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CatholicMom

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  1. Btw, Yes, I'm wondering how much anti-homeschooler bias has to do with the "let's see what interventions will do" approach. But now that I see how the special ed system works for my daughter who has a diagnosed "specific learning disability" now I realize how much INTENSE "special ed" I gave her at home. I mean, if they call 45 minutes a day of basically helping with homework level of help "Special Education" then I don't know what you call the intense work I did to teach my two suspected-dyslexic kids to read at home. It was every single day, tons of one-on-one time, customized reading lists, sitting and listening to them reading, Phonics books until my daughter was in 5th grade (the special ed teacher who gave my daughter a decoding test said she had never seen a kid score so high on the phonological test she was given! [Yet my daughter's fluency and comprehension was still poor. It just shows how much intense phonics work I had her do to try to combat her reading issues. And I wonder where she'd be without!!]  

    Anyway, if anyone has any ideas on what they need to hear to convince them that my son has had PLENTY of instruction in writing, and yet his writing skills don't show it (thereby indicating LD or something mimicking it), please let me know.  Homeschooling is so much of a different animal that I think it's hard to get them to understand.  With my LD daughter, one time the school psych said to me, "It's hard to know what she's done because I can't talk to her teacher." 😮🤔  Ummm, you're talking to her teacher, nit-wit!  Go ahead and ask. 😂

    • Like 1
  2. 12 hours ago, PeterPan said:

    Yes the ToWL is low, but you'd really like to tease out more what is going on there. Would having it diagnosed (which a psych would have done and the ps punted on because of their we want to see RTI, homeschoolers are crap schoolers bias), make a difference? Does it EXPLAIN what you're seeing, or is there still more? I think you're still needing pragmatics, narrative language, etc., and seriously good luck on getting a neuropsych to do those. Around here they don't. It's SLPs or clinical psychs who specialize in gifted. Ironically, those clinical psychs are a lower pricepoint, go figure.

     

    I think you're probably giving me good advice, but I need a translation, Lol.   I don't know any of these acronyms. What do you mean that I need narrative language? Is there a narrative language test?  It's frustrating to hear that I may need to switch gears and look for a clinical pscyhologist who specialize in gifted kids. I'm thinking I will still continue down the path I'm on for fear that I will get waylaid since I'm not sure what I'm doing, but note taken.  The neuropsych can certainly recognize giftedness, though, right? So you would think they could then send me on to someone else for further testing if necessary, when they're done?  I'm kind of thinking, rule out (or diagnose) a LD so the he can get help with that at school sooner rather than later, and at the same time I want to know about a potential Executive Function issue, ADHD, and definitely if ASD is a part of it. Then after sorting out the problematic part, then I can worry about the gifted stuff? Does that make sense? I'm kind of thinking that after all of this is "out of his way" as much as possible, maybe he will start to take off academically and life in general will also get a bit easier for him (even if part of it is just our family and his teachers being able to name and learn about what he's dealing with, so we can be a bit more understanding). That's my hope.

  3. Oh, also... regarding his low math scores, something I plan to pay more attention to when school starts is whether he is getting such low scores because he is making what I call "silly mistakes" (which he definitely does a lot of), or if he is really not understanding concepts. His teacher noted to me that he would seem to be following right along during lesson time and answering questions correctly and then would proceed to bomb the test. He also was known to constantly a) lose his homework, b) forget he even had homework, c) forget to hand in the homework that he actually DID do, d) do his homework in a hurry, completely wrong.  

    One thing he does that is another strange quirk of his is that he's super informal on his school work.  He hates writing answers to social studies questions, for instance, and more than once I looked at his homework and saw that on the EIGHT lines where he was supposed to write a thoughtful answer, he wrote: "I dunno. The indians maybe" (and not on any of the lines, of course).  UMM WHAT??? That is so weird to me. Is this just a case of not giving a crap? LOL  Kind of comical, but depending on my mood I will either laugh and smack my head, or ream him out.  If you have any thoughts on this particular quirk, please let me know!   

    Doesn't "I dunno. The indians maybe" just scream high IQ ?  😂🤣😂  How could I not have known? LOL

  4. Wow, this is so helpful!!!!  You guys are my "moms" for sure.  Sidenote that nowhere else on the Great Internets do I find such helpful, detailed input on this stuff as on this forum!!  <Sigh of relief!>

    Secondly, this is a bit overwhelming. I'm so thrown off by this testing score and a little annoyed that nobody even called (at least we didn't connect) on the phone, or have a conversation in person about these scores. They just sent them via snail mail and I feel like they dropped a bomb off on my doorstep with no explanation. Okaaay???

