You've been down the whole road, and are still chugging along it, Brooke. Thanks for your input. :) My dd attended The Rock's SI in summer 2008 for 4 weeks. She was not quite 12 years old, and she stayed in the dorms (!) We live in California, and I took her there myself, got her settled into her dorm room, and I went back to observe classes for 2 days and bring her home. Still, many people thought we were nuts for leaving her there. The Rock's SI is one where the younger kids are VERY well supervised. The ratio of dorm mother to student is 12:1. My dd's dorm mother kept in close e-mail contact with me, and I felt very happy with her experience there - as did she. :) Her favorite teachers were Jen, Gabriel, and Servy. Jen and Gabriel encouraged her to keep dancing and saw her potential. When I met Jen on the last day of dd's SI, she encouraged me to find the best training I could for my dd - so it's her fault I'm driving 140 miles round trip 5 or 6 days a week. ;) Dd keeps in touch with many friends she made there. Her roommate from that summer is now a full time student at The Rock. I know the Rock has boarding students who are past high school age, so that is a program we would consider in the future. As you know, boys, too, have a tough time getting ballet traineeships and jobs with pro companies, but as tough as it is for boys, it is far far tougher for girls. Our main consideration is, even though it is harder to go pro after being in a college program, there are a few that have had good success, especially with girls who didn't find positions or even traineeships straight out of high school. It keeps them in fighting shape so that when audition season rolls around, they still have their chops. Anyhoo - we have decided, for now anyway, to enroll her in one of the public school ISPs locally, and have her plug away at the UC a-g requirements. That way, she can be ready for college it that's what she wants. She can go to a regular brick and mortar high school later on if that's what she wants, also. We've realized that going that route would keep the most options open for her. Of course, we reserve the right to change our minds (again!) at any time... :D

Well - I live in Santa Cruz, CA and I am not a hippy. :D So, in the context of where I live, I am a more conservative liberal than a lot of people who live here. We do have a garden, buy organic, eat tofu :D, on those political spectrum quizzes, I come up Green Party, our landscape is full of drought tolerant (and deer tolerant) plants, we recycle, etc. But, I drive a car - a lot. I don't dress in hippy clothes (though I have friends who do :D) and I don't think Dennis Kucinich would make a good President. :D

My 15 year old son is dysgraphic, and I have tried just about everything through the years to help him - copy work, learning to type, tape recording his ideas/writing assignments, Handwriting Without Tears (3 times through). He is also very bright, and his dyslexia/dysgraphia has been exceedingly discouraging to him when it comes to pursuing formal academics. (He is now an excellent reader, but his dyslexia makes math difficult because he flips fractions, omits negative signs, skips steps, etc. He understands all math concepts very well, but ends up with B- on assignments and tests because these little mistakes add up). As you can see in my signature line, we are now "basically" unschooling him. He's a kid who will stay up all night reading the U.S. Constitution just because he's interested in it (just did this - his own idea - a few days ago), and he'll discuss it at length, but if asked to write anything down about it, I know from experience that he would instantly shift to total disinterest in the Constitution and any discussion we might have about it. That's how we've ended up unschooling. He is capable of learning and discussing many topics in depth (often displaying surprisingly great insight), but his writing looks like a young child's, his spelling is poor, he skips words, etc. and so he truncates his long, complex thoughts into the the fewest words possible in order to alleviate his writing load. We have tried the Dragon software, and I would recommend it to anyone with a child who has dyslexia/dysgraphia. Unfortunately, for my son it doesn't work. He had surgery on his aorta 13 months ago. The recurrent laryngeal nerve that enervates the larynx wraps around the aorta. My son's recurrent laryngeal nerve was damaged during surgery, and so he has a voice that constantly sounds like he has a horrible case of laryngitis. It's high pitched, scratchy, and breathy. The Dragon software does not respond well to his voice. So, even technology that I thought, when he was younger, would end up helping him with his writing difficulties has turned out to not be of help because of the particular curve balls he's been thrown in his life. I have no idea what this will mean for college. There is still a slight chance that his voice will recover, but we were told that recovery would happen within 6 months. He's now going on 14 months, so..... Anyway - Dragon software, continued copywork, and tape recording writing assignments that are then typed from the recording. If your child will go for that. My son went to a public charter school for his freshman high school year last year, and he would not let me help him with typing his papers. He refused to use a laptop for in class assignments, even though he was encouraged by his teachers to do so, and he refused to do any extra work that would help him continue to improve his handwriting skills, so high school was excruciating for him. He got a 3.5 grade point average, but he did not have a good attitude about high school, and it made our family life pretty miserable. It would take him about 10 hours to write a 3 page paper. Most of that time was spent sitting, staring at the computer screen. It was very frustrating!! I'm very glad he's homeschooling again!

