If you add cilantro and a healthy squeeze of lime, you can make your rice taste almost exactly like Chipotle's. My DH adds a bit of Chipotle style spice (just a tad), but I don't think it is is necessary. We do burrito bowls with this rice and it really does taste just like a trip to Chipotle, but cheaper. :)

I made a super hero pillowcase and fleece blanket for my youngest last year. I made a mini messenger style bag for a three year old several years ago. I have also done Montessori aprons (I got the pattern on-line for free). I am thinking of making a train case from here http://shop.gingercake.org/for my youngest this year. She has some great patterns, reasonably priced. I find they are very easy to work with and have loved everything I have made from her. (I have done the Crayon Art Folio, Sleep Over Tote, Lola Owl pillow as a bag (instructions included with the pillow pattern), On the Go Organizer and Make Your Own Getaway Duffle, made for 3/4 of my kids). Check out her site because the rest of my suggestions would probably be from there. :001_smile:

Do share what changes you've made, if you feel comfortable. I think it is so beneficial to hear from people who have made their passions count as unique HS experiences.

Well, if we're gonna roll like that...

Well, that was the most likes I have ever received on a a post AND I have a place in WTM history. I'm the king of the world! This thread has been very gratifying.

I just want to post on a thread that is 472 pages long ( :ohmy: ). I have nothing useful or even irreverent to add. I'm not even supposed to be here! :tongue_smilie:

We give the ILs a gift certificate to their favorite restaurant. They love it and it does not take up any space in their home. I love giving consumable gifts. We do not exchange gifts with the siblings on my DH's side. We decided that years ago. We just don't really need or want anything, and for us, it seems silly to give gifts just because it is a holiday. That is what works for our family, not a statement on other family's choices. We do send a family gift (usually consumable) to one (one) sibling's family. I am not really much help I guess.

I wish this were the case with our on-line teacher! The volume is so much for my kid. I can see some of those standbys are getting in there, but quizzes are getting tanked with the requirement of memorizing all of those and it is very discouraging for him. He is already quite worried about the mid-term because of this.

I had not thought of that, but it is a great idea. Thank you all so much for the great suggestions.

So, my child took Algebra I last year, did so-so, maybe a low B (I can't remember), then worked with a tutor over the summer on algebra concepts. Part of the summer tutoring was to determine if we should go ahead with Geometry in 9th or do another round of Algebra I. The tutor felt like the understanding of algebra was there and that another year might not be the best thing, so we went ahead with an on-line Geometry class. The math is not beyond my child's understanding, but remembering all of the theorems, definitions and rules is proving challenging. The educational testing pointed to a high mathematical reasoning ability, but difficulty with concepts like math facts, so it is not surprising that there is struggle learning those important pieces like theorems. I think it would be good for us to hit Algebra again in some form or fashion. We have already signed up and paid for this on-line class and cannot make changes without losing the money we have paid, so I would rather not drop the Geometry class. What would be a good program to go through Algebra I again? Lial's has been done, so I think something else would be best to hit those concepts again. Saxon? Teaching Textbooks? Key to Algebra books? I want something that is going to get it done in a pretty straight forward way. I don't want to add a whole bunch to the already burdensome workload, so this would be something we probably worked on toward the end of the year and over the summer.

Oh my goodness, thank you all so much! Really, I want to give every one of you a hug. I am sitting here with tears in my eyes. Thank you for getting it and understanding. Thankfully, he is an avid reader. He *loves* reading. He is currently listening to The Odyssey. He read about half of it, but wasn't getting much out of it. He finished the Vandiver lectures (one of those times he misunderstood the assignment) and is now re-listening to the story. He throughly enjoyed the Vandiver lectures and said he got so much more out of the story, so he wanted to re-start it from the beginning with that new understanding. He asked me to get more of the TC lectures, as he really enjoys those, so I will see what other titles our libraries have available and look at plugging those in with his other subjects. I think it helps to have permission to adjust the output and expectations. It also helps to adjust my personal life expectations for this kid. We are working diligently and moving forward, so I need to continue focusing on that and perhaps adjust my expectations for output a bit. DH and I have always presented the idea of college to out kids, but privately have known that may not be this particular child's path and are ok with that. We have been experimenting with the work for an hour idea and will continue to tweak that. Unfortunately, his outsourced classes are very time consuming. That is just a fact and there is not much we can do about that at this point. The working memory challenges and low processing speed make those extra challenging, although the content itself it not too much. And yes, at least one of my other children is exhibiting signs of dyslexia. Sigh. Thank you all for sharing your stories and letting me know what has worked for your children, and thank you for being a virtual shoulder to lean on.

