Agree with other posters...my daughter at 16/17 has been driving by herself 1.5 hrs to pick up best friend (from the city we used to live in), and then go shopping together at a huge big city mall. Unless the younger kids alone are much younger (under 12), I would have no problem with this. When DD and her friends were 12-14ish, we would go to the big city mall together, and I would send them off by themselves to shop and ask them to meet me at a certain time (one kid always had a phone for emergencies, and I stayed in the mall).

Here's a recent thread that's worth a read if you haven't seen it. This topic was discussed:. https://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/706996-elements-of-mathematics-foundations-reviews-x-posted/

Wow...what a bureaucracy! I'm not in TN, but we are required to test in my state. If the law doesn't disallow it it, what about online testing service? We do the MAP Growth test through Homeschool Boss: https://homeschoolboss.com/ When I submit my annual paperwork, I list them as the "test administrator" and they are definitely a "professional testing service" offering a nationally-normed standardized test. It's hard to see how that wouldn't meet the legal requirements.

When it seems like the server was rude or inattentive (not just serving poorly because they were overloaded, or the kitchen was messing up), we've dropped back to what I consider a "minimum" tip of 15%. Usually we tip 20%, and even more for exceptional service or if we were in any way a "hassle". I think if I were truly offended by something a server said or did (I've never been), I would take it up with the manager.

Yes, absolutely this. I know several people that were registering everywhere, refreshing every page, trying every option, back in late winter/early spring when it was really hard to get a shot. There were so many reports of extras given away at the end of the day, etc if you were just willing to drive around and try to get a shot. So any shot found was taken. Some people in my state were also "randomly selected" to get a shot before their group was generally eligible and even if it was J&J, they were very excited to be picked before it was just available to everyone. Some of those people I know are definitely regretting now they didn't just wait a month or two when they could have gotten one of the other two. But at the time, it seemed liked the right thing to do. 🤷‍♀️

I wouldn't give up before trying some different choices for read aloud. Andrew Lang's Blue Fairy Book and Peter Pan actually both rate fairly high for reading level (7th-8th grade). I know you're the one reading it, but that might even be too high of a "listening level" to really enjoy and follow it! Wind in the Willows is a book that has a lower reading level text wise but is often suggested for an older age as its "interest level". And I think it's a book that people have strong feelings about -- In book groups I'm in that frequently discuss children's lit, a lot of adults say they really dislike it (I number among them). So, it's one that many kids may dislike as well. Your 2 year old is unlikely to have the attention span to listen to many books that the 5 and 7 year olds may be able to handle. When I had toddlers/babies we often read longer books during nap time, or one parent did the bedtime routine for the littles while the other parent read longer books to those old enough to listen. If I were in your shoes, I would try some different genres and books that are a bit easier in terms of the reading/listening level - maybe a mystery story like the Boxcar Children; something funny like Pippi Longstocking, the Ramona books, or Mr. Popper's Penguins; maybe a book like Betsy-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace that's a sweet friendship story (even my boys enjoyed that). My boys really liked "My Father's Dragon" at that age. We also did Little House in the Big Woods at that age (though that has a few problematic aspects in how Native Americans are portrayed that we needed to discuss). We also did Charlotte's Web and Trumpet of the Swan at K-1st age. And it's ok if it takes longer for your kids to work their way up to an hour at a time of listening. My DD loved to sit quietly and listen for an hour or two when she was five, but my boys took a lot longer to grow into it. It's really ok to start with 15-20 minutes or one chapter, do something else, and come back to more reading later!

County-wide we're at something like 66% of eligible population/55% total population. My zip code though and others in the city I actually live in are closer to 80% of total population vaccinated!

