I'm having fun with the new RS german. I think it is much better than the version 2 that we used a few years back. But, I definitely need to work on some grammar workbook types of things to improve my retention and understanding. Thanks again!

Hi! I haven't been on the board in ages, but wanted to query the HIVE. I'm learning German with rosetta stone version 4 and would like to get a workbook type of thing to supplement. I'm a kinesthetic learned and need to do more writing to help myself retain the grammar constructions. Any recommendations for german workbooks? Thanks!

DS took a tablet laptop with him. He is in engineering school, but has not really used the tablet feature much. Some of his classes do not allow them to bring computers into the classroom, too many students playing with FB or online gaming I guess. BUT the piece of technology that has been a boon to him is his LiveScribe pen. That is the thing he really likes. He takes notes, it records the lecture and he can play back the audio selectively by touching the pen to the paper....He also can upload all the written notes and audio to his computer. I think the tablet will come in handy.....I really do. But it hasn't mattered thus far....he is about to enter soph. year.

I'd go for Henry V, Macbeth,Much Ado and Taming the Shrew....no I wasn't trying to rhyme...but it's rather appropriate. ;) And I would definitely through in the video of Kenneth Brannaugh on Henry V and E. Taylor's Shrew....and even if it adds number 5 I'd watch the old Hamlet with Jacobi in it.

If you live in an area where you can delay for a year, I'd go for it. Your daughter will have the opportunity to regain her health and particularly the ability to sustain concentration. The PSAT is not as long as the SAT or ACT, she is going to need to build her ability to sustain concentration. While the Merits are a worthy goal, the more important thing is doing exceptionally well on the ACT and or SAT. I think her birth date is irrelevant. There are many, many children who are a little older than their classmates for loads of reasons. Some families live abroad for a year, some families have illnesses to deal with, some children are held back for a year for whatever reason. I can't see that there is anything to be gained by pushing her ahead to accelerate, rather the opposite. If she is willing and doesn't feel badly about taking her time, I'd say she is trying to tell you she needs the time. One of my old mentors in homeschooling often reminded us moms that homeschooling is not a race, there is no prize for finishing first. And while you are obviously not trying to race ahead of the pack, I think the principle applies. Pushing ahead has many potential pitfalls, including setbacks to her health and well being. Taking your time seems solid to me. Lastly, it is so important that she begin her college years in good health. I think that by delaying you provide to time for her to be solidly on her feet in body, mind and soul. Full recovery takes much longer than the illness in many cases. Our son had a rocky start to his freshman year due to illness and it really took a toll on him. I don't think there is anything we could have done differently in his case, he became sick during his first term and just had to muddle through. But, I can tell you that he really struggled and it made it a rough start for him. May or may not be relevant to your own situation but I throw it out there anyway. I hope these ramblings make some sense and will be of some help to you.

We did math through Calc I at home for highschool. DS went off to college and took Calc I for his first course and it was a big confidence booster for him. He was not starting out from ground zero. College courses, even those at the CC move so much more quickly than high school and there is the added complication that much of what the students do is not graded by the prof...so they often must figure out if they really understood or not on their own. My son just completed his freshman year at Drexel and he has come through with flying colors, but he has also had some major set backs where he thought he was solid on material only to hit the test and have a brick wall fall on him. Students in college courses MUST make sure they get it...no one is going to help them know that they are ready for a test. THEY have to make sure they are prepared. Okay, off the soap box, I would go for the pre-calc course. Get into the big pool one step at a time.

Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow!..... AMEN!

Our ds is at Drexel, an honors college student with a +20,000 per year scholarship. His best in state public offer was about half that. However the state school was also half the cost. What won us over to this particular private was that it's a co-op school and so ds will be able to earn about $15,000 per year over a 3 year period to help cover the cost of the school. He will gain valuable experience and it will pay down the debt. So it was close to a wash as far as which was more expensive for us. The school of his dreams was Drexel...it had everything he wanted and everything the mattered for us as parents....done deal. Hope that is a little bit helpful.

