I'm looking around online before heading out to the store tonight.... what is "chelated zinc" and "Zinc as Gluconate" ?

Thanks for the feedback so far! Ok, I'll look for OptiZinc or the lozenges. It would be great if I could find them at Walmart/Target or maybe the drug store. (The other supplements I mentioned weren't for acne. Those are for other things I'm dealing with - pms, headaches and muscle aches (TMJ), etc.)

I know nothing about supplements but I want to try some zinc for acne. Does it matter where I buy it or what brand it is? I'd rather not spend more than necessary so I thought I'd just check Walmart or Target... but of course I don't want to waste money on something that isn't as good, won't be absorbed well, etc. Any advice? I'm aslo interested in trying some other supplements like magnesium, turmeric, and 5-HTP for example. How do I know if the supplements will be ok together? It's overwhelming! :) Thank you!!!

As usual, you all have been so very helpful! My son has asked to go to school off and on for years now. It's solely because he's extremely social and felt he was missing out a bit. We've never really considered it until this year. We've had many conversations about it recently and he's still interested but has said that he's not "sure" what he wants to do. (By no means is it totally up to him, but we're interested in what he wants to do.) We've talked about the differences in the "school" part of it and he's a little apprehensive about the work load and that kind of thing. I keep trying to reassure him that if he stays home, we'll do our best to meet his needs socially if that's the only reason he wants to go to school. He's in a great youth group (and plays drums for their worship band) but if he had his way, he'd see his friends EVERY day. He grows tired of being stuck at home with mom and younger siblings all the time. I've tried to encourage him that it won't be too terribly long before he'll be driving and able to come and go and see friends more easily and frequently. Anyway, as far as my questions about credits, I can see by the replies that it really does vary quite a bit. The school requirements vary as well as each individual's experience. Certainly I'd have to contact the schools to get that info - great advice. I think my fears have somewhat been confirmed though - for various reasons it could be difficult to put him in school after the start of high school. I kind of feel the pressure of "now or never" but I don't want to rush into anything. This is so tough. I know I don't plan to do everything myself all the way through. We'll do some kind of co-op classes and/or community college classes at some point. I looked into a co-op for this year but it was kind of pricey. It's not looking so expensive now that I've looked at private schools though lol! We do meet with friends a couple times a month to do Biology labs but we're on our own other than that. If he's still home next year we'll probably outsource more. Well I'm tired and rambling so I'll stop. :) I can't thank you all enough for your thoughts. Oh, and Brenda, thanks for the encouragment on 14 yo boys! Knowing that it's generally just a tough time, and that it's not just us (me!), helps a lot. :)

We are seriously considering putting our oldest ds in school. He wants to go, and we had a very rough start to his freshman year so we are considering it at this point. We've made some curriculum changes which have helped quite a bit but we're still looking at our options. I've looked at Christian schools in the area and there are a couple possibilities - but they are so $$$$$!!! (I know... no surprise.) I don't know if I could really consider a public school. I think the ones in our area are really pretty good but I don't know. Anyway, I wish I would've looked into this over the summer but I had no idea we'd be in this position now. I had no idea we'd be considering it. If we do end up putting him in school at some point, I can't help but wish I would've done it at the beginning of high school because it seems like it would be easier to do it that way. Does anyone have experience with this? Also, as my title states, do I need to be concerned about a high school accepting our credits if my ds enters school in his sophomore year, for example? I'm sorry if this post seems inappropriate b/c I'm asking about "school" but I feel like this is the best place to get help/information. Thank you! :)