    Anyhoo, this is really helpful info. I was wondering about how this score correlated with an IQ score, and was afraid to say his "IQ" was 130 for fear of looking like an idiot, LOL. But I'm actually not telling my son this, other than "you're smart!" because I don't want him to get a big head, or think his IQ will put the effort into his school work for him, ya know?  But this is such a dramatic revelation for me, you don't even know. This is so strange to me because this is the THE kid in my house who does the "dumb crap" alllll the time (bless his soul!). 

    So, to answer some questions, they did give me the whole print out of all his subtest scores and explanations in paragraph form. All 3 of his "cluster scores" were 90 percentile or above. But they noted a significant inconsistency in that his immediate recall was notably far weaker than his other skills, so they called it a "personal weakness."  It was a big discrepancy for *him* but it was actually still in the average range for a child his age. So.... hmmmm. They did also do achievement testing and although I don't have it in front of me right now, the nutshell version was that he did "OK" on everything other than math facts, fractions, and they did notice the errors in spelling and punctuation. They also noted a few reversals like I was talking about and one instance of transposing letters. To me, this made me worry that I have done a terrible job educating him!  Because, like I said, his school performance, and this achievement test, shows nothing that you would ever guess as indicating high intelligence. But it's very interesting that one of you said that THIS exact phenomenon (if I'm understanding correctly) is what could indicate a learning disability? (Btw, is Executive Functioning Disorder considered a learning disability?)

    My plan was to get as much free testing done through the school as they would do, and then take that information to the neuropsychologist for them to build on, test him further, and give me the whole picture. We do already have an appointment in, I believe, September. I'm *100% convinced* something is not "right" with him (or at least definitely not "typical") because of all the space cadet stuff that really affects his daily living (and MINE, Lol). At this point, I'm so tired of guessing about what my kids are dealing with that I'm trying to plow through all of this and will likely be getting at least two of my other kids tested. We are full of neurologically "unique" kids in this house, it seems!

    So, if anyone is interested, here is some info from the test results that I just grabbed to have in front of me:

    General Cognitive Ability - 130, 98 percentile

    Verbal - 132, 98 percentile
    Word definitions: 71
    Verbal similarities: 67

    Nonverbal Reasoning - 120, 91 percentile
    Matrices: 68
    Sequential & Quantitative Reasoning: 58

    Spatial - 119
    Recall of Designs: 53
    Pattern Construction: 69

    Diagnostic Subtests:
    Recall of Digits - Forward - 49
    Recall of Objects - Immediate - 48

    ---------------
    Wechsler Individual Achievement Test - II
    Reading comp 91   (these are all the percentile ranks)
    Word reading 79
    Oral reading fluency 63
    Oral reading accuracy 68
    Oral reading rate 58
    Math problem solving 32  (ouch!)
    Numerical operations 32  (eek!)

    ------
    Then there was a Test of Written Language - 4th edition where his overall Writing Composite was 106, with a percentile of 65
    ____

    Then there was the BASC-3  composite score summary which placed him "at risk" and with two items that were "clinically significant" (leadership and activities of daily living)
    His Behavioral Symptoms Index was 62 ("at risk")
    His Adaptive Skills was 32 ("at risk")
    ____

    I'm also attaching scanned images of what the tester said for Recommendations. I'm not sure how I feel about it. It kind of seems like she doesn't think there's anything terribly noteworthy, but what bothers me (I know I'm being redundant here, lol) is that this cognitive ability and his achievement don't really match up at all (wouldn't you say?). Especially math... yikes. He actually got a high D in the first quarter of school, I believe, and then got C's...

    I worry a tad bit that I could have misrepresented him a little on the BASC because when the question has to do with attention, I'm not sure how to answer. The answer is really *it depends on what you're asking him to pay attention to!!*  He can be very focused on things that interest him. School (especially math) does NOT engage him. A book on Greek Myths, though, will... So will a book on geology, or a computer game, or a card game, etc.  Math lessons? Not at all.

    Anyway!!  This kid is definitely quirky and complicated and I'm just trying to make sure I steer this whole testing thing in such a way that I find out what we really need to know to make sure I can help him live and learn up to his potential, which I feel like is NOT currently happening... especially after finding out this IQ score.

