This is such an odd question. I'd rather have a person than a bear, and statistically its likely that the man that I'm with is going to be perfectly safe, and most likely helpful. But, there are other ways to think about this. I've stopped at rest areas at night and it always feels a little concerning if there is just one guy or nobody that I can see, but there's no worry if there are many people coming and going, or even if I'm just there with one other person. One time we stopped at a rest area and there was a family of bears wandering through - we saw them as we were exiting to go back to the car. That was concerning even though there were people everywhere!

I might consider public or cyber school, but if you need to keep them home then you might consider workbooks from The Critical Thinking Company. We used several over the years.

Memories become stronger by repeatedly recalling the event - that's why studying the same thing a little each day helps you to learn. I remind my complainer that the thing that they repeat over and over is the thing that they are going to remember. It doesn't always work, alas.

There's no way to be behind in science in middle school, since there isn't any particular set of material that they must build on (unlike math and writing). There is all sorts of science reading or hands-on science that they could do that they might enjoy. If you just feel like you need to get some basic understanding, you could use the Science Detectives workbooks from The Critical Thinking Company. It's a simple read-and-answer-the-questions format, but it's organized by topic and is well done.

I haven't met any families who do the same curriculum for the entirety of their kid's schooling, particularly if they are using an all-in-one. I have a senior and a freshman, and I've had some things that we did for many years, some things that I knew wouldn't work after a few weeks, and some that I did with one kid but not the other. I have a friend whose (now grown) kids had great success with Sonlight for their history/geography. It was a fantastic fit for their family. My older read many Sonlight books for fun, but I found that the intended grade level mattered. My kid was an advanced reader and often read books above grade level, and some of the books were too intense, although they would likely have been fine when kid was the age that the book was written for. My older also really struggled with the idea of learning history through fiction, because kid couldn't figure out what parts were real and what parts were fiction.

We have a Flex - 6'4 spouse has no problem driving and my over 6' kid has no problem in the middle row. You can lay down both 3rd row seats or one third row and 1 second row if that shape is better. They quit making Flexes a few years ago but you might find a used one if it would fit your needs. We have 2 - mine will be 15 in the fall and spouse got one when we needed to replace a car and learned that they were going to quit making it. It drives more like a car than a minivan so I wanted to make sure that I had one as long as I needed a mom-mobile. It may be hard to find a good used one, but it's probably not attractive to thieves so there's that. 🙂 Older kid drives an Escape and has no problem sitting in the front or back. It's not big enough for your needs, but one of their bigger vehicles might work. We got on a Ford kick because the dealer here is easy to work with, but the fact that we've had no problems fitting my tall people in a couple of different models is also a plus - when I met spouse he drove with the seat very reclined because he didn't fit in his car properly.

Even with a lot of family, it only took 30 minutes to get the post-wedding pics at my wedding years ago. I've seen it done both ways - to add people to each pic, starting with bride and groom, then add parents, then add siblings, then have groom step out and get just parents and kids, then add groom back and add long-term relationships, then add boyfriend, and maybe have parents step out and get one of sibs plus partners with and without boyfriend. Getting with and without adds under a minute per group. Or boyfriend and daughter may not want to include him, so just put him in one 'all attendees' shot. There aren't that many combos with a small group. Or you could start with everybody, and then pull people out so that you end with just the bride and groom. We did this because we had little kids in the wedding and needed to get them finished and off to the food. One of my parents has 4 siblings, and for years at every event they'd get a pic of just the adult sibs and their parents, and then one with spouses.

Our music teacher didn't start with a harsh policy - we got a new one after several years. I read it and asked what had happened and she replied 'Y'all are fine'. Shed just had a bunch of flaky people all at once. Neither she nor I would quibble over the cost of the single lesson that we cancel or reschedule each year, but for some families it was constant.

Our teacher is more casual - she charges by the lesson, so that if she plans to not have one the first week of May so that she can go to her kids field day at school or whatever then she can. We aren't guaranteed a certain number of lessons each month. At least 1-2 times each year she reschedules or cancels for something like this. Some months have 4 lessons, others just 2. She takes off 2 weeks after school lets out each May, and 3 weeks at Christmas. Her schedule aligns well with what local schools and sports are doing so I have no complaints. On the first of each month, she tells us how many lessons that month will have and we pay per lesson. In our case, on the rare occasion that we have a conflict, she applies the money as a credit to the next month even though her policy, which is harshly worded, says she doesn't. I'd also be fine with something less flexible - we do other activities that are pay by the month. But, then she'd lose her flexibility too. I think its just reciprocity it for always being willing to switch days or times if we can help her out. She also teaches out of her home, so having a 30 min block of time isn't the waste that it is for someone renting space.

My kids have done private lessons for sports and music, and dealing with flaky no-show parents has been a challenge - one coach said that it was the push that finally got him to retire. Our music teacher has 'studio rules' that sound pretty draconian - you pay whether you come or not, cancel by a certain time that day, must make-up within certain time period, etc. But, she only enforces it on flaky parents. She never charges when we go on vacation during the school year or have to miss for some reason, she'll do a zoom lesson if kid is sick but not too sick to play, etc. But, other than summer when everything is flexible, we only cancel/reschedule something 1-2 times a year, if that. We've taken for 10 years and probably haven't had to adjust a non-summer lesson a dozen times. And we've moved times and days when she needs to reschedule, too.

We have done all of the above on busy nights. Like Bootsie said, though, when I was aiming for quick with little kids, 'snack suppers' were a favorite. A platter of cut up fruits or veggies, some cheese cubes, and crackers...or even stove-popped popcorn (which is crazy cheap to make). Or I'd make a parfait - yogurt and fruit layered in a cup and topped with cereal (usually granola, but cheerios would work). Or a smoothie - fruit, yogurt, and milk in the blender. Grilled cheese and canned tomato soup, bagel halves with pizza toppings that include onion and peppers, Eggs, peppers, onion, and canned black beans in a tortilla...I throw peppers and onions into lots of stuff to add veggies. In a pinch, both can be bought chopped and frozen.

