I know how you feel. Hugs.

We were members at one point. I have never called on them for help in the university admissions process, and we got through it successfully. The biggest help for me was FREE, through this board.

I did think of this - tailoring the reference to the scholarship details - thanks for confirming! As I'm going through the list, I might come back and ask for further ideas on WHO to ask, if we can't think of categories of people for a particular scholarship. Great, thanks! Any opinion about honorarium, as I asked regentrude above?

Ds and I are now tackling scholarship applications (beyond the scholarships he already received and the ones he will be considered for automatically due to admission). Many of them are asking for a Letter of Recommendation from a Principal, Guidance Counsellor, or Teacher. I, of course, am all three. I had no problem with writing up supporting documents for his applications for admission (overview of education letter by educator, and the like). But with going after money, will these scholarship application reviewers be looking for a letter from someone else besides me? What sorts of info. are they actually looking for? I could brainstorm some other people who could give that info. maybe...ds hasn't had any outside classes, but he has proven his academic ability to some "outsiders," and his community involvement...are these the sorts of info. that the committees usually look for from principals, GC's, and teachers? We have the following options that I can think of so far: - university math professor (who has helped us with other application things - I hate to ask him again!) - another uni math prof who wrote a letter that helped ds get into a math camp - a couple of uni math profs who worked with ds at the math camp - a local former politician who met us and kept in contact with us during a mini-crisis in a provincial homeschool issue a few years ago (he really liked our family! He also used to be a prof at a local uni, and he did once tell us to call upon him if we needed letters of rec. for our kids) - minister of a local church - ds runs the sound system there as a volunteer, and as a paid person for funerals - the minister hired him and likes the work ds has done If they are asking for "a" letter of rec. - would it be bad to send two or three from the variety of options we have in the community? Ds NEEDS scholarships to be able to attend university, so I want this process to go well. Thanks for any help/brainstorming you can give! p.s. And if you think it's alright for me to send this letter (as just THE one, or as one of some from others), what specific info. should I write about? It would be fun for me to write up a persuasive letter!

Janice, I hear you. I don't know how to talk about it, but yes, I do think it's odd. I think you nailed it with the last sentence in your original post. Too much pressure, too much grooming, not enough tailoring. Glad to see you again - I've missed your posts. I'd love to hear how your kids are doing (and you).

I'm starting to inwardly freak out about scholarship application essays. Now that ds has acceptances to schools, I am compiling a list of scholarships he can apply for (and putting their due dates on the calendar - a slew of them are due by March 1). (He was getting overwhelmed just by the search process - I managed to figure out a search process and break it into doable steps - this guidance counsellor gig is just WOW) The whole prospect of helping him start the application and essay-writing process is...daunting...he isn't crazy about writing-on-demand, though I think he's fairly proficient. Yes, I know and he knows that he will have to do writing-on-demand in university if he chooses to go (he does want to; whether it's this Sept. or next is still up in the air) - his claim is that I won't be the one making him do it anymore, lol. But in my mind, the whole scholarship application thing is now or never because it's the Grade 12 kids who have the most chance of gaining the most scholarship money (which he will absolutely need). If he waits til next year to apply for scholarships (even if schools give him deferrals), he won't have chances for much. He has to do it NOW. Help me. Help me see that I will get through this next couple months of this process without losing my mind!! He knows he has to, and he will. But it will not be an easy ride - he's anxious to be done with high school ("It's stupid that I have to do the rest of this work now!") and he will give me pushback, and I know he will do fine in a school setting, working "for" professors and not me anymore. It's just one last season of powering him through, right? RIGHT??!!?? (p.s. He took his last SAT today - the Math 2 subject test - so now all THAT is out of the way finally)

Just getting over being sick, I am coughing and hacking and laughing my head off at this!!!!