    JoelTestResults20190811_21570889.pdf JoelTestResults220190811_22005924.pdf

  5. Can anyone help me make sense of this?

    So my 11 year old son had some assessments done through the school, at my request, to check for learning disability. His major problems are spelling (letter reversals, number reversal, occasional transposing of letters), writing mechanics (lack of capitals and punctuation, tons of errors), and losing things. And when I say losing things, I mean, it's kind of extreme, in my opinion. He can't keep track of anything other than the book he's currently reading and maybe his deck of cards he loves. He will put on his 5 year old brother's pants and think they're his, he'll walk out the door without his backpack, he'll be wearing dress shoes with shorts, he won't be able to find his jacket in the coat closet when it's in front of his face, forgets his LUNCH in his locker at school when walking with this class to LUNCH... like, wow. He has a bad case of SCS (Space Cadet Syndrome). But he learned to read easily and as soon as he started reading, he HAS NEVER STOPPED and has always been super interested in games, puzzles, reading, and trivia. When he tells you about what he's been reading, or when you notice his vocabulary, he seems smart. But so many times EVERY day he does what I would call "the dumbest crap." 🙂

    Anyhoo, so I got the results from this assessment and his General Cognitive Ability score is 130 which is the 98th percentile and in the "very high" range of ability. HUH?!  Now, I'm glad, of course, but also a bit flabbergasted. With a score of 130 (I'm not exactly sure how this correlates to IQ score?), WHY would this not translate to academic performance?  Like I said, he LOVES to read, he loves puzzles, loves games, loves anything hands-on, and can have extreme interest in learning things that engage him. But... he's a straight C student at school. Why??? Is it just that he's not conscientious? Definitely losing homework constantly and forgetting he even has homework is a problem grade-wise. But even still... this supposed "very high range of ability" is not showing itself at school. Plus... what's with the writing issues? Am I right that he could still have a learning disability? And if so, what kind of testing should I suggest to hone in on that?

    Now, background: We definitely have learning disabilities in my family. I joke with my husband that we are a dyslexia factory. We have 8 kids and so far two of them are dyslexic (both score very high on spatial reasoning, but have problems with language... had a hard time learning to read, terrible phonetic spelling, etc). So my 11 year old seems to have the writing aspect of that, but didn't have a hard time learning to read. He also didn't really speak at all until one day he said a full sentence at over 3 years old.

    Summary: Language-related learning disabilities in our family (dyslexia), smart kid who does really dumb stuff all the time (lol), surprisingly high intelligence score, does not do well in school. What the???  He was homeschooled up until last fall, by the way. So I have a hint of doubt in the back of my mind that maybe I've done this kid wrong somehow. But other than reading, he's never really noticeably excelled at work... especially when any writing is involved. Anyway, please let me know if you have any thoughts on this.

     

  6. I'm picturing the bookshelves on one end that is more "cozy" with a soft rug in front of the bookshelves, maybe a few flat pillows to sit/lay on. In one of the corners on the "bookshelf side" of the room, you could keep a futon or loveseat to fit you and the child who needs 1 on 1 time. Lapdesks or a tv dinner table to work at under a tall reading lamp.

    On the other end, the desks lining the walls, and in the middle (if there's space) the table & chairs. 

     

    On desks, I would keep all the essential books they each individually & currently need. I use craftsman toolboxes for this purpose and they keep them right on their desks. http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=35554526&KPID=18611069&cid=CAPLA:G:Shopping_-_Craftsman_-_Brand_-_DT&pla=pla_18611069&k_clickid=b8c28c5c-2357-4e11-949f-f54c3aa1fa2e&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIkMCcht2j1gIVBoZpCh1WAwKVEAQYAyABEgLiI_D_BwE

     

    Between the tool totes & the drawers, they should have plenty of space for their personal school stuff. 

     

     

  7. Memoria Press has this set on Insects. I'd probably use that and kick it up one notch for 6th grade if I thought it was close, but not quite. You could require an essay once a week, add a book, or a few activities (IF it's even necessary). Sometimes older kids just end up getting more out of the 4-5th grade material than they would have, is all.

