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Cecropia

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Posts posted by Cecropia

    NMSQT "Principal Letter" -- have you received one this month?

    in The College Board

    Posted

    Ds has a high score for our state, and we are confident that he will be a semifinalist, but nothing yet.  I've been obsessively checking college forums to see if the initial letters recognizing Commended+ students have been sent out, without much success.  His College Board account states that he meets eligibility requirements.  (There's a chance that the HS where he tested registered him as one of their students instead of using the homeschool code, so I wouldn't be recognized as the principal)

    Clean, “horror-lite” short stories?

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    I've read "The Eye of the Dragon" (Stephen King) a few times, and there is some brief sexual content.  It's not a horror novel like his others.

    Has she read the "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" books?  Just the images can be kind of unsettling.

    Some of the "Choose Your Own Adventure" original books might work, particularly "The Horror of High Ridge."  Maybe "The Mystery of Chimney Rock."

    "The Red Shoes" by Hans Christian Andersen

    "The Juniper Tree" by the Brothers Grimm

    "Bluebeard" by Charles Perrault

    (Quite a few of the original fairy tales were dark, violent, and creepy, before Disney-fication.)

    "The Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka

    "The Little Black Bag" by Cyril M. Kornbluth

    "It's a Good Life" by Jerome Bixby -- also an excellent (old) Twilight Zone episode once she's read it

    • Like 2

    Movie lines you and your family quote often and is it a common one?

    in The Chat Board

    Posted · Edited by Cecropia
    Added some

    "Nuke the site from orbit; it's the only way to be sure." and "Game over, man! Game over!" from Aliens.

    "Are those the only choices?" and "It's all in me 'ed..." from Chicken Run.

    "If everyone is (adjective), no one is." paraphrased from The Incredibles.

    "You stay here, and make sure he doesn't leave." "We're coming with you!" or any other reference to the guard scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, because that's how my kids listen.

    We also quote Groundhog Day, The Princess Bride, and Star Wars a lot.

    Edit: I forgot two critical ones:

    Ghostbusters!  "Dogs and cats living together -- mass hysteria!"  "Let's get ready. Switch me on."  "I didn't choose anything!  Did you choose anything?" and others

    and we often say "This means something... This is important." when mounding food, sand, garden soil, etc. in reference to Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

    • Like 1

    recipes needed

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    1st idea: Cut up the brats/cook the sausage and put in omelets or quiche.  Throw in veggies and cheese.

    2nd idea: Breakfast sausage recipe: 1 lb ground pork, 1 tsp sage, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp black pepper, 1/4 tsp oregano, 2 tsp brown sugar, 1/8 tsp red pepper flakes, pinch of ground cloves

    Fry it up and reserve some of the drippings for biscuits and gravy. To make gravy, heat the drippings on med and whisk in enough flour to make a roux.  Cook and stir a few minutes and then start adding milk/half in half a little at a time, whisking well until it is the consistency you want.  Salt, black pepper, rosemary, thyme [+red pepper] to taste.

     

    • Like 1

    .

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    3 hours ago, Carol in Cal. said:

    Pork n beans?  The canned kind?  Van Camps ones are very soft.

    This made me think of Chef Boyardee, which is also very soft, meatballs/ravioli can be chopped fine etc.  The liquid "sauce" could be mostly drained away. That's something my dad would recognize and enjoy.

    • Like 2

    Party favors - as controversial as cupcakes?

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    How about some sheets of stickers?  Walmart has several varieties for about a dollar.  You could also print out some comic book template sheets and include a pencil to go with them.

    Bags of microwave popcorn

    Single bottles of Gatorade/Snapple/etc.

    Funky sunglasses from Dollar Tree

    Helium balloons from Dollar Tree

    Get a bunch of Little Debbie/Hostess packs and make treat bags with one of each variety: one ding dong, one twinkie, one oatmeal creme pie, etc.

    • Like 1

    Have you seen the article about the pregnant stingray?

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    I hope that it's parthenogenesis, because the idea of cross-breeding makes me imagine a male shark sexually harassing the female ray until she was exhausted and he was successful.  I know that's applying human ethics to animals, but I admittedly get uncomfortable with that behavior within a species.  It feels extra squicky across distant species.

