Well, the classes aren't watered down. And I'm not sure why college was put in quotation marks, it is a legitimate college :) I see it as doing a homeschool technical option. Since he most likely won't be doing a bachelor's (although that may change, especially if he's going to be taking classes he likes) I want him to be employable right out of high school. Doing this program has a much higher probability of that happening. We aren't bound to 6 years of classes, and if he is having problems, we can opt out. We still have the 3 weeks to drop a class after it starts, but I am fully confident that he can handle the coursework. The only part I'm worried about is the home-based stuff. Everything he does is to get to some future point. So, taking an Algebra course so he'll do better in college seems silly since he's already tested into the college algebra class. Taking homeschool co-op classes seems counterproductive if he already has the opportunity to be working toward his associate's degree. I feel the need to say again that he is not going toward a 4-year liberal arts degree in computer science. The classes he will be taking directly relate to graphic design, not mature content that he couldn't handle.

Some additional information: 1. He's doing Saxon Alg 1/2 this year, but has also been working on higher math on Khan Academy and Coursera classes. He's done well in the Coursera classes he's taken (I realize it is not the same since it's peer graded.) 2. I'm not as comfortable teaching the higher math myself. The cost for a tutor or an online class is comparable with what the community college charges and it's a class we won't have to pay for again. It's just more cost effective for us to do it this way. 3. I've been classically educating him since the beginning, he's been exposed to TONS of classical literature over the years :) In addition to the semester composition class, he'll also be reading through the Veritas Press 7th grade reading list. I don't think it will undo all the work we've done or ruin him for literature. He'd be working toward an associate's degree and the community college works very closely with the state university. All credits transfer. 4. What we get out of this by moving him into the college classes now instead of later is (hopefully) inspiring him with the work that he is interested in. Of the 26 classes he needs to take, 5 are not directly related to the kind of work he wants to do in the future. This is a kid I could see NOT going on to the 4 year university. I want to make sure he has some employable skills before he leaves my nest because on his own, he wouldn't chose to do school at all. His main motivation for wanting to do Dual Credit is so he can be DONE with school earlier and not have to take a day more than absolutely necessary. 5. My husband, my brother (who lives across the street), my dad and my sister (all who we see regularly) are all intense math people. Any additional help he would need, he could ask any of them. My husband is also a computer programmer who works for an ad agency with lots of graphic designers, so we have quite a few community connections to help him with this program. He is not the most mature or motivated kid, so I can see that could be a HUGE problem. On the other hand, he seems to do well with older kids (typical with kids on the autism spectrum) and might work harder to impress them/a teacher other than me. My plan is to certainly start slow and not rush into anything. But, it also seems like it has such potential to be a really good thing for him at this point in his life.

Fajita chicken bake: Sprinkle fajita seasoning over 6 chicken breasts. Top with sliced red pepper, green pepper and onion. Pour about a tsp of olive oil over the veggies. Top with shredded cheese. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes (or until done). Serve with spanish rice from a box. You can even prepare it ahead of time and put in the oven when you are ready to serve. Super easy, and good! Tortellini Salad: mix together prepared tortellini, 1 can black olives (sliced), genoa salami (diced), cherry tomatoes (halved), 1 jar marinated artichoke hearts and Italian salad dressing. This makes a great side salad or even a lunch. I make it when my sister and her kids visit for the week. It's so good! Chille Roast with dried fruit: dump a jar of peppers in adobo sauce over a roast. Add dried cranberries, raisins and blueberries. Put about 1/2 a cup of water in a slow cooker and cook 6-8 hours. Remove the roast. Take the leftover sauce and simmer with some flour. Pour over roast. Looks really fancy, but really easy. Takes 5 minutes to prepare.

My oldest just got word that he has been accepted to the community college this fall! My state has dual credit starting in 7th grade, and he will be starting 7th in the fall at the same time. He needs to take Advanced Reading his first semester, but can go into math & composition courses. I had a plan for next year, but with this news, things are going to change a little. All the classes he needs to get his associates in graphic design can be online, except for Advanced Reading. Here are my revised plans. Too much? Not enough? Should I go way light on the first semester and see how it goes? Math: taken online through the college (second semester) Language Arts: Composition I (second semester) & Advanced Reading taken through the college (first semester) Science: Elemental Science Chemistry for the Logic Stage Foreign Language: Japanese with his dad who's a linguist Current Events: Taking the Wired magazine and finding articles that spark his interest to dig deeper. This will cover geography, current events, history, technology, science, literature, etc. Logic: Mind Benders Literature: Veritas Press 7th grade reading list Freshman Seminar: required to take through the college (first semester) I'm not really sure how to proceed with the dual credit portion though. Since he's already been deemed "college ready" is the assumption that we'll skip middle school and just start working on high school/college in 7th grade? Or do we still have 6 years instead of 4 to work on college credits and start on high school credits in another 2 years? I have an appointment with the dual enrollment adviser through the college in a few weeks so I can ask more questions then, but wanted to get some feedback here first so I had kind of an idea of what we could do!

