I did when the kids were little and I was trying to coordinate library books. I needed to plan ahead enough to get the correct books in the house at the right time. Since I am not depending on the library any more I don't plan.

Yes. When I broke my ankle while biking with my then twelve year old. I got two fire trucks, at least two police cars, and an ambulance. They were very nice, very efficient, and very prompt. My twelve year old was kind of scared and I was in a lot of pain. It all worked out and I have nothing but good things to say about the people involved.

He and the rest of my kids have been on my Private School Affadavit since we moved to California when they were were ten, eight and four (he wasn't on at the beginning, only after he was old enough). His older sister also passed the CHSPE at the same time he did. She is going to Northern Arizona Univeristy in the fall as a freshman with lots of community college credit. He can do that too if he wants. But I can also back date his graduation to when he passed the CHSPE if I want to. We have options. About the ACT writing test... he is not a very good writer. He does not do well in extreme time situations and writing/spelling/penmanship is most definitely not his strong point. He would NOT pass an end-of-course test in history or writing/English at this time. The ACT is multiple choice and that is totally different than a typical test. He is just a very very odd kid. He loves math and science. He loves computers.

I wish I could give him high school credit for English or history before he started at the community college. But I can't. For history, he just didn't do it. And for English, he failed the outsourced class that he took. (He got that 34 English ACT score and failed his year long English class at the same time. He needs the in person teacher interaction and the online course couldn't do that.)

He was thinking of going in as a transfer student. He isn't seeing the end of more boring classes that are easy. He wants school to be over so he can do something interesting. About Physics 2, he wants to take that course. Probably more than any other course in his schedule. He keeps hoping it will be something he doesn't already know. He doesn't want to take English at all. The one course he is taking is because he knows that he needs it for any sort of transfer option. He hates writing of papers and literature. He finds it really really difficult to concentrate on those classes. That is why there aren't more of them on his schedule. I can not figure out how to make him want to do them. And history is more of the same problem, papers and random facts that don't stick but are tested on. He can derive most math and science things from first principles but there is no way to do that for a date on a test. Self studying for history would be a great idea, but he would have a horrible time actually doing it. The only times that anything other than math stuck was with a teacher and lots and lots of class participation. That was how he did Spanish. He was motivated by the peer pressure and teacher made it fun. They did skits and conversations and that was the only way it got into his head. He doesn't know where exactly he wants to go, just someplace with people like him and harder more interesting classes. It does need to be a STEM type school. He wants to do computer science and maybe math. And he is good at that and really not interested in anything else. Thank you for thinking with me. I do appreciate your thoughts.

Up until tonight I thought so. But in order for that to work he really really needs to get more of the transfer courses done. I think that the ADHD meds that he got to a good dose this fall is allowing him to actually think and get stuff done and he is seeing that he really can do hard things. Previously he couldn't concentrate long enough to do that.

I have a problem or rather my son has a problem and I need some other views in dealing with it. Son is currently 16 years old. He started at the local community college two years ago at the age of 14 after taking and passing the CHPSE (California High School Proficiency Exam) in June. He enjoyed the fact that he had classmates and teachers that knew more about subjects than I did. In short he loved it. But it was easy. He was offered a job in the tutoring center after that first semester and has been working there ever since. We had to provide different documentation than usual because he was so young. Last semester he tutored the calculus class he was taking! It is still easy. Tonight he surprised us by saying that he wants to apply to colleges now for entry next fall. This is a full year ahead of the schedule that I had predicted when we started, but he is unchallenged and unhappy with the community college and wants something more interesting and to meet people that are 'like him'. But we have a problem. He doesn't have anything resembling a typical high school transcript. He doesn't have the right courses in the right places. He took classes he wanted to take, mostly math and science. And not English or history. In another two years at the community college he would fill in those holes and be ready to transfer. But not yet and not in just one year. I was waiting for a maturity to handle non-preferred classes because I just couldn't force him to do the work. So his gpa is 3.943. He got a B in trigonometry. And As in everything else. All of it. His ACT is high but not amazing at 32. Sub scores are eng 34, math 28, reading 31, and science 35. He has taken Trigonometry and Python College Algebra and Astronomy with lab Java, Calculus 1, Music Theory, Spanish 1 Data Structures, weight training, Calculus 2, Physics 1 with lab, Spanish 2 This semester he is signed up for English, Biology with lab, Mulivariable Calculus, Physics 2 with lab. We were trying to deal with the holes and give him classes he enjoyed. So ideas? He is ready for more. But how do I package him to get into a school he would be happy with? At t

The Phoenix Zoo is amazing if you can handle the heat. The animals that are there are the ones that like that kind of weather. The African savannah area has giraffe, ostriches, watusi cattle, and zebras, all just hanging out doing their own things. And Komodo dragons! (Not with any other critters!) If your kids like fire trucks there is the Hall of Flame, a fire truck museum, near the zoo. At some ages my kids thought it was very cool. Now, they would be bored. And there is baseball, Arizona fall league and the Diamondbacks, if that is interesting.

My now thirteen year old went to camp with his bunny at ten (and eleven and twelve) and didn't have problems. It seemed like at whole bunch of kids had stuffed critters with them. But this kid also wears a purple hat with dragon wings in public and doesn't get teased for that either. He just carries himself with an attitude that says confidence. I wish I knew how he does it. (I would borrow it for myself) That said, if your son is likely to be teased then kids can find something no matter how small.