    • Like 1

    Grade inflation article

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    2 hours ago, Katy said:

    This was also the motivation for the guy who created the AOPS curriculum. He gave a speech that he later published online that discussed how many students thought they were good at math in high school but when they got their first calculus exam (3 questions, 6 pages given to solve them over 3 hours), they didn't have the first idea how to approach a relatively easy question that took an hour of work to solve. I remember reading the speech to DH in bed one night years ago and he (former engineer now in data) was practically leaping up to cheer like he did that time at a football game and his favorite team unexpectedly beat the #3 team in the country.

     

    10 minutes ago, Shoeless said:

    I was just about to post that talk from Richard Rusczyk. He gave the talk almost 10 years ago, so this is not a new problem, either. 

    I've been looking through the thread and hope I haven't missed it, but can someone please post the link to this?

    Registering as a public high school student to take PSAT/NMSQT?

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    The rep from the College Board said that this issue has been an ongoing question, but there is no requirement right now for a school to enroll a home school student who takes the test at their facility.  They are allowed to do so.  However,  "home school" is supposed to be a possible option. He said that a quick change in school enrollment would not cause any problems with the College Board, but wasn't sure about National Merit Scholar Corporation.  He mentioned that if this particular public high school thinks it is a rule to enroll my child, perhaps I can gently direct them to call the College Board who will clear up any confusion.  I'm sure the school will love me for that.

    The rep at NMSC said that the change in enrollment should not affect the program.  He said that there are eligibility questions at the beginning of the exam such as, "Is this your school of record?"  The NMSC does extensive follow up on their semifinalists, and any confusion about enrollment would be resolved during that process.  His advice was to follow the requirements of the high school, and in the case of issues call the high school directly, followed by the College Board.

    Registering as a public high school student to take PSAT/NMSQT?

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    I've been calling three different high schools in our area, trying to sign up my son to take the NMSQT in October as soon as registration is open.  Today I received a reply from the district school he would normally be assigned to.  I can sign him up this week, but they said that in order for him to take the test, he will have to be registered as a high school student at their school.  I wasn't given much information, but the reasoning is something like: with the new digital PSAT, the College Board is pulling electronic records from the school and it's the only way for him to show up in the system?  After the test is over, he can be "dropped back" to home school student again.  The other two local schools haven't mentioned this registration requirement, but everyone sounds hurried on the phone and not the happiest to be dealing with me.

    That conversation just generally set off alarm bells.  I'm worried that if he qualifies for National Merit (our whole reason for taking this test), arbitrary flip-flops in his school/status might harm him in becoming a finalist or with college applications.  I'm going to try and contact the College Board, but I wonder if anyone here has heard about this with the new test?

    September Craft thread

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    My son wanted a tie dye Led Zeppelin shirt, but only size small was left available.  I picked up a shirt, cut it up, and appliqued sections onto an apron.  He also requested a fig leaf embroidered onto the Icarus character in an... um... sensitive area.  I was thinking of you often, Melissa, as I worked on it.

     

    IMG_8915[1].jpg

    • Like 8
    • Thanks 3

    out-of-the box ideas for 10th grade composition

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    My rising 11th grader worked through The Ode Less Travelled by Stephen Fry last year.  It explores different meter, rhyme, and poetry forms with writing exercises in each chapter.  The book is engaging and the "rules" for the exercises are pretty clear and structured -- good for left-brained types, like my kid.  He generated quite a variety of poems by the end.

    Side note:  Some of the content delves into sexual matters in a pretty vulgar way.  I had to edit that out.

    • Like 2

    Can you help me brainstorm some elementary aged activities?

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    I know the Underground Railroad wasn't an actual railroad, but how about using trains/track symbolically somehow?  Laying track along a timeline and the trains labeled or covered with pictures, to be your building or some other representation?  Maybe a lift-the-flap with info underneath at each stop.  This could also be used to show the steps in restoration, or the route your building is on with other landmarks, etc.  If you have the budget for it, kids love the wooden trains/track.

    • Like 2
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