With her mental disability, I would be direct. Gentle. Kind. Direct. "I'm sorry, my life is very full right now. I just don't room for more friends and cannot get together with you." I have a lot of experience with ASD children and adults. Direct is always best. They need the direct answer to understand. Giver her a gentle direct answer. I would do that before I unfriended and see if it takes care of it. If not, I would unfriend. I do have many FB friends who are not friends. Most were friends in my past, but some were more of casual acquaintances from my past. I am very quick to unfollow them, so none of their posts show up in my newsfeed. I've done this with most of dh's extended family even. In fact of my 200+ friends there are probably only about 20 that show up in my newsfeed :lol: . However, your newsfeed isn't the issue it is PMs. I'd be direct, then I'd unfriend if necessary.

I got a copy of each and looked at them side by side. Campbell was dense. There were fewer pictures, pullouts, etc to break up the text. The content was similar, but arranged quite differently. You are right, Campbell is more concise, less conversational and not as "pretty". For us, prettier and lighter reading (even if longer) was a huge win. But it sounds like your preference fits the style of Campbell much better.

I think your finances would play a big role in this decision. His future major, the transfer policy of his future college, and what the AA he gets all make a difference on if that AA is actually of any value. It can actually be very difficult to go into college with all your gen ed done and try to finish all the classes for your major. Normally gen ed classes are easier and they balance the harder upper level classes. There are many programs that include more than 4 semesters of sequenced classes that would keep him from actually finishing in 2 years once he got there. The early enrollment is nice, but at our CC, the classes offered that way are not what dd wanted. Taking classes where you have the freedom to choose is a much better deal, getting exactly what he wants and needs. However, our CC doesn't have problems with not being able to get into classes. Even as the last to register, dd has gotten the exact section of every class she has wanted. So many kids register late at our CC, it just isn't an issue. I just don't know enough about your CC system or his goals to know what would work. If finances are tight and the budget for college is an issue, do the early college. You can save the money for the 2-3 years it will take to finish. If the finances aren't a big issue, I'd avoid the high school hassles and limitations of early college and go DE.

This is exactly what I was thinking when I heard the "it is ok to get a lower grade because it is weighted and doesn't hurt the GPA". Ds's college uses weighted grades and even told me to weight his grades to be competitive for scholarships. I'm pretty sure all the other schools my kids applied to (4 total, not a huge sample) only used unweighted grades for both admissions and scholarships. Those challenging classes CAN hurt!

No, I don't think younger students taking college courses get a pass on showing what they can do. If they aren't ready to excel at a college level, don't enroll them. We have a gifted program in the area which puts 6th graders into a high school, taking high school classes. They are told in the beginning that they are graded as high schoolers and it will effect their high school GPA and college entrances. If they aren't ready, don't do it. I think the same thing goes with homeschoolers taking college classes. They don't have to be perfect, but they should demonstrate that the education they had up to that point had them ready for that class and that class will have them ready for the next one at the University where they want to attend. From my perspective - I would totally have been ok with my kids getting some B's when they were 15 & 16. I would have understood, but I don't think the U's they applied to would have cut them any breaks.

If anyone needs to prove to themselves this isn't true, just go to the College Board and look at the list of acceptances. Nearly every one has merit aid and many, many just had mommy grades and ACT/SAT scores to base on.

All the colleges my kids applied to believed my mommy grades (or at least treated us as if they believed them). If you work to mastery, they get an A. I never graded homework. I graded tests and papers. If papers weren't to my standards, they were redone. My kids had pretty much all A's, but then they had all A's in their dual enrollment and online classes too. If you don't give grades, you can't get scholarships for which GPA is part of the calculation. Don't stress over grades, but give them. Have a plan and give them consistently. It doesn't have to be every little assignment. You decide what receives a grade. I don't actually understand why homeschoolers oppose grades so. It really isn't a big deal unless you make it one. If you want your kids to go to college with the maximum available scholarships, give grades. They can go to college without grades. They can get scholarships without grades. But the truth is if you don't give grades, you are closing doors for them because you consider grades an inconvenience. Grades are on you. Do them. Do them however you want to, but do them. :)

That is pretty standard is high school texts. While there are a lot of pages, it isn't terribly dense. For standard level biology we did about 85% of the book. For honors level, we did the whole thing. I found a local high school that had syllabi to use the book both ways and took my cue from them.

Wow, I'm surprised to see so many people who treat email as a letter. I don't and never have, nor do I read many emails from people who do. Greetings are very rare in email and seem strange to me, however, dd always uses one. I do think an email should be signed. Email addresses don't always make the senders name obvious. In my book, "Thanks" and a signature is always appropriate if you have asked for something. I am very offended by emails with poor spelling and grammar, but I do not expect an email to be a formal letter.

Both my kids did 2 full years of US history. We used college texts that were divided just as you listed. No college they applied to batted an eye.

Every school dh, ds, dd and I have attended used this scale. I used it for our homeschool too. I was an adult before I knew there were others, but I never considered using any other.

I like Cathy Duffy's book for the school style, teaching styles, and student types. I always find I am a mesh and don't strongly learn toward any one style, but I still enjoy them.

Our school room was our family room in the basement. The central feature was a couch with a huge white board over it. At one end of the couch there is a set of shelves commonly referred to as my "teacher shelves". At the other end of the couch was a stack of cubes, one per child where their current books were stored. There is a large wooden table that was used for science and another set of shelves for science supplies. There was one more set of shelves for books. We had desks for both kids and those actually ended up in the next room. My kids weren't fans of using desks. They worked in their rooms or on the couch. We loved our school room.

