If I had to plan support meetings, I would look for ways to make them into positive, constructive evenings. The best support meetings I have ever attended had some kind of local "expert" who was invited to give a talk on a certain topic, and then the group discussed that topic and asked questions and shared their experiences. Other good meetings were with parents who had sent their kids to college and were giving nitty-gritty advice on homeschooling high school and the college app process (again, "local experts"). I also liked a 'curriculum night" which was a show and tell where parents shared their successes. That was very interesting. Having an expert allows the discussion to focus on being constructive and positive. Also, a specific topic that is focused on solutions encourages everyone to focus on positive suggestions. Parents are coming because they need encouragement and support, and I found sometimes it is too easy for the discussion to slide into negative venting. So I would promote the meetings as, "bring your best solutions for dealing with X issue." Maria

We have had the most success with joining area-wide organizations that are focused on each teen's interests. My oldest was part of a regional theater workshop for years--he was the only homeschooler. And he went to prom with a friend from the group. He made friends from an annual film festival he has been in each year. He also has made friends at the community college. My DS15 is making friends all over the metro region with other artistic teens in a program at a museum downtown. Both boys have made friends all over the country at summer programs, and keep in touch with those friends through social media. My daughter plays in a regional orchestra and chamber group, and rides horses at a local barn. She has friends from all over, and is the only homeschooler. We have homeschool friends we see at coop and other classes, but they live too far from us for social events to be practical. If my kids were in high school, it would be harder for them to participate in these regional activities. I think the culture at schools produces a mass-think that discourages going outside the box of the school. It is too easy to just follow whatever everyone else is doing. As homeschoolers we have to work harder to find social outlets, but that makes our DC's commitment that much more intentional. Maria

Hi-- Hoping the startup year is going well with a minimum of hiccups-- When will registration open for the 2015-16 school year? My daughter is interested in US History and the Chemistry with labs. Maria

Like LinaJ, I will read serious, nonfiction books for a while, then I need some brain candy and read something fun and light. And I noticed my kids will do this, also. I was very proud of DD reading LOTR earlier this fall. She would excitedly tell me what was happening as she got to that section. She got as far as Pippin being tempted by the Palantir.....and then she started rereading Farmer Boy because Thanksgiving was coming and she wanted to read about food. Then she wanted to reread the other later Little House books, and then she reread Avalon magic books!!!!! She said she wants to go back to LOTR but she can't find it....... My oldest read LOTS of Captain Underpants....and LOVED it. I do admit I did not buy any copies--he had to borrow them from the library to read them. While he was in school, his first grade teacher tested him and found he was reading at the 8th grade level. (one of the 500 reasons we decided to homeschool) Now he is reading Melville's Billy Budd for fun so he can meet with his CC lit prof an hour before class to have a private book club once a week. DD15 also often reread easier books-- the Rick Riordan Percy Jackson books were repeats for a few years. It made DH uneasy. But as PPs have pointed out, he was building fluency. Now he reads college art theory texts for fun. It's understandable to be nervous when you can't see the future. We all do that. But, honest, it will all work out. Maria

Unfortunately, I have come across this in homeschool lit classes as well. I remember a homeschool mom trying to talk an AP Lit instructor into assigning shorter books for an upcoming AP Lit class. Her sons were not big readers, and were balking at reading a number of 300-400 page books--all classics, with the most recent being Native Son. The instructor, also a homeschool mom, was very surprised-- her own children read Jane Eyre before high school. But she also considered that for these particular students, her lit class might be their last chance to read any literature-- that once they moved into college, into their STEM majors, they would not ever read another piece of literature. The boys' mom said that high school was the last time she read any literature herself. I think the instructor ended up dropping one book and substituted ALOT of poetry and short stories. They still had to read a ton of 300-400 page classics. The AP Board approved her syllabus literally overnight. Although my oldest DS thrived in that class, I don't think the instructor was able to turn the two nonreaders into lit lovers. If the parent wasn't modeling reading at home--and discussing literature-- it would be very hard to teach that in a class. Maria Maria

I think those shorter essays of 250 words are much, much harder to write than the 650 word-essays in the CA. In the longer essays you have room to develop ideas. In 250 words, those ideas better be clear, concise and precise in every sentence. Instead of an intro paragraph, you have an intro sentence. Prepositional phrases such as "for example," were replaced with a colon. Those short essays are killers. Maria