     

    https://www.memoriapress.com/curriculum/science/book-insects/

  8. I would just use Plaid Phonics.  No need for another spelling program.

     

     

    Yes. MCP Phonics and SW do go together. If you get the teacher's guide for SW, which you probably don't need, it provides the corresponding pages in Plaid Phonics (which are self-explanatory since they work through everything in the same order: consonants with consonants, short vowels with short vowels, and so forth). I think you don't actually need SW unless your child likes doing little crossword and fill-in-the-right-word type activities; you could absolutely use the words in Plaid Phonics OR make up your own list of 10 based on the rule. Really up to you. The best online samples I was able to find of these books are at christianbook.com, by the way...I've never ordered from them, but happened to stumble across their very good samples pages when I was trying to decide which level of these books I needed!

     

    Both of these ideas are almost too good to be true!!  

     

    Now that you mention it, I guess Plaid Phonics DOES cover "Spelling" in theory. I just wonder if it's enough.

     

    I love ChristianBook.com, by the way. They have great prices and a very easy site to navigate and order from. 

     

    I wonder if Spelling Workout literally lines up, or if I'd have to skip around and figure out which spelling lists went with which phonics concepts, ya know? Sounds lazy, but I have so much on my plate, I'm not sure I have it in me to do that. Although I guess I could try to rip all the pages out of Spelling Workout and put them "in order" in a binder...

  9. How do I provide solid spelling instruction along side phonics? I plan to use MCP Plaid Phonics level B next year for my rising 1st grader.

     

    Would it be crazy to use the words from her Plaid Phonics as her spelling words? I'm afraid to get too inventive, but I don't get why spelling rules aren't taught alongside the phonics rules for the same words. Is there a way to do that? Does Spelling Workout that is put out by MCP mesh with the phonics, or do they cover totally different types of words at the same time? 

     

    TIA

     

     

  10.  

     

    How are you planning to integrate all of these resources into one course?

     

    I am planning on my Ds taking Spanish next year, but have no idea about resources. It's tempting to just go with Rosetta Stone. 

  11. First time planning 9th grade for me!  Ds will be 14 in May.

     

     

    Social Studies - Sonlight Core F: Eastern Hemisphere

     

    English - Thinking about outsourcing a composition class, but not sure!

     

    Math - Math U See Algebra 1

     

    Science with Lab - Apologia Physical Science

     

    Foreign Language - Spanish, but not sure what resources yet.

     

    Art - Khan Academy has an eastern art history class. I'm considering that to go with the Core F Eastern Hemisphere studies. (Half credit)

     

    Health - No idea (Half credit, opposite Art)

     

    Music - Piano

     

    PE - No idea

    • Like 1
  12. I think some kids really do their best work at the last minute. I was a lot like that (although I tried not to). I think my DS is a mix of needing to be last minute and not (the latter is especially when an essay is due).

     

    Congrats to your DS, Hilltopmom!

     

    Glad it's working out!! 

     

    But, yeah, I was totally thinking that this sounds like how I was in... um... college. I just could not bring myself to do much more than what I HAD to do until it was GO TIME. Then suddenly it all came together and I would, thankfully, be a pretty good judge of what I could get done in my last stretch of time. I would start pounding my 10 page paper on Aristotle and would get it done literally with like 10 minutes to spare. Ok, it wasn't really to spare because I had to get it printed, stapled, and run to class! LOL But, amazingly, I would get very good grades even when I put the pressure on myself. 

     

    It reminds me of a meme I saw that said, "You can't write this paper in one evening." And the student said, "YOU UNDERSTIMATE MY POWA!!!"  LOL

     

    But I can totally see me in your shoes in a year or two... not looking forward to it.

    • Like 2
  13.  

    However, dual enrollment, SAT Subject tests, and CLEP tests can also accomplish these same goals, so you pretty much need to research *those* options, too, in order to weigh the pros and cons of each and how available each option is to you, or how reasonable/difficult each option will be to do, AND then check in to potential colleges your student may apply to and see which of the options lines up best for the colleges, while simultaneously accomplishing your goals. ;)

     

     

    Oh, no problemo!  :svengo:  :svengo:  :svengo:  :lol:

     

    I think I need to take a class on how to homeschool high school.  :crying:

     

    It seems like so many stars have to align before you find the "right choice." However, I guess right now two of my goals with AP classes, given what I now know, would be to validate his homeschool transcript, and to count toward college credits to 1) make his life/major easier, but even moreso 2) help him get through college debt-free or close to it. Because we are steering our son toward not getting involved in debt as soon as he graduates high school, we will encourage him to go to college where he can actually afford... so no super competitive universities most likely.

     

    Also, AP courses would almost certainly NOT be math or science of any sort. I would have to pull major teeth for that, and I have no doubt he will not be majoring in a STEM field anyway. So I was thinking AP in his areas of interest (creative/art/writing fields right now).

