Welcome @curiositycat333 and @NerdMom88! What majors are your kids considering? Schools? Merit hunt?
FWiW, homeschoolers received commended letters bc we are our kids’ principal. Commended letters came out this spring. NMSF letters should arrive in Sept. As homeschoolers get their letters and start posting their info, the breakdown of scores by state starts to be predictable (bc some schools do not announce until a later date…not sure why.)
I think I would let either kid stay at home alone overnight if we really had to, but we have thus far successfully avoided having to. Last week when I had a ton of classes and D17 had already left for camp, it was looking like D15 was going to be home alone all day, every day, for four days. My next door neighbor asked her if she would like to work with her at art camp, so that saved her from being stuck home alone. I live in an amazing neighborhood with really good people as neighbors. I think both girls are capable of holding down the fort and responsible enough not to have a party at the house, but it’s not what I would consider an optimally safe situation.
Our school didn’t send out anything to the kids about being commended, and D17 was above that cutoff, so I’m assuming either they told them in person and she just didn’t tell me, or they didn’t tell anyone. Right now the entire school is closed down because of extensive remodeling. Even the staff isn’t allowed onsite. I hope this will result in a renovated and ready to go school come August. But I’m not holding my breath! Regardless, I don’t think I could get an official transcript from them right now.
I need to photograph some horses today for a class assignment. Except that it’s so infernally hot here that they’ve been keeping the horses in the barns! Augh! I may cave and do cows. Evidently cows don’t care how hot it gets.
Wow, just got D’s writing score on the act-it’s a 26. 
That is astoundingly bad. I’m not sure what to do with that number-should I ask for a rescore? Can I cancel just the writing part? What a bummer.
@MotherOfDragons is your D15 a college sophomore? I don’t remember her mention, but I’m getting old.
@MotherOfDragons I don’t think you have anything to lose by requesting a rescore (beside the $50 fee) if your D truly believes she did better and there is a disconnect. If they raise her score even 1 point, you get your money back. Did your D do well on the Reading and English sections? If so, I would definitely request a rescore. There have been LOTS of complaints recently about ACT writing scores on CC. I read on another thread that extremely sloppy handwriting gets penalized, so consider that as well.
I think I’ve somewhat talked myself back off the ledge-it looks like a 26 is still in the 93% for scoring:
http://chariotlearning.com/why-are-act-writing-scores-so-low/
It also looks like the ACT screwed the pooch with regards to scoring the writing portion with any balance or logic. :^o
Right now I"m not leaning towards giving them any more of my money. @STEM2017 yeah her english section was 35 and she has extremely sloppy handwriting (not on purpose, just not good at neat handwriting because she can’t make her hand go as fast as her head)
@2muchquan I have a 17 yo daughter and a 15 yo daughter 
@MotherOfDragons A 26 is actually pretty good. Check the percentage. I think it’s gotta be 90th percentile? Not astoundingly bad, and not going to take her out of the running for anything I’m guessing.
Hi @curiositycat333 and @NerdMom88 
Staying home alone Dh and I are going away for 5 days in October for our 25th anniversary. D will be staying with her older sister in that sister’s off-campus apartment. Handy that older dd attends fhe university near where we live…and that D is homeschooled. D can forget to eat, so I wanted some oversight. She’s also a bit of a fraidy cat when alone at night.
We have left multiple kids at home alone as soon as the oldest ones were 16 and 18. Older dd is an old soul who kept her older brother in line 
My sister’s family lives five blocks away; she or her dh would check in with the kids every day. (So nice having them close by. Both couples moved to this area on purpose when our kids were little, because we wanted the kids to know their cousins and grandparents. Unfortunately our parents are gone now way too soon.)
@fun1234 Academic electives are those that go beyond the college’s required/recommended list. If the school says “4 English, 4 math, 3 science, 3 history/social science, 3 foreign language, X academic electives” they would count a fourth science required by the student’s high school as one of those academic electives.
@MotherOfDragons which date is the writing score from? I just read that they are changing how they are scoring the writing. They know their are issues with the scoring.
Thanks to whomever mentioned “The Week” when we were discussing how to keep kids up on current events. D now reads it eagerly when it arrives. She likes the ads a lot, but the content will hopefully sink in as well. :))
My son really didn’t have any room in his schedule to take more than an extra math and extra science all 4 years because he had health gym art technology in the 24th century. Can the extra lab count?
@jeepgirl the June 11 test. The essay score just came out this morning for us. Luckily I’ve managed to have this freakout online only and H and D don’t know about the score. I think I will just keep it to myself. 93% is fine. It just didn’t “go” with the other numbers. But after reading around, I guess it’s not supposed to. Still really jarring to see that number pop up.
One of these things is not like the other…one of these things just doesn’t belong (cue Sesame Street)
Well, crap. D2 had taken the ACT again just to raise her math score because she forgot all testing know-how in February and forgot to skip a tough question to finish the rest of the section. This time, she raised her math score but the writing fell from a 25 to an 18???
Is Calculus bc kind of easy the first half if you already took calculus ab last year
Welcome new posters to this thread. Lots of good info in here, please share any knowledge you have.
My son took 6.5 credits last year so how can I convince my son to take 7 credits instead of 6. 5 AP’s instead of 4 ap’s Don’t colleges like to see an improvement over last years schedule. More credits and a harder schedule. He has a 96.79 average it seems he has room to have a little less stellar grades and still be ok. How much reading is involved in English writing AP? His senior schedule is AP Latin AP English writing AP calculus BC Anatomy and physiology and AP chemistry so to throw in AP Psychology doesn’t seem to bad to me especially since it is on line. Though he is on the academic decathlon. He hasn’t had a grade lower than a 92. He really wants to go to rice university. Since it is an online class I am thinking he could read ahead during the weekends Also he does not work. Maybe he won’t be able to be as active in the boy scouts
D has never stayed home overnight by herself. When I travel, she either comes with me, stays with her father, a grandparent, or a friend. I wouldn’t have a problem with her staying by herself but she is a fraidy cat.
@NerdMom88 Sorry to hear about your Daughter and the illness. I understand what you are going through we have spent the past two years dealing with the after effects of a rare lung disease. I know it is frustrating but I hope all works out well for you and your daughter.
@fun1234. Yes. BC Calc is about 2/3 AB material.
6 credits senior year is perfectly fine. And even though people refer to AP Psych as AP lite, it’s because the test is easy for the top kids, not because the workload is light. D had a ton of reading in that class.
** Leaving kids home alone ** We occasionally leave S17 home alone, such as when we travel out of state to visit/help D14. With jobs, school, band and other commitments, he doesn’t spend much time there anyway. Plus, he’s home alone all day when he’s off work or out of school and we are at work. Not sure how the darkness makes that much difference. [-O< He is allowed to have one friend stay with him with pre-approval from us and the friend’s parents. We also require multiple check-ins by phone and text, and the neighbors are notified so they can help keep an eye on things. Grandparents are within 1/2 hour if an emergency arises. We’re lucky that he’s a trustworthy kid.