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Lori D.

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Everything posted by Lori D.

  1. - Watering can -- $12 or similar can for $2 -- for small gardens or indoor plants - Garden set -- $25 -- stainless steel tool set, gloves, and organizer bag - Seed starting tray -- $15 -- plus a gift card to a seed company with a catalog - Square Foot Gardening -- $14 -- great book about small gardening by Mel Bartholomew - gift card to a local garden shop or Home Depot or Loews (for buying plants, seeds, tools, etc.) Mail order catalogs for seeds and gardening supplies: Burpee Gardens Alive Gurney's Johnny's Park Seed Seeds of Change more seed companies in this list ETA: For plant tags, I use wood that bio-degrades -- either old popsicle sticks or larger "tongue depressor" size. Here's a set of 100 + 2 gel pens for $8.
  2. Oddly enough, one of our local Ace Hardware stores has 2 additions to it: one is a hobby shop, the other is a kitchen goods shop. That Ace Hardware kitchen goods shop is AMAZING! Tons of individual cookie cutters, specialty pans (bundt, tart, cheesecake, etc.) of all shapes and sizes, and loads of other kitchenware items that you never see anywhere else. Other ideas: - a country general goods store - a dedicated Christmas store - Joanne's - Michael's
  3. What do the colleges he wants to apply to require for admission? If one or more list a credit of Fine Arts in their required credits, I would list a credit, just to reduce possibility of raising any red flags on his transcript and potentially having to deal with an admissions officer who has decided to go "strictly by the book" about transcripts and requirements. That said, I would guess that if a college requires a Fine Arts credit, that would be a subject they are likely to be flexible about, esp. if he has credits over the required amount in academic subjects such as Math, Science, and English. Just my 2 cents worth. 😉 I've never seen PE as a required credit for college admission. PE is an Elective, and colleges just require some Electives as part of the required credits -- Electives can be anything. But you do want to have some Electives on the transcript. Some ideas for Electives: Computer Logic Business PE and/or Health Religious Studies Vocational-Tech Personal Interest (done as a course of study or learning projects) Consumer Sciences (the old "Home Ec") Personal Finance Public Speaking Career Exploration Driver's Ed additional credits in Fine Arts And of course, there are Academic Electives (additional credits in English, Math, Science, Soc. Studies, or For. Lang. beyond the required # of credits for high school graduation / college admission
  4. No, it doesn't seem like the methodology is changing or that there are surprises. But it does look like the results are shifting the needle to give more aid to low income, and less to middle and high income families. BTW, you may have a slight reduction in Pell grant aid now with 2 in college, as the SAI removes the bump that was given by the EFC to families with more than 1 student in college simultaneously -- see below in the article. However, we will all have to wait and see how this plays out in reality once the new FAFSA rolls out. 😉 What The New Student Aid Index Means For Families Paying For College by Robert Farrington, October 2023 "… The Consolidated Appropriations Act passed by Congress, which amended parts of the Fostering Undergraduate Talent by Unlocking Resources for Education (FUTURE) Act and included the FAFSA Simplification Act, ultimately redesigned the way student aid is determined with an underlying goal of making the process less complicated overall. The new changes mean the Expected Family Contribution (EFC) will be replaced with something called the Student Aid Index (SAI) beginning in the 2024-25 award year… Just like any other new legislation, the new Student Aid Index (SAI) has a list of winners and losers. Here's a rundown of everything you can expect from the new SAI, how it will impact the average family, and who stands to get more or less federal student aid based on this new formula. More Access To Pell Grants …the FAFSA Simplification Act itself will expand access to Pell Grants to more students overall based on family size and the federal poverty level (FPL). While the formula to determine Pell Grant eligibility stays the same (cost of attendance (COA) minus Student Aid Index (SAI) and other financial assistance equals eligibility for need-based financial aid), applicants who don't qualify for the maximum Pell Grant amount may still be able to secure this type of funding [the fine print: this possibility of increasing Pell Grant amount is for those accepting student loans --> “other financial assistance”] Less Financial Aid For Larger Families While some types of need-based aid may be more plentiful after the SAI comes into play… many families with several children in school at the same time will qualify for less aid overall. About half of families who have two or more children have at least one year of overlap in college… Previously, when a family went from one child in college to two children in college, it was like dividing parent income in