Thanks for this suggestion! I just looked and UW is offering an architecture summer camp for middle schoolers in August. Now to talk to dh about the $425 price tag......

I was looking at University of Washington which uses a quarter system. I went back and looked again and I mis-interpreted. The requirements are 20 credits of Natural World then it listed 3 math courses in that section. I missed the OR in the sentence.:tongue_smilie: So of the 20 credits you need to have Math 112 (Business & Econ Calc), Math 126 (Calc with Analytical Geometry) OR Math 145 (Calculus for Life Sciences). Upon further review it looks like the student typically takes one of these not all. Thanks for questioning that!

I'm posting this here but if it belongs on the high school board let me know. I'm wondering is it common for a teen to know what he (or she) wants to major in before high school, or even early in the high school years? I've been thinking about this after posting some comments about my son possibly going into an architecture program. It was recommended that I should find out what he needs for that program and plan high school accordingly. So I've been looking at the requirements, but I hesitate to go full on toward that because he is just 13. Does he really know what he wants to major in? I mean, he's mentioned architecture, but that could be simply because I mentioned it to him. He's great at drawing, and really enjoys drawing buildings, so I had said maybe you'd like to be an architect someday. He thought that sounded great and talked about it off and on for the past year. About a month ago however, he told me he might not want to be an architect. He really likes astronomy so maybe he'd like to be a space scientist! Huh???? This child hates math and often struggles with math concepts. Architecture requires calculus classes the first year and I can only imagine the amount of math a space scientist needs. So he has dreams of these things but doesn't really understand what it takes to make them a reality. And space scientist is a far cry from architect so it's obvious he really doesn't have any idea what he wants to do. I don't blame him. He's young. Is it realistic to plan high school with an end goal in mind that may never play out? How did you make sure that your kids were prepared when the goal might change several times over a period of years?

Do you remember the cost for this? I tried to find it on their web site but everything said to send them an e-mail if interested.

So my guess is that if my oldest continues with his current interest and decides to major in architecture, that would be more of a technical skill set? I'm trying to figure out if research is undertaken in architecture. I'm thinking there would be new design techniques, "green" influences, etc. but is that considered research?

Thanks for all of your replies and the link to the other thread. This has given me a lot to think about and discuss with dh. We were so relieved when we thought we had a great plan....have each boy start at CC and then save enough for 2 years at university. Apparently it's not as straight-forward as that. I have no idea what my kids will want to major in. Oldest has mentioned architecture a few times and I know the colleges here that offer those programs. I'll need to go back and check the sequence of required courses at those schools. I'm glad to be learning some of this now instead of when he's 17!

I'm late to chime in but I saw this thread yesterday and didn't have time to post. I wanted to reply because your 11yo sounds very much like my 11yo (he'll be 12 in 2 weeks). He too will totally immerse himself in something. It almost consumes him. But once he gets it out of his system he's on to something else. When he was little we thought he'd want to be a firefighter because of the way he was "consumed" with them, but today that wouldn't interest him in the least little bit. I know you've had a couple of book recommendations already but one that described this child very well to me was Strong Willed Child or Dreamer by Ron Braund & Dana Spears. There are sections on how to handle school. When I picked this book up I never imagined that it would apply to this particular son but it did. You might want to give it a glance if your library has a copy. Also the male author fits this category and he wound up with the Dr. designation so he was able to succeed academically. :) Whew! I'm not doing anything right now to steer this child to a particular career. He has expressed an interest in the military but I have no interest or desire to fan that flame so I hope it will pass as many of the others have. I'm hoping in a couple years time we can get a better feel for what he would be well-suited to. One interest he has had is playing guitar. But he doesn't like the practicing. He just wants to go to the lessons and not bother with the work in between. We took him out of lessons because he wouldn't practice. He ended up missing it and began asking if he could start lessons again. We told him we weren't going to fight about practicing; if he wanted to start up again he had to prove to us that he would practice without being hounded. I added guitar practice to his daily schedule and he started practicing for the required amount of time without complaint. After a month of this, we started the lessons back up. That was 2 months ago and so far so good. Is there an instrument that your son is interested in that could help him learn that "stick with it" type of thing? This boy also has NO interest in reading. Both his brothers will read for pleasure but not this one. As part of his school day I've added 30 minutes free reading. He must read a book of his choice for 30 minutes. He complained about that because he says he can never find a book he likes. So I told him he has to read the first 2 to 3 chapters in the book before he can decide that he doesn't like it. I think this will help him learn that if you stick with something you might be pleasantly surprised. This is something new that we just started last week so I can't say much about it's success or lack thereof. I'm know these ideas are simple but hope they might make something pop into your head for your particular situation.

I saw a comment on the "Money Saved for College" thread where the poster mentioned that community college classes are not the same caliber as university classes. Do others have experience with this? Our current plan is that our kids would go to the local CC which is the same one that I went to back in the day, but that was over 20 years ago. I only went for a year and then went to work full time. I did more CC classes part time to get my AA degree, took a couple of years off, then went back to school for my BA. The BA I received was from a 4 year university that's about a 3 hours drive from here. I took the remote classes they offered through the CC. (I'm hoping this makes sense.) When I began taking the upper level courses, I did feel prepared by my CC classes. The bottom line is I have no experience with what classes are like at a 4 year college on campus. My education jumped around a lot. A few classes here, break, a few more there, etc. so I don't have the typical college experience. But I had never considered that the education I received at the CC wasn't on par with a 4 year university. I mentioned on the other thread that we intend to have each of our boys complete 2 years at the CC and then transfer to one of the 4 year state universities. Anyone have any thoughts or experiences with this?