I'll respond on this part -- I do think a little extrinsic motivation can be good. We normally take a long summer break, but last summer I wanted DS9 to keep working on reading and spelling with me so we wouldn't lose the progress we had been making. Since it seemed so unfair to him to have to do "summer school" on his least favorite subject, I basically set up a point system where every day we worked together he could get one point, and two points if he did it with a good attitude/no complaining. Then he earned a couple rewards -- a special ice cream date, and a new board game -- by the end of the summer. It really did wonders because I set it up so that he needed to have a good attitude most days in order to get the big game reward at the end of the summer, and he was motivated to get the game! After working really hard for over a year straight, I let him take the summer off this year, and he is just doing typing (with TTRS) and reading a book with me a few times per week. I'm sure he's going to forget stuff, but I am prepared to spend a month reviewing if needed -- we both were ready for a break. I took OG training in early 2020, and I've mostly worked with DS9 creating my own lessons for reading and spelling. I'm going to pull in some outside resources to follow this year and still make use of what I learned in my training, because I am really burnt out on writing my own lessons. I'm not sure I have a good answer for you about the slow gains in fluency other than for dyslexic kiddos it just seems to take way, way, way more repetition and review than you would really expect. Like, out of the blue DS will just forget phonograms he totally knows or will have a hard time with a word that he has read many times before. I try not to sweat it, and just remind him and move on. It might be interesting to try and take notes of words he misses or struggles with and see if you write it down if there is any pattern that's not immediately obvious.

Here's an example of a place that came up in the searches I've been doing with DD17: https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-university-search/southwest-minnesota-state-university?searchtype=college&q=Southwest%2BMinnesota%2BState%2BUniversity%2B(MN) It's within a few hour drive of us, and it came up because they have a particular specialization within a major my dd is potentially interested in. It's small and rural but residential, and I think rated something like #117 on Regional Midwest colleges in US News Rankings. My DD found it really unappealing because it's both small and in a tiny town, but I'm guessing a lot of kids from small towns in a reasonable radius would find it an appealing choice because it's cheap and doesn't involve a move to a big city. But I'm guessing very few students from the big cities or from several states away would consider it unless they were recruited for athletics.

I think there are many students for whom "how competitive" the university is isn't their primary concern. I feel like a lot of "average" high school kids (who have ok grades, ok test scores -- not super high, not too low for college) are looking at things like distance to home (drive home on weekends to do laundry at home or see friends), how much fun the party scene is, whether or not they have friends going there, maybe they can continue to play a sport at a less-competitive level (DII or DII), etc. And if they are just looking for your average teaching, business, computer science, etc degree that pretty much any school offers, they are probably still going to be ok finding a job in their field when they are done.

Are you reading "Who Gets in and Why: A Year Inside College Admissions"? I read that one this summer and there are stories like that in there (probably similar in other books). My take away from that book is that yes, there are a small percentage of schools for which the student's "resume" will have to be just right to get into, but, as others have said, MOST places aren't like that. AND, as long as your child isn't set on one particular school, what's wrong or "not good enough" for one school might be perfect for another just based on seemingly random things like college A wanting more students from your state, or college B wanting more students with whatever your student's major ends up being. Even in 9th/10th grade, my DD (currently 17) knew that she didn't want to strive for elite admissions. She has never been super interested in a lot of clubs or activities. She also spends a lot of time doing art in her sketch book (she creates OCs also and shares them in some online communities she is a part of), writing snail mail letters to many friends that live out of town, and reading. She has a part time job. Even if COVID wouldn't have hit, she wouldn't have had a super stellar leadership-laden resume. She's interested in a major that's basically only offered at large public universities, so her grades and test scores will be the major factor anyway. The places she's most interested in are not super hard to get into. I also have a rising 9th grader, and he is a really different kid -- plays a sport, wants to join a debate team and a high school math team, and maybe other clubs, runs his own D&D role playing group and is looking for other opportunities to DM role playing games, etc. I think he'll naturally end up with leadership roles because he is more that kind of a kid. I think for our rising 9th graders, COVID restrictions won't impact a majority of their high school experience (it might affect this coming year, but it's hard to see too many restrictions continuing on past this school year), and if they do, everyone will be basically in the same boat. Sure, there will be differences based on what area of the country kids are from since different areas would have different restrictions, but the universities will still be looking for geographic diversity in their applications and know that if restrictions continue in some areas, it will impact every applicant from those areas. I don't think it's bad to start talking even to a 9th grader about different kinds of colleges, so they are aware of what kinds of options are out there, and that at some places their "resume" of leadership or future-career-related experiences might make a difference. But then I think it's better for parents to step back and let their kid decide what kind of experience they are looking for. The driven kids will seek out those opportunities themselves and ask for help finding the types of experiences they are looking for (though I will admit I did forward my daughter various opportunities over the years I thought she might be interested in - but then I let her decide if she wanted to act on those or not).

