Great question! We wrestled with this question extensively when my older two were in junior high and we were contemplating what approach we would take to high school. We read and researched a LOT about the how's and why's of college. Perhaps the most influential article we read about college (by the fellow who ran "The Elijah COmpany") basically said that many of the students who go to college shouldn't. He gave a percentage indicating the percentage he thought should go to college -- and it was much much lower than the percentage that does! His most intriguing comment to us, though, was this -- ONLY send your kids to college if either they are interested in a profession (doctor. lawyer, accountant, engineer, etc.) that requires a degree OR if they are intellectually curious people. (We decided that our kids were intellectually curious and so should go, but his criteria for who should attend college has always stayed with me.....)

That seems so reasonable! What a cool solution! We live in a retirement-intensive area, and our neighborhood is full of large houses populated by one or two retirees. My kids sometimes wonder why they want the space! (I guess they hear me grumble about housework!)

This is so neat hearing what other folks do! Two sub-parts of English that I would consider dropping if I were you -- vocab and grammar. We try REALLY hard to be done with those before high school so we can focus on the literature/writing part of English. Vocab will be worked on naturally through literature study and analysis; grammar is best worked on in high school by reading great literature and working on writing. JMHO!

Mine is really easy -- Virginia public schools do not allow homeschoolers any access to anything. Period. It took a state law to get certain public schools to even give homeschoolers the PSAT! (I'm from Massachusetts, where at least certain districts allow part-time enrollment, so I just don't understand Virginia's stance.....)

A quick comment -- the difference between 14yo boys and 18yo boys is the difference between a candle and a spotlight. They mature SO much in those years. They have lots of growing up to do -- and time will give them vision, maturity, self-confidence, poise, passion, and drive. They need your help to grow into men, but that growth process can't necessarily be hurried. Plan, worry, and think ahead, but don't rush the maturing. It will happen when you least expect it!

Usually certain AP scores are "worth" six credits, while others are worth three. For example, for most of the colleges my kids looked at: English Language -- 6 credits English Lit- 6 chemistry & biology -- 6 (or 8) each physics B -- 3 US history & European history -- 6 each Music theory & psychology -- 3 each US Govt & Comp Govt -- 3 each US Govt is a nice exam -- many public schools consider it a sophomore course, and not too much is expected in the essays, but it does cover a fair amount of material and can (at certain colleges) fulfill a political science requirement. It will be my younger kids' first AP course.

I was born, bred, and lived in New England until 5 years ago, when we moved to Virginia. There are SO many more homeschoolers in Virginia than in Massachusetts!

You don't necessarily have to choose between interesting learning experiences, extra-curricular involvement, and academics. Our older two kids were very driven, and they did it all -- voluntarily. (I would never ever pressure a kid to do all of what my older two kids did in high school!) Your kids will let you know their passions as they mature. Are they really intellectual? Are they passionate about photography? Do they want to do various competitions? They will speak up about what THEY want to do with their time! Give them choices. Give them options. Present them with LOTS of possibilities, and keep your ears open so you can hear their ideas. 24 hours per day is actually a lot of time. Give them lots of freedom to decide how to spend it. Set standards for your schoolwork but be flexible -- if better options come along, let your kids do them instead! And keep on talking about what your kids want out of high school, out of post-high school, out of life.....Encourage them to pursue their dreams.....

I am wondering which colleges don't accept any AP exams. I have heard the rumor that some don't, but I have yet to bump into any college that doesn't give credit for any AP exams. (Some colleges only give credit for certain exams and require 5's on the exams, but you can still get credit for a fair number.....) Seriously, I would love to know the names of some colleges that don't give ANY AP credit! (Cc's usually don't, but for 4-year colleges.....) Webb Institute doesn't I believe certain military academies may not Some engineering schools are pretty fussy Are there any others? Our story -- My dd took three AP's her senior year and they were well worth the time and test prep. 1) AP English Literature, which fulfilled two of the three required English lit classes (since she is a chemistry/art history major, she has no desire totake extra English classes!) 2) AP physics B, which got her three extra credits. She originally thought that the credits would be useless, but she is now going for a BA/BS double degree, and she needs those three credits very much! 3) AP US Govt, which fulfilled one of the two required history/political science courses. Without these credits, she could not even consider doing the double degree, so at least for us taking AP exams senior year was VERY advantageous! This is just our experience, but before you decide not to bother with any AP exams senior year, you might want to check with the colleges your child is possibly interested in. Also, admissions people always emphasize that they want to see seniors in high school taking challenging classes. If your child is doing a bunch of AP work sophomore and junior years and then none senior year the colleges may wonder.....

There is an outlet in Williamsburg, VA. (About 20 minutes away from me -- my dh wishes it was further away.....)

The American cell phones are not useable in Europe. A friend loaned dd her European cell phone, but, like you, we are concerned with the actual cost of using it. We are having her put enough money on it that she can always dial us or the police in an emergency, but we are expecting the cell phone only to be used in an emergency.

Will you have a laptop with you? If so (assuming of course that you have internet access through the hotel) use Skype. It's free if the connection is computer-to-computer. (Go to skype.com for more info) I'm not talking from experience, by the way. This piece of information is based only on recommendations by others.....our dd1 is on the plane to the Netherlands RIGHT NOW, and we are expecting Skype to be our main mode of communication with her for the next 12 weeks. I'll let you know if it doesn't work!

