I bet its common core related. There is a facebook group for people who are very against common core. Christian Homeschool Oasis maybe? Not everyone on there is so gung ho against it and I joined before I realized. I was called a Nazi by one of the admins for defending various publishers of so called aligned common core curriculums and then promptly banned for commenting on a thread where the admins were critizing parents sending their kids to Harvard or any public colleges. I pointed out Harvard was not a public univeraity but was told it was even worse with the liberals coming out of there. One admin went so far as tell another parent on there that her (the other parent) needed to pray more about God's will for her child because his dream of attending an Ivy League school and becoming a lawyer could not be God's will. She was very against college at all, but if you MUST attend college make sure it is a Christian one and not one run by those liberals. I got the feeling only places like Pensacola and BJU or even more conservative colleges would be acceptable. These are people that will not use Usbourne books because their website has a place where they list the areas where their books align with the CC standards. Note that Usbourne did not change single a word in a single book but merely points out where they already aligned. I posted a letter from the CEO that explains all this and they also sell to schools and libraries so need to provide the information. She actually said they shouldn't even list it on their website, it means they support it and they should have just closed down instead. Now granted this admin was way over the top and I have heard she is no longer an admin. But she had the majority of that group agreeing with her. Now these were the people on the extreme end of hate for CC. But its out there and its a reason a bookstore may say they have a moral objection to Singapore. Anything even mentioning where they align with CC, even without changing a single word, gets a bad name in that world. Even the Sonlight group I was on has some (not all by any means, maybe around 25%) that skip the Usbourne books that are part of the curriculum for this reason.

Pell is a different animal. Pell cannot be reduced even if given a full scholarship that puts a student over COA. Pell is the only federal financial aid that has this benefit. COA includes tuition, fees, room and board and an average amount for transportation and personal costs. Each college has their own policies on how this is handled. In general, loans are reduced first and then institutional aid. Some do it when close to the full COA, some reduce when close to the direct costs. At the college where I worked we only reduced institutional aid if outside scholarships, federal and state grants put the student over COA. When Federal or State funds are involved, federal and state regulations must be followed. If it is pure institutional and outside scholarships, have to go by those policies. I can't speak to individual cases as I don't know all the details of an aid package or the school policies at the time. But that is generally how it is done. Us financial aid people are really and truly trying to do all that we can to help the most number of students. We are parents worried about college for our kids too. We aren't out to get you :) I am on my phone so can't give the exact page but go to the IFAP website (ifap.ed.gov) click on Publications and the Student Aid Handbook. You will probably want the Awarding and Packaging volume. The handbook has everything you could ever want to know about financial aid. Great reading if you have trouble sleeping.

I can probably help if you still need it. My mind thinks in Excel ;) I am will be back later tonight.

We attended a similar school this past year for my DS. He was 5 when we started and has just turned 6. I started regretting the year long contract we signed within the first 6 weeks. He didn't love it and I got tired of fighting him to go so we are riding out our contract and haven't been in weeks. In a few years if he wants to try it again, we will find a different school. His was more exercise class with a few moves thrown in. My nephews attend an excellent school that focuses on character and really training them. We live too far away to go to that one but that's what I was expecting. If you can find another school, I would move. Its too much of a commitment to not be happy there or feel like you are getting out of it what you want.

DS is 6 and this is his 3rd year on the summer league swim team. He has talked for the past year about wanting to join the year around team. For his age group, practice is twice a week and meets are not required but offered if he wants to do one. He LOVES his summer team and looks forward to it all year long, as do I. We decided last year not to do it as twice a week seemed like too much at his age and I wanted him to be able to try other things. We tried martial arts and it was way more involvement than I realized and he didn't love it. Our hesitation is he is still so young and don't want him burned out. He loves to swim and we don't want to ruin that. Pros for joining the team are it would really help him improve the technique of his strokes. Its not cheap but martial arts was more expensive. What age did you start? Pros and cons? Thoughts?

