I round following normal rounding rules.

Ds is a minimalist. Last year, move in was so easy. There were move in crews. We waited in line, unloaded his stuff at the curb, he went and got his keys and by the time we parked, everything was in his room. We helped him move furniture and unpack and it was done. This year, moving in as a sophomore, he will not get a move in crew, but we have a dolly and I don't expect it to be a big deal. Dd is not a minimalist. I feel like she is taking more than we can possibly get there in our SUV + her car. Her dorm is nice and the rooms are reasonably large. She has measured everything and knows exactly how it will all be arranged and that it will all fit. There will be move in crews when she moves in, but I'm still expecting it to be a challenge. I'll report back next weekend when they are both in and I am officially an empty-nester.

Between my 2 kids this semester we bought 10 books. Three of those came from the campus bookstore (all for dd). One was cheapest as a rental there; the other two were only available there :thumbdown: . All the others I bought/rented at Amazon. I rented a $170 book for $17 and a $200+ book for $36. I'm not familiar with Biblio either, but I have looked at all of the sources that Kelly suggested and used several of them.

That post was back in the old days before we had a like button. Today I got to like it :). At the time, I copied it into a file and checked it about once a year to make sure I wasn't missing anything. I still have that file on my computer after graduating both my kids. Our path didn't always follow the suggestions, but having that list to check against and make sure I had my bases covered was reassuring. Thanks again Lori. :)

We used some public school texts scattered throughout our homeschooling journey. Everyone looks for different things in a textbook, but really, there are textbooks to fit every personality type. Some are pretty and full of pictures. Some are simple and full of text. Some are conversational and some are very too the point. There is nothing wrong with finding a textbook you and your kids like and using it. Just it is compiled information, doesn't mean it isn't a legitimate source of information.

Almond milk changes texture when heated. It becomes thicker and slimy. Vanilla soy milk does much better if you aren't avoiding soy.

I used a computer program (database) that was custom designed for me. I did all my planning and tracking of hours, grades, etc there.

We used Dave Ramsey's course that is linked above. It was a simple and well laid out. It covers the things you wanted, but make sure you know who Dave is and that his style isn't abhorrent to you. He preaches debt free living, no credit cards, etc and he does it in a sarcastic mocking style. We are good with most of his teaching - discussing what we disagree with and we enjoy his sarcastic sense of humor, since our household runs on sarcastic humor. However, I always warn people; he isn't for everybody.

I can't imagine a college specifying a writing sample from history. That would be beyond unusual (but nothing is impossible). I wouldn't worry about it in your class this year. The odds aren't worth it.

I don't have any complaints about our ps calendar. I'd love it if school days were shorter in early elementary, but I realize that most families have 2 working parents and would not appreciate that at all. If it was put on a ballot, it would lose. As to how it impacted us, well, we followed the ps calendar roughly with any changes we wanted. Dd was a competitive gymnast and for years went to a gym that switched to morning practices during the ps's summer break. If she had been trying to do school and had practice 8:00-12:00 it would have been a nightmare. My kids liked being off when their friends were off anyway. So each year I took the ps calendar, made it my base and made the changes that fit us and went with it. I could never have given myself the option to take a day off whenever I felt like it. We would never have had school if I did that.

Congratulations! It is the best decision you'll ever make. Not the easiest, but the best! Welcome aboard!

Less than most people apparently. My kids occasionally did presentations to me. We were never part of a co-op. Dd took Public Speaking at the CC while in high school. Ds didn't take it until he got to college. It was fine.

No. They can't ask and he can't be fired because of it. It is covered under ADA - considered a disability.

Yes. That is exactly what I thought. She isn't saying she doesn't care if he amasses debt. She is saying she is confident he won't.

We are debt free and financially responsible. We have always lived within our means and taught our kids to do the same. However, few people can manage to buy a house without a loan. Not even Dave Ramsey teaches that you should. If you want a home loan someday, you need a credit history. There is nothing wrong with having and responsibly using a credit card. Just because Dave couldn't do it, doesn't mean no one else can. He works primarily with people who have had trouble handling money. Not everyone fits that bill. My kids both went through Dave's high school program. I'm not anti-Dave, I just recognize that one size doesn't fit all and the original post has no indications that money handling has ever been or will become a problem. There is nothing wrong with wanting to know how to help your child figure out credit. The vast majority of people need it at least once.

I don't think I have anything that hasn't already been listed, but here is my list: Pro's Scheduling Pursuing interests Controlling course content/difficulty Avoiding time wasting busy work - this was a big one! Family relationships - this was big too! Con's Fewer social opportunities Lots of work for mom Some subjects were more challenging without an expert in house Not having outside teachers to answer to/be inspired by (we did outsource some, but nothing that put them in contact with a teacher as much as ps high school would have) I would do it again in a heartbeat, each and every time as long as the child involved was willing. It was a lot of work here, but I enjoyed it, not every minute, but the whole thing. I don't think I'd have the relationship I have with either of my kids if they'd gone to ps for high school. They are my best friends. When they were in ps before we started homeschooling, they had already started to become strangers. If they'd stayed, I feel sure they would have been friendly strangers in my home, not the deeply connected friends we are today. Homeschooling high school was the best, but I will admit to the cons.