None of us know that information. My mil was on talking terms with my sil mom, and she has voiced concern to her. It was met with dismissal and a strong impression that she's always been like this and her entire family has been enabling her. My MIL was told that "outside help is not wanted right now". We still don't know if she meant counselors, or was talking about us as the inlaws as outsiders. Who knows. All to say that we have tried to get them help through every avenue open to us. And we have tried to be a source of support as well (ultimately to our detriment, but the intent was definitely there).

I agree with you and if I had even an inkling that my nephew would benefit in any way from hearing from us, I would send something. I just don't think it's going to have any kind of positive result for him.

That is completely possible. Sadly, still nothing I can do to fix it.

He has always been a very compliant person. And definitely passive.

I had thought that things might be ok. We had a phone conversation and it seemed like things were going to be able to move forward in a positive direction. At this point, my husband was the only target of all the anger and we really thought it was stemming from the grief. The more conversations we had with her, the more violent and paranoid she was getting and nothing we did was ever the right thing. I've recently looked up information on the Vulnerable Narcissist and it describes her to a T. She creates some "wrong" and then when you feel confused for causing her hurt when that was never your intention, you reach out to apologize and ease that hurt. But, then she has you where she wants you and uses your interest in making things better to instead eviscerate you for a litany of imagined crimes against her. She'll do it in public, in front of your kids, in front of her husband and all you can do is sit there in stunned and shocked silence. I think she's been doing this to my brother-in-law for years but has been able to hide it for the few times a year we would all get together. Now, probably in large part to the trauma of the stillbirth, she no longer has the ability to filter her abuse toward only those that she's eased into it. My in-laws are devastated. They've lost their son, their grandson and their daughter-in-law. They had no idea what had been going on (none of us did!) until they were on the receiving end. And they have a lot of second guessing of themselves as to what they did wrong that their son would allow himself to be treated this way, and allow his moral compass to be so far moved that he would sit silently by while lining up targets for his wife to tear down. It's hands down the most awful thing I've ever tried to navigate because there is literally nothing we can do.

So much denial. It's like he's a shell of a person. Even when it's just him, he's just a conduit for whatever she wants him to say. I've never seen anything like it. He says they've talked it over and together decided that he's not being abused. And she hasn't been abusive to any of us either. So, I guess that's the end of the story in his mind.

Any initiation on our part, even a gift sent to her son, will be another opening to attack viciously. I wish I were exaggerating :(

I posted a few months back about my sister-in-law. Long story short, she suffered a stillborn birth of her 34-week old son. The cord had wrapped around his neck. Everyone was devastated. We weren't able to be at the hospital because my husband had just had surgery and was unable to walk or supervise any children (so I could just go). We have never been close. But, we saw each other for roughly 6 hours a year and got along fairly well during that time. She has gone completely psychotic and it is becoming increasingly obvious that my brother-in-law has most likely been a victim of emotional and verbal abuse for years. When the abuse overflowed onto us, my in-laws and mutual friends, we had to make the difficult decision to remove ourselves as targets. They have a son who turns 3 today. I'm not sure I'll ever see him again. And it makes me sad knowing he's in that situation. I really wish there had been something we could have done.

When my oldest was around the age I used Art Lessons for Children with Donna Hugh. You watch the DVD and she does all the instruction. My kids REALLY enjoyed it because it was a completely different approach to art. For water color, she had the kids color their paper with the colors. Then, she would show how they could find shapes to turn that into seaweed, or a fish, or whatever. I liked that they were able to color first, and then find the art instead of being focused on drawing the perfect fish, you know? I just got them from the library, so you could try them out risk-free. Here's my product review from my blog. I'd also recommend any of the Timberdoodle art projects from (I think it's called) Decco? They have clay, finger painting, painting..etc. But, the cool thing is that a lot of the art is already completed so they can just add in their own stuff. But, the finished project looks really nice. I find that a lot of times art is a drag because they can never make it look as good as what's in their mind. Of course, these are more expensive, and consumable...so it might be a more difficult thing to try on a recommendation. Since I know you IRL, I'd be happy to show you all the art stuff for my youngest so you can see what you think before investing any money. Edited to add product review and correct the procedure....it's been a few years!

