Yes, thank you. Luckily not. I'd probably do the same thing and take my sweet time if that became a thing. And then speed up nice and fast in the wrong gear covering the car behind me in a huge cloud of black smoke (thanks to whomever stole the CAT off our heavy-duty truck).

Honestly, most of the board (K-8, High School, etc) is looking like not many people are taking it seriously. I see an okay number of old-timers but I guess too few new names? Also, apparently I have an egg allergy (did an elimination diet in Nov/Dec, didn't complete the reintroduction stage because I was too tired of the lack of diversity and having to cook every.single.thing from scratch, but apparently no breakfast burritos for me anymore). Not mysteriously doubling over in pain multiple times a week is nice though.

Thanks. I've read quite a number of your posts over the years and it seems you do an awesome job with your kids, and I by no means meant that it's wrong to count Alg1 etc as high school credits in middle school or w/e. The 13yo is my youngest; the other is 16, in 10th grade, and currently taking his first DE course (statistics), because for him the exposure to a classroom environment etc would be good (he's taken high school English I online last year and and is currently taking English II online, but other than that he hasn't been in a classroom or had an outside teacher in years, so with his HFA it seemed prudent for him to start getting some exposure to that, and getting some college credits likely would be a nice thing as well (so far he's adamant he wants to just live at home and commute to the local U after he graduates high school, so since he's taking his DE class in the same U system it's nice to begin to chip away at it and maybe he'll double major, or graduate in 3 years and then do a master's, or who knows... I'm encouraging him to at least consider applying to some other schools to see if any make some great offers, but anyway, he's got a bit of time. Living at home and attending the local U would at least be almost free in this state assuming he maintains a decent GPA)). The 13yo I think is a lot more likely to be eager to apply to a variety of colleges, but seems to have no interest in high-pressure environments, jumping through a bunch of hoops to look better on an application, etc... which, honestly, the stuff some high schoolers do in order to look good is beyond silly, but those are the kinds of applicants he'd be competing against. So, if his app were to end up looking good, it'd be through a coincidence of pursuing things he likes that would just happen to look good, rather than doing sports, volunteering, playing an instrument, etc just to add it to an app (the house we bought a year ago did come with a piano in the 'saloon', so he's started learning that). But, TBD. 13 is young, and college app season is 3.5 years away or so (other than for DE, which does want to see a high school transcript to apply for DE, hence the original question - we're still undetermined when/what he might take for DE, but there was a class that he currently thinks he wants to take as soon as he's old enough, which is next spring, so... :shrugs:). New question... if I were to give 8th grade credit for Astronomy and 9th grade for Physics, should I for consistency purposes give 8th grade credit for Integrated Math I in 8th grade while I'm at it (for lack of a better course name... some mishmash of the second half of Alg 1, the first half of Alg 2, some Geometry and Basic Trig)? Next year we'll probably do a mishmash of the second half of Alg 2, the rest of Geometry, and some Logic and/or Discrete Math, so I can't easily just, say, call 8th grade Alg 2 and 9th grade Geometry (though I suppose I could... if they both get finished by the end of 9th grade - math is just hard to predict whether a kid will 'get' it... this kid got stuck on Alg 1 for quite a while). Integrated Math I sounds so wishy-washy to give high school credit in middle school for though.

Lol. You're not wrong. We're planning on doing US & Comparative Politics for our entering 9th and 11th graders and mixing logic into their Integrated Math I & III - the politics class was partially on purpose for election year reasons, but I hadn't made the connection with logic yet (that just happened to seem like the best thing to mix into my 11th grader's math next year and I figured I'd throw some in for the 9th grader too).