You're welcome. :) Keep us posted!

Hi jujsky, I was a speech pathologist for 12 years before I started homeschooling my kids 7 years ago - so it's been awhile! My advice to you would be to have her checked by a speech language pathologist, and a pediatrician. Most (not all, but IME most) pediatricians have very little knowledge of language and speech development and disorders. Speech pathologists are required to study the discipline for 4 years (two years as an undergrad, and two years as a grad student), and do a year long fellowship after graduating with a master's degree, so obviously, a doctor could not have that kind of background in addition to earning their medical degree. I say this only because I have seen so many kids not get the speech services they needed earlier on because their pediatricians didn't think they needed them. This has even been true for kids with very serious issues. What you've described doesn't sound terribly concerning, but if it seems to be accompanied by more confusion, or forgetfulness than usual, it would be a good idea to have her checked out by a pediatrician as well as a speech pathologist. All of that being said. My neice, who is 19, stutters exactly as you have described. I don't remember quite when it started, but she has been doing it for as long as I can remember now. She is just fine. She's in college, has a nice boyfriend, a job at the mall, many friends, etc. In other words - she's totally normal, and no one really notices or cares about her little stutter. It's just a little speech quirk of hers. Many people have little speech quirks which are not full fledged speech disorders or full stutters. Your local school district will have a speech pathologist who can take a look at your dd. Since you are homeschooling her, you may be lower on the list of the school district's priorities, but most school districts do provide those services to their local homeschoolers. If not, you'll have to find a private practice - not too difficult to do. Insurance sometimes pays for evaluations, sometimes not.

Yesterday, we had a plumber come over to unclog our shower that's in a bathroom off the family room. The plumber walked through the family room, saw the school books strewn all over the coffee table, couch, desk, etc. and said, "Homeschool?" :lol: No school room here. The whole world is our school room! But mostly our family room is our school room. :D

We're not considering sending dd to a high school residency at this time. The school she now goes to is as good as the residencies, and we would prefer to drive her the distance than send her away. If we lived any further from her current school, I think we would be considering residencies for her future. Thankfully, we now don't have to. I do know people who have sent their kids to residencies for high school, and I admire them very much. It is a tough decision to make, and I respect the decisions and understand well the circumstances that lead to parents sending their kids to residencies. But we were hoping to find a program that would be just as good without having to send her away, and we have. :) ETA: At her pre-pro ballet school, the director prefers that the students attend their own SI until they are in the advanced division. At that time, students scatter around the country going to SIs. That's how and where the girls who are going to Boston and SFB were given their offers for this fall. Now that dd's had a taste of going away, she's looking forward to doing it again someday. :)

I love my frontload machine. I will never go back to a top loader. I have a KitchenAid set that we bought 3 years ago, and we've never had the smelly rubber seal problem. My clothes come out so much cleaner than the top of the line top loading Kenmore I had for 10 years. Before taking the new one, though, I would definitely research it to make sure it is not one of the models that has notorious problems with the seal.

And because it can't be said enough - Kudos to Beyonce. I watched the debacle this morning after reading about it in the news, and her gracious words and act of kindness had me all choked up. The truth is, Kanye ruined the special moment for both of these talented young women. Taylor Swift didn't get to finish her acceptance speech, and Beyonce used her time to allow Taylor the time she should have had in the first place. I hope the backlash from the entertainment community is strong and that he learns his lesson.