Thank you both. Wise words. Kinsa, YES! These are hard years. You had two more than me! Glad to hear you survived the trenches. That gives me hope. I know my kids are getting a pretty good education. Not perfect, but we are consistent and work hard, but I often wonder at what cost to me? I am just getting over a fall illness, and I am sure that is part of the rub right now. I just feel some completely tired and spent (lots of kiddos needing me, but also the effects of said illness). Now, I will have Dory in my head singing, "Just keep swimmin'" :001_smile: Merry, I appreciate your suggestions, both here and on my posts on the Learning Challenges board a couple of weeks ago. We did workboxes years ago, maybe I need to reconsider that for this high schooler. I realized we will actually have 6 credits for this year because we did Health over the summer and are working on PE (like just started this week!) for the remainder of the year. Right now, just walking, but I think I may encourage a Couch to 5K training, just to have a goal and feel the sense of accomplishment. I know right now he feels like no matter how hard he works, he is never caught up. While not exactly the case, it does take a long time to get through the core subjects, and there is often more work right around the corner-that's the nature of high school! I feel a bit better now that I have realized we will manage 6 credits, and they will be solid, well earned credits. We are working on figuring out something he is really interested in or wants to pursue. He keeps telling me he is interested in doing a class with movies, so maybe I can explore that. I think he wants to do some watching and analyzing, but probably more the watching. ;) I really do want to find a way to tap into his interests. I know when something is relevant and interesting to him he devours it. That is what I envision the courses we are doing at home looking like, but at the end of the day I am lacking energy and feeling completely uninspired and it feels like we are just trudging through a book. I think another compounding issue is that everything feels like a struggle and such hard work for this kid. There is not one subject that is "fun" struggle. It is all hard and challenging. Intellectually, he can understand some complicated concepts, but when it comes time to demonstrate understanding with some type of concrete output, it just stalls. It just makes everything challenging because I can't really send him off to run with something. Inevitably, he will forget about it or think he is doing what needs to be done, but completely miss the point. I think the analogy of the dramatic changes you see from a 2-6 year old is perfect for me. Right now it feels like this kid is never going to manage his academics independently (just like it felt like he would never go to sleep on his own at 2!), but lo and behold, it did happen. I guess never having traversed this teen bridge before makes it hard to see what the end may look like. That is good for me to hear. Anyway, thank you both so much for "hearing" me and offering suggestions. I am feeling a bit bolstered.

I wish we had done that this year. Sigh.

Can you point me in the direction of these? I would love to explore these. I like the idea! :) Thanks

My almost 7 year old (and 9.5 year old!) have really enjoyed these books: http://www.amazon.com/Nick-Teslas-High-Voltage-Danger-Electromagnets/dp/1594746486/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1446756182&sr=1-1&keywords=nick+and+tesla

HS is kind of kicking my heiny. It is just so much, especially while I am ensuring the other children receive an education. The days are long, and I feel really pulled in multiple directions, in a way I never have before. I don't ever really feel prepared to teach the 3 three HS classes I am committed to, but out sourcing them really isn't a great option either for my particular kid. School takes my kid forever, even though it is only 5 core classes. I really have no idea how this kid will ever be able to take a fuller load. We have a recent diagnosis which includes dyslexia and ADHD. Bright kid, poor processing speed and working memory. HS just doesn't feel like the magical "making connections and reaping the benefits of our hard work in the K-8 years" time I had envisioned. I am tired and feeling like a hamster on a wheel. I guess I don't really have a point to this post, just need to dump all this somewhere.

