Yay!! That is awesome! What a good feeling that will be for him during his senior year!

I was thinking about all the folks in TX this morning! Hope everyone there is safe.

For anyone who has used Prep Scholar, when they give you a score on your SAT Essay on the practice tests, is that score out of 4 possible points or out of 8? The feedback is very generic so it's hard to tell. Thanks to anyone who can help!

Thanks, everyone! whitestavern, will you post a report after you visit? Thanks!

I think the multi-disciplinary thing is very popular right now in higher education.

I had this question, too, and am doing as snowbeltmom and quark described above. I am actually following the local high school's grading system, just because it seemed easiest for him to be compared to his peers in that way. But I honestly don't think it matters that much. We had one outside provider that used a +/- system, so when he did have an A+ in one, and an A- in one, but I just made them both A's. I did not calculate any kind of +/- into the GPA. I did weight the GPA for honors or AP classes, but again, just in line with what the local public high school is doing. Should I also include the unweighted GPA on the transcript? Or just let them figure it out? Also, did you all put AP scores on the transcript?

Me, too! I am actually feeling quite overwhelmed. All of this great information and support here, and yet, I am feeling so nervous and scared. I am mostly in denial. To be honest, I didn't even know you could do that yet. I am nervous about messing this up. :scared:

Does anyone know anything about Ursinus College? I had never heard of it until yesterday, when I talked to an alum (now in his 50s or so) who recommended it. He described at as a place where there is a focus on thinking, reading great books under a tree and discussing them, etc. A place that really teaches you to think. Anyone have any experience?

Wow! I think I am jealous! I am feeling overwhelmed and like we are way behind over here!

Oh never mind! I didn't realize there was still a classifieds section here! For some reason, I thought it had gone away!

I have spent SO very much money over the years on so many different books and curriculum, always searching for the perfect solution! Now, my kids have outgrown much of it and it was barely or even NEVER used. I would love to sell some items and put it towards classes for my oldest. Where do you buy or sell used curriculum? I have things like Life of Fred, Micheal Clay Thompson, Beast Academy, etc, that have never been cracked open.

I don't think I would mind this (having it under a countertop in the kitchen) as long as it was mostly away from the food prep area. My washer and dryer are basically in my kitchen now. They are right off of the kitchen in a short hallway that leads to the downstairs bathroom. It is not a laundry room, they are just in the hallway, basically! No door that closes it off to the kitchen, and you can see it from the kitchen. But, my house is over 100 years old and was not built for luxuries like indoor plumbing and closets! :lol: What I like is that it's right there, and laundry gets done because it is right there. I have complained about it a lot, but in all honesty, I am grateful it was like that when my kids were little especially. I was able to keep the laundry going, cook, do whatever I needed to do all while my kids played close by. (It probably wasn't actually THAT easy, but in my selective memory it was!) What I think I would not like is having it very close to the food prep area or near the stove. I just would imagine that grease and smells would permeate my laundry if it was too close. But maybe that wouldn't be an issue!

I have never heard of Brilliant, but it looks very cool!

Is there a place where you can buy/sell used homeschool curriculum or textbooks?

Wow, thank you so much for sharing! I am trying to decide what to do for DS right now. He will be a senior, so the main goal will be for him to feel prepared for college. He took Calc AB with Mr. Lanctot at PAHS this year and got a 5 on the exam, and he felt pretty confident on it, so I think he was well prepared. He has taken 4 PAHS AP classes so far, and in all of them, I feel like he has not really taken full advantage of using the teacher for answering questions, so if the BC PAHS class is even more challenging in that regard, that might worry me. I am also worried about having too many synchronous classes, as I feel like the fall is going to be really busy. It might be good to have one at our own pace.

DS took the PAHS class as a sophomore, and he seemed to like it. Though he seemed to pretty much teach himself the material. He had very little interaction with the teacher or the TA, but that was not their fault. He just never asked questions. He got a very high A in the class and a 4 on the exam. He should have done more test prep. She said to get a certain book for test prep, and I think they were expected to do a bit more with that book on their own. Unfortunately, we didn't get to the book until just before the test, so he probably could have gotten more out of it than he did.