I am teaching a Shakespeare class like this now--in fact I am waiting for students to arrive for a Shakespeare Movie Night. I pulled ideas from the Folger's Shakespeare Library's teacher curriculum, Shakespeare Set Free Series--I bought two of the guides, but it looks like they have downloadable free class plans. The curriculum is built around the idea that the plays were meant to be performed, not read like literature, and it is through performing the play, or scenes in the play, that students can better understand the plays. However, they have GREAT ideas for in-depth textual analysis as well, such as tracing a word through the play (see how "blood" or "bloody" changes in Macbeth from the beginning of the play to the end.) We meet once a week for 90 min, and cover one play every 4-6 weeks, which is not enough time, because there is so many wonderful class ideas! On the last class meeting for each play, the students perform various scenes from the play. The hard part is working in rehearsal time with class time--a lot of the students come from a distance for the class, and are not able to rehearse together during the week. This is the page about the Folger's Institute http://www.folger.edu/template.cfm?cid=2594&CFID=64459102&CFTOKEN=21257811 Shakespeare Set Free curriculum guides http://shop.folger.edu/istar.asp My students range from 10-15 yo. I have them read the Folger's editions at home before we start the play. I once tried a short course on Othello where I didn't require that everyone use the same edition, and it was kind of a mess-- kids had different page numbers, lines were numbered differently. Much easier to use the same edition. Have fun! Maria

Literature that stays at the plot-and character-analysis level can be quite dull for some. It doesn't get interesting until you consider the subtext. Such as Nigerian author Chinua Achebe writing Things Fall Apart as a response to the colonialism of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Or the Dominican-born Jean Rhys writing Wide Sargasso Sea as a response to the wife in the attic in Jane Eyre. There are tons of fabulous films that go with so many novels, and even Shakespeare, that reading a novel/play and watching a film version can be quite interesting, particularly in comparing artistic decisions the authors and filmmakers made. Maria

We've run into that kind of stuff. Over time, it becomes harder to keep investing the time and energy for increasingly diminishing returns. Since she is 13 and mature, she may well be ready for community groups that are outside homeschooling but in her interests. My teens found much more success in social situations when they participated/joined groups that were focused on their interests. They have made enduring friendships with other teens who were not homeschooled, as well as adults who shared their deep interests. I have also gone the route (and this is rather extreme) of creating a class to teach out of my home, and inviting other homeschoolers to take it. I make sure the description is appealing to my dc, as well as to other students who are like my dc. Students who are not like my dc tend to not take the class. Then we can have instructive time in my own home, in a structured setting, where I can keep an eye on the dynamics. I build in plenty of group work, I mix up the groups, and give everyone a chance to get to work with everyone else. I build in plenty of time for social interaction, and make it fun. By the end of the session, lo and behold, friendships are formed. Two of my kids are quite introverted, and don't need a lot of outside social interaction. The oldest is much more extroverted, and his needs drove the family for a while. Once he started CC classes, we didn't need to drive all over the place for social interaction--he was getting it in his classes. It wasn't until I read the Susan Cain book, Quiet, that I understood this dynamic in my family. Your description of your daughter needing downtime after social events made me think of that. If you need to meet these homeschool moms, do they ever do a night-time support/adults only discussion time? You could go to the adult-only events.That way, your needs are being met in one way, and your daughter's needs are met in her own way. Maria

I agree with Wintermom. The introduction of Mona Brookes' Drawing With Children refers to studies that showed that children who incorporate drawing into their studies learn the material better than students who don't. Also, in Cal Newport's book How to Become a Straight-A Student, he describes top college students who study science by copying the diagrams from the book and filling in the blanks on the labels. How much more would a student learn if the student drew the structure of a cell, meiosis/mitosis, Calvin cycle? Or in Shakespeare, drawing what Banquo's ghost looks like? Researching a drawing a scene from history? http://www.amazon.com/Drawing-With-Children-Creative-Beginners/dp/0874778271 http://www.amazon.com/How-Become-Straight-A-Student-Unconventional-ebook/dp/B000MAHBYQ He might like lots of markers and good paper, too.... Maria

