Beth, that was stunning! I'm a big believer in Suzuki myself; I've seen and heard marvelous results with the method. There was a young lady in St. Louis about 10 years ago who asked to be homeschooled because she wanted to major in music--also violin. Being homeschooled gave her the flexibility she needed for the rigorous practice time she needed. She was also a National Merit finalist. Congratulations to you both! You've done a wonderful job. :hurray:

The main attraction to these boards is that I'm still a big believer in homeschooling, even though we don't homeschool anymore. I really believe that homeschooling can give children an optimum education. Of course, we all have to make different decisions for our children, depending upon the circumstances, and have to trust that those are the right decisions. I also enjoy some friendships formed while being a more active member of this board.

I didn't vote in the poll, because the Midwest wasn't included; I wasn't sure where to place myself on it. :) Having said that, I think our cc also does well at some courses and programs, and just fair at others. I have a bachelor's degree, but am returning to school for a post-bac. certificate; I have plenty of lit. background, but in a foreign language. I just finished my first college American Lit. course, and I would say the instructor was quite good, and we read a lot of literature and wrote every single week. The one disappointment was not with the readings, but some of the other students. There were at least two who were pursuing certification to teach English who did not appear to have good analytical or grammatical skills. Although the school through which I'm taking my education courses is fairly highly ranked, my advisor has actually encouraged me to take several of my lit. courses through our local cc. She's very familiar with it, since she comes from this area. The credits will all transfer. Some programs are excellent, i.e., the nursing program. I've also spoken with several people who have completed their first two years of school here, and they have gone on to pursue their degrees at some very good schools.

That's interesting; I never even knew that he penned an autobiography. Mark Twain went through quite a lot in his lifetime. I'll pass this along to my dh; Huckleberry Finn is one of his all-time favorite books. Thanks for sharing this!

particularly for pre-med. I believe the University of Missouri-Kansas City has a 6 year pre-med program in which the student directly enters the pre-med program. Pre-med is the student's major, and the student starts directly working on that major. The students graduate with their medical degree in 6 years, instead of taking the traditional 4-year route doing pre-med work and then the 4 years of medical school. I agree with the points being made here re: student debt and loans. At the school in which I'm currently enrolled, one of my fellow students is a young man in his early 20s. He is finishing his degree in history/economics, along with a certification to teach the subject in high school. Since he hails from a completely different area of the country, I asked him what brought him to this school--perhaps a scholarship? He told me, No--he just liked the school, and told me that his current student loan debt is approximately $200,000. It was all I could do to keep from dropping my jaw in amazement. There is a return-of-investment which must be taken into consideration before amassing that kind of debt. Personally, there's no way I would advise a student to get into that kind of debt, especially for a field like teaching.

No rational person excuses slavery. I have to agree with hillfarm here. The Civil War was not nearly as cut-and-dried as history books would lead us to believe. Stephen Douglas was a leading senator from the free State of Illinois in the 1850s, and the author of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill of 1874. Supposedly the intent of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill was to allow for popular sovereignty in the new territories, so that the people of each territory could decide whether or not to permit slavery. He openly took a "neutral" position on the extension of slavery and said, "I don't care whether slavery is voted up or down." In reality, although he was a Northerner, he was known to own land and slaves in Mississippi. The intent of the bill was not nearly as neutral as Douglas would have led his fellow citizens to believe. I don't for one minute believe every Northerner was against slavery and that every Southerner was a Simon Legree.

The vehicles we didn't have success with were Chevrolet Impalas. It seemed like as soon as the warranty period was over, we started having major problems with the cars. I believe the website I was thinking of might be Carfax--or something like that. Now, as to the Suburban, we have not personally owned a Suburban, but I know my parents owned one and literally drove it until it completely wore it. It lasted for years and years. HTH!

I can't remember the name of the website, but if you get the VIN number, there's a way to do a search using the VIN number to see if the vehicle has had any prior accidents and, I think, if the mileage has been changed at all. The Suburban is a nice vehicle for families, but overall our family has not had great success with GM or Chevrolet products. My parents owned a Suburban for years, however, and it was very well-built. I'm afraid I'm not much help, but I am almost certain about the first tip---check the VIN number.

