I agree. It is really a very effective way for kids to start to develop critical thinking skills and perspective on the passage of time. It is fun to compare the future predictions from our old set of 1960s Childcraft encyclopedias with what has happened today. One of the predictions was that we'd all have our own "answer machine" in our house where we'd be able to type in questions and get back answers. Not too far off Google, but sadly I don't have my own personal hovercraft to drive me from place to place.

Yes, I think you'll find it is self correcting over time and there's no need to worry about it. I can be a bit like a freight train picking up speed - the more they read the more of a structure they have of information in their heads and the more they learn. Most kids continue to self correct as they read and learn more about new topics. I bet years from now some topic will come up that you assume he knows nothing about it and it will turn out he knows quite a bit and it came from some book he's reading during this time period. While it may look from the outside like surely that can kid can't be getting anything out of that book that is so far over their head, it can be amazing how much they are filing away.

One approach is to just be gushy positive "we couldn't be more proud of her"... "she absolutely loves it and it is so great to see her happy".... "She's incredibly lucky to have these opportunities and she's doing such a fantastic job with all of it" This is the approach we've used for haters and unless people are flat out jerks it is hard for most people to respond to 100% enthusiasm and happiness with negativity.

Ethics. He was VP at the time. Mostly I remember lots of security.

George Bush at mine too. No girl speaking about the mountains though so I guess we didn't go to the same school. ;-)

Congrats! We opted to save scores and were glad because the university required official scores for dual enrollment courses. A photocopy or word from SET would not have been sufficient. Colleges are not going to hold a 7th graders verbal score against them. They know lots of kids do talent search and that the scores typically go up a lot. Really they've got far more pressing matters to focus on in the limited time reviewing applications and every one will tell you they disregard lower scores and only consider the higher scores. In my experience many early college kids list SET but most kids of traditional age don't, simply because they are really tight on space and have other stuff that is more recent.

One thing to know is that college varies widely in the type and quality of advising they provide. While I don't necessarily think parents should advise their students what courses to take, I do think it is quite reasonable to keep some dialogue going. Many colleges offer online course management systems that will show what courses the student has completed and what options they have to complete various requirements. I think it is a good idea to set the policy that once a semester you will sit down together and take a look at grades, major, and progress to degree. Some young people are more open to parental opinions than others, but really some kids kind of float along and it wouldn't occur to them to consider options such as an internship or a double major.

One really tough thing with two year schools is that it is almost impossible to do accurate statistics on completion and transfer rates. People use community colleges for a wide variety of purposes that aren't always about completing a degree or transferring. As far as evaluating the community college, I suggest... 1. spend time looking through the course offering for the current semester. You can tell quite a lot just from that. What is the highest level of math they offer? Do they offer any honors courses? 2. ask what kind of advising they offer - who does the advising? are they trained and if so how? do students have an assigned advisor or just see whatever random person happens to be in the office that day? 3. look at their website - how easy is it to find degree requirements and the path to graduation? 4. ask what resources they have for students who want to transfer - do they have a transfer advisor? 5. hang out on campus for the day - sit in on classes, sit in the coffee shop and see what it is like. 6. Do they have a Phi Theta Kappa chapter? What other organizations are there on campus? What concerns me most at our local community college is that a lot of students are just floating through taking random courses without a clear degree plan in mind and they never see the same advisor more than once. Our state has one of the best articulation agreements in the country so it is very easy to transfer from community college to a four year public university having fully met general education requirements, but a lot of students do not understand how the system works and don't plan appropriately. So, even in the best case scenario kind of situation it can still be really tough for students to make best use of that system. Here's some information on my site that you might find to be helpful. http://homeschoolsuccess.com/community-college-for-homeschoolers/

While proof of previous accomidations is helpful with the College Board and ACT for testing, many college disabilities offices will tell you that they do not want to see these documents. Some will look at them but many others want nothing to do with it because they don't want to give students or parents the impression they are bound by previous accomidations. There are significant differences between the laws governing accommidations for K-12 and college For sure students should understand that it is perfectly fine for students to receive accomidations for the first time in college. That's the case for many homeschoolers. Especially for strictly medical disabilities (vision, hearing, mobility, etc.) documentation can be really straight forward and easy. For vision stuff we needed a single letter from the opthalmologist and one meeting with the disability office. Not at all hard and zero feeling that we were having to convince them or fight the system.

For recreational math type of books try anything by Martin Gardner - he wrote the math recreation column for Scientific American for many years and his books are great. Also, Raymond Smullyan and Ian Stewart. You probably can find quite a few good titles really inexpensively used on Amazon.

While ultimately it will be on her to follow through, for this initial step of contacting the campus disability office I personally suggest treating that as mandatory just like any other step in the college process such as filling out paperwork for the dorm, sending in a deposit, etc. If down the road she doesn't need accommodations that's fine but for now she needs to meet with someone in the disabilities office and you need to help her obtain required paperwork from the doctor's office. Offer to write the initial contact email with her. Offer to go to the initial meeting with her if needed. But, the meeting and paperwork are not optional in my opinion. I'd keep in mind that even at a small school there all sorts of unanticipated situations may come up where hearing may be more of an issue - a professor who mumbles and talks into the chalk board, a ESL speaker that is harder to understand, a classroom with a really noisy heating system, a larger classroom with assigned seats, etc. None of these issues should be hard to fix with accommodations if she speaks up but it is asking for trouble not to have the necessary stuff in place. They will never force more on her than she needs and I expect she'll find the disability accommodation process fairly easy to deal with and she'll be glad she did it.

