Years... !

I am so very sorry for the loss of your daughter.â¤ï¸

I have been losing hair for about three months. A lot. It is not a question of perception, but a very real thing. I would think I must have lost about (almost) half - no patches, just thinning out all over... The stats: 41, definately not in menopause AT ALL (all women in the family EXTREMELY late in menopause - think late 50s), but irregular cycles for the last months, due to important weight loss, caused by stress...which puts me in the inderweight catagory now. I am working towards getting a hold on the stressors...and the weight... I have been as careful as possible in the process, about getting the necessary vitamins & minerals, but must be missing something... What could be causing this kind of hair loss? I have the impression it has stopped over the last couple of weeks, and the hairdresser told me, she sees new "sprouts". I am worried she (and I) might be wrong, and I'll actually be bold in the near future...🙠I had periods of hairloss before (after each pregnancy, for example), but no-where that severe... Please share your stories - above all those, that "ended well", instead of bald...! Any tips? Thank you so much! ...I am starting to freak out a bit...

I have been to SA many times, as has my family. My Aunt has been living there for over 20 years. Never have I heard about Anti-malaria drugs being used (as opposed to many other African countries - and when travelling through these we have all taken the drugs repeatedly!). But then, I have certainly not been EVERYWHERE in SA, so maybe my experience does not apply... My instinct tells me to do as the locals do - particularly with a doctor in the host family, I wouldn't give it a second thought.

Most European Universities will require between 3-5 AP-exams to enter (without advanced placement!) or a Bachelor/undergraduate degree...and will probably not care much about anything else, as an Americal high-school (diploma) is not considered..."much"... You can find information on the internet site of almost any specific university...

Thank you all so much for your replies...right now they mean so much to me...! I feel "less lonely" alredy, and a bit more "normal" for feeling blue in regards to what we left behind... (in spite of knowing very well that this move was the right choice for us...!)

The moving thread hit home. For a variety of reasons we uprooted the family last summer, moving across Europe, new country, new language, new culture... Sending the kids to a b&m school for the first time was an additional change. Even though everything has worked out just the way we had hoped for, the change has been/is tough...mostly for myself... I do appreciate the possibilities this move offers each one of us (I have started Med-School in the fall...), but still badly mourn the life we left behind... The home our kids were born into, the neighborhood which was ours for 15+ years, knowing my way around, the "cozyness" that comes from knowing a place inside-out... Having left homeschooling behind makes the feeling of a "closed chapter" even more palpable. How do those of you who move often preserve a feeling of home? How do you manage to preserve what makes home (and ultimately family...) through moves and change? How do you deal with good-bys...and fresh starts, without losing part of yourself... I would love to hear from the moving experts, to help me appreciate the "normality" of moving...and starting over.

I turned 40 last summer...and started my first semester of Medical School in the Fall. This had been my dream forever. At 40, and in a position of being able to go back to university, I wasn't going to settle for any compromise. It is tough, much more so than I had anticipated, but so, so much more rewarding than I had expected, too!!! Most importantly, through all the toughness, this feels so much mine, that I selfishly enjoy every moment of it... For my fellow students - yes, I could (almost) be mom to most of them, barely older than my oldest...but, really, it doesn't matter. We are all just the same, trying to find our way, figure out how it works, listen, learn, ...and dream, too! I sometimes wonder whether these "kids" will think back of me, when they are 40, and realize the full enormity of embarking on this journey at this age...and four kids in tow... The pride I feel, easily sets off the price I pay - and then some!

I am thinking of a "happy homeschool situation" - kids thriving, family life going well (...going great!), mom content... In this set-up, what would it take for you to choose to end the voyage? What school would be irresistable? ...for full discloure, we have been homeschooling "forever"...and were set to see it through... These last weeks an opportunity has risen, for the (older three) kids (14,12, 10) to attend a truly amazing school. They will start in August - and will never be homeschooled again... My heart is heavy, but I know that this is the right choice, and that any other decison would have been egoistic...

More bumping... :lurk5:

I would assume that the only thing they care about are the actual exams, not the classes...

...a crowd in the delivery room??? We were 11 (with baby and me), my mom AND dad among them. It was the most beautiful moment in my life... After a VERY long night (no Epi, first baby), with snow falling havily outside, Bruce Springsteen singing, soft voices talking, so much support,...ds certainly was welcomed into the best of worlds! As far as nursing goes: I have literally nursed my way around Europe...while doing my shopping, when sitting in restaurants (WHILE eating!) at the public pool with just my bikini on (no, I'm not a "blanket-gal")... Oh, bikinis... Yes! ...and "even" with four kids! And, no, I won't get into the details of my bodily features, to "justify"! Btw, dd, who is nine, is going "top-less" at the beach/pool. She, for the life of hers, can't figure out what could be there to cover-up/hide...and we can only agree! But then, again, our moral standard must be off, as we happen to walk around the house NA*ED...and the kids don't seem to mind! ...and, now THE DISCLAIMER : We are Europeans!😜