I read NASB for many years, then switched to ESV because our church at the time was using it. I still like it, but have this year read about some of the translation decisions that were made for it, and it makes me less keen to continue. Our current church uses CSB (formerly HCSB) and it's ok. I don't love it. I have a NET Bible I am reading now, because the print is a little easier on my eyes. 😄 It's a less common translation but I enjoy it right now as a change of pace. I've thought about going back to NASB for my personal reading, but I need to find a copy with slightly larger print than the one with teeny-tiny print I used to read, back when I was a young 30-something whipper snapper.

Our local community college is offering many, many in person courses while still having online offerings. I've been looking at college visits for DD in the fall, and it looks like most campuses near us will be in person (all places in the midwest).

One of my personal favorites is The Tune is in the Tree by Maud Hart Lovelace (author of the Betsy Tacy books!). This has been recently reprinted so it is actually affordable again. I paid $$$ for my vintage copy. Anything reprinted by Purple House Press: https://www.purplehousepress.com (I've ordered lots of the novel/chapter book length books they've reprinted and haven't been disappointed yet!). The Trolley Car Family is super cute (out of print, unfortunately) Kate Seredy's books are not super unknown, but not super well known either. My fave of hers is The Chestry Oak, but I also love The Good Master and The Singing Tree.

We have a Nest brand smart lock and I really like it. It can be operated from the app, but doesn't have to be. We can create as many door codes as we like, and can have codes expire (for example -- short term code for a pet sitter while we are on vacation). I have it set to notify me every time the door is unlocked, so that when we are traveling I know if the pet sitter has come in the house, and if we are in bed when DD gets home late from work, I know she is home because the phone buzzes. (I can also then from bed relock the door if she forgets...which happens a lot!). We can also check via the app when we leave home if we remembered to lock the door (too often the last person out the door forgets). We never have to worry about the kids getting locked out or forgetting/losing a key because they just have a key code.

I would, but we totally have the kind of neighborhood where everyone watches out for everyone else, in a good way.

Thanks for sharing this! I've had a hard time getting DD17 interested in trying these. I'm not sure if it's remaining "zoom fatigue" from close to a year spent in distance learning or if it just doesn't sound like a good way to spend an hour, but she didn't seem very excited to even try it. We are going for our first ever in person college visit in a few weeks. I'm not sure if that will get her more excited to do further online research or if she's just going to want to wait and try to visit during the next school year. 🤷‍♀️

I bought the IEW Elegant Essay (not sure if there is more than one with that name?), and returned it because it did not look like something I thought would be helpful. I haven't tried Windows to the World. We tried "Beyond the Book Report Season 3", (published by Analytical Grammar), and it was ok. It did teach the literary essay format. I felt like it was more designed for a teacher with a class than a parent at home, or maybe it just didn't fit my style. DS14 took a class that used Lost Tools of Writing as its base this past year, and it worked really well for him (his essays improved quite a bit), but I don't know how much was the curriculum and how much was what the instructor brought to it.

For alone time/quiet time, is she at all interested in listening to audio books? My boys find that way more relaxing than actually reading. My youngest, who is terrible at entertaining himself, will listen to audiobooks to pass the time when no siblings or neighbors are available to play. My younger boys have cheap kindle fires, and those can be locked down with as many parental controls as is appropriate to your situation, and can play audiobooks from audible, Overdrive (or other library apps), etc.

That's exactly how I use it and hear others use it. I'm in the midwest. Something I said to myself the other day while shopping: "Aldi never has my favorite kind of almonds anymore!"

