I do think that we put police in a hard position with regard to medical situations. If an officer wants to question somebody and the doctors say that the person is off limits for medical reasons, we expect the police to defer to the doctors. Couple that with the fact that most people defer to medical professionals anyway just because the average person lacks the training to do anything different, and I can see how the officers would assume that the doctors were right and this person was faking. It can be hard to make any headway with medical workers. I know a nurse who was dealing with abdominal pain and was turned away from the ER as pill-seeking because she mentioned a medicine by name. She went to another ER and had a hysterectomy to treat the condition within weeks. If a nurse can have this problem, I can see how untrained people get lost in the shuffle. In this case, the only thing that would have helped is more treatment at the hospital that she was at. I'd love to see some of the things mentioned above - step-down facilities, more social support, etc as an alternative to jail - but in this case she died before she could be taken anywhere.

We haven't done that specific AP, but my kid has found the videos on the college board website to be good review. I buy a prep book - usually from the 5 steps to a 5 series - but I think that kid invests a lot more time in the videos. Kid seems to have settled on the routine of watching the videos early - right now they are often viewed during lunch. Then, once the videos are done and most of the course content has been covered (maybe in April) kid tries a practice test and goes back and uses the prep book and videos to figure out what was missed. I'm not sure this is exactly right - Chemistry freshman year wasn't this well planned - but last year's bio and us history had more organized prep and this year kid started with the videos in January.

Several years ago, a friend went to the ER with her in-laws, having observed that the FIL was having a stroke. She said that they sat in the ER under a sign that said 'Be aware of these signs of stroke' being told that FIL was fine. Friend, who was working as a physical therapist at the time, said that she kept having to say 'He has every symptom on this list. He is having a stroke!'. Eventually the hospital agreed. There are amazing medical professionals who are highly competent and dedicated. But, I can also cite a list of medical mistakes that were caught by patients and families that I personally know. And, there are hard situations where the patient knows that something is off but there isn't much that can be detected by medical tests until the patient is in a crisis and there is more information to work from. It is hard, even for people who are very 'with it' in everyday life, to know how to advocate for themselves in the confusion of a medical situation. For those who aren't...we are trying to help some elderly, confused relatives dealing with some health problems and it's not easy.

A few thoughts based on the combined experience that spouse and I have being TAs, instructors, and students. -It really stinks when you can't put together your own good group. After some frustration early on, I had the same lab partner for multiple lab classes my last 2 years of college. We planned our schedules together. Spouse, a computer engineering major who had lots of group work because, similar to your daughter's work, that's often what it takes to do a meaningful project, took classes with the same 4-person group for 2 years. -A TA may not have the authority to do much about this type of situation. When I TA'd, I could make judgement calls about assigning points on a quiz or accepting work a day late but couldn't have decided to drop or significantly alter a major assignment. The TAs were the only instructors that they saw in the labs, but we couldn't make changes to the syllabus - those had to go through the course coordinator. -A professor might adjust the assignment, but will not do it if they aren't asked. There can be some feeling that if a student has a problem that needs the attention of the instructor, then the student will ask. Accommodations can be made to address a particular issue, but if the instructor proactively makes an offer of an adjusted assignment then they have to offer it to everybody. It's possible that other students are doing modified assignments due to similar group issues, but the only way to know is to ask. -Your daughter doesn't want to make them upset by asking for a change of some sort, but the group likely won't be any happier if, at the end, they find out that they are getting a zero. If fear of them being upset is the major deterrent, then talking so the professor now is less likely to lead to a bad outcome just because there is time for them to step up, which won't be there at the end of the semester. -The professor may do nothing anyway, which will be frustrating. Some faculty are fantastic, and some don't care that much or don't have a good grasp of what the 'real world' looks like. This isn't a slam on faculty, just that they, like the students, are people and varying levels of good or bad at their jobs.

I wouldn't care - whatever made sense at the time. When I drive teens, often everybody sits in the back. With some combos of people, it's a matter of height. It can be uncomfortable for some of our taller-than-6-feet guys to fit in the back of some cars, so they'd go in the front independent of the relationship. I"m also always happy for my teen to drive since I don't like doing it, so it's just as likely that the couple would have the front seat and I'd be in the back.

When we lived in NM and had a xeriscaped yard, it was very little work once it was established (hauling rock to cover the dirt was brutal). Yards were also tiny. Where we live now, most yards will be work that is proportional to their size. Wooded areas are easy, and a small yard would likely be a weekly cut with a push mower. Non-grass areas would be needing to mulch beds once/twice a year, plus regular weeding or use of roundup, and 1-2 times a year for hedge trimming, and time would be proportional to size. In our more semi-rural area where most people have a few acres, it takes longer to cut the grass but people don't expect you to do things like edging and people are less regular about things like mulchiing, and much less of the property is in 'beds' as opposed to 'fields' or gardens. Our fruit trees and garden take a ton of time, but that's not part of what most people have as yard work. A small raised bed, once built, is much less work if you want a few tomato plants or something like that.