...plans for the future. The younger nephew still has a road to travel, but we are holding our breath, as after his last 6-month hospitalised therapy he has now been clean for over 8 months. His life is in shatters, though, and almost 10 years are difficult to catch up. Our kids are older now (13,11, 9), so we are very open about addiction, their nephews, and choices we, as their parents, made. Believe me, I am happy to explain why we did never let them sleep at my SIL's house, why we did not think skiing-trips with the nephews were a good idea... I am very relieved, too, NOT having to explain why we cut ties with them when they were at their worst. The most sick, the poorest, the most pittyful. Last but not least, someone else mentioned signs we are setting for our kids about who is appropriate company, and who is not. Well, we loud and clear wanted to set the sign that we are here whatever - a sign for them and a sign for our kids.

We have been living this exact situation for the last couple of years - and Joanne very much summarized our attitude. In our case one of the nephews was a reagular "pot/extasy-etc-user" (does that word even exist?), the other one escalated to heroin at a young age. Obviously social/legal consequences were ever present. Their addiction really discredited them as adults, capable of making controlled, mature and responsible choices. Did it turn them into some monsters I needed to protect my kids from? Absolutely not! Obviously I would not accept a situation where they would be in charge of my kids (and neither the dog, actually!), but that is just because I consider them INCAPABLE of being reliable, not because I expect them to be any more dangerous per se, than the nice proper oncle... Also, as Joanne wrote above, in a situation of heavy dependancy, the addict himself will be the first one to pull out of the relationship. I cannot count the number of no-shows for family-gatherings, the last minute cancellations... I am proud though, to be part of an extended family, which found the strength (and mostly managed to figure out the logistics) to integrate its weakest members, while protecting the others. For what it's worth, the older of the two nephews was here for dinner two days ago - and I am so incredibly proud of the way he has evolved. Holding a steady job for 5+ years, living with a lovely, very stable girl, making

Looking forward to hearing about this, too!

I am not sure I agree. My brother (just turned 26) had a choice like this to make a couple of years ago. He was a prime candidate for Oxbridge (as sure as one could possibly be) and decided to go to Warwick, persuing a course of study he was particularly interested in. He has not regretted his choice one second and his career is unfolding "perfectly", most certainly unaffected by the "lesser university".... I would think that professionals in general will be able to make the distinction between someone making a deliberate choice, vs. someone taking what is left... Now, my mom, that is another story...the poor woman will forever be stuck without one of hers making it to Oxford ;-) P.S. I think the situation might be different in the USA... Here (Europe) undergraduate courses of study are very distinct, with a considerable direct impact on future employment/professional development.

Ds did/does take Algebra 1 (using Jacobs) with VPSA, after having used Saxon. While he had successfully used Saxon in the past he was very happy to switch to Jacobs, and get rid of the drag Saxon can sometimes be... Well, the Jacobs honeymoon did not last long! Ds struggled with the format, and the perceived lack of explanations. I just pulled him from the class, getting back to Saxon (Algebra 1) and working our way through... My plan is to finish Saxon 1 by the end of summer, slowly re-incorporating Jacobs. I am far from being a math specialist, and you will probably get better advice from other people here, but for me a good math program is one that works (within a certain frame, of course). At this point, I much prefer sticking to Saxon, possibly "spicing things up" with a different approach, than put all my dimes on a program I am not 100% confident with (for my son!). As far as "depth" is concerned, probably Jacobs pushes a bit further (not even sure about it, though, but it seems to be the consensus), but again, I am really interested in a solid foundation right now, we'll need to see about the depth further down the road...

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this! After my post I spent some time on the net...and after feeling really stupid for 5 min, I am now LIVID! I'll call them on Monday and fix a meeting - I never want anything close to this to happen again. In any case, ds if far from experienced enough to justify putting him on a boat that unstable, with a water temperature of 41 degrees. Also, I want some informations about their rescue protocol (the other six boys were basically unsupervised, while ds was brought back)...

