We used the Rainbow Year 1 text last year and I think I recall one or two mentions of "creation" in the entire text. Granted, it was the chemistry / physics section, so more may appear in Year 2 when biology is covered, but it was *nothing* like Apologia - or many other "creation science" texts. I also noticed that Saxon Homeschool now carries all of the Holt Science high school texts on their website! Saw them at the HEAV convention on Thursday and the books looked terrific. I asked how hard it was to do the labs at home and the representative informed me that they're all virtual labs and available on CD!

I'm in Virginia and my youngest receives speech therapy at the local public school 2 days per week / 30 minutes per session. She also has a service plan, as opposed to an IEP. First, make sure that the speech therapist is at the IEP meeting and that they have a written report, documenting why your child merits having his or her speech reduced. They have to prove that there's a legitimate need for reducing services (i.e., progress made) and that they've assessed your child's speech levels recently (through testing). The way it's been described to me is that services for homeschooled students are paid for through federal funding (vs local or state funding) and the amount of money available depends on how many homeschoolers are taking advantage of said services. (If two homeschoolers are receiving speech services, for example, there's more money available than if six homeschoolers are receiving speech services). So the long and the short of it is...they're required to provide speech services in the state of Virginia to your homeschooled child if your child has a legitimate need for said services. Btw...you can also request an independent speech / language evaluation for your child. We just went through this process. The school system said that our daughter's language skills were in the 4-7 year old range and we disagreed...the private speech therapy practice where we took her for her evaluation -- paid for by the school system -- measured her language skills in the 3-4 year old range. We have an IEP meeting tomorrow morning to discuss the dramatic differences between the school's report and the private evaluation's report. Hope this helps!

Something nice they're doing this year for the first time (I think!) is that you can take one workshop for free with the shopping only pass. I don't think they've offered that before and I'm thrilled! There was one workshop I was really interested in attending, but I didn't want to pay $60 for the entire convention when I was only going to be there on Friday morning.

I will be listing Algebra I on my 8th grader's transcript so that a college can see his complete math sequence - Algebra I through Calculus. I won't be listing the rest of his 8th grade classes....which is why I like listing them by subject on his transcript.

Here's my 8th grader's list: English - Winston Grammar Advanced / Writing Strands "Creating Fiction" / Spelling Power Levels J & K (he's so psyched to finish this text!) Math - Teaching Textbooks Algebra I Science - Rainbow Science Year 2 / Knee Deep in Anatomy (frog dissection extra supplement) / "Science Rocks" with our homeschool co-op History - Beautiful Feet's Early US & World History - Jr. High Level Art - Dubosque's I Can Draw Books - Dinosaurs / Rainforest Animals / Grassland Animals / Art Classes with our homeschool co-op, taught by a professional artist Foreign Language - The Learnables Spanish I Music - Private Piano Lessons / "The History of Rock and Roll" Music Appreciation course PE - Tae Kwon Do -- he's an assistant instructor (1st degree Black Belt) Extras - Special Olympics Volunteer

My 12yo takes lessons from recent homeschool graduate and she charges $10 per lesson / 30 minutes per week. We're very pleased! She offers lessons from 9am to 12pm two days per week and all of her slots were filled by the end of the last school year!

What I do is organize the transcript by subjects instead of years. For instance: Mathematics - 5 Credits 2005-2006 - 8th - Algebra I - 1 Credit - A 2006-2007 - 9th - Geometry - 1 Credit - B 2007-2008 - 10th - Algebra II - 1 Credit - A 2008-2009 - 11th - Precalculus - 1 Credit - A 2009-2010 - 12th - Calculus - I Credit - B You then list all of the subjects (English, Math, Science, History, Electives, etc.) and you can include those high school subjects completed in 8th grade. I've never had a problem submitting this type of transcript to colleges. (My oldest dd applied to 5 colleges and was admitted to all 5, using a similar format).

We used NCCS for American Government this past year for 12th grade. My oldest son LOVED it (he loves politics and constitutional studies). http://www.nccsstore.com/Study-Courses/products/2/

I hope to be there on Friday!

I wanted to add that this is what's listed on the company website: "It is likely that we will have The Colors completed before Fall 2012. After that, our next project is to finish Spectrum Biology and the Spectrum Physics, but those will not be completed for several years to come at least." So maybe it will be completed before we both need it? :) That would be great if it happens! That would cover 10th & 11th and then I could just look for something for Marine Biology for 12th grade!