Thanks for the feedback so far. Sorry... I should have clarified that we're going to use Notgrass as is - in one year. So yes, they say that if you use it that way it will give you 3 credits (History, Bible, Lit/Comp/Eng) but I'm considering beefing it up. It's probably due to my reading on here that others have found it to be insufficient. ;) As far as why we're dropping MFW... well it was just too much. It was too much reading for my ds (the level of reading is fine) and he felt that sometimes the directions/instructions were unclear...which frustrated him since he wasn't enjoying it anyway. He did enjoy some of the things he was reading and learning, but any joy of learning was squashed by frustration. It was also too much jumping around for my scattered brain to bear. After 5 weeks I was still having trouble organizing my brain enough to remember where the answers were for the different things I was supposed to be going over and grading. I need to simplify. That's why I want to do Notgrass in one year, as written. I loved MFW until we started using it lol! I still love the "idea" of it and what they teach but when I decided to drop it, I literally felt like I could breathe again. Ok, having said all that, even though I want to supplement a bit, I do NOT want to add too much and get us back to that frustrated and overwhelmed state! For writing I'm still considering Writing Strands - we've used it before and it's simple and straightforward (which we need right now!). I don't have The Elegant Essay but am considering that as well as Jensen's Format Writing which I'm thinking about purchasing. So after I choose one, do I hit it hard at first or spread it out throughout the year? The first Notgrass essay was rough b/c the assignment was rather vague and my ds had trouble coming up with much to say - he couldn't get more than a page and half (typed and double spaced). As far as grammar, he went up through Rod & Staff 8 and I feel his grammar is pretty solid. That's why I just want to add some writing and maybe lit guides to flesh out the English credit. Then bible... I don't want to assign too much reading since there is definitely a fair amount of bible in Notgrass. I'm still considering the books I mentioned....

So we're making curriculum changes... ack!!! I think we've decided to drop MFW (despite all the wonderful advice!) and just do Notgrass. So I'm trying to decide what I need to add. After doing some reading here, I think I'll flesh out the lit but adding some guides. I don't think I want to do a whole other lit program - we'll just do guides to a few Notgrass books. One of my concerns is writing since there really isn't any instruction in Notgrass. My son does not like to write... He can write well with enough help and instruction but he has a lot of trouble when he's simply told to "write about such-and-such". I think we'll do some, but not all, of the Notgrass writing assignments but I think it might be good to supplement. I don't want to add too much to the workload though. I'm actually considering Writing Strands? My other concern is bible. I wonder if we should add more to that. I have no idea how to flesh that out though. Maybe I should just have him do a separate bible study? I have "The Old Testament Challenge" and "The Greenleaf Guide to Old Testament History"... I also have "The Victor Journey Through the Bible" which looks great, but I'm not sure it's a book you just read? Ugh. I don't know. I'd appreciate any input! :)

I just typed a long post and then lost it.... that's so frustrating!!!! I wanted to let you all know that today was a MUCH better day! It's not like we've got it all figured out, but today was just better. I appreciate the encouragement and prayers. It helped today! :) 1Togo - Thank you for the idea of putting my TM's on a different shelf. So simple but I think it will help me feel more organized. And we're definitely going to do daily meetings for now. I told my ds that for now I want to have shorter daily meetings instead of a long one on Friday and I think he actually likes that idea. And thanks for the reminder to make sure he asks for help when he needs it. He's not always good about that. LatinTea - Don't worry about having an opposing view. I appreciate that. :) I'm struggling a bit with the jumping around between sources but also jumping around within Notgrass. I wanted to use Notgrass before I even found MFW and after these first couple of difficult weeks, I just wondered if it wouldn't be simpler to drop MFW and just use Notgrass. I like what MFW adds to it though so we're trying to make it work for now. I'm not sure about the writing either. The first essay had a good amount of instruction but now this second one (from Notgrass) doesn't seem to have any... Anyone? :) Angela - You're definitely right about one thing - I think my ds does want more interaction, not less. He's capable of being independent but he still wants to work with me, at least a little bit. I wish it was because he's so excited about what he's learning that he wants to discuss and whatnot, but it's really just that he's social and likes the general interaction. Anyway, when I asked him about online schooling he said no, that he wanted to work with me - he wanted me to be his teacher. (I guess I must not be doing TOO bad of a job. ;)) I want to make sure he has enough time and attention but I'm having a tough time balancing the teaching with all 4 of my kids. I don't know how everyone else does it!!! I feel like there aren't enough hours in the day! It's still early in the year - hopefully it will get better... Crystal - No worries. :) Your advice has been amazingly helpful!!! I wish my ds was as passionate about what he's learing as your dd though! OH! I have a Notgrass question! Where on earth are the answers (suggested answers or whatever) for the Bible Study questions??? I can't find them in my quiz and exam book! There is an answer key in the back but it's for quizzes and review questions. ?

