Ds skipped it & just took the SAT in Jan instead. He wasn't going through be NMS here in NY. Then we got info from dh's employer that they have a scholarship, the PSAT is the qualifier for it.... BUT, he can substitute SAT scores instead, so we're just doing that. It's not going to hurt to do it again. Or, do a fall SAT instead

Ha! Our local school band still wears the uniforms i wore in the 80s!!! Its the last marching band in our area & the last time I saw them they were down to about 15 kids. We had 100 ish.

Oh, very good point. Thanks

I have Atelier level 6 but have never used it, my artsy kid informed me she didnt want a curriculum. It would work for your oldest. If i had more kids doing it, maybe Home art studio dvds?

You might also join the social group for discussing older kids with learning challenges. It's more private & some of us with older kids prefer to post over there instead. Weiser Educational is my favorite place for viewing special Ed materials for big kids. You can see samples on their site. They carry the Pacemaker & AGS texts (simple high school textbooks, written at a lower level), plus others, including life skills curriculums. (* don't order from Weiser though, you can get those used online very cheap since public schools use them) Steck Vaughn is another publisher of "hi LO" materials, Weiser carries them also. I really like their Wonders of Science workbooks. Remedia Publications website carries a selection of remedial & life skills workbook series such as "menu Math", "grocery store math", etc Sound Foundations out of the U.K. sells the Apples & Pears and Dancing Bears remedial spelling and reading programs. I've used all of those, both when teaching public school special Ed & with my own child.

Sing it, FaithManor. Exactly! The STEM clubs are group projects. Big expensive group projects. Nothing to sell for profits afterwards, just expensive robotics parts to hopefully reuse some of the next year. Younger kids can borrow nxt kits from the 4 H office, but our kids are way past that level. I think just the registration fee for each of our FTC tournaments was $400ish? We did two this year. Buying all the parts, computers, etc.... Yeah, 4 H is not funding that. But the $ has to come from somewhere for the kids to do it. We stay a 4 H club just for the insurance & non profit status. Not just for the chance to work in the barn during fair week ;) although we do that too (We also do a "regular -lots of different projects" 4 H group & the teens used to raise small animals)

I've never listed a grade for things like PE, art, music required in our state. I put pass/ fail only. But we have to list them in our paperwork. I have not even counted them in GPA or credits at all. I gave grades for more academic electives- health (we used a graded online program), extra history classes, etc Schools give grades for these "fluffy" classes, right? Like A,B,C, D ? Adding grades to those on a homeschool transcript would boost GPA but seems silly. But if schools do it, then should we if we want comparative transcripts? (Not really comparable, but closer?) Ugh, I hate transcript writing issues.

Off to re calculate GPA, lol...

Yeah, I wasn't going to weight them originally, but am now. I'll have to investigate how the Local schools do them. Only a few even offer AP or DE. But for putting in college level work at the CC or state U, seems like he should get more of a GPA boost than just regular high school classes. I mean, there's a big difference between getting an A high school art class vs As in computer science classes at the college level. (Or you'd hope so) And senior year, all but one of his classes will be DE.

Ok, so if I want to weight grades for DE and or honors classes, um, how do I do that? Ds is applying to state schools who say they will use the weighted GPA, and GPA plus SAT scores determine merit aide cut off levels. His As in all of his DE classes (& a couple of homemade "honors" ones) will certainly help reach the higher cut off. So, an A in a semester long DE class would count as 5.0 points instead of 4.0 on a high school transcript? Is that correct?