I usually just politely decline when offered an alcoholic beverage. Usually nothing more is said but occasionally someone will say I notice that you never drink. Why is that? and I will mention I don't like the taste. Which then leads into oh but you should try ___, you can't even taste the alcohol in it! Here, try it! I understand people are just trying to be helpful but seriously drop it. I can guarantee I will taste it and if by some miracle I can't, why would I spend that much money on something that tastes like juice when I can get regular juice for a fraction of the price? I just smile and politely refuse again. My ILs have pressured me on this in the past. They are not alcoholics by a long shot, very much have a glass of wine with dinner types. But MIL told me I needed to drink so that our (future at that point) kids don't turn into alcoholics since they need to see it being used responsibly. I can see that kids MAY need to see it being used responsibly but I don't think you forcing me to drink is the way to go about it. My parents didn't drink or have alcohol in the house when I was growing up and yet neither myself nor my siblings are alcoholics. I have also been told that it makes someone uncomfortable if they are drinking and you aren't so the polite thing to do is drink as well. Nope, its not my responsibility to make you feel comfortable by drinking. No one ever says, oh lets not drink because it makes ___ uncomfortable so why the pressure on me to drink? Usually people will accept a polite no thank you and let it go. But those that don't drop it it are seriously rude. So sorry you were put in that position OP. ETA: On my phone so correcting typos

Our district has an AIG magnet school and part of the process involves potential students being evaluated. I put his name in the lottery nefore I had all the details but after learning more, we feel sure we won't send him. They sent a permission form home for us to give permission for him to be given an aptitude test. Since we know he won't be attending the school I was going to just tell them to take his name off the list. However, it might also be an opportunity for him to be tested and get more information for the future. He is currently in Kindergarten. I know that he is bright but don't necessarily believe he is gifted. WWYD? Just trying to gather pros and cons.

We belong to a pool and its $500. Worth every. single. penny. I hate hot weather so things like going to the park are torture. I love that I have somewhere to go every day where ds can burn crazy amounts of energy and play with other kids. Plus he adores swim team. Its been a wonderful experience for us. Do it!!

Ah insurance. I have been offered more hours at my job (work from home part time job offering full time hours) but if I get any more hours they are required to offer me insurance. If I am eligible for insurance elsewhere, my husbands insurance will drop me. The difference in premiums versus rise in pay due to more hours means I would lose money. So I stay at my part time hours just for the insurance. The author would probably call me lazy. But I don't see the point of working more hours and bringing home less money. There are many factors that play into the decisions people make every day.

I used to work at a trade school that was also a for profit. Generally I don't recommend for profit colleges but this one was different. It fit a small niche and has been around for over 50 years. The current owners have owned it for at least 30 and they all have years and years of experience in the field. Tuition is reasonable and has not gone up in the last 5 years. They have an internship requirement before graduation and that leads to full time employment after graduation many times. They are upfront and honest on job prospects in the field and potential salary. Quite honestly, they are more honest and upfront on things than the community college where I worked. The community college has a program in the same field but graduates of that program do not have the field experience or induatry contacts that the for profit school grads have. So not all for profits are the same. I think there are questions you need to ask and you need to do your research.

Yes loved to read back then and still love to read. I always, always, always carry a book with me. Dh does the same thing. Someone upthread mentioned reading at meals. Yes! I remember going to a friend's house and they DIDN'T read at every meal. Once a week everyone was allowed to read during the meal. This horrified me as I read at all meals, and at all times. My sisters would pull pranks on me like moving my bookmark if I left my book in their vicinity. My parents would take away my book and send me outside as punishment. I read in school when I finished my work, in the car, in the bathroom, pretty much all the time. I still love to read and am working on finding more ways to make time for it. We are doing all we can to make ds a reader too, time will tell I guess. He is just 5 and I told him the other day that once reading stops being so much work, he will enjoy it more. He does love for us to read aloud to him.

As I mentioned upthread, I worked at a large community college-the largest in the state. Specifically I worked in financial aid. The admissions office, registrar office and financial aid office would team up every year and visit every public high school in the city. The admission counselors visited every senior English class and then we were set up in the library with computers. Students came in and "applied" to the school, got admitted and registered for classes. I gave them information about what fiancial aid would cover, answered questions, handed out paper FAFSAs. Also helped them complete the fafsa if they had the information and promoted our FAFSA day where we would help anyone complete a FAFSA no matter their intended school. We went to rich schools and poor schools. The information was there for anyone that wanted it. It didn't cost the public schools anything and the only real cost to the college was a bit of gas money. Something like this I feel would be more meaningful than a piece of paper /box to check off to graduate. Those that had other plans didn't apply. Those that had not considered college a possibilty learned their options. Win for everyonem

I could see adding a lecture requirement or a post graduation planning type of class. A class on applying for college, non college options and financial counseling like how to budget, etc would be great. But applying to college and bringing the acceptance letter is overkill. I have worked at many colleges, including a large CC and the amount of work this would add to the college is staggering. And I don't believe just filling out an application will do that much good for the students.