I can't thank you all enough for all the advice and encouragement. Every one of these replies had something helpful and/or encouraging in it and I appreciate it so much! Thank you, Crystal, Julie, and Sue for your very specific help regarding MFW. I loved this program so much before we started using it LOL! Sigh... I don't to give up on it so soon but I have this fear that we will continue to dislike it and the longer we stick with it the harder it would be to drop it at all! I think we'll stick with it for now though. It's early in the year so I just pray that my ds develops a little more motivation and self discipline. I appreciate the reminder that he is a "big boy" and that it's ok for my role to mostly be facilitator. It's just getting him to that point where I don't have to sit on top of him to make sure things get done. Honestly, he was pretty independent last year so I'm hoping that he's just having a hard time getting back into the swing of things. In general, I feel like we've done ok so far and he's gotten a good education up to this point. I'm just starting to feel some panic about this whole high school thing - especially since we're off to a rocky start. I think I may have some more specific questions (about MFW) but I'm exhausted so I'll see what I come up with tomorrow. Since tomorrow is another school day, I'm sure I'll remember lol! I have been praying about it and so appreciate your prayers as well! OhElizabeth... no, we've been homeschooling since the beginning. ;) I think that's part of the problem.... I am feeling so very burned out sometimes.

Thanks, Sue. It sounds like you can relate to what we're going through over here. It's so frustrating to me when my ds is lazy and not living up to his abilites. I'm sure many feel that way. I told him today that this whole thing would be going a lot more smoothly if he cared more about his work and had a little more motivation and self discipline. argh.... I think we will do short daily meetings for now. Seems like if we wait until Friday we are both overwhelmed. Thanks for sharing and for the advice!!!

I'm so hesitant to pour my heart out but I'm so desperate for help and encouragement. We just started our 3rd week of 9th grade using MFW and I want to throw in the towel.... on MFW.... on everything!!!! MFW is driving me nuts. I haven't seen anyone else say anything bad about it so I feel like I must be crazy but the jumping around is making me insane!!! I kinow it's a good thing to use multiple sources for learning but I'm still not even sure where the answers are for everything I'm supposed to be checking. Sure, I know if I spent more time with it I'd figure it out, but I just wish it wasn't so complicated. I'm a scatterbrained artist type and I need things simple and to the point. MFW probably is eventually but the learning curve is killing me... and ds. He doesn't like it so far but some of that is attitude. He's smart but doesn't like to work too hard. :glare: He's also still a little confused by the jumping around. Today we were talking about things while I was trying to implement our first "meeting". We were talking about our frustrations and I explained that I'm having a hard time with MFW and I think it's just the way my brain works and so on. He then proceeded to explain to me that it's because I'm one person trying to teach multiple subjects, none of which I'm even trained to teach - unlike in public school where the teacher teaches one subject they know about. Mind you, he wasn't disrespectful but it hurt. I'm feeling low enough and that didn't help. Soooo.... maybe he's right. I don't think I can do this. Oh how I hate saying that. What to do... I found a co-op over the summer that meets twice a week and I thought that would really be helpful for us but it was way too expensive. :sad: I thought that would've been such a good compromise. My husband feels strongly that we continue to homeschool - he's open to co-ops and whatnot but not public school. My ds has mentioned possibly wanting to go to public school but the thought makes my stomach turn. We live near a very nice public school but I just can't stand the thought. A Christian school? Maybe, but I'm sure we couldn't afford it. My son is VERY social and thankfully he's now in a great youth group so he does get that interaction but he's always shown an interest in going to "school" for the social aspect. Having said all that, we're 3 WEEKS INTO SCHOOL and here I am talking about this stuff. I mean co-ops and all other schools have already started. I could consider dropping MFW but I wouldn't even know what to replace it with and like I said, we're already 3 weeks in and this is high school! I can't mess around! I'm at a loss here. I just don't know what to do.....

Don't blush b/c you did school lol! Maybe I should blush b/c it never even occurred to me to do school yesterday. ;) Thanks again for the replies. I like having Fridays light so it makes me want to try and keep on their schedule - not sure if that's going to be possible or not...

