when I dropped off my then 10th grade son, who had never set foot in a school building before... yes! I felt that way. He was fine, and did well. They can handle more than we give them credit for, I think.

That's on the agenda for Friday. Akron is probably one of the more likely options at this point. A lot of homeschoolers around here go to UA, so I think it's pretty homeschool-friendly. Where in NoVA? I grew up in Fairfax... looks like we changed places! Debbie

Kent State is pretty far down on the list, but it's only about half an hour away, so I figured we may as well check it out -- just for the experience, if nothing else. I found it interesting that they added at least 10 minutes walk (each way) to an already long tour just so they could show off their cool new swimming pool/recreation facility. Not sure what it adds to academics, but you can sure see why tuition keeps going up! Dorms were nicer than Baldwin Wallace, but he'd live at home if he attended either of those schools anyway. Unfortunately, research over the weekend suggests they don't have the right emphases available within their Comp Sci department. Can't say I'm sorry -- the one thing I know about KSU from living in the area is that they are LIBERAL. Plus there was some flap a few years ago with them defending a KSU professor who kept a jihadist website. Not the place I want our money to go, I guess. That brings our schools under consideration down to 12... more weeding to go! Debbie

A quick scan through the answers you received showed some great ideas, but I didn't see this one. Most college websites have available (sometimes in their online catalogs) the list of coursework required for each major, as well as the course descriptions. It's a lot of work, but since my son has a fairly precise subset of computer science that he's interested in, I pasted that information into a document for each school on our list of possibilities (14 of them - so it was a daunting task, but worth it.) I suggested he open a document on a particular school, open the school's website (link at the top of the document), and make any notes or impressions or questions he has while he's reading through it all. It's been helpful in narrowing down the list. HTH

I often remind myself that, given what I had to work with, (my own weaknesses and sinful nature, as well as that of my children) I did the best I could at the time. For some unfathomable reason, God trusted me with these kids (personally, I'd have given an incompetent like me the easy kind of kids who almost raise themselves and have few if any major issues, instead of kids all over the autism/OCD spectrums.) I have to trust that He knows what he's doing. If nothing else, I've have learned and continue to learn one amazing truth. It's the reason my username is... (His) Grace is Sufficient. (2 Corinthians 12:9)

I used it. It was great with my son, who at the time (either 8th or 9th grade) had a style of writing much too young for his age and for his other abilities in English (very simple sentences and low level vocabulary.) Within a few months I noticed a great improvement. For my daughter, who had a more natural flair for writing, it still had some benefit, but not so strikingly noticeable. She also got more frustrated with the repetitious nature of it. Overall, I was pleased and would recommend it. HTH, Debbie

Pass on a thanks to your dad, too. We really appreciate the input. I'm thinking my daughter and I will be taking a road trip to Montana over spring break and visiting some of these schools. She had recently been steered toward the school at Bozeman from someone else, and is very interested in it, too. Rocky Mountain college looks worth a visit, but I confess a bad attitude toward any school that has a lot of extra hoops for homeschoolers to jump through, and they seem to fit that category. Thank you everyone! Debbie

We are using that for .5 credit of art history/appreciation for my 12th grader. I confess that it's all we're using. Others have supplemented it with Teaching Company videos or something by ... Sister Wendy? (I think that's the name) But in our case, his course load is so heavy on HARD math/science/computer courses this year that I'm trying to minimize the time spent on anything else. HTH Debbie

I'm really not ready to see this yet. In-denial mom whose oldest -- homeschooled since kindergarten -- is now a senior.

since we did LL8, but I don't think there is a progression in skills that would be interrupted by doing The Hobbit out of order. Hopefully someone else can confirm this, though.

nt

:iagree: with Martha. The attitude felt a little heavy-handed to me, but I'm also inexperienced in taking a kid to college.

This year: Calculus (Math-U-See) Electronics (same book as The Potter's School uses, but at home) *English (Landmark Baptist something or another) *Semester of Government (LifePacs) *Semester of Economics LifePacs and Hazlett book) *Half credit of Art History (Annotated Mona Lisa) *These are all chosen to be the bare minimum to ethically give a credit (I've never done this before) but his focus needs to be on the first two, as well this his only outsourced course explained below. He takes one class at the local Career Center, but it's a doozy! It's called the Computer Networking Academy. It's 3 hours every day for two academic years. This will be his second year in the program. It's worth 3.5 credits each year, plus at the end of the 2nd year, assuming he continues to do well, he'll have 18 credit hours granted from the local CC, plus several professional certifications if he passes the right tests. (He's already passed a couple to earn a certificate called CompTIA A+ something or another.) All this for free - we're finally getting something for all those property taxes to support the local school.

I guess I'll just get one or two of the AP exam prep books, and use that as a guideline to figure out what to focus on... Appreciate the info, Debbie

The 55 chapter book arrived today... YIKES! (55 meaty chapters, too) Anyone have any idea how to pare this down to something reasonable? Thanks! Debbie

My daughter is doing Campbell's bio this year, and I (the non-science mom) am completely intimidated by it. I'm hoping she'll be able to take the AP test, but I am so totally clueless about all of this! I would love to hear anyone's thoughts on how to implement it. Anyone have ideas for lesson plans without adding a video watching component? Thanks! Debbie

I also think those books are unreasonably long. It seems that the appearance of what schools are doing keeps getting more and more impressive, while for most of them the reality is increasingly lame (e.g. percent of classes with the label AP versus the number of passing scores.) But as homeschoolers, it's easy to feel pressured to keep up with the appearance of what schools are doing and run our kids ragged trying to match it. Since it has been clear for a while that neither of my students are driven to excel academically, I'm willing to settle for 'good enough.' As for the overlong textbooks or overly ambitious lesson plans, I usually either avoid them or spend a lot of time paring them down to reality. I want my kids to have some time to live life and be involved in other activities. Obviously some people have students with a more academic bent, and they will have a different response. Blessings, Debbie

Biology with MasteringBiology (8th Edition) I'm looking at that one on Amazon, but unfortunately, you can't see inside at all. Has anyone used this edition or even an earlier edition of the same book? Thanks again, Debbie

My rising 11th grader wants to take AP Bio and Marine Biology this year. The Marine Biology is a no brainer. She really likes the Jay Wyle Apologia texts. She's 'sort of' done Apologia Biology -- when she was too young for it, and she reads the text for fun sometimes, so I'm looking for something different for her. But she's picky... Question: Do any texts that cover the AP level material NOT have real small print and the lines close together? Ideally not to many sidebars with distracting, not-very-relevant material? Thanks!

I agree that it could certainly be worth a half credit, but I think it might better be termed civics than government, since it doesn't cover the information found in a typical government course. Blessings, Debbie

It has been a fantastic learning, maturing, and character-building experience for my now 17 year old son. As far as parental involvement, in our squadron very little, if any, is actually required, but it seems reasonable to give back a little to these people who have given so much to my son and the other young people involved. I can say that different squadrons have very different 'personalities' but frankly, ours isn't one of the best in some ways, and it's still been great. Debbie

every time!

Since you'll need two more years of science... my son is going to be taking electronics. We're using the same book that the Potter's School class uses, but he'll be doing it at home. Blessings, Debbie

... on the crosspost in the high school board.

Thanks.