to form a single file line for this part of the tour, don't gripe to me about all the things you missed because you got ahead of me and didn't pay attention to my presentation or had moved on before I was able to call your attention to certain things. Tough luck for you. Wish you weren't so special that you couldn't wait in line with the others. No, I can't walk you back through the exhibit on a private tour. My next 50 students are waiting at the gate - in an orderly line. Of course I am not saying that all the public and private school kids were perfect. However, by and large, they were much better at following basic instructions and cautions, moving in an orderly line so that all could see and hear the presentations, holding their questions until the end, and generally being more respectful of the tour guides. I think the happy medium must be there somewhere between the extremes of the complete automatons with no love of learning or curiosity and all those special snowflakes who will never know much more than they do now because at the ripe, old age of 10, they are so sure they know it all. If I had a dollar for every doting parent who pulled me aside and started with, "My son wants to tell you about..." Um, no, that's not why we are here. He is currently supposed to be listening and learning more about the topic. Not to mention that the others on the tour have paid to hear a tour guide explain the information, not the views of a 10yo with little to no actual experience. (Time did not permit both. We had a scant 30 minutes to physically move from beginning to end of our section and to cover certain, specific information. No time for Jr. to pontificate.) Not all homeschoolers acted this way, but it was an issue with more than 50% of all homeschool groups. There were many "cringe-worthy" episodes that made me embarrassed for all homeschoolers, since I know so many tar us all with the same brush. I was surprised to discover what an issue this was. Perhaps we need to make civil group behavior, polite interaction with authority, and basic humility a larger part of the topics taught in homeschools.

And therein lies part of the problem. This is only the second week of school and this is only the second day of class for her M/W classes. So she hasn't had time to develop any "cred" with any of these teachers. Oh well, I think she has done all she can. It's still snowing and tomorrow may be a little iffy also. Such is life in a rural area, with unpaved roads that don't get much attention during bad weather. Also, I am hearing about problems with the local public schools, which did open this morning as usual, but after several hours of snow the buses are having trouble bringing the children back home. It's not that we get so much snow, but that it often comes in conjunction with ice and also that our roads are torturous - dozens of sharp curves and many with 30 - 90' drop-offs on one or both sides. And then, the fact that our little township doesn't have a whole lot of snow removal equipment. But that wouldn't have helped much today anyway. This am I tried to take dh to the Dr and we were right behind the snowplow, which was able to remove most of the snow but none of the ice. We had to turn around and come back home and dh had to submit to my doctoring instead of professional care. The reason she asked about assignments is that one of the instructors is known to give assignments in class that must be completed during class time and turned in before the students leave class for the day.

Dd attends a local community college PSEO program. Today our weather is bad and our roads are impassible. I have no idea of whether it is the same in the town where the college is 35 miles away. She emailed all of her teachers for today's classes and told them she couldn't get in and asked if there were any assignments, especially any that she could submit online, for today. She also called and left messages on their phones. What else should she do to indicate that 1.) This is beyond her control, she actually wants to be there rather than here, and 2.) She is a diligent student and wants to complete everything required, not get out of anything due to the snow? Between us, there is absolutely no way she could have gone in. Dh is sick and we tried to get him to the Dr. this am, but even though we were driving behind the scraper/salt truck, we had to turn around and return home after a couple of miles. And secondly, there is no way in the world I would send my 16yo, brand new driver out on roads even half this bad. So anyway, she doesn't want to make a bad impression on her instructors and is worried about missing class. I'd appreciate any suggestions. thanks.

I definitely agree with making yourself known to the professor, but it seems like what she described from yesterday was definitely well over the top. I mean seriously, how do you respond to someone who says, "I was featured in the recent college brochure and I must say, my hair looked gorgeous!"? One of the boys literally brought that up in class. I'd have been rolling my eyes too. :001_rolleyes: I also think there is a difference between judging to make one feel superior and evaluating based on behavior. My personal opinion is that this young man is very self impressed, based on what he says and how he behaves. (The last time I saw him at a local football game, he was offering to sign autographs for the preteen girls.) His behavior doesn't make me feel superior, it would however, make me feel irritated if it takes up too much class time. Dd is more concerned about making a good academic impression on the professor through pertinent class participation and diligent application. This is a PSEO program at a local community college and this class is not in dd's major department. I had a wonderful personal friendship as well as academic relationship with my college advisor and I will certainly encourage dd to be sure to make herself known to her major professors when she gets to the 4-year school.

