Sorry, I don't really have any suggestions for courses, but perhaps this book would be a good start: 101 Things I Learned in Architecture Schoolhttps://www.amazon.com/Things-Learned-Architecture-School-Press/dp/0262062666 My DD (2nd year architecture student) came across it on a college visit. It has some drawing tips/exercises, but it also has lots of other interesting info. And when you look at that book there will be suggestions for other activity books that might be helpful. But now I'll just add my 2 cents. ;) You really don't need to have experience with architectural drawing to become an architecture student. Focus on general drawing skills and building a portfolio in case you end up applying to a school that requires one as part of the application. Generally, they are looking more for creativity rather than architecture projects, so it can be drawings, paintings, sculpture, photography, etc. Also, work on presentation skills in high school -- a big part of being an architecture student and architect is being able to present your ideas well, and the student who comes in with solid skills in this area will be way ahead of their peers. Do lots research about architecture school (it's a tough major no matter where you go) and the profession in general -- this blog has lots of great info: https://youngarchitect.com/new-start/ Finally, look into attending a summer architecture program/camp at a college -- they can be expensive, but I've heard they are really helpful in deciding whether architecture is a good fit (my DD decided on architecture too late to attend such a program). Hope that helps!

Thanks for the info! I quick joined that group and checked but there are almost no files for LA3, oh well. I had contacted CAP earlier and they suggested just making some vocabulary tests, but even that takes time, so I was hoping there was someone who had already done the work for me. :blush:

I'm wondering if anyone is using this and has found and/or created tests they would be willing to share. I liked the tests you could purchase separately for LA2, but there is nothing like that for Book 3. Thanks!

Thank you all for this thread -- so helpful! Hope it's okay to tack on another question, specifically for Creekland or anyone else who has insight on using Apologia for someone who wants to go the pre-med route. My DD (9th) will be enrolled at a private classical school this year and they currently use Apologia for all their science courses. I've been hearing more and more that the Apologia texts aren't enough. She'll be taking biology this year. Should I go ahead and plan on her supplementing each year? And how did you do that? Is it just a matter of additional reading? Also, the school currently makes the students choose between anatomy and physics their senior year (offered at the same time) -- should we plan on her taking one or the other online so she can have both? Will she need a good physics background for undergrad? We're already outsourcing her foreign language with TPS and now I'm starting to wonder if we need to outsource science as well.

I'm jumping in late to the conversation and am undecided on the value of the subject tests, but I just wanted to mention to carefully check each school's policy on accepting credit for CLEP and dual enrollment. RPI does not accept CLEP and college courses are not counted if they were used in obtaining a high school diploma. I don't think too many schools are like that, but it's something to consider.

There is quite a bit of review of Algebra I in the Algebra II book, so I think you'll be fine. And, no, I don't think it's too late to jump into MUS. Because the first few lessons have a lot of review they can drag on a little, but after a month or so you should have a good routine down and know whether it's a good fit. Don't skip the honors pages -- there are some topics included only in the honors pages that will be covered on the ACT.

My son's class skipped from Ch. A to Ch. I due to a variety of factors, so I don't have specific information for you, but I know when he was in Ch. A (9th grade for him) his tutor gave me a CC handout that had suggestions on how to beef it up for high school and how to assign credits. I can't find that handout now and I didn't see anything like it on CC Connected, so ask your tutor if something like that exists for B. I only used it as a starting point and I kind of broke things up a bit and came up with my own plan for credits. I basically looked at my general 4-year high school plan and did my best to fit Ch. A into my needs for 9th grade. Science was the biggest thing that got changed, but you already have that covered. There is a CC Facebook group for Challenge families and the Latin issue has been discussed before -- most families give a full credit for Latin in Ch. B (Latin I) and then another in Ch. I (Latin II). They've compared the scope to their local high schools and feel confident in awarding the credit.

Oh, sorry, I don't know why I said expensive flight. I just meant it could complicate travel. I didn't know they have a shuttle -- that makes it a lot easier!

My daughter went to a week-long general engineering camp at S&T and she loved it. It was very helpful in giving her some direction on what she wanted to study and a taste of dorm life. I'm guessing the nuclear camp would be great too, but I'm not sure how pleasant Missouri's summer heat and humidity would be for an Alaskan. A fall visit might be nice. ;) Also, S&T isn't close to a major airport, so that could make for an expensive flight.

Both of my kids needed a refresher this year, so we used Rod & Staff and did the classroom exercises orally and diagrammed sentences on white boards. We usually kept it to about 20 minutes, 3-5 days a week. It was a good refresher for me too. :thumbup:

Thank you, ladies, for all your support. Your comments and private messages have been so helpful and comforting. My heart goes out to everyone in similar situations -- you're in my thoughts and prayers. :grouphug:

Thanks everyone! I've started the process for getting another evaluation. I remember that way back then it would take months and months to get set up, so I'm hoping that's not the case anymore.

