Mt. Pleasant Classical Academy

DS#1 might be adding another school to his short/long list. To date he has applied to 9 schools, been admitted to 5 schools with merit  scholarships to 4. The fifth school notifies merit scholarship recipients in March. The other four schools we’re still waiting to hear from and might not hear from them until March.

We tentatively filled out the FAFSA this past weekend. We don’t know if DS will qualify for financial aid or not. There are several scholarships DS is applying for that require the FAFSA be filled even though they are merit based and not financial based.

In early December I received a tip from Brenda (THANK YOU!) to go to the FAFSA site and apply for a PIN. It can take several days to receive a PIN and one is needed when you sign your FAFSA. Having this ahead of time helped us immensely.

The FAFSA can be filed after January 1st of the school year you are requesting funds for. It is also important to file as early as possible so that your name gets into the queue for consideration. If you wait then by the time your name comes up all available funds might already be gone! Yikes!

The downside of this is that we must also file our taxes soon. Like early February. Yikes! The FAFSA wasn’t that hard to fill out for us although many others do not share my opinion. The hardest part was figuring out what cash we had in our checking and savings accounts—thank goodness for online banking. Then we had to figure out the funds we had in stocks and money market accounts. Well, that was easy for us too. We don’t have a business, or a second home, or lots of funds laying around.

Funny skit, must watch for a good laugh.

14 Days of Homeschool

This quote is for the good homeschooling woman who feels AP courses should not be taught by high school teachers without PhD’s in the subject matter.

People who are truly educated and enlightened do not thumb their noses at other people’s efforts but, rather, support and encourage them.   Janez Arko

Yes, Janez, you are correct. We should help each others efforts, support and encourage them. This other woman truely baffles me. Of course it is OK for her to teach AP courses to her child, call them AP courses but not have the gumption to take her course through the College Board audit process or submit her child to the rigourous AP test. Yet those of us who do teach AP courses who have taken them through the College Board Audit process, and have our students take the AP test are somehow in the wrong. I do not understand her.

The package I sent off in my DS’s college application was thick and a bit time consuming to put together. Actually time-consuming is a relative term. Putting together his package was an enjoyable task as I walked down memory lane. The documents included:

School Profile
Counselor Letter
Transcript
High School Activities & Awards
Course Description
Book List

Over the coming weeks I’ll describe in detail how I put each document together, resources that helped me along the way and suggestions on how you might do these yourself too.

Remember as you compile these documents that there are multiple approaches you too could take in reaching a finished document but there is one over-riding principle I followed and I suggest you do the same. These documents will paint a picture of your child, his homeschool years and it is up to you to decide what will be in that picture and how it will look.

BOOK LIST

This is one document that was not requested by any of the colleges DS #1 applied to. My point in providing the list was to help paint the picture of a student who reads for fun and enjoyment, one who is an avid reader and one not stuck on a particular subject matter, genre or author. The document was three pages in length, single space, one book per line—more on that later, 10 point font.

We did not keep track of books through the years and it sure would have made the task easier if DS had. Although I asked DS to track his books, he did not. Instead we used great book lists, 1001 books to read before you die,    outstanding books to read before college, Amazon.com and other book lists to help DS spark his memory for the books he has read. It was not a complete listing. I know DS missed books that he read but that is OK. The book list was titled:

A Selection of Books Read for Fun and Enjoyment through the High School Years

Using the term selection I hoped would convey that this was not a complete listing. Since any books for a class were listed within the course description document this list just had the fun and enjoyable–by DS standards—books.

The list was organized by author’s last name. Listing by author permitted me to note where DS read numerous books by one author without listing each and every one. For instance the list has:

Terry Pratchett, Discworld Series, and 15 books by this author

Really, who would want to read all 15 titles. The point I wanted to convey was that DS liked Terry Pratchett enough to read 16 of his works and that this kid is an avid reader. Point made in one line in my opinion. Doing this also permitted me to shorten the document without cutting down DS’ immense list.

How you put together this list or even if you put together one, is really your call unless a college specifically tells you they want a book list in a certain manner. I’ve seen book lists by genre, by year published, by book title, by author and even in chronological order by when it was read. I had a hard enough time pulling this list together without trying to pin DS down to the time-frame of when he read the book.

I wanted the list’s appearance to be simple enough for someone to grasp the extent of books DS has read in the last three years. Who knows, perhaps the admission’s person also used the list to search for their favorite author, to see if DS liked the same author he did and gain a connection to DS. Maybe they didn’t even look at the list, but I doubt it. Many admission’s personnel told us that they read every piece of paper submitted in the application. Some colleges do request book lists from homeschoolers but do not expect or request such a document from non-homeschoolers.

And in the end, DS has for all time, a record for his keeping of the books he read for fun and enjoyment throughout his high school years. Nice little gift from me to DS.

