Wishing we lived in one of those states! This was true for me back when I went to college in the 80's, actually! I'll have to think on the idea of commuting in nice weather and apartment living in winter months. Though honestly, if we can at all make it happen, I do like the idea of a student being able to be more involved on campus. Pros and cons... When dh was a youth pastor, he often helped parents to see that going to a secular school with a strong campus ministry and good local churches was often a good, viable option. We also often found that those who sent their kids to Christian schools could be surprised (because parents who hope Christian schools will "fix" their kids also send their kids there). Sometimes the atmosphere at a Christian school was more discouraging to a student who didn't expect to run into certain issues, than being at a big university with a strong campus ministry. Parents really have to be discerning when choosing a college, and go in with eyes open and prepare a student.

MUS is plenty. However, I'll be the dissenter and say that neither of my kids finished geometry in less than a school-year. Of course it can be done, but whether every student is ready for that is going to vary (and my kids test well in math on the ACT). Again, go at her pace--I wouldn't "count" on that happening unless she's really getting it and zipping along. Work steadily and don't worry about "how fast" she's going. If you can go faster or double-up, great, but I wouldn't worry about it if not. Laying a solid foundation in math skills is more important. A lot of the skill involved in doing proofs is about having good logic skills. I think kids who want to go on in STEM fields can pick that up though. Like others said, it's not needed for the ACT.

Honestly...I think it sounds intense too. What I would do: Work 5 days a week, and help her progress as fast as she can, but not faster. She needs to master and understand the material. If she can work that 6th day and she can retain and it's going well, fine. If it's overwhelming and her brain needs the break, cut back to 5. Sometimes trying to cram in too much at too fast of a pace doesn't work. This is definitely a case where I would want to gauge how things go. I agree about MUS allowing you to not have to do all of the lessons if they've got it. My kids would not have done well doubling up (having to do both algebra and geometry in one day). So again, I'd really wait to see how things are going and where she is at the end of the summer with algebra. I think I'd be more likely to let her start geometry when she finishes algebra. Unless she is planning on going on in a field that requires more upper math beyond algebra 2, I'm not sure the point in trying to cram things in at a faster pace. Why not just let her keep working at a good, steady pace and progress to new levels as she's ready?

Parody really isn't the word that comes to mind--when I think parody, I think of imitating another work--unless you are thinking it's a parody of a general style rather than a specific work--as in, a parody of the typical college essay where the person talks about great things they have done. Perhaps in that sense, one could think of it as parody. I'm not 100% convinced that she meant it to be that--I do think she was looking for a unique way to write about who she is, and from that standpoint, she accomplished her goal. I think of it more as a clever use of an anecdote, likely with embellishment and exaggeration--she paints a picture of a scene that's very common (2 year-old gets away from mom at a store), and turns the mundane and ordinary on edge. She obviously likes to play with words (thinking about "Old Hickory" for example), has a good sense of vocabulary, is creative and curious, has a good sense of humor (I'd agree there are points where she may be poking fun at herself--or at least doesn't take herself too seriously) and has some intelligent interests in science and other areas. That would be boring and not very stand-out to just list, and if one hasn't done something extraordinary (or if one is bored with talking about such accomplishments), this seems to be a clever (though with flaws) way of presenting "here's who I am" in an interesting package. She took a risk and it paid off, apparently!