I wholeheartedly agree! And I've seen threads over the years on the high school board about this very thing. One poster there, Jane in NC, wrote something years ago that I've always kept in mind: Seek the opportunities that are right near you - what is in your area, what can you do, what can the people you know do and how can they help your kid, etc. etc. Don't sit back and worry about all the things you see other homeschoolers doing (who don't have to think about how much each activity or experience costs) - open your eyes and see what YOU can see for your own kids. So, I started doing that, and I would then find little things. lol, and then I would make myself e-mail Jane and tell her all about any given opportunity that I had just unearthed ("Jane! We met a local math professor! And he likes talking to my son [who loves math]! He let my son job-shadow him for a half day! He gave my son some calculus books and he talked with him about which local uni math programs would be suitable for him! He agreed to write a reference letter for son's application to math camp!" and on and on). And Jane would cheer me on (and cheer on ds). Anyway, my point is that this stuff does get talked about at the high school board whenever anyone brings it up. Even though many threads are about specific courses and how to write transcripts and things like that, don't be shy about starting up a thread for sharing these ideas and experiences and asking for brainstorming about kids who may not be going to university. Your threads are always fun to read. Esp. the ones where you list your old-book finds!!!!

Thank you, Nan! You are one of the people here to whom I owe a ton of thanks for your support over the years!!

I've been reading these forums since 2004 (though not as much in the last three years or so). I'm a little surprised to read the comments above that I quoted. I've always seen these forums as a place that includes people like me (no college/university education, grew up poor in a single-parent home, one-low-income homeschooling family since the beginning, etc.). Even though I have always wondered if I am doing a "good enough" job at home-educating, this has always been the place I've turned to for reassurance, even though I haven't been able to do many of the commonly suggested things (such as lots of lessons, co-ops, clubs, outsourcing classes, etc.) Anyway, YES! There are plenty of people here who are home-educating our kids without having gone further than high school! Yes, it takes some creativity and time and ingenuity and help and advice and thinking and resourcefulness. But looking back, I think I'm glad (even though it was hard!!!) that I couldn't just go out and buy my way through those years. I have no idea how I'd define myself. I grew up in the States and moved to Canada in my mid-20s (had met and married a Canadian). My mother was an elementary school teacher and my father had a business degree and worked in real estate and construction before his mental health broke down when I was in my teens. (they divorced when I was 8 and then we were very poor) So, both of them were readers, and we did read when I was growing up (though, after the Little House books, a lot of mine was Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, and teen romance) I stopped reading in high school and didn't get back to it until I was 29 or so. Dh's mother was an RN for a couple of years til she became a SAHM and his father was in the military then worked for a tire company. Dh had a couple of vocational certificates after high school (cooking and electronics), but didn't like either field, and so lost skills and interest. After we married, we both cobbled incomes by office work, a tried and failed business, and self-employment teaching guitar (he's a guitar player). The self-employment is what has stuck over the years. So my job as SAHM after having kids entailed a LOT of learning about frugal living. Over my homeschooling years, I've learned quite a bit about teaching, which I've enjoyed. My mind has been DRIVEN to learn how to teach things (I processed a lot a few years ago here on the forums about learning how to teach writing to my kids - writing had been a complete mystery to me in high school, with bluffing my way through required compositions) - I'm not sure why. Probably because I like to understand "why." Anyway, it's TWTM, it's associated materials/suggestions, and people on the forums who've helped me to figure out how to do this with my family. I've gotten inspiration and practical help by reading other people's stories, too. I've esp. loved reading posts where people explain how to do something, rather than just suggest a curriculum. Reading an explanation is accessible to anyone on the internet, even if you can't buy a particular curriculum and even if you're in a different social class. Maybe those types of posts have become fewer? I don't know. When we first decided to homeschool (early in our kids' lives), it wasn't an issue for anyone we knew, except for one person. But that person criticized us on a bunch of other things, too, so I didn't put any stock into that "input." Homeschooling just became part of who we were as a family, and we knew other homeschooling families, too (who mostly did think I was nuts to do a more classical style education, but nevertheless, homeschooling was acceptable to many we knew). Fast forward to just a couple of years ago when a particular circumstance changed in our lives. We were then associating more with a new group of people, many of whom I guess you all would call "white collar." I found it fascinating to get to know these people (who cared so much about social issues, education, books, etc.). But I also got drilled quite a few times about homeschooling (even though my oldest was already in high school age!) - one lady even outright told me I should be sending my daughter to public school so she could "see her friends" - this lady knew NOTHING about us, my daughter, or her friends!!!! It was strange to encounter all those typical questions so many years into the home-education project. It's a good thing I was mostly confident about it all by then, or I'd have shrunk back and doubted myself. Anyway, I guess they found me a curiosity - a high-school-only mother who had the gall to homeschool through high school. I think the ones I've gotten to know have accepted it now, after having gotten to know our family. It helps that our oldest happens to lean towards university and has now been accepted to a few, too, I guess. Now I feel like I'm rambling, too, because I too don't really know what this thread is about, lol! :D Hunter, it's interesting you mention a change in homeschooling. I was a teen in the early 80s, and we started attending a church in NH - this church was full of homeschoolers, and I had never heard of homeschooling before. All very conservative Christian. And yet, looking back, most of those parents were Ivy League school graduates (the nature of where the church was "planted" from). The church espoused all the typical conservative beliefs about family, and my single-mom-of-five-kids mother was subtly looked down upon because she was single. I was 16 at the time (oldest of the five), and all the other families had very little kids. Some of them even told my mother that she should be homeschooling us, lol. There is NO WAY I would have gone along with that, at that age - but she also told them, "well who is going to support my family, then?" But, my (reading specialist) mother was also the one they turned to for help when their kids weren't learning how to read. Anyway, weird story; weird mix of people. So yes, back then I would never have considered homeschooling, when all I saw was how to raise perfect kids in a perfect environment. It wasn't til the late 90s when my mother actually sat down with a friend of mine to teach her how to teach her kids to read, that I finally saw that actual teaching could be fun. THAT is what hooked me in. OK, now my mind is shutting down for the evening - I think I did the rambling I was going to do, lol! hth the person Hunter refers to.

