You probably need more bobby pins. You need LOTS of bobby pins for dance, lots. I always made my kid shake her head and jump around a bit so she could feel where her hair was moving. Then spray it and use a clean mascara wand in clear hair gel for the fly aways on the sides.

Rice pudding, change up your oatmeal. Baked oatmeal is good. You can make muffins. hummus and veggies is also a good breakfast option. I am definitely not vegan but we have vegan house guests from time to time. black eyed pea hummus in a wrap with sauteed veggies is also a great breakfast. Aren't there vegan birkenstocks?

Sonlight's US History is actually what made me vow to never, ever purchase anything from them again. They had some really shoddy info in the IG about slavery and John Holzman's response when he was called out here was less than satisfactory. I like my history curriculum to be written by historians who know what they are doing, I found that Sonlight did not live up to that expectation.

One and done! Paid the enrollment fee last week and it is now a fact that my kid will be attending her top (and really only) choice, a year earlier than we anticipated. But she is already on a first name basis with the chair of the dept. for her major and a few other staff members. I feel really good about the school being a great fit for her. Now to slog through the last few months of high school and take the very last AP exam...

Saxon is a completely different approach to math than AOPS. I have one kid who has gone through high school with Saxon (at WTMA) and one who is currently completing Alg. 2 AOPS at WTMA. They recently wrote an answer to your question on their website, here: http://www.wtmacademy.com/handbook-faq/ Be sure to click on the Math AOPS tab at the top, I missed it at first. This should answer all of your questions about the differences.

Most medical schools are now looking for kids that have majors outside of the sciences, they want more well rounded students. Both of my sisters are have applied and been accepted into medical school within the last 6 years and my daughters friend applied for a a GAPMed program 2 years ago, and this was a big topic of discussion. As long as they have a strong science background and meet the required math and science courses and do well on the MCAT, I would tell your kid to pursue areas that interest them.

Yes! Amy Upperman is a great teacher and this was very helpful for my disorganized kid who seemed to have many "a-ha" moments with ideas that I thought were obvious but he missed. When those ideas were presented by Mrs. Upperman, he got them (like working in a well lit environment with a clean desk).

I am using the IEW online classes, I much prefer being the wingman rather than the teacher. It just seems to work better for both of us.

There is usually a bump in ability after level 4 and then another big one after 6. I think I would just be gentle with her until she is further along. Lots of ear reading is key! As far as curriculum, IEW has been the absolute best fit for writing. Susan Barton recommends that one but I tried a few others before taking her advice and wish I would not have wasted the time. We are currently using AOPS for math but it is text heavy, so that may not be the best fit for a kid who is profoundly dyslexic. Diet...I have a kid with Celiacs Disease and I can tell you, it is a big part of cognitive skills. We notice a difference when our diet is mostly paleo. Have you had your dd checked for anemia?

As a Barton tutor who also lives in Georgia who also is getting a kid off to college next fall and who also has a dyslexic kid that will be entering the ninth grade next fall, I am interested in your journey. Out of curiosity, where is your daughter with her Barton program right now? What level is she in? My son completed levels 1-9 before middle school. I think he and I are going to go back and re-do parts of level 9 and complete 10 this year. Previously, he was too young for the grammar of those levels but he is ready for it now. He is an avid reader thanks to Barton but his speed is an issue. So that is something that he and I are going to really work on. The one aspect of dyslexia that has been super helpful is that when he does not succeed, he is not defeated, he just sees it as a challenge. Thank goodness! So we plod along. How is your daughter's executive functioning skills? We struggle with that because of the co-morbid ADHD that we are choosing not to medicate. It is a challenge and I joke that when he goes off to college that *I* am getting a senior trip.

There are videos on youtube from Norway. Search for the term "pubertet" there are 8 episodes I think and they are very well done and completely secular.

