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Michelle in IL2

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Everything posted by Michelle in IL2

  1. ISTJ here. I am very similar. It takes me a very long time to even refer to someone as a friend. I have a very small inner circle. Five years ago, I closed the door on one of my closest friendships. It had been somewhat of a roller coaster through the years but would be good for long stretches so it seemed worth it. The friendship went off the rails again, and I was just done. We still communicate. I don’t have any hard feelings. I would stop everything and help her and her family if needed. But I don’t think I could ever be close again. It was too much drama too many times. I just couldn’t do it anymore.
  2. Merlin Bird ID (put out by Cornell Lab of Ornithology) is a super awesome free app that helps with IDing birds. It will ask you some basic questions about the bird: size, color, what it was doing, a couple others and uses your location to give you possibilities. There is also a sound ID as well. You just turn it on and it listens to the birds sounds around you and tells you what birds it is hearing. So. Very. Cool. I have a 13-year old bird lover who began at a similar age as yours and with the Burgess Book, Field guides, bird feeders, and a sketch book. Enjoy it!
  3. The tung oil is a bit too thick/viscous for the wood to absorb by itself. The citrus solvent is basically a thinner. It smells amazing too!!
  4. We just put butcher block counters in about a year ago. We have gray cabinets and I absolutely love the look of them. I didn’t want to seal them with a poly so we used a mix of dark tung oil and citrus solvent from The MilkPaint Company. We had time and my dh was installing them so we treated them with tung oil mix 7 or 8 times and then I let them sit about 6 weeks to cure. They were still a bit “fragile” at first-seemed to scratch easily. But after a while they got harder. I was a freak about them at first. My family was terrified of the them, 🤣. But we are good now. I do put another coat of tung oil mixed with citrus solvent about once every 3 months right now. We do have it around our sink. I baby them a bit still. I try to make sure I don’t leave puddles, but my family is not so terrified anymore and they aren’t so careful. The water just beads up and I get it when I see it. So we’ve had a good experience so far and really love them!!
  5. No first hand experience, but I’ve heard many times from others that the advanced is very doable for a middle school kiddo.
  6. I’ve found that it helps a bit to cover the drains whenever you aren’t using them. I just use an old sour cream lid, anything that you can slide off easily when you need to use the drain. It’s always a kitchen sink problem for us so this works well.
  7. Oh absolutely! I do totally respect everything that they do. I have been an obnoxious and condescending homeschooler (mostly just in my own head). I feel like I've come a long way. My teens definitely made me realize there are no guarantees and homeschooling is not the perfect recipe for perfect kids. It works for us right now. I hope it keeps working for us. But I would not put that on anyone. And I am thankful that public school is a very valid choice for most. Great thoughts! Thank you!
  8. As always, Lori, this is great stuff! You have such a knack for breaking a big task into smaller chunks. I was going into it with the mindset of "Mr. Superintendent, tell me how we can make this work, I'm willing to help!" and I see it now it might be more beneficial to lean towards, "This is how this can work, I'm willing to help!" I need to make it easy peasy for them for sure. I am going to contact a coach at a school that I know has done this in the past to see if he will give me any advice or forms they have used to keep things easy. Thank you again for breaking this down for me!
  9. Makes total sense with what teachers have been through the last couple of years. Thanks for the heads-up.
  10. I'm not sure what kind of reputation homeschoolers have here. From my one contact at the school, it seemed as if it wasn't necessarily good. But we are very diligent homeschoolers. Definitely need to take the team approach, I think!
  11. That's a lot of thinking ahead. I just saw that by laws say, I would need to let them know by May 1st of the previous year if I wanted them to take a class or two. Now, whether they would stick to that, I'm not sure. I'm guessing it's about availability.
  12. Illinois has no oversight whatsoever for homeschooled students. I definitely see how some might have a problem with that. The high school by-laws state (we are not there yet but elementary is similar), that the student should be "enrolled at the school and is taking at, or under arrangements approved by the member school, a minimum of 25 credit hours of work"...(this means 5 classes apparently). So I think the leeway is the "under arrangements approved by" part. Some schools will work with you on that and others won't. So I need to convince them to work with me. 🙂
  13. Yes, I am hoping we have a better shot because of our rural area and small numbers. My youngest kiddo for sure will be a stand out here, and my oldest will hold his own. One of the coaches (not of the sport we want) that we know knows that they really do want my kids. They just don't know it yet. 😆
  14. And there are official rules. I have read them although I need to refresh myself before I move forward. But they are vague enough that schools can interpret them differently. The elementary/middle school state rules seem more lenient, but from what I understand, the high school has to basically be willing to give your kid high school credit for what you are doing at home (not that we would need/want that). So if wanted/needed, they should be able to issue your kid a diploma. So I think that's why it's sticky. But I have known at least one family who's kiddo did it all the way through. They just had to let them know what they were doing classwise at the beginning of the year and then do grades each week of the season the kid was playing. And I may be wrong with how I'm interpreting the rules.