Ds got his fourth acceptance this morning!!

My son received his third acceptance today!!! This is sort of the big one we've been hoping he'd get into. It's to the BSc program! This has been so exciting for us to see that a kid homeschooled by a mere high school graduate can get into these programs!!!! Congrats to everyone else, too!

I was going to say something similar. You might want to give yourself some cushion time for your travel dates, because when a blizzard hits anywhere on the east coast, many airports are affected and then stranded people go nuts with renting vehicles, too.

I started reading the old, old boards in 2004. I've always had the same board name. I remember your old boardname, too, Camy! I always thought it was funny.

YES! I once had a student who made a huge leap in her reading and spelling ability in just a few months. When I tested her near the end of her time with me and showed her the leap, she dropped her jaw and said something like, "I thought I was stupid and couldn't learn to do this!" OP, I wish I could offer suggestions. Good luck to you as you help these kids! (I started one-on-one reading/spelling/composition tutoring again a couple of years ago after a ten-year break, and I LOVE it!) It sounds like you are going above and beyond for them - good for you.

My son followed the advice in TWTM in the early grades before WWE was published, and then I took him through a year-long "review" in his Grade 5 year when the Instructor Guide of WWE was published, just to make sure I'd given him a suitable foundation. Then he completed WWS as each level of that was published. My daughter did the WWE instructor guide and then WWS (she's halfway through Level 3). I did this all because what I'd read in TWTM made sense to me, and I had never been taught concrete composition skills. Trying to write in high school was a huge frustration to me, and I didn't know why. In elementary school, my son struggled hugely with putting pencil to paper. It wasn't til the end of Grade 4 or so that he finally was able to write out two or three sentences of a narration of something he'd read. I did let him learn to type that year, so things became easier. But I wanted to make sure he was actually writing grammatically- and mechanically-correct sentences that actually summed up a piece of writing - THAT was where the brainwork happened, and THAT is mostly why it took so long for him to work his way up to those very short summaries. On the other hand, my daughter LOVED putting pencil to paper (she also has written tons of stories - she loves doing creative writing). So that part was easier for her, but she did have to learn the grammar/mechanic/summarizing skills. Both of my kids put together great compositions now - sometimes several pages long. They know how to research a topic and they know how to follow models for different types of writing (you'll see this in WWS). Also, because of their grammar/composition/reading/spelling training in the early years plus all the reading they've done over the years, when they go through the composition-writing process, their sentences and paragraphs are clear or easily fixed because they know how to say exactly and logically what they are thinking. I'm a huge fan of WWE and WWS. :D It is so true what others are saying about what usually happens in the classroom these days - kids are being allowed and encouraged to just fill up paper with whatever, and that does those kids no good. I tutor other kids in reading and spelling, and now sometimes composition skills - I get so frustrated on their behalf when I hear about what they are doing (and NOT learning) in the classroom. One 9yo brought me a paper he'd written in his school - he had to write from a turkey's perspective about how that turkey was going to convince a human not to eat it for Thanksgiving. He felt bad about the paper because his teacher had marked all sorts of mistakes on it, but didn't go over them with him. His mother was expected to help him do the corrections, which IMO would have taken them a long time after a long school day to do. I asked him what he thought when he received the assignment - he told me he'd had no idea what to write because he's not a turkey, lol!! I agreed with him. Then I found an encyclopedia article about a subject he loves, had him read it aloud to me, and then coached him through (WWE style) writing a short narration about the subject. He LOVED doing this process! And he was so proud of his piece of writing he created, because it was correctly done, it made sense to him when he read his piece aloud afterwards, and it was a topic he enjoyed. His mother totally agreed with me and borrowed my WWE IG. In the early years, you do spend a LOT of time teaching basic composition (and grammar, spelling, and reading) skills. But in the later years, those skills make more advanced reading and writing work MUCH more streamlined. So, compared to other elementary school kids, you will probably think those kids are much more advanced than yours. But have a look at what they are actually doing - are they learning or are they just making marks on paper?