We are currently afterschooling ds and have loved using Singapore. I am ready to buy the next set but not sure what I need. I see textbook, workbook, teacher guides, home instructor guide and tests. Not sure what I need to purchase. Help! DS loves math as do I. I do not need step by step instruction for teaching him the concepts so would probably not use the teacher guides unless its not possible to figure out what they are asking for without it. Thanks!

Not a history lover (but loving it more now than I used to), don't like seafood and the first time I went it was so awfully, terribly hot and humid lol. I think the combo of feeling sick from the humidty plus smell of seafood pushed me over the edge. I am born and bred in NC so I am used to heat and humidity but August in Charleston is something else entirely... Honestly though, I don't know why I don't love it. I want to love it, everyone I know just goes on and on about how amazing it is and I'm over there like eh it was ok. :D. Definately some beautiful parts but I am much more of a mountain person.

I don't love Charleston, probably the only person in the world that doesn't just rave about it. But even I will admit that every bit is charming. Beautiful things to see there. Read a Pat Conroy book before you go - South of Broad is basically a love letter to Charleston. Enjoy your trip!

Soup? I send soup in a thermos with ds to school many days and he loves it. I make a big batch and freeze them in 8 oz mason jars. Thaw a jar and pop in microwave before school. Pour hot water in thermos for 10 minutes to warm up thermos, dump out hot water and pour in the hot soup. It is still warm at lunch. Healthy as I make it from scratch. He loves it and you can do a million different types of soup.

I have never heard that either. They very much take the stance of here is a buffet. Take and use as works for your family.

I adore Sonlight and Bookshark. We ended up sending ds to a public magnet for K and I cried because we wouldn't be doing them. So we use them as a booklist for our bedtime read alouds. So far we have been able to get the books we have read from the library. DS has LOVED them and I feel like it has helped him in so many ways. I agree with PP that Core A is an overview of history. It gives them a taste. Its just an introduction, not meant to be painful or forced. Even the older cores resell REALLY well. The facebook group is amazing and the most supportive homeschool facebook group I have seen. We used P4/5 and loved all the books except Uncle Wiggly. We both hated it. I may try it again now that he is older but its one of those books you love or hate. I had no problem tweaking the IG as needed. Took what we liked, left the rest. I plan to continue to use the books from both Sonlight and Bookshark as bedtime stories. Books I would have never considered reading to him are now long time friends. Its like everything. You have to go with what works for your family. We have friends that use and love MFW but that would be a disaster for my son. Other friends use Abeka and the worksheets would make life miserable around here. Sonlight/Bookshark are a good fit for us for now. If we were homeschooling we would do AAR and Singapore math and probably something else for LA.

My son is in a PS magnet in Kindergarten. He started K already knowing letter sounds and sounding out CVC words. We were just about 1/3 way through AAR Level 1 at home. He starts school and is assessed at level A. When I sent her a message and included a page of the AAR reader he had just finished she said that is phonics which is fine but he needs to learn the other methods. He didn't use his finger to point to each word, missed 2 words in the book and didn't use the pictures to figure out the unknown words. So Level A. Ridiculous. He is now Level F but only because he is bright and figured out how they wanted him to read (looking at the pictures) and I told her he was reading Go Dog Go months ago and that is a Level F book. I don't think she believed me but had him read a section of a Level F book at their middle of the year assessments. If I had not pushed her, I think she would not have tested him on a Level F book. At the end of Kindergarten they are supposed to be at Level D and I get the feeling she would have only tested up to that point. They do sight words and a letter sound a week. It seems to be very heavy on context clues. I feel like they pay lip service to phonics. But so far it seems to be just using phonics to figure out the beginning sound and then using the pictures or context clue to figure out the rest of the word. Or sight words-his sight word list included words like It and At. It. makes. me. nuts. That is why I am continuing to do AAR at home and will continue to do so. The nightly books he brings home I make sure he understands why make is make for instance (silent e). My mom was commenting that she was taught whole language. She is a great reader but when she comes to a word she doesn't know, she can't sound it out. She has no idea what sounds individual letters make. ETA: One of his Level C books was about the immune system. It had words that in no way could have been sounded out at Kindergarten age. And yet Go Dog Go is Level F. Because it relies less on pictures and more words that can be sounded out and sight words. That seems to be backwards to me.