That makes sense. The job is at least not physically demanding which so many entry level jobs are. The bigger question will probably be the emotional piece - and that's where it will make a big difference if it is something horrible like collections or something more tolerable like a help desk job. Also, I think it gets to some people more than others if people are rude (and it is inevitable on the phone that a lot of people will be). If there is some element of feeling like by being polite you made someone's day less horrible than it would have been if you were rude, there can be some satisfaction for that. Some call center jobs are better set up for that than others.

I would really hate to do something like insurance or collections, but I did surveys and fundraising in college and I found it to be just fine. I guess it depends on what you are comparing it to. It seemed like a breeze after being a maid. Nothing smelled bad and my feet didn't hurt... can we really hope for more than that in a college job. ;-)

It depends on the state but I'd say the majority of homeschoolers don't have health on the high school transcript. That said, give you homeschoolers have a lot of flexibility in how they approach subjects I see a lot of positives in covering health in high school. It doesn't have to be a full textbook. It can be an article here or a documentary there. Many teens who would roll their eyes and refuse discussion of topics like substance use or nutrition, will cover material that's a school requirement. It can be a good opportunity to command at least some attention to issues that are pretty crucial to having a happy life. Same goes with PE. There are homeschoolers who have more sedentary kids who keep it as an annual requirement through high school as a means to make sure kids get enough exercise.

Good for her. That's really impressive. I have had students who make similar gains in science and I often tell students with poor science scores to take time for prep instead of just assuming the SAT will be a better test. What approach did you use for prep? Here's a list of colleges that superscore the ACT. It is really difficult to keep these sorts of lists current and homeschool requirements and scholarship requirements can vary so it is always good to check with individual colleges too. For those who are confused by scoring and would like more information about how this process works here's an article about superscoring from my website.

It is a very rough predictor. The PSAT is a bit better predictor of SAT scores, but I still see many kids that end up with scores that are significantly different than what they got on the "pre" tests. They key question for me would not be what his PLAN scores were, but what did he score on a red book practice ACT at home. While it isn't 100% percent by any means, I find much more consistency in the predictions between "real" sample tests at home and actual test dates. If there is a big gap between home sample tests and actual test, sometimes the student just had a bad day or maybe they have some test anxiety or distraction going on.

Congrats to you and to your son. This is such an encouraging and happy story!

Trying to comment without quoting... From what I've been told double is quite rare and while I agree it doesn't mean 100% college readiness it is a piece of information I would take as meaningful for sure. (and tell me if that was too close to quoting and I'll delete!)

I agree this can be a problem with a lot of majors really. What we often see with students adding a classics major at our state university is that they do so after they've taken Latin or Greek to meet their foreign language requirement. They hit sophomore or junior year and realize they could add a classics major pretty easily. Students who took Latin in high school may also place into a higher level course (our homeschooler placed into 300 level Latin so that cut down on semesters). Also, some college classics programs offer different tracks (culture, history, language etc.) so they aren't all necessarily three years of a classical language. I do think it is important that parents understand that more time to graduation is actually pretty common and it is good to talk with your kids about your position on paying for more than four years of school. U of Colorado's four year graduation rate is less than 50%. So, it is not at all surprising that a transfer student would take more than four years. While some states have good agreements between community colleges and state universities, a lot of others don't and transferring can add a lot to the cost of an education.

At some schools classics is often an add on or second major. Because it is interdisciplinary often credits can come from a wide variety of other departments (art history, history, philosophy, religion). So particularly for students who have a major in a related field it can sometimes be added without necessarily adding a lot of extra credits. As far as graduation, frankly it is really good that she could make it out in five years with two majors. The four year graduation rate at University of Colorado is less than 50% and that's for people who started as freshman and didn't transfer.

That's an interesting observation about the schedule. I certainly agree that's a less than ideal schedule. I will say though there is a lot of variation from one school to the next. At our state university growth in enrollment has put classroom space at a premium so they are really using every classroom all day long. First year students get the last choice of registration so it is quite common for them to be stuck with classes at 8 a.m. and then labs that start late in the day. That can be a tough situation for students who need more downtime or bigger blocks of time to study.

Some kids find it exciting to go into a big convention table and walk around to the many tables and learn that there are a lot of colleges they may not have heard of. Other teens find it really overwhelming. The college representatives will have a wide range of experience. They are everything from seasoned admissions staff to alums who agreed to work the tables. In other words, they are generally not a great source of accurate information particularly about homeschooling admissions. As far as personal information, most of the tables will offer the opportunity to get on their mailing list - either with a paper card or registering on a tablet. Sometimes there will be a space for grades or test scores or intended major but it isn't like they have to fill it out or like it has any effect on admissions. As far as being a sophomore I actually don't think that is too early. I've seen quite a few kids who really start to pay more attention to college preparation after they make a college visit or attend an event. Colleges that Change Lives also offers fairs around the country during the summer and those are less overwhelming than the bigger convention hall type of fairs. http://www.ctcl.org/events/map

Has she had an assessment for depression? The National Institutes for Mental Health has a good article with information about depression in college students with suggestions of how to help. http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/depression-and-college-students/index.shtml Realistically if she's not been going to class and is facing significant depression, it probably is going to be more than she can do to talk to each one of her professors. It may work better to start with her academic adviser and/or the disabilities office.

I understand your frustration, but I will say it is quite standard. Is your school local or online? If it is local maybe you could set up a time to talk to a staff person in financial aid (not a student who answers the phone but a staff person). I believe they will put your mind at ease and they maybe they can also help you find out if there are an additional scholarships for returning students that you can apply for. The vast majority of schools if your income and circumstances are about the same as the last year your aid should be too. Schools want to retain students.

Congrats on your new career. I reacted positively to balance in the name. Stratera made me immediately think of ADD meds. If you think you will ultimately have a website one place to start might be looking at available domain names. While your business and domain name don't need to be the same it does make things a big easier. Even if you don't want to build a site now you can get the domain for about $10 a year so you are covered if you do want to have a site later.