We are doing our first ever homeschool co-op this year and I am teaching a class of 13-16 year old boys and helping in another similar class. My experience is that the students are engaged and well behaved. As my class gets more comfortable with me and each other, there are a couple of boys who disrupt with silly comments, but it's usually easy to get them back on track and continue the lesson. While I have seen some homeschoolers who were poorly behaved on field trips, I've also been on several homeschool field trips were the docents mention that they love having homeschoolers because they are more interested and engaged and they have better behavior. I agree that free activities tend to attract the homeschool families who are less invested in the activity and wouldn't otherwise be there.

Sounds fun! I've never been to Maine, but after seeing beautiful photos from friends' trips to Acadia National Park, I want to go!

I bought a loveseat from Big Lots about two and a half years ago. I wouldn't say it's great quality, but I sit on it every day. The cushions are already sagging and pilling and the fabric on the armrest pulled apart a bit almost immediately. Furniture is so expensive though and I would be willing to buy furniture there again, but I don't expect it to last a long time.

Six weeks is ridiculous. People can rarely plan that far out for a retail job and things come up that can't be planned. My son worked as a prison guard for awhile. They always need employees at the prison because it's not a job that most people want, but my son loves meeting all kinds of people and enjoyed it. They had 12 hour shifts and then would frequently have mandated 6 hour overtime shifts. That means they were required to work 18 hours straight in a dangerous job! They would never know if they would be going home after their shift or would be required to stay for overtime and everyone also had to work weekends. Since my son had military training (NG) many weekends, he'd be put right to the top of the overtime list because he missed a shift. It didn't take long for him to realize that he could never plan to do anything and his entire life was controlled by his work schedule, so he quit and they lost a good guard. You would think companies would make an effort to keep good employees, but they don't.

Wow, you're much braver than me! I love backpacking, but I can't imagine doing it by myself.

I was raised in the United Methodist Church. My family didn't attend, but dropped me off and picked me up at the front door from a young age. I liked church and attended through high school and then found a UMC near my university. DH (also raised in the UMC) and I attended the UMC until the late 1990's when we felt the denomination was becoming too liberal for our beliefs. There were other things we disliked, such as the sermons being more like academic exercises, lack of Bible studies, lack of community, and the fact that the church was quickly aging and we were one of very few young families. We left and went across town to a theologically conservative, non-denominational church a with contemporary worship style and have been there since. It's been interesting because, since our current church opened up again post-Covid, it has been growing really fast and this is not at all a conservative area. ETA: Our non-denom church is not Baptist and was started by a pastor who grew up Catholic and went to Catholic school, but says he became a Christian in college.

Architect

This kind of stuff is why I'm homeschooling my youngest kids through high school. I just couldn't do it anymore! The amount of academic and emotional damage done to my highly gifted son makes it something I'm not willing to repeat.

I love summer and find fall weather depressing, but I do enjoy getting back into a routine. I'll still be homeschooling DD and I do a lot of direct instruction and discussion, but she's in high school now and doesn't need me for most of her work. We're joining an enrichment homeschool co-op for the first time ever and I'm excited about the class I'll be teaching there. DD is also trying cross country this year ( a sport I excelled in as a high school student) at our local public school and I'm looking forward to attending a few meets and watching her try something new. Many of our old friends are having amazing adventures (becoming missionaries, bike trips around the country and world, major travel, moving to their dream retirement homes) and I'm feeling a bit left behind, so I need to plan some smaller adventures or at least some big projects to keep me focused.

We didn't do many fun outdoor summery things this year and, now that fall activities are starting, I really regret it. Summer is my favorite season and it's very short here. We didn't swim at all because our go-to swim locations closed down, we didn't take our kayaks/canoe out a single time, we didn't vacation anywhere, we didn't camp. DS19 is working full time and DD had some part time work plus driver's ed and a couple of activities, so I spent most of the summer driving them around. We did attend an outdoor concert. went to a July 4th parade, and took one hike in a new location, so I guess that's something.

My parents don't have smartphones or computers and it's extremely unlikely they ever will. My mom told me just this week that she was standing in line at the pharmacy when the older woman talking to the pharmacist turned around and very loudly exclaimed to everyone in line, "They think everyone has a smartphone or a computer! Not everyone does!" I think my mom wanted to cheer. Like the OP, I don't want an app for everything I need to do. In fact, I deleted at least half the apps that came preloaded on my phone. I don't need to scroll through screens of stuff I don't want or use to find the few apps I want.

DS is a Russian major and he uses Tandem to find Russian speakers. He can't guarantee it's always "non-sketchy".

