Not exactly screen free, but there is a retro hand held gamer on Temu for less than 10 bucks. My teen boys don't have phones yet, so we use this is an option on longer trips. They will play card games too. You could offer different kinds of fidgets every couple of hours just to add variety. Or a rubik cube for each with directions on how to solve.

We're doing one from Not Consumed (store.notconsumed.com). They have different levels for each study so you can all do the same thing. It has a daily component though and you could discuss when you meet.

When my husbands grandmother had her fifth (and last) child, she had a nervous break down. My mother in law took care of her siblings while mom was in the hospital (this was in the 50s). When I had my fifth and sixth child, her family watched me carefully. I know the grandparents prayed for me regularly. I was in a much different situation as her (they were air force and not surrounded by long term friends and family) but it was comforting knowing that they were acknowledging that being a mom is hard and I might need extra support. If they judged the number of kids we were having they didn't say it to my face (my family WAS judging me, but contented themselves with talking about me when I wasn't there). I have a handful of friends who have 8+ kids. Some have fared better than others physically/emotionally but none have spiraled into chaos and neglect. None are particularly wealthy but none are homeless either. I'm not sure if my experience is normal or not, but there are functional homeschooling families who are large and not part of weird niche "faiths".

I was giving two examples of things people, at least ones I have known, don't even try because of the stigma. My daughter got counseling about a traumatic job she had. It thankfully wasn't a huge deal and a few sessions helped her to learn some strategies and talk through it with a professional. She didn't go for a while because "Christians just need Jesus" (not something I said but often implied by people we know). Being willing to go helped her in a small thing before it snowballed into a big thing. Regardless of our current medical community, the mindset of being willing to get help and not quietly spiral into child/self harming chaos is beneficial.

A lot of Christian homeschoolers in our area take advantage of the free community college, but again, it is a lot of hoops. You have to sign up for the charter school that is pro-homeschooling or with the public schools and take a couple of classes with them, then apply for the community college. It's totally doable, but if there are issues (mental, etc) then it's another hill to climb.

I think the answer is, it depends. For me, a knowledgeable friend talking me through my health choices would have been ideal. But for someone else, a third party Dr/counselor might be better. I think there needs to be a relationship (personal or professional) in any case. Me throwing advice and even money at a mom with bags under her eyes who I've just met five minutes ago might not be desired or helpful in the long run (or it might be just the bump she needed, who knows).

Maybe I should have phrased that as, it's OK to get help. Many people feel ashamed to admit that they need counseling or adhd medication or whatever.

We might have been close to what you described. We don't have a high income, lots of kids. I could have worked but really felt strongly about being home with the kids. We were fine health/dental care wise until Obamacare hit. We had lean years but prioritized the children's needs over our own. So while my older kids didn't do as many outside things as they would have liked, they are educated, functioning adults with good jobs. What I needed, and eventually got, was encouragement and funds to get healthcare for myself. Getting my brain out of an adrenal fatigue fog helped me to really see the needs of myself and my kids and follow through thoroughly to get them. It's a battle in our area. I have been on a list to get my youngest boys officially diagnosed so they have options if they go to college. For months. And we will pay out of pocket. Thankfully, I recently learned of another option we can use so we are making phone calls. When everything is hard and just surviving is hard, it's easy to give up. As said above, I think a personality that can't raise their head to see other options, is more likely to spiral downward than upward. We had one family who seemed to be doing ok, then we found out she had terminal cancer. She didn't do anything to prepare for her eventual demise or to prepare her children for the future, because she had to have "faith" to be healed and admitting it was terminal was not enough "faith". After her death, her kids, who were always homeschooled (and well academically thankfully), were dropped into middle/high school mid semester within a month. It didn't go great emotionally for them. The father was remarried in 6 months and then died within another year (heart failure encouraged by drinking). Our homeschool community would have helped if we had know, although you can't help personal relational issues with a gift card and casserole. I think the best (the collective) we can do is be honest and say, "Your choices don't look to be working, you should try something else, or get help." Cheaper healthcare would be great, but you can lead a horse to water....

