NM

Thanks all!

Please don't quote- I will delete later. Updated- She asked me to go ahead and delete this but I am hopeful she found some advice or comfort here. Thank you hive

My pediatrician always told me if there was any wheezing it was time to get it checked out. Better safe than sorry. Hope you all feel better soon!

I read that they are working on a high school geography that may possibly be done by fall. I am keeping my fingers crossed as I would love to use it next year. It might have some resources you could use for your older student as well if it comes out in time.

Check out Guest Hollow's Geography program. I haven't used that particular one, but have used a couple of their science courses. It is a buffet of choices with an outlined schedule, but you can pick and choose what you like. There are always a lot of interesting book choices and a mix of hands on activities etc... https://www.guesthollow.com/homeschool/geography/geography.html

I just binge watched season 1 of Vanity Fair with Olivia Cooke on Amazon prime. It was amazing if you like period pieces.

Can he not apply as a transient student? It is usually a different process when you are applying just to take a couple of classes needed for credit back at the home college. I think a student has to usually get permission from their current university to be a transient student, and then they apply as a transient at the college where they want to pick up a couple of classes. I would think that application process would be much simpler as the student is not an actual transfer student. Sounds like the summer college is treating him like a transfer student who needs all the paperwork to do a complete admissions process.

Here is an easy solution- tell sister in law that if this situation is something your mother in law is interested in pursuing, she can call you about it herself. She probably won't call so problem solved. If she does, then you can have a discussion about a lovely day visit when you are in town to try and renew a relationship. No way my kid is staying with someone neither my husband nor I are on speaking terms with, aside from the fact the person is a complete stranger to my kid. Nope. I am very surprised your husband is on board with this when his mother isn't even speaking to him right now. The whole thing is very unhealthy and a child should not be some kind of pawn in this messed up game.

I tried to be hands off with my kid but it started to become a problem during school. Mostly because of one friend who wants to text and have conversations all day long. It drives me batty. So now my kid can check it before school starts and then has to put it up on the charger on silent til after school is finished. I am hesitant to start the lunch break thing because they will start a conversation and then it is hard to get back on track. I have told her if there is a real issue or scheduling problem etc a friend can just call the house phone during school hours. No one ever does that though! I am hoping when this one kid goes to public school next year it will die down on its own. Hopefully they have a policy or she is distracted by her classwork and new friends. She is just a really social kid and so is mine so once they start it just keeps going. I also ask her to put it away for the night (out in the common area) around 10 pm. Since she doesn't get home from some outside activities til 8:30-9 this seemed reasonable to me. I have removed the browser so the phone is not really used for schoolwork. We use computers or iPads for that instead. I may put the browser back on next year but I will probably still insist that the kids use the computers for school so the texting doesn't interfere.

It doesn't seem like you would need a curriculum for narration or journaling. You would just need a list of novels, short stories, poetry etc...that you wanted to cover for the year and then have the student keep a notebook and write down their thoughts.

I just got this one last week: "They do get OUT though, don't they? To have some social time?" No lady, we never leave the house. My part time job is not as a chauffeur to dance, youth group, scouts, archery, park dates and all the just hang out sessions with friends in between. Seriously I can't believe this still comes up. I may have rolled my eyes or snickered inadvertently. My kids are freaking social butterflies. So the irony just kills me. If only they would stay home every once in a while and be the isolated homeschoolers these people think they are so I could get a break. It's been ten years of answering the same question so my patience has worn a bit thin.

Sequential Spelling worked wonders for us, but we started it later around 4th-5th grade. You can move faster through the levels if you want to speed it up. It was designed for dyslexics and focuses on patterns instead of rules. AAS was a bust for my kid, but rote memorization was always a problem and there is a lot of that to remember all the rules. Some dyslexic kids do well with the rules based programs, but mine did not. We found those type of programs very frustrating. I do think for some dyslexic kids spelling seems to click in a bit later. I kind of wished I had saved myself the frustration of multiple spelling programs between 1st and 4th and just stuck with copywork and then added in Sequential Spelling around age 10. And I would absolutely begin a keyboarding/typing program so that spelling doesn't limit composition, which is an entirely different skill. My kid took off with creative writing as soon as a word processor came into play.

Sounds like she really needs accountability. If you do Abeka or BJU dvds, who will make sure she is actually doing those lessons either? Is someone going to grade the work nightly to see what she accomplishes? Because it seems like you would just end up with the same problem if not more of a problem, because I think both programs are output heavy. Do you have internet access? Possibly something like Switched on Schoolhouse might work for a season? I think the grading is done for you and you can log in to see what she has actually done each day. Not too expensive ($40 a month for high school I think?) Not nearly as rigorous as Abeka or BJU but it doesn't sound like more rigor is what you need right now. Or perhaps online public school or even consider sending her to a brick and mortar school for a trial run? She might work harder for someone else.

With the discrepancy and the large amount owed do you think it might be worth it to have an accountant look at it this year? Maybe they can save you enough to at least cover their fee and then you have peace of mind.