Well, to answer some questions, at the moment (10th grade), my student is thinking an Associate's Degree in Physical Therapy Assistant. This is a meaningful occupation for her as she currently is undergoing physical therapy and believes she would enjoy it as a career. However, we have for her whole life pushed the idea of a Bachelor's Degree as a must do. So that's not off the table, although the Associate's Degree would come first at the community college. And then, maybe, finish up the Bachelor's Degree at the local university. Maybe. I specifically I guess wanted to understand how I might need to prepare her differently other than standard university prep. I know how to do that. I don't know how to prep for community college. I mean, we are shifting her senior year science from Physics to Anatomy and Physiology (the cc requires high school bio and chem for phys ther asst) to give her a leg up in her college level anatomy class. Other than that, I am still requiring 4 english, 4 math (she will make it thru PreCal), 4 science, 4 social studies, 4 foreign language, 1 fine art, etc. But about these different priorities that community colleges have... is it just that employability is more the priority rather than education for education's sake? I'm just pondering if I need to do things differently in some way for her high school years...

In a resurrected thread, Hunter mentions that she teaches kids differently for attending community college because there are different priorities, staff, etc. As my own daughter will almost certainly attend our local community college, I was wondering if Hunter (or anyone else) could speak to this a bit. What skills and things do you focus on, vs. if the intent was a 4 year university?

We liked Real World Algebra for its description of how to speak in math language. Really cute and memorable.

What about Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds? I second the original Jurassic Park. Empire Strikes Back is a favorite.

Well, I was 25 when I married my husband who was 40 at the time. We've been married 18 years and have a daughter, who my husband is currently teaching to drive. I think these age things really are so dependent on the personality and compatibility of the people involved. We're going strong, and although he is now almost 58 and I am 43, it's not a problem. He's the energizer bunny and I'm the one that sits on the recliner and watches TV. He does talk about retirement, but he knows he can't do that until our daughter is through college. Then perhaps we'll travel or something. Maybe enjoy some grandchildren :) I do have to say, from a maturity standpoint, that I believe it is much easier for a 25 year old woman to be with a 40 year old man, than vice versa. I mean, when I was 25, it was hard to find guys my age that had full time jobs and life goals. Seriously. I am totally glad I married someone mature. :) And he's still the finest person I've ever met in my whole life.

Agree with Grantmom. My dd is looking at Physical Therapy Assistant at our community college, and they specifically want at least biology and chemistry in high school. Obviously, she could take them once she gets tocommunity college, but then she wouldn't be able to start on her PTA program right away.

My vsl does really well with Mathusee Algebra. It teaches the more conceptual view. I am aware that some consider it light, but I actually consider it great for big picture thinkers. If they understand the concepts (and Mr. Demme is great at that), then the actual work is no problem. Except of course for those pesky details that come from "careless errors," which you just have to try to train out of your big picture thinker or be aware that those will always crop up. We are concurrently using Lifepac Geometry for my vsl due to spending a semester with Horizons Algebra last year and not starting MUS until January. I don't know that I would recommend Lifepac for anyone, but it's working for us. I tweak a lot. It's nice that it's in workbook form, and I do a lot of highlighting and extra teaching. Plus I got awesome geometry manipulatives from Lakeshore Learning which I use to demonstrate stuff. If we weren't doubling up on Math this year, I probably would just go all with Mathusee. I do plan on using it for Algebra 2 and PreCal also. I think it is very solid on concepts, which is what our vsls need.

Well, when I use mine in my kitchen, I can smell it in my dining room but not really into my living room (also a bit of a combo, and cathedral ceilings), so if I were you, I would get another one to plug in the living room for sure.

Where we live, the power company has a free program where they will come by and check your house's efficiency by sticking a thing in the front door and sucking out all the air (or something like that). Then they seal up places that need sealing. All for free. Check into it. It wasn't actually the power company that did ours, it was a local a/c company, but I think we got to them through the power company.