A lot of this varies as the kids get older and the intensity of activities changes. We've always had one co-op day - a 1/2 day in K, 8-3 for 1-8th, and then varied in high school. In elementary school, I let the kids have 2 activities each. One was an 'active activity' - an in-season sport for older, younger varied between dance, sport, and eventually martial arts. The other activity was scouts for older and music lessons for younger. Scouts and music were once/week, and the active activity varied from 1-3 days/week. We always have church on Sunday and, depending on the year, midweek class/music through elementary school (varied once they reached youth age in 6th). Once they got to 5th grade, they added Science Olympiad, which practices several hours on Fridays from Dec-March. Some of these were evening activities, some were during the day with homeschoolers, and several involved the occasional weekend. Once middle and high school happened, sports was a much bigger commitment. Many weekends are involved, and sometimes private lessons. Each kid chose 1 sport (although younger still does martial arts too) and practices and conditioning are almost year-round, with a school and club season of games. The Science Olympiad teams have had success - our team won our state and traveled to Nationals twice with older and younger will get to go this year. To some this is a crazy level of busy and to others it's not so much, but it has worked well for our family. They have a lot of say in what they do, and I can vary my level of involvement if needed. For some things, I'm actively involved - helping to coach Science Olympiad, for instance. For others, I wait in the car and get other things done. During some practices, I get my grocery shopping done or grade papers. I'm always game to help and keep the book or online stat program for many sport events - I do it to help and because I know how, but if you wanted to you could use it as an excuse to get people to leave you alone to focus (I don't, but some people do). My kids have very different socialization needs. My older was mostly content to do the extracurriculars and the occasional co-op teen event, but as a senior kid often goes out to eat with teammates. Younger has always wanted to be around people, and summer has frequent friend visits or overnights with certain very close friends. When the kids were young, I tried to make sure that we had either a morning or afternoon block of time every day except co-op day to get work done. As they got older, I could leave one home or work in the car with them while the other was at their activity. Once older could drive, it was a whole different world. Kid now goes to the library to study, or goes to a DE class, or out with friend, or... Some of these activities were just things to do, and others have given the kids a chance to get to know some other kids really well. There is overlap between our co-op and science team, and between co-op and younger's sports team, and seeing the same kids multiple days a week has been a bonus.

My understanding is that it was agreed that he could stay for a few weeks/months, and everybody would have been OK with him using the facilities in the house for that time. However, after 18 months, drug issues, and friends that concern them, they are not OK with all of that happening in the house. I can understand that - I would not be Ok with somebody who is on drugs coming in and out of my house while I sleep even though I am generally happy to host people for weeks at a time. it seems like there are 2 different issues, both of which could concern them. Agreeing to let somebody stay with you temporarily often does not mean that you'd be Ok with the arrangement for more than a year. And, agreeing to let somebody stay on your property when sober doesn't mean that you are OK with it if they are using drugs. Our church has a large (150-200 people/week) addiction recovery program. I'm not closely affiliated with it, but we sometimes hear stories from people who are being helped. One of the recurring themes is that as long as their basic needs are taken care of there isn't much incentive to change. Sometimes even when they don't have housing or income, it still isn't enough, but many of them seem to need to absolutely have to make a change before they do, and nobody can make the change for them. The autism complicates things like holding down a job, but until the addiction is dealt with I don't think there is much that can be done as far as autism supports. We know a young adult who is on the spectrum and gets a lot of support, but progress is only made because he is willing to take the advice that he is given. If addiction is part of what prevents this adult from doing that, then it may be that it has to be dealt with first. Unfortunately, recovery isn't something that others can do for him.

When my kid prepped for the AP Calc BC exam, we saw that a graphing calculator was on the 'stuff to bring' list. We bought one, but kid had never used one before that. AoPS doesn't require one to work through their books and kid had used that program for much of high school math. So, we went out and got one and kid figured out how to use it. After taking the test, kid said that there was really no need for a calculator if you knew how to math. 🙂 There may have been some arithmetic done on one, but nothing that required graphing. I have my frustrations with AoPS, but I did appreciate that they gave answers in messy forms so that kids didn't get into the habit of punching in everything so that they got answers with decimals with no idea how they got it.

I had a class like that, too, but they gave partial credit. It varies between schools and disciplines, but in my classes and those of most people I know classes tended to be either test with a few problems where partial credit was given or tests with a decent number of questions but no partial credit (often because it was a big class with multiple choice). It was pretty unusual for an intro class to have only 4 questions with no partial credit on a test. But, it was all made more frustrating by the fact that students were teaching themselves with little feedback other than whether their auto-graded homework was right or wrong. You got 3 shots at each homework question, but if you didn't get it in 3 then you didn't get credit and also didn't get an explanation. And there was the test where I'm guessing the program chose questions from a test bank and included a question that wasn't part of the assigned material. This is one of the few issues that the instructor responded to promptly. Then there was the homework (not worth much, but every point counts) that the instructor accidentally had due in a different time zone, so that when students submitted it at 11:01 pm it was scored as late and no credit despite being an hour before the usual due date. Kid emailed the instructor with a time stamped homework but it wasn't changed. I'm not terribly sympathetic to kids complaining about tech glitches, but having one assignment set to a different time zone than everything else for the semester seems like an instructor mistake, not something that students should be expecting It was a situation where no one thing was a huge deal, but it seemed like every glitch penalized the students - when I teach, I try to avoid that.