In all honesty, Mark, I am sorry that I misunderstod. I did not think that the intention of your short message was to wish her harm, but to complain about the lack of communication. My family is heart-broken over the closing of Lone Pine, so I am still reacting emotionally.

Mark, Ms Karppinen has communicated with the families currently taking classes with Lone Pine. Arrangements for the spring are being made. She has answered our emails, and has been open and honest. She is one woman - a wonderful homeschool mom who teaches Latin classes online. I do not think that she owes the general public immediate communication. Lone Pine is not part of a larger school, with other teachers, or administrative support. She is doing what she does best, teaching classes and working with teens. Her classes provide more contact time for less tuition than any other online school I have ever found. She constantly goes above and beyond, giving freely of her time outside of class. She responds to emails more quickly than any other online provider. As a homeschool community, perhaps we need to consider what we are asking of teachers, particularly those who are homeschool parents themselves. So, despite the closing of Lone Pine - maybe I should say this a few more times. Karen Karppinen is an amazing teacher. She has inspired my son to pursue a major in classics. Karen has been a positive influence in his life, and I am so happy that we found her. Whatever Karen ends up doing next, she will be a blessing to the kids she teaches. She has a natural ability to connect with kids, and help them to connect with each other. She has offered something incredible for homeschool kids. My family has been lucky to have known her. Anne

My son is in in his 6th year at Lone Pine. Despite the fact that he is graduating, he is devastated. If your kids have gone to convention, they probably know him. Anyone who is currently in Lone Pine would like to discuss the situation, please PM me.

Thanks for the laughs, I had to sign in just to tell this quick story. My son was participating in a Latin competition, and the question was, "What medical term is derived from the Latin word "vacca" (cow in English) ? I supposed that he momentarily lost his mind, because he answered.... VASECTOMY ! Edited to add: For the record, the intended answer was - vaccination.

I am not a dentist, but I think that is normal. I had a root canal the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. It still is sensitive on occasion, even as recently as last night. It hurts the most when I am resting on that side of my face or when I breath in the cold air.

This sounds fun! Can you explain a little better how you accomplish this? Thanks in advance.

We use the thesaurus built into the word processor for Writing with Skill assignments. Sometimes we go back and forth, finding synonyms and looking up the definition in the dictionary. But it worked quite well. In fact, that is probably how a thesaurus would be used. When you are writing a paper, you look up a better word than what is in your head - right there on your computer.

I love teaching from Jurgenson Geometry! What about it turns off your daughter?

Arcadia, Thanks for your advice. We did book the vacation itself through an agent. I was the only one of the four adults who wanted to fly, so I have been overruled anyway. But I will pass on this information and we can check one more time. But both my husband and my father travel often for work and have hotel points that can be turned into free nights, so it seems that no price is lower than free! At least we will be travelling in two cars and attempting to keep together and they have offered to take a different kid each time we stop. That might make the drive a bit more interesting.

It matters if you are buying a ticket for one, or a ticket for a group, because sometimes they have a certain number of fares for that price. My mom and I were trying to coordinate buying plane tickets for our vacation. She was looking for two tickets, I was looking for five tickets. She was seeing better rates than I was. When she entered five passengers, let alone all seven of us (since we wanted to be on the same flight) those fares vanished - not enough for sale at that rate.

Hi Janet, I am using Principles of Mathematics - Book 1. I like the student textboook. But I do not like the the homework pages or the quizzes & tests. I do agree that you could work through both books in a single year, which would cover all the mathematics that would be needed to be sufficiently prepared for algebra. Please feel free to ask more questions - but we are only on week two. Anne

This is my favorite.... Curvy Sewing Collective http://curvysewingcollective.com/ Anyone, no matter their size, who wants to lean how to fit patterns to their own unique bodies could learn something from this website. And also .... Collette Patterns https://blog.colettehq.com/ They have tons of tutorials, including even more articles from Seamworks magazines. Happy sewing!

My kids love, love, love the pillowcases that I made with fabric chosen specifically for them. I actually make them like a decorative pillow with the flap in the middle so that the pillow does not slide out the side. Or you could get one of those huge body-length sized pillows and cover that.

I would be interested in a one-half credit writing class covering the literary analysis lessons that were skipped in Rhetoric Writing Prep.

What if you purchased two copies of the workbook? Then you could sell the student book after you have used it along with a new workbook. Would that bring your final cost within reason for your budget?

Amazon recently made it possible to download prime shows and movies to your tablet to watch while you are offline. http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201460820 I do not know how well it works since I have not tried it. My kids have downloaded movies and shows, but maybe only things that we have purchased or rented.

My son, 16 years old and a 10th / 11th grader, is in Intro to Rhetoric, which covers Writing with Skill 1, 2 & 3. The class is taught by "Katie", as she asked to be called (Kathleen Brian). As previously mentioned, she uses the workshop model in class. I could copy and agree with all of Root Ann's post. However I am not brave enough to say even that on a public forum. I have watched all the classes so far, since I still do not fully understand how students are supposed to improve from the workshop model. I think that kids in the middle of the pack, as far as writing skills go, will benefit the most from the workshop model. In my life before kids, I was a public school teacher in a low performing middle school. The English teacher taught using a "workshop model" that included much more teaching about the elements of a good sentence / paragraph / essay. Perhaps Katie's style comes from her experiences as a PhD student, instead of the sort of methods class that a teacher would take in college. In addition,there is constant and distracting commentary in the chat box of this class. I am surprised that she does not turn it off and make kids "raise their hands" to talk during important segments of the class. RootAnn, do you think that if kids make an appointment with Miss Katie, she would be willing to give specific feedback on a particular essay? Please feel free to PM me and I will answer questions more clearly - now or in the future. And I can only hope that things will improve and I will have a better impression by the end of the year!

I agree with the suggestion of VCU. Richmond is a great location, with a diverse and vibrant community. It is located close to the beach, mountains (well, East coast mountains) and near enough to DC as well as a variety of historical landmarks. Richmond has everything in a typical "downtown", just less of it than a huge congested city. They refer to it as RVA. I highly recommend that part of Virginia for college!

No - it is not. And even having some bad ones can be helpful in certain instances.

I will stand corrected on that issue. Certainly a high school band or orchestra class with performances would count for credit. I thought that the course in question was more of a music appreciation class. I still believe that the Great Course lectures along with writing some papers and a watching a few performances would count as high school credit. If something similar would count as a 3-credit college class, then it could be a 1-credit high school course. A student could earn that credit without producing music themselves. This description of Music Appreciation from K-12 was on their website. It mentions that some states require a "performance practicum". So maybe you could look for a syllabus at a high school in your particular state for a similar class. http://www.k12.com/courses/high-school-courses/music-appreciation-elective-art020.scope-sequence.html

In my case, once we are in the shoe department, I say, "Take off your shoes and show me the size." And then I ask, "Do those shoes fit, or are they getting tight?" Sadly, if we didn't find a suitable pair, and went to another store even on the same afternoon, I would have to do that again.

I think that if you are awarding credit there should be some output. Maybe assign some papers based on the lecture topics. Lots of high school kids do music lessons and daily practice, but that does not make it a high school credit.

WHY is there glittery washi tape covering the speakers of my laptop?

We just use whatever I have in the kitchen.

Wait.... what? I thought that classes start tomorrow, Sept 8th!