At 30 I travelled from MA to TX and visited my sister who I had not seen in 12 years. No, she hadn't come to my wedding, or graduations.... she's just a bit older than me. During our weekend she asked why dh and I didn't have kids. It boiled down to the fact that I did not want to risk having kids that didn't like each other. I viewed her as lucky that her kids really loved each other, enjoyed each others company and were BF. She suggested I read Siblings W/out Rivalry. In the pages I saw my mom doing just what the authors said not to do. The lights went on and I realized that it wasn't luck that my sister's kids got along, and that I had the power to help my kids get along and be friends. BTW, this sis and I mended fences and we're great friends today. And by using this book, I kept sibling rivalry out of our home. I highly recommend it. Carole

When I first joined in, back in '99 I was Carole in MA. Then I moved to Delaware and became Carole in DE. When the move was made to the new forums I decided to take on a name that would reflect my location, the Blue Hen state. Carole

I didn't use Discover Mathematics (DM??) but NEM.

We used NEM 1 - 3 then DS went into Dolciani Algebra 2 with Trig, jumping into the book around Chapter 10. From there he did Foerster's Pre-Calc and then Calculus. He always felt like he should have gone from Dolciani directly into Calculus. From my viewpoint he needed the Pre-Calc to help him work on his sloppy work rather than his math skills.

For years and years I have come to this board but I always avoided reading any posts related to NCAA stuff because I just knew my boys had very little sports interest. I knew they would never, ever be in a spot where they might get a college scholarship for athletics. No way. DS began shooting one year ago. I looked at it as a great activity for DH & DS to do together and was pleased when DH found a club that had an NRA JR shooting program and DH was taking DS to the practice every week. Meant more time for me to quilt. :) Actually they have been off shooting 3, 4 or even 5x a week. Lots of time to quilt. Then DH decided to take DS to a shooting competition. At his second competition, about a month ago, a coach from a shooting team located about an hour from our home and that has a very long waiting list asked DS to join his team. Sometime in the last month Coach told dh about all the kids he has helped get college scholarships & that I need to get my stuff ready for NCAA. Getting stuff ready for colleges is one thing---and I did that just fine for my oldest one---- but I just knew that my boys would never, ever be needing to jump through the NCAA hoops. Oh my. Words of advice would be greatly appreciated. Consider DS as being either in his 1st or 2nd year of high school. Thanks! Carole

Thank you Brenda, and here I was thinking that my ds' feelings were unique. I know ds would not be where he is on so many different levels if he hadn't been hs'ed but it's impossible to get him to see that. I'm sure he would have gotten into the college he's attending but I don't know that he would have the scholarships he has or gotten into the Honors College. Being in Honors has been a tremendous help to him. Maybe someday the light will go on. Maybe. Many of his peers are from a charter school he could have attended, ranks 19th in the Nation of math & science schools. Hard to compete against that but he's doing quite well in college. Easily adjusted to college and its demands. Yes, no regrets on my part although there are a few things I would do differently. Trying to apply some of the changes to DS #2 however he is so different from the older one. I just thought of something I should brag about wrt me. DS lives all of 20 minutes away from home at college. Several friends recently gave me kuddos for letting DS 'go away' to college, staying away from campus and not checking in on him. They aren't fans of hs'ers and figured that I wouldn't be able to let him go. :lol: Yes, he has come home for an evening or a day or a weekend and often he brings a few friends with him. Next year he'll be in a house with a few guys. Yes it was really hard last year but easier this year. :thumbup:

My ds did a high school biology course in 9th and then he took AP Bio in 10th. DS also lived and breathed biology, studied field guides, watched biology shows and read biology textbooks for fun. Since his 7th grade chemistry class was high school level I felt he could handle the chemistry included in AP Biology. (I really thought at that point in our lives that DS would major in Biology or Chemistry.) At the request of his AP Bio teacher---he took the course through PA Homeschoolers---he did read the entire textbook over the summer months. I think that was 3 or 4 chapters a week, every week. It was a huge help. If I had a do-over I would have had ds do AP Physics B in 9th grade, he could have handled it however mom (me) was not well-versed in AP courses at that point in time. He took AP Chem in 11th and Physics in 12th, and took the AP Physics C exams. I couldn't find an AP Physics C course for him to take so I won't call what we did AP Physics. Carole AP Statistics Instructor, PA Homeschoolers