I'm starting to plan 9th for my younger, and it's such a different situation than with my older! They have such different personalities and interests and struggles. For this kid, I'll be outsourcing most classes. This is definitely NOT what I did with my older, and isn't really my vision of homeschooling, but I think it's what needs to happen for this kid. So, I'm waiting on next year's co-op schedule to come out to see how classes will fit together there. I'm hoping that the schedule will work such that we can do biology, English, French, and geography/world history there. Some of these are available online if necessary, but that's definitely not preferable for this student. Then we'll sprinkle in whatever electives fit - it's unpredictable what is offered, but there are things to fulfill requirements for health, personal finance, fine arts, etc, so I'll have to see. Geometry will likely be Derek Owens. Kid may fulfill some of the easy things like personal finance over the summer with Fundafunda classes - most of these are taught by people that are local to us, and sometimes a couple of kids from co-op will decide to all take an online one together in the summer. Kid will probably knock out the PE requirement by tracking things like volleyball camp and extra karate (above and beyond the general extracurricular amount since kid takes extra classes in the summer). For extracurriculars, kid has violin, science olympiad, karate, and volleyball plus youth. This kid is super smart but struggles with time management and I have concerns that the high school workload is going to hit like a ton of bricks. Extracurriculars add some structure and incentive to get work done, so even though ti seems overly busy we find that it's hard to get kid to focus when there is 'too much' free time. It is quite the learning experience having kids who are not like you. Updated with specifics: Co-op for English, French, Biology (my class), Geography/World History, 1/2 credit of personal finance, also taking ballroom, which may count towards PE or Fine Arts, Derek Owens Geometry, PE and Bible at home

I'll have my first senior next year! It's weird because I usually start making a general plan at this time of year, when I have the Februaries, and then finalize it in March when the co-op schedule comes out and I figure out which classes we'll do at co-op and which we'll do at home. But, my older has mostly decided that next year's academic classes should either be for college credit or else be something interesting that we DIY. There is the possibility that kid will choose to take something fun, like chess or ballroom dance, at co-op with friends but it may or may not fit with the DE schedule. Kid only needs 1/2 credit of Bible and 1/2 credit of English to graduate. We can't decide exactly what to do for English and math until we have AP scores. Kid is doing Calc BC and Engl Lang this year, and if kid gets a 5 then kid will start with the 3rd calculus and a 200 level English class. If kid scores lower, then kid will probably start in the 2nd calculus and the second course of the freshman English sequence. Science will be the first physics with calculus DE course. It may be that kid does calculus the first semester and physics the second, both the spread the math around and also because kid does quiz bowl (that show that PBS does) and will have to participate a couple of mornings in the fall. We'll have to look at the lab schedule, but between those mornings and after school baseball practice, it may be easier to schedule the lab in the spring. We'll look at the social science requirements for kid's preferred colleges when choosing this. Kid did a DE psychology last semester, and depending on whether the colleges want depth (upper level courses in one field) or breadth (a sampling of psych, soc, econ, and/or history) then kid will make a choice based on what will count and looks interesting. We'll likely do a 1/2 credit of Bible at home, and may do 1/2 credit of AoPS - we have the book to do the second Counting and Probability. Kid may choose to do something with coding, but it's likely to be DIY since nothing at the CC transfers or looks interesting and this is spouse's field. This feels crazy light after years of doing 8 credits each year, and kid may choose to take something else, but those 6 credits may be it. But, kid also likes to read, and if there is more time then I'll probably leave an assortment of interesting books sitting around, and if kid reads them then I may turn that into a credit. I wish I could figure out how to create a yearly 1/2 credit of 'nonfiction books that are interesting and make you better informed' for this kid. I buy books to read to incorporate into classes or just for interest and kid plows through them when there is time. Kid will hopefully continue with quiz bowl, science olympiad, baseball, and earning their Eagle scout rank. Kid will probably try to get college applications done early. Kid isn't interested in super-competitive schools, and since some have early acceptance dates it would make life less stressful if we knew something from some of them in December. I'm not sure about summer. Kid has expressed interest in working at some baseball tournaments - kid usually plays in weekend ones but there are some that run Th/F and kid could work at those and then play on the weekend. That would be a great summer job and would let kid do the Eagle work and maybe get that mostly done over the summer? This is kid's busiest time of year, with baseball starting and science olympiad preparing for the state competition after winning at regionals. So, it'll be a bit before kiddo has time to give serious thought to what comes next.

