<p>I should clarify - the supposed “best fit” school needs to be first or last for *geographic *reasons (so we won’t be backtracking in the car.)</p>
<p>The only thing I know is that by necessity we’ll be doing the visits in the summer and if every school makes us take long walks outside in the blazing summer sun, she’ll hate every school. I don’t really know what to do about it because it makes sense to visit these schools in a one week loop rather than trying to fit one or two of them in during the school year.</p>
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<p>It was interesting with Son. I did the northern loop and H did the southern loop. On our trip, S disliked the last school. On H’s trip, the very last school (really just added because it was on the way home) was Son’s favorite and where he ended up.</p>
<p>Incidentally, there is a terrific series on PBS about the biology of the brain and emotions (happiness, depression, autism, relationships, etc.) hosted by Daniel Gilbert, a Harvard psychology professor who wrote Stumbling on Happiness. The first session dealt in part with autism. The second did not tell me stuff I didn’t know but I’ve read a fair bit in this area. I think that they are showing a bunch of times.</p>
<p>MP, don’t know if this helps but S2 only visited two schools. His first one was WVU, which he obviously loved. His second was JMU, which he hated almost from the minute he stepped out of the car, making negative comparisons to WVU. He ended up refusing to even apply and in fact never applied anywhere but WVU and refused to even visit another school after that experience. Talk about making a bad impression!</p>
<p>Thanks for the link, Shawbridge. Interestingly enough, McSon not only believes intelligence is fluid/grows, he also believes specifically that he has developed his own neural pathways to comprehending/processing sound and language that did not exist or were dysfunctional organically. This is a bit of a double-edged sword. On one hand, I believe him: his Adult Scan showed a remarkable improvement in auditory discrimination. On the other hand, his belief is what has had him eschew compensation insofar as he believes that by constantly TRYING to process and keep up unaided, he is slogging through that neural jungle with a machette and ergo developing those new pathways (while others are driving sports cars on the highway to the same comprehension ; ). The only problem with this approach is that it causes reluctance in terms of accepting practical assistance in some instances, but methinks necessity is shifting that one.</p>
<p>DTE, my kids have all had the typhoid vaccine (shot) for their various travels. The only side effect I remember is a sore arm. My S did have to take an oral anti-malarial that upset his stomach. He was on malaron (or something like that).</p>
<p>Both my younger kids have typhoid and took Malaria either while they were away or started it a few days before. Neither had any reaction. Was typhoid the one where they had to be given in two doses? I can’t remember. I think however they are good to go anywhere pretty much for seven years or was it 10? Can’t afford to send them anywhere these days, so… barely matters at this point.</p>
<p>Our church sends groups to Africa on short term mission trips. One of the ladies at church actually came back with malaria. I wonder why she didn’t take anti-malaria medicine.</p>
<p>My H wants to take me somewhere when THIS is all over. i dont know if we can afford it either. But my kids go to great places. My D2 has issues with her stomach and I am worried the typhoid pills will mess up her stomach. She is intense and has finals soon too. If I can find the shot I think I might do that.
I’d like to see San Francisco never been to California, lived in pakistan but never anywhere past Colorado.</p>
<p>Early in our marriage, we took a Monterey-Yosemite-San Fransisco trip. Beautiful beach, beautiful national park, beautiful city. I think you deserve a trip like that, DTE. (Plus good shopping in SF for new clothes.)</p>
<p>I started writing a post about all the places our kids have been and to which my H and I have been to exactly none of them, but it was too depressing. Suffice it to say, we get no financial aid and no vacations.</p>
<p>Travel will be the last thing on our budget that goes. We fired the cleaning lady, let go of the lawn guys, cancelled the country club membership, filled in the pool, and ultimately I went back to work (albeit part-time, working for myself, and from home so it has turned out to be OK), but even before that travel was the one expense for which we would willingly dip into savings. I seldom choose to travel myself anymore, but H and the boys still get out and about a lot. </p>
<p>At this point in my life I am traveled out. I had to have a clearance run when I joined the military at age 17 and remember that I had lived in 15 homes by that time (they needed every address, which my mother happened to have kept). I have had a heavy travel job much of my life and if I never see the inside of an airplane again, I will be happy. But I consider travel to be part of an education. We made sure our kids got overseas at least once a year since birth (either with us or with some other group).</p>
<p>Missypie, because of that experience (and the fact that I expect at least S2 to take a job requiring a clearance), I do have a computer file with every address each boy has had just as my mother did. I also keep a work file for them based on the stuff those silly clearance people need (which includes things like the name of your supervisor, salary history, etc.). </p>
<p>You know what drives me crazy? As anal as I am about record keeping, every time I go to get a haircut she always ask me when I had my last haircut and I have no idea. I have to write everything down or it doesn’t exist. My brain just does not retain that kind of info.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure that the house that we lived in in Crossville IL (pop 850) didn’t have an address. We had a PO Box and the house was “on the highway.” Would “white stone house on the highway next to the soybean field” be good enough for the military?</p>
<p>They would find it. When I got my second clearance (department of state for an embassy job rather than department of defense for the military), I was working part-time as a waitress in a steak house while in grad school. They came in and talked to CUSTOMERs who were my regulars! Those guys are thorough, trust me.</p>