We've definitely thought of extending high school and it's possible he might come to that decision on his own because he's occasionally expressed interest in being able to finish the Challenge program (he'll be in Ch. III next year) and I think one of his classmates might stay an extra year. But unless it's his decision I'm going to let him graduate next year. He's on a cross country/track team where it will be a big deal that he's a senior and he's looking forward to all the "pomp and circumstance" the year will bring. His older sister is a freshman at college so he often compares himself to her and wants to follow the same path. He has a timeline in his head and I think at this point it would be a disappointment for him to deviate from that plan. It's hard to explain to him that his experience won't be like his sister's (she's halfway across the country at a competitive STEM school), so part of me wants him to just have a great senior year to at least get that experience. That said, if there's one thing I've learned through all our autism adventure is that we just take it one year at a time and let God direct our path. :) Oh, and where we live there's no financial advantage of doing DE over enrolling as a regular student, but the CC tuition is very reasonable. Thanks for the info about generally needing a recent eval. I also hadn't thought about career counseling being part of a re-evaluation. It might be good for him to be able to ask questions too. Thanks so much for your help!

Hi! Ages ago I used to spend more time on the Special Needs Board, but we eventually just got to the point that autism was just kind of normal for DS, so my focus was more on homeschooling and just managing the crazy-busy years with three teenagers. I used to be the mom that stayed up all night reading everything about autism and all the biomedical stuff, but it's been so long since I've even thought about it all that when someone asks me to help their friend whose young child has been diagnosed I have no idea what to tell them anymore. I noticed in one of the other threads that ABA/VB is still a thing, so I guess I'm not completely out of the loop. :blush: But now a couple of things are forcing me to re-educate myself. First, my son is finally taking an interest in autism. We never really talked about it until this year. Starting this week he will do some reading about autism (I'm going to include it as part of his health credit). I have the following books: Kids with Autism Spectrum Disorders (And Their Parents) and The Asperkid's Secret Book of Social Rules. Does anyone have other suggestions? I thought maybe adding the first few chapters of the RDI book too. The first book seems to be written for a younger audience, but I don't think he'll mind too much. It was hard to find something not addressed to the parent. Second, next year is DS's senior year and he turns 18 this summer. He wants to go to college, but he is not ready. My thought is that we will start with a couple of community college classes and see how that goes. I honestly don't know what to expect. He's been in the Challenge program of Classical Conversations for 3 years now and it's been tough. He's a strong reader, probably average in math (finishing up MUS Alg.II), loves history, struggles with writing and debate. The community college we would send him to has a good reputation of working with ASD students, so I will plan to meet with them in the coming months. But I'm wondering if we need to have DS evaluated again. He was diagnosed at age 2 with moderate/severe autism and was mostly nonverbal at that time. A lot has changed since then! Will the community college require a more recent evaluation for him to receive accommodations? Anyone have experience with this? Thanks for any advice you can give. I'm feeling a little bit like a rookie again. :blink:

I wish I could tell you it's all going to be fine, but we're in pretty much the same boat, so I'm eager for you to get some encouraging responses. :bigear: My DD is a first year student in a 5-year Bachelor of Architecture program. She never sleeps, has been sick off and on all year on top of dealing with some other health issues, and is just plain worn out. We were fully warned this is what life as an architecture student is like, but it's different once you actually experience it. To fit in 170 credit hours into 5-years she will have to take summer classes, but not a full load like your DD. Our hope is that it will still feel like a break because it won't be studio or other architecture classes and she will be home. I think the home part is the most appealing to her -- she loves school, but is really ready for a break. Will your DD at least get to be at home for the summer?

My youngest is taking MUS Algebra I and Geometry concurrently and has had no problems not having completed Algebra I. So, no, there is not a lot of algebra in the geometry text. Radicals are introduced in Lesson 17, but that's more of an overlap with the Algebra II text. In the last student page of each geometry lesson there is a "sharpen your algebra skills" section, but they also briefly explain the topic and the questions are pretty easy, so my DD is usually able to figure those sections out. My guess is that there is something in the Zeta text that he was rusty on and that's why he was placed there. You can find the Table of Contents here: http://store.mathusee.com/catalog/math-u-see/general-math/zeta I've read accounts from many families who had gaps in the elementary years to fill, so their children placed low, but once they filled that gap they were fine. We've never done a placement test, so I don't know if there's a way to see what he got wrong, but I'd try to figure out what the gap is and use Khan or something rather than buy the whole Zeta curriculum or even Pre-Algebra.

