Having homeschooled quite a few teens, this is my advice. Let her fail, but try to set her up to do it in a situation that won't mar her permanent record. It may be worth hiring a tutor to get her through this course, if not doing so would mean a D or worse on her college transcript. I don't think it's a reflection on her or you if she doesn't respond as well to you as to a tutor. Of course, I would require a certain amount of time put in studying if I was expending cash. Is she in danger of getting a D or F? Can she drop the course soon? I would have no qualms about requiring her to drop the course if she is not maintaining a mid C or higher. Once she gets to college, you may have to let her fail. I got some bad grades in college before I figured out I wasn't premed material. No harm done. I still got into the grad school of my choice for another field. No one pointed this out to me and I think it was better to realize it on my own. Otherwise I would have felt like that person was saying I wasn't very smart and I may have resented it to this day. This dance/march is maddening. It is very hard to let them find their own way sometimes, but it's the only way to maintain your sanity and relationship with her. I try not to take it personally and to remember all the unwise/stupid things I did and thought when I was that age. Was she the one who wanted to be a marine biologist? I went to a talk by a homeschool mom who wanted to be a marine biologist when she was young. Now she is a professional vocational counselor. She said she wanted to be a marine biologist because it was fun to go the beach. At some point she realized she was a people person and would have hated o be a marine biologist behind a miscroscope all day. She said if she had kept up that interest, she would have done better to be something like a spokesperson/PR person in that field.

It sounds like you are handling things well. She sounds like a nice young woman, that needs to mature some. That she choose a good young man for a boyfriend and has pleasant friends says a lot about her.

Texas State in San Marcos is an up and coming school, although still not anywhere near the rank of UT and A&M. It might be a good example of a mid sized state school with a pretty campus and an average academic reputation. It does have a party school rep. though. They have good musical theater and geography depts.

While the decision has been made, this might apply to a future sleepover. Do the parents of the other invited girls care that their daughters are going to a sleepover of a girl who is living with her boyfriend, not a teen living at home? They may not, but I thought the issue should be mentioned. Thinking your daughter is part of a teenage group of girls having a teen sleepover is different than having a sleepover with someone who is acting as a adult whom they night see as making questionable choices.

If you can at all afford it I would pay him the whole amount. Better for you to be the bigger one and keep the family peace. Try to have empathy for him in his situation and forgive him. You would want your brother or sister to love you enough to do this, even if you were the one at fault. Brothers can't be replaced. You will know to avoid a similar situation with him like this in the future. If he continues to be extremely unreasonable with you regarding other events in the future, that is a different matter. Hopefully it will be a one time thing.

Could you ask her to double major, with the second major being something more employable (assuming that's your objection)? I know theater is probably a major that is hard to combine with another major, but it could be done.

The US Tsunami Center is predicting a 1 to 3 feet wave. The news says that Santa Barbara emergency officials are preparing, yet the fire department seemed to barely be aware of the tsunami and was not preparing at all.

My son is in Santa Barbara in a hotel one block from the beach. We live many states away. I've tried calling the hotel and fire departments. They all are very unconcerned and unaware. Yet, Santa Barbara is being mentioned on the national news as a place that may be affected because it's low laying. Short of calling 911 the police department can't be reached. I don't know which of two hotels he's in and one doesn't answer the phone after hours. The other hotel doesn't have internet access and so the clerk said he doesn't know what's going on. If anyone has any information I would appreciate it. The fire department said FEMA would tell them what to do. As someone who has lived through two hurricanes, FEMA is no help whatsoever. If waiting on FEMA is their plan, there is no plan. I'm concerned about flooding. If a 6 feet high wave hits the beach that could be 6 feet of water hitting the hotel. That's a lot to deal with.

This looks good. Thank you for posting. They said that the high school student has to be a junior, and graduating in 2012. I assume they mean a junior this school year, otherwise that doesn't work.

I have boy/girl twins. They have zigzagged in their development. What one was ahead of at one point the other was ahead in later. They boy was slower to learn to read but in upper elementary is a much better reader. Unless the boy simply could not follow the class next year at all, I would promote them together. If the culture wasn't such as issue, I may suggest keeping them back together. Under no circumstances would I promote her ahead of him. Of course, get them both lots of extra help. If the girl gets extra tutoring too, it won't be a reflection on the boy. She can work with a different tutor at the same time on different things. It sounds like the family can afford the tutoring. Maybe they could even have someone on standby to tutor him at home on the days he is too sick to come to school but has the energy to do an hour or two of schoolwork at home. Make what they have work for them, which is apparently plenty of money.

This sounds so upsetting, to say the least I don't have an answer. I do suggest taking her to a doctor or similar professional in your area that has a reputation for testing and treating hormones and other chemical insufficiencies. The difficulty regulating her body temp or perceived body temp made me think about that. Thyroid, adrenals, etc. could be off. You want someone people go to when their regular doc can't figure it out or has told them they are normal. You may want to google doctors who treat with Armour thyroid to get an idea of who to go to in your area.