Yeah, we got rid of the kindles after one of our boys was looking at, thankfully, just the book covers of some of these. (I had turned on the store to get a game for him and forgot to turn it off.) They had switched to gaming computers (that we put controls on) so didn't need them for games anyway. You can pretty much shut off all access on the Kindles to the store, internet, etc. But it's on you to do it all and it gets tricker when they want more than kiddie games, but still need oversight. Otherwise they have free access to anything and everything. I would love to develop a porn eating computer virus and let it loose on the web.

Starting in year 7 it is written to the student. It is very sparse and to the point. My son preferred that, but I was there to fill in gaps if needed (we used 7-9). It's not intended to be self-study, just a concise version of what the teacher probably lectured on.

I know people say this, but I don't see it. Years 7, 8, 9 correspond very well to middle school and Algebra. I guess if you want to do Algebra in 8th grade then yes, you need to speed things up, but I would condense years 7&8 into one rather than trying to tackle year 2 with a 6 year old. (If I remember right, year 2 or maybe 3 really ramps up in difficulty.) Also, if I remember right, year 6 covers almost the same ground as year 7 so you could skip or just review it and move into year 8. I only did years 7-9 with a couple of my kids. So the other observations are based on conversations on the MEP email list.

I don't know if the content is any better, but FunCation Academy has a special "leaving Power Homeschool" special going on right now. They are taking full advantage of the PH snafu.

When I was working for a pharmaceutical company we were working with a small lab that was making meds by injecting chickens then getting antibodies from the eggs. After discussing the process one of the *PhD* scientists at the meeting asked what they did with baby chicks. Someone gently said "there aren't any roosters" and thankfully she understood. Several of us were concerned that we would have to explain.

As a fun supplement (or I guess it could be a spine), there is a youtube video series called Geography Now. He has created a video for every country in the world. They are fun and very fast paced. Occasionally there is a crass joke, but for the most part it's family friendly.

I realize this is late, but the Story of One is brilliant. British show that follows the history of counting and numerals.

Ck-12 has free textbooks that you can download. https://www.ck12.org/teacher/

Actually they already have been. https://seniorhousingnews.com/2019/08/13/from-sears-to-seniors-mixed-use-project-will-turn-mall-into-senior-housing-care-site/ A vacant shopping mall in upstate New York will soon have a second life, with senior housing and care setting the foundation.

Blades of Acktar series by Tricia Mingerink More of a medieval setting. The same author under a different name also has the Elven Alliance series that is more fantasy (clean) romance.

Writing detailed reviews for Amazon or starting a blog about the books he reads or having interesting conversations with you about the books. I don't think every book a child reads (including school books) needs to be analyzed.

Nope. You can't cut my hair. But I would let them practice on one of my boys' hair since I could just buzz it anyway. I actually had a young adult kid who was thinking about cosmetology ask this (well close, she wanted to cut her sister's hair). I offered the boys hair and she proved that it wouldn't be a good career for her.

I've know people who have used it (the site) successfully but not necessarily the math. If you want a free math program that is video based but less jumping to various web sites (like easy peasy) you can try Master Math https://mastermath.info/ MEP years 7&8 are prealgebra. Each unit is its own thing, so you can just pick out the topics your child needs to review. You can do the interactive material if you don't want to print. https://www.cimt.org.uk/projects/mep/index.htm

Ha! I wish there was one for non-stem majors. My oldest would enjoy that. We also need a more detailed tree under computer science. So many options and it might help my extremely linear thinker see his options even if it is a joke.

Masterbooks sells Jacob's now. You can find all the pieces at, https://www.masterbooks.com/elementary-algebra-curriculum but you can still find them used in various places.

Critical Thinking Press has an Algebra workbook. If he has done Beast Academy I think Key to Algebra would be too easy. MEP year 9 is Algebra. While the pages aren't exactly set up to do the problems on the page, there is plenty of white space to work.