Are you seriously asking people on this board about tattling?:lol::lol::lol: (Read SWB's blog lately?)

Since it was my quote that started this thread I thought I would weigh in here. There's a difference between education for education's sake and education with the expectation that it will lead to a job. I have a very dear friend who majored in and received a bachelor's degree in theology. He considered this a terminal degree (meaning he never meant to go to seminary afterwards). Well, he got married and to support his wife and children got a job on an assembly line. All's well and good (though they struggled month to month) until he got layed off early last year. Now, he has a wife, four kids (two of whom are in college) and a house payment. Kids went to public school, wife got a full-time job in the library (so they could at least have medical insurance) and he's still on unemployment because he can't find a job with his skill set and degree. I think learning for learning's sake is admirable. I try to do it, still. I always loved being a student. It was great. However, the university setting should be considered a tool that one uses to prepare them for the "real world." I think all of us want our dc to grow up and have a job where they contribute to society and are not a burden on it. Whether it's apprenticing, a technical college, or a university they choose as their "tool" for making that happen. Having a field of study as a hobby is always an option; one does not have to major in it; one could minor in that subject or even choose elective classes in that subject to fulfill degree requirements and continue studying it well after they leave school. The point is that deductive reasoning should be used BEFORE making those choices. Start with: Where do I want to work or what kind of work do I want to be doing when I finish college (some may even start with what kind of money they want to earn). From there it's fairly easy to work backward to see what degree/classes will need to be taken, and, if a degree is necessary, what that degree should be in. Knowing what a person wants to do will help them in determining whether they can stop at a bachelor's degree or will need to go on to graduate school. Of course, this mean's thinking ahead and planning; not everyone's forte. My ds wants to be an architect. He will get a terminal degree in architecture (granted it's a bit longer than the standard 4 year degree, but still terminal). Great, he's set. My dd, only the other hand, wants to dual major in physics and biology. In the field she eventually wants to work in she knows she has to go to graduate school; she's already planning on it. Neither of her chosen majors is a terminal degree; it must lead to something else - esp. given where she wants to work when she's done. Planning is the key, people.

I've added flax seed, sunflower seeds, and nuts (on occasion).

My dd is 15, but will not start dating until she's 16. She is allowed to bring friends with her to family outings (e.g. the movies), but they are not boyfriends, just boys who happen to be friends.

The standard joke is the psychology field is a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and two bucks will get you a cup of coffee (or the degree could help you get a job at the coffee shop). Someone interested in either of the fields above should be prepared to get, at the very least, a master's degree. However, I would have them strongly consider a Ph.D. program instead of a terminal master's degree program. When I was in graduate school, the state university I attended did not have a Ph.D. program in my specialty (which I wll discuss more in a moment). I received a M.A. degree, but then applied to Ph.D. programs. Once there, I was told I had to repeat all of my statistics courses because, well, they were picky about their stats classes and considered them one of the best in the country. Psychology is not just one field. I dread telling people I'm a psychologist because their first thing they say to me after my revelation is something along the lines of "Oh my, I shouldnt have told you XYZ, because you've probably been analyzing everything I say....." Psychology has many, varied disciplines. Clinical psychology (think "couch" here) and even within clinical there's family/adolescents/marriage/children/etc. Within those I just mentioned there are different philosphies (e.g. Freudian, Jungian, Behavioral, Cognitive, Cognitive/Behavioral, Humanistic, etc. etc.) There are also lesser known fields such as Industrial/Organizational, Human Engineering, Social, Forensic, etc. Just to give you an example, my field is Industrial/Organizational Psychology and within that my specialty is teams (work teams) and job satisfaction/organizational commitment, especially as it relates to the spouse's contribution. If your dd is truly interested in this field as a career, have her take a general psychology class (or get her a general psychology textbook) that she can read through and see if one of the fields mentioned in the textbook strikes a cord with her. Also, she should consider what she wants to do with her degree (teach at a university, research, see patients - privately or in a hospital setting, work for the FBI, etc.) I would also have her take a statistics class. Not many people know this, but psychology is heavily grounded in statistics. In my time as a graduate student, I had 10 graduate level statistics classes. By the time I was teaching undergraduates I thought means/standard deviations/correlations/chi-squares/regressions were the easiest things I had ever seen (sort of like teaching 1 + 1 after you've taken calculus). I don't know how old your dd is, but once in a university/college setting, she should narrow her choice down and take classes that align with that choice (e.g. If she chooses Industrial/Organizational she would probably want to take several business/management courses, too). She won't be able to major in a specialty at the undergraduate level, but those other classes will help her with getting into a graduate program. When looking at graudate programs, she should only look at psychology programs that have her desired specialty and, preferrably, the higher ranked programs (top ten). HTH. Please feel free to PM me with any other questions you may have.

I'm losing patience with my local CC. We're not even doing multiple applications yet, just dual enrollment for next year and I'm about ready to strangle our local CC. The two page application to college, followed by the 7 page application for our state ACCEL (dual enrollment), followed by the 2 page ACCEL app. for this particular CC. No one I speak with is able to tell me what to submit first/together. Hopefully, by the time we're doing applications to college it'll seem like a breeze compared to this nonsense. You have my sympathies, Sharon. I agree with Gwen, hugs all around.

About the Laura Berquist course? Website? Thank you so much.