Dd decided to graduate a year early too. She decided much later in the game than yours. We did make 8th grade 9th, but most of her work was high school level. We were combining with ds for some classes and he was in 10th. We counted the Algebra and the ICP class she did with a 9th grade book. The only thing I just couldn't count was English. She took College composition during the summer at the CC and took outside classes for English the year before and this year, so all of them were verifiable credits. I did have to list 2 credits of English in one year, but since they were both outside classes and her transcript from the CC shows one done in the summer, it is pretty clear how that worked and that it worked. So all that to say extra classes compressed into a shorter period and even some summer school classes can work together to make this possible.

Well let's see, we had one school lose a transcript - twice. Another school lost an ACT score and it took getting the date and batch number from the ACT board to get it located. Different schools, different years, different kids, so I was the only one that was overly stressed :).

I had never thought of that. I had thought of what a pain it would be to transfer. How frustrating it would be because not all your credits would go with you. How sad it would be to lose community. I had not thought about long term how do you get a transcript. He could ned it to finish, he could need it for grad school, he could need it for a job... Wow. I wonder if they make some sort of provision? Ds's college announced some layoffs, cut two degrees and add four others. They are struggling financially right now, but they have been around a long time and I think the odds of them weathering this are high. Your question makes me feel nervous all over again though.

After reading all the other comments, I had to add two myself. First, ds is 2E, gifted with multiple LDs, anxiety, etc. He is at a small LAC because it is the only place he would have a chance at being successful. A state U would have been a disaster for him. We pay more for his education because it is the only way he can get one. I totally relate to those who have said similar things. Second, I have to agree to the suggestion to pay off the mortgage if at all possible. We bought our house with a 15 yr mortgage and paid it off early. Freeing up that money made it easier to save for college, it also makes it easier to pay for college. We don't have free dual credit here and we paid for both kids to take DE classes while in high school and will pay some more for ds's later year(s) of college. We also pay books and expenses out of pocket. None of that has added up to what our mortgage payments used to be. I realize this isn't an option for everyone, but when it is possible, it does really help.

The student does have to handle their own time management. So, they get a section, they work on it until they say they are done. Once it is closed and they open the next section, no going back.

Wow, that is depressing. Regentrude, thanks for the run-down. My sister lives in IL and her oldest graduated a year ago and her youngest is doing occasional college and mostly military. I had totally missed the collapse of their public university system. I do feel fortunate when I look at public education in our state/area. Our local CC is growing by leaps and bounds. It is regional, not a county thing like I have seen others mention. They have added several satellite campuses and struggle to grow fast enough to keep up with demands. Our state U's have the same budget struggles that any do, but are all reasonably healthy. Ds's LAC did some layoffs this year due to lower enrollment for a couple of years in a row. I'm hoping they can restructure in a way to continue to be successful. I really love the school for ds.

Remember that it is YOUR state that make these decision. In our state most State Universities are under $10,000/year for tuition and fees with some under $7,000 even. Some states have starting price tags over $25,000. We have a lot of out of state students at our universities because it is often cheaper for students to pay out of state tuition here, than in state tuition in their own state. This thread made me look and our EFC is closer to 25% of gross. Since all they offer us for costs above EFC is loans and we aren't doing student loan debt, it really doesn't mean anything at all here though.

I'll take a shot. We too started saving when the kids were little, so there is a college fund for each of them. Ds chose a small private college with a price tag beyond what the college savings will cover (tuition 25,000). He got an excellent academic scholarship and the college fund with pay most of the rest with some of his/our money cast in the last year. Dd chose a very inexpensive State U (tuition under $7,000) and received a smaller scholarship. Her college fund should hold for four years. The only problem with this discussion being on the college board is that the only way we could have afforded college was by starting to prepare 18 years ago. We did not start college funds because we had a lot of money and needed a tax shelter for it :lol: . We started college funds because we didn't have much money and knew that we wanted our kids to go to college. Dh had student loan debt even after going to an inexpensive State U with academic scholarships and Pell grants. He got no help from his parents (they just didn't have it to give). We didn't want our kids to be in that situation, so after paying off his loans, we started saving for them.

I think this is one of the hardest lines to walk. I'll start with the way I define overload. Overload in my mind is a load that does not allow students to pursue passions, or a load that makes them feel constantly stressed. It is NOT universal. Every child has a different point where they reach overload. Some kids thrive on a full schedule, some wilt under it. To define overload for your child and your family, you have to look at who your child is and what they want. As far as advising a child on classes to take, I think you look at what they are taking now. Are they floating? Is it easy? Are they already challenged? Are they already overloaded? Figure out where they are, then add or subtract to get where you/they decide they should be. I think auditing an AP class would be a waste of time. If you want to avoid the pressure, home study the subject at the level your child is capable of, whether that is high school level, college level, or somewhere in between. My suggestion on the subject is to increase load carefully until you find the level that challenges your student, but where they are still happy!

This is a common misconception. Although it may be true of the College Board, they really look for below level test scores, not just areas of extreme disparity in test scores, ds took the PLAN and scored high enough for early enrollment in our local state U. Then applied for and received accommodations for the ACT. I have talked to other parents whose kids took the ACT without accommodations, scored in the mid 20s and still received accommodations when they applied. I do think it is better to apply before the student starts taking the tests if possible. Having a high test score out there without accommodations certainly doesn't strengthen your application for accommodations, but it doesn't negate it either.

Once you have accommodations approved, they are good for all tests taken through the ACT board.