I want to thank you all for your replies! Like I said, it's been a bit rough but I hope we get it figured out soon and it starts to get a bit "easier". I also think it might work better for us to have little "meetings" through the week instead of doing it all at the end of the week. We'll see... I have another question for you. What do you do on a week like this where you only have 4 school days? How do we get all of our MFW work done? Do we do it over the weekend or just do Friday's work next Monday? Thanks again!!! :)

So we're a couple weeks into My Father's World with my 9th grader.... it's been a rough start but we're hanging in there for now. We have yet to really have a "proper" Friday meeting. Can you tell me what your meetings are like? Are we supposed to go over all his work for the week or just the MFW stuff? For example, do I grade his Algebra ahead of time and then talk to him about what he missed at the Friday meeting or should I do that daily? I hope we fall into the groove at some point but I'm very overwhelmed right now.... Oh, and I did start him a week before the younger ones as suggested in MFW.

Thanks for all the recommendations! I'm going to make a list! :)

So we're planning a vacation for the end of September and I've got most of it planned. We'll do the Ripley's stuff, Ober Gatlinburg, and nature stuff like the National Park/Laurel Falls hike/Clingman's Dome. I was wondering about places to eat. I heard Apple Barn and The Old Mill are good places to go... are they expensive? Also, when would be the best time to go (what time of day and what day of the week?) since they are probably often busy? Anywhere else we should go? We don't want to spend too much $ on food though... Thanks! :)

bumping :)

This is the last thing I'm trying to figure out for this year (for now anyway...). We just started using Writing With Ease last year and we started out easy b/c I didn't feel like my youngers had had enough narration and dictation up to that point. I put my 2nd grader in level 1 and my 5th grader in level 2. I'm going to keep using WWE with my now 3rd grader but I'm not sure about my now 6th grader. He's using R&S and we do the writing in there, but I am also considering continuing WWE (probably level 3) and/or beginning Writing Strands. Obviously those programs are very different and I don't know which would be better at this point. I'd rather not do both just to spare us the work load. We could stop WWE and just begin the levels of WS, or we could do WWE this year and maybe go on to Writing With Style next year in 7th? I haven't given that one a thorough look yet though.... Thoughts pretty please? :)

Thanks for the bumps and replies! Anyone else? :)

Thanks so much! So it seems that you skipped VL level 3 and went right on to the cc classes. I guess I didn't realize, or had forgotten, that a semester of cc classes often counts as a full high school credit (still figuring out all of that...). So she'll have 3 years of credit done in 2 years, right? Also, if the classes at the cc are called "Spanish 1" and "Spanish 2", how do you keep from listing "Spanish 1" twice on the transcript? Do you just clarify that one is a dual credit class? Like I said, I'm sure it's simple but I just don't understand that part. :) Thanks again!

anyone? :)

So I need help planning Spanish. My ds, who is about to start 9th, decided he'd rather focus on one foreign language and try to become fluent instead of doing a couple years each of different languages. We started Spanish last year using Visual Link (and Getting Started With Spanish) and that's what he plans to continue. He did about 3/4 of Visual Link (level 1) last year in 8th. This year I'll have him review what he's already covered and then finish it up. I think we can easily do this in the first semester. I already bought level 2 so I think we can probably do that during the second semester. I read that levels 2 and 3 only take two or three months a piece? But if so.... are they really each worth a whole credit/year? If we do all 3 levels of Visual Link, is that 3 credits/years of Spanish? If so, great! I'm not going to insist things take longer or be more difficult than they need to be! If ds wants more than 2 years of Spanish, I'll probably have him take classes at the community college in 11th and possibly 12th (I don't think he can take dual credit classes at the cc until 11th). So if we do that, do I need to stretch out Visual Link over 9th and 10th? Then... last question... if my ds has already completed all of Visual Link (so 2 or 3 years of Spanish), then he takes Spanish at the cc, is that considered Spanish 1? I'm confused about that even though I'm sure it's simple lol! Thanks for any help/input!

Thank you for all the helpful info! :)

anyone? :)

Thank you both! Very helpful!