We appealed for more merit aid by providing a copy of a competing school's offer. I only included the one other school because it was it was very similar (private STEM school; I didn't think they would care that the big state school offered her more money). I compared not only the two similar schools' offers but the rankings too. The school we were appealing to was actually ranked one sport lower for her major than the other school, so we felt this also demonstrated interest in that she would choose their school over the higher ranked one. The school we were trying to get more aid from only allowed one appeal for merit aid, so I included everything I could think of, even that airfare would be more expensive going to that school. I didn't ask for a specific dollar amount of additional aid, but I did say that it would cost ____ more in tuition each year to attend your school (and it seems that was what they focused on because they cut that number in half). And, yes, I wrote the email -- not DD -- despite some people saying that type of correspondence should always come from the kid (I think it's great if the kid does write it, but we needed to get it out fast and she didn't have time). So, in our case it worked out pretty well -- they did not beat the other school's offer but it was enough to make us feel good about the process. She had already received higher than average merit aid for the school, so I was glad they offered anything. It never occurred to me when she was narrowing her list to try to have at least two similar schools just for this purpose, but I will definitely make sure we do so in the future. I think it helps to focus on what's similar between the schools. For example, I didn't focus too much on housing because there were too many variables involved there; it was easier to just focus on the tuition costs. Hope it goes well for you!

Can someone point me to a discussion guide/teacher guide for the unabridged version? I have a high school level guide for the abridged version, but I'd love to find something for the unabridged version that has questions for each chapter.

One more in favor of MUS. Both of my kids are doubling up on math this year (Algebra I/Geometry for DD and Geometry/Algebra II for DS) and finding it doable. I'm doing the geometry along with them and I keep thinking it would have been a pretty light year if that's the only math we had done. But I'm also happy with what they've learned -- it is explained well and I think they have a good foundation.

My vote would be for a combination of AP and DE, even if it's just a couple of AP classes. A lot can change before a kid finally decides on a major/college and colleges can vary in terms of what they will accept. My DD went to a classical school that didn't offer AP classes and her college doesn't accept any of her dual credits because they counted toward high school graduation requirements. They do award AP credit. She's going to be stuck taking an average of 17 hours each semester (even if she takes a class at the CC each summer), and I'm not sure she's going to be able to work out her schedule to fit in the minor she was hoping to add. Even one or two AP classes would have made a huge difference. Out of the five schools she was accepted to, this was the only one with that strict a policy -- so of course that's the one she fell in love with. :tongue_smilie:

Oh, that poor kid! I thought we would be safe with no weather events going on today, but DD's first flight was cancelled due to a mechanical issue and there's not another available flight until noon tomorrow. The dorms closed today, so DH found her a hotel room that has a shuttle to/from the airport. DD has been completely calm about the whole thing, while I've been having a momma meltdown. Just praying all goes well tomorrow, because I don't know what I'd do if she had to go through what your DS's roommate did. :crying: Edited to add: Southwest said they would reimburse the cost of the hotel. :thumbup: And DD did eventually get home. :hurray:

The forums for specific majors and schools were helpful, even if they didn't seem all that active. I posted a couple of questions on these forums and received a few helpful public replies, but then also received several private messages from other moms and they pretty much walked us through the whole last month of making a decision. I was so thankful for their insight and learned so much that we would have never thought to ask on visits. But, yes, there's a bunch of garbage on there too. I just love all the "chance me" posts from people with perfect scores and pages of activities. :tongue_smilie:

That's nice that the airline got him a hotel room -- that's not standard anymore, right? Does it vary by airline or is it because he is first class? We're new to the traveling for school thing and that's been one of my biggest concerns, having DD stranded at an airport all night. She connects through Baltimore and we don't know anyone there. We've thought about having her connect through Chicago/Midway instead because we have several friends and a family member there who could help if needed, but so far the best flights for us have been through Baltimore. Thankfully, it looks like the weather will be fine when she comes home on Wednesday, but I'm sure at some point we will have our own travel horror stories.

Interesting! When my daughter, who loves reading and writing, looked at engineering schools one her questions to students was did they get to do any writing and the response was always a gleeful NO. It wasn't the deciding factor but was one of the reasons she decided not to go into engineering. It all worked out for the best (she decided on architecture and loves it), but I guess we shouldn't have assumed all engineering programs are the same.

I think this is only my second time to post on the college board, but I've benefited so much from your collective wisdom the last few years -- thank you! DD, my oldest, is going to be a freshman at a small engineering college halfway across the country. She received an email from a local engineering firm VP saying he got her contact information from personal sources (lists two people, neither of whom we know) and invited her to send a resume if she's interested in applying for a summer internship. The email was sent to her personal email address, not her school one. So, I'm curious if this is normal. Do schools give out a student's personal email address? It doesn't look like the firm knows anything about her other than the school she's going to because the email just mentions engineering, while my daughter is actually architecture & engineering (I think if they knew her major they would have mentioned it since the firm does both). And I guess I'm just surprised that they contacted her -- do firms recruit for summer interns? Do we assume they send out a million of these emails or would this indicate they like her school? Or is there really that big a shortage of women engineers? And is she supposed to be starting now to look for internships for next summer? She's not even packed for school yet, so updating the resume was not on our list of things to do this week! :crying: But if this is legit then I guess we need to add the resume to the to-do list.