I agree. If the school is willing to refund the deposit, it isn't binding. They are hoping it increases commitment level, but recognize some aren't going to follow through. You are ok to put down the deposits for the sake of housing priority and change your mind if her top choice comes through.

We used a combination of college confidential, google, and sites specific to career certifications. Once we found a college that met size, location, price, and major requirements, we researched more thoroughly at that Universities website.

I've loved having ds home for the week. In fact, I loved it so much I haven't been here all week :). Like others, he was pretty swamped. He was writing 4 papers and needed a topic for a final presentation. He just has one week of class after break and then finals, so in 2 weeks I'll have him back!

I'm late to the conversation, but ds's college was closed Wed-Fri. He doesn't have any classes on Tuesday, so he came home Monday and will be headed back tonight. Like ElegantLion though, it was a catch up week, not a week off. He has 4 papers due this coming week, one very major paper and 3 smaller ones. He spent all his time writing and revising and really only came out on Thanksgiving day to go to the ILs and some this weekend when my family was here. He's back in his room trying to get the final revision done on the big paper. He got one small one finished and another one started. The smaller papers aren't due until Friday, but without this week, he would have been in trouble.

We liked OYAN too. I also really liked Sharon Watson's middle school writing curriculum, Jump In and would have tried her high school material if we'd had time.

DD did all of M/L in a semester. I found a syllabus from a nearby public high school. They did the whole book for honors Biology, and skipped some chapters (I don't know which) for standard level bio. With ds, I skipped a few chapters, I believe the unit on ecology (he'd covered it in 7th grade life science). I don't remember if we skipped anything else.

Mine has wears henley shirts when it is cold and t-shirts when it is just cool. He switches to sleep shorts with or without t-shirt in the summer.

I gave up sugar in early September. I have only had it twice since then. I gave up artificial sweeteners for the first 30 days too. I let myself have a little now, but still keep it very limited. I am planning to have sugar at Thanksgiving, so I can't join you now, but I will say it has been really good for me and I highly encourage it!

My ds was almost 3 when he potty trained, but dd trained at 18 mos. She started asking to go and I let her. She never had a daytime accident - ever. We switched to underwear for days and a diaper at night. It was a long time before the night diaper was consistently dry, but she fully potty trained during the day pretty much immediately when she decided to. We did have a bit of an issue at church. She was in a class for kids 18-24 mos and she was the only one potty trained. The teachers looked horrified when I told them she was in panties, but she never had an accident and they soon chilled. I never played the take the kids to the bathroom every "x" minutes and reward them for sitting there or using it game. I took them to the potty when they said they needed to go and praised them for going for a little while, which soon faded to taking it for granted. Neither was ever inconsistent. I do think it is important to wait until they are ready, but I would say she is. Give it a shot!

Ds didn't meet with his advisor at all in planning for the second semester. Instead, we worked it out together. All the information about he needs and the course descriptions are available online. As registration got close, classes schedules were posted. We took the list of classes that he needed and wanted and ran it against what was available. Some classes weren't offered in the spring and we had to put them on hold until next fall for example. It took us a little time and he was pretty clueless to start, but we came up with a schedule he was very happy with. He registered online, signing up for the exact sections of each class that he wanted. Even dd's CC (dual enrollment) allowed her to do online registration this semester. She had to meet with an advisor and they signed her up in the past, but this time her advisor just told her the approval for over six hours is in the computer and she could register for any/all classes she wants. To our surprise (since she registers so late) she got into all the classes and sections she was trying for too.

This was us too. We used Miller Levine. I put Campbell C&C side by side with Miller Levine and my kids both liked the style and readability of M/L better. When we used it, we were able to get all the online resources free with purchase of the MacCaw book. We used lots of those resources, including the online text which my kids preferred to the paper text. I had access to the TM and tests/answers which were very helpful. M/L had a pretty layout and was easy to read and understand. It hit a nice middle ground between some of the lighter texts (too light) and some of the heavier texts that seemed to difficult for my kids to understand. It was a great fit here. I'm not sure if I can recommend it as strongly since those who purchased this year were unable to get the online resources though. They really were excellent.