I'm interested in this as well. My 12yo did Year 1 last year and will use Year 2 this year for 8th grade and we're planning on using Spectrum Chemistry for 9th grade. But I'm at a loss for 10th through 12th! I know he wants at least one year of Marine Biology, as he's considering that as a career choice.

My 12yo completed Year 1 of Rainbow Science this past school year and LOVED it!! He can't wait to start Year 2 this year (8th grade).

My 12yo read The Lord of the Rings (The Hobbit and the 3 trilogy books) this past school year. This summer, he's tackling The Simarillion.

I think she's old enough to know. And then she can do things like bring you a magazine or a glass of iced tea, etc. and feel helpful at a time when her help is needed.

I had a miscarriage 15 years ago and that's exactly what I experienced. Have someone stay with you. :grouphug:

:grouphug: Sprinkling ~*~*~*~*~baby dust~*~*~*~*~ for you! Hang in there!

:toetap05: I'm not good at waiting! LOL

Now it's TODAY!!! :party:

My 21 year old daughter earned her AA degree from the local community college this month (yay!) and will be enrolling as a Junior in Radford University in the Fall! She's majoring in Psychology with a Minor in Forensic Studies and she hopes to enter the field of criminal investigation upon graduation. Her dream is the FBI, but she is also open to joining the Virginia State Police if "Plan A" doesn't come to pass. My 18 year old son graduates from our homeschool on Sunday!!! We are SO proud of him! He has high functioning autism and we were told years ago that we couldn't possibly homeschool him. He'd never learn to read, write, do math, drive a car, hold a job, go to college, etc., etc., etc. He has learned to do all of those things and is the proud owner of a learner's permit! He'll be spending this summer in a pilot program at the University of Virginia where they're teaching teens with Aspergers and Autism how to drive. Half of the group will learn on a simulator and the other half will learn with a driving instructor and they want to compare the results. In the fall, he'll be off to the same community college that our oldest daughter attended and taking classes in English & History. I'll still be homeschooling our two youngest, but it's going to be very different around here this coming fall!

:iagree: When we bought our current house in 2005..and when we bought a house before that in the late 1990s...we were able to get a "no-doc" loan because my husband was self-employed. He didn't have W2s, for example, and the only thing we had to do was state how much money we made and have a credit check run and we had a mortgage. Those days are over. Now I've heard that you need a high credit score (700+) and at least 20% down. We never had to put more than $10,000 down previously.

I'm making my way through "A Feast for Crows" now. It's the slowest read so far for a George R R Martin book!

7 years is how far back your credit is reported, yes...but a personal bankruptcy stays on for 10 years.

It will be more like 7 - 10 years before your credit would recover enough from a strategic default before you'd be able to get another mortgage.

We have considered it! I won't lie about that. We bought in 2005 -- height of the housing market free-for-all. We are now $175,000 underwater on our house. Our neighborhood is small -- 22 houses. Of those 22 homes, 14 homeowners have gone into foreclosure over the last 5 or 6 years. Most have walked away. Some had purchased the homes as investment properties and never really lived in them and just let them foreclose. But Virginia is a recourse state, so they could come back in several years and sue us for whatever the difference is between what we owed and what they sold it for at auction. My niece lives in North Carolina, which is a non-recourse state, and they walked away from their house 2 years ago. They have no regrets...but then they're young (in their 20's) with one young child and no pets. They just went into an apartment and are thrilled to be rid of the house....but they couldn't get the credit to buy a pack of gum. So they know that they won't be able to purchase anything on credit for years to come. As for us, we're currently going through the loan modification process to see if we can refinance at a lower interest rate (ours is high -- 6.5%). We just started the process and we've been told it will take 60-90 days until we know if we've been approved. We don't want to leave the house -- although we'd love to be rid of the albatross around our necks -- because we have 2 dogs and 2 cats and it would be very hard to find a rental home that would allow us to have that many pets -- not mention 4 kids and my husband works from home. We're stuck and just waiting for it all to run its course.

Seriously! Can you run Skype during the ultrasound and have them carry a live feed to those of us here at the WTM boards?? :D