Both of my college kids are flying out to CA for 10 days with their college teams in March. I was nervous about them flying, but with the recent surge in cases in different parts of the world, I don't think this is going to be contained and restricting their travel is not going to make a difference. My husband and I booked a trip yesterday to fly to Club Med next week. My oldest son and his roommate usually have no food in their apartment. I convinced my son to get in some food in the case of a quarantine. He and his friend think I am nuts, but I am relieved that he listened to me.

My son's friend just found out that the college has cancelled her study abroad program in Italy this spring. My son and daughter are both supposed to fly to CA the middle of next month. I am not thrilled about the thought of them getting on an airplane at this point, but they both think I am overreacting.

I was also going to suggest New Balance. I buy my kids' shoes from Tennis Warehouse which usually has clearance sales (last year's colors) and free shipping.

Yes, I just thought I would throw out there that the Larson textbook did prepare my kids since you are trying to decide on a textbook. I don't know anything about Stewart's text to comment on that. Did the kids that you know who struggled in the next class in the sequence get 5's on the AP exam? Some colleges accept scores of 3's on the AP exam. Imo, those kids would definitely struggle in the next class in the sequence.

I wondered that, too. But even if it were true, would the Chinese government ever admit that?

Fwiw, all three of my kids used the Larson textbooks as their main text. All three received a 5 on the AP exam, used that AP credit to place out at their respective colleges, and went on to earn A's in the next class in their colleges' sequences.

I have been following this topic on CC as well. Someone posted today an issue I hadn't thought of: Most prescription medications are manufactured in China. If I had any prescriptions, I would be getting all of the available refills filled now. https://www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/RosemaryGibsonTestimonyUSCCJuly152019.pdf

Nevermind I will wait for more official info before freaking out.

"Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced 1 million masks will be released from the national medical stockpile, as the government reviews its response to the coronavirus outbreak after reports it could be transmitted without symptoms" Has this been proven? The only report I saw stating that transmission can occur without symptoms was later retracted once the woman from China who infected the group in Germany was interviewed. .

I had read about this on another site as well. Here is a review of the newspaper that ran the article: Factual Reporting: HIGH World Press Freedom Rank: Taiwan 45/180 Notes: Taiwan News was founded June 6, 1949, as China News. In 1976, the paper was renamed Taiwan News and is published by Luis Ko and in 2015, Taiwan News switched to an all digital format. Taiwan News publishes topics including World News, Business, Editorials, Sports and Entertainment, New Immigrants and more. According to Reporters Without Borders, media independence in Taiwan is on hold as they claim the main threat to media freedom comes from China, which has been exerting growing economic and political pressure on the Taiwanese media. However, freedomhouse.org indicates Taiwan’s media environment as one of the freest in Asia by 2016. Taiwan News reports international news with low bias as they use sources such as AP and maintain factual reporting and neutral words such as: The Latest: Trump says Harvey has ‘profoundly’ affected US. Overall, we rate Taiwan News HIGH for factual reporting and a least biased news source. (M. Huitsing 9/2/2017)

Law Professor Francis Boyle drafted the US Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989 — signed into law by GHW Bush. He has multiple degrees from Harvard and says he has been blackballed by the government and media since 9/11. Do any of you share his opinion about the Coronavirus situation? Dr. Francis Boyle discusses the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China and the Biosafety Level 4 laboratory (BSL-4) from which he believes the infectious disease escaped. He believes the virus is potentially lethal and an offensive biological warfare weapon or dual-use biowarfare weapons agent genetically modified with gain of function properties, which is why the Chinese government originally tried to cover it up and is now taking drastic measures to contain it. The Wuhan BSL-4 lab is also a specially designated World Health Organization (WHO) research lab and Dr. Boyle contends that the WHO knows full well what is occurring.

Here is a snippet from the NYT that arrived in my inbox this morning: Last month, the government put Wuhan in a virtual lockdown, sealing off the city and banning most public transportation and private cars from its streets in a desperate effort to contain the outbreak. Now, many residents say it is nearly impossible to get the health care they need to treat — or even diagnose — the coronavirus. Expressing exasperation, doctors say there is a shortage of testing kits and other medical supplies, and it is not clear why more are not available. The ban on transportation means some residents have to walk for hours to get to hospitals — if they are well enough to make the journey. Layers of bureaucracy stand between residents and help. And the long lines outside hospitals for testing and treatment suggest that the outbreak is spreading far beyond the official count of cases. Not surprisingly, it looks like the situation in China is way worse than the official numbers would indicate. I can't imagine how scary it must be living in Wuhan right now.

