not as HUGE as if i were there ... but i am sure you guys can make it huge enough.. w/o me ,.... ken ps: my garden story .. for what its worth.. lol .. the eastern Europeans made their clear white lightening drink from their potatoes... vodka and all ... and those darn british and their love of the juniper [green man and all that celtic lore] ... threw in some berries and made it gin ... all made up.. i am sure ...lol.. [and the Irish/Scots skipped the potato and aged it in oak.. and came up with the brown version of lightening ... and the Italians.. skip it all and wallowed around in rotting grapes ... see.. who expected these brilliant insights... lol ...] pps: and i will yell.. i said ... FOR WHAT ITS WORTH ... lol .. yeah ... i know.. not much ... Here is a link that might be useful: link -- useless facts for the day ....

BlueStephen....When you so generously sent Kim and I a Conifer book as a prize, I decided to join also...just haven't followed through yet. New Years resolutions: Return phone calls, emails, complete and mail forms in a timely manner. Keep voice mail, inbox, and postal mail cleaned up and organized. Schedule online bill payments with 'Bill Pay' when the invoice arrives The same every year! Barbara

My son who is entering 9th grade next year & my daughter, who is soon to enter 10th grade, are both homeschooled. If your child plans to attend a 4 year university right away after HS, as parent, it is your job to do a little investigating. In the HS years they should take all the college prep classes that the colleges require. For example for CAL States: Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, 2 years of science with a lab, 4 yrs English, 2 years Foreign Language, 3 years of History, etc. Then you as the parent should put together a high school transcript documenting all these courses & years of study. Your student should take the SAT or ACT. Then with a parent issued diploma, they can apply for university. The Cal States state that homeschooled highschoolers can be admitted on the same grounds as traditionally schooled students. Which means they must have completed all necessary prep classes with a high enough GPA and score high enough on the SAT. Now if your homeschooler does not plan to attend 4 yr college right away (just like many public schooled kids) you can forgoe the SAT prep and some of the college prep classes in HS. Many kids in public school do not take the college prep route and plan to attend a community college before transferring to a 4 year & this route is fine for a homeschooler too. In the end both routes end with a 4 yr degree. Community college courses are just as rigourous as 4 yr college classes and transfer students do just as well as those who started at university from the start. There are some benefits to attending community college first as well. It is less expensive. It also gives kids two extra years to really plan what career path they are going to take and to choose the correct university. It is a great option & definitely not a "backdoor" way into college as others have so rudely and wrongly called it. There are plenty of people who are accepted into great 4 year universities every year and yet choose to go the community college route for a variety of reasons. The mother of your neice sounds like she just misplanned a little. She should have prepared a HS transcript & made sure her daughter was taking collge prep classes. But it's not too late to construct a transcript and then she can choose one of two options: 1) complete the missing college prep classes at home & add them to the transcript, take the SAT & apply OR 2) go directly to community college and begin the next level of her education right away. It's not a big deal at all and is exactly what many public schools kids with public school diplomas do! They will place her in the correct classes for her level as far as English & Math and she can begin enrolling in the classes she'll need for a nursing major. After successfully completing her 2 yrs of community college work she can transfer to the nursing school that is right for her, provided she does well, and from what you say about her, I'm sure she will. Also remember that 3/4 of homeschoolers go on to college. That number is higher than what public schools can boast.

Thank you all so much for taking the time to give me/us these suggestions! Emily & I have been sitting here this morning, rereading every one of your posts and adding things to our ongoing lists to do, to take and to buy. They have helped so much. You've helped us both by suggesting things we hadn't thought of and you've also saved me money, because I'm not having to ship off things DD will need but we'd forgotten. And yes, I do realize that there will be local stores that she can shop at for forgotten items, but as I mentioned here before, we've been there and done this with DS nine years ago. Let me mention it again for any other new freshman parents: the local stores in the area will be a nightmare to shop at that move-in day and for at least the next week afterwards! Most needed items will be quickly sold out and the check-out lines will be staggeringly long with stressed out, frazzled parents and students. Been there, will NOT be doing that one again this time! Lisa: thank you for that suggestion! I'd hadn't yet thought of her immunization records, but have just added this to our list. Suero: thanks for that link. I've made a list of things we need to check with housing about. Lazy: yes, the school does provide bed, mattress, desk, chair, etc. I'm with you on the stores and madhouse there will be at them that first day/week ;^D Gotta run errands with DD once again. Will be back later to check on this thread once more. Lynn