If it lingers with no fever, also consider benedryl. It's been unusually warm and wet in my part of the south, so the folks with allergies are having some issues at a time of year that usually is OK.

To answer your second question, no, it's not unusual for kids to take all advanced classes. Some schools have 'advanced' as just college prep, while in other schools the advanced track is AP, which takes more time than college prep. If advanced just means college prep, then I'd imagine that lots of kids take all advanced. If advanced means AP or IB, then there are some who will take all AP and many will take some AP and some college prep. Some schools are highly competitive and offer tons of AP classes, while other schools only offer a handfull so it's hard to say what kids 'usually' do.

Advanced math kids often take algebra in 8th, but plenty of kids take it in 9th. If she isn't interested in a mathy field, I'd have her do Alg, Geometry, Alg. 2, and then maybe statistics if it's available, or precal if it's not. If she wants to 'catch up' with some of her classmates, is there an option to take geometry in summer school? Alternatively, she could continue along her current track and then possibly do DE for precal and calc or stats her senior year. She'd be taking an extra math credit, but it would let her achieve whatever goal she's set for herself. One of our friends did that - a 1-semester precal followed by 1 semester of calc. As for the perfectionism, I'd say that's not ideal. Maybe she's just that way right now because she feels like the regular classes should be easy and she needs to prove something, and it will settle down next year in the advanced classes? Or maybe it's the local school culture? It's hard to know.

From what my kids tell me, Scratch is an easier language - a lot of kids do it in early middle school. My kids did Fundafunda's scratch in middle school and then my older did python in...I think 9th grade.

Just talked to spouse, who is a computer engineer and is familiar with CS. His take - that associates would give a unique skill set and perspective so might be useful in that regard, but is unlikely to knock much time off because those classes aren't part of the CS core requirements. They might cover a requirement here and there or fulfill a CS elective, but they aren't likely to knock out the first year of classes or anything like that.

I would look at the course of study at places where she is planning to go to college and see what science they require. If her goal is to cut time off her degree, look and see if there is a chemistry or physics requirement - I don't know about CS, but computer engineering requires both. There is also another general science requirement that can be fulfilled by anything. So, my kid did AP chem, AP bio, and is doing DE physics next year. i know that you don't want AP, but DE might be able to fulfill some of those requirements - it would have for us, but it was more convenient to do AP. What I found was that for my kid's schools of interest, it's not too hard to find gen ed requirements that transfer but most things specific to the degree do not. For instance, anything in the calculus series transfers but the statistics class is major-specific at the 4-year school and AP and DE won't count. Nothing tech-related would count as anything but a free elective. Looking at what will transfer for engineering or CS at the schools that my kid is interested in, we've chosen to do DE psych, AP Chem, Bio, and US History and this year are doing Calc BC and AP English. Based on this year's scores, next year kid will DE whatever math and English are appropriate, first semester physics with calc (required for engineering, not sure about CS), and some sort of social studies that transfers. I'm not sure what else kid will want to do - I think learning some more programming at home is likely, since kid figures that if the credit won't transfer we might as well choose something interesting and useful to do at home, and maybe a DIY probability class. I don't know if this is any help, but I thought it might give you a different perspective. I taught at a CC at one time and have some friends who teach at various colleges and one of the issues that pops up a lot is students now knowing how the credits that they have earned do or don't fit in with the courses required for their specific degree. Taking classes that let a kid explore a field is a legitimate strategy whether the credits transfer or not, but if transfer is the goal then figuring out what will transfer and how it will count may lead to some unexpected choices. And, all of that sort of jumped the gun - start by looking at the admission requirements wherever she'll go. If they expect 4 years of science, see what counts. If they want a bio sci, then pick something different if she doesn't want to repeat the generic class - ecology, botany, anatomy for non-majors if they have something like that. Nonmajors biology is usually pretty easy - I taught that one year and it was more like 'biology appreciation', and definitely easier than miller levine. So, if she needs it to check a box, at least it shouldn't be difficult.

Now that I'm seeing Laughing Cat's post, I'm betting that our stuff is Tiger Claw. They're actually a local company that has sponsored our tournaments. When we need something quickly, I've known our instructors to drive over and pick it up. 🙂 They don't supply everything that we get, but for something common like uniforms I wouldn't be surprised if that's where we get them. I drive past their building a couple of times a week.

We buy the kind that our school requires - we order through them. We've gotten different kinds over the years. They give you the first one, and then you buy the rest. The everyday karate gis are fairly lightweight- not like linen, but like a heavy oxford cloth shirt. I've never seen one fall apart, even when worn for more than a year and washed so many times that the school logo has mostly worn off the back. They have heavy ones for kata competition and padded ones for jiu jitsu. Those are more expensive, but I seem to remember the regular ones being in the $30-50 range. It's been a while since I had to buy one.

