My daughter's scholarship requires full time, which at her school is 12 credits per quarter. She has had a couple of quarters when she only took 12 credits, and quarters when she took more than 15. She is graduating in four years even though she did a lot of exploring. For her, it was very good to have flexibility.

Private, public, homeschool... The best option really does depend on the particular school and child. I have a friend, whose child was scoring low in standardized tests and needed additional academic support. My friend believed an elite school would provide all this support. She also believed that such a school would be the door to a selective college. I have experience with private schools, and tried to explain that it would not necessarily be the case. Our public school is college bound and kids get into selective colleges all the time. It turned out, they still had to find private tutors for this child to keep up academically. They must have low ball spent over $40,000 per year with tuition, extra fees, donations, and private tutor fees. Senior year, there was intense pressure to apply and accept private colleges where this family would be full pay, because that was the plan for most of her school peers. The child did well, and ended up at one of the mid tier UC campuses, same as her neighbor who attended the public school. Was it worth it? They are sending their second child to the public high school.

I asked my daughter not to say no to one of the UC campuses off hand until she had visited. She visited and realized that it was a great choice. She is graduating in June.

Honestly, I think the Catalan issue is not well understood outside the European Union. The use of excessive force by the National Police to prevent the unconstitutional vote should never had happened, of course, just on principle alone. Additionally, it was a critical error, and one that the separatists exploited to the fullest. It's not, however, Madrid versus Catalonia, period.The separatist government spent a lot of money to fund organizations that have been instrumental in disseminating propaganda overseas. The latest regional election shows an extremely divided society. Due to rural votes having a much larger weight than urban ones, the separatist parties won a slim majority of seats (lost two seats from previous elections). However, a slim majority of voters cast their ballots for constitutional parties. Not an easy situation. In my opinion, the regional government was always moved by purely ideological and political motives. It was highly irresponsible of them to plunge their region, and the whole country, into a lose lose situation for everyone.

I am not quoting the entire thing, it's too lengthy. It looks to me that your frame of mind may have been already predisposed. An annual transportation strike, while inconvenient, is not unique to Spain. French strikes, for example, are notorious. I guess they also must like extending their vacations! Anyway, I am sorry that some people were not as helpful as they could have. I am not dismissing any of your experiences. However none of them seem that particularly unique to me.

I remember checking out college costs when we relocated to the U.S. and thinking we could definitely swing it. At the time our oldest was 2 years old. She grew up with the assurance that she would go to a four year university if she did the academic part. I didn't check again until much later, probably by middle school, and I started getting concerned about the increase. Of course, we then relocated to a higher cost of living area with even higher university costs! I am looking forward to my oldest graduating in June! I am worried about how much more it will cost to send our 8th grader in 5 years time when my dh will already be of retirement age.

Yes to the Culture Chock books and a SIM card. I am wondering what exactly is unique that you so strongly dislike about Spain.

Nice. I spent some summers nearby as a kid. She will have the beach as well as the summer cultural scene and night life to enjoy with others in her program!

How wonderful! Where in Spain will she be staying? I am sure she will be fine, though I completely understand from a mom's perspective. I am from Spain, and when we visit my family in Madrid, before we venture out, I am always giving my kids a rundown of what to do in different scenarios if we get separated in the city.

We are in Southern California so our teens can enjoy the outdoors year round, hiking, the pool, the beach, outdoor shopping plazas etc. Our area malls don't have this ban, so there are times when teens do hang out there too. During break, my 13 year old went to friends' homes and invited her friends over to our place. They also like hanging out at places like Starbucks, frozen yogurt, Jamba Juice, jumping places, ice skating rings, movie theaters, bowling alleys, etc. They also like to attend high school games, plays, and concerts. Our closest library has a great teen section and do weekly teen events. My older dd used to attend these.

Yes, the training is done by a psychologist. It is based on the premise that you cannot stop a habit, but you can replace it. It finds a more acceptable behavior to replace the unwanted behavior. It basically has several phases, the first of which is awareness. I am copying a link to a long YouTube video where this is explained in detail. Please note that it is made by an autism organization, but these behaviors are not unique to autism. Treating Habit Disorders https://youtu.be/pnbWisOVWFI I hope this helps. ETA Another excellent book to learn about habit in general is The Power of Habit, Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, by Charles Duhigg. Highly recommended to understand the underpinnings of habit.

