Mine will be about 6.5 hours away. Tough to pop home for the weekend. I wish it was 2.5 hours away like yours.

Congratulations and Happy Mother's Day! We are not done, but we are on the home stretch. Graduation is in less than two weeks. Ds still has French 4/5, a huge US History paper, and public school enrichment classes to finish. It will be nice when it is over. Then I want the summer to sloooooow down. I want to enjoy the time with him before the fall send-off. Is your's sticking around nearby? or heading off to go to college?

Have you gone through the housing selection yet? Several of the dorms at ds' college filled fast. He did not get his first choice, then we realized that the one he was assigned to is going to have construction right next door all year long. He and I worked to get them to change him to another dorm across the quad from the noise.

I just found out today that we needed to "register" for orientation as a family. I found that because I was just poking around the website. We have received no notification of this. Then I realized that we need to book a hotel for orientation and we need to do that ASAP. Then I realized the school has a hold on Ds' registration because... they won't tell me. Ds needs to go online and print out a FERPA form and sign it so that I can have access to his educational records. I just wanted to know if it was that they needed a final transcript (since I will be the one who needs to send it to them), but they would not tell me. I also found out that he needs to do the same with Health Services so that I can access health records if he ever gets sick or hurt. It seems as if everyday, there is a new thing that comes up that I had not heard about. I highly suggest poking all around the "Admitted Students" part of your website. I am finding all kinds of things there that we need to do that I was not aware of.

I felt this same way with my two. They had years of grammar, but they just seemed to forget it or not exactly connect the workbooks with the actual writing. Also, revisiting grammar in the format used in testing is huge. It seems that with my dd, she usually "gets it" when writing, but the questions when testing on the Iowa Basic or ACT will cause problems. Reinforcement is good for those who might stumble in those situations. We also liked AG. The biggest reinforcement for my two, though, was the Barbarian Diagrammarian class from Lukeion. It was an excellent class. It moved at a quick pace, but I had both of my kids do it in 10th just before the ACT.

Ds really did enjoy the Comp Gov class and I bet Sailor Dude will as well. He also decided against APUSH. I think he may have been a bit burned out from US History since I made both kids do a chronological study of it throughout their three years of middle school. Instead, he took a class from Scholars Online that has an interesting thought behind it (he is not quite through yet.) The teacher used two textbooks - one with a very liberal slant and one with a very conservative slant- and then they would analyze both. He has loved what he has learned in the class. The grading has been interesting, though. They have weekly assignments and quizzes here and there, but a lot of the grade comes from three papers. The instructor's grading of these papers has sometimes been...perplexing. Otherwise, ds has really enjoyed the class.

And your country of little people seems like just yesterday. Be careful. The world of APs, SATs, ACTs, Cleps, Common Aps, and dual enrollments are just around the corner. I just spent several days looking through pictures as I put together my son's slide show for his high school graduation in exactly two weeks. Looking at pictures of those chubby little baby arms - I could almost physically feel them around my neck. Then I turn around and that same (now 6'4") son is putting his arm around me. It goes fast and I am having a hard time believing that it is already here. Two days before his graduation, he and his sister are going to be in Fiddler on the Roof. My dd is Golde and will be singing Sunrise, Sunset with my son standing behind her playing the part of Lazar Wolf. I have a hard time listening to that song anyway without blubbering. I am going to be a mess the whole week. People used to tell me to cherish the time with them when they are little. It was not always easy when there were overtired children and Cheerios between every cushion. But, now I know what they meant. It went faster than I wanted it too.

She sounds dedicated, sharp, with some really interesting interests. Have fun with her and keep giving her those wonderful opportunities to explore and stretch her wings before she has to make major decisions in college. It sounds as if you are doing what a great parent does by allowing her the opportunity to learn more about those interests. Isn't homeschooling awesome?

I never thought of this. I just assumed that an International Business degree would widen his scope and make him more desirable - not less. My degree was in Business Administration - concentration in Personnel with a minor in Business Law. I have never worked in Personnel, although the actual things I learned have helped me over the years. I have worked for a very (very) large Atlanta-based soft drink company directly with the President and also with a premier Venture Capital firm in CA. I guess I have never found my concentration in Personnel to be a problem when applying for jobs. I will definitely discuss your views with my ds. It is intriguing. Most of the people I know, other than very specialized such as engineers or doctors, are not necessarily working in jobs that are specifically what they majored in.

