HSHS
08-18-2009, 02:53 PM
Well, in July we were ready to order our curriculum, we were about to get organised and then after a death in the family, we decided it wasn't worth the hassle for any of us. The death had a major impact and we all needed time to just think and grieve. Now we're a lot more back on track the panic's set in.
Finances weren't high on my list of concerns while all of this was going on and therefore with taxis, flowers, new clothes for the funerals, etc we're not going to have enough to cover any curriculum really, this year.
DD's made her decisions on her GCSEs, adapting them to fit our cost cutting. She's chose English Language and Biology as IGCSEs because there was no other option - the GCSEs have coursework and we don't have the money to get it validated. They'll be £240 for just the exam and we'll need to allow money for travel down to London, a hotel, and I don't know when we'll be told the date of the exam, etc. But it'll be about £50 for a hotel and transport there & back and to the exam centre on the day[s] is going to add to that.
So that's English Language and Biology for IGCSE, then she decided on Business Studies and Maths for GCSE. Maths will be 100% necessary and neither that nor business studies have coursework which is good. She'll then do Psychology in 2011 when the coursework no longer applies. We're estimating about £150 for those two. Psychology, we'll sort out next year.
We've worked it out as being about £70 for books for all of those (minus Psych which is next year) but the problem? We only have £460 for homeschooling between now and when we'll need to pay for the exams. We have the money to order the books now, we'll have to book exams in early February 2010.
So what do we do, really? Do we just do her GCSE curriculum and risk it looking bad on an American transcript if she decides to apply for uni in America or do we push ahead because money's restricting us?
It's still a difficult time for us and this is adding to the stress. DD isn't worried about the exams but I think the fact that money's a worry is putting too much pressure on her to do well... Agh. I've no idea what to do for the best here.
Finances weren't high on my list of concerns while all of this was going on and therefore with taxis, flowers, new clothes for the funerals, etc we're not going to have enough to cover any curriculum really, this year.
DD's made her decisions on her GCSEs, adapting them to fit our cost cutting. She's chose English Language and Biology as IGCSEs because there was no other option - the GCSEs have coursework and we don't have the money to get it validated. They'll be £240 for just the exam and we'll need to allow money for travel down to London, a hotel, and I don't know when we'll be told the date of the exam, etc. But it'll be about £50 for a hotel and transport there & back and to the exam centre on the day[s] is going to add to that.
So that's English Language and Biology for IGCSE, then she decided on Business Studies and Maths for GCSE. Maths will be 100% necessary and neither that nor business studies have coursework which is good. She'll then do Psychology in 2011 when the coursework no longer applies. We're estimating about £150 for those two. Psychology, we'll sort out next year.
We've worked it out as being about £70 for books for all of those (minus Psych which is next year) but the problem? We only have £460 for homeschooling between now and when we'll need to pay for the exams. We have the money to order the books now, we'll have to book exams in early February 2010.
So what do we do, really? Do we just do her GCSE curriculum and risk it looking bad on an American transcript if she decides to apply for uni in America or do we push ahead because money's restricting us?
It's still a difficult time for us and this is adding to the stress. DD isn't worried about the exams but I think the fact that money's a worry is putting too much pressure on her to do well... Agh. I've no idea what to do for the best here.