My dd2 (12) was just diagnosed 3 weeks ago. I would love any tips on online groups -- I don't have that many specific medical questions I can ask the doctor, but I am practically overwhelmed by little micro-questions. I think just talking with others in the same boat and hearing their questions, issues, and solutions would really help me. Thank you!

You will survive! I promise! High school looks so overwhelming, but just take it one year at a time! Keep on researching... Keep on talking to people who have been there and done that... Keep on talking with your child about his plans and goals... Keep on asking questions... Keep on praying.... As an encouragement, I had NO idea what I was doing when my oldest entered 9th grade....and with God's help and a lot of research and a lot of input from my daughter on where she wanted to end up, we did figure things out. It was a definite "flying by the seat of our pants" operation with lots of mid-course corrections, but it worked!

Thanks for posting the link, readwithem. I really appreciated what the article said about gas prices. If ds1 gets his job of choice, it will be 17 miles from home. (34 miles per day.....170 miles per week) Dh and I will pay for the gas so ds1 can get the benefit of his earnings, but at $3.50 - $4 per gallon we are subsidizing a fair amount! (At least it's an interesting job as a costumed interpreter!) Is anybody else starting to really watch the mileage they rack up?

We didn't designate ANY coursework as honors. I stressed that the courses did a great job preparing the kids for their AP courses and for their SAT-II tests, but I figured that the honors designation is a relative one, so we didn't use it at all. The colleges all seemed quite happy to NOT have the honors designation. We did provide LOTS of course descriptions, so the college folks could see how challenging the coursework was.

My older two actually liked The Read Badge of Courage, but they read it their junior year of high school, when they were 17. I would just put it aside right now. War of the Worlds sounds much better for a 12yo!

We too use Dolciani's Pre-algebra, and we love it. I am on my fourth time through it, and each time I end up so impressed with how thorough and challenging it is. At the same time, it explains the material well enough that my kids self-teach using it -- for the most part I'm just the grader. About once a month or so I actually answer a question!

Wow -- I have never heard of a prof curving DOWNWARDS! I attended an engineering school, and I remember one course (that was graded on a bellcurve) where the class average was below 50. The standard deviation was so big that a student could have an average below 0 and still get a D!!!!! I would definitely follow Nan's advice and not take the grade passively. Your student should talk with the prof if he isn't happy with it, and then the dept head and then..... Best wishes -- Please let us know how this works out!

Osmosis Mom -- Has your student heard from all the schools? Has she decided where she will go yet? Or are you still gnawing your nails?

Thank you so much for all the suggestions. I have had a fun morning listening to clips from an amazing number of albums. (Homeschooing? Kids? Ummm.....well......some mornings are more productive than others!)

I agree with Anne and Laura -- whatever the kids do during the summer, it should be 'meaningful" and not just whatever minimum wage job is available. That's why my son hasn't had a summer job yet -- he was busy doing Civil Air Patrol stuff and volunteering and couldn't fit a summer job into his schedule! Caveats -- 1) HOWEVER, not all folks can afford to be fussy about what their kids do for the summer. For some folks, the money is needed, period. 2) ALSO, money is nice to have around, no matter what the job is that provides it. My above post mentioned that dd is going to have a dream summer doing an internship that really is a gift from God. When she had to make the decision to commit to the internship, we didn't know how much we would be spending on ds1, who is entering college next year. We couldn't promise her any financial support whatsoever. If she hadn't had the money in the bank, she could not have accepted this internship. I am SO glad that she had the moiney in the bank so she could accept this internship! After seeing how the money in her bank account has enabled her to take advantage of opportunities that otherwise might not have been possible, we are going to be more serious about making sure that ds2 and dd2 go off to college with a fair amount of money in the bank -- even if they have to work at McD's to do it!

Early on in our homeschooling journey I heard that most relatives are won over by the products of homeschooling -- the kids. Well -- we waited and waited. My kids are great, but after 14 years of hs'ing my relatives are still not won over. When our awesome kids and their neat achievements didn't help, we thought maybe college acceptances and great SAT scores would help -- nope! Eventually we just shrugged our shoulders and gave up on winning over the relatives. Some people just don't like the idea of homeschooling, period. All we can do is do what God has called us to do.

