I just received an email telling me that the French co-op class my soon-to-be 9th grader was going to be in, will not happen. It was even going to be with a native French speaker. I'm disappointed but happy that this fell through now rather than in a month. DS doesn't really care whether or not he takes a foreign language. Having a foreign language, at least 2 years, is a non-negotiable item on his course schedule. I need DS to be in a class for this one too. What are the alternatives and oh my, is it too late to sign up for another class? Suggestions? I was over looking at Potter School and was wondering if anyone here has had their child take a class from Barbara Starosciak? (Is there anyway we can see teacher reveiws on their site?) Carole

:) That would be me. I'm still here but when we switched over to these new boards I changed my name to Blue Hen. I'm still in Delaware too. Janice's 5th grader is now going to be a senior and she still has wonderful, insightful posts. Carole

I just read this line to my oldest DS and he replied: Maybe it's a guy thing but I enjoyed it too. Carole

Thank you. No, we hadn't found the website you linked to. I like using an essay for assessment too. Carole

This question is from a hs friend who is planning on using Exploring The Way Life Works: The Science of Biology for this coming year with her 9th grade DS. She asks: Are there test books for this book that I'm just unable to find? Or did you use a test book but from some other source? If you didn't test how did you asses your high schooler? THANKS! Carole

My son to be 9th grader and I did the IEW high School essay intensive seminar this past June with Andrew. He is a great speaker/motivator/teacher....quite engaging. We've used IEW for 2 years now so DS is quite familiar with dressups/decorations/sentence openers so that helped him. There is quite a bit of writing in the seminar for the kids and for you too if you sit in on the seminar. I think the seminar is good for kids going into their Jr or Sr year since they have the SAT essay on their mind. Mine was just a bit too young for the session and will need a refresher when he gets to his Jr year. On the other hand, any session with Andrew is beneficial so I'm glad DS was in it. Carole

I did this as a read aloud with my 8th grade son this past year. It is graphic with war details which I was fine with. It does has some quite graphic sexual scenes described too so I was happy I was reading aloud and could alter/skip/condense parts as I wished. If I had another 8th grader coming up through the ranks I would read it again as a read-aloud. One reason I placed it onto our reading list was that my Dad had given his copy of the book to DS just before he died. Dad had shared how All Quiet on the Western Front was his favorite book as a kid and that he had read it when it came out as a 12 or 13 yo boy. Carole

Last year folks posted on the College Board about their college visits. You might want to do come cruising through past threads to see them. I only found two threads with College Campus Tours as the tag.

I rarely visit the General Board these days so if you are like me you might want to jump over there to participate in the PHP Poll regarding:

Takes just a moment to click on the button and you are not asked to include your name or email address. http://delaware.momslikeme.com/members/PollActions.aspx?g=2195744&m=13704087&source=stream_home Silly polls.

We were on the other end in July when we took in a French student for just 3 weeks. He came through ECI. It was a great experience and we all feel like we made a friend for life. Great kid. I think it helped Alex that he could get calls from his parents. I think it also helped that he had an ITouch so he could text them messages. I hope he has a wonderful year. Carole

We have 3 or 4 weeks to do our traveling. I'd like to visit Ottawa but then head west. Tent camping is the way I'd like to go but on this trip it isn't essential.

We're thinking of a trip to Montreal & Ontario. What should we see? What should we make sure that we do not miss? Thanks! Carole

Start saving the plastic milk bottle lids and use them as a manipulative. I also saved them from OJ bottles. Their diameters are large too! Carole

No way! For that price I expect the teacher to teach which includes grading tests, papers and providing appropriate feedback. I might be willing to help out in some other way in the classroom if it was really an amazing teacher/class but not to grade my child's tests. Carole

I'm feeling lucky here. DS doesn't move to his dorm until the 28th and since it is a short 20 min drive to his campus I expect we won't be pressed to pack a lot of stuff either. If he has thought about what he will take, he hasn't shared his list with me. We were having such a lazy summer here that I took in a French Exchange student. It has been THE BEST experience for us. DS has gone to NYC and DC with our student and the two are doing things together, chatting and having a lovely time. He's only with us for 2 more weeks. Carole

Great job!!! Carole

:) You sighted the reason I went with Introductory--I liked its visual appearance. Again, the layout was the reason I went with Introductory Logic. A Lesson is presented, followed by the exercise. It is up to us to decide how many days we will take to cover the material. For Traditional Logic the assignments are listed for Day 1, 2, 3, 4. Well, my DS would think that Day 1 was Monday, Day 2 was Tuesday...... and I knew that my DS would not work on Tuesday an assignment whose heading was Day 1 or 3 or 4...... he would put it off until Tuesday came around again. I also did not want us doing Logic 4 days a week but 3 days a week. Carole

My oldest said ---- Cop-a-dare-oh for helicopter when he was 3 and 4yo Carole

IMO, they are still good. Hard boiled eggs are one of our staples when we go hiking / backpacking and we want protein that will not spoil quickly. Carole

Bake Cookies, make cakes or bread. Make a soup together. Get out the board games and play games together ---- (oh how I long to have those days back). Get on the floor with them and build structures with those legos you have. Start keeping a nature journal. Give each person (child and you too mom) a blank notebook and colored pencils. Visit your yard and draw nature. Find a spider and draw her. Draw the leaves or the birds --- whatever fits your fancy. Use a field guide to identify the items. (read the book Pocketful of Pinecones for a fun read on how to do this). Spend an hour or two a day reading outloud. Five in a Row is a wonderful program and I used it to give me ideas of things to do but you easily could use it for your entire school curriculum. Ride bikes together through your neighborhood. Carole

It doesn't quite work out to one lesson a week cause sometimes there is a lesson without an exercise and sometimes there is one lesson with two exercises. I had DS spend one day outlining the lesson and then two days on an exericse. Sometimes we would add in a review day too. Carole

I have a rising 9th grader and I will not permit him to use a calculator yet. He's finishing up Alg 1 and will work through geometry this coming year. He'll get his first graphing calculator either in Pre-Calc or when he takes AP Statistics from me. My oldest took Pre-Calc in 10th grade and it was only toward the end of that class that I permitted him to use a calculator. He used a TI-89 throughout AP Calc BC but I found it quite interesting that when he took his college calculus placement exam he was not permitted to use a calculator. (He tested out of two semesters of calculus too :) ) Carole

We just received DS' AP Score Report and only this year's scores are listed. :( Aren't all the scores from all AP tests supposed to be there too? I read on the form that I should call the AP and notify them if there are scores from previous years missing. If this happened to your dc please share how easy or difficult it was to get it corrected. Carole

YEA!!! It is always so nice to see the hard-work of our kids rewarded with a nice AP score. Congratulations! Carole