I haven't even read all the entries....but WOW!!!! super major congrats to your son!!! you must be so happy for him!!!:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug: :party::party::party:

You are looking for a quasi professional service. She is young and inexperienced in the field but, none the less, far more qualified than your typical minimum wage earner. So, I'd go for somewhere near $10 an hour, with the understanding of your expectation of a planned program of instruction. I really think her work is worth more than this, but starting at $10 gives you a little room to be generous and offer an increase based on the quality of service. It is a win-win scenario......you will be a good guy for giving a good wage and (presumably) a raise, and she wins with a good rate of pay that will go up because of exemplary performance.

the idea of sort of proving yourself by doing well at a local community college or with a summer course has great merit. I think that if you are working with a son or daughter about whom you have concerns that they might not rise to the challenge, then I think it can be a really great idea to say "Show me that you are up to this. Show me that you are ready". I don't think there is anything wrong with requiring our young adults to display the maturity that they claim to have. Education is a huge investment for most of us. It is a major expense in so very many ways. I think we are doing the right thing when we require our kids to "merit" that investment. To him who much is given, much is expected.

I'm so glad to hear about his scholarship! How wonderful! Woot...let's do the happy dance! :party::party:

It is lovely to think that all of our children will be wonderfully self motivated to achieve what ever goal they have rather vaguely in mind. But I think that intermediate attainable goals can help them to develop the skills to reach the longer term goals of a great job in the field to which they aspire. I think that when we homeschool our kids and basically, for the most part, plan the program, orchestrate the course profile, and help our kids work through the plan to achieve the high school goals, we can't just completely turn them loose in college and expect them to know how to do it all, all on their own. In our case ds won a great scholarship to the school of his dreams, but he has to maintain a 3.0 to keep it. We can't even come close to paying his way without that scholarship....so he has a vested interest in keeping the grades up AND I have a vested interest in helping him learn to succeed on his own. Ds knows what is at stake and is working very hard to keep in the zone....he knows his education at that school hangs in the balance. The first quarter I was a bit of a helicopter mom. I hovered pretty close and checked in with him ALOT about deadlines, assignments, offered to help him learn to plan,etc. He has learned and, although I monitor, I'm much less involved now in the 3rd quarter. Therefore, what I would suggest to you is that your daughter needs to have a stake in this.....she needs some responsibility for making it happen. Could you possibly require that she be responsible for some portion of the cost? Are you paying for everything, or will she have some student loans? Our deal with our son was that we would pay half and he has to come up with the other half...which includes his scholarship. We told him to think of the scholarship as his job...they are paying you to keep up the grades. Perhaps it is a bit mercenary, but most folks respond well to monetary incentive. And that is the reality of the business world for most of us. I have an incentive to do well in my job because it will A) insure I keep my job B) offer the possibility of advancement C) offer me the potential of bonus D)help the company I work for to grow and therefore increase my job security. I think you need to find ways to make those kinds of things apply to her for her education. I think it is very important that we remain available to them and help them in the transition. afterall, the goal is to launch them as MATURE Christian adults. Maturity isn't a switch we can just flip on for them, it's a process. And, just as we were part of the high school process, I believe we are a part of the college and beyond launch process.

I'm sorry, I don't spend as much time on the boards as I used to. I just saw your note about the cinema interview tonight. I am so excited for your son...this is super neat! Sounds really encouraging and congrats on the solid GPA! I'll be praying for y'all! Best wishes! Sharon

It is pretty neat. I have to have an internet browser open to goggle all the terms I don't recognize...and I'm pretty tech/science savvy. I'll have to bone up on my research to keep a respectable pace.