     

    So a few more questions now that I know all this (which is VERY helpful, albeit overwhelming):

     

    1) Are AP courses worth nothing if they don't take the test? So, for instance, if you are planning to teach or enroll in an AP course, you'd better be dang sure he will be able to take the test somewhere locally? (They can't be taken online?)

    2) Can the local school deny your child entry to the test? Maybe this varies by state. (I'm in NY.)

    3) What if your child, theoretically, takes the AP course and then bombs the test? 

    4) What grade do you generally start AP courses in? My son will be in 9th next year. If they are college freshman-level courses, do most wait until 11th or 12th do APs? 

    5) Are the AP tests super rigorous? Lengthy fill in the bubble tests? Are they standardized, or is it based on real score? Just curious.

     

    I honestly have no idea how my son would do on a test like that.  It totally depends on the subject, for one. I'm not sure how many NON-math or science AP classes are out there. My son has done OK (50 - 65 percentile on the CAT) but that's all I have to go on. I also don't think he took the CAT as seriously as (I'd hope) he'd take an AP exam because he'd be older and he would have been preparing for it all year. Hard to tell, though. 

    • Like 1
  14. Pretend I'm 10 years old. LOL 

     

    I know it means "Advanced Placement" and refers to a more intense high school course, and that's about the extent of my grasp on it. What makes a course AP? More work? How much? Why are AP courses beneficial? Who says it qualifies as "AP"? Can any subject be turned into an AP course (e.g. AP art history? AP European Studies?). Are there prerequisites for AP courses (i.e. in order to take an AP course, do you have to take an initial course in said subject)?

     

    I went to school in Pennsylvania and we didn't do AP anything as far as I recall!

     

    TIA!

  15. Just chiming in to say that I think your daughter is my son's twin, lol. I'm planning 9th, too, and my son is dyslexic (his trouble area is spelling at this point and not reading), and loves creative writing, literature, film, and art. hehe I will have to look up some of the things you're using (which I've never heard of). I'm not planning to cater much to my son's dyslexia, though, as he does well in every subject except spelling... which technically we don't even have to cover any more. I just would like to get his spelling to a manageable level. How is your daughter's spelling? 

  16. Lori D, the homeschool high school requirements for NY are actually not identical to the state requirements for public schools, which is probably why you're coming up with a different number of credits than I am. That said, no "credits" are required at all for NY homeschoolers... just "units" and "hours" and "subjects." Of course, I'm concerned about credits because I want my son to have a good transcript for college admission if he chooses that. So I just want to make sure we will have at least as many credits as the local public highschool (ours requires 22), but also fulfill all the homeschool subject and hour requirements, as well as add in any classes that aren't technically required (e.g. a 4th math class) but may make college admission easier. 

     

    MsChickie, Yes, the Regents diploma requirements look very similar to the homeschool requirements, thankfully, so I think we will have all of those covered at some point during his 4 years. Thanks for all the ideas! 

     

    Lori D, I will have to take some time to digest all the things you said about the English/Literature issue. I appreciate all the links & thoughts! I have so much to think about; I have to take it one thing at a time. Right now I don't feel like we can take on a new program. I am accountable to my school district to accomplish what I set out to, so I have to concentrate on that. He is currently doing Seton's English 8. I think the 2nd half of the book is composition (as opposed to the first half, which is grammar), but I'm not sure as he isn't there yet. He also is going to participate in a Battle of the Books soon so he will be reading the books required for that. When the competition is over, he will take up with reading a book line up that is historical fiction, relating to the history he's studying. I think he's one one or two "reading comprehension" type of books in the past, in maybe 5th or 6th. I also have done a lot of read-alouds with him with discussion, but that is the extent of lit "study." I expect it to kick up a notch for high school, of course.

     

    • Like 1
  17. To be very clear, there are two completely different requirements.  One is for college admission (which I'd make a high school graduation requirement) and one is for college graduation.  So, a person only taking two years in high school may get admitted to a particular college but may need to satisfy additional requirements during college.  Both admissions and college graduation requirements vary among colleges - some require more than 2 years in high school as an admission requirement (not even counting competitiveness among applicants at selective ones, where more may be needed).  Some colleges don't require any foreign language during college.  Sometimes college graduation requirements vary among different programs within the same college.

     

    Some students can reach a level of proficiency during high school that satisfies both college admission and college graduation requirements and that is presumably what your friend was referring to.