I have the same issue with adult children still on my account. I can hide accounts, but one still has his phone attached to my plan and has an automatic payment set up to pay his phone bill. Since there's a monthly transfer, I can't hide that account! Also, the bank now sends "early pay alerts" and even hidden accounts send them to me so I get their paycheck alerts and if they overdraw an account, I get those alerts too. They don't care about it at all and I haven't been able to convince them they can move their finances off my account page.

My mom had cataract surgery. Other than driving her to her appointment and driving her home, she didn't need anything else. She wore dark sunglasses and went right back to her normal activity.

We have not been wearing masks for awhile. We were all vaxxed and wearing masks and we all got Covid anyway. I don't care if other people want to wear masks and don't give masks wearers dirty looks or say anything. I'm just not going to wear them anymore unless I'm in a situation where I'm asked to do so. My family rarely gets sick, so preventing illness is not even much of an advantage for us. My dh has severe hearing loss and depends on being able to read lips, so masks have made his life difficult. His clients and many of our friends aren't aware of the severity of his hearing loss and it's made it hard for him to communicate during meetings and other activities. He's relieved that most people have stopped masking in our area.

The military academies still required it as of last year.

No bench. Nobody really likes the bench because it's uncomfortable and hard to sit on if someone is already there.

This is a good point. My son was in the NG and had to leave at the end of his freshman first semester for a deployment to the Middle East. It wasn't even his unit that got deployed, but an officer that had worked with him specifically requested him for the deployment. He had to show his deployment papers to his professors to prove he needed to take final exams early. When he returned a year later, he wasn't motivated to return to college and never got a degree. If your DD isn't planning on college right now, this isn't a consideration and employers are required by law to allow military service time. As far as "one weekend a month", the NG often considers all day Friday to be part of the weekend AND it's possible for their unit to be several hours from home. OTOH, DS actually liked Basic Training and was known as the person who kept morale up during the deployment. I have another DS who's doing ROTC and considering doing the simultaneous membership with National Guard. He's always wanted to be in the military and had an Academy nomination, but he needed a medical waiver and the Academy denied him, so he's looking to be commissioned another way. He would probably love everything about the Guard.

Cross off Ohio too. We say that the traffic situation is "you can't get there from here". Almost every highway is under construction in my area and every exit has been closed at some point. They change everything weekly so nobody knows what's going on and it looks like a giant video game with cars and trucks moving all over the place trying to find the right exit and detour. If you are on interstate A and want to go east, you can't just get off on the exit to Interstate B. You have to exit early, head many miles west, take another exit to go north, take another exit to go east, travel through the city where every highway is under construction and then you're back to where the original exit was. I have driving anxiety, but sometimes I can't avoid these highways and have to plan my route very carefully. I honestly think getting lost in this city a few years ago is what caused my driving anxiety. My GPS kept trying to take me through a closed road, my normal road was torn up and closed, some of the neighborhoods near there aren't known to be the safest areas, and I couldn't find my way back to a familiar area. I'm OK in areas I know and having better GPS that picks up on closed roads has helped, but detours are stressful.

You can buy the lightweight pants on Scoutshop.org. https://www.scoutshop.org/boy-scout-mens-polyester-microfiber-switchback-relaxed-fit-pants-612141.html

Our co-op is going to be enrichment/elective based only, at least for now, so it's not so critical. People are looking for social connection more than academics at this particular co-op. Also, there is a large university within 15 minutes where homeschoolers can take dual enrollment.

This is my 13th year of homeschooling and we're joining a co-op for the first time. This is a brand new co-op and one of the women starting it has been in other co-ops and started one in another city and, based on her previous experiences, this is how it will be run. All parents are required to teach at least one class, assist in another class, and help as needed for the third session. Everyone pitched an idea they wanted or were willing to teach. We made sure each class had someone willing to teach it and then there's a pre-registration to see what classes students really want. Nobody, including admins, gets out of paying the semester fee when they register for classes.

My parents have NO internet. They have never had a computer, smartphone, or social media of any type. There's an older couple in one of my church groups who don't have computers or smartphones either. Many people I know don't use any type of social media. I believe it's more common than you think for people not to be connected to technology.

My elementary school had one of those merry go rounds that had pumps on each side and bench seats around it! We would fill it and then the bravest kids would sit on a dome in the middle and try to hang on.

I'm right there with you. I have SO MANY PHOTOS, both printed and digital, and they're a complete mess. I like to scrapbook and I've found the kids are more likely to look at pictures in scrapbooks than online or prints in boxes, so I'm trying to go through piles and piles, sort them and scrapbook them. I'll probably print out newer photos sometime soon too or maybe just print photobooks. I'm not opposed to digital pictures, but technology changes so fast that I find that I'm always trying to update digital storage to make it accessible again, so I like having hard copies.