My dd homeschooled her whole life and started public school for high school. We are in Johnston County and it has been a great experience. We moved from Raleigh and have about 10 acres. Things can be confusing but here is some help: West Johnston High - good school, large, good sports, great band program. The addresses that feed into it is confusing because it pulls from a community that is unincorporated but locals call it Cleveland or 40/42. It is not located near these towns but the addresses will be: Benson,Willow Springs, Angier, and Garner. ( most of these towns straddle multiple counties so it would be in the Johnston County section. Cleveland High-this is the same area as West. Brand new school and is smaller with a great community feel to it. Cant say a negative about it! Again, it is in unincorporated area so addresses are really odd and aren't in these actual towns. You will see mostly Garner, Clayton, and a small section with a Smithfield address. Wake Christian- we have lots of friends there as well. You will see kids from Raleigh, Cary, all over the Johnston County and Harnett County Good luck. We really like our community. Feel free to PM me if I can help any further.

I know a young lady who is attending Stephens right now! She just left NC to go back for her Sophmore year and she really enjoys it. She is a Christian and has found a church home and has not spoken about any problems fitting in while at school. I will try to touch base with her and maybe y'all can chat via email. Let me know if there are specifics you would want me to ask.

I'm not from the Deep South, but from NC and I never even thaught of Dawn and Don sounded alike. Laurie and Lori I also can hear a difference but all the others are pronounced the same. I think its a regional dialect thing!

I'm not sure where you are from and what is considered "select ball". Where I am from we have 3 levels of ball: recreation, select, and travel ball (sometimes called elite). Rec ball is traditional recreation league. Select is when they select the most talented kids from the rec league to create a new team that competes against other select rec. teams in the area. Travel ball is usually done through open try-outs and kids are selected onto the team regardless if they play rec or not. SELECT BALL- Their travel schedule is limited to the immediate area and games are on Sunday afternooons. It is more competitive than tradiional rec ball and is broken into fall and spring seasons. Great middle of the road opportunity for families who can't/don't want to commit to a travel ball schedule. TRAVEL BALL- My husband is head coach and my son plays this level. It is very competitive and can be expensive. Our team does a lot of fundraising to keep the costs somewhat reasonable.Our team usually does 2- 3 tournaments a month and usually 1 "big out of state tournament" a season. Our tournaments run Sept- Nov. and March- July. We take the month of December and from mid- July to mid-Aug off and have practices the rest of the season. To make this work your family must have total dedication to the team. It does not work if your family is not fully into it. We have lost 1 family /season to this even though we try to warn them ahead of time. For those of us that do it the players, parents, and siblings become like family and it is really fun! The kids must be competitive in nature to thrive. The emotions can run high and low through the tournaments and they need to be able to be motivated. I will say that the his skills will improve greatly with the time spent with the team. Also, his baseball IQ will far surpass those playing at a lower level. Good luck with your decision. I have 1 son who totally loves it and thrives in it and one son who doesn't. The one that doesn't still enjoys baseball but has found other ways to be involved. (working electronic scoreboard, warming up the kids, helping in the dugout, etc)

I am so glad to see this thread! My son turned 12 in March and is bugging me to join Civil Air Patrol but I am a little hesitant. He loves all things military, loves to volunteer places, and is obsessed with flying. However, he is dyslexic and I worry about the tests that he would have to pass in order to go up in rank. It would absolutely hurt him to the core if he knew everything but messed up on the written exam. Does anyone know what the written tests are like? How long is the test? Any thoughts? He is very bright and has come a long way with his reading but I need to protect his self-esteem.

We are a big baseball family here so Phiton neckaces are "in"! Even my husband wears one! The twisted ones are "cooler" with the kids but they are also more expensive. They come in a lot of different colors so you can choose based on team colors or just favorite colors. Be aware they also come in different lengths. Don't get a long one if your kid is small! You can get them at Dicks Sporting Goods but they are also more expensive. Do you have local batting cages? We have several here that sell them and they are better priced. Also, Ebay has a greater selection that are priced well. Good luck!

"Kids these Days" was produced by a homeschool graduate, Nick Dimondi. Nick also works with the team who produced "Underdog". We wish him luck!