I ditto this. I used the videos last year with my 7th grader and they were very engaging. I found the DVDs on Amazon very inexpensively years ago and now they’re also available on Amazon Prime. Used alone, they might be a little light but maybe add in some historical fiction that might be of interest to him? With all that you’ve been through, I don’t think you need anything rigorous but this might be interesting enough to be distracting.

The latest I heard is that they are doing okay.

My son's good friend just tested positive, along with his parents. He is doing well now although he was pretty miserable for a few days. I just got official notice from their high school and DS has to quarantine for two weeks, as expected.

https://www.amazon.com/PYHIGH-Cycling-Exercise-Stationary-Training/dp/B07BSBBZPJ/ref=sr_1_11?dchild=1&keywords=cycle&qid=1604094198&sr=8-11

I am expecting a cheaper bike by UPS today -- it was highly rated by Runner's World for cross-training. DH sent me a link to a deal for the Peloton app, so I'm going to give that a shot and see how it goes. We have long, cold winters and are likely to be quarantined for COVID (DS has a friend who is sick and waiting on test results), so I need something active to do!

Loved the shout out to homeschoolers yesterday!

Yes, absolutely. We have a statement of faith that is general enough that both Catholics and Protestants would feel welcome. While I know at least one family is Catholic just through conversation, it's not something that is asked upon enrollment. Of the families I don't know as well, I really have no idea of their church affiliation.

I consider us to be fairly cautious, but we are less cautious than others on this board. We have reduced risks in some areas, so I feel like we can take certain other risks for mental health reasons. We have a child who is pretty high-risk and at his doctor's recommendations, we are keeping him home from school. Another child went to school part-time and she is now entirely homeschooled. Child #3 was already 100% homeschooled. Child #4 attends a small private school that is meeting 5 days a week but has done well so far with its COVID precautions. We limit our gathering with friends and family to outside, socially-distanced and often mask-wearing. Church is online, with occasional outdoor fellowship with masks and social distancing required. Confirmation class is online, my Bible study is online. We mostly see other people who are also cautious. We do grocery pick-up, very occasional shopping in-person always with masks and hand sanitizer afterwards. We go to co-op, but 95 percent of people mask and classes are small with outdoor space, open windows, etc. One child goes to an occasional outdoor art/nature class at a nearby nature center and requires masks and social distancing outside. I organize our group and we limit it to families that are also taking COVID precautions. High-risk child goes to individual occupational, physical and speech therapy 2x/week but both he and therapists are fully masked (he also wears a face shield.) One child plays outdoor soccer with a very small private school. Our primary vector is our high school student who is in school full-time and also plays sports. I accept that risk because it's so important for his mental health for a variety of reasons. What's going to be hard is that we tend to have very long, cold and difficult winters and we are nearing the point where it will be difficult to be outside for all of the things that I describe above. I suspect we'll basically lock ourselves down, with the exception of co-op and school for the high schooler. It will be difficult from a mental health standpoint, which is why we are trying to get out as much as possible now, in a safe and responsible way.

We are meeting with masks required under state law (over age 5) and stepped-up cleaning protocols. We did lose about 1/3 of our group when the state mask mandate was announced. There are a very small number of individuals who do not wear a mask and I don't know why, but co-op leadership's policy is that if they do not wear a mask, they will assume that they have a good reason. We go, and I even take my high-risk child, because I feel like we have already reduced our risk in many other areas, and co-op is important for our mental health.

I’m also allergic to cats but my DD desperately wanted a pet. DH was not willing to get a dog, but someone had mentioned a low-allergy cat breed to me. It turns out that a childhood friend’s aunt was a breeder of Siberian Forest cats who are known to cause little to no allergic reaction. They were expensive so I didn’t do anything about it, but a few months later learned that the breeder needed to re-home a fairly young female who was no longer able to breed due to difficult pregnancies. The cost was significantly reduced, so we took her! Cats are very easy to take care of, and she has been a delight. I’ve had absolutely no allergy issues with her.

Have you tried asking Sonlight customer service? They’re usually pretty helpful about things like this.

My 11 year old daughter has had some minor anxiety for a few years, but it seems like it is getting worse. With the pandemic and widespread civil unrest just a few miles away, as well as the usual summer storms and most recently, a spurt of property crime in our neighborhood that directly impacted us, it is really starting to affect her. She wakes up frequently with bad dreams and is unable to get back to sleep for hours, thinking that someone is breaking into our house (our vehicle was vandalized in our driveway last week.) She panics at the possibility of a thunderstorm and frequently checks the radar. Usually very extroverted, she melted down when I tried to drop her off at an outdoor soccer camp earlier this summer, saying there were too many people, and she didn’t feel safe. She seems extra sensitive to noise. She is also keenly aware of some difficult family dynamics that affect her deeply. How do I even go about helping her amid COVID? She has a sibling who is at high-risk for respiratory complications, so we have been very careful in our exposure. I think the root cause of her not feeling safe physically is because she doesn’t feel safe emotionally due to the family dynamics, which I have tried to compensate for and change for many years, but over which I ultimately have very little control.