Ds tried DIVE for ICP when I had health issues and needed a teacher to fill in (Pearson text). He hated it. Dd used DIVE for ICP, Biology, and Chemistry. We used Pearson texts with the first two and BJU for Chem, so I can't speak to using Apologia with it. The reason ds hated DIVE was that Dr. Shoreman is boring and the text didn't align well making it frustrating. The reasons dd did like DIVE was that Dr. Shoreman offers straight forward no-nonsense explanations. The questions for each lesson are clearly covered in the reading and or his video and she liked following his video (actually stills with audio) labs better than labs with a lot of written instruction. DIVE was designed to follow BJU and works best that way. DIVE with Apologia always requires outside reading as Apologia doesn't cover all the topics or enough depth on some topics. DIVE is easier (the tests) than BJU, but harder than Apoogia (ds used Apologia for Chem, so I've seen both). The labs with DIVE are MUCH higher level than Apologia. The way I always tell people to decide about DIVE is to watch the sample videos on the website. If you think it is dry and tortuous, DON'T buy it. Those videos are exactly like all the others!!! If your student relates well to the videos and thinks they would be helpful, it isn't that expensive and it does offer test and labs that are easy to implement.

Did he use PrepScholar and did it help? Feel free to PM. I'd love to get details.

None of the schools my kids at have wanted ACT writing scores so we didn't do it. Do the colleges he wants to attend require it? If not, they may not look at it. I had one college tell me that even kids take the writing, they have no place in their file for that score, so it is just discarded. Whether or not it will matter will depend completely if the individual college cares about that score or not.

I would list it as a single credit. The college dd just applied to required a credit of fine arts and it isn't the only college where I have seen that requirement. Take enough to make a credit then list the rest as extracurricular. So maybe 1 hr of orchestra credit on the transcript, then list instruments played, private lessons, etc. as an EC.

My oldest went through this. He woke hourly after having slept through the night for months. Removing dairy fixed it for him. I understand the exhaustion and how difficult the detective game is. I hope you find the cause soon!

I used Apologia's 2nd edition with my oldest who was not interested in science. It was a good fit and he got through it fairly painlessly. I think that course offered a nice balance of science, math, and understanding. There are plenty of practice problems and the tests are easy if the practice problems are done. It is easy to implement. If I were doing Chem with that same child now, I would look at Jay Wile's new Chemistry program before I bought the old Apologia though.

This is so me! I don't speak the gift language and I don't understand it. I hate to shop. I hate to think of presents. I don't receive presents for Christmas (or any other time). Everyone knows I'd prefer they spend their money on my kids or save it for themselves. I will buy my kids presents at Christmas. If it weren't for Amazon, I think I'd give up presents already and just give out money. I know. It's bad, but fortunately, gifts aren't the Love Language of anyone else in my family either. :leaving:

We plan to do this the next time we move. Our home is paid for, so we plan to buy a home with a mortgage, then pay it off when we sell our current home. Our home is on acreage and is two stories. We plan to move to a lower maintenance one story home to retire some day, but not yet. Right now, we're just focused on paying for college. :)

I don't think you are doing anything wrong. Contact the library help desk. It sounds like the audio file is incomplete or corrupted. I've never had one do that and I check out multiple audio books every week.

We don't eat marshmallows on sweet potatoes either. Please tell me more about your crumble topping! It sounds like a great addition to my Thanksgiving plans.

My first weighed almost 10lbs. I was a working mom. I worked until my second was born (just under 9 lbs). We weren't homeschoolers or didn't plan to be at that time either.

I would absolutely have let him go, but with these stipulations. We had a large pool in our yard growing up. We had pool parties all the time. All kids parents were asked if they could swim. If they said yes, they were swim tested and if they weren't good, they had to stay in the shallow end along with all the kids whose parents said no. Pools are dangerous, but your dh is more than capable of supervising pool time.

I was never organized enough to assign chores. I clean as I see the need or as the mood hits, just like I do everything else. I don't clean by a schedule, so it never made any sense to me to have the kids cleaning by a schedule. My kids help when asked. They had responsibility for their rooms and the bathroom they use most. Dd took on her own laundry. Ds had a ferret and the care of the ferret was all his. When ds left for college, I realized just how much he normally helped out. Suddenly I found myself doing a lot more housework. :lol: Both of my kids learned to clean everything I clean, do laundry, cook, and mow. I don't think the lack of assigned chores ever hurt them.

Most of dd's friends had big sweet 16 parties. Here you can get your driver's license on your 16th birthday, so maybe that is why it is still big. Dd didn't want a party. She just wanted her license. :) Ds did have a party for his 16th. It was the only birthday party he had after the children's parties at elementary ages. We're just not big celebration people. I make a cake for every birthday and they get a present or a few presents from us, but that is it.