Please be nice...I really am not experienced and am wondering about how/if to handle this issue... Ds13 started rowing at a local club last summer. They usually go on the lake (Lake Geneva), unless the weather is unbarable, in which case they row on machines. During the winter months (Nov-Feb) there is indoor-rowing only. Ds went back for the first time since October this Wednesday. It was about 35 degrees outside, with an ice-cold wind and some snow...quite bad... We were sure they would not consider for one second to get on the water... Well, wrong we were,...and ds ended up on a "single" (I am not sure about the English name), in spite of these being particularly unstable. They did about 5km, before ds flipped and fell into the water - at 41 degrees! He was not wearing a life jacket, or protective clothing of any kind (he actually was dressed in gym clothes). Thankfully, he held on to his boat until the lady, accompaning his group of 7 with a small motor dingy (without any special equipment), could pull him out (ds thinks she was about 500m away when he "dived", about 1.5km from the club, in obviously deep water). The woman brought him back to the club house and helped him get warm (blankets, etc.). At the end of the training, about one hour later, ds set off to come home by bus (the way he had gone there, too), with, by then, dry clothes, but still BAD weather. I was quite puzzled, when ds told me of his adventure, without thinking too much of it, as ds himself did not think of it as being particularly spectacular (well, apart of when "his heart stopped beating" and he couldn't move because he was "frozen inside")... Today I got a phone call from my father...who was livid, and probably as shocked by what happened to ds, as by my attitude... He told me that this was nothing short of a life-or-death situation, that ds (small and skinny) could have had a heart attack, that talking with the coach (the woman in the boat) was useless, as she was at best utterly careless, at worst...well, much worse... I have to admit that I had wondered why nobody had called when it happened, as I thought it was a bit rough to let ds wander off to take public transportations under the circumstances... Also, I think it would have been "nice" to give a ring in the evening, asking how he was doing (he is fine!). So, please, help me out here...am I nuts, or is the concerned grand-father? My dh is away on a trip and will only be back next week...I'll need to wait to hear his opinion. Thank you for reading that far!

Thank you for your replies! I will look into Laurel Springs... As far as the APs are concerned, they will need to be 1 Math, 1 Science, 1 History, 1 Language, 1 Optional (no "soft APs", like Geography, Psychology, etc.). To be on the safe side, I want ds to choose the optional AP to be a language, too. It helps me to read about your perspective on weighing academics vs. athletics, as I agree with your evaluation, on keeping swimming at its "just place", and not compromise on the academical part of his dossier... I just so wish we could have it all - the rigorous course of study, with inbedded APs and a diploma at the end. NCAA recognition should be a no-brainer in this scenario!!!

P.S. Also, I am just not sure how much I can count on my "Mommy Diploma" (or any variation of this) being accepted here in Europe. A VP/TPS (and maybe K12) Diploma might be the safer option...

VP only assigns "pass/fail-" grades to classes not taken with them, which would be quite a few for us. I agree with your approach of dealing with the NCAA. But this still leaves us with the problem of basically having to ADD any ("outside") AP classes to the already full VP programm...

DS13 is in 7th grade this year. He is taking six online classes, four with VP (Omnibus, Algebra 1, Latin 1, Biology) and two with TPS (English 1, Geography). He is currently in the VP-Diploma program. The year has been intense, but I really wanted to get a feeling for his ability to function in this kind of learning environment during 7th/8th grade, as we intend to outsource a majority of classes for high-school. We will need to keep a couple of parameters in sight when planning high-school, and I am increasingly dubitative about the VP-Diploma for our needs... We live in Europe. Moving in the not too far future (South-Africa) is a possibility, but we want to keep doors to Swiss/European universities wide open. Access to these is highly dependant on AP exams (at least 5 by the end of Junior Year). We will also need to provide an "official" high-school diploma. On the other hand, ds is swimming competitively and dreams of swimming while studying at a college in the US. He will need to pass the NCAA clearinghouse... So, our options as I see them: 1.) Stay with VP This would provide the Diploma & NCAA recognition. On the other hand, I can not immagine how we would integrate the necessary APs... VP seems increasingly rigid about using their online-classes, and frankly, I don't care for ds to graduate with "pass/fail" grades, or an "Assiciate/Standard"-Diploma... Particularly when it comes to AP exams, I want to make sure we go with well-established providers with a proven track record (PA-Homeschoolers, etc.) 2.) Use TPS Diploma program They seem considerably better organized on the AP-side, with, as an added bonus, significantly more flexibility concerning the integration of not-TPS courses. The problem is their lack of NCAA recognition, and I don't see this evolving... 3.) Do our own thing We would organize the diploma "somehow" (homeschool-/transcript service for a fee), pack the necessary number of APs, and groom a (second?) transcript for NCAA... This last solution seems like the most straight forward way to go...apart of me...not.wanting.it. I am literally frozen at the thought of no-one holding my hand, and doing this alone... What if "my diploma" is not good enough? What if we run into trouble with the NCAA? I am almost tempted to just go K12 for the whole shabang...Diploma/APs/NCAA, all included...,but then, I don't really want this either... Any thoughts? Any brilliant Diploma/APs/NCAA-Combos I have not thought about? Thank you for having read this far!

It probably is written in "Sütterlin". I could give it a shot - my great-grand-father used to write me regularly, and many moons ago I was even taught to write it in school...!

I am so very sorry. You, your children and your family will be in my prayers.