I cannot teach high school math myself. And I didn't know about online programs a few years ago. So- We used TT for a second go through of Algebra 1 (after using MUS algebra 1 cause kiddo didn't have good enough grasp & wants to go STEM). Then he used it for Geometry. It was fine. He liked the immediate feedback, he has to wait a few days for grading turn around with online program. (I didn't like that he didn't always go back & retry ones he got wrong). Kid did fine on SAT math. Not national merit but good enough to get into state schools at merit level. He's doing great in his DE computer science classes. We then switched to Derek Owens online for Alg 2 & will likely stick to that for pre calc senior year (TT didn't have a graded version yet). DO is more difficult & more thorough, IMO. But you have to wait for grading turn around. I wish I'd known to have him start Alg 1 in 8th so he could get through Calc in high school, but I didn't & it's not a thing in our local schools, except for the g& t class. Eta- forgot to say, it had lots of review

Our robotics team is through 4 H but we do not get $ from 4 H to fund it. We still also have to participate in 4 H fundraisers for the organization, but we don't get any of that money. We do our own fundraisers for our team, but can use the non profit status & 4 H logo to advertise. All must be approved by 4H. We wanted to raffle off a quilt donated to us, but 4 H doesn't allow "gambling" fundraisers or just asking for donations, so no Go fund me style campaigns. They want the kids to work for the money by raking leaves, etc, but that doesn't raise the thousands of follars we need for robotics. Ones we've done the last few years- (mind you, only a couple families help with any of these) Annual garage sale during a neighborhood garage sale day (nets around $500), kids also sell baked goods & drinks during it (a lot of work & we collect stuff year round as donations to save for the sale) Annual Car wash outside farm store ($300 ish, pretty good for a couple of hours!) Collect soda cans for returning, ongoing We once did a soda can collection/ spare change donation thing door to door, but was a lot of work for the $200ish. Our best $ generating is from donations from local civic groups like Kiwanas & Rotary clubs. The kids give them a nice presentation about their robot & need for money to build & compete. They donate a few hundred every year. We got a huge grant from a local agency 2 years also, that funded a computer & robot parts. That was awesome. Each year, the 4 H organization debates if they'll let us " have" $ Donated by local groups. (Since they want the kids to earn it). IMO, giving a professional presentation or writing a grant application is working for it.

Holt Environmental Science is pretty painless & interesting without being a hard core science course.

Looking for documentaries or video lecture series to complement world geography/ cultures & comparative religion courses at the middle school level (for a kid with LDs, Great Courses too advanced). Thanks!

SO much sleep!!!!!!!

I had a bunch of the Sonlight eastern hemisphere books left from ds to read. usborne book of world religions for a spine, plus a few others I can't remember. Documentaries... Umm, Lori's list is much better than mine, off the top of my head ;)

I loved it! We used book D, I think, quite a few years ago. I would've used the younger ones if they'd been around in time. Painless & fun. It was parent intensive, but if u only have 2 kids & are teaching them together, I'd go for it :) We got 2 newborns for foster care the next year & gave it up. There was an add on option, to order a "kit" with it that already had everything you need copied onto colored card stock. We got that :)

Last year, she offered early registration for families who had inquired during the year. Perhaps this year too

Oh, brilliant! Off to google

I've got about a hundred of them, lol, my mom quilts :)

We loved our Nissan Nv 12 passenger, but it does not fit in a garage, nor have AWD.

Oh, just found some acoustic panels at sams online, thry look promising- https://www.samsclub.com/sams/acoustic-panels-24-x-40-4-pk-burgundy/193620.ip?xid=plp:product:1:3

On days theyre home all morning, it needs to be done in the AM & afternoon, they have late afternoon or evening activities those days often. On DE class or internship morning days, or volunteerimg day for younger kid, it needs to be worked on when they get home after lunch until its done, usually after dinner time. Everything gets finished up on the weekend. Before we started DE classes & internships, work was done every morning till complete. No gaming or hanging out until daily work is complete, or it gets pushed off too late. They get a daily or weekly assignment list. DE kid I just check in with daily, its up to him to plan when to do what. I dont assign "math" during a certain time, or anything like that.

Our old place was so small, we didn't have any couches! Kitchen table for eating at took up most of the living room area. New house has a big living room & a playroom and nothing to sit on yet except for 2 old recliners :)

The closesest we could find was about 3 hours & only a "maybe". Others didn't offer them at all, or only a few & only for their students. Decided to go DE instead of the AP route.