The stockings are hung by the chimney with care but look! St Nicolas has already been here!

The presents surround our Christmas tree. I have no idea what is in most of them since Santa (DH) took care of all the shopping this year. He always knows what each of us needs and the presents are always great and well received.

The pies, apple and a pumpkin, are made and the Kentucky Butter Rum cake just came out of the oven. Lobsters, scallops, crabmeat and shrimp are in the frig for tomorrow’s casual seafood dinner. We are ready with our deviled eggs, liver pate and pigs in a blanket appetizers for munching but I imagine we won’t have any room for these after our apple strudels.

There’s sweet potato casserole and Parker House rolls yet to prepare. Youngest DS needs to make our onion dip and then we will be all ready.

Not all is going smoothly in the house though. Oldest DS has a slew of computer programs to write for his online class and he is diligently working through them. Once they are turned in he has two tests to complete for his Calculus class and one last college application to file. So much for him catching up on Physics and American Government this past week. And my siblings claim a homeschooler never has homework–HA!

Merry Christmas to ALL!!!

I’m on Facebook with both friends and family as my friends. Over the past several weeks as DS’ college acceptance letters have arrived I’ve posted ‘Status Updates’ about DS’ college acceptance letters and his scholarship awards. Five times. Five colleges whose acceptance criteria is selective or highly selective. He has been named to their honor college, or as a Founding Scholar, or extended a Provost Scholarship….

Not one family member has yet acknowledged his accomplishment or extended any sort of congratulatory note let alone a hooray, or way to go. My one sis, in a phone conversation with me, stated that DS would be getting a full-ride if he was a PS kid but that I really did a disservice to him by pulling him out (10 years ago). Who knows, maybe he will get a full-ride yet. The admission season is just beginning. But does it never end? Over the years I have celebrated with them their own kids successes but a simple—that’s great, or hoorah—-is too much for them?

Have you been in my shoes and did family ever turn around? Actually I don’t expect mine to ever turn around and get it. That homeschooling does work.

Over the years when family was negative toward us hs’ing I really felt that maybe, if DS wins this competition or that writing contest or scores high on this test or is named as an AP Scholar with Distinction….. extended family might just acknowledge that hs’ing was ok. It never has happened and their comments have been quite the opposite–how he would have accomplished so much more if he was just in public school.

And then again, I know it doesn’t matter. My homeschool friends are posting wonderful comments in response to SIL’s latest anti-hs’ing comment to one of my posts–she claims that folks use hs’ing as an excuse to just pull their kids out with very poor follow-thru. I’ve been hs’ing for ten years and I have yet to meet one family who has done that. It won’t matter if I tell her that though, she still won’t see DS’s accomplishments, his college acceptance letters as anything significant. And I guess I’ve got to realize that even though he has been accepted by colleges, my entire extended family on both sides, will never acknowledge that hs’ing works.

If your extended family supports your decision to homeschool, thank them please. It would be so nice if just one family member supported our decision. I really would have thought that by now, after all our boys successes, one would have, from either side. Just one family member, that’s all I ask.

Yes, college applications, college acceptance letters, scholarship forms and doctor appointments for the kid with the broken leg have been on my mind. Are you wondering through all this what has been going on in the other son’s life? You have! Great, cause this post is going to be totally about DS#2, except of course, for the stuff I’ve already written about DS #1.

If DS #2 had a choice he would spend his day doing origami, from morning to night. Wait, that is what he does unless I give him something else to do. He surfs the net to find complex objects to make and once he has made the object he can then make it again and again. We’re talking complex, complex items too. He just brought me a barracuda, a very real looking barracuda folded from one sheet of paper. He enjoys folding objects. The problem is trying to find him a book that will match his skill level. I also wish I knew how to relate his love of origami to some career (suggestions?). The kid’s visual skills astounish me all the time. Two weeks ago we visited the home of on online friend—now we are friends IRL We were only there for 1-1/2 hours but the following hour in the car DS asked me questions such as—Mom, did you see this on the bookshelf? Mom, did you see such-and-such rifle in the gun case? Mom, did you see the XYZ that was on the 3rd bookshelf? and on and on he went. I never noticed the items or noticed that DS was interested in anything other than the meal he was eating. Wherever we go he’s the one who remembers the route, notices objects and can tell you exactly where in the house you left an item. Amazing visual skills IMHO.

Last weekend DS#2 participated in a two-day speed skate clinic. WOW. It was fabulous and while DS didn’t want to go he excitedly shared his favorite new drills learned in the clinic with me last night. With the medical expenses from the broken leg our finances are really shot but I decided to pull a few dollars from savings to take DS to the clinic and I’m glad I did. He enjoyed it.