That's brilliant! Not sure why I didn't think of that since I like my "year-at-a-glance" and even "month at a glance" things! Will find a form for my son to make one this week! We don't work through summers either (usually take 6 weeks off then). I do keep track on my yearly guide for a lot of subjects--math is easy to know if it's ahead or behind. Likewise a text book is easy to see if they are on track--I keep track of bench marks of how many chapters by what date etc... and let my kids know periodically if they are ahead or behind that pace, if they need to pick things up etc... Hornblowers "semester at a glance" could probably give your kids some of that info on whether they are on track. My dd did make her own goals for Spanish this year, so she can finish the level. Often time is the goal here though. For example, they need 150-180 hours for an English credit, which I measure by them spending 30 minutes reading, 30 minutes writing. (I don't typically add in our discussion times, but we have that time too). So, if they are spending the time, they are on target, whether they get through all the books or not. I've talked through that with them. One thing my son was surprised to learn last fall, in his first year in college--schools don't always finish the book! He got really nervous a couple of weeks before finals because they hadn't done all the scheduled topics/tests, and he thought his instructor would start to cram them all together and they'd have a bunch of tests all at once. I told him, no, if they run out of time they skip things. Some of his instructors have a very detailed and organized syllabus, and some don't. Some don't give dates ahead of time for tests, just say that they'll have them but announce times later. They may or may not get through everything, and may or may not "keep up" with all of their goals. It's important for your dd to know that the way you do school is not all that unlike how colleges will do things in that regard. The one difference is that when we homeschool, we can choose to finish that book later (summer, next year...), but schools can't choose that. They just have to drop chapters/sections/books. So, my focus has always been diligent daily work--which has translated for my son to easily keeping up with college reading/studying. But, some kids work in "chunks," and if your kids prefer that, then maybe a weekly assignment sheet of what you would like them to finish would work?

That's wonderful, congratulations! And I hope the surgery goes well.

You mean from multiple test dates? No, you can just select one test date of tests to the college. They don't need to see her 8th grade etc... tests. Send the best scores on.

My plans for many subjects are more time-based than "accomplish this many lessons." I set up workboxes for my kids, and had them either "do the next lesson," "read the next chapter," or "work for 30 minutes/an hour." My planner was basically blank. It listed all the subjects, and each day I wrote down what lesson, what chapter, what pages etc... were done, or that they were studying for a test or working on a paper or other longer project, etc... Or, if we went on a field trip, I drew a line through all the boxes and wrote sideways what the field trip was. Rather than a strict daily plan, I keep a yearly plan--what book are we going to work through, what math level, what list of books for history, literature, or read-alouds, which science books etc... I put an approximate week number by each one--the week I think we'll get to that book. I check off the books as we do each one. I keep a list of optional books if we get ahead, or I cross off an occasional book if we move at a slower pace--all the while, noting in my daily record what we did. The yearly plan really freed me up to follow rabbit trails or do other things with my kids, while at the same time making it obvious what was the "next thing" to do. Then in high school, you can give more of this planning over to them. One of my kids learned planning through working on a science fair. We found a 10-week schedule with goals for each week that made prep easy--and she did it so many times, she was soon easily able to set some of her own goals in other things. I also take some courses in high school and make up a syllabus--"here are the test and project dates. You decide how to read the book. When you have your plan, come show it to me." Then they could see how well their plan worked. (A little failure here is okay--they'll learn from that. You can always regroup partway through a semester if they struggle with their plan, and help them come up with a new one.) My oldest was so used to doing daily work, that he found the habit easy to continue in college. That was more block scheduling, so he would read for the classes coming up the next day--so he might work on a subject every other day. He learned to work on papers a bit at a time etc... I think the biggest thing is to help your children discover how they work best, and what kinds of tools help them get their work done. Give yourself and them freedom to explore. Ask them to come up with a plan (especially your 10th and 12th graders), and how you can help them--and then see how they do with their plan.

FAFSA has you use numbers from your Federal 1040--so for business income, it would be your profit after expenses are deducted (1040 line 12). They tell you all along what line number(s) to pull figures from (and if you have your taxes done, you can import those numbers directly).

Awful! Does he like molasses? A tbsp has 20% of a woman's RDA for iron and 43% of a man's RDA for iron (plus some calcium & magnesium).