Yeah, these were all extended family members with the exception of one.

I have had multiple individuals over the years tell us that we were "ruining our kids lives" by homeschooling them. I also had an individual ask me when I was going to put my kids in school and get a job. Now that I am finished homeschooling my kids, I have had a few of these individuals apologize, but their past attitudes have definitely negatively affected my relationships with them.

I just watched the Sound of Music again with my daughter and some of her friends a couple of nights ago. I just sent them all a link to the article. Too funny!

I found many of the online classes (including AP) to be extremely time-consuming with little pay-off. (There was one time when a student posed a question and the teacher told them to use google.). Since your child is not getting much out of the class, I would drop it and self-study the material. If it is not too late to sign up as an AP teacher, I would do that so you would have access to some online multiple choice questions and guidance on the topics your child still needs to master. Good luck!

Has your son taken any of the AoPS online classes, such as Counting & Probability, Intermediate Number Theory, or any of the competition classes?

I don't have any experience with the ARCH program. Last summer was the first year that it was mandatory for the sophomores. There certainly are unhappy students and parents posting on Reddit, which gave me pause when my D was going through the process. However, some of the changes the students are unhappy about, I actually consider to be positive changes. Congrats on your son's choices to date! Go Blue!

Both RPI and WPI offered my D a lot of merit aid last admission cycle. (Although they don't fit your middle of US criteria)

I was going to suggest RPI as well. My D just finished her 1st semester. It definitely has a vibe similar to MIT.

This was our situation, too. My son who has always loved to write and discuss literature found his tribe in the younger years via Online g3 and CTY. During the high school years, he loved his rhetoric sequence with Thomas Hummel at WTM Academy. My other two enjoyed AoPS forums. We didn't connect with any of the homeschoolers in our IRL community as all of the programs around us required me to sign a statement of faith, which I would not do. My kids' social circles were formed via their extracurricular activities. Social and academic pursuits were always separate, not by choice, but out of necessity. Thankfully, they all have found both academic challenge and great social fits at their respective colleges.

My oldest became fully independent when he graduated from college at age 22. He had saved enough money from his internship his junior year of college that he was able to purchase a car, furniture for his apartment, and pay his security deposit and first month's rent. His company has better health insurance than we have, so he is not on our insurance either. My other adult children are still in college and fully supported by us, like their brother was until he graduated.

Even though I am not a certified teacher, I consider myself an educator. I typed in the number of years I had been homeschooling my kids when answering that question. Good luck!

Our goal when we began homeschooling was to raise happy kids who would develop a life-long love of learning. My kids have all graduated from homeschooling. If I had it all to do again, I wouldn't change a thing in our approach. All three our kids are grateful that they were homeschooled and have many happy memories. I read The Well Trained Mind years ago when the kids were small. That approach would not have been a good fit for my kids. Our philosophy leaned more towards Holt and Montessori. We gave the kids a lot of freedom in regards to what they studied. My only requirements in the elementary years were that they studied grammar, math, and read for at least one hour every day; every other area of study depended on their interests. We had a no electronics rule from 8 am - 2:30 pm during the week. If the kids finished their assignments for the day before 2:30 pm, they spent their time on things that I considered educational - reading, playing board games, arts and crafts, baking, etc. After 2:30 pm, they participated in a lot of activities offered through our community education services - pottery classes, theatre, scouts, etc. Many years, they were at the public school three times a week participating in these after-school activities. As they got older, their interests became more time consuming and intense and many of the activities that they did in the younger years fell off. When they entered high school, I did require them to study some topics that they would not have chosen if given the choice. Foreign language was the only requirement that I had that was unanimously despised by all three and considered a colossal waste of time. I made them study it solely because many colleges required it. In the high school years, my kids would typically have one or two outsourced classes per year. The rest of the their courses were "home-brewed" based on their interests. One year, I created a literature class based on Harry Potter that was fun for all of us. My kids had a lot of down time each day, even in the high school years. They were all very well prepared for the rigors of college.