half, since the parent contribution to the EFC was divided by the number of children in college. However… this loophole is eliminated with the new SAI formula, meaning that middle and high-income families with multiple dependents in college will qualify for less aid for school… lowest income students won't be as affected since their SAI will be lower as well. More Aid For Single-Parent Households …based on a secondary formula for the Federal Pell Grant based on a multiple of the poverty line. The poverty line thresholds are higher for students in single-parent households… [leading to an expected] increase in the number of Pell Grant recipients by more than 500,000 and the number of Pell Grant recipients who get the maximum Pell Grant will increase by about 1.5 million. Less Aid For Families With Small Businesses …small business owners who have a sizable small business valuation will hurt their dependent's chances of getting considerable financial aid for school… under the previous calculations, the value of a small business with less than 100 employees was not reportable as an asset. Moving forward, however, it will be a reportable asset… This can create some strain for families because, depending on the type of small business… [when] small business assets are liquid… For example, a small business owner that runs a company and has multiple employees may have a sizable net worth based on the value of the business itself, but that doesn't mean they can access the underlying value of their business to pay for college tuition and fees without selling the company… another set of losers based on the SAI will likely be family farm owners, mainly because farm owners will have to list their land and farming equipment as family assets for the purpose of determining financial aid moving forward. The Bottom Line … The move from using the Expected Family Contribution (EFC) to the Student Aid index (SAI) when determining federal financial aid will leave some borrowers better off and others worse off, but the act does reduce the number of questions on the FAFSA from 108 down to just 46. Whether you'll get more or less aid in the 2024-25 award year really depends on your income, family size and family assets, although it seems pretty obvious that the SAI will benefit low-income students at the expense of everyone else. If you're a middle-income or high earner and you have dependents heading off to college in the next few years, the best time to start saving for college was ten years ago. The second best time is now.
  5. Also, as you do career exploration, I would leave Occupational Therapy Tech/Asst. and Physical Therapy Tech/Asst. on the table to research more deeply. Those are wonderful fields for working one-on-one in a very caring personal way with people.
  6. He sounds like a lovely person. 😄 I'd start doing some career exploration with DS now. On page 6 of that "College Motherlode" thread at the top of this board has threads with links and ideas for resources for career exploration. For example, here are average salary figures for chaplains in VA. Chaplaincy as a career requires at least a BA, and often a Master's from an accredited seminary or university. Just throwing that out there, because if that is a strong contender for future career, then you will need to look for schools with specialized programs, so that may require even more expense if that is not a school close enough to you for DS to be a commuter student. And in turn, that might require using more of the savings you listed in your OP than what you were hoping to have to spend on college to go towards paying for a divinity degree. Just musing out loud. 😉
  7. Not a lot of detail here, but the Federal Student Aid website has this brief article with broad overview of some of the upcoming changes. It includes a link to the SAI (Student Aid Index) Estimator of what Federal Aid might look like. The SAI is the revised version of what the EFC (Estimated Family Contribution) figure calculated on the FAFSA in previous years, which determined amount of federal aid the student was eligible for. No details yet as to exactly what the formula will be for calculating the SAI. The big no-help explanation on that above website: "A need-based analysis is conducted. The analysis takes into account the income and assets of the student and their parents or spouse, if applicable. The analysis formula used considers both taxed and untaxed income, as well as any assets and benefits received, such as unemployment or Social Security."
  8. PS -- adding a random thought.... You mentioned DS is working at a retirement home. Does he enjoy working with older people/infirm people? If so, he might look into getting a 2-year Associate's Degree in something like Respiratory Therapist or Occupational Therapy Tech -- someone who would go to nursing homes and hospitals to administer breathing treatments or assist with OT. Or, some other medical Associate degree that pays well (Sonographer, Radiologist Tech, Nuclear Medicine Tech, Radiation Therapist). Any of those above Associate degree medical positions would provide a livable wage, and also allow him to pursue hobbies in his free time, such as participating in community theater.