Fiskars makes grown up lefty scissors. I've seen them at Joann recently. I own three pairs. Oh, I see Amazon has them: https://www.amazon.com/Fiskars-All-purpose-Left-hand-Scissors-12-94508697WJ/dp/B00006IFN8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1472161255&sr=8-2&keywords=fiskars+lefty+scissors

It's not Probiotic, it's an ointment called "Protopic." Available by prescription. Just to clarify. :)

My dd gets eczema from dairy. Our allergist gave us Protopic to use, which works very well. He has also recently been prescribing some cream that starts with Tri... but we still have tons of protopic so we use that. It can be used on the face. I'm thinking it is not steroidal. If you are working with a pediatrician and not an allergist, I would recommend seeing an allergist. It's their specialty :)

Yeah, I have a swim skirt with attached capri leggings from Lands End and a long sleeved rash guard. My dd has a long sleeved rash guard and swim tights from Swim Outlet. We avoid the burn! I wonder if Nice would think my outfit was a burkini. My cousin said it looked like a 20s swimsuit. I don't care. It's awesome.

My big picture kiddo did not do well with WWS 1. We stopped when they started making her re-write the description of a room. That said, outlining for us is big picture. Her outlines are simple, unless she is having to write a paper from them, in which case we go through the simple outline again a couple times and add stuff for the paper. Not whole sentences necessarily, just ideas and phrases. Bullet points, if you will. So the outlines can be simple because their big picture minds work that way? (If that's the case. I think so from you post. If not, please disregard :) )

I wanted to mention that we can't deal with black and white, no space, stuff at our house either. I solve that by highlighting. We have highlighters of every color. If I want my dd to retain, I highlight or have her highlight. Color makes everything better!

I make my own schedule in a composition notebook. If I had your stuff, it would look something like this: Date BFSU: pp. __ to ___ TAN's Story of Civilization: pp. ___ to ___ Saint literature: Sant Book Name pp. __ to ___ Memoria Press: Book Name pp. __ to ___ Dancing Bears: pp. __ to ___ Miquon: Lesson or pages ___ to ___ Do each thing however you want. Then you just checkmark when done. New list every day. (I like lists.) HTH!

I like Remedia's outlining workbooks to teach outlining. Then, once they've learned outlining, it's no sweat to apply it to other books. Beginning Outlining: http://www.christianbook.com/beginning-outlining-grades-3-4/1561752932/pd/7361134?event=ESRCG Outlining: http://www.christianbook.com/outlining-grades-5-8/1561750565/pd/736134?event=ESRCG

Wander around Hobby Lobby, especially looking at the fun seasonal stuff. Go antique-ing, except all that means is here looking at stores with old stuff in them. Still fun. I like to do theme nights sometimes, where I pick a movie to watch at home and decorate the living room correspondingly, then eat themed foods, too. I've lately been thinking about a Christmas in Summer theme night, where I play Christmas music and watch Christmas movies. Maybe throw a few Christmas decorations on the mantel. Surf pinterest for fall foliage pictures. Forgot to add: Puzzles!

I have a wax cube warmer that I love, so I'd love some yummy smelling wax cubes. Can she make those? But you'd have to make sure the recipient was into that.

Well, when my dd was researching articles on drought a couple years ago, she found this website from some guy in India who said he liked to look at topics having done no research whatsoever and draw conclusions. So in his first paragraph or so, he actually redefined drought as the absence of trees and concluded that to end drought, we simply needed to plant trees. There ya go.

craft kits from oriental trading scratch art toobs

I'm not a dog person at all. I had no idea you couldn't jog behind or past a dog. Why couldn't you? What kind of radius are we supposed to give a person walking a dog?

Substitute teacher at a private or public school?

Follow up, then. Can we just do Precalculus, and that will be adequate prep for the College Algebra CLEP? I thought Precal and College Algebra were significantly different?

College Algebra is only a semester in college. Wouldn't that make it a year in high school? Also, are there books that are College Algebra with Trigonometry? Or will I need to use two different texts? Thanks for the info, guys. Keep it coming.