In a 9 year old, and with this intensity, this would fall under the label of body focused repetitive behaviors. These are behaviors such as tongue sucking, skin picking, hair pulling, etc. They are often linked to anxiety. There is a form of therapy called Reversal Habit training to treat them.

Please share how we can get this free trial. It would a cool Three Kings present for tomorrow. English women seem to like or at least tolerate it, but Sri Lankan women are crazy about cricket. They play too, just not at the same level as the men as far as I know.

You guys are really inspiring! Last year wasn't the best for my family. I am proud of keeping strong and of leading the pack to overcome the challenges we were faced with.

I am glad to see the back of 2017. The year brought several unexpected challenges to my family. I am proud that we are all still standing and as happy, despite adversity, as could be expected.

Dh's brother and family are 90 miles north. We also have one of his cousins in that area, around 120 miles north. His parents are 9,500 miles west. My parents passed away but all of my family is 6,000 miles east. ETA Dh’s sister is 8,000 miles west. Except for dh’s brother, all of our immediate family members are in 3 different continents.

I have no personal experience with the IB. My opinion is from what I have read online. For example, the following is a guide to summer work for both AP and IB Standard Level French students. It looks like the teacher demands more practice time from the AP candidates than the IB SL candidates. http://www.canyonhighschool.org/ckfinder/userfiles/files/Assignment%20for%20APIB%20French%20summer%202015-2016%20for%20web.pdf Here we can see how University of Pennsylvania gives credit to the different French AP and IB SL and HL scores: http://www.sas.upenn.edu/french/students-french-sat-ii-ap-or-ib-exam-scores This is consistent with my previous interpretation of IB HL > AP > IB SL ETA There is a difference between IB HL A and IB HL B. IB HL A is pretty much native level, whereas IB HL B is not, apparently. So UPenn gives the same credit for a score of 5 in AP and a score of 6 or 7 in IB HL B, but gives higher credit for a score of 6 or 7 in IB HL A.

Do you mean that the AP foreign language class is the 4th level at that school? If so, yes, I agree that an AP class being the 4th level in foreign language would not be enough for most students to do well in the exam. Our schools here have 4 years of foreign language, then one year of AP level class. That seems to work well enough. As far as IB foreign language, does your friend teach a Standard Level or a Higher Level class? An AP foreign language class is more rigorous than a Standard Level IB class and on par or slightly lower than a Higher Level IB class.

Congratulations to all. I have so much fun with the acceptance thread every year even though I am not a homeschooler! You moms have my deepest admiration.

Thank you so much for all the resources. Our times demand all the critical thinking that we can muster!

The host team did have a paid coach. They are in an extremely wealthy public school district. It was kind of funny that when we got to the host school, our kids immediately assumed it was a private school. It looked way too fancy to fit the public school look! The coach gets paid by the school educational foundation, which is parent funded. I think there are other private schools where teams are led by teachers and generously funded by the school/parents too. Most teams are parent volunteer led though, like ours, and have much less generous budgets! We don't have basements here, so we have taken over one of our member's garage!

My daughter will be under those statistics most likely. Her major is sociology and until recently she had no clear vision of what to do after college. After graduation, she may travel overseas just short term. Her grandfather has kindly offered to pay. Then the plan is to is prepare for the GRE during the summer. She will be volunteering and or working at a school and at least one or two other community service settings to strengthen her grad school application further down the line in a year or two. She will need a lot of hours of experience to show her commitment. We have told her we will support her as long as she is being productive and working towards a plan. Realistically she will not be making good money until she has completed her Masters and finds a professional job in her sector.

My 8th grade daughter competed last weekend. This is their first year doing FTC, an all rookie team, both members and coach. They did very well considering also that their robot is pretty basic compared to others in the competition. It was a great boost to their confidence. The host team's robot was incredible. You can see what a dedicated paid coach and a generous budget can do! Unfortunately, we are in San Diego and the recent fire impacted the competition. Some schools were unable to host so those events were moved to two locations unaffected by the fires. Even with this accommodation, there were ten teams in our area that could not make it. As a result, right after the rounds were finished, it was announced that the scores would not be used officially.

What a terrible fire! They are saying fire season extending to most of the year is becoming our new normal.

Exams are not the end all, but grades can be very variable even within a school teaching the same AP class. We are in a somewhat heavy AP district. I was looking at the profiles of the top 10% of seniors in each high school. Some did not mentioned APs, but most had a minimum of 7. A lot had between 9 and 12. There were a few who had over 12, including one with 17 APs!