Average in-state tuition by state. 50 lowest out-of-state tuition schools

Sadly not in my state. Tuition and fees ALONE ranges between 11,000-20,000, not including room and board. Add another 7-10K for that. The closest would be about 1.5 hours...not really conducive to living at home. As I look at online net price calculators for private schools, a number are competitive even for a transfer student, with what our state schools would cost. We'll definitely encourage our son to apply to a variety of schools to see if they offer enough to make it comparable after he finishes at the CC. No way could we afford 4 years at those rates. We are near a border, and there is one state school in another state, about 1.5 hours away, that has OOS tuition on par with the lowest rates in my state, and might be a good option depending on what he decides to major in. Yeah, it really is a LOT different. Though, we will be making our kids pay for a huge chunk of it, and they'll have to find ways to make it work, whether that means working for a gap year, or other means.

I haven't closely compared the two products. My thinking was this: the only reason *not* to go on is if mom is concerned about getting too far ahead too soon. If she doesn't want to go on, then consider other preschool options (like the SM preschool books or ones you can pick up locally) to continue practicing math skills, rather than just dropping math for 4 months. Make sense? My kids at this age loved playing games that involved math, or playing with manipulatives, and that can be some of the "fill-in" time too. It doesn't just have to be a "workbook." There are a lot of math-oriented activities you can do too--3-D puzzles and the like.

Good luck to all your students! My dd is testing on April 9 as well.

Was it fun for her? Do you think she would like to keep going or that she'd like a change? When my oldest was this age, she loved those Disney Princess math workbooks you can pick up for cheap from places like Walmart, for example. You could fill in with something like that if you don't want to continue MUS until fall. You might also call MUS and see what they think--about starting now vs. waiting. Or do the SM preschool workbooks and restart MUS after she finishes those. (I seem to remember having to write some words in the SM Preschool books though...but it's been a long time! It seems like there was something that made it so we had to do it together--beyond any teaching I mean.)

Several of the majors my ds is considering require Statistics--I agree with the other posts, you need to know more about her perspective major and college attendance. If those things are up in the air (very normal!), that's fine--but know that a course taken now may or may not end up meeting the requirement.

I was about to post something similar--I also went to a large public uni, and in the liberal arts school.

Yes to both of these. I think it's pretty meaty. Our family doctor said the regular biology book covers things he learned in college. So, I personally don't have qualms about only getting through 80% of the book, or about other necessary accommodations (sometimes we've finished the book by doing "read only" for the last couple of modules, instead of doing all the reviews & tests, for example). Do what works for you. We start late July and finish the end of May, but we school about 4.5 days per week, so it takes us until May to get our days in. Sometimes it is hard to keep going this time of year, but if she doesn't have all her days in yet, I'd keep going with it and just encourage her.

yes.

Taking a break and reading some other easy books might be the easiest thing for now. If you weren't going to be traveling, I was going to suggest using AAS 1 for awhile. (That might work anyway, some people do use it while traveling, either with the tiles or with a variation that works for them--anyway, just a thought.) AAS would reinforce reading, but come at it from the spelling angle instead, and sometimes is just what kids need if they are feeling a bit intimidated by reading. Usually if kids are at a point where "reading is work," it IS hard for them to enjoy the process, no matter how fun you make it. I do think, whatever you do, that you might back up and spend more time reviewing easier concepts. Some kids need lots and lots of review. You've probably seen these articles, but I'll post them just in case: Tips for Fluency Pages 8 ways to review word cards

exactly. I come at this differently. If I'm doing year 1 in first grade, and year 4 in 4th grade--I'm going to be doing vastly different amounts of work, you know? I allow time (and sometimes an intangible sense of what's "enough" vs. what's "too much" for my kids on a particular day, week, month, or year) to be the guide. There is an inexhaustible list of things one *could* read, even when considering "age-appropriate" books. That doesn't mean one *should* read that much, or that to "cover" the topic, one *must* read that much. Decide a good pace for your family each year, and let that help guide your decisions on how many books you read and how thoroughly you cover a time period. Remember, elementary is not your last rodeo for each cycle. Make it your goal to kindle a flame--to develop an interest in different people, times, and places instead.

