Sorry for the double post, but then the advice is worth reading more than once!

What a beautiful post! Thank you!

If your daughter liked St. Olaf, she might also consider Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. Luther has outstanding music, great academics, opportunities for environmental work. The atmosphere is very down-to-earth. The college is very committed to environmental sustainability and generates much of its own electricity through solar and wind power. The college is within walking distance of a classic college town with nice shops, restaurants and a natural foods store (all very reasonably priced). There is a river running through town (and across a part of campus). There are opportunities for hiking, fly fishing, and cross country ski. The science facilities are excellent. Although the St. Olaf music program seems to be more widely known than Luther's, I was really impressed with Luther's music program. Luther College music has a very high standards. Although Decorah, Iowa, is a bit off the beaten track, the college runs an extensive bus and shuttle system to nearby towns at the opening and closing of the semesters, as well as during Fall and Spring breaks. Shuttle service is avaiable to Minneapolis, MN, Chicago, IL, and Madison, WI, as well as to many cities in Iowa.

DD1 completed Saxon Advanced Math and Saxon Physics simultaneously. She did well with both courses.

My daughters have enjoyed Saxon Calculus.

St Olaf College has a strong math program. You might also look into Williams College, Hope College, and Luther College in Decorah.

Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, (plu.edu) offers an endorsement in Special Ed. It appears to be a great school with many opportunities for practical experience. One of my daughters seriously considered PLU for social work, but decided on Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, instead.

I don't know where to find sample pages, but have used both Holt and Prentice Hall Biology. DD1 used Holt and did really well with it--enjoyed biology. DD2 and DD3 both used Prentice Hall and did okay. I think the Prentice Hall text was more confusing--it went into too much detail, too quickly. So DD4 is using Holt, although the newer edition, and I'd say she is doing really well with it. I think that Holt texts work better for independent learning than many others.

I Like Holt.

Dear Teachermom, Gwen, Regentrude and Tiramisu have all given you great advice. Although I agree that your focus should be on meaningful coursework, I think your goal of 1200 on the SAT is a realistic expectation. None of my daughters did any standardized testing before 11th grade, and we concentrated on the ACT rather than the SAT. Between fall of grade 11 and grade 12, one daughter's scores stayed the same; one improved 3 points; and one improved 5 points. I believe all of my daughters to be talented and articulate students and I am sometimes surprised at the differences in their scores!

If your daughter likes the flute, I'd say encourage her to continue. I think active kids can benefit from the concentration that playing an instrument requires. However, I would not force a kid to take lessons. My flute-playing daughter was very energetic as a 9yo. She is still active but also has good concentration and focus. I think music helped her mature in that way.

Hey, I came across this old thread and thought I'd give an update! Percussion daughter ended up auditioning at Fort Lewis (CO), UW Madison, Ithaca, Oberlin, Hope and Olaf (next week). Flute daughter will be in the Luther College class of 2017. Thank you for all the suggestions. They were wonderful suggestions, even though we couldn't follow up on all of them. Thanks!

Well, my daughter is visiting Hope College in early March! What in particular do you want to know about Hope?

Hometrainingtools dot com has several physics kits that we used for labs.

The OM Geography does not integrate literature. There are references to some nonfiction texts.

The OM syllabus and text are great, but the labs are not so great. We supplement with dissecting kits and science kits from hometrainingtools dot com.

Crime and Punishment

There is an old black & white version--yes, with Ronald Colman. My daughters and I watched it this fall. It is very close to the book. 126 min long

For example, I have four kids, three of whom are in high school. Which one of them is my "current" child?

Heather, I've read most of the books on your list, some when I was a kid, and some while homeschooling my high school age daughters. I've whittled your list down to the ones which I found most memorable: Uncle Tom’s Cabin Our Town Glass Menagerie The Metamorphosis Grapes of Wrath Lord of the Flies Brave New World

I will order the course--thanks for the reviews!

Thanks for the replies! For more background, my state approves three driver ed courses. DD1 completed Driver Ed in a Box, which got the job done but was a laborious process. This was over 5 years ago. I think it took her 6 months, working hours every week, to complete the course. This was Driver Ed in a Box, which was in the process of transitioning from paper to online. There was a maze of paperwork as well as online work to complete. We had to print out reams of papers to prove she had done the work and mail it back. I'm sure that course has improved but don't want to try it for DD3. DD2 did another course approved in our state only. It consisted of reading a book by AAA published about 20 years ago. Taking brief T/F tests and writing one brief essay. The course took 2 months or less to complete. Again it got the job done, but I think was not completely thorough or up-to-date. So I'm looking for a course that is up-to-date, where the requirements are spelled out clearly, where all the reading is in one or two books, and the online component is logical, and does not consist of navigating dozens of links to multiple web sites and links (especially non-functioning links!). Is national driver training everything that I am looking for?

Any advice on the best driver ed course? I am considering usdrivertraining dot org, also known as "national driver training" for my daughter. Any experience with this Colorado-based course?

Thanks for all the great trig advice!

I have never studied trigonometry. I would like to understand trigonometry well enough to help my daughters with their ACT prep. Can you recommend a crash course? I'd like a text I can hold in my hand, not a youtube video. Also, I need something that takes it step by step--the ACT prep books don't cut it for me. Thanks! Tamarind