It's been several years, but we found it helpful. We tended to modify it. In middle school, I have my kids write about history, so we often incorporated some of the techniques that it was trying to teach into that writing assignment. I feel like I learned a lot about word usage and organizing content to make the desired point. I don't think that it can be all of the writing that you do, but I think that if you use the ideas to apply to other places that you might be doing writing - about literature, or history, or current events or persuasive essays about science, whatever is interesting to your family - then the instruction is good.

Voyage is more serious because the focus is on writing essays and reading examples of different types of essays. For us, this level had the most comprehensive writing of any of the 6 that we did. My kids both liked the vocab portion even though it's more serious.

Fruit, veggies and dip, cheese and crackers or cheese cubes, cheese ball, nuts, veggie pinwheels - I wouldn't do all of the above, but I'd probably pick 1-3 of them depending on the people that you've invited. If you want something hot, mini-quiches from the freezer section are easy, although everything cold is lovely and even easier.

I have one child who is highly social and another who is much like yours. That kid has a good grasp of what they want to do and whether or not they want to spend time on something. I know that they have friends who do things without them because they know that kid doesn't want to go to movies, for instance. But, when they are in an activity or social setting that kid wants to participate in, they all get along great. But, kid also sees other kids almost every day - sports practice, youth group, Science Olympiad or quiz bowl practice, co-op day - and that seems to be plenty of social time for kid. I think that my kid is just an introvert who gets along fine with others but only has so much 'people energy' and chooses where to spend it. Kid will show initiative for doing something that they like. When their high school ball team needs workers for tournaments, kid works a lot of shifts. Last summer, shortly after getting a drivers license, kid asked if it was OK for them to try out the open gym basketball on Thursday nights at church. Kid went all summer but dropped it once school started and they got busy. I'm sure it will pick back up once school is done. But, kid is skipping the youth Super Bowl party because it doesn't sound like how kid wants to spend 4 hours. So...maybe there's a problem, but if your kid is happy then you may just have an introvert who is getting plenty of people time during activities.

Life of Fred may be another possibility. As with Jousting Armadillos, not a ton of practice. But, it's in a very different format that may not be stress inducing. Based on what you've said about mastering the operations, maybe their 'Fractions and Decimals' book might be a good place to start? People either tend to love or hate this program, but it can be helpful for the right kid or situation.

My older likes metal and dislikes profanity, so kid has found Christian metal and also Scandinavian metal. Apparently there is a band that sings about history...educational Scandinavian metal? Don't know if you can use it for piano, but it seems plenty poundy for me. 🙂

One of the schools that older is considering offers a couple of entry options - regular fall start, summer start, and a 'bridge' program where students take classes at the CC for a year and then transfer. My understanding of the summer start and bridge programs are that students start as regular students after either completing the summer or 1 year of CC with good grades. So, in that case, it's not an unsure thing if the students can earn the required grades. But, if it was really uncertain, I wouldn't risk it, especially if he'd rather be somewhere else anyway.

No personal BTDT - my oldest is younger than that. But, I've had 4 kids in my orbit join the military. The Air Force guy was an instructor at my kid's karate school and he did ROTC with the plan of enlisting after graduating from college, prior to a career at the FBI. The other 3 are former students. The one in the Army has been in for 6+ years and plans to make a career of it - he's happy with his choice. The Navy guy has been in for 6 months and is doing advanced training in a specific specialty. His mom says that he loves it. The last left for boot camp for the Marine Reserves a week ago and I'm sure his mom will update when she knows something. He's been out of high school for several years doing this and that and looking for direction, and I hope that this is a good fit for him. Good luck - I know this is stressful!

I like the suggestion above to ask 'What are you wanting to accomplish with this comment?' or maybe tell the kids that it's OK to ask 'What do you want me to do?' when he says something. One of my own parenting hang-ups is about not asking kids to deal with things that they can't actually do anything about because it creates stress that they can't get rid of. A simple example is that instead of making them angsty about various social problems I encourage them to be good stewards or volunteer or do whatever is in their capabilities. They can't solve the problem of poverty - they can't even vote yet - but they can get unneeded clothes out of their rooms and into the donation bag so that somebody else can use them and help me gather food for the blessing box in our community. In that vein, whether it comes from the kids or you, could the family find out what concrete actions he wants the kids to take? If he has reasonable ones - wanting the kids to investigate scholarships or to focus on schools that will cost less than X or have automatic aid, at least that's a starting point. If he doesn't have anything that he's wanting them to do, and he realizes this, then it might be easier at that point to suggest that venting such that it transfers the stress and guilt from him to the kids isn't the best option for making these last few years at home pleasant.