Speaking of “flipped classrooms” we did it for 10th grade Global History. For homework, we watched videos of our teacher or student teacher lecturing with a PowerPoint and took notes that way. Then in class, we were able to do group activities and projects that emphasized points. It worked well for that class.
@cakeisgreat Try yay math videos on you tube. It helped my DS19 to understand geometry better. He liked that he could pause it and re watch it as many times as he needed to.
@carolinamom2boys - that sounds great! I definitely will!
@cakeisgreat since your D is a 20 and my S is a 20 we may well be continuing the adventure together.
I couldn’t remember how many AP exams I had to pony up for this year, and I was underestimating it at four, DD says nope, five. Our school only pays towards AP costs for students with clear financial need, but doesn’t require the exams if you take the course. On the plus side the kids taking the exam are exempted from a final, while the kids who don’t take the AP exam have a final. Looks like I will be getting out the checkbook soon. That will be a total of 12 AP courses, not sure how many credits it equates to. She sounds like she is leaning towards taking a full ride offer so she likely won’t try to cut time off of her four years, but can fill up a lot of gen ed courses and electives and will likely be able to fit in a minor along with her major (she is talking two minors at this point, but who knows if she even sticks with the major, lol).
We are planning for all contigencies since we have NO idea what the ultimate decision will be…so AP tests WILL happen for S16.
Our school district has opted the last 2 years to reimburse students (after the fact, in late summer or fall - and if you remember to request it) for the cost of the test if you get a minimum of a 3. I actually like that system…it gives the student some motivation to work hard/study hard for the test so that they will recoop the money spent.
Wow, 4kids, that is a great policy.
Regarding FAFSA, my checks have a “taxable gross” section I used, for W I used her net, so most likely I screwed up (again). I hadn’t saved any money for S college so instead I downsized my house which saved me about $1,000/month that I was planning on using for college. My EFC came out to be about $1,000/month so it was perfect. So I wonder what happens now. The bad part for us is, wife retired and her new gross will be about $4,000/year less than her net this year.
Has everyone sent their CSS profile to schools also?
We have done FAFSA only up to the point of entering all of the demographics and getting ID’s for D16 and I. Will do the rest once our W2’s get here since none of D16’s schools has a short deadline for FAFSA. I did the CSS profile last fall since three of the schools on her list required it and one or two had a very early deadline for submission (Case Western, I think). It wasn’t all that painful, except for paying to send it to the schools. Mrs. Skates and I both have pensions and small retirement accounts elsewhere, no assets in D16’s name or accounts, only bank accounts and a personal residence for us. Nothing complex, yay for a lack of assets, I think (-;
@waitingtoexhale Yes, I think it is a great policy as well. Of course, often it is the parents pressuring the students to do well so they get reimbursed - since the parents have paid up front for the most part.
My kids have saved a portion (dictated in part by parents) of every birthday and holiday check during their lifetime in a separate “college account” over the years which has maybe accumulated 1000-1200 bucks…so we have them pay for the AP tests out of their “college account”…which in turn means they have an “investment” in getting paid back for good scores!
So far my kids have scored well and thus been reimbursed well…so maybe we are on to something!
At my school most of the kids get fee waivers for the AP exams and some teachers let them out of the final if they take the exam. The problem is, when kids only pay $5 for the exam, and it takes the place of their final, they don’t take the exam seriously. Last year after the AP exam I was on Twitter and students were joking about the “joke” answers they put on their AP tests or how they slept the whole time. I told them that-that’s great, but when I’m paying $91 a shot (which was up from $89 the year before) it is rude at the same time. It also makes their teachers look bad.
@fretfulmother, do you get any help with setting up your labs? At my school, if you want to do a lab it means you get to stay after school the day before setting it up, and then the next day you get to stay after school cleaning it up.
@Mysonsdad, @fretfulmother and any other teachers out there…So much more appreciative of high school teachers and the “extras” they do…after hearing from some of them personally on this thread! Bless you! And to think you have to do your HS obligations and be a parent of a senior that is applying to college - Bless you twice!!!