Hope the week has gone well! Just a couple of thoughts. 1) I completely agree with you on the extreme choices. It really is a shame that some of live in areas that only allow for one or the other rather than a hybrid opportunity. 2) I totally get EVERYTHING you wrote about the mental fatigue and desire to just be mom. 3) I have put all of my kiddos in the lottery for a charter school next year. I do not think the littlest would go, but I did it for all of the reasons in your OP. I get it, really. 4) Even if your kids are in school, they are still your kids and YOU are their parent. As someone else said, you ultimately make the decision if they go to school on a particular day. 5) Please give it time once you put them in. Unless there is an unhealthy situation occurring, I really believe it is important to give the decision time. It is going to be a big change. There are probably going to be parts of school that are disappointing, frustrating or just asinine to you and it is tempting to just say, "forget it", but I really do think if you feel strongly enough to put them in school, then it is worth giving the endeavor time. Hugs. This parenting gig can be really tough sometimes.

I agree. My child is using strategies such as Cornell Notes, diagrams, mind maps, outlines and comparison charts for each chapter section, but I bought the student workbook because it was not terribly expensive, and I thought we might use the Chapter Mystery pieces. I had already planned through chapter 14 this summer, so I didn't want to re-do/add the workbook pages, but once I got the workbook I realized it would be perfect as a study guide, especially for the unit tests. I do not have the Teacher's Edition (Where did you find that Penguin? I can't even find a copy of it on Amazon).

Hmm, maybe my mom knew your parents. :laugh:

Mine was "wishful thinking". :rolleyes: I so wanted a Cabbage Patch doll, but my mother was against the idea of "adopting a doll" and thought it was silly. She had lots of interesting notions. I did get a cheap-y fake Cabbage Patch doll from Big Lots. It was not the same thing and very disappointing for 9 year old me.

My kids are pretty voracious readers (well, the almost 7 year old is not reading independently, but looks at books frequently). I think the best things we did to build a culture of reading in our home were: 1. Reading to my children daily-during the day, at bedtime, sometimes at meals; we read a lot together, even after they were reading independently. 2. Electronics are severely limited in our home. My high schooler is on the computer more for school, but everyone else does not have regular access to devices, so reading is kind of the default. 3. Everyone has a CD player in their room and listens to books on CD daily. They listen if they are working on a project or playing, as well as at bedtime. We visit the library frequently to replenish our supply of books on CD. Really, I think I made it one of the only options. I mean they can craft and play outside, but when someone wants to relax, they curl up on their bed with a book. He is only is first grade. I know several of my children took until 3rd grade before they were independently choosing to read, but I still made it a daily habit and provided lots of stories in accessible forms. I also didn't require my little kids to read, I made sure they were hearing stories and could hear a story just about anytime they wanted, even if I couldn't do the reading.

I am really pondering this portion of your response. I definitely think my child would benefit from pushing history to the summer. Mine is also a very slow worker and it feels like everything takes so much time. It just feels like too many balls in the air. Mine does not have a heavy extra curricular, but does have a regular volunteer commitment on the weekend.

Thanks for all of the great feedback, links and suggestions! Truly, I appreciate them. Right now we are in everything takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r, but at least I know. My child is a diligent student, but definitely struggling with the work load. I feel like all this child does all day is school. He feels like, "I am never going to get caught up because even when I work really hard, I turn around and there is another assignment I have to complete." I know things take longer, but I do want him to have outside interests and time to pursue things of interest. Really mulling and pondering how that all looks, and you all have given me a lot of good things to think about.

Mine just watched it for the first time a few weeks ago. The youngers and I had just finished reading the book. My almost 7 year old was not phased in the least. My 9 year old was sorely disappointed at "all the good stuff from the book that they left out." I think the porcelain city was highly anticipated, but then when it wasn't in the movie, that was a big ol' let down. Honestly, I think mine were really only so-so about it. The special effects were very dated and all the singing was off putting for a couple of them. It certainly didn't have the magical effect that I remember. It was interesting to read on how/why they chose to make it different from the book.

Or a bag