Wow, that is absolutely fantastic!! :party:

Oh no! It's so hard to be away when your kids are sick or injured. So far, both of my college students have already been sick - one with strep and one with a terrible cold and complications. Ugh! The bright side is that my other two at home haven't caught either yet. :001_smile:

I'm so sorry that you and your daughter are going through this. I hope that you are able to find a diagnosis and treatment and that she can feel some relief soon! Our dd became sick about one month before 10th grade began. We had already planned out our entire year, full of tough, ambitious stuff - and then everything changed in the blink of an eye. At first we thought it was something temporary, so we just limped along trying to keep lots of pots on the stove. And then as months went by and she became worse, we went into full-blown survival mode. She has always been a very intense person, and this setback was incredibly frustrating to her - so we decided that with whatever strength she had, she would pursue those things that mattered to her and made life beautiful. Her favorite things are math, Russian, and Japanese, so that's what we did for school (and then whatever else she felt like doing if she had any energy left.) We went from Plan A to Plan B to Plan Whatever! Some days she didn't move from the sofa, and I brought all her drinks and meals and all she could do was watch Teaching Company lectures. (I'm pretty sure she slept through many of them!) Luckily, once we had a diagnosis and began treatment things began to turn. Her stamina increased little by little, and she was able to add things back in slowly. I don't feel in any way that the time taken off from the other subjects impacted her negatively. By concentrating her efforts on things that mattered to her, it lifted her spirits and helped her recovery - I truly believe that. She is doing much better now, although she has hit some bumps and probably will continue to, but more than anything my hope for her was that she would see that she could have a good life in spite of being dealt a bad hand. It took a while for her to truly feel that - but now she does. She is leaving for college next week (not too far away) and will be doing some really incredible things. I am so happy for her! (And nervous.) My advice would be to do whatever you feel would most aid her recovery. If you feel like writing is her lifeline, then definitely do it! For our dd, forward movement was important psychologically (lying in bed gets really old after awhile), so we picked a very few doable things and celebrated small achievements. Most of all, just love her and be there for her, as I know you are already doing. Get her involved in counseling if you think that would help. Dd and I would have a routine on really bad days where we would call everything off and watch Lord of the Rings - and it helped to take the sting away. Contrast that with today: we were out all day dorm shopping, etc. - the right treatment can make such a world of difference. Sending my very best wishes to you and yours - for healing, recovery, and hope. :grouphug:

Dd1 (junior) has already left, and we have 10 days left before dd2 leaves for her freshman year. It's just the two of us home this week since everyone else is at a family reunion, so we have been having so much fun! We've been to the movies, out to eat, dorm shopping, school supply gathering, pottery painting. It has been a really special time. She has struggled with chronic illness and we are incredibly close, so saying goodbye is going to be hard. I know that I will worry for her in a way that I haven't worried for our oldest--I think I'm mostly nervous! But I am really enjoying these quiet days with her right now. I will be down to two left here at home, which is hard for me to imagine. Littlest one is beginning kindergarten! Wishing all of your fledglings (and you) a wonderful year of adventures!

I am so sorry, 8. :grouphug: I totally understand. We are going through something similar, just started a new med last week, and I'm so worried about dd. One thing that our doctor just mentioned yesterday is that there is often a flare after big stressors - even happy ones like a big college decision. I think this may be what we are experiencing here, but not sure. I'm just hoping that in the next 3 months we can get this under control and send her off healthy - and I will be praying the same for you and yours. Thinking of you! ETA* - Just wanted to add that I hope you can still celebrate graduation this week! She has achieved so much, and you both deserve it. :wub:

Hooray!! :hurray:

DD has accepted her offer at the College of William & Mary to be a 1693 Scholar! She plans to major in Mathematics and possibly double-major/minor in Russian and Japanese. The 1693 Scholars Program will fully fund her undergraduate education and also allow her to begin or possibly complete a master's degree as well during her four years. All of the 300 and 400-level mathematics classes she completed while in high school will transfer, and she will be able to begin undergraduate research upon arrival. Additionally, the 1693 Program will fund a summer of research of her own choosing. She will receive specialized advising and lots of other perks like extra trips and weekly luncheons with faculty and visiting dignitaries. Luckily for her parents and siblings, she will also be pretty close to home. :001_smile: Dd has been so impressed by the faculty with whom she has spoken. They have been genuinely interested in her research and in her plans for the future. Several of the schools she applied to had good math departments but not really much to offer in foreign language, and I'm so thankful that she won't have to choose between her interests. She is excited by the list of advanced math classes available to her and is looking forward to joining in on Russian House events and classes in Japanese foodways. This is the best of all possible outcomes I could have envisioned for her!

We received wonderful news last night! Dd has been named a 1693 Scholar at William & Mary!! Full tuition, fees, room, board, $5000 research stipend, fund for lunch with professors, etc.! :party:

All of our college decisions are in - glad to be joining this distinguished company! :coolgleamA: We still have one round of interviews for competitive scholarships, but here's the list so far: Old Dominion University - Honors College, Presidential Scholarship, Big Blue Scholarship Virginia Commonwealth University - Honors College, Presidential Scholar (full-ride) William & Mary - Monroe Scholar University of Virginia - Echols Scholar And we also received word this week that she was awarded one of the $2500 National Merit Scholarships! :party: Nearing the finish line....