I just received a generous gift coupon and would like to use it to give my Christian music collection new life -- I haven't bought any in nearly a decade. I like fairly mellow acoustic music -- the last album I bought was a Michael Card one. I would really appreciate any suggestions -- I just went poking around on Amazon and listened to a bunch of clips. I am now seriously overwhelmed by my choices! Thank you!

My kids entirely self-schedule starting around 6th grade. So they know what comes next -- what they want to do next! If a few days pass and the child is having problems getting work done, I'll intervene and set some priorities, but otherwise it's up to them when to practice, when to do math, when to do chores, when to read the comics, when to do writing, etc. We do have som rhythm to the day -- read-aloud for the younger ones happens right after lunch, I work exclusively with my youngest near the beginning of the day, we go over multiple-kid-together-work after read-aloud, etc. I have always been so impressed by the moms I know who stick to their managers-of-the-home schedule!

Two quick thoughts -- 1) I just have to give another point-of-view -- if you have to drop one, keep the violin! With the violin your dd can join orchestras, chamber groups, etc. The violin is such a social instrument! The piano is always a lone instrument. (I was the violininst; my brother was the pianist, and he always envied me all of my groups and how much fun I had playing with other people. He said that the piano is always a solo instrument, even when played with other people.) 2) Keep both as long as your dd gets enjoyment out of both. She will tell you when she has had it. And if you think she is overdoing it, encourage her to focus on one instrument seriously and keep the other as a "fun" instrument. I was VERY active musically when in high school, and a huge percentage of the musicians I hung around with had two instruments, but they were not equally serious about both. One was the instrument they focused on, and one was more for fun -- so that they could be in the school band or so they could play with wiblings or whatever.

Dd1, who is finishing up her freshman year at college, will be doing an internship in Europe in her area of interest -- I am so thrilled for her. She is having to pay for a fair amount of the cost. Even with generous grants and stipends, the cost of living there plus the exchange rate means that the experience is not cheap. She is funding out of her savings -- she has worked for four summers as a Civil War camp counselor and as a seamstress in a costume shop. She is REALLY appreciating having a healthy bank account! Ds1 is going to have a more normal summer working outside in the Tidewater heat as a living history interpreter. Neat job, but miserable working conditions. This will be his first paying job, though he has done LOTS of volunteer work.

I am considering doing some virtual labs next year. I didn't do any labs with my older two kids because they did biology through online classes, and I didn't have the energy to supplement the courses. Your letter from UW is wonderful -- I had no idea that virtual labs could count for anything anywhere! Is that a felief for you? Do you have any online labs that you are excited about? I'd love a suggestion or two!

Wonderful news! Congratulations to ALL!

We're in Williamsburg.

Oh good -- I'm not the only one who has difficulty with this symbolism thing! We definitely use Cliff Notes -- if a book is worth studying, it's worth studying well, and I still am struggling with how to read literature, let alone how to teach it! Reading How To Read Literature Like A Professor really helped me understand more about what makes literature "tick." I somehow made it through a whole bunch of English classes without really understanding how to approach literature. Then I read that book and had some major "eureka" moments. Sometimes I do think that homeschooling is a case of "What I learned while I thought I was teaching the kids."

Hi Lisa, Both my kids did AP US Gov through PAH, my son did AP Econ through PAH, and dd did APUSH through PAH. 1) APUSH is NOT a prereq for AP US Gov. Some very basic familiarity with US history might be nice -- ds2 will take APUSGov in 10th, before he does APUSH. We will have him read a quick overview of US history before the APUSGov class, but that is all the preparation we think he will need. AP US Govt is a class that many public school students seem to take as sophomores, before they have had APUSH. 2) APUSH is a harder class than APUSGovt. APUSH takes a LOT of time, since a 5 on the APUSH exam usually is worth 6 credits. APUSGovt is definitely easier, though it is still definitely an advanced class that requires hard work. I would estimate that my kids put in 60-90 minutes a day for USGovt; dd probably did nearly 2 hours per day for APUSH. The APUSGovt is still definitely worth 1 credit! 3) The PAH AP economics is a FABULOUS class. It is really hard work, but it throughly and solidly prepares a student for the AP macroeconomics exam, and since the class ends at the end of Frebraury a student can use March to study for the AP microeconomics exam if he wants. PAH AP econ is definitely worth 1 credit -- my son spent more time on that class than pretty much any other he took in high school. I forget the exact statistics, but something like 2/3 of the kids in ds's class received a 5, and almost everybody in the class got a 4 or 5. By the way, a lot of the time in AP econ is spent playing the simulation games, which are FUN! 4) In many high schools AP US Govt and AP macroecon are 1-credit classes; giving them a full credit is not unusual.

