My funny Life 360 story for this year -- I checked in on dd the first few days of college and I see her circle in the middle of a field in the middle of nowhere about a mile away from campus. I had a mini panic only to realize a few minutes later that the powerlifting facility is about a mile from campus . . . in the middle of a field 🫣 I am glad I didn't text or call in a panic and let my brain have a reasonable understanding after a hot minute.

Oh, I totally get that and I wouldn't change what we are doing -- I just get frustrated with the typical 18 year old attitude of thinking "I am an adult and don't need my parents" and it seeming like a hardship to be back "home" with familial relationships that actually expect something from you. (mind you I didn't ask her to lift a finger with a single chore while she was home) when in fact -- parents are paying for school, car insurance, health insurance, gas, medical bills, cell phone, meal plan etc. Paying for your own Chik fil A and Starbucks does not an adult make 😉 She is a great kid and will figure it all out, it's just an awkward stage. I have just been thinking a lot about the whole situation lately--we are Christians and this social construct of 18 being an "adult" is not in the Bible you know? lol The whole parental authority with an unmarried adult is a weird stage. We give a ton of freedom and always have. We are not controlling or super legalistic. We aren't helicopter parents . . . but navigating a healthy boundary/authority is the goal. Some of the stuff from this weekend rubs me wrong because it had. nothing to do with authority and everything to do with mutual respect and honor. We will work it out and honestly, she is doing amazing and we are so proud of her. Like every new stage of parenting she gets to be the trial and error since she is the oldest. Poor thing lol Like we always tell her, sorry, we are making this up as we go along. 😜

Well... dd had her first visit home this weekend. I remember well the chafing one feels when going from complete independence at college to back to a family, but I think I forgot about it. 🙃 DH had to have a gentle chat with her on the way to the airport. Dh will see her in 2 weeks at her first collegiate meet and I will see her in a month at another meet and then Thanksgiving break. It was hard to see her go but she is definitely enjoying expanding her wings (while we still pay all of the bills.) Trying to explain that paying for your coffee, extra groceries, eating out, and extras is not really a good picture of adult reality. She is planning to do a ministry job this summer that will not make any money and at the rate she is running through her savings, she will probably need to get an on campus job next semester. All part of growing up. Hope she learns it fast!

My large group go to's depending on the group: Chili, chicken fajitas, taco bar, baked potato bar, lasagna, baked ziti, pulled pork

I keep getting Amazon links with "mom, can you order this for me and take the money from my account." She knows dang well I'm not taking money out of her account . . . but my dh isn't going to let that go on much longer lol We are flying dd home for Thanksgiving. She has a competition in Nebraska the first weekend and her grandfather and I are flying up to see her compete and then flying her home with us. Not sure what I would do without her Papa's airline miles this year. So thankful for him!

Our whole family is on it so they are used to it as soon as they get cell phones. They stalk me too . . . heaven forbid I go to a restaurant without them. I get bombarded with hate texts. "How could you go without me???" "Can you bring me home...." lol

I am a big fan of Life 360 lol

Mine told me she wanted to add a second minor . . . in Missions. It's fine and not surprising but I just want to be sure it doesn't add to my bill lol Just got the ok from her coach yesterday that she is allowed to come home next week for fall break. Thankful I bought the ticket already and took a chance. College athletics are a pain.

Glad they are working with you! my ds has no problem writing a 3-5 page paper in a week -- however, his EF issues make things like citation and mla and works cited a nightmare. I need to check and see if he has done "Choosing and using sources" -- we may need to do that one a few times lol. We are taking writing at co-op this year but I am missing Lantern.

I like MP but could never do a whole boxed year for the reasons you stated -- they are dry and can be life sucking. Also, one of the joys of homeschooling is "family schooling" so we did Bible, history, and science together and then math and LA on level for each. If you have a math that you like, great. For History, we love Biblioplan and Veritas Press. We loved MP lit choices and used the lit guides to guide discussion. Use the curriculum to fit your kids and your vision for homeschooling. Veritas Press has a bit more life in the curriculum imho, as does Classical Academic Press which we loved for elementary writing and middle school logic. Don' feel bound by one curriculum... use it to fit your goals for your kids. Math is one that is best to stick with for continuity.