I can't believe they are half-way through either. :) Actually DS 'could' graduate in the fall if he just went with the computer science major but he wants the math major too. He's talking of grad school and a Phd so he has a few more years. And for some reason he still thinks he would have been better off going to PS. :confused:

When I picked DS up at his college for Spring Break he said in passing that he was chosen as a Summer Scholar at his University! I didn't even know that he had applied. In addition to the very nice stipend he'll continue working for his professor. Carole

They are not using a supplementary text however they do extra things like write a monthly report and learn about the culture of France. I comfortable awarding a credit however I don't know that I would feel that way if I was doing the book on my own.

Val, Last spring DS wanted to take French 1 over. He felt he was not grasping the language like the other kids and he was struggling. Instead I had him listen to the French 1 tapes over the summer and I enrolled him into French 2 class, French 1 Conversation and French 2 Conversation. Yes, that is a lot of time on French during the week but it certainly has helped a lot. I plan to award him 1 credit for French 2 and 1/2 credit for Conversational French. Carole

Dolciani Pre-Algrebra book is what I moved my youngest into after Singapore 6B. He also did the first 6 books of Keys to Algebra before moving into Dolciani Algrebra I. He's in 10th now, working through Alg 2 w/ trig and not having any difficulties. He's not a math-whiz-kid either and really struggled with grasping math in the elementary and middle school years. I attribute the ease he is now having with making sure that his foundation was solid in the pre-algrebra and algrebra I skills, not moving on until he really could do the task at hand and felt very comfortable with it too. Carole

My ds was in the class last year -- '10 to '11 --- and their class did finish the book. We were told to mark it as Honors French on our transcript since we finished the book. PS would not finish the book. DS is in French 2. Often during his 'class' time I hear him jabbering away in French. It's nice that his French is being corrected by someone who knows the language and that he is picking up both verbal and written skills. His workload in French is not less this year than last, even though they are going through half the book. Carole

Say hi to her for me. Who would have known that she would find stats handy in Geology ;) If I remember correctly she took the class to satisfy the college's math requirement. Great to hear that she is using it. She was a great student in the class too.

Her experience with 9th graders in her class caused her to change it.

AP Calc AB/BC filled up last year but it wasn't until later in the spring. The year my son took BC the class was not full. It is hard to say from year to year what will be full. I don't know whether AP Physics filled last year but that doesn't mean it won't fill this year. When my son took AP Econ, Dr. Richman had two classes, about 25 students in the one my son was in, and I don't know that it was full either. My suggestion is to send an email to the three teachers, express your interest in the course and share with them what you wrote. Ask if they expect to be full prior to early April. If I was asked that question I would answer the family honestly that I do not expect to be full in April. Thank you! :o

Jetta, Contact her! PA HS'ers is not like a 'brick & mortar' school in that we teachers do not talk about our students with each other. He won't have the reputation of being the "exception." You'll be pleading your case only with Carol Ann and yes, this is a new change for her. I'm delighted to hear that he'll be in my class in 2 years. :) Carole

All the PA HS'er classes operate asynchronously, which means that students do not "meet" at a scheduled time. They do their studying and class assignments within their own daily schedule. Some classes have flexible and/or optional skype sessions, many do not. Another great way to learn about a class is to read the "Class Review" found at the bottom of each course page. Many of the class descriptions include information from the teacher on how she/he conducts their class and what they expect from the student. If that type of information is missing, send an email to the teacher and ask them your questions. When my son was taking classes I found all the teachers very responsive to my emails---and that was true before I started teaching for PA HS'ers---but I did find that some were less flexible than others on due-dates. One thing I love about homeschooling is the flexibility it affords us and so I am very accommodating to a student when their family travel plans or special events disrupts their school life. I do require a note from mom or dad confirming the need for an extension, but if you're looking for such flexibility you should discuss that with the teacher ahead of time. I don't know that all the teachers do this. Carole

