The question several of you are posing is the main issue in the decision. His former school is new and is not accredited yet. I have to see if any of the schools that give diplomas will take the credits from that school. If not, we will have to do HSing a la carte and he will get a mommy diploma. I still do not plan on directly teaching him. I am leaning toward Oak Meadow (thanks EKS!) as it is textbook based. He's also somewhat interested in Calvert and WTMA. Thanks everyone for their help! As an update, he was expelled two weeks ago, but the school has arranged that he can finish out the school year remotely. He had to hire a tutor for Jewish studies from his own money. The secular studies are all remote. He obviously has to pass all his coursework to move on to the 11th grade. We'll see what happens.

Bumping for more opinions/suggestions please.

For which applications do you need it? Word processing, slide making, web surfing? I just got a Acer Swift 3 from Costco for $599 and I love it. If I didn't need a computer for Hebrew worksheet development, I would just spend a couple of hundred on a Chromebook.

My son (going into 11th grade) is trying to make a decision between these schools for the remainder of his high school career. Can anyone give us their opinions of the schools I mentioned above (or one that you really, really love).

As you may have read in my previous emails, my only sibling died in January from metastatic breast cancer. My father has prostate cancer which has come back three times, most recently this month (I am visiting them to go to doctor visits and help him make a decision what to do next). My oldest son just got expelled from high school, isn't sure what he wants to do, and is unpleasant in general to all of us. My marriage is not doing well and we are marriage therapy for the foreseeable future. I have had to stop talking to my best friend and have no one else to talk out my problems with (other than our therapist once or twice a week at most). Homeschooling is difficult at best with my other three children since they want to be dragged to do their work and chores. In other words, I have been and will continue to be under a very large amount of stress. :crying: I have been having symptoms of stress/anxiety/panic attacks (chest pain, hard time breathing, sleep problems, crying) Nevertheless, I am still needed by many people to be at my best. I run 2-3 miles (in 20-30 minutes) every day. I do other exercises about once or twice a week. I eat healthily 95% of the time (everyone has to have some treats!). I am at a healthy weight for my age/height. I do not take on unnecessary tasks from outside my family if I can help it. My husband does help in the house as do the children (but I have to nag the children incessantly). What else can I do to keep my body at its best during this stressful time (which may not be over anytime soon)? I am comfortable with supplements, chiropractic, acupuncture and the like. Thanks in advance for all your help and support.

I'm guessing no, as his muscles are nothing to write home about yet....

He does want different school environment and we moved to show him some of the other possibilities. He chose a school. I'm not sure they will take him now, but that is a moot point as he said even the small amount of Judaic studies is too much. Now that he is expelled he has to make a decision as to whether he will finish out the school year in the way that his previous school is willing to help or re-do the 10th grade again. It will cost him money. He also has to figure out which online school he will be willing to attend next year. He is looking at our commonwealth's virtual public schools and several private ones.

Further update: I'm sorry for the delay. My computer died last week and I had to do a clean sweep which was pretty traumatic. :) My son was suspended again last Thursday for leaving the morning prayer time to go weight lift in the basement of the school, a persistent problem over the year (in addition to still failing to follow the simplest parts of the dress code and his attitude). He had a long weekend off from school. Our family went to visit family friends and everyone enjoyed themselves. On Sunday night we were required to come to meet the principal with our son. At that meeting, our son tried to get the principal to release him from more Jewish subjects and more rules. The principal demurred and then told my son that he was expelled from the school. My son (and husband) were honestly surprised. He thought he'd get another stern talking to. Instead, he got the possibility of finishing out the school year remotely, both in Judaics and secular studies. He'd have to engage tutors for the Judaic subjects (we decided he will have to pay them himself) and he would get assignments from the secular subjects. If he succeeded, he would finish the 10th grade year with a transcript that would mention his suspensions and alternate school finish. I wasn't surprised. The school is very small (7 boys now in his grade) and everyone sees and knows what is going on. We did do drug testing on our son on Friday with his knowledge. When we asked him if the changes we have been seeing were related to drug use, he wouldn't say yes or no. The results came in today and they were negative. On a more positive note, the same son found out that he got into a veterinarian prep course for high schoolers in late July-early August. They are hopefully not going to ask about his spring semester. This is going to cost over $2000. My DH and I have to talk about who will pay for it. I had to leave today as my father will undergo a CT scan to see how much his prostate cancer has spread since the last time he was irradiated (cancer occurrence two). Thank G-d he feels good and hopes the cancer hasn't spread much if at all. However, with the recent death of my younger sister, we are all a little traumatized.