The "family EFC" is generated by the FAFSA. Pretty much all schools (except Hillsdale, Patrick Henry, etc.) use the FAFSA. Some schools also use the Profile, another financial aid form that is commonly used by private colleges. If the school also requires the Profile, the number the financial aid generates will not be based solely on the EFC. The Profile has a LOT of additional information. The Profile takes into account the expenses of other children (which usually decreases the $$) but also takes more account of home equity and the like (which usually increases the $$). Any school that requires the Profile will give financial aid based on a mixture of things and not just on the EFC. Many private schools use the Profile; I am not aware of any state schools that do. The one state school that we have dealt with for financial aid (no merit aid involved) based the EFC purely on the FAFSA. In our case, the amount we were expected to pay out-of-pocket matched our EFC to the penny. 1) Some schools promise to meet 100% of demonstrated need. If your school uses the FAFSA exclusively, that school will probably only require you to pay the EFC. If your school uses the FAFSA and the Profile, that school may require you to pay much more than your EFC, depending on your finances. 2) Some schools do not promiste to meet 100% of demonstarted need. If your school does NOT promise to meet 100% of demonstrated need, then all bets are off. See http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/480180-colleges-have-given-you-disappointing-financial-aid-offers.html for some crazy stories.

"A History of the U.S. Economy in the 20th Century" by Timothy Taylor This is a series from The Teaching Company. (Anything by Timothy Taylor is excellent.)

I hear you, and you have my sympathy! The mother hat and the teacher hat don't always both fit on the head at the same time.....

Lab.....lab.....lab.....ummmmm.......we are (cough, cough) not (hang head in shame) doing (cough, cough) any labs........ Dd1 did biology through U. Nebrask Online High School, and labs weren't part of the course. She only did labs for one of her sciences -- AP physics -- and it wasn't an issue with college acceptances. (Well, maybe that's why she didn't get into Princeton! :001_smile:) Ds1 did bio through Scholars Online and he didn't do any labs with the course. He did do labs with his AP chemistry and AP physics. So in keeping with the tradition set by my older two kids, we're not doing biology labs next year either. I always said that I wouldn't have any dismembered dead animals on my kitchen counter, and so far I have been able to stick with this vow. I do admire all you moms who do do biology labs! We have the Holt text because dd1 used it with the U Neb bio course she took. It's an adequate text, so I am taking the lazy route and not investigating any other options. If I didn't already own the Holt, I would definitely investigate the Campbell's book.

I am still a bit numb -- between the college thing and dd2's diabetes, this has been an interesting month! Dd's diabetes care is going wonderfully -- thank you ALL for your prayers. And ds has made the big decision -- he is going to Washington & Lee. His sister is a freshman there. I think it is SO cool that they will be at college together! (Dd1 and ds1 are very psyched about attending together too!) We still need to tie up a few loose ends -- ds needs to have his medical form completed and he needs to finish letting the other colleges know that he won't be attending. But otherwise he just needs to take 5 final exams and three AP exams and participate in one last debate tournament. Then we need to do the graduation party! Hurray! I am already starting to delete various college admissions websites from my favorites lists! I am giving a talk on homeschooling high school tonight, but after that I shall BURY all of my college admissions books for at least three years! (ds2 is entering 9th). How are the rest of you with seniors doing? What are your kids' plans for life after graduation? Grace and peace to you and yours as your days of homeschooling your senior wind down! Relaxing with a cup of coffee and thinking about what a wild ride it has been, Gwen