  9. FASFA is being revamped (the new version is supposed to be released Dec. 31 for the 2024-25 college year), so everything may change drastically about how financials are viewed. That said: In the past, FAFSA calculates the EFC (Estimated Family Contribution), by looking at these 4 factors, in this order: 1. student income (50% of income above $6,420 is expected to be contributed to college costs) 2. student assets (20% of all assets in bank accounts, CDs, UGMAs/UTMAs, and any other savings expected to contributed to college costs) 3. parent income (22%-47% of gross-adjusted income above the protected amount expected to be used to pay for college) 4. parent assets (up to 5.64% of non-retirement assets above the protected amount are expected Assets exempt from FAFSA calculations: parent primary residence and retirement funds. Your debt or medical costs do not lower your EFC number with the FAFSA calculations. Also: even for students who qualified for the maximum amount of free Federal Aid receive about $6,800/year (Pell Grants). Note: this is all going to change. The only reason I include this is so you can see that in the past, you would likely not be eligible for free Federal Aid (in the form of Pell Grants) -- only loans. From the bits and pieces I am hearing of the changes FAFSA will implement, it sounds like middle-class families will be less eligible for free Federal Aid. But, we'll have to see how it all shakes out. Another Note: if your student needs to fill out the CSS Profile for applying to a school, that is a much more in-depth financial document that does NOT have the same exemptions as FAFSA, but if there extenuating family circumstances, they may take that in to consideration. Nothing you listed in your financial and family information suggests you would have an extenuating circumstance. In answer to your question at the end of the post -- FORMER FAFSA (no knowledge of what future FAFSA will look like), the only parent income/assets that were protected was retirement and your primary residence. Cash on hand would be automatically included in what would be assumed parent contribution to college, and would raise the EFC number even higher, making it even more unlikely that the student would be eligible for FREE Federal Aid. So maximizing protected retirement accounts would be a priority. And then, educational IRAs (in your name, NOT the student name) would be useful, because as long as what gets pulled out of that is used to pay for qualified educational expenses, you would not be taxed on that withdrawn amount. Yes, that sounds fairly normal for NPC based on what you shared about your financials, so I would believe those numbers. Since loans are off the table for your family, that leaves you with the options of: 1. scholarships -- which, on average, cover 25-50% of tuition -- still leaving the rest of tuition + room/board + other expenses that you will be responsible for 2. reduce college costs You frankly have too much money, and there's really not much you can do at this point to "hide" some of it from being counted against you for FAFSA purposes. And, most colleges require you to fill out the FAFSA in order for them to consider the student for scholarships -- even if the scholarships are all based on academics and not on financial need. For scholarships based on scores: - scoring in the top 99% of the PSAT-NMSQT taken in 11th grade can land full tuition scholarships - whatever the SAT/ACT score is, look at a college's incoming freshman scores -- your DS will have a higher chance of a bigger scholarship if his SAT/ACT score is in the top 5-10% of incoming freshman I will be very brutal here. Unless there is a very clear reason to go to a specific college for a specific degree (like Engineering, Nursing, or STEM field), for a student who doesn't know what they want to do, I would be looking at far less expensive post-secondary options, such as community college, or a 1-year certificate program, or working an on-the-job training-and-move-up-the-ladder situation. Or, if you think a 4-year university would be the best option, then go local and have the student live at home. That saves you out-of-state tuition fees (often doubles tuition costs), and it saves you room/board (typically runs another $12K/year). Then any scholarship that might be earned would be a much bigger savings in college costs, meaning that you might really be able to "only" have to pay $500-$1,000/month for college. You might also look at the big pinned thread "College Motherlode" at the top of this board -- on PAGE 3 is a sub-section of links to past threads that might help you brainstorm ways to stretch your college budget: Alternatives to fund college / reduce college costs s/o Cautionary Tale/high college costs — a brainstorm $$ ideas thread! How are YOU managing to pay for college? (lots of real-life creative ideas) College as cheap as possible: need advice College breaking the piggy bank? (how are homeschoolers affording college?)