Replying to myself! I don't know why I didn't have in mind that she could keep training after high school at another school. Again - thanks for reminding me of that option. Since I posted my last post, I also called her current ballet school and asked about training post-high school. She would be eligible to stay and continue training in their advanced level for one school year post high school. I just don't know why I didn't think of that before, but again, I thank everyone for their responses, and especially for reminding me that there are other options besides getting a trainee position or going to college right out of high school. Phew!

You are all so helpful! Thank you! American School is one high school program I've been looking at for dd. It is a well respected correspondence school, and the flexibility and price look just right - but, of course, they are not UC approved courses! Some more background: Yes, my dd has been to a summer intensive. She went last year to The Rock in Philadelphia. She auditioned for intensives this year when she was still 12 and was accepted to Boston, The Rock, and Joffrey. Those were the only auditions she went to because during the audition process this past winter, she really realized that she needed to go to a better school if she wanted to be competitive. Clearly, she was already at a good school, but she saw something in other dancers at the auditions that showed her she was missing something. She auditioned for several schools - all 70 miles away since all the schools that were closer were no better than the school she already attended. We chose a fantastic school from which the dancers who graduate get wonderful offers. She has been there 6 months now, and attended their summer intensive. We are under no illusions. We are aware that there are no guarantees that the same will happen for dd, but we do know that if she didn't go to a school like this, the already slim likelihood of success would be even slimmer. This past spring, 3 girls graduated, and 1 boy. All four got fantastic offers. One girl is a full scholarship trainee at Boston, another girl is a full scholarship trainee at San Francisco Ballet, one girl is in Moscow studying at the Bolshoi Academy in their highest level, and the boy is in the top level of the school at San Francisco Ballet School. The graduates last year had similar results. The AD only selects those students who she thinks have a real shot at a career into the most advanced level at the school. My dd will be eligible for that level in probably 2 years. We've already gotten some indication that they see that promotion in her future - while knowing that things can change between now and then. I am also aware that taking the college route into a professional career is not the norm. We're just trying to keep all her options open! Mary - You've given me an idea that I'd forgotten about, frankly. I know that Kirov, Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, and the Rock also have graduate level programs. I know that she could go to CPYB without question, and unless things change drastically for her, I'm as sure as I can be that she could get into The Rock as a graduate. Stephanie Spassoff seems to really like her. This line of thinking has me feeling happy and relaxed. I'm going to reflect on this possibility more. Thanks! MgoBlue - some kids are just naturals and some are "work hard and then get it" kind of kids. Mine is somewhere in the middle. She has to work hard to get things, but once she gets them, she gets them very well. UNCSA sounds like such a fantastic program. I wish their audition tour came anywhere close to us. I will definitely keep this program in mind for the future. Thanks again, you guys. As usual, the gals on the WTM forums have the best advice on the web! :D

The public schools in California are different than everywhere else. It is actually easier for homeschoolers to get into the UCs than the state universities, which is weird, but true. (UCs have more difficult entrance requirements than the state universities and are considered more elite I guess you could say than the state universities). Homeschoolers do get into the UCs, but as Abbeyej says, they must score very well on tests. Of course, if she went to community college for a year or two, there would be no problem transferring, but there are no good ballet based community college programs, so how would she continue to dance at a high level until she was eligible to transfer? Many CCs have dance programs, but none have pre-professional level ballet programs. No, so far my dd is not a good test taker. She takes an online math course right now, and she gets 100% on the questions she answers during the lesson, and Cs and Bs on the tests. She gets similar scores with her online Language arts program: As on the lessons, Bs on the tests. She's also tried our state standardized testing a couple of times (which is not required, she just wanted to try), and did not do really well on the tests. So, I think she needs to have a strong avenue into college via approved classes and grades. I am planning on having her improve her test taking skills by taking an SAT vocabulary program, and an online class in test taking skills. Sandra - does UNCSA accept home schoolers regularly? I know they have a great ballet program. Theirs is one of the few college ballet based programs I know of. I think I forgot to list it in my post the other day, though. Anissarobert: Thanks for the hugs! :) There are many college based dance programs, but the vast majority are modern based with ballet classes only included because of the technique and strength they provide the dancers. Ballet based college level dance programs are few and far between. Well, I have a lot to share with dd when she comes home today. I hope that this inspires her to want to work harder on her academics.

