Thanks for the thoughts offered. Please keep them coming. I will show them to dh. You know what? I do feel that the online classes offer very high quality teaching, especially Clover Creek Science, which I enjoy very much as well! I am able to mentor ds just the same as I taught Latin to them for a few years. To be honest, both boys have grown a lot from their online classes in time and expectation management. They also have the opportunities to work with teachers of diverse personalities and styles and manage to live with the ones that are not as well organized. I do have many good things to say about the classes they take in my siggie. :-)

The homeschool academy offers 1.5 hour long classes. Students take one or five classes, depending on their needs. The more you take the more you may see your classmates. Parents drop off and pick up when the class is over, so there is no hang out after school option. I am totally open to kids coming over to my house to hang out. I can encourage ds to scout out whom he would like to pursue friendship with and invite those. The private school has been their scout meeting location for a few years. We know several students and families there. The art teacher and science teacher are both our close friends and so our children go to the same youth group meetings. So there is this good start there. But the cost may be much higher than just taking three or four classes at the homeschool academy. And I do not know how PSEO will look if they go to private school. I feel I have more control over their overall high school planning, PSEO, and graduation if they go to the local homeschool academy. ETA: Both are within 15-20 minutes drive on local road, very easy, so no problem there.

I am so torn and so miserable. Dc have been homeschooled all the way. They go to a co-op that offers Apologia elementary science, gym, and music or art two Friday mornings a month. I live the farthest from the co-op and all other families live in far suburbs. My church is small and is not homeschool friendly. Sunday school classes are for kids up to 5th grade. Then 6th grade and up have youth group that meets twice or once a month for 1.5 hours. Dc have one good friend from this church that they invite to our house to hang out with probably once or twice a month. Dc have attended a weekly scouting troop since 1st grade, but this tiny troop is going to discontinue next school year. Ds14 took two local homeschool classes in 2015. This year both he and ds12 are each taking two online classes. We are still attending the twice a month science gym music co-op. They have been more and more isolated. We are home every day. They take to gaming a lot. They do yearn for friendship because they always eagerly attend church and youth group meetings. They do not want to miss them at all. So I really would like them to go to school today to have a community or continue homeschooling with more outside classes where they interact with teachers and classmates they can physically see. They also expressed interest in going to school. Right now I am considering these two options: a private Christian school with small class size with a very diverse student body (two or three families from church go there and two parents are art and science teacher respectively that we are friends with), or a homeschool academy with all kinds of classes to choose from where they can take three or more classes, probably two days a week (cheaper and more flexible than the private school, but less friendship forming opportunities). I do know quite a number of families that take classes there. What do you think? What has made you or would make you send dc to school? Thanks for reading. I am very sad not to homeschool, but their needs trump my feelings. ETA: Both locations are within 15-20 minutes of easy driving. So problem there.

We have a shih tzu. I groom his hair. It has saved a lot because each cut at a groomer's is at least $40.

Sorry, I missed that. ;0). Just woke up.

Sorry I missed it in the OP. Brew some tea and have some treats together. Drink a little wine and just sit and chat.

Dh and I never vote for the same parties or candidates. This time is the same. We are never angry at each other. I direct my anger and frustration mostly at the general opposite party. Yes, we cancel each other's votes. This time I told him if he votes for the party he usually does, I will have to vote the party I usually do to cancel his. So that is what we are going to do. I do feel more and more passionate about my vote as an immigrant who wants to see the greatness of this country preserved. Dh and I respect each other's political views. His generation usually is more leaning to the party opposite of mine. There is peace in our house. We love each other very much and we are both very hardworking parents to raise our children. That is what is important. My children both took the quiz to determine which candidate was closest to their ideals and they got the same candidate as I. So it is 3 to 1 though they are still too young to vote yet. By the way, neither of us tries to convert each other. We do talk about the election and politics in general. He probably understands why i choose what i choose. I do not really understand him, but it is not a problem.

How are you getting along during election year? Do you discuss your opposing views? Do yu just avoid the topic and try to live in peace?

I agree with everyone about the challenging level of this course. Ds is getting better. Last night he read Odyssey until 12:30. This course, along with Clover Creek Physics, is the best thing that is happening this year. They both stretch and grow him a ton.

We don't fundraise for our homeschool. We also do not buy from public or private school fundraisers. We do buy from a friend's daughter some braised pastry for her gymnastic fundraising. We also donated some money for my boys' best friend who fundraised for his school's mission trip. We did these two because of the friendship. Our boys do sell wreaths for their Boy Scout troop.

