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Praying here as well. :grouphug:

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Praying for you and your family. :grouphug:

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A quick post to lighten the mood .... I told my kids what your dd's said about hs'ers. Ds (always hs'ed) blurted out, "Is anybody in NC smart? That undercuts the whole premise", says ds2. "You won't find any smart people in NC homeschool circles, and going to public school will not make you smart. You're still from NC." (Thus, your dd's needn't worry ... it's a losing battle.) At which point, darling mother says, "Did you realize you were BORN in NC?" Followed by much laughter from other 4dc and a sheepish expression on ds's face ............ maybe ds has a point after all. ;):lol:

When we began WTM our ds's were in their mid teens. Writing was a struggle for them. I found that if I just had them read the materials in all the other subjects and require them to write about that material, they could do it. It gave them something to write about. One idea is to ask him to 'tell' you about what he's learning in the outsourced classes - because you're interested and genuinely want to know;) - in a written paper. Many birds killed with one stone that way. Also, I wouldn't impose any 'rules' for these papers. I used to tell my ds's 'The sky's the limit. Write whatever you want'. (After brainstorming with them about things to write about - and listening to them tell me why each idea I came up with couldn't be done.) Their papers started out about ONE paragraph long (Your student is already way past that.) and grew and grew, naturally, once they figured out they actually had something to say. I do wish I had done some of the Logic stage work with ds's instead of starting them in the GB's right away. It would have helped to have them read through KF to get the flow of history. You could have him do that, along with choosing a topic to (gently) research and write about. Sometimes writing about 'real' things (vs creative type things) is so much easier for some kids. Our ds's would rather have written a 10-page typed paper on a topic of their choice over some creative WS assignment ANY day. :) There are two simple books on outlining recommended in WTM. They're very simple and not time consuming. Our dc thought they were fun. The most important thing, IMO, is not to make every subject something he has to struggle with. HTH Kathy ETA: I still had ds's do WS. They hated every minute of it, however. They always preferred writing about real subjects - not that you couldn't work that into WS, of course. Just that it's less work to just pull it out of their history or science or whatever, instead of having to redo the WS assignments.

Maybe they just love music/piano?? No reward system here either. Uness you count 'as soon as you're done here, you can go outside and go bizerk' as a reward. :)

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dd says she roots for Odysseus. :D

I don't remember that one. What happens in it?

"Help me figure out why I don't want my girls to have Barbie dolls" Because they're ugly?? Our dd's had some when they were little. They used to rip their heads off and play with them that way. :D But they never were into dolls anyway. They preferred horses, jewelry, and dress up clothes.

Another tool. I bought each dc one of these. Here are some others. Each dc has one and is expected to use it when writing.

A fake cheese (see recipe following), plenty of homemade pizza sauce, plenty of vegetables, and whatever else you like on pizza. Pizza Cheese Recipe Ingredients 1 cup water or soymilk 1 tsp soy sauce or Braggs1/4 tsp garlic 1 tsp onion powder or Spike seasoning 1 Tb. tahini 1 Tb lemon juice 1/4 tsp smoke flavoring 1/4 cup nutritional yeast 3 Tb ground oats 1 Tb cornstarch 1 Tb flour sprinkle of dry mustard 1/2 tsp. paprika 1/4 tsp. tumeric (optional) salt and pepper to taste 1 Tb. olive oil Directions Mix cool water or soymilk in a large cup with the flour and cornstarch until smooth. Put water mixture into a saucepan and begin heating on medium heat. Add the rest of the ingredients, except the olive oil. Continue heating and stirring until mixture thickens to desired consistency. Stir in the olive oil until fully incorporated. Spoon over pizza and heat according to your pizza recipe.

I said math. I was thinking of most of the math curriculum I've seen over the years, and, also, the kinds of things hs'ed kids seem to excel at or go into.

We keep the grass cut short. I notice when our grass (more weeds than grass) gets several inches high we start seeing ticks more often. We also have chickens which roam the yard during daylight hours. We had 30 guineas once. They're great if you can stand the noise. I didn't mind it, but it drove some of our dc crazy. And they're pretty stupid birds to boot. Also, if any of us are going out into the woods, we spray our shoes, socks, and, sometimes, lower legs with Cutter. The ticks crawl UP, so this helps considerably - even though there's nothing natural about it. I also put Advantage on my dog during peak tick season. Sometimes we do the cats also, but they seem to avoid ticks somehow. Another thing to watch out for are damp areas. When we lived in Idaho ("high desert" they called it) it was very dry, so no ticks. BUT, when we camped near any water there were millions of them. Ticks love those high moisture areas. We all do "tick checks" every night, too. I put a full-length mirror on the back of the door in our tiny bathroom so they can do this before and after showering. When dc were small, I did it for them - especially their heads. It's easy to miss ticks there.

Yes, that's our goal also - learn to play something that you will enjoy and be able to carry into adulthood. Our dc take turns playing the piano as we sing our hyms after our Bible study every day.

nt