Dd is so ready to be done, and so am I! She will have a lot of stress in the next two weeks and then will have to make a decision pretty quickly. Glad this will be the final push, but I wish we could beam ourselves to the other side of it....

Fabulous news! Congratulations!! :hurray:

Wonderful news - what an honor!

Wonderful news! What an honor!

One of our dds has a chronic illness, and many families in our support group have purchased and benefited from similar policies. I'm hoping that having the policy in place will help her feel like she has the freedom to do what she needs to do for her health, rather than powering through, which could have drastic consequences. It's one of those things you don't want to have to use, but it's really good to have when you need it.

Way to go! It's such a great feeling. :hurray: I finished mine too, but now we are rethinking our plans for this coming year. :001_rolleyes: I've finished my school profile (just had to tweak dd1's), and I've even written my counselor letter, though I keep thinking of more things I could say....

I also wanted to mention eIMACS courses as a possibility. Dd hasn't done the math logic courses, but I've heard good things about those, and they are all self-paced. Dd took 2 computer science courses through them, and those were really well done. Like your son, dd has a lot of other interests (her favorite thing is foreign languages), so she wasn't particularly interested in competition math - though she has really loved participating in the Computational Linguistics Olympiad each year.

Well, just to give you some more hope, I had the worst time convincing dd2 to show her work throughout Algebra 1-2 (we did proofy Geometry, so she had to write everything out for that.) I may or may not have prophesied doom! :laugh: Derek Owens AP Calc was her first outside math class, so maybe that made a difference, I don't know. I think that sometimes kids will do whatever is expected of them (by someone other than mom, hah!), so my guess is that she will rise to the occasion. If you're concerned, though, maybe you could write Derek and ask his opinion/expectations?

Our local Uni (state school, approx. 25,000 people, offers masters and PhD in math) does accept a 5 on the AP for credit, and dd probably could have gone straight into Calc 2, but the Math Dept. chair strongly urged her to take the class, so she did. We have no regrets - she says that there were a few things that were covered in her Calc 1 class that weren't covered in AP Calc, plus she was young, and it was a nice way to start off her college experience with familiar material. She has had a terrific experience. Everyone has been kind to her - most people don't even realize that she is in high school unless they ask what year she is or what her major is (she did have someone ask her out, though!). The one disappointment is that the classes aren't full of people who just love math. There are several majors that require higher level math classes, and there are still plenty of people who don't want to be there. I think dd imagined that her upper level classes would be full of people like her, but it hasn't exactly been like that. Still, the teaching has been great, and it has been a good experience all around. I have heard such terrific things about the AoPS books that I know you can't go wrong with those either if your ds likes the approach. I knew that I wouldn't be able to help dd in working through them (we had a new baby), so we took a different path.

If your son has done well with Derek Owens, I would definitely consider just sticking with his AP Calculus course. Dd2 took the course in 9th grade, felt thoroughly prepared for the AP exam, and passed with a 5. I can't speak to her success in engineering since she's just finishing her junior year of high school :laugh:, but she has done exceptionally well in her classes at our local Uni. since then: Calculus 1 (Uni. wanted her to repeat, even though she scored a 5), Calc 2, Calc 3 (Multivariable), Linear Algebra, and Intro. Analysis. She's planning to major in math in college.

Got one here in VA too.

Oops! Renewal requires a 3.3 GPA (not 3.2.) Here's the blurb from the VCU website: To be eligible for scholarship renewal, students must complete at least 28 credit hours on a full-time basis over the fall and spring semesters and maintain a cumulative grade-point average of 3.3 or better.

No joke! To be fair, most of those pages have been racked up by intensive source analyses. Dd is really looking forward to summer break. :coolgleamA: At least your dd won't be writing papers for the math classes!

What else will she be taking? Can you get an idea of the work load by looking at ratemyprofessor and checking out student reviews? We've found that to be helpful when trying to gauge how many papers may be required. I'd be a little leery of doing both at once if you're not sure of the requirements. Dd1 is taking Honors Comp 2 this semester, and it has been a bear. She has probably written 300 pages so far - they have a behemoth research paper for this course. She's thankful that she doesn't have too many other papers to write at the same time.

Was he awarded the Provost scholarship at VCU? If so, it is renewable for all four years as long as he remains full-time and maintains a certain GPA (pretty sure it's 3.2). Dd1 is a freshman there on Provost, and she lives in the Honors dorm and loves it. If he's interested in the Honors College, they also award additional scholarships (you must apply separately), but this might bring his costs down even more. I can't speak to the engineering aspect since dd is an artist, but she has a great group of friends (of all majors) in the Honors College, and we couldn't be happier with her choice. All of her courses have been extremely challenging.

That's really interesting - it's higher than I thought it would be. Thankfully dd2 is beyond the predicted cutoffs for every state, so we are hopeful. I don't remember getting a letter in 2014 as head of our homeschool for dd1, but maybe I did? Haven't gotten anything here so far this year.