Yes, I do. I think my dd would do fine in public school, and she wanted to go to school this year for 8th grade, but she isn't able to because of her intensive ballet schedule. She won't be able to go to a regular school for high school either, if she continues on with ballet. I actually think she would thrive in a regular school environment. She resists doing school work at home, but if a teacher required it of her, she'd want to please the teacher, and she wouldn't want to lose face in front of the other students, so that would motivate her to do well academically. At home, we struggle with her resistance almost everyday. Then, she does her work and does well on it :glare:. If it were not for her ballet schedule, I'm sure she'd be going to regular school. My son went to a brick and mortar school for his freshman year in high school last year, and he ended up hating it. He did very well academically; most of the required work was rehashing what he already knew, and so he got good grades. He is very outgoing, and has a good group of friends. All of his friends who also homeschooled throughout most of elementary school, as he did, are continuing on in regular high school. They are fine with the structure of it. My son is not. He prefers to immerse himself in a subject and learn everything he can about it, and then move on. The structure of multiple classes, and endless amounts of busy work drove him crazy. He says he learns far more as a homeschooler. He's homeschooling this year independently, and we're not even following a curriculum. He's reading on his own, and setting up a business which requires him to write, and learn business math. And he's found that he still has a full social life, which was his biggest reason for going to a regular high school in the first place. :thumbup1:

I was 33 when I had my first and 35 when I had my second. I'm a couple to a few years older than most of the parents of my kids' friends. I'm lucky that I look years younger than I actually am, though, so no one notices. ;).

I agree with you 100% Willow! She needs a back up plan. I'm just trying to decide whether that backup plan should be focused upon getting her into college and not worry about whether or not she would be accepted to a particular college, which would mean that we could confidently continue with our modified WTM approach, and homeschool independently. OR do we make sure she is eligible to enter the dance programs at either the University of California, or the California State University. For both of the those options, it would be a bit more risky to not have her take pre-approved UC courses through a public school Independent Study Program. She and I would prefer to homeschool independently, but we don't want to hinder her chances for getting into a public university and majoring in dance if that's what she wants to do. I was just wondering if anyone else had continued to homeschool their serious ballet student independently through high school. The advanced students at dd's ballet school who homeschool all do so through a public school Independent Study Program. We have a local friend who tried and failed to become a pro ballet dancer. She was homeschooled her whole life, and she did not prepare to be accepted to college dance programs - though she most certainly would have been accepted to one had she been prepared on the college entrance requirements side of things. She put all her eggs in the ballet basket, it didn't pan out (she really didn't try very hard, or for very long, but still....). Now she's at a community college and there is no place she can dance at the pre-pro level she was used to, and she's only just turned 18. Ballet is so specific, and it is so difficult if not impossible to find professional level training that continues on after the high school years if one is not in a college level program and has not been offered a company trainee/apprentice position. To stay in the running, or to eventually teach, a college program seems essential to me. Guess I just answered my own question! :D The public school ISP it is. Training for a career in ballet is not the faint of heart, that's for sure! Believe me, I tried to offer her anything else - musical theater, jazz dancing, modern dancing, anything related to the theater arts, but she is only interested in classical ballet. If she wanted to pursue any of those other interests, we could definitely continue on with WTM, but the ballet world is so narrow, and there are only a handful of college level dance programs in the country that focus on ballet. Thanks for the advice and help! :)

Same here - when I said I require 30 minutes a day of novel reading, that referred to novel reading *for school.* I never require reading for reading's sake. My husband is a college graduate, successful in his career, and he never reads fiction for fun. Never. My best friend from college has her Ph.D. and is a university professor and she never read for fun growing up, nor does she now. They both only read for work or for information.