     

    There are older threads discussing this issue.

     

    Thank you!  I totally did not have this clear in my mind. Knowing this helps a ton. I suspect my son will go into something to do with the arts, literature, or possibly history.  

  18. Also, I would love to hear any suggestions for a rounded English program that includes literature. A steady dose of good books helps the grammar go down, lol, so if I could combine reading/writing/grammar that would help him get through it and also kill the most birds with one stone. What I don't want is for him to do "English" every day meaning write an essay here or there and do endless sentence diagramming & grammar, and lo and behold, he hasn't read a good book for 6 months, ya know? He loves reading, and hates writing & grammar. But he still needs to work on grammar. I'm not sure if it's more "exercises" he needs though, at this point, or if he needs to just put it to good use. Anyhoo...

  19. Thank you for all the credit breakdowns and option ideas!  It feels like I'm solving a giant puzzle, Lol. 

     

    Turns out by thinking all of this through I realized that before I even worry about what specific programs I'm going to use (which, thankfully, I'm not real set on), I need to figure out exactly which subjects I need to cover for his 4 years. Since I am in NY, I looked at the Commissioner's Regulations again and mapped out what they require of homeschoolers. They actually only require 18.5 "units." Credits are not spoken of, but since I have to fulfill these units and the number of hours per "unit" works out to about a 1 hour class 5 days a week for 180 days, apparently 1 unit = 1 credit, basically. So if we translate the requirements to credits, they require exactly 18.5 credits total. BUT the kicker is this does not reflect modern college admissions requirements (the regs were written in the 80's - oy). So I have to make sure I fulfill those regulations (including 2 credits of PE, for instance), and also add in what I've been told colleges around here look for: 3 sciences w/labs, 4 yrs of foreign language, and of course 4 math classes (the regs only require 2!). SO that brings the total to 25.5 total high school credits JUST to fulfill the NY homeschool regulations, plus add in the modern basics for college admission. 

     

    So after a couple hours of puzzle-solving at my coffee table, and several sheets of crumpled notebook paper, this is the map I came up with:

     

    9th - 6.5 credits

    1. Eng

    2. Social Studies

    3. Math

    4. Sci w/ Lab #1

    5. Spanish I

    6. Art (.5), Health (.5)

    7. P.E. (.5)

     

    10th - 6.5 credits

    1. Eng

    2. Social Studies

    3. Math

    4. Sci w/ Lab #2

    5. Spanish II

    6. Elective #1

    7. P.E. (.5)

     

    11th - 6.5 credits

    1. Eng

    2. Social Studies - Participation in Gov (.5, NYS required)+Econ (.5, NYS required)

    3.  Math

    4. Sci w/ Lab #3

    5. Spanish III

    6. Elective #2

    7. P.E. (.5)

     

    12 - 6.0 credits

    1. Eng

    2. Social Studies

    3. Math

    4. Spanish IV 

    5. Elective #3

    6. Art (.5 required)

    7. P.E. (.5)


    I literally don't see how it can vary a whole lot other than some minor switching around. He will have 3 "true electives" and I had to scratch Philosophy & Religion which doesn't thrill me, but I just could not figure out a way to work it in. So I'm thinking that can be an elective one year, possibly (half the year Philosophy, and half Theology, perhaps). Also, you all were so very right about typing. Way too much to do already, so we will try to accomplish that before the fall. I do want to focus on quality, not quantity... it's just so hard to not feel like I'm neglecting something!

    However, what say you all on the 4 years of language? I haven't looked at local schools myself, but a friend told me that her child only took 2 foreign language courses and then had to take an extra 2 in college because the requirement wasn't met or something. So her advice was to make sure I get 4 years in. I just took her word for it.

     

    Also, I'm wondering: do colleges care whether a "specialty/interest" class fulfills a requirement, as opposed to being counted as an "elective"? In other words, if my son takes a film-making course and we count it as "Art" because it fits in the puzzle better that way, is it less impressive or whatever than if it was an "Elective"?

     

    Thanks so much for all the advice. If anyone got through all of this I'm unduly impressed, lol, and I appreciate any feedback. LMK if I made any mistakes.

     

    P.S. I laughed about the Faith & Life thing since everyone said it is not a high school course. All I knew was that it was a popular Catholic catechism program and I wanted my son to study some theology. I guess my "convert" is showing, since I've only been Catholic about 4 years. LOL Hopefully we will cover more theology, even if it's "off the record."

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