Today was dd's first day back after the holiday break. She mentioned that she feared she would develop eye strain. Not from reading but from rolling her eyes so much! She says that in both classes she had today there were a number of students who seemed to be competing for the professor's attention. There are a couple of boys we have known in the past who are smarmy in the extreme (love this Google definition: "ingratiating and wheedling in a way that is perceived as insincere or excessive"). What was worse, she said that in that class there was an older female student who seemed to be trying to "out-smarm" the boys. Her other class is an art history class, fairly small with only 10 students. She said they all seemed to be trying to impress the professor with how sensitive and artistic they were. She added that she had never seen such poster people for the definition of "bohemian". However, to her it seemed to be so contrived and formulaic that it actually lacked any individuality or creativity. I think it is going to be an interesting semester... Are these "apple polisher" and "look at me!" attitudes common in college classrooms these days? I don't remember it from waaaay back when I was in school, although it is possible that I was so preoccupied with other social matters that I missed it.

Dh recently reminded dd to check her school's online message system to see if any of the instructors had given assignments to be turned in on the first day of class. Sure enough, one had. Her anthropology professor wants the first two chapters read and a series of questions answered, to be turned in on the first day of class. I think he is in for an uphill climb this semester, though. He sent the assignment email. Then he sent one asking students to respond so that he could verify everyone was receiving the emails and commented that they would be using the assignment portion of the school's online system quite a bit, referring to it by name. His third email was based on the fact that while not everyone enrolled had responded to let him know they were receiving the emails, many of those who did were not even familiar with the fact that there was an assignment component of the computerized system. Poor guy. Class starts next Tuesday. I wonder what percentage of students will come prepared? Good luck to everyone heading back for second semester.

I did a lot of folk dance performing in college and throughout my 20's, and made pretty decent money at it. However, it is definitely sporadic and it does help to be in a metropolitan area with lots of ethnic communities and organizations. My major was unrelated. However, several years later, I became a licensed massage therapist. This definitely helped me as a dancer, enabled me to barter for lots of cool opportunities with other dancers (seminars, trips, high profile gigs, etc.), and in many ways, gave me an automatic pool of potential clients - since other dancers were always getting injured and seeking a therapist who was familiar with the physical demands of their art. What I later learned is that massage therapy (and I assume similarly physical therapy, kinesiology, etc.) is tremendously flexible and can be applied many different client groups. For example, when I began to think about having children, I took some additional classes and specialized in pediatric massage for a time. Your dd could focus on sports application, therapeutic and rehab, seniors, pediatric, or whatever. So it could go hand in hand with her dance career or could be a separate backup that would allow her to follow other interests simultaneously or to take advantage of lucrative markets that could enable her to build up a dance school. Training in these other health fields would also be a plus that could attract parents to bring their children to her school. (We have significant training in exercise physiology and are focused on introducing dance in a way that enhances your child's natural physical development, rather than in a risky way that can result in untimely injuries.) And of course, should her interest in dance ever wane, these health related fields usually have plenty of job openings in most areas. Many of these specialties have licensure requirements. She could take off a few years to raise her dc and, as long as she has kept up with the required CEU's, she could jump back in whenever she was ready.

Thanks for the info regarding weeder classes. I thought that was what they were. If a student has to take one of them, what is the best way to get a decent grade? All I can think is to always ask around before taking a class to get an idea of how hard it will be, how fair, how reasonable, etc. and then to stay in close communication with the professor to be sure you are studying the right material. Do instructors not get grief from the administration if they have a high number of kids failing a particular class? Do the students not complain?

I'm kind of dense about some of this stuff. Tell me what a "weeder" class is. Thanks!