We homeschooled from 2nd all the way through 12th....it wasn't easy and I certainly doubted from time to time. My son is a freshman at Drexel University. He is in the Honors college there, an AJ Drexel scholar (name of the scholarship program) has been on the dean's list both quarters so far and has been selected to participate in a prestigious summer research program with them. He has worked his tail off, and he worked his tail off with me too, in homeschool. He won scholarships and really special admissions to programs at top state universities as well. He competed for and won places in competitive summer programs throughout high school This sounds like a brag list...but I'm trying to say he worked hard and applied HIMSELF and competed just like every other local public and private schooled kid and found that he was AT LEAST on par with them. He has not had any trouble fitting in at college...he has lots of friends and is just plain normal... So, if your question is "Can home schoolers live in and compete in the real world?" Yeah...we can. And has he fared better than two of his best public schooled friends of the same age....yes, he has...he is far more grounded, his moral compass is sound, and he knows what he wants and is chasing it...rather than perhaps chasing the figment of a peer group. Hope this help you. I do look forward to reading the whole thread...

I don't pop over here very often, but I'm a little sleepless tonight and so was browsing. I'm so, so sorry for your daughter's and your family's loss. I'll be praying for you. I'm sure you are going to give her lots of hugs, but here is one from me :grouphug: In Him,

a higher quality spray tan. That is what my niece did for her March Wedding with a strapless gown look. I think that it is worth the investment...think of it as part of the cost of the gown.... what, it happens once or twice in their lives.... way better to spend the unnecessary $$ for the "tan" than to deal with the tears from a fail home remedy. I'm all for do it your self...but, if the first, mom martyr attempt fails...go for the real thing....in 10 or 20 years, you won't be likely to regret it.

Our son is at a quarter system school, so he wont hit finals till June...boo hoo! But, we just had a lovely weekend visit; he and his dad conspired to surprise me for my birthday with a visit home! It was grand.... He's doing well in his studies and consistently says that homeschooling prepared him well...to answer the doubters among our family and friends too. He has made Dean's List for the first two quarters...one to go. You need a 3.6 to make the list. Not sure if he'll pull it off again for the 3rd quarter or not. He is worried that he may get 2 B's this time. But we shall see. He is very excited to have been accepted to a competitive summer program at the university. He will get to work for a prof. on research for 10 weeks, get paid $10 an hour and housing....not to shabby. And, as hard as it is to find a job around here for the college bunch, I am truly grateful that he has a good summer job. Plus, with being on the quarter system...it is even harder to find a job by the time he would get home they are pretty much gone. So good to hear everyone's story/updates! I'll be praying for their finals!

Hang in there. This board was there for me all the way through and it will be there for you! I had major doubts that we could do this... don't we all? :grouphug: You can do this, your children can succeed and reach their dreams through homeschooling. The best advice I received at my critical point of self doubt was from a friend who used a farming analogy....she implored me not to plow the field before the harvest. Good advice. Stay the course.

Harold Jacobs actually recommends Foerster as a good follow on to his own Al and Geometry texts. But as Lori posted they are quite rigorous. I used Foerster for both Al II and then for precalculus. We used the standard "classics" versions of Forerster's AL II with trig for Al II only...not venturing into it's trig portions. It is an older text and Foerster moved on to Key Curriculum Press for both his Pre-Calc and Calc courses. I had an email correspondence with him a couple years ago and his recommendation to me was to use the Al II with trig for a 1 year Al II course and then move to the Key Press material for Pre-calc and beyond. The reason he suggested this was the older course did not use the TI 83 or 84 and the newer material with Key Press taught those important functions. We made it through pre-calc with him and then bailed to Chalkdust for Calculus. I really like Paul Foerster's work...but if I were to do it a second time, I'd probably move to Chalkdust by Pre-Calc at the latest. I was well and truly and the end of me with Foerster for Pre-Calc...I just couldn't keep up with my son and we really needed the video teacher/email support type of thing that Chalkdust and Dana Mosley provide. Hope this helps!

