Thank you all for the suggestions and encouragement. I need to do better allowing/acknowledging her feelings but not getting sucked into the teen misery myself. She has temporarily deleted social media from her phone for a week or two. She was seeing a counselor last year and has asked to see him again for a few sessions. I’ve left a message to get an appointment set up. I’m proud of her for knowing she’s struggling and being willing to ask for help. We are also looking at a family trip in the spring, which she wouldn’t be able to do if she were in school.

Public school has been on the table as an option. It’s not a good school academically or otherwise, but we would have let her go if she’d wanted to. She has said all along she does not want to go there, and still doesn’t. She’s mostly sad right now with things changing. Older ds talked with her this evening, and she seems to be feeling a little better. Hopefully things will improve over these next few weeks as we get into our routine.

I think this is probably the case for dd as well. It’s a change and not one she wanted. She’s quiet and was comfortable in her little group. But, it ended up being a pretty toxic group with the exception of her closest friends. I’ll keep looking for art options for her......including some “out of the box” ideas.😊

Thanks. One main selling point is not having to be up at 5 am every day, which she would have had to do if she went to school. Dance and art are what she loves. We’ve increased her dance classes to 4x per week, which will start next week. I haven’t had any luck finding art classes for teens or adults in our area. Everything is geared towards young kids. We are trying Artistic Pursuits High School Art curriculum this year, but an actual art course would be great. We probably don’t need it, but I did enroll her with NARHS, just in case our high school plans change and she does end up attending school somewhere. We had a better afternoon today. The weather is lovely here, so we took a walk to a coffee shop and had mochas. I’m rearranging my work schedule so I’m more available during the day. Hopefully as the activities and co-op start up, and she meets more homeschooled teens, things will start to look up.

I posted several months ago after our co-op imploded and we were considering private schools for dd going into 9th grade. Long story short, neither private school worked out financially, and we visited our local public school where dd emphatically did not want to attend. Her friend group has scattered....some went to another co-op (and we were purposely excluded from going with them), one close friend went to private school, and the other moved a city away over the summer. So, here we are on the first day of school with everyone posting their “back to school” pictures, and dd is feeling very lonely and left behind. After much discussion over the summer, we (dd included) decided to continue homeschooling for two more years, then she can do dual enrollment. We did find a large co-op with high school classes open that she’ll start in a couple weeks. We ordered curricula together, added a few new activities, and I’ve tried to make her first days back special. Only to hear she wishes she had better choices available like her “all her friends did”, she feels like a loser still being homeschooled, etc. I’m hoping once the back to school stuff is over and she gets going with her activities things will get better.....but concerned we’re in for a long road. Any suggestions or encouragement?

Doesn’t bother me at all. I often respond with No Problem myself and never considered it bothered anyone. I’m Gen X.

I don’t think it’s a “must”. If I had to choose between camp and family trips, I’d definitely choose family trips. I went to drum major camp for a week in high school. It was fine, certainly not a life altering experience.

I saw it, and yes, I think there was a baby Pumba. Didn’t really think anything about it....figured there must have been a girl warthog somewhere. I never considered Timon and Pumba we’re gay, just friends. But with Disney, who knows? 🙂

Dd doesn’t have severe acne, but was getting breakouts often enough that it was bothering her. She already avoids dairy, so that wasn’t an issue for her. I took her to our pediatrician and he prescribed Epiduo Forte gel, which is what his own teen boys use. The dr warned it may get worse before it got better (it did get slightly worse, along with some redness/dryness). But, she’s been using it for about 12 weeks now, and her skin is looking really good and clear. It’s expensive, but the pharmaceutical company has an online coupon that significantly reduces the cost.

1995, big Motorola phone. We were living in a pretty rural area, and I had a long drive to work, so dh wanted me to have a phone.

I would just update your phone and get the same type of case for your new phone. I have an iPhone SE that’s almost 3 years old and have the Otterbox Commuter case and a tempered glass screen protector. My phone has been dropped and fallen many times and has no damage. It even fell about 12 feet from our stair ledge onto hardwood floor with no damage to the case or phone.