Have you looked at Outschool?

I'm in the suburbs of a major Midwestern city and we always had a nurse's office growing up -- but over the years, at least in this area, the "nurse" is often a medical assistant overseen by an RN who covers several schools. (My mom is a retired RN, and over the same time period, RNs have been phased out in clinic settings for cost-cutting purposes wherever possible, in favor of medical assistants.) I have a young medically-fragile child who has been in public school until this year and we've been lucky to always have at least an LPN in his schools, although the RN is also involved in his care from an IEP/504 planning standpoint. I know friends in other parts of the countries with children who have diabetes, and they've commented that the lack of school nurses in some schools is a serious concern for kids like hers. My oldest son's private high school does not have a school nurse, but the local school district provides some services in that area. I'm not really sure what, as it's never been an issue for him.

Sonlight sells a few lap books from Homeschool in the Woods, customized to their cores. They’re not cheap, but the kits include everything printed out, in order, and all of the supplies you need. They also include an instruction manual. I’m trying them this year ... we will see how it goes!

Between the lack of civility and the new homeschoolers who think they can buy an all-in-one workbook at Costco and use it as their complete curriculum, I am about ready to drop Facebook, too.

The lack of civility is unbelievable. I had someone blast me in a FB group because when they inquired about homeschool co-ops not requiring masks, I suggested that since our governor’s statewide order requires masks in all public indoor settings, it’s likely that co-ops would also require masks.

Not really. I enjoy visiting new places but it’s a lot of work. We have four kids and the youngest is severely developmentally-delayed and medically complex. Having to anticipate any possible medical issue and pack everything I might possibly need for him is a big job. I don’t get a break from his medical and behavioral needs while on vacation. In fact, his behavior becomes more challenging when he’s not in his normal routine. This is why the last few weekends, I’ve been home with him while DH takes the other kids to the lake.

We are still awaiting news from our co-op. There is so much up in the air that I don’t think anyone knows yet. Our governor isn’t announcing plans for schools until the end of July and I think that decision will drive other decisions for our co-op. I’m teaching and was planning to bring three of my kids (two of whom normally go to school but will likely be homeschooled this year due to COVID.)

I have also heard good things about Blessed Heritage. There aren't samples on the site, so I've inquired of the writer and have yet to hear back. I believe Blessed Heritage's middle school program uses Hakim as the spine.

I bought it for my rising 5th and 8th graders. I plan to use parts of it as a supplement rather than using the whole thing as-written. The spine, by Howard Zinn, is pretty controversial so I'm planning to use Hakim or another resource that is more middle-of-the-road. There is also some concern about how indigenous people are covered in the program so I'm planning to add to that as well.

Last year, DS 15 was in private school. DS 13 was homeschooled. DD 10 went half-time to private school and half-time homeschool. DS 8 was in public school. We are looking at the three youngest staying home entirely this year, except for a small co-op. We expect intermittent closures and distance learning for DD 10's school and she has no interest in that. She'd rather be entirely homeschooled. DS 8 has profound special needs and is medically complex with an immune deficiency. Aside from the risk of serious illness for him (which is a major consideration), it would be impossible to social distance given his academic and medical needs in school. He normally has a 1:1 aide, needs assistance with diapering, tube feeding, hand-over-hand in the classroom, etc. DS15 is adamantly opposed to being homeschooled. He's in a small private school so that helps mitigate some of the risk.

I am definitely interested.

Our Blendtec was donated to us by the company for the purpose of blending food for our son’s g-tube. It was an incredible act of generosity that turned his health around. This was only about 6 years ago, but at that time, it was very rare for people with g-tubes to be fed blended whole food. Sugar-laden formulas were the norm, and our son was constantly sick, in and out of the hospital, often with life-threatening issues. The hospital would not let me give him homemade food because of their perceived risk of food contamination. Feeding him real food made a HUGE difference in his overall well-being and while he still faces significant challenges, he is doing much better. Things have changed quite a bit and there are now healthy organic whole-foods formulas but I still enjoy blending for my son’s meals because it fulfills that maternal instinct of feeding your child.

Here is a current map of damage.