As pps have said, the ability to approach the nude drawing class matter-of-factly is key. Their deep interest in creating art will help them as well. My 15yo ds was in a drawing class this last summer at the precollege program at Kansas City Art Institute. I had to sign a document saying that I was OK with this. He said, "thanks, Mom." I think he would have been more embarrassed if I had said "no." I remember in Beverly Cleary's Ramona books, Ramona's dad had gone back to art school, and his homework was drawing feet. I always thought that was a pretty good stand-in. If a child is perhaps too young for a nude class, he or she can practice drawing family members' body parts. I think hands and feet are very difficult. Maria

What about publishing something now? My cousin is a writer, and her 6yo wanted to write her own story, because she couldn't find a book she liked at the library. So the girl dictated to her mom, and drew illustrations. Then they self-published through Amazon. They ordered a small number and had a book-publishing party at a local bakery shop. I don't know how it all works, or how much it all costs, but it was quite the event for that family, their friends and neighborhood. The extended family was able to order the book through Amazon, in time for Christmas. It's a step up from publishing through Kinko's. And it sounded kind of fun. http://www.amazon.com/gp/seller-account/mm-summary-page.html?topic=200260520 Maria

A friend of mine pulled her son from ps in the middle of Jr year when he started failing all his classes, and plunged into a deep depression. She pulled him before any grades were posted for the first semester. They switched to a part-time status so he could participate in orchestra and the Lego Robotics team. He may have done another class there, I'm not sure of the exact details. He did everything else at home, with some AP classes at our coop. He ended up at Case Western. Depression is a real thing. I don't see any down sides to pulling him from a toxic situation. Maria

Something to be aware of: My DS17 did the Lit test and the Bio on the same day when he was a sophomore. He aced the lit, not so good on the Bio-- his own fault, not enough studying. I tried to cancel the score, with the idea that he could try again. However, if you choose to cancel one test, the SAT people will cancel all the student's scores from that day. So if I cancelled Bio, I would also cancel Lit. We kept the scores as is. He never did go back to redo the test. However, as we were compiling his records for his college apps this fall, we found that the Subject Tests allow you to select which scores to report to the colleges. So we could pick and choose his best scores. Good luck on the testing! Maria

The Folger's Shakespeare Library filmed a stage version that was created by Teller (of Penn and Teller) and another guy. You get the audience reaction, and a great sense of both the staging and the characterizations. Also, it has a lot of stage magic! And there is a feature at the end that explains a little of how they came to create this version. There is ALOT of stage blood, but it is clearly on a stage, so it is clearly fake. I like it ALOT because it finds the humor in the play. This is the first version where the Porter Scene is actually funny. There is a lot of stage fighting, and it is very exciting. The only way I could get it was to order the particular book version that has the dvd glued inside the cover. http://shop.folger.edu/store/003511!003/Macbeth%3A++The+DVD+Edition I really like the Patrick Stewart version--he makes Macbeth really awful in a Stalinist/Hitler way. The banquet scene is frightening for the way they heighten the terror of the tyrant. I loved how the witches' scene comes second, after the opening. They invented a lot more violence, and while I thought it was very effective, I'm not showing the whole thing to my Shake class of 10-14 yos. I'm showing the Teller version at our Macbeth movie night. I think they'll love it. Maria

I walk about 2 miles in the morning before breakfast. When I get home the dog is up, so I take her on her walk. Then I make breakfast. If I don't do it in the morning it doesn't get done. It's when I can do some thinking and planning on my own. Maria

My oldest does not test well in math and science. One local group is very STEM oriented. He has gone out of his way to avoid activities with that group because he really feels he doesn't fit in. He says, "Mom, I KNOW I'm smarter than some of those kids who have higher test scores." In August we did college visits to Yale and Brown. At both, admissions officers said they look beyond the test scores. Yale guy: "We think that a test you took early on a Saturday morning does not tell the whole story of who you are." This is a nice, comforting thought. (However, their average test scores are still way, way high. So I pulled out my 10-gallon bag of salt when considering this.) There ARE good schools that are going test optional. Colleges That Change Lives has a bunch of these. FWIW, a close relative had perfect scores and got into U of C in the 80s. And then he proceeded to goof off. Had a C average. By the time he got his act together, it was too late. He got perfect scores on the GRE, but because of his grades, graduate schools wouldn't touch him. Your DD will succeed in life. And she has great material for the application essay that asks how you've overcome an obstacle.....

