That is a nightmare. Our family (my niece) has gone through something similar recently. I will pray for your son and for his medical team. My niece's neurosurgeon performed an almost miraculous surgery with the aid of computer technology. ETA: I was falling asleep when writing this. I wanted to say that tricky surgeries (my niece's tumor was one of the worst for resection her neurosurgeon had ever seen) have more options with potentially much better outcomes than previously. And radiation is more targeted now. I hope the new technologies are usable in your son's treatment.

Carcassonne, Splendor, Telestrations, and Camel Up are four that are easy to learn. Everdell and Wingspan are beautiful. Dominion, Clank!, and Seven Wonders are good games that we enjoy. Onitama is a chess like game that my dad and Ds16 enjoy playing together. Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig and Dinosaur Island are two that both Dd17 and Ds16 enjoy. They don't often overlap on games they like.

I'm sure it has been mentioned already, but the older kids and I read A World Undone when we studied World War I. It is a long but enjoyable read. And I think Ds was 14 when he read it, so manageable despite its size. Although, my kids have a pretty good history base, which maybe made it easier to follow.

It is a scholarship essay - for the highest scholarship the school she wants to attend offers. It is important we get it right. LOL I doubt they would like "I don't really use apps and websites for my school."

I'm trying to help my daughter figure out what they are looking for here. What website or app she has used the most? We aren't Luddites, exactly, but we were really slow to add technology to our school except for Dd17's Lukeion classes. Maybe they are asking what app or website helps her succeed?) I'm much more comfortable listening to my 6 year old read than helping my daughter navigate things like this.

There are so many ways I could answer this, and I don't have much time. This may not may much sense out of my own head. Ds16 has absolutely been affected by having a sister just a year older than he is who excels at so many things with so much less effort than he gives. It helps that we have become very matter of fact about it. Also, it helps that he now does a few things better than Dd17 does. I wish I had talked about things differently when he was little. He has taught me a lot about parenting. I don't think Dd10 has internalized any bad feelings about it. I make a big deal about what she does well with school - which is almost everything. So, we celebrate things that actually matter in our family like hard work and learning for the sake of learning. I hope her test scores never matter much to her. My kids have an example of parents with wildly different ACT scores. Dd17 almost outscored her father at the beginning of 7th grade. And yet, here he is, succeeding in a job he enjoys and living a full and happy life. It puts it in perspective a bit. This especially is good for Ds16, since he is so much like his father.

I've thought about it and might do that, but everyone where we live does the ACT. I don't think any schools in the area offer the SAT, but I haven't actively looked yet so there may be some. ETA: I looked. The local schools do not offer it, but it looks like a local college does host SAT testing 5 times per year.

I have 5 great kids. I think three of them will be good test takers. Two of them are not. Dd17's ACT score puts her in the 99%ile of students who take the test. Ds16...hasn't taken it yet. It will be brutal, and I kind of hate the idea of making him do test prep. He has ADHD. He will never finish that test and by the science section, if not before, he will be worn out from trying to focus. I think he will get most of the ones he answers correct, but we'll see. Ds14 tests pretty well on standardized tests, and I expect he will do fairly well on the ACT. Really well if he does test prep. Dd10 tests so low a school district would probably put her in remedial classes based on her scores, but I know she would be a straight A student in school. She may be the least, um, academically gifted of my kids, but she is a great student- conscientious, diligent, thorough. She is outperforming the older kids on Latin by far. I've decided that I will teach her testing skills, but I don't give a darn about her test scores. She will do fine at college and even better at life. Dd6 hasn't taken tests yet, of course, but I anticipate she will be similar to Dd17, just exactly the kind of person suited to those stupid tests. The tests are a game. We'll play the game with three of the kids, but I refuse to let it define our school. Especially for the two who will never, ever win that game.

Dd17's first test came back today - negative.

We do have one and the kids are fine in that respect. I asked Ds14 and he said he almost passed out when standing up, but his pulse ox showed 99 ox with a normal heartrate. I guess we'll see when we get Dd's test results.

I would assume so. They are all generally very healthy. It seemed odd to me that they all experienced it if it is Covid, since Covid seems to affect people differently. I'm hoping it is another bug.

I'm taking my oldest to get tested today - she ran a fever Friday night and this was the first appointment I could get. She has always had dizzy spells when standing up, but now they are bad, starting. They got worse a day or two before other symptoms. And my next two kids have mentioned having dizzy spells in the last 24 hours. No known exposure, but Dd17 has been taking two college classes (masked) and works two jobs (also masked). In your reading, have you seen dizziness as an early indicator? I used the word dizzy because that is the word Ds14 just used, but it is more lightheadedness. Dd17 has almost passed out several times and has to hold onto the bed each time she stands up.

I feel like society is moving rapidly to the "success is based on luck" attitude - to the detriment of many people. Yes, everyone is born with strengths and weaknesses, and sometimes it seems that people are born with all strengths or all weaknesses. Many things come easily to my oldest. Many things are a struggle for my second. It does absolutely no good to compare them. I teach them both to work hard within their personal situations. Their situations are different. Their outcomes will be different in the specifics. But they can both live happy, fulfilling lives.