  10. lol, you are too kind. I deleted because I realized my post really wasn't helpful to original poster... Every area has such VERY different options as far as extracurriculars, church groups, homeschooling support groups or co-ops, that it was kind of pointless to share about all of the options in my area, which can't help anyone living elsewhere... 😉
  11. 1. What is your price range? 2. How long of a game do they like to play? (takes 30-45 minutes? 1 hour? 90 min.? 2 hours?) 3. And how many players? (you mentioned "kids", so I am guessing at least for 4 players, but if it is a family of 5, 6, or 7 that changes recommendations because different games have of maximum)
  12. Dragons Farmer Giles of Ham (Tolkien) -- short story, humorous mock epic with dragon; linked version also has another fantasy short story by Tolkien Book of Dragons (Nesbit) -- collection of 8 short stories A Book of Dragons (Sanders) -- collection of fairytales/folktales all featuring a dragon Pit Dragon trilogy: Dragon's Blood; Heart's Blood; A Sending of Dragon's (Yolen) Dragon Watch series (Mull) -- follow-up to Fablehaven series Dragon of the Lost Sea; Dragon Steel; Dragon Cauldron; Dragon War (Yep) -- 4 book series; geared for a 9-10yo, but she may like these Fantasy, no dragons The Perilous Gard (Pope) The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (Aiken) Mad Wolf's Daughter; The Hunt for Mad Wolf's Daughter (Magras) The Great and Terrible Quest (Lovett) The Dalemark Quartet (Jones) -- these are slower, richer, for more mature/thinking readers (but no s*x or graphic violence); each of the 4 books is a completely different time period and set of characters, but set in the same overall world Historical Fiction, girl protagonists The Midwife's Apprentice (Cushman) Naya Nuki: The Shoshone Girl Who Ran (Thomasa) Fever 1793 (Anderson) The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle (Avi) Behind Rebel Lines (Reit) The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate; The Curious World of Calpurnia Tate (Kelly) A Long Walk to Water (Park)
  13. A Small Miracle (Collington) The Christmas Knight (Curry) Christmas Trolls (Brett) The Story of Holly and Ivy (Godden) The Last Straw (Thury) Carl's Christmas (Day) -- board book Baker's Dozen: A St. Nicholas Tale (Shepard) Richard Scarry's Christmas Mice Golden Book (Scarry) The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey (Wojciechowski) How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Seuss) The Polar Express (Allsburg) The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree (Houston) Twas the Night Before Christmas Highlights Hidden Picture Storybook B is For Bethlehem (Winner) -- alphabet picture book Trouble at Christmas (Johnson) The Remarkable Christmas of the Cobbler's Sons (Sawyer) When It Snowed That Night (Farber) -- short poems picture book Find the Gifts on the 12 Days of Christmas (Tiritilli) And not picture books, but the 2 all-time favorites here: Letters from Father Christmas (Tolkien) -- or, this edition or this centenary edition Christmas Every Day (Howells) -- or read free online
  14. 😄 So nice to hear updates, and especially nice to hear that, all these months later, DS is still enjoying working his way through bird books to go with science.
  15. Your syllabus does not need to be approved in order to take the test. And your syllabus does not need to be approved so long as on the transcript you do NOT call your course "AP _______" <-- use of the official AP test name. Legally, you CAN name the course what you like, and you may follow your course name with a comma and the words "with AP test". Examples: • Literature, with AP test • American History, with AP test If concerned about the legality of adding the "with AP test" by the course heading, you can always star the course, and in the notes section of the transcript indicate that starred courses also took an AP test. To legally call the course on your transcript by the official AP test name, yes, you do need to have your syllabus approved. Examples: • "AP English Literature and Composition" • "AP United States History"
  16. In the midst of having the 3rd of 3 bathrooms remodeled here. My big take-away: plan for it to cost so-so-so much more than you expected. In every bathroom, a major unexpected issue has been discovered that has had to be addressed. Budget extra for unexpected expenses. Materials are much more expensive than they were just 5 years ago. Mirrors, vanities, counter tops, sinks, fixtures, -- also much more expensive. If you can clean up and reuse some items, it will save you $$. We have been able to clean up and reuse all 3 of the sinks/vanities, and one faucet, which has saved us at least $2,500. Consider putting in a dual-value controller so you can have both a shower head AND a hand-held shower head. (The values we got allow us to switch from either shower head to handheld -- or to use both simultaneously.) Being able to switch from one to the other is very nice, as the hand-held is great for extra-showering activities: rinse things, fill a bucket, wash the dog... and of course, sit on a bath stool and bath when you unexpectedly hurt a foot or knee -- but also if you just want to rinse off dirty feet one at a time... ETA Totally agreeing with @prairiewindmomma about the