I always thought we would homeschool. DS attended a fantastic half day preschool through our church. Tons of play, time with other kids, structure. He loved it and I did too. They did some academics but no worksheets and they were woven into the play activities. I did quite a bit of afterschooling with him. We planned to homeschool for Kindergarten. Then he got into a brand new STEAM magnet school for Kindergarten and we decided to give it a try. He loved preschool so much, maybe he would love K. It's... OK. He doesn't love it. I hate the way public schools teach reading and have a real problem with the amount of writing that is expected. It breaks my heart that he doesn't love Kindergaten. He is doing well academically and has made some friends. He enjoys some of the extras they get to do that are not found in other public schools. I do quite a bit of afterschooling. AAR, Singapore math, Sonlight/Bookshark books as bedtime read alouds, SOTW read aloud, lots of science books. We don't do each thing every day but I have a system in place so each get done a couple of times a week. I plan to really work on things this summer. I feel like the only thing he has truly made progress in this year is writing. I don't like the lack of communication between his teacher and me- I like a lot of details on what they are doing and working on and get almost none. We go back and forth on homeschooling next year. High energy, only child with older, not high energy parents ;) I have no doubts about my ability to teach him, after all I am doing that now. But if we pull him to homeschool and it doesn't work out, he can't get back into his current school. The local public school is not an option and the charter school is worse with hours of homework every night, every weekend starting in K. Private school is out as we can't afford it even with financial aid. Long winded I know. All that to say we are not homeschooling and that makes me sad. Not sure about next year but will probably try to stay at his current school another year and see if its better.

He is in Kindergarten. I ask what he did in school and have to pull details out. I do of course but its not as simple as we learned x, y and z today. I hear we played a game. Oh? What game? We played dice. And try to decipher what they were working on from the scant details he provides. As for drawing and writing at home, no not unless forced. I don't think it is unreasonable or controlling or being a buttinsky to want to see ANY completed work. He will mention an art project they did in art class. This kid hates art so if he is excited about something he did, I want to see it! That's just being an interested parent wanting to see his art project- especially when they are few and far between. I have gotten less than 5 things he has done all year. 3 of those were from the first day of school. No emails about this is what we covered, no letters, no nothing. Parent/ teacher conferences are not scheduled unless specifically requested by the parent. I will request one soon. We are considering if we will pull him next year, send to private school or keep him in the same school. Part of that evaluation should be knowing more detail about what he is doing. Getting completed work before the end of the year is not unreasonable. Those that say OP or I are being over the top, would you really be ok with not getting a single piece of work yoir child has done all year? Not one?

OP I have a similar issue with my ds (Kindergaten) school in that I have gotten a total of 3 things he has done in class sent home. I asked and his teacher said "No I don't send work they completed home. I keep it for his portfolio". It makes me NUTS. There is a distinct feel imho of don't worry your pretty little head about what we are doing in school. We will tell you of there are problems at the end of the year. I am not talking about incomplete work he needs to finish, I mean work he completed at school. Drawings, writings, art projects. Nothing gets sent home. How am I supposed to know what they are covering in math if I don't see any work? How about writing? I am told they draw a picture and write about it everyday but I have only seen 1 and that was at Parent/ Teacher Conference. I know nothing about what he is learning about science or social studies if anything at all. So no advice OP just understanding where you are coming from.

I really like Shannon Hale. Princess Academy is excellent and not what you think by the title. I believe its also a Newberry Honor book. Miri, the main character lives in a very poor mountain village. The prince has to choose someone from their village to marry-the reasons why are complicated. Miri and other girls her age are sent to Princess Academy where they learn to read (no one in the village knows) and then learn things like Philosophy, Economics, Persuasion and Debate. They use their new knowledge to turn things around for their village. Miri is focused on learning, not how to get the Prince to fall in love with her.

The FAFSA looks at AGI, taxes paid, income earned, and exemptions from your taxes. If there is a difference, you can request a professional judgement. This means that the college financial aid office will request documents on your special circumstances and may adjust your EFC accordingly. It is up to each office on how they handle such requests. Feel free to message me with more details if you wish. I have worked in FA offices at various types of schools for 12 years and may be able to give you an idea if someone would take your circumstance into consideration.