It really sounds like a case of specific things being taught to students who will be taking the test, so I wouldn't read a lot into the 6th grade results. I'm sure all the 6th grade teachers cover that financial literacy material to prepare for the test, then it is never revisited. I'm generally amazed at how much success on a standardized math test can hinge on vocabulary in general. We are required to test annually in our state. My youngest is dyslexic and remembering which math term belongs to which concept is a challenge for him. (For example - he knows that parallel and perpendicular refer to the relationship of lines, and has a hard time remembering which term is for meeting at a 90 degree angle, which term is for lines that will never intersect). I bought on TpT a vocabulary review packet specific to the test he was taking, and we spent maybe a total of an hour over the course of a few days before the test reviewing math vocabulary. Some was just review of things we hadn't talked about in months, and some was terminology the test uses that is different that what he was taught in our math program. I watched him take the test and there were many, many problems he would have been likely to answer incorrectly (or it would have been a 50/50 guess) had we not done that vocab review.

My oldest DD entered public school in 8th grade and my oldest DS will enter public school in the fall in 9th grade. I asked my DD what she thought DS14 would need to be successful in 9th grade English (he's more of a STEM guy so English classes are not as much his strong suit), and she said the key thing they did in her 8th grade class that was expected to already be experienced in for 9th grade was writing the typical literary analysis essay of 7-10 paragraphs in length. YMMV, but this was an experience between two different school districts (8th grade was in one city, 9th in another). In 8th grade the teacher walked the students through step-by-step, had class discussions about the same topics they would write about, talked about different texts that might support the thesis, etc. They didn't have to generate their own thesis statement at the beginning of the year - they could pick from a list. I think they were generating them with help by the end of 8th grade. In 9th grade they were expected to basically already be familiar with how to write this type of essay (a minimal amount of review, but probably wouldn't have been enough if a student had never done it before) , and were generating their own thesis statements from a suggested range of topics about a given novel, though at first they were given help generating the thesis statements I'm not familiar enough with WWS to know if it teaches that format, but if not I would look for something that teaches that format.

I've never used Saxon as a teacher (I attended a school that used it one year myself as a student...6th grade maybe?), but I can't imagine that it would be difficult to switch to something else at least when you are at a natural point to make a change (before Pre-Algebra, after Algebra 1, etc). It might be a bit more difficult to switch to something entirely different (Singapore, Art of Problem Solving) because the student wouldn't have the same level of preparation. But in the world of more traditional programs, typical high school math textbooks, etc I don't think the actual mathematical methods that Saxon teaches are are all THAT different from other programs. I think having a program YOU are comfortable with in elementary school is most important, as long as you are taking your child somewhat into consideration. My DD would not have done well with the textbook based Saxon levels (starting 5/4) because the amount of writing would have been too much for her at that point. My boys would have been bored to tears with Saxon, but I knew they were mathematically gifted even as Preschoolers/Kindergartners so it was obvious I needed to chose something that wouldn't hold them back from rapid progress. Then in middle school/high school I think the needs and desires of the student are of increasing importance IMHO, as students are usually more and more independent with math and know themselves well enough to know what works for them. An early elementary student, if they are making a decision for themselves, might just pick whatever had the best pictures or whatever they thought looked "more fun".

This! I wouldn't base your decision now on something that won't be an issue for 6+ years. It's a great plan to pick something and stick with it for elementary (and even middle school) math to prevent possibly missing topics when switching publishers, but high school math (Algebra I and up) are typically well-defined courses that can be interchanged between publishers. It's also really hard to say, looking at a rising 2nd grader now, what their needs/desires will be in high school - if you will have a kid that will thrive best in an outsourced or online class at the high school level, a kid who develops an interest in a STEM field and wants to take more challenging courses, a kid who by high school doesn't need the incremental/spiral format of either CLE or Saxon, etc. What was right for my daughter and I in 1st/2nd grade turned out to be very, very different than what she needed in 6th grade and that was again different than what she needed in high school. She loved a "cozy up and learn with mom" lesson at age 7, and desperately wanted to teach herself and couldn't stand listening to me teach a lesson to her in middle school. Public school was the right choice for her (and what she wanted) in high school.

I thought that would be me too...and then #4 came 1 day before my due date. 😁. #1 I was induced a couple days before my due date due to concerns my ob had, but my body was not ready at all and I certainly would have been late #2 was I think 9 days past due date #3 I was induced 12 days past my due date (very different induction experience than #1 - my body just needed a bit of "encouragement" to get started). 😁 So I was pretty surprised to go into labor the day before my due date the fourth time around!