@dcplanner, I sympathize with your friend, the GI Bill thing IS complicated, and by the time you have it figured out, the benefits are gone 
Really glad we had it for daughter #1 though, even with the limitations.
Re: FAFSA, I started filling in demographic info and have the IDs for me and the two daughters. I’d prefer to hold off on putting in the numbers until the W-2 arrives (ours is federal, and it always comes at the very last minute allowed by law ). Older daughter’s one school isn’t due until 2/28, and most of D16’s are 2/10 and later. However, there are a couple of 2/1 schools, so I suppose I will end up having to do the early thing, unless there is some kind of miracle. She has more than ten schools too, so I need to think out how we will carry out the submit-then-delete procedure.
I’ve been dealing with an annoying transcript situation, which started before the holidays. Was finally able to bring it to a conclusion today, but not without a serious headache in the meantime (which is the tl;dr version. Full story below, that I am presenting for my own therapeutic purposes. Feel free to skip, as I probably wouldn’t read it either 
)
I’ve mentioned our homeschooling before, but we are in an unusual situation (common for homeschoolers in our state though) where we are part of a public charter school. We get some funds for curricula, and in exchange we jump through hoops that are not required of independent homeschoolers here. We have to submit a learning plan each year for approval, work samples, participate in state-mandated testing, and meet the graduation requirements of the local school district in order to receive a diploma at the end of senior year. I turn in grades and the registrar prepares a transcript, which is coded in ways specific to the school district’s list of approved courses.
Last spring I was told that D16 was set for graduation, except for needing a “World Literature” class. I thought it was a little odd, because she had completed AP Lit and AP Lang. I had really wanted her to do a public speaking course this year, but I did not question. I searched out a sufficiently challenging World Lit course, turned in the plan, got it approved. And as far as I knew, we were calling it “World Literature.” Certainly she was doing senior level work. At the end of the semester, I turned in grades and such.
Looked at the transcript a couple days later to see that they had coded the course “English 2”. This may not sound like a big deal, but it bugged me. I thought it looked super flaky to have two years of AP lang arts to be followed up senior year by what appears to be a soph level regular course, and this would be going out in the mid-year report to schools from which we have not received decisions yet.
Fast forward to multiple back and forths about coding and NCAA requirements and requirements for our state scholarship (that we may use, and I certainly want her qualified for), not to mention graduation requirements, all with our teacher, who, as an aside, is brand new to the program this year coming from a background of elementary ed. No experience with either high schoolers or homeschooling, and possessing a disinclination to search the school website, where all the information was located. I found it, and brought it to her.
In the end, the school district (whose rep seemed confused by why they were being asked to approve this) said it was fine for AP Lang and AP Lit to substitute for “English 1” (the freshman year regular course for kids in the building-based program) and “English 2”. We also concluded that she never really did need “World Literature”, though now she has a semester of it, and it still needed a name. We found something appropriate in the sea of codes that would make NCAA, etc happy and reflect what she had done academically. I set up a plan for a public speaking course for the upcoming semester (and she is continuing the Lit too though because…well, she likes it, lol.)
Oh, and did I mention that the spring semester of her Chinese course at the university was cancelled for spring due to low enrollment. So add in a scramble to make a Mandarin plan. Thankfully her tutor from previous years is available. This instructor really is superior to even the university course, though the colleges will not give credit for D’s work with her, obviously.
Also, in the midst of the code search, I stumbled upon the information that the school district considers AP Comp Sci to be math and not science. I had been blissfully unaware that D16 officially only has six semesters of science (and looking at twelve semesters of math by the end of the year.) Argh, and kicking myself a bit.
Finally, I’ve made plans to attend the board meeting for the school next week and advocate for a staff person with some expertise in high school/college prep issues.