How many of those people are dealing with acute pain? I broke my ankle and received big doses of opioids (Dilaudid) in the hospital and then meds (Percocet) to take at home. And then an offer for more if I needed them even after that. Personally the side effects (severe consitpation and generally feeling loopy) were bad enough that I was willing to tolerate the pain to avoid them. But there are people out there that those side effects would not be enough to deal with the pain. I have a hard time telling someone that they must live with pain because of a possibility of addiction.

I have been thinking about the recent turn of this thread and I wanted to explain a little why I don't post about more than just academics... I have extreme kids and I do talk mostly about the academic stuff.... because the internet is searchable and I don't want to put my kids' personal information out there. And the fact that my older kids are very very knowledgable about all things internet. They know my most likely usernames. They know my most likely spots to hang out and talk. And while they have assured me that they do not frequent this board I have no guarantees that they won't in the future. And I can't risk my relationship with them by posting stuff. I only post on this or any other board things I am willing to have blown up billboard size and placed where they can see. I live a life of always double checking my words in print because I can't take them back and they will be shown to me out of context and at the worst possible time. That is just the hand I have been dealt. I am glad to be here, but this is a very lonely road from my point of view and it is unlikely to ever change.

For my own self education I am learning Japanese and chess and how to play an alto recorder. I do not and have not tried to stay ahead of the kids. It isn't possible for me. They are crazy smart and if motivated they can go very fast.

I have extreme picky eaters that would rather starve than eat offending food. They can choose to not eat the meal prepared but they must make their own something else and that means clean up too.

I would think that a civil ceremony has already happened and now the pretty ceremony is going to happen. (One of my husband's coworkers got married on very very short notice, like 24 hours or something, to qualify for health insurance because the the spouse-to-be suddenly needed it NOW. They had a pretty ceremony with the dress and the tuxedos a few months later.)

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing Farmer Boy All of a Kind Family Have a Space Suit Will Travel by Robert Heinlein All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury ( it was in a collection of short stories, but I don't know the title of the book)

As a woman at a tech school we said, "The odds are good, but the goods are odd."

I went to a smallish tech school so did my husband. Pro side Small campus. Some large schools really are large and take a long time to walk from one end to the other. Personal attention from teachers. I knew most of the teachers in the mechanical engineering department and all of the math teachers. He knew all the computer science ones. Lots of geeky people. If you are looking for that tribe, you will find it. Usually good alumni networks. The people he met there and those connections have gotten him every job he has had. All of them. Con side Limited sports and recreation activities. There are just not as many people. If you can't stand a certain teacher, they may be the only one teaching the class you need. I dropped the double major in math because I could not deal with a certain teacher and he was the ONLY person that taught a required class. Not so many not geeky people. It you want to find super sports fans, they will be harder to find. The Ratio. At least when we were there the men to woman ratio was as high as 7:1 in some majors. Computer science was one of them. Mechanical engineering was about 3:1. Chemical engineering was about 1:2 (yes, more women in chemical engineering than men) If you have more questions I can try to answer.

Duolingo has added Japanese. It is free so it might be worth a look.

About 12.5 miles away but easily 20 minutes by car on two major expressways.

(It has been a long time. If this is incorrect, I am sorry) It was wrong.

My daughter needs a university. She has potential interests as wide as civil engineering to astronomy to journalism, all of these are possible right now. Since she doesn't do change well picking a school that can support all those things was important. She is going to a smallish State University because it has everything and fits the money/selectivity/fit criteria. My older son is a totally different kid. He doesn't need a small liberal arts school. He needs a small tech school. He knows exactly what he wants to do and more importantly what he doesn't want to do. He loves math and science and mostly computers. He is going to struggle to get through the general education requirements at any school. He needs to minimize the classes that he doesn't want to take and would do poorly in and take as many of the classes he does want to take and would do well in. We haven't found that school yet, but we are looking.

May. In fact it is today. We have been married for 24 years. We got married the day after we graduated from college. It was a busy weekend.

My oldest, daughter age 18, is going to Northern Arizona University. She got a WUE scholarship and one for a high ACT score. And since it was the only school that she applied to it was a good thing that she liked it. Why? She wanted to go back to Arizona. We moved to California when she was 10 and she has never quite gotten over the fact that we sold that house and the new owners cut down her tree. She will be about two hours away from her grandparents and that makes me feel a little better. She is majoring in Civil Engineering, at least for now, but she may change her mind. She has wanted to take a class in geology for a long time and is looking forward to finally getting that. Or maybe astronomy. Or maybe something else entirely. Sigh.

I used music teachers for my older kids and then the day camp counselor for my youngest. Youngest hated that day camp. He was bored because he was placed by age and only wanted to talk to the adults. Apparently he was quite memorable because there weren't any problems. (Except I have been unable to convince him to go to any day camp since then. He remembers the experience and has nothing positive to say about it. It was almost six years ago.)

I don't know about schools local to where you will be, but if you decide to homeschool as an individual then there is a form you will need to fill out in October. It is the Private School Affidavit and then, in the eyes of the Department of Education, you would be your own very small private school. No testing, unless you want to. No portfolios, unless you want to. No anything. You would set your own rules. Welcome to California!