I cannot imagine your loss, Kari. There are just no right words to express, except that I am deeply sorry, and I will be praying for you and your family. :grouphug:

My girls took dance lessons for a while. I really didn't like some of the costumes which they wore. We did switch to another dance studio for just one year; the dress code there was much more modest. If I were to have my girls do dance all over again, I would definitely check out the dress code, the music, and the type of dance. Honestly, dance lessons were just not our "thing." Now two of them take karate lessons, and that has been much more beneficial for our family.

I think TWTM had a book which they recommended for ages 0-5, but it was mostly ideas for enrichment and things to do. I think lots of lots of read-alouds are good, plus puzzles, crayons, blocks, and other simple toys. I agree with you---I don't think kids need a formal curriculum at that age. They will learn plenty just by playing.

My short answer is--no, I wash all white/lighter clothes together, with Tide and Oxy-Clean, with very warm water, and I usually run the wash cycle through twice. I just don't have time to do laundry any other way. There are all kinds of things that can transfer germs/bacteria from one piece of clothing to the next. For example, how many of us disinfect our laundry baskets between uses? Technically speaking, each load of dirty clothes that is sitting in a laundry basket transfers its germs to the basket. I do the best I can to protect my family from germs, etc. I just do not have time to worry about anything beyond that. :)

I would definitely recommend the latest version of the MLA Handbook, which is currently in its 7th edition. We have the 6th edition, and ours was only purchased a few years ago. Ouch! I think it's good for students to know how to properly cite resources, but in a pinch, the latest versions of Microsoft Word have "Insert Citation" and "Insert Bibliography" tabs which are helpful. You can choose the format you want (i.e., MLA style) and the tool will automatically make the citations for you. However, I haven't quite fully figured out its features, so I keep the 6th edition by my computer!

First of all, I wouldn't hesitate to e-mail Cindy Marsch with your questions. I've found that she's very good about answering her e-mail and might help you navigate your way through the website better so that you can determine which of her courses, if any, will meet your needs. IIRC, the Great Books writing class coincides best with Gileskirk's curriculum, and I would ask her specifically about which books they cover. Gileskirk follows a classical model, but it is not exactly like TOG or Omnibus or WEM. I think they read and write about one book per month. We did both the Beginning and Intermediate levels of her progymnasmata series. At the time, both of my girls were really too young to go into the Advanced level of the progym. She sends you an e-mail packet, and you follow along with that, one lesson at a time. Some of the lessons take a week to complete. Your child will do one of the assignments, e-mail it to her for corrections, and then do a re-write, based upon her corrections. It's very important that you, as the parent, read and follow along with the assignment as well. Also, if you do one of the writing tutorials (i.e., the progym.), be prepared to schedule in writing on a daily basis. We also did some of her evaluations with specific books which we read, after we had finished the two progym. series. We were doing Omnibus II at the time, and I had her evaluate several of their writing exercises which I had assigned to them, based on different themes in the Omnibus book. I did not care for Omnibus's writing assignments myself. :) To me, they introduced the progym. out of order and not very methodically; many of their assignments assume a level of mastery with the progym. that many students simply do not have. So, I felt free to "tweak" them as I saw fit, and Cindy worked with that. HTH! If you have any further questions, please ask, or e-mail Cindy. She's really very nice!

Your daughter has a lovely soprano voice, Janice! The only input I would add would be perhaps the beginning scene, where the camera is coming closer to your daughter and the boy who is wearing a hood, would be to "pan" in more smoothly, if possible. I'm not familiar with the song, but I assume the hooded figure is supposed to be completely stoic and unmoving, and not seeing his face adds to the mystery and the sense of complete rejection--correct? Anyway, overall I thought it was very nicely done! How long has your daughter been taking voice lessons?

Another question came up this week in regards to graduation announcements. I received a graduation announcement from a friend that I graduated with from high school. I've not spoken to her nor exchanged letters for at least 10 years (no hard feelings; just busyness and different lives). What would be the right way to handle this situation? Would you send a card with money or a gift card, or just a graduation card congratulating the new graduate? I will also be sending out announcements. Do you send out announcements to a wide variety of friends and relatives, or only close family members and friends? If I do the former, is there a polite way to state that no gift is necessary--that you just wanted to announce the graduation of your ds or dd? Personally, I don't want to send out announcements that could in any way be construed as a request for gifts. Any thoughts or suggestions on the matter? I thought this might be the right forum to address this subject.