Yes, group work can be silly. I have seen an online English teacher let students grade each others work according to a rubric she set. The topic for the paper was to address a cultural criticism. In my opinion, that is a terrible topic to let other students grade because some of the students graded with a clear personal bias that focused on the message not on the quality of delivery. It is lazy teaching at best.

coconut macaroons, you can dip them in dark chocolate if you want to get fancy.

scores for the standard test are not available either, at least for us.

Does he have ADHD?

My daughter sent hers via email. One school gave no response, the other replied with a very gracious response and offered to let her sit in on more classes if she visited in the future.

I think Susan recommends not asking them to do any outside reading until after level 4. My son started picking up books to read before we were finished with level 4. When I emailed Susan she advised me to just let him do it, if he was enjoying books then let him enjoy them. At that point they were mostly the DK style encyclopedia type books that have a lot of pictures, so I have no idea how much reading he was doing. But it was a great joy to me to walk into his bedroom and find him behind the covers of a book at bedtime. I did not say anything about it to him. We just carried on as usual.

If you get into Level 1 and find it really hard, I would recommend looking at Foundations in Sound. I am currently tutoring two kids who both started at about the same time, the kid who had to start with Foundations in Sound and is more severe than the other kid, is actually doing better because of the extra practice. So IF Level 1 feels very hard, I would encourage you to not give up but perhaps add in FiS. Good luck! This can be frustrating and challenging but when you hit that "a-ha!" moment with a kid and they start feeling successful in reading for the first time, it is like winning the lottery. With every kid I have tutored, I very clearly remember that moment when they found triumph in reading for the first time. It is so worth it!

That is the thing, I think the other choices are not schools that she is dreaming about, one of them is her choice for graduate school because they have a graduate program that is in line with her interests (which we both realize might change). The first choice was a safety and she received enough scholarship money that it is feasible for us and in line with what we would pay for a state school. The other schools are a bit of a reach for her (she is graduating a year early) so we did the "chance me" last night and I think even if she got in, she would not receive much in the way of merit aid. There is an in-state school that accepts applications until August first, it is not her first choice and not a school that she would ever dream of going to, but should something apocalyptic happen, she could definitely get in and go there.

So my kid got in to her first choice. It is a school that has everything on her checklist of what she wanted. There were other schools that had something more exemplary in one area but none of them had everything across the board except for the first choice. So, she is in. We have the scholarship info and financially, it is do-able. So, should she still apply to the other schools? With submitting application fees, css profiles, and sending scores that racks up $$$. Should we just consider ourselves done and not waste the money? She initially said she felt like she *should* apply to more than one school because that is "what you do". But I am not so sure it is necessary to waste the time or money. Am I overlooking something obvious?

So my dd has been accepted into her first choice, she has not yet applied to the other schools on her list. So one school, The One, has a copy of her transcript, which has an AP class va PA Homeschoolers on it. She is having a problem with the class because it is asynchronous and there are no meetings at all for the class. Her previous PA Homeschooler classes had lectures, which suited her. This class has none. She really needs the interaction with teachers and peers. She likes the subject quite a bit, so she does not want to take the class and not really learn the material, but this format is not suitable for her. So she wants to drop it and just sign up for a DE class of the same subject this spring. I know as soon as I make changes on the transcript, the school will see that. Is this going to be a problem?

I would definitely start stalking Land's End for sales this spring. She is going to need a good parka and good waterproof winter boots. Both of my sisters went to UMich and those winters are no fun!

Except those of us who are still at the "reading everything" part of the journey, maybe you should change the title to something that you would read. Hehe! I am positive that once we are done with the process, I will be just like you and avoid topics.

My dyslexic kid LOVES AOPS, he takes it with WTMA and he will be quick to tell you that it is his favorite subject. He is a great reader after Barton. However, he still struggles with writing, so you really see the dyslexia with the proof problems but his teacher is a patient saint who understands him well. I think being willing to struggle with a problem is one of his gifts from dyslexia, so when he struggles to understand something with AOPS, he is at home.

I would not call attention to it. If they ask for essays they are going to see a good representation of your kid's writing anyway.