Yes, he took the SAT at the end of Grade 11 last June.

I posted this a month ago: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/573284-yay-homeschooling-yay-for-wtm-i-cant-believe-i-get-to-post-this-here/ Ds will not have an accredited diploma, but no regrets because obviously now it's not a problem. Yes, we submitted portfolios (two acceptances so far, and two schools are still deliberating). I included the following: - letter from me explaining our homeschooling philosophy (I included an offer of references if needed) - letter from ds explaining his hopes and goals for post-secondary - course descriptions, including texts used - books lists - transcript with my own grading system: A = excellent work, B = exceeded expectations, C = met expectations, D = could have done better - SAT scores (including SAT subject tests) - writing samples

Sarah, about the part I bolded: just to encourage you in your cross-country move, this past winter Feb. to April was absolutely HORRIBLE for the Atlantic provinces. Our snow finally disappeared in May, too, in our yard. We had storm after storm after storm for those three months. It was very unusual.

Some links for you, OP: http://novascotia.ca/ http://novascotiaimmigration.com/ http://careers.novascotia.ca/ http://www.workitns.ca/index.php https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higher_education_in_Nova_Scotia http://www.novascotia.com/ https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=zbq2WqcLTxsY.kSZBfqhJNE7Y&hl=en The previous poster mentioned that dental is not covered under MSI. That reminds me that Dalhousie University in Halifax has a dental school that accepts patients, and the services are MUCH cheaper than going to a dentist. The students do a good job and are closely supervised. We also have a Pharmacare system that pays for part of prescriptions for families under certain incomes. As to the doctor shortage, we also have a phone system (811) that staffs RNs. You can call 24/7 to be assessed over the phone if you don't have an immediate emergency. It has saved us many a doctor visit and given me peace of mind several times. Seriously, if you are attracted to the idea of NS, why NOT come for a visit. Come in mid-February - it'll probably be cheap for you to travel here then; it'll tell you whether or not you can take the temperature; and it'll give us tour guides something to look forward to in order to break up the winter blues, lol. :D

Aw, thanks, friend! Bluegoat is pretty awesome, too. As are a few other boardies who live here, too.

When I talked with her a few weeks ago (she's an admissions officer - not sure if she's the head honcho or not), she told me that if the scores had come by mail last June, they would have been "filed" since there was no application on file yet. But she didn't know where they might be. Today when I e-mailed her to see if she'd made headway with the CB and to see if she'd possibly found the sent scores, she said they never came by mail. HA! I might just push her a bit and remind her of what she'd told me on the phone, and see if she can search the school for the scores, lol. She also said she hasn't gotten through to the CB yet (well, she did a couple of weeks ago, but got transferred to five different people, the last of whom couldn't understand her AND asked her what the abbreviation of the state of Canada was......arrrrrrrggggghhhhhhhh!!!!!). She said she'd try again tomorrow. A few weeks ago, I did do what you mentioned above. I was told someone would get back to me in 5-7 business days. I haven't called back to follow up on why they haven't followed up with me - it was a VERY frustrating call the first time. I probably should, though. But, really, why should I, when it's the school's fault. Ds will take the Math 2 SAT in January, and all his scores will be sent in February, in time for scholarship deadlines. But we just want to know NOW. I'm hearing a theme from you guys and from some friends here, about this black hole. Ridiculous, as regentrude originally said, lol.