@GoodGrief16 We also use a public charter for my S20. So far it has been easy for 9th grade but next year we have to follow their high school course outlines. I get to see the documentation tomorrow. At our school you can choose an A-G (California) option which uses the school’s online courses (Edgenuity courses) or you can do the homeschool option which is not A-G approved at least at this time. My fear is that the UCs state that students at CA charter schools must use an A-G curriculum but I am specifically choosing not to. I assume they will allow us to apply by exception even though we are with a public charter…It is all very nerve racking.
It is worth it though for the special education supports. The public charter has been fantastic.
@LKnomad , have you checked out the forums at welltrainedmind.com? The college board and high school board might be really useful to you. There seems to be a good many California parents there, and discussion abt UC requirements.
@lknomad I have a 20 as well. Glad there will be some familiar folks when that thread starts!
Thanks for pointing out the value of taking AP exams even when the current first choice college is unlikely to give credit for them. It will make paying for those 6 exams a little easier to swallow. Now I just need to ask GC how signing day works since he has an exam that a.m. I need to schedule some things at the office so it would be good if signing “day” is really signing “couple of hours”.
I’ve already paid $500+ for my D’s 6 AP exams. That’s the bad news. The good news is that since she got into one of her top choices, she’s not really worried about AP exams! Lol. She is a kid that tests really well, but as I keep reminding her, that doesn’t mean that she can completely slack off (senior iris is kicking in).
Thanks, @Waiting2exhale ! You are very kind.
@GoodGrief16 - that is so complicated! I am impressed. And also I’m glad not to be the only one who doesn’t have the tax info yet to finish the FA forms…mine seem always to come as late as possible too. I can estimate W2s from the last paystub, but there’s always something surprising, it seems.
@Mysonsdad - Yes, I have to set up and clean up the labs, but I’m blessed to have one class/prep that I share with a super-organized colleague and so we can share the responsibility. In my other prep, I have to do it all, but since they’re juniors, I can direct them to do a lot of the station clean-up themselves. This is my first year of that prep, so I will admit that writing up labs and prelabs and tweaking them, is taking more time than it will next year. I’m offering one point of test extra credit to any student who finds an error in my new handouts, to accelerate the correction process!
In fact, yesterday I even tried having them put away the ring stands and other equipment when they finished, and it worked great! Being a Mom also gives me a sense of what kids this age should be capable of in terms of straightening up… I also liked it when I had toddlers in my family and HS students, because the HS students never followed me to the bathroom whining, and the toddlers never argued about too much homework.
OK can I just share something cute that just happened last night - my youngest found out that his special ed writing teacher is going on maternity leave to have her second child, next month. He wanted to get a baby gift and remembered the sale on “Prince” - well, they were out of Prince, but we found a bear so that was fine. I told him to write a note to give with the bear. It took a lot of scratching out, redoing, etc., but ended up saying, “Now that you will have two kids, I hope they will have as much love and playfulness as I have with my two brothers”
@fretfulmother your youngest’s note is very sweet.
@GoodGrief16 we ran into a similar problem with a semester of physics being labled as computer science because it involved MATLAB programming. This was at TAMU. They were just sitting on the application because they thought my DD didn’t have 4 years of science. It took me writing and then calling and the our GC writing and calling to get it all straigthened out. TAMU was the only school of the 5 she applied to that had interpreted the class that way.
Not to make this whole thing more fraught for everyone but I should mention too that when my DS was applying to dental school I learned there are lists of classes that are considered science (and added to the separately calculated GPA for science). Some of the classes that were “not science” really surprised me - environmental science, computer science - are not science. The other thing that really surprised me was the intricate set of rules for what would be added in to the GPA from high school (e.g. classes taken at CC likely would be added as the AADSAS asks for classes taken at any college) and some schools would not take AP classes and/or (less frequently) cc classes as evidence you had met the course requirements for admissions. For any of you whose kids are considering a health related career I would suggest taking a look at the student doctor network website to just to get a feel for how things work on the applications for the various health fields. There were many people on those boards findings out four years into college that now they needed additional classes or that their high school senior slide grades might affect the science GPA reported on their applications to grad school.