I'd purchase the book where ever I could get it cheapest (probably amazon) then I'd decide if I wanted to get the OM syllabus to use with it. I think their syllabus would probably give him appropriate boxes to check, rather than just read the book. You don't have to buy the book from them in order to buy their syllabus though.

I would not weight grades for a CC. I would be shocked to find they care about weighted GPA. You could call and ask. I did do custom transcripts for different schools. I added weighted GPA only to those who specifically wanted it. When I did weight grades, I weighted only classes that could clearly be shown to be college level work. So if they took a CLEP, an AP, DE or just worked out of college texts, the course was listed to reflect that (honors, AP, DE) and I weighted those grades to be worth 5 points for an A instead of 4. That's all I did. There are lots of weighting systems. I would not weight music or electives unless they were taken DE because I don't see how those would be shown to be above level since there is less of a standard scope and sequence to a high school level version of those topics. YMMV

I'm going to chime in and say that he sounds a lot like my ASD (2E) 19 yo too. Like others, mine generally enjoys people, always had friends, and is empathetic. He is also sometimes socially awkward: missing some cues, deals with all those pesky executive function issues of organization, planning and responsibility, and is dysgraphic so the handwriting remains abysmal even now. While his college was willing to give him any accommodation we asked for based on his ASD diagnosis (PDD-NOS at the age of 3), he doesn't use any. He did use extended time and a keyboard for standardized testing getting into college (AP & ACT). If I were setting up accommodations for him the only things I would ask for are extended time and access to a keyboard at all times, so those being the only suggested accommodations sounds perfectly normal for an ASD 17 yo to me. As far as, is there enough there to label him ASD. It is questionable, but certainly not unreasonable. When I meet an ASD teen, I know instantly. I recognize it. They are often functioning normally and most people never question them. Ds functions normally in most situations, but I feel the difference and so do others that know autism. Those that don't know autism, just see it as his slightly quirky personality. I wouldn't try to lose the label. Do with it what you will, but it can open doors for him. Colleges, job placement programs, and more can become options just because he has that diagnosis. On the other hand, no one need ever know he has it if he doesn't want them to. It is an ace up his sleeve so to speak. Most of us with college aged or young adult ASD kiddos will tell you that the issues don't go away and sometimes they even get worse at this age. The kids are supposed to take on new responsibilities and become independent and when our kids try, they often struggle. The evaluator may have been a quack. He may be off-base. But that eval does nothing to hurt your ds and may help him. Let it stand. Learn from it what you can and use it when it helps. That is all it is there for. Oh, and for the person who said start a thread on "normal teen or ASD", my ds would always have been labeled as normal from a written description. When I tried to describe his issues to friends, they always said, "My kids do that too." There weren't any behaviors that were unusual. It was the combination of behaviors and the degree to which he did them that combined to make him clearly ASD and to at times really mess with him and us.

You can do science and you sound like you really have it covered already. I just wanted to tell you (you probably already know) but when doing integrated science, make sure you list it that way on the transcript, not as general science. I have seen quite a few colleges that specify they won't take general science. The only difference I can think of is the name, but I thought I'd warn you to watch the name on your transcript.

I miss the old WTM classifieds terribly. I finished homeschooling in May and I've been gradually listing the stuff I need to clean out. I've sold a few things, but it is slow. I used to always sell everything fast. I always liked buying/selling at WTM because it felt like I was working with people I knew and trusted. I was always more nervous buying/selling anywhere else. Now there are fewer listings, fewer buyers and the whole system is slow and cumbersome. It was a huge loss from my perspective. It was changed when the format change happened. The new software had a classifieds section built in and they adopted it. I'm sure it seemed like a good idea at the time.

:grouphug: My youngest leaves two weeks from today. She is ready and I am happy for her. But honestly, I thought my oldest leaving was going to be the hardest on me. He is the one I worry about. Now I am realizing just how much my dd has become my confidant. I am worried about handling it when they are both gone. I have some plans, but not enough yet. I have been building up and getting ready for this, but I'm feeling it. I'm feeling it much more than I like.

Yep, Craig's list is your friend on this. We got each of our kids a fridge that fit their needs that way. Dd needed one with a separate freezer. She is vegetarian and wanted to be able to keep some frozen entrees in case dorm meals lacked good protein options for vegetarians. We got this one for dd. Ds has this one. For ds I found this one for $60.

It can matter where a teacher gets their degree. What matters most is that she gets her degree from a University near the place she wants to teach or that caters to the place she wants to teach. My parents were both school administrators (different districts). The state flagship and the Universities nearest them (they were in a large city) all contacted their districts and asked what they wanted students to know. They tailored programs around what the big districts wanted to see. It doesn't relate to high school, but for example, my State U. was teaching whole language reading at the time (it was THE thing back then). My mom's district wouldn't hire anyone that hadn't learned how to teach phonics in addition to whole language. So the state flagship made sure the teachers got a class in teaching reading that included phonics instruction. My state U didn't. My friends couldn't be hired by my mom's district which was a rapidly growing district hiring more teachers than any other in the state. So all that to say, make sure that the school she goes to is teaching her to teach in the way that the market she wants to teach in prefers.

My kids hardly watch movies. They watch Youtube on their computers. Dd watches some Netflix, but not a ton.