hahaha :lol: :lol: I am soooooo happy I don't have to do any of that this year. You're a great writer and I know you'll do great! Carole

It is Lisa. DS called me this afternoon--a rarity that he calls---and he just chatted and chatted. He also asked if it was OK if he came home. Just for an afternoon. I just about fell over cause he had no plans to do this. He said he wants to see his dogs and pick up a few items. Carole

DH's birthday is soon so being close to DS' campus DS and his room mate joined us for dinner. Oh my, it was so nice. DS is really enjoying campus life. Finding time to go bowling, running with others, play volleyball and just stand around and talk and talk. His room mate said that DS talks with everyone! Very social. At one point DS and his room mate shared stories about the items they have temporary lost.....ds was quite proud that he has only lost one item--the day planner he had finally decided to go purchase cause he really needed one---and from all accounts fitting in quite well. At one point his room mate asked DS to please introduce him to the kids on the other floors cause DS has been adopted by them. [And I was worried that DS wouldn't fit in.] The two guys are getting along quite well and not running into conflicts. At least I haven't heard of any :) :) DS has had 2 English papers graded so far: both 10/10s, and is taking a test tomorrow to see if he can skip his present computer science class and move to the next level. He's looking into switching over to CS Engineering and doing a couple dual major/minors. He also shared that he is investigating traveling with Engineers w/out borders this winter term. How quickly kids change. Just 2 weeks ago he dismissed my suggestion that he look into a study aboard winter term. That's fine. I'd like to see him take advantage of opportunities rather than just dismiss them cause he thinks the cost is prohibitive. He left us to go study chemistry and get a good night's sleep. Oct 15th is the next time we're supposed to see him. Good visit. Close but far away too. Carole

:iagree: My son has a 16 credit hour load, 6 classes, and is in class/lab 28 hrs/week. At his school 15 - 17 credits is considered a full load and to reach that load level you need to take 5 to 6 classes. If you want to go over 17 credits the school charges more and you must get a waiver from your advisor. When I was in school, at a school that worked on the quarter-system, I typically took 20 - 22 credits or 5 to 6 classes. It depends on the school. Carole

OK, here's an interesting place that another hs'er told me about and I would not have thought to look here --- our state's Department of Education Yep, DOE had several scholarships---actually they had quite a large number of scholarships, about 50 which I felt was a large number for this small state. Actually 5 different scholarships but they permitted multiple recipients so that there were about 100 scholarship winners. We looked at the requirements and felt DS had a great chance at one of them. DS wrote the required essay, applied and won a 4 yr scholarship. It's sufficient to more than pay for his books each year which is great. Every bit helps! Carole

The Richmans know about the outage and are checking into what might have caused the problem. I've gone on several times today and everything seems to be working fine. Carole

I just got into the AP Stat site :) :) :) Carole

This is really unusual. When I couldn't get on I sent the Richman's an email and I've called. I left them a voicemail too. Carole AP Stat

I take care of all the regular maintenance items but when something goes wrong with the car---such as needing new plugs or new brakes----dh does the work. He as a car mechanic for 10yrs and knows is stuff.

A week ago we dropped DS off at college. He has had a GREAT week and I have yet to miss him. Is that terrible? I feel very much at peace that he is where he needs to be, that he is very ready to be where he is and that life is good. On the negative side his dorm does not have AC :ack2: and temps this past week were in the high 90's everyday and we even saw 100 here. The heat meant that DS could not sleep at night and was really exhausted. It was just too hot. Thankfully EARL broke the heat and we're back into the 70's here. He already had one essay graded, earned a 10/10, so he was quite pleased with that. (I was tickled that he asked me to proof-read it) In his computer science class ds and the prof were chatting after class and the prof suggested ds look into a computer science internship. Don't know what that would mean but I'm sure I'll hear more about it later. He's enjoying all his classes except one. The teacher sounds awful--mumbles, stands in front of what he is writing on the board and unfortunantely the only alternative is to drop the course. That's not an option either. DS said he got himself into a study group for that course and he feels he'll have to learn the material on his own. He laughed and said that was OK since he was used to doing that :) His room mate is easy going, same major and they are getting along wonderfully. There are more girls on his floor than guys and that's working out too. Even with the heat and lack of sleep ds has been running in the early am with other kids from his dorm. His voice or fb messages are upbeat and he seems really happy. His communication has been via a text or FB message but yesterday afternoon he actually called us to chat about his week. Life is good. Oh, and this is the kid who would never, ever use a day planner or an assignment book during high school told his dad yesterday that he needs one :lol: This is also the kid who constantly lost his book or calculator, or shoes, or ..... and this week he has kept track of his keys, id, phone, books, calculator,..........