No, I wouldn't be concerned. Some of the teachers do not respond to emails over the weekend, or perhaps the teacher was away this weekend. If you don't hear in a couple days, send another email to the teacher. Carole

You're correct Laura. In the past the enrollment began in April which is why I posted it on here. And you're very welcome. Carole

If you're thinking of having your high school student take an online AP class from PA Homeschoolers be aware that their 2012 - 2013 course descriptions are up. This also means that you should be able to apply or register for a class now too. (I already have.) http://www.aphomeschoolers.com/ At the above link you'll find links to each class' course description, text requirments, teacher qualifications and a link to past students class feedback. Usually the upcoming year's course descriptions go up in April but this year it was moved up a month. My oldest son took seven AP courses through PA HS'ers and each course definitely prepared him for the corresponding AP exam. I teach their AP Statistics course and will be happy to answer questions about the AP classes. Carole AP Statistics & Homeschooling Mom

Last night I was cruising around Netflix trying to find something to watch when I stumbled upon "The Long Walk Home". It chronicles the Montgomery Bus Boycott from the eyes of two women, the black nanny and her employer, the white woman. Historical fiction, and one I really enjoyed watching. Carole

My response was not in the poll --- it depends upon the day of the week but most every morning DS wakes on his own between 7 and 7:30. Yes, even on the weekends although he might set an alarm on the weekends. On Saturdays he does not want to miss his shooting practice (starts at 8am and is 30 min drive) and on Sunday he has Speed Skate practice (also starts at 8am and is a 30 min drive). We made it very clear years ago that if he wanted to be someplace early in the day he had to be the one waking us, it was OK with us if he missed the event. On weekdays, it depends upon the weekday whether he gets up around 7am or sleeps later. Wednesday evening he is out till 11 pm for his team's speed skate practice which means that on some Thursday mornings he will oversleep and then I end up waking him up around 8.

DS doesn't like team sports, biking or running so for PE credit he snowboards in the winter with a homeschool ski club, is on an inline speed skating team and has also taken tennis lessons. A few times a year we'll go bowling and do some rather long hikes in the summer. On nice days he might speed skate about 15 or 20 miles through our neighborhood. This past year DS took up shooting and is working his way through the NRA Markmanship Shooting program. He shoots about 4x a week and I consider this PE. We don't track hours. I will put PE on DS transcript but I haven't seen our college of choice have that as a requirement. I'm with the previous poster--I encourage regular exercise. I also encourage DS to try different activities. That's how we rather stumbled upon the inline speed skating and the NRA shooting program.

When my oldest was in 9th or 10th grade I decided he should take a computer programming course. The boy had no interest in computer programming but with an interest in chemical engineering I thought he should be familiar with programming. My niece has her PhD in computer science, teaches undergrads so I consulted with her as to what language I should start DS out with. She advised the book 'How to Design Programs, An Introduction to Programming and Computing.' While you can purchase the book it is also free on the web --- http://www.htdp.org/ It uses scheme for its programming language. The solutions to the book's problems are available too and while it says for teachers only they sent me the password. It does just what you are asking ---teaches a concept then has exercises for the student to try out these exercises. DS worked through the book totally on his own. From this course he went on to learn java, C++, perl, pascal, python....... Last year as a college freshman my son gleefully told me that all the computer science and computer engineering majors' first required programming course uses the 'How to Design Programs,' book! He was quite surprised and wished he was in that course rather than the CS course required for chem e majors (java, which he knew but could not escape from). It was also during his fall semester that DS switched his major from chem e to computer science major w/ a few minors. And somewhere in there he also said that he was really glad he had taken HTDP as his first programming course. Guess mom knew what she was doing for once.