I never was into unfriending or snoozing people I disagree with, but I have started snoozing people if the vast majority of their posts are political. Maybe after the election, long after, it won't be one angry post after another.

No, you just check one of the boxes. And it is a leadership scholarship, not necessarily an academic one. I am not sure how much difference it will make anyhow, because I don't know if she has a chance at it. She will have excellent references. She completed a leadership program. She has a fair number of things she can put down. But she hasn't started a non-profit or anything like that.

Yes, just so subjective. I think Dd17 could legitimately be considered in the top 1-2% of students overall, but she is *not* top tier within that range. I know for a fact that she does more at a higher level than the local school, but it is a more regional scholarship.

Dd17 is applying to scholarships now. One of them asks if her classes are rigorous or most rigorous compared to other kids applying for the scholarships. Rigorous would be safe, I think, but I have no idea about most rigorous. Some of them maybe? Her Lukeion Latin courses are probably as rigorous as most other Latin classes. She has read and interacted with more books in her history and literature classes than most kids, but maybe not most of the kids applying to scholarships. Last year for history, for example, she not only completed SWB's HotAW, she also read and worked with the Landmark Herodotus and the Landmark Thucydides as well as a fair number of other books. I know that is more than I did in history, but I did not get a good education. I have no idea how that would compare to AP classes. I ended up labeling some of her classes as honors classes on her transcript (not that history class), but she doesn't have any AP classes. Or, well, I guess the DO Calc class is, but she didn't take any AP tests. She is taking a couple classes at a local 4 year university this year and doing well, but she hasn't completed them yet. So far she would say that the college classes are easier than homeschooling. And a few of her classes have been box-checkers. The weakest point of her education has been the quantity of writing I expected. I don't want to inflate what she has done, but I also don't want to sell her short. I don't know if most rigorous means the top 1% of the students applying or if it is the top 10% or maybe even the top 20% if they have 5 categories to choose from. It seems so subjective, and I want to answer honestly without costing her opportunities.

These are the ones I made a couple of years ago. The first ones I made were similar but smaller. I wanted slightly bigger (and a nice, matching one for our youngest). This pattern ended up much larger. I don't plan to try again, though. ETA: All the reds are the same color and the darker ones are dark green. Dd6 had been using my old one, so I guess I made one for myself. It wasn't necessary. No one fills one for me, but I wanted to have one.

Dp

I just read Ch. 5 with my 6 year old today. One of the suggested books was Aladdin. I don't remember the other two. Read whichever stories you have that appeal to you. There just aren't that many children's books about the time period. I am going to read the section about Akkad from Ancient Isrealites and Their Neighbors sometime this week and call it good.

Some of you may remember that my niece came home from college due to a seizure that led to the discovery of a large mass in her brain. From the MRI the neurosurgeon believed it to be a cavernous malformation. She had surgery almost two weeks ago. It wasn't a cavernous malformation. It was a tumor, and he couldn't get it all. He said, "It is one of the most difficult tumors I have ever seen." The pathologist looked at it briefly and said, "Grade 2." Grade 2 is technically benign, but average life expectancy is 5-7 years. Not very benign. She had a second surgery the following day, with the neuro hoping to get at least 95% of the tumor without causing her to lose motor skills or the ability to make new memories. The second surgery was a complete success. It is a long story how she got her neurosurgeon, but it felt (and we believe) that God handpicked her surgeon for her. He got 100% of the tumor. He was able to preserve her memory making ability. Although she is having to relearn how to walk (and everything else involving her left side), she can move her toes. She should get all movement back. And, when pathology came back it downgraded it to a rare Grade 1, BENIGN tumor. And I was able to see my niece handle the whole situation with courage, faith (Not that she would necessarily be healed. One of my aunts and one of my cousins died from brain cancer. But that God would be with her and nothing would happen outside his will.), and peace. I was able to see how she planned to move forward with her life before the prognosis came back in her favor. It was amazing and beautiful. And we are all very happy.

I am trying to incorporate games into my geography study with my younger girls (10 and 6) this year. We are starting with Africa. What I have collected so far for Africa: Ticket to Ride Heart of Africa map, Carcassonne Safari, Borderline Africa, 10 Days in Africa, and Camel Up.

The book Bomb involves spies.

Maybe try to aim for Grammar, Writing, Reading, and Spelling to take no more than 2 hours per day?

My oldest son has a job and it has been so good for him. My younger son isn't doing band this year, and it has been so nice not to have our mornings disrupted with his 3-4 band classes (no more than 3 per day, but 1, 2 or 3 depending on the day). School is going better for everyone this year. Dd17 is taking 8 credits at a local LAC for a nominal amount. My niece is losing her 1st semester and having brain surgery, but she probably doesn't have brain cancer - crazy how what we are thankful for shifts. Two weeks ago we would not have been thankful for brain surgery.