If you are close to Columbus, let me know and I have 5 people I can point you to that do different things and are fairly inexpensive, depending on what you are looking for.

Yes, looking at the correct answer key would help!!

nm...I was looking at the wrong answer key!

As a former blogger, I'd just like to say that it's much more fun writing a blog about all the cool projects you can do and places you can go with little kids. No one...not even me...wants to read about the 3 weeks my oldest spent reading up on the fourth dimension for his research paper. Or the 3 weeks of outlining and editing. The stuff the older kids are doing just isn't as picture-pretty as pk-3.

Have you seen Molecular Gastronomy sets? They are super fun, especially for a foodie who likes to play. There's a bunch of different sets and books so you could spend as much (or little) as you'd like. Here's a few links to get you started (I bought my husband the cocktail one). The Book Aroma set Cuisine set Cocktail set

Update in post #1.

Ok, I am going to sit this week out. I wrote to her "I'm so sorry but I won't be able to make it work this week. Please, let's try again in a few weeks."

I do know for a fact my MIL had nothing to do with the invitation. She was so horrified by what SIL wrote to my DH she is not trying to get us together anymore at all. I do also know for a fact that the invitation DID come from a third party. My brother's wife (who is friend's with SIL) felt stuck in the middle. (They put them in the middle, we don't talk about it..except for on here..) My brother's wife told SIL that until she could treat us humanely she couldn't be around them. Two seconds after that conversation, I got the invitation. My brother's wife called me and let me know what she had said. She also made it very clear to me and to SIL (and since many of you still see me as a villan, I would like to share) that she was only speaking on behalf of herself and her feelings.

Again, I am so very sorry for the pain you are going through right now. But I am not the cause of your pain, nor my SIL's.

Justasque--I am heeding some other advice right now about not engaging and not communicating anymore through emails. Earlier in this saga, and that could have worked. I wanted to reiterate again that other than the apologies we have offered, we haven't tried to engage since. Everything is coming from her. Last night, we got a text from my MIL. SIL had forwarded her all the emails she had sent us. I guess in her reality these emails would show everyone that SIL had forgiven us and is ready to move on. My MIL was as horrified as we were and is stepping back completely in trying to get us to reconcile. It makes me incredibly sad that she's in a place where this much anger and rage is the moving on part. It makes me sad that we are just getting this part of what she was feeling. I am compassionate to her feeling that much pain. It's hard to sit by and watch someone self-destruct though. My DH (who has amazing restraint) let his mom know we appreciated her thoughts and time and space was definitely what was needed for all involved. First thing this morning, my SIL texts and wants to meet just me for lunch this week. Do I go? Here's what I have so far: I go: maybe my eye will stop twitching since it hasn't stopped since this mess started. maybe we'll be able to get to a place of healing. maybe we can talk and I can be there for her in a way that she hasn't been getting. maybe it will bring everyone some small measure of comfort. I don't go: maybe going will make everything worse. maybe she wants to meet so she can add me into her list of grievances, but after her email forward didn't go as planned she doesn't want it in written form so she can tell the story to better fit her reality without reality setting in. maybe the only way this will get better is if she is in a place where she can even see us as anything other than her adversaries, and I don't think she's in that place yet. So, I'm torn. I'm going to talk to dh tonight about what he thinks, but some of you have been so incredibly helpful, I thought I'd see what thoughts you had first.

You know, I really needed to hear this. Thank you.

I can understand an email saying "Imagine how you would feel if it were *child's name"" That was very different from this creepy, fantasy-description that she sent us. It's not something you can understand. I'm not going to repost it here, you'll just have to take my word for it. We didn't go because we didn't know about it. That is entirely different from not going. The entire family was invited to Thanksgiving. She opted not to go. Her husband wanted to come. They were hosting Thanksgiving for her family the following day. She was not left "all alone by the mean in-laws". Her husband wanted to be with us. My BIL still wants to be with us!! I would like nothing more than to leave her alone. Other than apologies that our efforts did not give them the support they wanted, we have not engaged. *We* are not the ones emailing. She is. *We* are not the ones engaging. She is. We still haven't (and won't!) responded to this last email. But, I am going to have feelings and thoughts about it. And this is the safest place I can talk about it without causing more drama.