  15. I have heard many homeschoolers in my general area (not necessarily my school district) being able to participate in band both in middle school and high school. For some reason, that seems to be easier than sports.
  16. I would think smaller districts would be easier, yes. This school has had the same principal for a very long time, but I have heard she is retiring/has retired. From what I've heard, I don't think she would have been willing to work with me. It would be nice if the new one, is more open! I have also been told by someone a little bit in the know that I should just show up and ask to speak to the superintendent. That I might hit a wall right off the bat if I just emailed or called and tried to set up an appointment. I also just heard that he is a super nice guy and would most likely talk to us. So that is good news!
  17. There is one private Catholic school that is close enough to consider. I may look into that if this does not work, although they do not have the sport we were hoping for. I will look up the how Tennessee homeschoolers got this changed. Thank you!
  18. I am somewhat open to this, I think. It's something I would need to talk about further with my dh. It may be the ticket for us to play. I'd be down for PE, no problem.
  19. And I get that for sure. I may be beating a dead horse. They may have no benefits to letting us participate (other than getting to know my AWESOME kids, of course). Can I do the "I pay taxes for this route?" Seems antagonistic. I never pursued it with my older kiddos because I had heard the district that we lived in then had never let homeschooled kids participate. I know my daughter would have loved to play. I kinda regret not pursuing it more. Thank you for sharing your experience. 🙂
  20. Update: Thank you to everyone responding to this post last summer. It took me a few months to gather up my courage to start this thing, but in November of 2022 I contacted the school. I ended up in correspondence with the Superintendent who was willing to examine the policy with the help of the school board. In May I spoke my case to the school board (yes, yes, I did that without puking). The school did some checking with parents, coaches, and administrators and received very positive feedback. In June the school board was supposed to vote but it was delayed until July so they could research more. I was pretty worried at that point. So last Wednesday, the board voted and…drum roll please… They voted to allow homeschoolers to participate in sports and all extracurricular activities !! It is basically a pilot year so they can see how it works, and they will evaluate next year. My kiddos have to take one class. They have to check out my curriculum and I have to turn in weekly grades for eligibility reasons. The principal is very nice and we are basically figuring it all out together. We are really excited! I’ve never done anything like this so it felt good to be a part of making a change. We are thankful to the Lord for opening this door. Baseball starts next Monday! 🙂 Hello There! We have always homeschooled our kiddos. I have two adult kiddos out of college and an upcoming 5th and 8th grader. I really don't see us ever not homeschooling but I've learned over the years to quit saying always and never. LOL. My currently homeschooled kiddos are athletically inclined and would like to have the option to participate in sports at the local school. I would also love to see if they could do other extracurriculars-robotics, etc. I have email correspondence with the athletic director who said they are not currently allowed to participate and that if I have further questions, I should contact the superintendent. I have a fellow sports parent who works at the school. He would love for my boys to be able to participate but has no pull. He's expressed that the problem is most likely a paperwork issue that no one wants to deal with. It is a small rural school. I've been told by a coach that there might not even be enough kids to run certain programs soon because numbers are down. We live in Illinois. I have known kids who have been allowed to play in their districts no problem. I have also known those who were not allowed to play. It's really up the individual school district how they want to interpret and put into play the rules in place by the state's elementary and high school sports ruling authorities. So, my next move is to try to meet with the superintendent to discuss whether they are willing to work with us. If the superintendent is a no go, I'm guessing I would need to approach the school board. This is all EXTREMELY intimidating to me. If I have to speak in front of the school board, I would probably puke from nervousness. I am usually perfectly content to go with the flow and actively avoid conflict. But I really think it is unfair to exclude homeschoolers without even a second thought, and I would really like my boys to have options. My youngest son is a really good baseball player. They really do want us!! LOL I am perfectly willing to bend to meet any stipulations. I am willing to volunteer to facilitate paperwork. I would consider letting my boys attend for one class. Lots of things I am willing to do to help my boys and possibly other homeschoolers participate. Is there anyone who has fought this "battle" and won? Any been there, done that advice? I am dragging my feet because I don't want to mess up my first contact with them. I just have no idea what approach to take. But I need to get the ball rolling if we have any hope of them participating next year.
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