I don't know if there's any specific benefit attached to this practice, but yes, we sent dd's scores to the colleges she was interested in while she was a junior. I don't think it negatively impacted her acceptance into any particular colleges, but of course that may vary with the college and the program in which your dc is interested.

Those are excellent suggestions, Leanna, especially about the tutoring. I did not know that; for some reason I thought the student would be paid by the hour (kind of like being kept on retainer), regardless of who might show up in the tutoring center. I definitely need to ask about this. I think she might make a good academic peer coach, especially in the area of English. That's her strong suit. I'm calling one school today to inquire about this. Thank you!

We're still not certain about the car issue. It depends partly on how things play out this summer as far as jobs are concerned, as well as her own maturity. It would also depend on which school she ultimately decides upon. That decision will be made here in very short order, however! :) I know already that she's independent enough that she doesn't want to come home every weekend, which is a good thing. As far as jobs over the school year, we were going to check on campus. Tutoring was mentioned as a possibility; she's already done quite a bit of peer tutoring in English this year, so that might be right up her alley. Very good suggestions, everyone!

Only very briefly. We used Chalkdust for geometry, and dd was having particular difficulty with one chapter. I bought a version of Ask Dr. Callahan in a bit of a panic, hoping that a different method of instruction, particularly a different text (Jacob's) would help. My very elementary and brief review would be to say that you would do better with Chalkdust, in my opinion. The DVD instructor, Dana Moseley, is an excellent math teacher and much clearer. Now, the Jacobs text, which is used by Dr. Callahan, is very good and has good explanations. But, the instructor himself uses a whiteboard, and for some reason that is more difficult to see than the regular chalkboard, which Mr. Moseley uses. In addition, Dr. Callahan (perhaps unthinkingly) tends to stand in front of his equations at times, whereas Dana Moseley is always very careful to step aside. Dana Moseley's teaching and explanations are clearer. Just my .02 worth. I only used Dr. Callahan for a very brief period of time. Someone who used those DVDs longer could give you a better review, perhaps.

So, credit card companies allow that for students? If that's the case, that does ease the problem a bit. I don't anticipate this daughter being irresponsible with the use of a credit card. She hardly spends any money, anyway, and her savings account is in decent shape. Thanks, Nan!

Thank you, everyone! These are excellent suggestions. We have been giving dd plenty of driving instruction, but she still needs more time on the freeway and with parallel parking. I had thought about a checking account and possibly a credit card, in case of emergencies. This is not the type of kid who would use a credit card for foolish expenditures. However, she needs a job first! I also wonder if she could even get a credit card on the basis of a part-time job? I don't know. I recently gave them a lecture on this topic. Just this week I have received two e-mail alerts from Washington University (where I take my education courses) regarding criminal activity. Early Monday morning, I believe, at around 1:00 a.m., a young woman was walking on campus and was pulled into a dark corner and raped. The attacker had a knife. Just one or two days later, two young women were walking at 2:00 a.m. along the perimeter of the campus and were robbed; this time, the attacker had a gun. In no way am I excusing the attacks, but the school has a very good reputation for safety and they do have an escort service. These gals should have used the escort service. By no means should any young woman be walking around campus at night! I've copied and pasted all of these suggestions to a MS Word document and will read through them carefully. Thank you all so much! :)

As a side note, the Norton Anthology is now in its 7th edition. Volumes A and B cover American literature through Emily Dickinson; Volumes C, D and E cover American literature from Dickinson until now.

A number of us have children (adults!? Yikes!) who are graduating this year and transitioning to college. I have a dd who is graduating this May. This will be a big summer for us, getting ready for school. Can anyone--especially those who have BTDT--give us "newbies" good advice as to summer preparations for that first year of college? For example, these are some of my thoughts: 1. Get dd licensed to drive - big question about whether or not she should have a vehicle that first year of college. 2. Dd needs to get a job this summer and earn some money. 3. Dd will also need to contact the school to work out some part-time opportunities there. One option may be tutoring other students. 4. Choose the dorm room. Check out the dorm room for what is needed? Schools usually provide a list. Can anyone here list absolute essentials for your first-year student's dorm room? 5. Should the student meet the roommate ahead of time? Any other advice? I've had other thoughts on this topic, but for some reason they've escaped me now. I'd certainly welcome advice from you seasoned moms out there! :)

I think so, too! Just placed my order. :)