I really had a tough patch with our ds when he was a freshman in high school and went through a period of majorly doubting that we would be able to home school through high school. We were fighting all the time about what was to be done and how. In our case, my husband and I decided to lay down the law and get tough. Our son has always responded well to rules so we realized that we needed to establish more firm and CLEAR rules for homeschooling. We actually drew up a contract for the rest of that year, with Dad acting in the role of principal, and we threatened him, seriously, with comply or get on the bus. We made it clear that we wanted to homeschool, but that we had to work together for that to continue. We put him on probation. Truth be told, I knew he wouldn't get on the bus...his very close neighbor friend was in the local public high school and our son was terrified of going there, he knew he would be miserable there, especially since the neighbor kid kept begging us to take him on for school (unfortunately not legal here). But, what we learned from it was that he needed clearly set expectations, clear deadline, syllabi with schedules and so on. It certainly formalized things more for us, but he thrived. I've asked him twice now if there is anything he wishes we had done differently and he knows I'm asking him because I'm still part of the extended homeschool community locally and here and I get asked for (and offer unasked for:tongue_smilie:) advice. He thinks he was well prepared...his only regret....that he didn't ask the cute blond at church out when he was a sophomore. (I don't share that regret!):lol:

I'm now a "graduated" mom, my son is a freshman this year in college. While we did embrace mastery, there were consequences for failed tests or missed deadlines. I will admit that there were a few times when I decided to move a deadline due to decisions that I made as the teacher or school administrator that impacted my son's opportunity to meet his deadlines....but I didn't make allowances for his personal decisions that made him fail to meet a deadline....if that makes sense? Sometimes I allowed him to retake a test, but that new grade was averaged with the old grade, it didn't replace it. So, while there was a major incentive to master the material after a failed first attempt, it could not completely erase the first failure. Thus, there was a huge incentive not to repeat that scenario. I had strict rules for any papers or projects or lab reports as well...a due date is a due date. Fail to meet the date, and you loose a letter grade for every day late. It sounds harsh, but the reality is that is what they will face in college...the prof doesn't usually care that you had the stomach flu the day before the paper was due. And, an anecdote, I had a bit of a mean reputation for not cutting my son, or other kids that I was teaching, any slack for being sick, unless it was really serious. It paid off this year, my poor kid's freshman experience. He was sick, in and out of the med center with a really bad abscess, swine flu, bronchitis and recurrent sinus infections....poor kid has been sick for at least 3/4 of his time away. But...he got his work done, turned it in on time and the only slack the school was willing to cut him was they extended the deadline for one lab, because he had a doctors note to stay home till his fever was gone. I'm glad I was "Mean" Think of it as tough love... Just my two cent's worth

At this time last year we were trying to finalize our decision. Ds had 4 offers on the table, two of which were serious contenders with each other. It came down to a decision between Drexel and the Meyerhoff Scholars program at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Although the Meyerhoff program was arguably the more prestigious program, Drexel was our son's heart's desire, but, even worse, the offer from UMBC was better financially. I encouraged ds go to Drexel and plead his case to get the Drexel offer up to the UMBC (in state school, by the way) level. They responded favorably and he is very happily completing his freshman year at Drexel. It has been EVERYTHING he wanted and more. I think it is very important to consider your kid's heart in this. Where does he feel he belongs? What are the key attractors? For our son it was mostly experience based....he really wanted the co-op opportunity. Drexel is a co-op school, but UMBC encourages similar opportunities...but they are more like summer intern programs. Our son wanted real research opportunities as a freshman....only Drexel offered that kind of thing to him... Overall, I think you have nothing to lose by playing the schools against each other....BUT...I do think that the chip that has the greatest weight should be what your child thinks is the right fit.

We only used the AM history portion of the program as ds already had a different program for lit and bible. What I did was use Notgrass coupled with the Teaching Company History of the United States 2nd edition. We sort of used the videos as a lecture component for the course and it balanced out quite nicely. If you need it, I can share the syllabus match up I devised to pair them up. I have to add that this was the first time my son enjoyed a history program. He really liked the TTC lectures paired with the other material. Even though I am a history major myself...this was the first time I managed to come up with something that worked for him..