He finished his test for the first chapter. I am amazed how many words he learned. He did very well for his test. He knows he has to at least finish this school year with Sr. Gamache. I pray that ds will get used to Sr. Gamache and continue with him. We invested lots of money on the textbook, wordbook, and Supersite code $249, which is used in Spanish 1-3. Ds likes Spanish. He did fabulously with Henle Latin 1, getting >90% for all exercises, quizzes and tests. However he begged to discontinue because he hated it and because he wanted to learn Spanish, which he wanted to learn to speak. So the motivation is working in his favor. I hope to convince him all the good he has gotten out of the class despite the teacher's lack of good organization and timely responses to questions by emails. This is a learning opportunity for understanding teacher style and personality and student navigating skills. Thank you for your encouragement.

Thank you for the links, RootAnn! They are very helpful. Ds has lots of homework this week. He works very hard. He says he likes Spanish but doesn't like the teacher. I hope he can gets used to it and learn to deal with it. Who knows, maybe he will turn around and like the teacher and will continue Spanish 2 with him, I hope. It is not easy to find good online classes. I do think he has learned a lot. It makes me feel ever so grateful to Mrs. Jetta, ds13's Clover Creek physics teacher. She is the kindest, warmest, most responsive and encouraging teacher I have known. My son loves her and as a result loves the science class. I will definitely have ds11 take physics with her. I feel very warm and secure with her.

Ds is doing Spanish 1 online. He has been feeling frustrated about the directions of homework. Often times he has to email to ask his classmates what to do and some of them are confused too sometimes. It is not easy to reach the teacher since he teaches high school full time during the day. This week the students are supposed to do some tests on teacherease and he didn't know how to get on that site. I finally figured it by logging in with my name. Ds says he is stretched to the limit. In order to help him, I will sit by him during class and help him understand what the teacher wants for homework. What else should I do I have to give him support for him to stick it out for this school year at least. Sigh.

Ds is taking Journey Through Narnia. He is supposed to find one literary allusion in Chapters 4-9 of Magician's Nephew. He read and read and didn't know how to find one. I read the chapters, too. I am clueless. How do you find literary allusions if you don't know many books or authors? Any help will be appreciated. I will encourage ds to email his questions to the teacher.

I saw a group of five 14 yr olds (both boys and girls) Japanese middle school students in Kyoto taht traveled there from somewhere near Narita Airport, several hours train ride away. They went there all by themselves for four days. It was a school project for them to learn to budget time, travel plan, hotel reservation, places to see and eat and so on. I think that was a brilliant project. In fact, they were just one of quite a few student groups we saw there. For doing house chores, remember no other countries have living space as big as the US. Japanese homes are very very small. Individuals do not have their own bedroom. There is no car to clean and no yard to keep. No junk or clutter is possible. So there are much fewer chores than in the US. Sweeping the floor for a tiny apartment, washing your clothes in a small washing machine, washing dishes by hand or a very small washing machine, those are probably all that need to be done.

Thank you, Mrs_JWM! I have made it several times. However half of the time I am unsuccessful. I made some with 3#sweet rice on Monday. It did turn into liquid wine, but then it started to grow white and black patches of mold and had to be thrown away. Yesterday morning I made a smaller batch and it turned into clear liquid this morning. I brought it to my friend who just gave birth to her fifth baby. I do have a very good Asian store with the yeast. Thank you very much for your kind offer though. Now I will make a batch for myself to enjoy. I love é…’é…¿ï¼

I don't know about now, but when I was in school in Asia, all students from kindergarten to college cleaned the classrooms, campus, and so on. If you made a bathroom mess, you cleaned it up. Of course the sanitary standards were not as high as here. Once when I was just in 6th grade, my whole class waxed the wood floor of our classroom. To help generate funds for the school, for several years in elementary school, every student WOVE mesh bags the school sold for money. The students didn't get paid for this labor. However, college was free for me. In graduate school I got paid equivalent to $10 a month just being a student. Tuition and dorm were FREE, too. Now colleges are not free any more. I was surely grateful to get free college and grad school education. We all took it for granted we should clean at that time. I think it is a great idea!

I bought an IP when everyone here bought one a few months ago. :-) I would love to make fermented rice or rice wine with it. Can you share how to make it if you have done it? Thanks!

Ds13.9 is taking WHA Fundamentals of Expository Writing. He is not liking it. It is frustrating for him to fill the charts for collecting concrete details and comments. He is usually a good writer, but some directions are confusing. I hope it'll get better. Need some encouragement.

How old is your dd in 9th grade? Your siggie says 13. Is she turning 14 soon? Ds13 is turning 14 in a month. He is in 8th grade and is doing conceptual physics. He has probably 7 labs in the first semester.

We went to China for the third time and Japan for the first time in May. My boys didn't want to go to China because it would be "boring". But we went to three very fun day trips while in my hometown there. Also, the breakfast (and all meals) was so fantastic that they say they want to go to China again in a few years. The LOVE Japan! Sure for their age they missed some stuff at home. But they enjoyed the trip very much!