Granted, we were not going for the really super high end-schools, but they still all required that a separate transcript be sent from all online schools. I wrote my own transcript with all of the grades in one place, but then I contacted each online school (Ds had several different schools because we pick and choose individual classes and instructors) to send their transcripts to the schools. I believe the common application asked for this as well, but I just cannot remember. I had no problem with all of the schools doing this, except for one school - The Potter's School. They really gave me a hard time and finally, I just did not have them send one. None of the colleges seemed to have a problem that ds' three years of French did not have a corroborating transcript other than mine. None of the schools asked for individual assignment grades, but I made a point to always print those at the end of the year and file - just in case. I also kept any courses that we did together even more detailed. For instance, I know there are schools out there that require that they see science lab books. The Common Application does require individual course descriptions of every single course with grading scale. I pretty much used the Homeschool Scholar's format for writing course descriptions which made it very easy. I HIGHLY suggest that you write these every year at the end of the year while it is fresh in your mind. I waited until application time and it was a lot of work and I realized that my memory is not what it used to be. If the class is online, printing and keeping the description of the class is a huge help when doing this. Those syllabus' help, too. The Homeschool Scholar (Lee Binz) also has good advice on making a transcript. Once again, I highly suggest keeping this up-to-date as your child finishes each grade. I really liked Lee Binz's book Setting the Records Straight: How to Craft Homeschool Transcripts and Course Descriptions for College Admission and Scholarships. Good luck. The absolute best advice I can give is to please start early. I wish I had.

Ds took the AP Comparative Govt. PAHS class with Julia Reed last year. He really enjoyed it. It was the instructor's first year teaching with PAHS, so I think there was a bit of a learning curve for everyone, but with another year under her belt, I bet this is a spectacular class. Ds really loved the guest speakers that she had brought in. They were fascinating. She is well connected due to her background. He had taken the AP Human Geo the year before this one and he loved both of them. He said they both really opened his eyes to what is going on in the world. Now, he wants to major in International Business and minor in French and travel abroad for school. There was only one school in the district that taught this course. Luckily, it was the same school that has been so accommodating for all of his other tests. He told me that when he went into the English Lit test this week, both of the proctors had proctored other tests for him in the past - including the Comp. Gov test. They both greeted him by name. He was the only homeschooler taking the test with them. We have been very fortunate to have a school that has been so welcoming to Ds.

My ds is interested in an International Business Major. He has five years of high school French and wants to get a minor in it. I was wondering about whether he might want to look at a more generalized Business Management major instead. Do you think an International Business Major will make it harder for him if he needs to get a job here?

Wow, 9 APs. That is impressive! I do have to say that I was shocked that the school ds is going to attend really did not give much credit for the APs. For them, the main thing was his ACT scores. That is what is allowing him to skip all of the lower level courses - not his AP classes or tests. I agree with swimmermom3, though, I believe the classes at PA Homeschoolers have been totally worth it. The challenge, structure, and instruction has definitely done a better job than I could have in getting ds ready for college work.

Quote this morning as Ds headed out the door to take his AP English Lit test... "For better or worse, it's almost over!"

I started writing out all we have to do in the next two weeks and I started having heart palpitations. AP tests, finals, announcements, concerts, graduation slide show to finish, presentation board to make and speech to write for graduation, planning and invitations for large grad party on day after graduation, landscaping (the backyard where the party is supposed to be is a complete mud pit due to the rain pushing everything back and grass not in yet), both kids in Fiddler on the Roof two days before graduation, dress rehearsals, I am head of props committee for the play, 8 family members flying in for play, graduation, and party and staying with me, the house is a disaster, piles of linens to wash for all the beds and blow-up mattresses, dd has a virus similar to mono and she is Golde in the play, doctor appointments, end-of-year school party, cast party, airport runs for people coming and going, food planning for all people for 6 days... I think I need to go to bed now. :svengo:

I worked for several years for a venture capital company. The people I worked with specialized in the Biotech sector. I can tell you right now - an Economic/Business major, along with a Biology minor or double-major, would have been golden in that industry (of course an MBA or Doctorate would probably be needed, as well.) I would think the the healthcare arena would love a combination like this.

Ohhh!! I soooo wanted DS to take that Lukeion class. It just did not work out. What a wonderful looking class. Both ds and dd have taken Mr. Barr's Witty Wordsmith and Barbarian Grammarian classes. I counted them as part of their English credits those years. I want to take that Advanced Research Writing class MYSELF!