My oldest started college a couple days ago and is still not happy that I had him work through a Pre-Calc book in 10th gade. I thought he had to have "Pre-Calc" prior to going into Calculus. We worked through Pre-Calc and he kept saying to me---I know this and I would have him do more problems. ugh....... However, he had worked through one of those old Alg 2 w/ trig books and I had drilled him on trig, and solving quadratic equations and working with functions all prior to Pre-Calc. The one benefit we found was that DS had to use a graphing calculator w/ his Pre-Calc book. Using a calculator, let alone a graphing calculator was new to him. Oh well. DS had a great, strong foundation from really learning and understanding the material. He scored wonderfully on the AP Calc BC exam, scored great on his college's Calculus placement exam and was placed into 2nd year Calc for Engineers. The school awarded him credit for a year of engineering calc so it has worked out well. He, of course, thinks back to the year spent doing Pre-Calc and would like-a-do-over. Interestingly his college's calculus placement exam did NOT permit a calculator. I haven't heard yet whether he is using one in class but a graphing calculator was not on the class' resources required material list. He used Foerster for Pre-Calc and Calc. He used Larson when he took AP Calc BC through PA HS'ers. He liked the Larson text a lot. Carole

:iagree:

I dropped my DS off this morning. We only stayed around long enough for DH to set-up DS router. So far I've rec'd 2 FB messages from him reminding me not to worry and that it appears that his room mate losses things faster than he does. Since DS room is on the top floor he has a vaulted ceiling. It really made the room feel so much bigger. No leaky eyes here......yet. Carole

My son would love this one.

We're starting our school year with a Not-Back-to-School Beach Day. Several of our friends are joining in too. Now how fun is that!

My soon-to-be 9th grader and I were discussing his upcoming year when he requested that we do FUN things. Asked to explain he said: play board games and go skiing this winter. We'll get a 6x ski pass for a nearby hill and hit the slope on days when we want a break.

Maybe this is why I learned to make chocolate cookies at age 8? My 3 oldest sisters had all left for college and I was home alone w/ Mom & Dad. Well, my brother was there but back in those days boys did NOT bake. :grouphug: I'll be there with you in a week. We went shopping today for dorm supplies. Drop-off day is next Saturday. Carole

Last year my DS was accepted by 2 public schools and 7 private schools. Most of the private schools offered really nice merit scholarships that made them comparable in price to our in-state public school. Then the in-state public school shocked us by offering DS a tremendous merit scholarship ---- substantially larger than what we expected. Substantially larger than what friend's kids in the same major had received. Then, out of the blue, he won another scholarship from the local engineering society that can only be used at the local university....... That's why he's going local rather than to the out-of-state private schools. If the local in-state public had offered him what we thought he'd be off at a private school. It would have been about equal. Don't rule out the privates. Carole

I won't argue the point that today's school is a higher percentage. What I disliked on college visits was having college counselors send out this message that we parents were responsible for footing the total bill, no matter what the cost. All of it. The kids were never told or advised that they might need to work to help pay for a bit of this expense. Or that they should try for this scholarship or that loan to help defer the cost. IMHO, that part of the message needs to be there too.

Thanks I read the article. The book sounds quite interesting and I so agree with these lines: We visited one of DS college's several times. After the 3rd visit, and seeing the same tour guides and the same kids on the Q&A panel the above thought went through my head. Here are kids who really took it upon themselves to have a wonderful time at this school. We know this from homeschooling. The education you receive is so often up to you, the student. I heard this at ever single college campus tour and everytime it rubbed me the wrong way: I didn't like it that they were sending this message to the kids either, that the parent, and only the parent, must dig into their resources. I took on a job, DS will be too, and working to keep his scholarships. Carole

Thank you. I'll keep that in mind. Carole

Thank you for finding all those threads Kareni. Your searching abilities far-exceed mine. :) Carole

DS is interested in taking French or German and so we are leaning toward French. We had a French exchange student this summer and it worked out quite well. We're already planning for a visitor for next summer and have invited this past student to visit us again. DS will be able to talk to him throughout the coming year. You are correct that we're in Delaware however homeschooled students do not take classes from the PS. At least in my district. The relationship is far from a friendly one between ps and hs'ers too. Yep, far from friendly...... The PS are the ones implementing DE Virtual Schools. From what I read seats are allocated to individual PS who then decide which of their students get a seat. It also appears that: It would have been nice though. I have a hs friend in FL whose kids take a few classes through FL VS, and through the PS. It almost makes me want to move there. Thanks for the effort. Carole

Thanks. I just checked out their fall course schedule and they do not have French listed. They do have a native French speaker on their staff. Carole

My boys are in a homeschool social / community service group. Here's what's on their schedule: Swim Party Hay Ride Bowling Assemble Samaritan Boxes Ski trip Spend a day cleaning a few elderly homes (names are obtained from one of the local churches) Costume Party Game Night --- everyone brings their favorite board game to play Trip to local Minor League Base Ball Game Canoe Trip We've also done laser tag, frisbee golf and Alka-Seltzer shoot-out. For the last item each person has an alka-seltzer pinned to their shirt and each person has a water gun. Goal is to hit the other person's alka-selter tablet with water. Carole