DS is applying to one ED, no EAs. Deadline is Nov. 15. He took the ACT for the last time over the weekend, now is looking for time to finish (write) essays. He spent Sept. writing and writing....and ultimately decided not to go in that direction. Since then has mostly been noodling in his noodle. I think he needed to get some thoughts out of his system first. So I am drumming my fingers. My stuff is done. But I am finding that I don't want to upload anything. Once I do that, there is no going back in time. He will be Done. It is the first step to the end of his homeschooling. And even though I have two younger DC, it still means a major change is coming. I want it to stay the same as when we made paper Viking boats and lit them on fire on our tiny puddle of a pond, or I encased their faces in plaster to make Greek theater masks. Or all the other things we have done together. Sigh. The rest of the applications are due Jan. 1 and Jan. 15. Maria

DS17 took it Saturday for the last time. He had last taken it in April, as well as earlier tests through a Talent Search. Both for the April test and this test he had done a lot of test prep, working with a friend of mine who used to teach at a test prep center, and she had lots of practice tests for him to take. He is a very strong humanities student, but for the first time his math and science prep was going very, very well. For the first time he came out of the test feeling very confident about all sections-- nothing he didn't know how to do. He is aiming to boost his Composite score for his 1st choice school, which has a Nov. 15 Early Decision deadline. So this was his last chance, and he gave it his all. He was quite wiped out afterward, as well as the rest of the weekend. Today he had a test for a CC course, so now he wants to just go to bed. Maria

Grinding through October. DS 17 also taking ACT on Saturday to raise his score enough for his dream school. Loves the DE classes on hist and lit of Holocaust. Symbolic logic is tough. He is meeting with prof next week for help. Spanish tutor has been intensely giving him extra tutoring to help him for the Subject test...in MAY. The extra time is helpful but fries his brain. Slogging through physics and Calc, not his favorites AT ALL. It's college app time and I have been fiddling with all the documents. He will go back to the essays after the ACT. He went down a rabbit hole on one essay, so had to start over. I finalized the transcript today! Woohoo! DS15 quietly working through AP World History, precalc, physics, Spanish IV. but also immersing himself in contemporary art. He tracked down a professional artist contact, and then a second contact to find a mentor who went to CalArts. Last weekend we drove in to Portfolio Day-- In line at 7:45 a.m. for a 10 a.m. start. We were third in line. I brought donuts and tea and a camp chair. Wore my long underwear, fleeces, had and gloves. I'm afraid I did gawk at teens who arrived dressed for a summer tea party. The CalArts rep spent a long time looking at his portfolio of 7 images, and kept saying DS should apply, and said he would write a recommendation, but did the boy ask him to clarify on whether he meant now or in 2 years? Son had banished me to the hallway so all I could do was watch from a distance. DD12 is doing an online bio class. Intensive learning how to take notes. We went out to buy a fish so she could do an experiment. I told the guy at the pet store, "we are dog and bird people." So now we have a goldfish. Every morning I check to make sure it is not belly up...she has a ton of reading to do before she gets to the lab. She has named the fish and is totally enamored of it. Her Alg. II going swell. Shakespeare is good but on the last paper she failed to actually write her great thesis into a paragraph. Talked all about her main ideas while she was writing, but failed to actually put the ideas in writing. Said she thought it was obvious. So we are learning how to write papers, too. Spanish 1 is going well. The coop is undergoing reorganization...keep resisting being pulled in. October is soooooo looonnggggg.