In school — 8th grade stuff here, we’ve been focusing on writing everyday using IEW. It only took ten years but I finally found a writing program that I can work with. DS has been writing everyday. He would rather be folding paper than writing on the paper but he has been writing. Our next focus area is math. At the beginning of the year we were using Dolciani Algebra I, copyright ‘64.. I love Mary Dolciani books and we stayed with her until Ch 5. Then I felt like DS needed a break. We switched over to Singapore NEM 1 for a month or so. I picked areas for him to work through, skipping sections right and left, but then giving him three or four weeks to work through the geometry sections. He loved it, said it was easy and ====gasp====fun.

All good things must come to an end and so we came to the end of NEM 1. Not ready to return to Dolciani I pulled out the Key to Algebra books from last year. DS had worked through the first 3 books and half of the fourth. I started him there and he is finding the work with polynomials easy. I find this part of homeschooling really fun. I’m sure that if DS was in PS I really would miss this aspect of my child growing up.

Last year we stopped at this point in the book because DS just couldn’t grasp the concept. This year, a year older and with a brain that is a bit more mature, he is readily grasping the concept and wondering why mom is making him do every problem. It is fun and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

We’re plowing through History and Science/Physics, DS is finding Logic easy, and for grammar I have put R&S aside once again. Instead DS is working in Editor and Chief and learning grammar through correcting someone else’s writing. So, that’s what my awesome Origami folder is up to these days.

To date DS#1 has applied to nine colleges, been accepted at five and the remaining four should notify him in January to March time frame. One engineering school accepted him into their honor’s program and offered a nice scholarship — enough to cover a little more than 1/3 of each year’s bill. A university offered him their scholar’s scholarship which is a bit more than the other scholarship and it would cover about half of each year’s bill. We’ve been excited and elated to see the acceptance notices come in and to open the envelope and find a scholarship offer in there too. Last night DH and I were chuckling over the notices and offers. We have a lot to be happy about.

Twelve years ago this very week the public school was trying to convince us that our DS would never ever read and we should just accept that fact. They tried quite hard to convince us that there was nothing we could do to change the situation or remediate his severe reading disability. No, it wasn’t easy and it did take a lot of work and research but I still shudder to think where he would be if I had not done what I did. Sure, the critics can spout that he might have been fine if I had not intervened but you know what? That was a chance I was not willing to take! If I had to do it all over again I would still make the same choices I made for DS#1 his kindergarten year.

DH started to chuckle as we reminisced about IEP meetings and the crazy things the school’s experts said to us. “What is it?” I asked.

“Well, then you said you wanted to homeschool our boys and though I didn’t say it at the time my thought was—oh no, she’s gone crazy! How on earth is she going to stand to be with them all day. How are they ever going to get into college without a high school diploma? And now look at DS#1! Colleges are offering him (academic) scholarships and he’s been accepted to XYZ Engineering school which is not an easy school to get into either.” We continued to chat about this for the next hour, our pre-homeschooling thoughts and concerns, laughing at how naïve he was to be concerned about a homeschooler getting into college. We’re both glad we homeschooled the boys and I’ve enjoyed the journey.

All these years I thought DH’s major concern when I wanted to homeschool was whether our boys would be socialized but it was really the concern that without an official diploma, issued by an official education entity our boys would not get into college. Would you be surprised to learn that this concern still exists today in the homeschool community? It does.

Recently I was chatting with a friend in Pennsylvania who is moving to another state where homeschooling is ‘GASP!’ not regulated. She is placing her kids into the public school so they will have an official high school diploma, issued by an official educational entity. Honestly, I think it is a shame. It is not a matter of trusting herself to educate her kids but the belief that she cannot issue an official diploma that will be acceptable to colleges. She isn’t alone either. Again and again I hear from my fellow homeschoolers in the rather unregulated state of Delaware who believe that they must have an official diploma, issued by some official educational school entity. It is the reason they give. They want someone else to confirm that the kids have done enough to earn that credit in math or science or history, to assemble the high school transcript and, most importantly, to place the school’s official seal of approval on the transcript. Baloney.

Honey, the transcript is easy to assemble. An official raised seal can be purchased through many office supply stores or online, and you know the kids have done the work since you are the one telling the satellite school what the kids have done. Yes, the transcript was easy to put together this fall. The course description document, while quite time consuming, was actually really fun for me to assemble. It was like putting together a verbal scrapbook of all DS has worked through these past four years. Who better to put together the Guidance Counselor letter than the person who was with the student day-in-and-day-out these past 17 years? Finally the college’s also want a school profile and again, who better to describe what our school requires and how it operates then us? Obviously the package was positively received to date by five school’s. DS wll have a diploma, issued by us and it will be official.

In the near future I’ll share how I assembled our transcript, our course description document, our counselor letter and our homeschool profile.

DH said the other night that his first concern when I said I wanted to homeschool the boys was — how the heck would they ever get into college without a high school diploma. LOL!