I didn't really answer the test thing. Basically, in my mind, having an AP or CLEP or something to back up the class makes it impressive enough to bother listing on a high school transcript even if it's done in 8th grade (plus, colleges would get the test scores anyway, so might as well list a class to go with them). But anything else, is kind of like... it's not like all high school classes are the same level to begin with. My wife says that when she took a regular English class in Junior year in high school (she was fed up with the honors class so dropped it and switched to regular) the teacher covered material that they'd covered in 5th grade in her gifted elementary school. But that doesn't mean that she got English 3 on her high school transcript from 5th grade, kwim? It just means that the high school's regular English class was terrible. As a public schooler, I could see that if the student actually takes a high school class at the high school while they're in 8th grade, it'd end up on their transcript because that's how the system works. But as a homeschooler it's all more, whatever. I'm sure there are plenty of rigorous schools in the US where plenty of 7th-8th graders take harder classes than plenty of students at shittier schools take in 9th-12th grade (40% of high school seniors can't pass the GED... facepalm). But they don't put it on their transcripts, so why should I? I hope that makes sense. I also didn't mean to say that every class on a high school transcript needs to be backed up with a test - I don't. I just don't see a point giving high school credit for middle school work unless it's so advanced it's worth mentioning.

Thanks. I thought most schools don't put Alg 1 or French 1 or w/e taken in 8th grade on the high school transcript, and just leave colleges to infer that if the kid is taking Geometry or French 2 in 9th grade that the kid took Alg 1 or French 1 at some point before that (I haven't heard of kids taking high school bio or geo in middle school, so no clue what they do with that credit wise - are they still expected to take 4 years of science in high school?). I could probably give high school credit for almost all of my 8th grader's current classes, but it'd seem odd to bring a year worth of high school credits from 8th grade into a high school diploma - like, why not call it 9th grade then? I don't think this kid would be well-served graduating sooner though, and I don't think it'd make the transcript more competitive to list high school credits from 8th grade for things like our mishmash of the last part of Alg1, first half of Alg2, first part of Geometry and basic Trig, French 1(-2?) (doing the first two books of high school French this year), etc. Would they care seeing Astronomy and Western Civ since 1500 in 8th grade? I could just do like you said and list Physics as 9th grade... to me it felt like it might be dishonest to portray it as having been finished in a year when it took two, but I know I am (very) good at overthinking things too. Btw, so far this kid doesn't seem to have any interest in applying to hypercompetitive schools, but at 13 it's possible that might change... though I doubt it.

You're welcome. The reputable organizations really try to match students with host families on a variety of points, so if he/you'd communicate these points as priorities with them they'll do their best (obviously not everything can be matched perfectly, especially if the wish list becomes long, and also dependent on cultural etc realities in the host country - if it's not safe to walk outside at night, you won't be able to find a reasonable host family that'll let your son do that, kwim? - and in some countries kids are more independent at, say, 16 than in others, so that'll affect local expectations). My knowledge of boarding schools is basically only from books and TV, but it's my understanding that some of them can be rather strict and not leave much freedom of going out or on walks at night etc. I'd imagine that both with boarding schools and host families it's a ymmv thing. Same with academic expectations - it'll vary by school, though it's my impression that Western and East Asian countries are much stricter about expecting lots of academics even if they're not English-speaking than countries in the global south, largely because of their overall cultures. A lot of the country pages on the AFS website also describe the vibe wrt how focused on academics they are. AFS does, btw, expect students to learn the language of the host country, but some countries enforce this a lot more than others - just letting you know, because you can't just go to them and say "hey, place me in Thailand, but I don't plan on learning Thai" - they'll be unhappy, but realistically, a lot of kids didn't learn much, and a lot of schools/host families didn't particularly expect them to learn much (I was placed in an area where even the high school English teachers' English royally sucked, and my Thai was good when I left, but see the whole "matching students with host families" etc... I'd requested that). My first host family was a pretty good match, btw, and maybe I should've stayed with them the entire year. The language barrier didn't help in resolving issues (and I was not the best at communicating at 17/18yo - I probably have Asperger's). A lot of the communication I did was with my twin 14yo host sisters, and one day I said I was going to bicycle into town and they told me that dad (who only spoke Lao, because this was the Isaan, and who wasn't home much so I didn't talk to him much) had said I wasn't allowed to because it was too dangerous. I later found out that they lied (because they were worried it might be too dangerous, not out of malice), and it destroyed a bunch of trust, especially given that I was so reliant on them (what else might they have lied about?). So, anyway, we didn't successfully resolve that, and I got placed with a different host family. FWIW, different languages have different difficulty levels to learn for English speakers. If you scroll down on the FSI website, there's a list with difficulty estimates and time to learn different ones to the same level. This would affect both the odds of your son learning to communicate well enough with their host family in a reasonable amount of time, as well as the odds of the host family knowing English to a reasonable extent. Obviously, there are cultural/economic/geographic/historical reasons for learning or not learning English, but in most European countries host families, classmates, etc will know a lot of English, whereas in some countries many fewer or much worse (and in places like Thailand, English is more commonly known in touristy areas or Bangkok, and less in places like the Isaan). So, anyway, lots of pros and cons to different countries, languages, host family vs boarding school, etc. I'm sure your son will have lots to think about. I'd recommend reaching out to some exchange organization(s) and seeing if he can talk to some people - they might be able to help him figure out what might work best for him too (I'd initially asked about Hong Kong (I'd wanted to go to China but they didn't send there that year from where I was), and they strongly recommended Thailand instead, thinking it'd be a better fit for me), and let him talk to some former exchange students from the US or current exchange students from abroad.