DS is a senior, and he started DE at a local college last year. We choose classes based on the quality of the instructor. The local college restricts high school students from taking classes until they are 16 and junior year. He already had most of the high school credits he needed, so we were going for the brick-and-mortar experience. We also wanted good teachers for his first college courses, so we looked at professor profiles on Rate My Professor. The philosophy profs had awesome ratings. So DS did Intro to Philosophy last year. The prof liked his first essay so much he nominated it to the college's academic journal, and it got in. And the prof nominated DS for the Honors' Program. For the Spring semester we were disorganized and late in registering, so all the good instructors had full classes. DS took an Ethics class that met once a week on Wednesday nights-- the instructor was ABD in Phil from another college. His rating at Rate My Professor was meh-- most of the comments said that he would only help you if you showed interest in the material. DS liked that--so that is what he took. It was OK-- he survived. The class was supposed to go from 6:30 to 9:10--- the instructor ended class at 8 p.m. most weeks. DS said the guy was nice, but seemed tired and burned out. DS did extra readings on the side-- he disagreed with the instructor about Nietzsche and Spinoza, so that is what he wrote his final paper on. When he joined the Honors Program in the spring, the honors advisers recoommended special honors courses. So this fall he is a Learning Community class, in which two different classes are held back-to-back, with interdisciplinary curriculum. Both profs are there for the full double time slot. The class is on the History of the Holocaust and America's response to it in literature and film. Heavy reading, tests, papers, field trip to the Holocaust Museum in Skokie, and they were put into teams to make a short film about the Holocaust. On the transcript it will be called a History course (American Experience since 1877) and a Literature/Film course. He loves the Lit prof, but he said the history prof has a hard time forming complete sentences. ("Those Nazis! I mean, whoa! Unbelievable!!" is how she lectures.) And he is taking Symbolic Logic, for his third philosophy class. For his last semester, he is talking to his favorite profs about what they will be teaching next semester. "I want you to take my class," they will say. He wants to finish his DE experience with his favorite instructors. One his college apps are done, I need to turn around and start prepping DS2-- he will be a junior next year, so DE will be a continuing experience in my house. Maria

If your child did classes with an institution that uses Parchment.com to store and send transcripts, the CA allows Parchment uses to directly upload the transcript. The way I found out is that I went looking for the EPGY transcript at Stanford, and the link directed me to Parchment. You have to set up an account at Parchment, and send the transcript from there. I could not figure out how to do it from Parchment, so I chose to have the transcripts sent directly to the schools. But you only have to do this if your originating transcript is being handled by Parchment. Maria

Excellent! Thank you! Maria

Hi, I am getting confused about the number of transcripts I will be sending to the Common App and here's why. (I think) I also am unable to find an answer in the CA help material. Oldest DS has taken classes at EPGY, NU-CTD, and a local college. So I have arranged for those institutions to send their transcripts directly to the schools to which he is applying. Which means they are NOT going through the Common App. So I don't have to list those transcripts as transcripts I am sending, correct? I understand that the way the CA works is that they will hold onto the student's application and not release it until ALL the pieces of the application are complete-- this means all LORs, my counselor letter, and our school profile, correct? And transcripts. I have listed the other institutions in the part where it asks what other colleges he has attended, so the schools know to look for their transcripts-- in their mail and not in the CA. (EPGY now uses Parchment, but after an hour of poking around I couldn't figure out how to send their transcript to the CA, so instead I just had them send it to the schools directly. EPGY now says that it takes 2-3 weeks to process their transcripts, and I didn't want them to hold up the CA) Okeydokey-- so as far as the CA is concerned, the only transcript I am only providing is my own transcript. So far so good. So if I say I will provide 3 transcripts-- does that mean 1. the one we have now, with all courses through jr. year, 2. the midyear report, and 3. the final report? Or does it mean I am providing 3 transcripts right now, one of which is mine and 2 from other institutions? I am sure that this is a simple question, but I don't want my misunderstanding to cause the CA to hold back the application. THANKS for any wisdom/comforting pats Maria

Keep in mind that it is still just a little over a month into the school year. She will increase efficiency as she goes on, and by November she will be cranking out material, and it won't seem as overwhelming anymore. It sounds like she is loving the classes, so I would let her rip. Elite students learn to work smart, and she will learn to do that. My oldest DS took APUSH online from NU-CTD as a Freshman, along with AP Psych, and it was also ALOT of assignments every week, particularly the APUSH. Basically, about 5-7 major essays/writing/Terms and People that took paragraphs to answer. He learned to do it, and he learned to do it well. At some point every year I whisper to my husband that the kids are overbooked. Again. And every year he says, "You always say that, and they turn out just fine." As long as they are happy, we make adjustments along the way to make things work-- just as other posters here have suggested. Maria