venting fans. And agreeing about adding/changing any electrical outlets or dimmer options for lighting. Also, while you may not think you want or need grab bars, be sure that when the shower area is demo-ed, that your contractor puts in the necessary supports in the wall (goes behind your shower board and whatever tile or marble or whatever you use for the shower surface) that will allow you to very easily install shower rails later on . Our contractor said he just did a bathroom remodel no more than a year ago for a couple in their 40s, and had added that support, even though they knew they were unlikely to need it for years and years -- and the husband of the family had an unexpected broken ankle, and they asked our contractor to come install the grab bar as soon as he could schedule it... You just never know when or why you may need those grab bars, and if you're ripping out old shower walls and installing new -- that is the time to put in the "behind the scenes" support "just in case." It doesn't cost that much more to add in that support at the time of remodel. It is a very big expense later on to go back in and do it, and hopefully you saved some of your tile or wall surface so it will match in the wall patch that would be needed to retro-fit support. 😉
  17. Exactly. Upshot: research, research, research... every school of future interest, because they each have different policies about what they accept (CLEP, AP, DSST, transfer credits from DE), and policies about maximum total of credits accepted from the combination of all those options.
  18. ^^^... as long as the university accepts CLEPs for the specific courses required for the degree. 😉
  19. Absolutely! In the lighting of my house, I have this exact same Sherwin-Williams Sea Salt in two rooms; in one room with more light, it is almost the same color as in that photo, but in another room that gets less light, it is a bit darker and greener. Absolutely you MUST put paint on your walls to see what it will actually look like in your real situation!
  20. Here's an article on "How to Write a Homeschooling Philosophy Statement", at least to get you strarted.
  21. Totally understand. That's where going in and chatting informally during office hours could help clear up things for DS, AND help her have a better picture of DS as a conscientious student.
  22. Schedule an appt. during office hours, and bring in printed copies of his work, and ask her to go over it with him for feedback? Not trying to excuse the teacher, but if she's cancelling regularly and at the last minute, she may have real life circumstances going on that are making it next to impossible for her to grade papers and provide feedback. And colleges are so tight on staff that they can't just drop an instructor if the instructor is having a hard time juggling real life situations and work. Also, how many classes does she teach, and how many students per class? She may have between 50-150 students. I would not expect to get ANY feedback on papers, and if she is behind on grading, he may get nothing posted until the final grade. I know that stinks, but sometimes that happens. Writing teachers have it extremely hard -- doing a good job of grading writing and providing feedback is extremely time-consuming, especially when SO many students are horrific writers, or, if the teacher is having to waste hours of time running every piece of writing through a plaigiarism checker. Again, not trying to excuse the teacher -- maybe she's just in it to barely show up and collect a paycheck, for all I know 😉 ... Just trying to throw out a little perspective about the load that those Writing 101 and 102 teachers have to shoulder, which can provide patience for the frustrated student. And maybe look for a way around the situation -- like checking in during office hours for some individual feedback. ETA When DSs took the Writing 101 and 102 through the community college, they both had smaller classes, and only in 1 class did they get any feedback. I do think they got grades on exercises/assignments within about 4 weeks of each assignment. re: feedback: DS#2 came to me with one of his papers that had a mysterious horizontal line in the margin halfway down on the second page of one paper, and was asking me what that meant. It was the ONLY mark, other than the grade, on the paper. For all I know, the instructor was "bookmarking" where she left off reading if she had to get up and do something in the midst of reading his paper!
  23. Typical list of Social Science subjects (study of the social life of humans, individuals and groups): - anthropology - economics - geography - history - law - political science - psychology - sociology - cultural / ethnic / gender studies I have seen these listed as Social Science or Humanities (usually, if taken in high school, accepted for college admissions as Soc. Sci., or, Elective) - Archeology - Philosophy - Religious Studies Other overlapping subjects: - Art History -- Social Science / Fine Arts - Classics -- History / Literature - Communication / Speech Communication -- at high school level, English / Elective; at college level, usually Soc. Sci. - Literature -- at high school level = English credit; at college level = English / Humanities
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