Yes, because it's a continuation of this year's class - the second half of each book. The thought of simply calling it Physical Science (no I or II) occurred to me, but in the course description it'd seem odd to say "continuation of 8th grade physical science" and list the chapters of the 2nd half of each book but not have "II" in the course name. Kind of like how some people list French II as a 9th grade class without listing 8th grade French I on their high school transcript. Except, of course, who on earth takes two years of physical science? Physical Science II makes it sound like a kind of remedial choice of a course. The physics is (slightly) lighter than I'm having my 10th grader do (who's doing Giancoli in one year this year - no astronomy), I'm assigning almost no level 3 problems for the 8th grader and a few more level 1 problems, but it could count as a high school physics credit (Giancoli is an alg-based college physics text, and I did some just-in-time teaching of basic trig and logarithms for the 8th grader). Arny is a college astronomy text, but I'm only assigning the test yourself questions and not doing any labs for that, so... odds are it's no worse than what some high school out there is doing but it feels too light for a high school course to me. I'm not sure it would really matter all that much in the end... this kid is (recently) considering majoring in engineering, so preferably would take calc-based physics in 11th or 12th grade, at which point who'd even care what their 9th grade science is called...? (though also wants to do a year abroad, so not 100% sure there'll be time to get calc-based physics done before graduating). I'm not a big fan of subject-based transcripts nor of giving high school credit for 8th grade work that doesn't have an AP or something to back it up. That said, I likely have most of a year to decide what to call this (or change my mind about subject-based transcripts). We might consider doing a DE course spring semester of freshman year, not sure yet, but they require a high school transcript to enroll, so I'd need to decide before DE (a subject-based transcript for a 9th grader seems weird to me). The local CCs require you to be at least a freshman and 14, so that won't make the kid eligible for DE until then anyway (Nov birthday).

Yeah, that might help (I have no idea). You could try to start a thread about finding community, though depending on your location it could be not-so-easy. If you have a CC nearby you can't possibly be too in-the-middle-of-nowhere that there might not be some options though (hopefully).

I thought that high school is kind of do-or-don't... that moving back to public school after 10th grade almost certainly causes major problems with the school not accepting homeschool credits and the kid being forced to take a ridiculously heavy load + summer classes and/or an extra year of high school or whatnot? I'd be happy to hear though if that's not the case (anymore?). I kind of thought that at this point, if I were to drop dead or whatever he'd basically just take a (light) DE schedule or something.