Like the others said, compounding cleaner. The shop used a power buffer to apply and clean the covers better than I could do at home. So when I did it, it was a bit clearer. When they did it, it was almost like new. They have started to become more fuzzy again though after two years.

I used one the DIY kits and it did some good, but I found a Groupon for a shop to do it and it was much, much better. The plastic on the covers gets oxidized. That makes them less clear. I see that I will want to do again now that it has been about two years. It cost me in Indianapolis with a Groupon about $35 and took about an hour.

Everyone we interacted with spoke some English. I wouldn't worry overly much. Money talks good too (sic)! Don't hesitate to bargain hard - it's the local culture. Otherwise, people will be happy to rip you off. Look in good travel guides for hotel recommendations - there are high price/ Euro-style hotels, smaller places that are locally run, and hostels (which could be fine or scary). Edited for a comment and a comma.

My DH, friends, and I went in 1999 from Israel. We went through Eilat though. We stayed in a three star type hotel. We felt so spoiled with the T.V. and carpeting after our Spartan life in yeshiva! We thought we'd be the only Orthodox Jews there but we met up with a group from a yeshiva going to the grave of Aaron, Moses' brother. We joined them for the several hour camel, donkey, and foot trip up a mountain just outside the park. It was guarded by a one eyed, elderly man with a large sword! We prayed, did a naming ceremony for our friend, and ate. We came back down and the took in the ruins. I wish we could do it with our children, but I'm sure we wouldn't be quite as welcome now. :(

Update: The doctor called while I was taking my son to him. He said he wouldn't do the test unless he was told, by him or us, that he was doing the test. I argued that we are the parents and we were making the choice to test him without his direct knowledge at this point, so that if the test were positive we could come up with a plan going forward which would include that knowledge. If it were negative, we could also continue with the knowledge that drugs aren't in the mix with the other confounding problems. He wouldn't back down, so I cancelled the appointment. I took him back to school, called my husband (who is away from his office and phone) to figure out what to do now. My headache is massive and I am very angry.

He didn't have a head injury, rather mono.

That seems like a rather large jump, no? We know people who have been involuntarily and voluntarily hospitalized for mental health. They clearly cannot be trusted to not harm themselves. (Some) Teens do stupid things. I know I did some dumb stuff and friends of mine did really dumb stuff and we are all still alive and functioning. I just don't know if this is drugs, regular dumb bunny teen stuff, or mental health issues. I do not what our plan would be if he tests positive....

He is seeing a LCSW who just says he is having "adjustment issues".

Would anyone have any experience with choosing between home urine tests and going to the MD?

I will probably delete this after a bit, so please don't quote. My oldest (almost 16) is in the 19th grade at a private religious school and his grades have taken a big nosedive since last year and are getting worse every quarter, going from As and Bs to mostly Cs. He doesn't go to school on time, leaves class early, puts his head on his desk. He says it is because he does not like the school anymore. His set of friends has changed to the one super-rich kid in his class. This family lives large to say the least. He is there most of every weekend. His behavior towards us has become very strained, even to his siblings. Last week he burned the hairs off his arms in some stunt of which my husband won't tell me the details, and he has recently been describing stupid and dangerous plans he thinks he should do (putting hand sanitizer on his hands and lighting them on fire). He wanted to change schools and after visiting them, he chose another school which will be double the price of the current school (almost 40K a year). He said he would rather go to public school but that is not an option as the city schools here are very poor. I've offered him virtual public school which he refuses since he wants to socialize. I watched him interact with his grandparents who are willing to pay for this school and his reactions were like a person on drugs, maybe pot? I am going to take him to the doctor to get tested for drugs ASAP. What should I know? Obviously I am not going to tell him ahead of time. His hair is in a short buzz so getting hairs surreptitiously cannot happen. Any help or hugs are welcome. :(

Your age? When did you mom start going to through menopause? It can't hurt and if you go the dollar store route, not expensive. Good luck!

You might get felt up in a quite intimate manner. The last time I flew, they had a woman touch my breasts and genital area repeatedly in addition to the "normal" areas.

There now and it is a big, fat surprise to me that it's happening this way. Hugs and I hope you can take care of yourself and everyone else can do the same with grace and love.

I got my two about two weeks ago.

It's "in" now. May not be "in" in ten years. I would do it and love the butcher block part very much (I already have butcher block counters though).

Soooo unmotivated today. Personal issues rearing their heads in my psyche, Passover cleaning and prep I do.not.want.to.do., and my DH (and youngest son) are leaving for a couple of days tomorrow morning. Kids don't want to school and I don't want to teach. Wah.

Just came back to say thank you Scrap for taking care of my BIL and all the other fans at the game last night. The Heels pulled it out by the skin of their teeth - it wasn't from their three pointers or foul shots.