I use a wide mix of reading levels with my kids. For read-alouds, we juggle several books at once.....Usually we're doing a fact-filled read-aloud of some historical nature, often just a few pages from this or that history book. These pages would be DRY reading if not done aloud. Then we do a "fascinating" history book -- biography (right now we're reading Twain's Joan of Arc), historical fiction, even related fantasy (The Once and future King). And we often supplement with a few pages from something else that I think would add background. Then for my own kids' assigned reading, we again do a mixture -- sometimes it's a few pages from Kingfisher History of the World (really dry), or a biography or another historical fiction book that I don't want to take the time to read aloud. I often assign background reading that is a few grade levels below them. For example, I might want a kid to read an overview of the Crusades, but I don't want him to spend a week reading the book -- this is background and will be fleshed out by our reading of Ivanhoe and the relevant pages in Kingfisher and some readings about King Richard etc. So I will have the kid read a quick overview book from the "kid" section fo the library that is several grades too easy. Kid gets background with minimum of time. I think my elementary and middle-school-age kids learn best by doing a mixture of reading levels -- easy to provide overviews, at grade level to expect comprehension, and above grade level to excite and challenge. (One other advantage of "easy" overview books -- the kids get to become acquainted with an abundance of topics that they otherwise might not see!) My kids enjoy having all kinds of books going at once -- hard ones to dip into and easy ones to enjoy and sprint through.

I feel badly for the kid who wrote this piece -- his APUSH course sounds like a nighmare! But not all AP courses are like this! My kids have done six AP courses, and NONE of them have been particularly test-driven. My kids have learned a lOT in their AP classes, but that's good! Their learning consisted mostly of learning how to approach material, with only some memory work. They have honed their learning skills, their thinking skills, their writing skills, their analytical skills..... My kids have had fantastic experiences doing AP work -- the courses have been in many ways the culmination of their high school course work. Child #1 did five AP courses (including APUSH). Child #2 did six. We'll see with child #3 and child #4, but I expect they will do even more than six!

We tend to finish texts. But that means that dd2 is done with three subjects while she is only 3/4 done with several others. I'm struggling with motivation this spring, so we may finish the texts next fall.

I functionally stopped school about five weeks ago -- about the time dd2 was diagnosed with diabetes. Well, life is pretty much back to "normal" (whatever "normal" is), but school isn't...... The garden is planted.... The Stanford testing group is organized and ready to go for next week..... The house is sort of clean..... Ds1 is working through his AP exams..... Meals are happening, with only one take-out pizza night..... But school isn't. I have a PILE of 8th grade writing assignments to go through, and they just sit there. I wave "hi" to them occasionally when I go by. So what do I do when my "get up and go" has got up and went? Declare it summer and head to the pool?

Okay -- do any other tooth fairies here KEEP the teeth? I did, but when we moved about 5 years ago the moving man obviously thought we were cannibalistic or something -- you should have seen his face when he saw the pile of teeth in a ceramic widgit on a shelf. He looked pretty shaken! :D So I threw them all out -- and since my kids are older now only have 5 or 6 teeth..... I have a friend who has ALL the teeth all her kids have ever lost -- sorted by child in ceramic containers. (At least her containers are covered so the moving men won't freak out!)

Considering that my older kids are going into chemistry/arthistory/economics/math, we shouldn't even be looking at the history and English courses at potential colleges, right? To an amazing degree, my kids chose what colleges to apply to based on the English and history courses and requirements, even though neither of them is going to take more than a token class in either area. Basically, those areas seem to be the "canary in the coal mine" that indicate how PC / liberal / politicized a college is.

My son ended up listing "Western Civ 1600-1800" for his freshman year and then "US HIstory 1400 - present" for his sophomore year. Obviously there is a SIGNIFICANT amount of overlap -- but no college seemed to care. You might plan on your son taking the US history SAT-II afterwards just to add additional "proof" that he learned a lot from the two years!

This ranking looks at some interesting aspects of college. It's nice to see an alternate to the USNWR one. And hey, it recognizes a lot of the strengths of the college my kids are going to! :001_smile:

I love the one someone has from Winnie the Pooh -- some days it doesn't matter whether you can spell Tuesday correctly or not.

I take the VERY lazy approach -- I have the teacher's manual, and at the begiining of the TM there is a wonderful section called "assignment guide." The assignment guide has 160 days' worth of assignments done at three levels -- minimum course, average course, and maximum course. We decided that our kids were, of course, maximum course kinds of kids :D so I do my math assignments each week by copying out the relevant assignments from the TM maximum course assignments onto my kids' personal assignment sheets. Short, sweet, and simple. I admire you tremendously for using Dolciani without the TM, Jane! Of course, the TM only has the answers, not the complete solutions, so if a kid gets stuck I need to experience the "joy" of solving the problem myself. It's good for the brain! I still think you are brave, Jane!

Congrats to him! That's wonderful! Parenting seems to have an abundance of happy/sad moments.....Happy at their growing up to be such awesome kids, sad that they are leaving..... :001_smile: :ack2:

Dinner? Huh? I guess I do need to think about that, don't I? :D I guess I'll go to the freezer and figure out which type of meat I should have taken out of the freezer last night! Thanks for the reminder! I'm going through a particularly disorganized period in my life -- last night we had take-out paizza. Sad!

Oh Carmen -- what a WONDERFUL list! Can you come over to my house and give a pep talk to my son? Seriously, that is an amazingly complete list! I have two completely opposite thoughts on disorganized daydreaming kids -- 1) Work hard / Play hard. I try to teach my kids to focus on school so they can get it done efficiently and have more time for what they choose to do. Being in lala land is time wasted, and I try to get them to see that. 2) Time in lala land is central to some people's being. It is the way they think. My dh gets his eureka ideas, his way-out-of-the-box-I-finally-figured-out-how-to-do-this idea, while doing "nothing". He will take a 30 minute shower and will come out with a great big grin having solved something that has been bugging him for a month or more. He will just be sitting seemingly vegetating on the sofa and he will figure out an approach to a problem at work. If my dh didn't have time to do "nothing" he would not be the neat interesting person he is.