My daughter trains at a pre professional ballet school. The boys do start out with exactly the same training, and they continue with the same training for their basic technique. Once they are at the intermediate level, they usually have separate "mens" or "boys" classes in lieu of pointe classes that the girls take. At my dd's school, the boys leave class when the girls are putting their pointe shoes on, and then they take an extra mens class on a different day. In the mens class, they learn the bravura skills that only the men do - the jaw dropping leaps, and multiple turns in the air - that kind of thing. When they're teens, they also take parterning classes with the girls. The girls and boys learn to dance together, which is a whole new set of skills. If you are looking for a ballet school for your son, be sure to find one that offers these kinds of classes for boys. Not all ballet schools have enough boys to provide these classes, but they really are essential skills for boys to learn. And enjoy your ballet journey. It's a whole new world. :)

My daughter is 13 years old is very serious about ballet. She trains 5 or 6 days a week, depending upon her rehearsal schedule. We live in a small town that doesn't have the best training available, so for the last 6 months, we've been driving over an hour each direction to take her to and from her classes. She started in pre-ballet classes when she was 3, almost 4 years old. She then went to the graded levels starting at about age 7, but only had one hour a week of ballet classes then. The number of hours gradually increased until at the age of 12, she was taking 10 hours per week. She will have about 12 or so hours per week of ballet this year. Once she's 15 years old, she'll move into the advanced division and then she'll have 18 hours a week of classes, and 5 - 10 hours per week of reheasals/performances. Ballet has been a wonderful, exciting, difficult, frustrating, and character building endeavor for dd. Sometimes I wish she was just a regular kid, but then she wouldn't be herself. When she was young, say before the age of 11 in ballet, it was all fun, all joyful. I think it's a wonderful skill for young kids to learn. They learn to pay attention to detail, to show respect for their teachers, their classmates, and themselves. They learn to carry themselves beautifully, and they get to immerse themselves in learning a classical art form. Once they become very serious students is when the real challenges begin. Those challenges have made my daughter a very strong, confident, poised, and compassionate person. Not too shabby, really. And I agree with you that ballet is a great form of dance because they don't wear risque costumes and shake their booties on stage. I'm also a conservative liberal! :D. At this stage, just have fun with it. I kinda miss those early days. :)

I would definitely count it. My kids have spent time in both public schools and a super academic private school, and not every hour of every day was spent on academic tasks. They did lots of creative projects, and broke out into spontaneous discussions on topics at hand, etc. All of that was counted as school hours by the schools! :)

Thanks, Abbeyej. I am positively addicted to Ballet Talk for Dancers - :D, but having been on there for years, I know that homeschooling threads on that site can devolve into the pros and cons of homeschooling rather than stay focused on the subject at hand. Most of the homeschoolers I know on that site (well - "know" through the site) are using programs like Keystone, University of Nebraska, Laurel Springs, or public charters and ISPs. Many of the ballet students I know who home school start home schooling so that their kids can have the time to focus on ballet. They aren't home schoolers at heart or philosophically as much as they are doing it to serve a specific student for a specific purpose. In our family, we were home schoolers first. and intensive ballet came into our lives later which is why I would prefer to continue with our modified WTM approach. About half of the advanced students at my dd's ballet school also home school, but they all do it through a public school ISP, which I think is a very safe choice for keeping their college options open. As I've been typing this, though, I did think of one very knowledgeable home schooling mom on Ballet Talk that I could PM. Again, thanks for your help. Any other ballet parents who want to chime in, I'd love to hear your opinions and stories. Oh, and Abbeyej - When my dd was younger, I never would have guessed that she would choose ballet as her passion. She's a very creative, fun-loving, outgoing, life of the party type. The seriousness and detailed focus of ballet does not fit the rest of her personality at all. I thought she'd focus on jazz to tell you the truth. She used to take both jazz and ballet, but surprisingly to me, ballet became the genre that captured her heart. Now we drive 2 and half hours a day to get her to and from her ballet school 5 or 6 days a week! We live in a small town, and her little local ballet school took her as far as they could. So - you never know! Kids can surprise you. :D

