Right there with you. I think we’re in the 3rd or 4th spirit week for DSs high school. Really?!?! One week I could justify grabbing things for but at this point I just give him the side eye. He can buy his own things. As for your DS, I’d keep him home with your DH and other child. Maybe the 24 yo can have a fun lunch at home with him that day in place of what would be missed.

I know you don’t want to give a gift card but if she’s a minimalist and doesn’t want things, why not give something she can use? It may feel impersonal to you but a gas card, grocery card, Amazon card is useful for her to chose what she does want to bring into the home. Otherwise get her whatever you want but be ok when it’s not used or given away.

I use eMeals. The meal planning is done for me, the grocery list automatically goes off the Walmart for me to pick up and then I organize each meal into a basket so it’s ready to go. There’s no thought needed daily so I can do it or my kids as they are older.

If you downloaded the app previously, you can still use it without issue. The app was still saved under our purchased apps in the Apple store even though we had deleted it. there were also some random work around a some people posted on various sites but we didn’t need to use them. We were disappointed too that they stopped all support- when I looked last year they were still selling them but there was no app anymore!

I guess what I don’t understand is that the child had a major reaction to the food item yet the daycare won’t do anything about it? I can understand in the case of my children where it’s only a reaction due to ingestion, but clearly there is a problem. If I were the other parent I’d gladly not send the item with my child if I knew it was an issue. If hummus is the main issue I don’t see asking the child to stop bringing it seeing there has been a documented problem with it.

I use the king Arthur’s measure for measure flour and earth balance butter as replacements in traditional recipes. They turn out tasting great and no extra work compared to other cookies.

I had a double cartilage piercing 25 years ago. Yes it hurt more. But nothing unbearable. I also recommend a tattoo parlor. The piercings I’ve had there were so much better than places like Claire’s. They are super clean and do a great job. ETA- The cartilage does take much longer to heal and I no longer have a hole but can distinctly feel where it was now after almost 20 years of it being out.

I use the inductive Bible Study method which involves marking key words in chapters and books. Each key word is a different color, symbol, etc. kay Arthur Inductive studies are great for learning this method and making a system that works for you.

I’d let your daughter use it if she’s interested or give it to a relative who would use it. There are quite a few scrapbookers on YouTube your daughter could watch for inspiration. I started scrapbooking around her age and it wasn’t a waste, it was an expression of creativity for me.

I think it’s wise to have him get an overall evaluation. Not that it’s true of your dgs, but he sounds very similar to my DS at that age who wasn’t correctly dx with autism until 12. No one listened to me and kept me running in circles with different dx. I do wish he had been then so I could have gotten different help. sensory issues can be causing the biting if it’s a continual problem. He had the issues mainly at daycare and not as much at home. Through our own research we found out it was the lights at the daycare causing him sensory overload. Add in the noise and it set him off. He actually can see the flickering of lights that the rest of the population filters out. He must have also been able to identify if because he’d often run and turn off the lights at church and was labeled a trouble kid. No he was just trying to help himself. With a limited vocabulary he could express his frustration. A lot of fits and such. Sadly I didn’t have the support of others who were constantly telling me he’s just a toddler, he’s just a bit, he’s just…. Being my first I just listened to family, friends, doctors who didn’t see what was going on in a complete daily picture. I wish I had gotten him evaluated then and if I was wrong then great.

We have used it and enjoy it but it’s a bit more apologetics leaning than a Bible study. We also add in The Most Inportant Thing You’ll Study for actual Bible. My boys enjoy both and we have good discussions.

I’d find something fun to do for the half of the year. I put together a forensic science unit using various resources for my 8th grader and he is beyond excited about it. id find one of his interests and see how you can incorporate that into the science space you have left. If you want to do something less traditional check out campfire curriculums. They have many units you can use as science and cover a few topics in those last few months. We’ve done many of the units and they were all fun and engaging while also encouraging my kids to study more on their own.

I bought two different books which are using picture books in middle school to teaching literary elements. They looked good but we didn’t end up using them as I just had too much planned. I believe they were both by scholastic.

I didn’t plan anything for my fifth for prek either and then he asked when he was going to start his own school…so off to plan here too! We’re going to keep it simple with FIAR and a letter of the week type of thing. I’ll just follow his lead and see what he expects school to be like.

I wouldn’t get them each their own tablet. My youngest is 4 and although he does use my iPad to play at times it’s still very much mommy’s. If audiobooks is a major draw I’d get one iPad and a Bluetooth speaker. You can have the speaker in the room without access to an iPad….as kids are often kids and find other things to do on it while listening.

I made a trip across the USA project that they worked on weekly. I made a worksheet for each state which they filled out the typical info (state bird, capital, number of state reps, governors name, etc), but then they researched places they’d like the visit in that state and planned a trip. They would need to find gas via gas buddy, use the gas mileage of the car, find food costs, hotel, mark their trip out on the map (both state and country). I did something similar when I was teaching ps and it was the kids favorite project of the year. They also did mapping of each state using Tail Guide to US Geography and Notgrass’s 50 States.