The nest time they were together under my supervision, I would keep them tethered pretty close to me and make a comment or two that since I couldn't know if they were going to disappear, I had to keep them close by so as to keep a close eye on them. That way he gets the message that you aren't to be played for a fool again. I think your time to directly address the can I go home instead of work act has elapsed. You will know his tricks the next time and will be ahead of the game. Also, when I had a friend of my son's over all the time, at the parent's request, I said he had to work too, as my kids couldn't have that much time in their day and not get any housework done. It wasn't fair for my kids to work while he played, so that was how I handled it. He lived two doors down and was free to go home if he wished, which he usually did when the work appeared.

Do you have any tips for good AP online classes for homeschoolers? What do I look for an an online course? With my son graduating from high school this year. I couldn't put AP after any of the courses on his transcript, as AP courses now have to be approved by the college board. This meant he didn't get that boost in the GPA from another point for an AP class. For my older sons, if they scored a 3 or higher on an AP test, I put AP after the course title. So for my younger children, I am thinking it may be a good idea for them to take some AP online classes.

I am sorry.

We are looking for a new used vehicle. We currently have a Suburban. Can anyone compare any two of the above vehicles? Ideally we would like it to seat at least 7. We would be purchasing a 2002 - 2006 model.

Quite a few of my kids didn't know their letters or sounds at all at age 4. They took a lot of repetition and some creative ways to teach. One is 10 and still isn't a strong reader (but is probably on grade level - she is past the Junie B Jones type of books) and may have some type of mild dyslexia. With the others, how well they knew their letters and/or sounds at age 4 almost seems to have a reverse relationship to who was a strong reader later on. One son, who couldn't read any words until age 6, got a very high score on the SAT and is going to major in English. Another was the same way and now teaches the SAT for a major test prep company. Another had a hard time learning to read and the other day read A Hiding Place in two days (she voluntarily reads many books). I just kept feeding them the material and they gradually learned to recognize their letters and read. Two picked up reading very quickly at age 4 - and one of those two is not as strong of a reader now as her siblings who take longer to learn. I wouldn't worry about it - just keep presenting the material in small doses as suggested. I don't think not recognizing letters at age 4 means anything at all.

I want to teach a once a week world history/study skills co-op class for high schoolers. I want them to learn note taking by taking notes from Teaching Company lectures, studying for tests using index cards, writing essays for tests and the SAT, and maybe some critical reading and vocabulary. It would not be a comprehensive world history class, but rather have an event or person per week. They would do the essay writing in class, view the lectures once every two weeks, play a jeopardy style vocab game in class after doing the homework at home, and some instruction, and have practice and in class testing of critical reading with the SAT critical reading format. Any ideas or suggestions?

I lost the electronic key to my late mil's Toyota. The dealership is wanting $370 to replace and reprogram a new key. Does this sound right? Any way to get it done for less money?

Thanks for the very helpful responses. I'll look into every one of them.

We are looking for some property to buy. Why do the listings I see for foreclosures not give an address and seem to require paying for a list, and possibly involve being connected to a realtor or some similar person? We prefer not to have a realtor represent us.

The only thing I have to add is regarding the scholarships. If her not filing out the applications is going to cost you more money for college expenses instead of her, then that would need to change. The extra expenses should be on her not you. The same would apply if she can't get into a less expensive college for the same reasons.

College costs have risen much more than inflation would account for. I certainly would start to educate myself on scholarships, financial aid early on. Of three who have gone on, two pay full costs and one got about a 2/3 scholarship (for all costs) from the school. For the one who got a scholarship, I have noticed that while the expenses at his school have gone up, the scholarships have not gone up at all since he matriculated 5 years ago. Another son was looking at that school very briefly - he could not have afforded it, even getting the same scholarships. Scholarships and instate tuition costs at public colleges vary greatly from state to state. My son who is a senior is looking at out of state publics who are giving out substantial scholarships (not many full rides, but half rides, or full tuition, etc.) to students with high scores and gpas. The public colleges in my state give out very very few merit scholarships. However, I am hearing rumblings at some of those schools that with the budget problems states are having, those generous scholarships to out of state students may have their days numbered.

Some friends of ours are in some type of adoption program in our state. They always wanted to adopt but assumed they couldn't afford it until they found out about this program. I don't know the details at all, but they will not be getting babies and actually want a sibling group. They already have 3 biological children. Somehow the program doesn't cost anything.

I'm interested in some answers too - especially the tutoring part. I'd also like to know, if someone runs a tutoring business, how much do you keep and how much do you pay the tutor?

I am so sorry for your pain.