Thank you so much for your input and taking the time to post. I've bookmarked all the sites you mentioned. God bless, Bev

I thank you.:001_smile:

I cannot tell you exactly how many hours of video, but it's a lot (the videos are on the computer). However, I can tell you that tests are included with the Thinkwell program and are graded by computer. If you buy it from Homeschool Buyers Coop (which is free to join) you can get Thinkwell Chemistry for $74.95 right now, but I'm sure they will be offering this again in the future. Additionally, Kotz's textbook, Chemistry and Chemical Reactivity, comes with a CD-ROM that also has chapter test and other information on it. I'm having dd take those chapter tests instead of Thinkwells. HTH.

I've also narrowed down my textbook choices to: Bailey's American Pageant or Bennett's Road Map to the Last Best Hope. Has anyone used or are using either of these?

She reads the chapter first, then watches the Thinkwell video. She spends about an hour to an hour and a half per day. She spent the summer reading "The Joy of Chemistry" and did all of the experiments in the book while it was still warm outside. PM me if you need further information. I'm happy to help.

Hi all, Has anyone used the The Founding of America dvd set from The History Channel as a supplement to American History? (You can see it here.) I was wondering if you have used it, what you thought of it. Did it present the facts correctly? Was there any bias in the presentation? Was the presentation mind-numbing or exciting? Just trying to put together American History for both of my high schoolers next year and make it interesting. My kiddos have asked for a break from TTC videos. TIA for your advice.

Last year my dd was scheduled to take the PSAT test at our local high school. I received a phone call two weeks before saying she couldn't take the test because of "liability" reasons (like what, I asked, a paper cut?). I called HSLDA, no help there because there's no law saying that homeschoolers must have access. I called the Secretary of Education, no help there. She told me that counties all over the state are making that an official rule and there's nothing she could do about it. As a last ditch effort, I called the Superintendent of our school system. Once I explained the situation to him, he immediately called the school and told them that homeschoolers are welcome to take the test there. Has that solved all of our problems? No. We've had to go to three other schools for the AP, SAT-II, and ACT test. Also, my dd - who had an approved calculator for the PSAT - was told she couldn't use hers because it would be unfair to those students who didn't have one. They gave her a basic calculator to use instead (that was last year, this year I walked in with the print out in hand about accepted calculators and I made sure they knew that I knew about the calculator policy.) Good luck.

talking about biology, sign dc up for an online class. Biology these days is not our high school biology from days past. It's much more intensive study, especially in the micro-biology realm. The Campbell's book mentioned (Concepts and Connections) was awesome, but if my dd hadn't had a prior exposure to Chemistry, she would have really struggled, especially at the beginning. My dd took AP Biology through SO and the teacher is very knowledgable and nice. The other poster was right about the lag though last year (although I've heard it's better this year). My dd just finished the course in July (the remaining labs weren't posted until then). The only other problem I had was that the AP test was in early May, but the class wasn't scheduled to complete the book until late May so my dd ended up having to read ahead and finish the text on her own so she could have time to review and study for the test. The class was good, though, and I would recommend it. If you're just planning on doing the SO Biology (non-AP option), this class would be excellent! My dd is tackling Chemistry this year at home (using the textbook that SO uses). We're using Thinkwell to supplement it. While I like Thinkwell - clear lectures, good demonstrations, humorous - I think my dd is missing out on the conversation/discussion she would have if she were in a class. The Biology discussions last year amongst her and her peers and teacher really helped to shed light on subjects and help them sink in, KWIM? Knowing what I know now, I wished I had signed her up for the online class. As always, just my $.02.

My kids and I watched it and while my dc didn't like it as much as I did, they still enjoyed it. I thought it was very well done!

I found this article simply fascinating, too, from the standpoint that the gov't itself realized it was too big and took the steps to privatize many things. As we're heading in the opposite direction now, I wonder how long it will take until we reach that magic saturation number and will be forced to do the same? Even though NZ is a small country, comparatively, it may yet set the precedent for us in a few years. I loved NZ when I was there. Your country is most beautiful and the people were very nice.

a breast cancer scare beginning in early July and culminating in September with the removal of suspicious tissue (sort of a lumpectomy, but these were microscopic particles). The good news is it wasn't cancer, but even if it had been, the fact that it was found when it was so small would have made recovery that much quicker and easier. I may not even had to have radiation (not to mention chemo). My surgeon told me that once you can feel a lump that the cancer has already been in your body 8-10 years! That means it could have been spreading for that amount of time, too, and been depositing "microscopic particles" elsewhere, like your liver or lungs, waiting to ambush you. Don't put it off, get your mammogram. It could save your life and let your dc keep their mother! As always, just my $.02.

I just read this article this week about how NZ turned their political landscape around. I found the article fascinating. I'd love to hear what a NZ'er think about it. (Disclaimer: Not trying to start anything. I'm seriously interested in logical discourse on this subject.) A friend of mine, who originally sent me this article about New Zealand, had this to say: NZ did a brilliant job a few years ago of flipping completely conservative practically overnight and it is the place everyone wants to live now. But they won't let you in unless you are going to be a contributor...and NOT A LAWYER. They have limited the number of lawyers allowed to be in NZ, so for someone to get a license to practice law, an existing lawyer has to die or give up his license. THAT is tort reform. (It's also not very conservative, but I think it was a good decision because it got the litigiousness right out of the system). I agree with that, especially in light of how they've turned their economy around.

To you and your son. :hurray::party::cheers2: