8 -- I would call the NLE and ask them, but my guess is that a student can only take one NLE in a year. The Latin 3 is more grammar-based, where the Latin 3/4 Prose & Poetry exams have more emphasis on the reading, and the passages are harder. I believe that the plain Latin 3 is the easiest exam of those three. I called them one year with a question, and all they basically told me was to get the test for my son for the class he was in. He ended up taking Latin 3 one year (when he was using Henle 2 because the syllabus seemed the best match for the course). Then he did Latin 4 prose the next year, and Latin 4 poetry the year after that since he was not technically in a "Latin 5" class. The Latin 3/4 poetry exam is one exam, but the student indicates when he/she takes it that they are either in Latin 3 poetry or Latin 4 poetry, and the scores are reported separately for these and the cut-offs for medals are often different. The same is true for Latin 3/4 prose. HTH, Brenda

My son completed Latin 3 & 4 with Lukeion after doing the lower levels of Latin with Henle at home with me. He had finished up through Henle 2 before starting with Lukeion. The transition to Lukeion's Latin 3 was rough. His grammar background from Henle was excellent, but his vocabulary was a bit lacking, and he struggled over the next two years in Latin 3 & 4 to improve his vocabulary. He took the AP exam last May and did very well. He actually thought that Latin 4 was a bit easier than Latin 3 -- that could have been that he had spent his early years learning from Henle, which is based on Caesar's Gallic War. Since the AP exam is now half Caesar, the vocabulary and sentence structure he learned in Henle made the Caesar part of the AP course pretty straight forward. As the others have said, the Lukeion Latin 3 & 4 courses are hard and very time consuming. That said, there is no way I could have gotten my son to do the amount of work he did for Amy if I had continued to teach him at home myself. He enjoyed the interaction of the live class and having classmates to compete with. He also benefited greatly from the writing assignments because several of his peers in the Lukeion classes were truly excellent writers, and being able to read excellent pieces really helped him to make his own writing more concise and logical. So if you have a strong student who is willing to devote the time to Latin, I highly recommend the Lukeion courses. Brenda

Same here. Happy New Year, Everyone! Brenda

Sue, UT Dallas (www.utdallas.edu) is not the same school as University of Dallas (www.udallas.edu). U of D is a private, Catholic, liberal arts school with a strong classical core program, whereas UT Dallas is a Texas state school. Brenda

This was my thought. I wouldn't think too much of it as long as the second interview was in a public place. Best wishes to her! Brenda

This is what we did as well, but we started in 8th grade with CP -- which both my ds and I loved. He went on to use Spectrum for Chem in 9th and Miller/Levine for Bio in 10th grade. He used Giancoli in 11th with the PA Homeschoolers AP Physics B course. I agree with Ruth that it would be a rare student who could go through Giancoli on his/her own, even in 11th grade (ds was also taking Calc at the same time). When my son used the Giancoli book, I was his co-learner, as Ruth described. We went through the text together and worked the examples, then he did the assigned problems, and I only assisted if he needed help. He ended up doing well in the course and on the AP exam, and he learned a ton. We both liked Giancoli. I also used it with my older son in a similar fashion. I've never seen the Knight book for comparison, though. I would definitely suggest having a 9th grader start with CP. Brenda

I just included the one-page transcript with the mid-year grades filled in, and then I included mention of an award my son had won since the original app went in. I also included course descriptions for the two second-semester CC courses my son would be taking because when the original app went in, we didn't know what he was taking in the spring at the CC. I didn't include any of the course descriptions that were in the original submission. HTH, Brenda

I used Hewitt's Lightning Lit for one of my students for a year. We both liked it a lot for the schedule, literature selections, comprehension questions, and writing assignment ideas. It doesn't contain writing instruction, but the assignment ideas worked for us. Brenda

My oldest made it home -- not from college (he's done) -- but from an out-of-state job. We are enjoying spending some time with him over the holidays before he's got to go back to the working world. Although his job is far away, it is working out very well. It seems like a good company, and a very good fit for his interests and his education. Hard to believe that he's an actual working, tax-paying adult now -- but we are so proud of him! There is light at the end of that tunnel called homeschooling, then college.... I hope everyone is having a great holiday! We are looking forward to a Blessed Christmas Mass tomorrow night to celebrate Emmanuel -- God is with us. Brenda

Sue, My inclination is to say that you will need to submit the mid-year report even though your son has decided on a school. I'm guessing that it's one of those "check the box" things that even his chosen school will want to look at to make sure that he isn't slacking off big time. Brenda

I just looked at my older son's transcript for the mid-year report. What I did was in the "credit" column, I replaced the 1 or 0.5 for a full or half-credit with "IP" for in-progress, and I put his mid-semester grade in the grade column. Then I put a note below that said IP = in-progress, grade listed is mid-semester grade. I figured that they already had the full transcript that said how many credits the course was worth (submitted with regular application), and I didn't have any extra room to put a SEM1 & SEM2 grade. I agree that the colleges will want to see some kind of grade for the full-year courses. Brenda (Now you've reminded me that I need to start working on son #2's mid-year report, sigh......)

Sorry to hear it. It's their loss, really. It makes me wonder just what kind of students they are looking for... Your dd sounds so accomplished in a variety of areas. Best wishes to her with the March decisions. Brenda

RIT (Rochester, NY) has a variety of technical as well as art-related majors. They also have a coop program, which is a good way for a student to get a head start on the job search. You might look at their offerings and see if anything looks interesting. Brenda

I agree.... Hang in there. Last summer, we had a several week wait for ds's AP scores, which thankfully did eventually materialize way after most kids got theirs. It was not a fun time, so I commiserate. Brenda

Yes, this is what my son did. One and done on the SAT in fall of junior year. We were all so relieved because he had two AP exams to prepare for last spring and didn't want to have to worry about the SAT any more. I hope it works out for you if you choose to go this route. Brenda

Yes, if he gets a NM semifinalist score on the PSAT in your state, he will need to take the SAT to "verify" that score. If he is on the borderline for NM, you might have him study like crazy this summer for the SAT & PSAT, and then take the SAT on the October test date and the PSAT a week or two later. Brenda

Rose-Hulman?

Are you looking for schools in a particular area of the country? Brenda

First of all, I agree that it would help us to recommend options if we knew which state/region you are in. Second, what year is your dd? Is she a senior looking for colleges now? How are you evaluating the nearby LAC programs, and what makes you think they are weak? If you're just looking at rankings, then these may not tell the entire story. Have you contacted specific departments and asked to meet with faculty in the area(s) she is considering? Since these schools are nearby, you should be able to arrange a visit there and a few meetings. If you can meet with the folks there, I'd definitely ask questions about research possibilities and where their graduates go. My second is also a very competitive student, but we are really focusing on the best college "fit" for him. After going through the process with my oldest, I have really become less impressed with the schools' reputations and rankings and more interested in the specific experience my student will have in his major department. You might also put some work into investigating a few schools that are "a few states away", especially if the student is junior or younger. Kids change and mature a lot during high school, and while you may think she's not ready to go a few states away now, that may change later. At least if she puts in a few applications to places that are a bit further away, she'll have more choices come time to choose. I also second the other peoples' suggestions about honors colleges are larger schools. Best wishes finding that really good fit. Brenda

This is what my oldest did. His PSAT score and practice ACT scores indicated that the ACT was his "better" test, so that is where he focused his study. He never took the SAT. My younger one is very different than his brother. For him, the SAT proved to be the better test, so he never took the ACT. I know that some people suggest having a student take both, but I find that to be expensive and time-consuming. You can get prep books out of the library for free and give your dc sample tests to find out where their strengths lie. JM2Cents, Brenda

Myra, Here is one option: http://www.udallas.edu/travel/undergradsummerinrome/index.html This is a bit longer than two weeks, but the students earn 6 credits by completing two courses. Brenda

I would agree with 8 that you should think about whether the all on-line format is working for your son. I'd consider dropping the AP history and just doing it at home. Or use the online course's syllabus as a guide and modify it to make it work for your son. You can issue your own grade for the course and decide in the spring if there would be any benefit to him taking the AP exam. The same probably goes for Latin unless the AP exam there would exempt him out of foreign language later. If that's the case, you might remind him of this benefit and see if it helps him to summon his reserves to deal with the course. One other thing -- you may have seen the other person's post about their college child's exhaustion. Your son might be facing this as well. My hs senior has also been really tired lately, and I think it's just that he needs a break. Fortunately, his 7:15am CC chem class twice a week only has two weeks left after Thanksgiving. He's a small bit behind in some of his other courses, but he'll have a couple weeks in both December and January without the CC class where he can rest and catch up. Maybe once your son's college classes are done for the semester, he'll be able to rest a bit more and have a better outlook. I will also throw out one more thing. It could be that his difficulties are just due to stress related to the upcoming changes in his life. If he happens to be a homebody and/or very close to siblings, friends, etc., he might just be stressing inside because he fears what the future will bring. I've seen this general anxiety in my kids in their senior year. What you might tell him is that he should make the best effort he can to finish his current courses and see his college applications through, and you know he is stressed, so you and your husband would support him if he wanted to take a gap year. If he can't finish the courses this year, he'll have to go through all of them again, which he probably won't want to do. You could give him that "way out" of a possible gap year but suggest to him that making the final decision on that should wait until the spring so you both can see how he feels. You mention having issues with communication. Can you and dh take him out to a restaurant for dinner and the three of you discuss some of the options in a calm manner. You might have to sit down with dh before hand and help him understand the options so he can take a more front-line role in presenting them. Also, just tell the kid how much you both love him and want to help him through. I'm guessing that he's probably a really good kid that is going through a tough time, so some affirmation might help. Best wishes to all of you, and you will be in my prayers, Brenda

Thanks Sue, it's fixed in my son's account now, too. Brenda

Janice, Yes -- thanks for sharing! I agree with your thoughts completely. Teaching writing takes time and lots and lots of patience -- but the end result is a life-long skill learned and learned well. I hope your son enters his paper into a competition and wins. The year my oldest took Eng Comp at the CC, they had a research paper writing contest through the library, and he won honorable mention (which was essentially 3rd place). For my English-hating, engineer kid, this was a real accomplishment, and it didn't look too shabby on his college applications either. Brenda

I agree. Scouts has been huge for my younger ds, and the OA, and Catholic scouting programs. It's almost like he's been a part of three different ECs through all of this. This son has also been able to attend a local tutorial center and learn literature from a man who has a true passion for the subject. This, coupled with the peers he has met there, have been the highlight of his high school time. My older one also participated in scouts, but not as heavily. He had a lot of free time and did amazing things with computers and networking. He had enough time to complete what I think was a pretty deep, well-rounded curriculum, and act as the only IT guy for his grandfather's small business (a role which he maintained through college and to this day). What a gift for him to spend so much time with grandpa, not to mention learning about the real problems of the working world -- like when you get a call that the computer just crashed and grandpa desperately needs the data contained within. So, each of my sons has taken a different path -- one best suited to him, and I think that's the beauty of homeschooling. You need to find the right balance of academic depth, social time, and ECs for each particular kid. Some are more driven and will take on a ton of things. Others relish in more free time to pursue their own projects. We've found that it's OK, and I would also assert imperative, that you prioritize the child's subjects in high school. High school is a time where you assess the student's strengths and weaknesses and deliberately choose which subjects to do an "OK" job with and which ones need to be pursued to excellence. We've found there just isn't time to do an "excellent" job on every academic subject and still have time for friends and outside activities, which are so very important for teens. I found that high school was a time when each of my boys became the family "expert" in something. We didn't really push it, but it just happened that way. They showed an interest and we encouraged time for self-study, or in the case of the older one, helped him purchase some computer hardware that would let him investigate things. When you encourage this, I think it's such a good step towards adulthood, when you the parents, come to the child and ask their advice on something, and you both know it's because they really are the expert. HTH, Brenda