I'm not Wendy (nor Peter), but, assuming we're talking about Arizona State, I graduated last year with plenty of experience at other colleges... ahem. Some profs are good, some are largely absent, some are very easy graders, some are not... it's certainly not the best university in the US, but it's also not the worst. I liked Phil of Sci (McElhoes), and Disaster!. I get the impression some majors have stronger online classes than others too, but I couldn't say for certain (I only took something like 40 credit hours because I had more than enough transfer credit). ----------- Unrelated question: my 8th grader is taking two years to cover Physics (Giancoli) and Astronomy (Arny) by doing half of each in 8th grade and half in 9th (I figured it'd be lighter by spreading them over two years than doing one in one and the other in another, given how much work Giancoli is). How would I describe that on their high school transcript? Physics II & Astronomy II Physics/Astronomy II Physical Science II Etc...?

AFS India says they offer a boarding school option (though I think the student would still spend some time with a host family during school breaks). It's $15,800 for a year (no semester option), so much more affordable (especially considering you won't have to pay for your son's food etc for a year). I did a year in Thailand through AFS a couple of decades ago (but with a host family, not boarding school). Most semester programs I've looked at for my own kids tend to cost almost as much as year-long programs, fwiw. I found this link for volunteer programs abroad where you can enter a lot of parameters like language and country (you can google a list of English-speaking countries). Something like that would probably be better for a gap year or a summer or something, but ymmv. Another option is to do a semester or year abroad while in college, either planned through whichever college your son attends at the time or arranged by himself. Is there a reason he doesn't want to stay with a host family? I did have some issues with my host family and switched partway through the year (and then again right before the end of the year), but there are upsides to a host family as well and I'd happily opt for a host family again if I were to get a do-over. Also, fwiw (just throwing this out there in case he's unaware), being an exchange student in a non-English speaking country tends to come with widely varying expectations wrt learning the local language - my 8th grader wants to do a year abroad in Switzerland and to be placed in the French-speaking part you need 2 years of French, whereas in Thailand a lot of the other exchange students knew only minimal Thai by the end of the year. Likewise, the types of classes vary by country etc... I took things like dance, music, drawing, sword fighting, takraw, Thai language, cooking, and only the occasional academic class, whereas in countries like Australia the expectation is to take the same kind of classes as you'd take in the US (I also went right after high school graduation, which was an option for certain countries back then, so basically taking a bunch of fluff for a year worked great for that, but it's my understanding that almost all kids placed in Thailand took a relatively high amount of fluff due to the language barrier). EDIT: NOLS offers semester abroad outdoorsy things, but they're 18+ (the summer in Alaska one says 17+). I've done wilderness first responder (10 days) through them at a camp in NY and recert in NM, and they seemed solid; no idea about their abroad programs though.

See, I thought that the flies were supposed to be drained of blood. I don't have advice for that though.

So, this is pretty out there, but for some reason it's the thing that popped into my head reading the OP, so... DBT. It helps people be accept/cope/be okay with/function despite extreme emotions. It's been shown to be effective (at least for some people) for a wide range of issues, including anxiety. But, it could very well be that one of the other suggestions above is more appropriate.

I got diagnosed as having a mild hearing impairment, iirc my doctor (when I was 12) said that my hearing was like that of a 70yo or something (I had ear tubes when I was 10.5yo, which helped, my hearing was really bad before that). I probably do have CAPD, but no diagnosis. Any kind of background noise makes it exponentially harder to understand what people are saying. I watch TV with subtitles on, though that's not necessary for every show - it varies based on how much background noise there is. Most of the videos for my online classes had subtitles, though some were AI-generated, and the ones that didn't at least could be played back to try to figure it out a second, third, etc time or to ask someone else their opinion on what on earth was said (didn't really need to do that last thing). Having problems with multi-step instructions sounds more like ADHD or language-processing disorder like BandH said or something than CAPD to me, so long as you say them clearly enough (and possibly with enough of a pause between each).