We're buying GET units which is our state's 529 plan. So far we have 4 years worth. The plan is to have 6 years worth which would pay for 2 years for each boy at an in-state 4 year university. Hopefully they will participate in Running Start and be able to complete their first 2 years at the local community college. That's the plan but as you can see my oldest is only 13 so I'm not sure how it will all play out.

We usually take about 2 months off. We stop mid to late June and savor the first week or two off. Then we're busy with 2 birthdays and the 4th of July (that's a big thing around our house). After that it's usually VBS (my older 2 volunteer now), then visiting the grandparents (weather's much better there when you visit in the summer), then a camp for each boy, then....before we know it 2 months have gone by!

I finished The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. I started out liking the book and could relate to the author but by the middle I grew tired of the idea and the author started to get on my nerves. I'm glad to be done. This week I'm reading The Birth Order Book by Kevin Leman. We've got some sibling rivalry issues that need to be dealt with around here and this book was recommended to give me some insights.

Just got ours up.

Thanks for the suggestion! I just requested this book from the library. I've been wondering if I somehow contribute to the problem but I don't see it myself. Hopefully I can get some insights.

I have read this but it's been quite a while. At the time I was reading it more for my own birth order information with regard to my siblings. Our library has it so I'll re-read it keeping a lookout for the techniques you mention. Thanks for the suggestion!

My 13yo sounds like your 12yo which is why it's so baffling to me with the way he treats his brother. I have the same hope.

At least I think that's what it is. My oldest 2 are 20 months apart and they do not get along at all. They are as different as night and day. I don't expect them to be best friends but I do expect them to be civil to each other. I feel like we talk about this a lot but things don't really change. I don't know what role I'm playing in the whole thing, if any. My middle son and youngest are 19 months apart. They play pretty well together but have your typical spats which I understand. They're very competitive with each other so I know there's sibling rivalry there too but I'm o.k. with the way they interact. It's not hurtful. The relationship between the older two is completely different. So when I say hurtful I don't mean physically violent but just always speaking or treating the other in a rude, disrespectful way. The oldest doesn't want anything to do with the middle so he's speaks really harshly to him, about pretty much everything. "Where's the book?" comes out like he's barking at his brother rather than asking a simple question. He doesn't treat the youngest this way. Dh thinks this is just how brothers are. He is the youngest and has 2 older siblings with a similar age span. He thinks they'll just grow out of it but if they don't, it doesn't really bother him. My sister is 16 years older then I am and my brother is 11 years older so I don't know if this is typical or not. I hope that my kids will be close after they're grown and gone but maybe this isn't realistic. I was looking at my library's site for books on sibling rivalry and there are a lot of choices out there. There's one called Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends. But can you really "make" people be friends? I thought I'd ask if anyone here had any book suggestions so that I could narrow down what I'm looking for. Or if you've btdt and have thoughts to share, I'd love to hear them.

My youngest will be finishing TT4 some time next week. It has been completely independent. The only trouble he had was with remembering the steps for long division but we worked through a few together one day and he's been fine since. As for retention, I can't speak to that. I believe he's retaining it but I haven't done anything to verify it yet. Once he finishes, he's going to spend some time working in a Horizons book that I happen to have. If he can do the work in that without a lot of hand holding from me, I'll feel comfortable that he understands the concepts and can apply them in a variety of situations. I won't know for sure about that for a few weeks yet.

:iagree: I just put mine up today!

I finished You on a Diet by Roisen and Oz. I am so glad to be done with it! That duo definitely goes on my least favorite authors list. If interested, you can read my thoughts on it here. Tonight, I'm moving on to The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin.

I don't know if it qualifies as a hobby but I've taken up baking. Sure, I can do the basics but most of my baking experience begins with a mix ;) I'm trying to bake my way through a baking cookbook and see what I can learn along the way. Maybe you'd be interested in some type of cooking????

I answered 85-89 even though I truly want their results in the 90s. I figure 85-89 is a "B" to a "B+" so I can live with that. I grade math for all 3 boys. I also grade my oldest's WriteShop assignments and he'll receive a grade from our co-op for his Latin class. My middle son will also receive a grade from our co-op for his writing class. My oldest will be 8th grade next year so I'll use that year to figure out how I'm going to assign grades for all his subjects once he's in high school. I understand the credit hours but I don't have a good handle on grading all subjects yet.

:iagree: That's why I use the word. Actually I don't really say I was blessed, usually I'll say that something was such a blessing. Like last night I was driving into Seattle and traffic can be a bear. It was POURING so I really thought traffic would be terrible, and of course I was running a few minutes late. But I was pleasantly surprised that traffic didn't get too bad until I got into the heart of the city. When I picked up dh he asked about traffic and I told him it wasn't too bad which was a blessing. Did I think that God made the traffic light just so I wouldn't be late to pick up dh? Not at all! But for whatever reason, traffic was moving well and I felt blessed. I don't know if the person you're referring means it like this or not, but that's where I'm coming from. I never realized it might bug someone.

I finished Outliers this week and really enjoyed it. My review is on my blog. I've been pondering what outliers there could be among all us homeschooling moms here. What niche will our countless hours of teaching and curriculum planning/research make a few of us perfect for? It's fun to consider! :) Today I started You on a Diet by Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz. So far I don't enjoy these authors' writing style much. I often feel like I'm reading something edited for a television sound bite. But I am interested in the topic so I'm hoping to tough it out. I especially want to read the chapters titled "The Science of Appetite," "How Food Travels through Your Body," and "The Dangerous Battle of Inflammation in Your Belly."

Mine is up and posted here.

I think she might be referring to this recent blog post: http://harmonyartmom.blogspot.com/2011/02/helping-visual-spatial-learner.html