Hi Everyone, Is anyone else home schooling a very focused (well, focused on ballet - not academics! :lol:) ballet student through high school? My dd is an 8th grader right now, but we need to start making decisions about how she will pursue her high school education. I could put her in a California charter ISP, but I would really prefer to continue on with what we've always done. My fear, though, is that in doing that, she wouldn't be eligible for entry into the very few college ballet based programs out there. If she just wanted to go to college and major in liberal arts, or medicine, or go into law, or accounting, I wouldn't hesitate at all to home school her independently. But, because the ballet world is so narrowly focused, and there are so few colleges that have ballet as their focus in their dance departments, I'm inclined to put her through the charter program just so she has the UC/Cal State requirements completed to their satisfaction. One of the best college level ballet programs in the country is at a Cal State University. The others that I know of right now are SMU, TCU, Juilliard, Butler University, and UC Irvine. Of course, Dd's true ambition is not to major in dance in college, but to get a pro contract with a ballet company. To put this dream into context, there are about 2000 well trained, qualified girls who are on the audition circuit every year for the 150 to 200 paying positions available. In other words, she needs a back up plan! Has anyone else gone through this thinking process? Thanks for your help. :)

No one read out loud to their kids more than I did. No mother loves to read more. No one has been more enthusiastic about finding ways to help my children love to read. Yet they don't. :( I require a half hour a day of novel reading, and then, of course, they do quite a bit of reading for their other academic subjects.

O.K. Then I would just focus on the CVC words as her goal. You can do the sentences as suggested but without expectation that she'll really understand the task and be able to accomplish it independently. There is a theory in cognitive science called "resource allocation theory." What that theory states is that we can only truly focus on one difficult cognitive task at a time and do it well. When we try to load on more than one task at a time, our performance/success rate decreases on all tasks that we are attempting. As a mom - I'm sure you intuitively understand that concept! :tongue_smilie:. Since your daughter is still not at a 70 - 90% success rate with reading - not sounding out - but reading the CVC words, asking her to put that skill into a sentence format increases the cognitive load considerably. Here's a suggestion regarding doing the sentence task on the white board. Have your daughter read the word first, "jog," then write the sentence on the board, and show her "her" word: "Here's your word (pointing to word in sentence) jog." Then point to each word in the sentence and say it loud. Have her repeat it with you. Keep working on those individual CVC word lists. She'll catch on when her brain develops to the point that she's ready for the increased complexity of the sentence reading task. She's already making the connections between the grapheme (written letter), and the phoneme (sound the letter makes) and the morpheme (unit of meaning) - and that's quite an accomplishment! :D

I'm a speech pathologist (retired 6 years ago to become a homeschooling mom :) ), I worked with young children for many years. I also taught my own children to read using Phonics Pathways :). I like all of Chris in VA's suggestions. Another approach I would try would be a multi-modality approach. I would write each sentence on the white board, maybe a small one you could hold in your lap while the two of you snuggle on the couch, point to each word while you and she say it simultaneously until she gets the hang of it. I do have one question, though. Does your daughter have to sound out each word in the list like j - o - g....jog! Or can she now look at the word, sound it out in her head quickly, and then say...jog! If she is still having to sound out each individual word sound by sound, then she is not yet ready for the short sentence stage - and that's O.K.! Keep working at the level where she is successful 70 - 90% of the time. A lower success rate than that is just discouraging. This is the rule of thumb that we use in speech-language therapy, and it works. And don't worry. My kids are both dyslexic, and were both late readers. I pulled them each out of second grade - a highly academic private school - and taught them to read myself. Even though they were later readers, they are both very good readers. And they enjoy reading. :001_smile: Edited to add: If it's too difficult, and she's just not getting, put it away and try again in 2 or 3 months. It's amazing what a little (or sometimes a lot) of development can do to make a task that was once hard become very easy. I've had to learn this lesson over and over with my own kids.

I feel for you! As a family, we made the decision to send our son to a small charter high school which has the a-g requirements as the minimum grad requirements. I was nervous to send him off to high school, and thought he'd hate the dreaded text books, but after the first couple of weeks of learning how to use them, he doesn't mind them. He's actually really enjoying the give and take, the interaction available to him in classrooms that wasn't available in the same way at home. He has several friends who go to the school - it attracts formerly home schooled kids - so that was another bonus. We have very limited options for independent home schoolers at the high school level here with regard to quality ISPs (though we have great choices at the K-8 level). We, too, wanted to make sure that our son met the UC a-g requirements without question.