Just for the fun of it, here's more of a look at how our scheduling worked out for the four years... High school has been a totally different ballgame for us than middle school was. All that wonderful spontaneous "Look there's a new exhibit at the Science and Nature Museum" went away. 9th was still fairly scheduled as they began to take more online classes and all-day public school enrichment classes one day a week. I worked with them to learn how to start scheduling their days for themselves. Keeping a calendar of their school, social, volunteer, sport, and church activities was a must. We use a connected Outlook program and send invites to everyone else, so we all know what everyone is doing. 10th - more online classes and enrichment day classes. This became harder to schedule due to the fact that they were "losing" a day of the week due to the enrichment day (which as my kids stated was a must for the social aspect, classes I had a hard time teaching, such as art, and their wonderful Musical Theater Program. More classwork is now done on the weekend, since the week becomes crazy with social, sport, and volunteer activities. 11th - even more online classes and enrichment day. At this point, the kids take pretty much full responsibility of their schedule. They work until they are done and figure out how to fit their responsibilities and social "wants" into the schedule. I still have a tendency to nag at this point and even get to say "I told you so" when they miss an assignment, but it works better than it did in 10th. 12th- definitely doing their own thing. They need to be ready to do this in college. Ds is headed to college next year. Even now, he still needs to do a better job at being diligent about his schedule. I guess he will learn the hard way next year. He still tends to wait until the last day to do assignments. College is going to bite him in the bottom if he doesn't learn that high school and college are two totally different beasts :D .

I am not sure if this has any bearing at all regarding this, but my dd (16) will be taking her third year of ASL next year through Landry Academy. I do not know if they are approved a-g classes, but I am sure the school would be able to tell you. She has been happy with the classes. Her teacher (Mr. Dally) has also taught her a lot about the deaf culture and community. She is not Coda/Koda and is working her way slowly into our local deaf community (mainly through a very large local church). Her senior year, she is planning on starting classes at our local cc, which has a very good Interpreter's Program. Her Landry Academy classes have been very good for someone like her who was starting at the beginning. If your girls are more advanced since they have been around the language, they might be able to just test with Landry and enter where they would be best suited. Here is the main link to the catalogue/course list at Landry. Just look under "Subject/Topic" for Foreign Languages and submit. You will see all of the American Language courses right at the top of the list. If you open one of the classes and click on the "Details" tab, you can then click on the name of the teacher for their background. Also take a look at the syllabus on the page to see if it is something you are interested in. These have been very good classes for my girl. I am not sure how advanced your girls are, though, or if it would be a good fit for them. Please let me know if you have any more questions I or dd could answer. Also, if you look at the lower right of any page of the Landry website, they have a chat feature that is online during the day. They are quick to answer questions. You could ask about the a-g requirements.

I had just written this down as a to-do a few days ago. Ds will probably not have a car his first year, but just in case we find that he does need to take one, I was going to look this up. Our house insurance company (State Farm) is trying to lure us to bring over the cars with all kind of "specials" regarding my teen driver. I will have to do some research. I am going to follow this thread.

Thank you! He is so ready, but the next two and a half weeks are going to be crazy. He just finished Physics, has the AP Lit test tomorrow, a very big paper due in US History, a French 4/5 final and project due next week, and finals in his public school enrichment courses and a classical guitar recital. Then the crazy week of the 18th... he and his sister are in Fiddler on the Roof (she is Golde and he is Lazar Wolf (L'Chiam!), we have a house full of people flying for the play and his graduation on Friday and a BIG graduation BBQ party on Sat.. It is going to be a crazy time. We are all just going to want to sleep for a week after this! (Also, we may be heading out your way again this summer. I will pm you when I have firmed this up. Have to head to a wedding out there.)

Gosh, I would have loved to have had a year where I could have written anything I wanted to before starting college. My ability to have time to write creatively went out the window once I hit college. If she is that good of a writer and does not need anymore credits before college, maybe a year to follow her own interests in writing would be fun for her before the restrictive writing in college hits. Your idea of a Senior Project sounds fun, as well.

I am betting this is wise, especially if she believes that her score will be OK. Even though the student has rights according to the website info, I would personally be wary of it turning into a "she-said, she-said" thing. It is just a bummer that the kids work so hard all year and there is so much depending on the test, that something like this could make a difference for them and their scores. There is a lot riding on these tests.

I hope this is not a problem that I am going to recopy this here, but Ds' AP teacher posted the following in their class: Finally, I'd like to remind you of a few things, in case your exam testing situation becomes-- unfortunately-- a really good story to tell later: Under no circumstances is a proctor supposed to leave the room, stop an exam early, move students, or in any other way deviate from test protocol. If this happens to you and disrupts your experience, do two things: 1) stick up for yourself on exam day (politely point out the rules), and 2) call the College Board right after the exam. They will often give you the option of retaking the exam or canceling part of your score based on the disruption.Granted, the Proctor does have FULL authority to supervise the classroom and ensure/guard against cheating. Also a primary duty is to walk around the room and ensure that students are working on the correct exam section. I would ask to see if the Proctor did this with other students. But no matter what, doing this repeatedly to the detriment of the student’s performance is a big no-no. I suggest you look at websites such as this to try and figure out exactly the circumstances. The student may be eligible for an increased score, part of the exam canceled, or even a retake. Edit: Just letting you know that the last paragraph above is MY interpretation. The italics were from the AP teacher.

I second PA Homeschoolers AP classes. They do rock!!!