I was wondering if colleges would want these at all, as verification of grades. DS took 2 AP classes last year and this year from PAHS, and all 4 classes were on the record they sent. I was wondering if the college would want to see that. Has anyone else done that? To back up your transcript?

I love this piece and have wanted one forever. I would put different types of paper in the top, skinny drawers. I always have trouble finding good places to store various kinds of paper, like lined vs blank, handwriting paper, cardstock, colored paper, etc. Or you could use the whole thing like workboxes for your kids, depending on their ages.

I'm in a similar boat. Sorry I don't have any information for you! I actually want to know the same thing. I never ever sell things because it always winds up being too large of a hassle and not worth the return. However, I am doing a major declutter right now and having a bit of extra cash for DS' classes would be incredibly helpful. I have just teenagers now and I have a lot of elementary curriculum that is in perfect shape (like Life of Fred without the binding even bent), and some really nice Montessori elementary stuff. We don't have a ton of homeschoolers in our area though, and Craigslist around here always seems to be a barrage of people selling a lot of junky stuff at super high prices, like a pair of used tennis shoes for $50! And I am not talking about original retail value of $200 type of shoes. So I don't know where to unload these items!

Thank you, everyone, for these very thoughtful perspectives!

Sounds amazing!! I so wish I had started sooner with older DS and had something like this for him! You are a rockstar!! :hurray:

I think that when people sign up for an outsourced course, they are going to expect to buy a textbook, and probably will want you to use the book that you feel does the job best and complements your teaching style best.

I was also going to say that I thought a 720 on the Chem SAT was a really good score! Honestly, I think it's hard to know. My main goal was that I didn't want to close any doors. I didn't want anything I had done, or neglected to do, be the reason that a door was no longer open for him. We were late to the game when it comes to being in that testing mindset, but once DS started talking about schools he would like to attend, and once we started looking at them closely, I felt like testing was one of those things that did show outside validation for homeschool transcripts. Even if you aren't applying to the tippy top Ivies. A lot of schools in our region of the East Coast recommend SAT 2s or require them for homeschoolers, and I wouldn't call those the tippy top. Now, what that actually means, I still don't know. I haven't been able to find statistics on how many or score range of SAT2 scores on most schools. Is there a place where those are published? I don't see them in the Common Data Sets. Most of these more selective schools all seem to say some variation of the sentiment that your scores are not the only part of the picture that counts, that they look at more than that, and that every year they turn down students with perfect or near-perfect scores. However, they also say that they want you to succeed at their school, and so they do look at test scores and grades to be sure you are capable of handling the level of rigor at their school. They may think you are awesome, but they don't want you to fail out first semester of your freshman year. So if they don't think you are ready for that, and don't have a certain base level of knowledge, they are not going to offer you a spot. So, what does that mean? They all say they don't have a cutoff point, but clearly at some point they do. There is going to be some level below which your application won't make it out of that first pile. Now, I firmly, 100% believe that fit is more important than the brand name of a school, and that your education is what you make of it, and that there are a lot of really amazing schools at which you can get a terrific education. But, if there is something specific you want, like a great engineering school, or a great music program, then those spots are going to be more competitive. A lot of schools require or recommend them, so for us, we are doing them, so that we have them if we need them. I don't know what "really high" means, to be honest, because I thought 720 on Chem was high! But maybe I am wrong! :)

I only have one child left to take Chemistry, and we already own Chang, so I don't feel like I can answer that without bias. Isn't Chang often used for AP Chem? (I think it was what DS used for AP Chem with PAHS.) I would think it be good to use the same text, where the second time through is a deeper dive. I don't know. I honestly don't know enough about the differences between the texts and would want you to use whichever text you think does the best job for the intended purpose.

My DS wants one when he grows up! I love watching the shows, but I just don't think I could ever do it. Like PPs, I like the idea of a sense of peace and everything in its place, and nothing in excess, but at the same time, I love having a bustling kitchen of activity and hosting big family dinners and such. I just don't think I'd like it. I think I would feel claustrophobic unless it was in an area where you could extend the living space to the outside for the majority of days of the year, like southern California!