I don’t think it’s normal, but also not necessarily anything really bad either. It’s good you’re seeing the doctor. I would think they should check your thyroid levels and iron along with any necessary gyn stuff just to rule out anything serious. I have Hashimotos hypothyroidism, and when I was younger, one of my symptoms that my thyroid was off were super heavy and long periods (3-4 weeks). My dd started having the same thing and was tested for thyroid disease, which she also has. Hope you get some answers and feeling better soon!

Both my teens have had their wisdom teeth out this year and both did fine with it. Rested a few days and were fine. Ds bounced back a little quicker than dd, but he had less swelling than she did.

Same, none here either.

I have the Lenovo 13” Thinkpad Lanny mentioned above for work. I’ve had it for about a year and a half. It’s a great computer, and I’ve had no problems with it at all.

Yes, the closer school has long term teachers, Bible course is required each year, chapel weekly, and a short 2-week term in the spring where every student participates in a variety of service projects either locally or abroad. They also have long term service hours required and available locally working with kids at the nearby elementary ps, the food bank, clothing bank, or shelter for women and children. I like that the closer school is very involved in our community.

That’s a pretty clever idea! I don’t know much about the schools in neighboring districts. Most only have one high school. The area where dh works is known for having excellent schools, and I wish we could afford to live there. But a 1 br 600 sq ft condo sells for $700K+. And he works 10 hour hour days so would be too early and late for dd to ride with him.

Yes, if she homeschools, I will continue working part-time and plan to return to full-time when she starts DE.

Possibly on the other ps, though it can be hard to get a waiver, because many students try to waiver there than attend our ps. But we could try.

Yes, moving closer to the farther away school isn’t an option. Dh already commutes 1.5 hours for work, and moving closer to that school would add an additional 45 minutes onto his already long commute. Plus, while I like the farther school, the area it’s in is not a nice area at all. I wouldn’t want to be driving through that area at night. It’s sketchy during the day. Prior to having kids, I worked in that area and used to pray every day that the lights would just be green, so I could cruise right through the area. On two occasions at a stoplight, I witnessed someone punch the side window out of the car in front of me to steal the person’s purse on the car seat. So, no, I definitely don’t want to move to that area. We live in a high COL area and already live as close to dh’s work as we can afford to live, and the area we currently live in is pretty nice.

Yes, finances are definitely a big determining factor in our decision as well, especially with college costs in the near future for Ds. His next 2 years of dual enrollment are tuition free, but then he will likely go to a 4-yr school, and we will help him as much as we can. I always planned to return to full-time work at that time. The current plan is to shadow a day next week at the closer school. We will also likely apply there and also for tuition assistance. At this school, if they are not able to give a tuition assistance amount that will be enough, our application money will be refunded. So, we’re not out anything by applying and asking for assistance. The farther school is no longer an option, and even dd is in agreement after talking about what it really would be like going to a school so far away and the social impact it would have on her likely not being included especially in last minute things. We will also register for the co-op, since after next week it will no longer be an option for next year if we don’t. Losing a small registration fee for that if she does end up at school would be worth it to hold her place if we do homeschool 2 more years. After the shadow day, if the closer school doesn’t look to be a good fit for her or us financially, we’ll visit the ps. The ps is really the last option. We had personal experience with the middle school, my dc have friends currently attending the ps and are unhappy with it, and I have 2 close friends who are teachers there that also have little good to say about it and send their own kids to private school or the ps in the next town. So, it’s last on the list of options.

Oh yes, I know all too well about the homeschool cliques....it’s a big part of the reason her current group has dissolved, more like imploded.....with the exception of the kids who are moving, the rest is a bunch of junior high drama—caused by some of the moms, not even the kids!

No, I wouldn’t want her or myself to be in that type of environment. Though from both of the schools we visited, that’s definitely not their belief or attitude, and I wouldn’t expect that from the kids that go there. Sadly I’ve seen that more in some homeschool groups.

Thanks. Yes, the private school said shadowing needs to be done in May. The public school does not allow shadowing at all. We can just talk to the guidance counselor there. .

I’m hoping to at least convince her to visit the co-op with me. It’s a large co-op, and we went there when she was much younger. We only stopped going because of my work schedule. She’s not wanting to go because she didn’t have any friends there before......she was in 3rd grade! I’m guessing it’s not quite the same group it was then. They are offering some good academic classes for high school next year.....biology lab science, art, Spanish. I thought 14-year olds were more reasonable than 13-year-olds, but I’m not so sure now.😳