Some things I know well, some not as well, some not at all. Examples: Literature I want to discuss: I read the book ahead, pull questions from lit guides, maybe keep some notes etc... Some literature that I want to discuss, I actually use as read-alouds (we continue lit. read-alouds throughout high school, as well as lit the kids read on their own). Literature my kids read but I'm not doing a guide--I may or may not read it. Mostly I have them tell me what's going on in their book. I ask questions about the characters and events, and I only read it if they have trouble answering my questions, or if their answers don't make sense. Math--we use MUS, and I watch the demonstrations with them, use the teacher's guide as needed, correct work daily, and rework problems that my kids get wrong. I want to understand why they got the problem wrong so that I can help them at points they don't understand. I also want to double-check in case the answer key is wrong and my student is correct (I've not seen that happen in MUS, but did in our previous program). History--I read some but not all. I have my kids take T-notes and I make sure their notes make sense and include the most important topics. I model how to take notes if not, and discuss history with them a few times a week. Science--I read some but not all. We use Apologia, and they have daily work (On your own questions), and I check their work with the answer key. If I don't think their answer matches, we discuss the topic orally and I have them read the answer in the book and see if they understand the difference. If their math is off, I look to understand where and why, and have them check their work against the solution as worked out in the book. I ask lots of questions, and my student who is strong in science often has better understanding than I do (especially this year in Physics, which I never took). If my student is confused or we can't reconcile my student's understanding with the book, then I take time to read more thoroughly and figure it out. I have often told my daughter, "We're two intelligent women; we can figure this out!" And that's been the case. If we couldn't find an answer, we have friends who are strong in science that we could ask, I could ask here, I could google, or I could call the company. Foreign language--I initially thought I'd keep up with my son's Japanese, and that lasted for about 10 lessons. I soon realized that just wasn't going to work. He was completely self-taught with online videos, text book, workbook etc... I had him check his homework (too many characters after awhile for me to track with), but I would check his quizzes, dialog with him about how his studies were going, have him give answers in Japanese, and so on. A difficult question came up one time, but we were able to find the answer. HTH some!

You may want to look at the online samples for AAS 5-7 since you like how the rules are presented. That's when the harder words are introduced (AAS includes the modern words from the Ayers list, which ranks words up to 12th grade, and also words from other lists that rank 9th-12th grade). Maybe he just needs to fast-track until he gets to harder words--learn the rule, teach it back to you, but not spend as much time on the lists & dictations if those words are easy for him already. He can slow down when he gets to harder words. If he doesn't need the tiles and doesn't like them, you can just use them for demonstrations or do everything in writing--use an underline to show when two or more letters are working together as one phonogram when you teach a new one. AAS 5 finishes the phonograms and that's when everything starts to come together--you can get to those longer and harder words when all of the foundation has been laid. I learned rules in AAS 6 that helped me as an adult with a few of my own spelling bugaboos. AAS 7 includes Greek & Latin roots too--my kids really liked the word trees.

Contact the sellers for both and complain, through the format that Amazon has set up. I've done that, and both times that I had to, the seller replaced the book with no questions asked, didn't make me return the item or anything (one time I bought a book that had missing pages, the other time I bought a book in "good" condition and it had severe water damage and reeked). Super easy process both times.

First, I would ask if you gave any kind of warning that a transition time was coming up? Most people don't enjoy being interrupted, and that's true for kids too--so whenever possible, I tried to give a 5 minute warning: "Clean-up time is in 5 minutes. You need to finish up. We'll clean-up and then it's bath time." I had much better responses this way. I find that lots of training in areas of struggle like this one also help--proactively teaching how to obey, coaching, encouraging, rather than focusing on the reactive (discipline/punishment) aspect. Not that you don't discipline, but that less is needed when the overall parenting focus is on teaching/training what the child should say or do, practice and role-play etc...