Oh my, no, not more expensive! I forgot to mention that part, lol. In recent years, we've had a wave of Brits moving here because it is cheaper for them. And they are the ones buying up the more expensive houses, which just shows that there definitely is cheaper housing here. And Prince Edward Island (home of Green Gables and Lucy Maud Montgomery) is not far, and it's even cheaper (but I wouldn't want to live there and feel somewhat isolated in winter). There's a huge diversity, too, all around the Halifax region of the province. And there are pockets of areas that are up-and-coming again (google Tatamagouche). And the Northumberland Strait (between NS and PEI - Tata is on the strait) has the warmest waters north of the Carolinas. Also check out the town of Truro. And Antigonish, and New Glasgow and Pictou. And maybe Yarmouth. And the city of Dartmouth. Lunenberg. Bridgewater. Sydney. Yes! I'll help, too. (we know each other) There definitely is a shortage of doctors here. It can take awhile to find your own. However, we do have walk-in clinics that are free for anyone who has provincial health care (google MSI). And emergency departments if push comes to shove. And you don't necessarily have to wait many hours - sometimes we've had to wait a few hours; sometimes we've gotten in within minutes - it just all depends on what's going on in the dept. And, we have the BEST women's and children's hospital in the Maritimes (google IWK). I'm a Type A person. I lived near NYC and then near Toronto for a few years before moving to NS. Coming here was a breath of fresh air, in that this type A girl could start to relax. I couldn't believe how nice people were. There is an element of being a "come-from-away," (also known as CFA) but with more and more people moving here from elsewhere, I think that label is diminishing unless you go live in a rural or small town area. The Halifax region has a lot going on - your husband might not go bonkers. It's a fun and funky small city with several universities with lots of students from here and all over the world. We have lots of ethnic restaurants, more and more local shops, farmer's markets cropping up everywhere... Libraries! The library systems here are wonderful! Borrow Anywhere Return Anywhere (google that, too). We've got regional systems and we've got university systems. All for free to residents of the province (or at least our region's system is free for us, as are the university systems). Sheesh, I have lived in NS for almost twenty years, and I have never been assigned a doctor! I've had two different doctors, and I chose them myself. I have no idea what you are talking about and why you keep saying that. That may be the case in a small town like Amherst, but it's not like that all over the province.

OP, have you looked into Nova Scotia? People keep mentioning the big cities of Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, and Montreal...but check out the city of Halifax and the rest of NS, too. Excepting last winter, the winters here aren't as bad as, say, Ottawa and Edmonton. Bluegoat mentioned our sunset today; I will mention, too, that today was super-sunny and not-too-cold! The temp. was up around 60 degrees F at one point. Nova Scotia has many post-secondary opportunities, too. And we push for immigrants to stay here and not move west. Also, people here stick together when it comes to outlasting the winter. I immigrated here years ago from the States, and I love it. Oh sure, I sometimes wish I lived in NC near my sister who enjoys great weather throughout winter. But, I am glad to live in Canada, and in such a beautiful (and inexpensive) part of it.

regentrude, I had to do that, too, for one school ds applied to. What I would like to know is this: What do you do when a school tells you they don't have your student's SAT scores *that the College Board sent them on paper back in June???* The excuse is that because there was no application on file yet from ds, they wouldn't have had anything to attach the scores to. Well, how many kids apply for schools during the same time they are doing SATs (and subject tests)? Can't the schools set these letters in a file in case they get applications? What do I do? The assistant registrar gave him a conditional acceptance, but he can't be considered for scholarships until they get his scores. She is actually trying to get them from the CB herself, and I tried to get a waiver to have them sent to the school again, but haven't heard back from the CB yet. But really, isn't this the school's responsibility, since they need to find their paper? WWYD?