How is everyone doing? I am not sure yet, lol. dd seems to be doing well. She texts and facetimes every day but seems to be making friends and staying busy. She is an athlete so a lot of her time is consumed with her team and sport. She is coming off an injury and just cleared to come back next week so she is a little stressed about that...I am excited but nervous for her. We are meeting up a few hours away for her next month because dh has a conference and I am tagging along-- mostly to see her lol. I just miss her.

dd and dh left this morning. my ydd and I are not ok. I leave tomorrow after co-op to drive up and meet them...but the whole concept of her not here is breaking my heart. I am super excited for her but...ugh this is hard. She is just so far away. I never thought that would matter as much as it does. I may have to push a bit for the next two to stay closer to home. lol

We have had a bit of a crazy summer traveling so I have been a bit MIA. Dd and dh leave in the morning to head up, spend a few days with family a few hours away and then I leave Thursday and will meet up Friday night ready to move her in Saturday morning. I can't believe the time is already here. dd did online orientation and is rooming with an upperclassman from the powerlifting team that she met visiting the school. We also started back to homeschool this week for the other two yesterday. Ugh it is hard! Homeschooling has always included her and it felt so weird yesterday to take first day of school pics without her... also, she will be 14/15 hours away and I am feeling the sadness right now. On another note, why does she need so much stuff??!! I just don't remember going away with 1/3 of all of this lol. I hope it all fits. 🤪

Everyone says not to do a chromebook for college . . . but I don't really understand why. My dd used a chromebook for DE and it was fine. That said, dd's college gives everyone an ipad so we invested in a macbook for her for college to help streamline things for her.

I tried purchasing through lamppost but the lamppost website won't let you purchase and only links you to HMH

I am trying to purchase Avancemos 1 online student and they are trying to charge me a $15 fee for a $38 item. They also almost didn't sell it to me at all because I wasn't part of a school. ugh.

We use Biblioplan but might be a similar situation -- my dd listens to the audio and rarely follows along in the text, but the text is very helpful for the worksheets-- being able to go back and find answers and reference the reading.

Every kid is going to be different, but I told my dd to wait a semester and see how it goes before getting a job. I am hoping she can by spring, but she is taking 17 credits in the fall plus being on a collegiate athletic team.

I just finished teaching Understanding the Faith in a co-op setting and will teach Understanding the Times next school year. The material is great but the text is heavy. It is well laid out and easy to use. The material is solid and biblical.

I ordered cap and gown and diploma from homeschooldiploma.com and was very pleased with all of it. My dd had her graduation ceremony this past weekend with FPEA (state wide homeschool organization) 330 homeschool graduates! It was great but super long lol

I was a high school Spanish teacher. My ds has APD. Teaching him spanish was maybe the single hardest thing I have ever done. I am only half kidding lol. What about ASL? hindsight is 20/20 and I should have gone that route.

I asked this question last year and got mixed answers. Now that my dd is graduating, I am glad we continued with DE and didn't panic because of a B. My dd now has 38 college credits, all A's with one B in a lab and one B in A&P 2. Those are her only B's on her high school transcript and she took several rigorous online honors classes as well. I don't think it has anything to do with her ability to do the courses, she is just a kid who will occasionally get B's in hard courses. I do think future plans matter most. If you are headed to highly selective schools then it might matter, but for the rest of us, I can't see a random B hurting long term. My second child will have 2 B's from homeschool classes this year for 10th ugh. it is what it is.

I feel this deeply. I am exhausted. 3 kids, all competitive athletes. Practice schedules, activities, co-op, tutoring, friends, church . . . it's just a lot. My kids have to help with chores. We all have to chip in to get things done. My oldest drives herself. That is a huge help. My ds just got his license but we are slowly letting him drive himself... it will be a big help but we are taking it slowly. A few years ago we added hiring someone to do a deep clean once a month. We then made it 2X/month. I know not everyone can do that but for us this was HUGE. I never have to mop my floors or change sheets, I just accept this will be done twice a month. Since your older dd is doing this for others, maybe you can hire her to do this for you? We have to say no to some things. One sport, one musical instrument, and tutoring are the priorities, and everything else is negotiable but I have to be very careful to not overload. We live rural as well so same struggles there. I accept the fact that we are out of the house every day but I try to guard our mornings heavily and not schedule anything else until after lunch,

Jenna, thanks for sharing! It is great to hear from our kids about their homeschool journeys. They will all be different, and different personalities and focus in your own homeschool will lead you to lean a certain way. But always good to be aware! My oldest just finished high school, just awaiting graduation in a few weeks so I asked her . . . We had had a similar conversation a few weeks ago when I asked her for her top 5 favorite homeschool memories. May need to make that a separate thread as it really got me thinking back to those early years. Some of her Do's and Don'ts for Homeschooling high school: Do find a group of like minded homeschoolers and do field trips Do have a life outside the home-- sports, music, activities, be involved Do a mix of live online, self paced, student/mom led Do Make learning project based, movies to go along with what you are learning Don't do all your classes online or part of a co-op, leave time for flexible interest led and project based learning Do have a schedule

With BSGFAA you could just buy a set, not a whole years worth. We love BSGFAA. Kay Arthur has some excellent studies, as does Not Consumed. My youngest is currently working through Kay Arthur's How to Study the Bible for Kids. It is excellent.