Clinical strength Gillette is the only thing that works for my teen. It was recommended by a fellow football player's mom. Cathy

I found it very easy to use as well as thorough. So yes, I'd say it is everything you are looking for. I think we only had to print out a page or two at the end. Cathy

My oldest used it a couple of years ago, and my middle child finished the online part of it just this week. We thought it was very good. I have recommended it to others, and plan to use it for my youngest. Let me know if you have specific questions. Cathy

When my dd visited Texas A&M last year, one of the tour leaders recommended not taking more than 27 hours through dual enrollment because that would cause the student to have to declare a major almost immediately. The implication is that they not only accept dual credits, but that there is no limit to the number they will accept. Hope this helps, Cathy

I agree with all the things the other posters have said. The one that resonates the most with me is to find things that your student likes to do and use those as opportunities for leadership. My dd taught a speech class at our co-op, had a summer job with a mentally handicapped teen, and had a job at our local community college for three semesters as a supplemental instructor. She also formed a homeschool cheerleading squad for a six-man homeschool football team. All of these experiences were unforeseeable her sophomore year, yet the opportunities came and she grew from them, and later was able write about them in her college essays and scholarship applications. Good test scores are also very important. DD's college awarded her $4000 per year for her ACT score. She's going to a state school, and chose the one she did because she knew she would get more financial aid from it rather than the more prestigious state school where she had also been accepted. She will be in the honors college and live in the honors dorm, and is very comfortable with this choice. After adding in her academic/leadership scholarship that she also received, she should make it through college with very little if any debt. Cathy

For my oldest, it was physics--I let her take Conceptual Physics rather than a more math-based course. She did so with the understanding that she would take her last high school science class at our local community college. She opted to take geology and loved it. My youngest will probably follow the same path since she is so much like my oldest. The middle one loves science, though. :) Health is the one subject all three kids do just to get done.

Great news! So happy for your dd!

My kids do that with health between their 8th and 9th grade years, but health is only a 1/2 credit class, so that experience may not be helpful to you. I do have one other experience, when my oldest took a government class at the community college over the summer. It was the only credit already given for her senior year when I sent her transcripts to the colleges at which she was applying. It was never questioned. I say go for it if you have the time and the kids don't threaten to rebel. :) Cathy

When my teen repeatedly used all the hot water, and when using a timer failed, we enforced a new rule: we had her stop up the tub before starting the shower. Then, after her shower was over, she had to remove all the water from the tub using a five gallon bucket. The water was carried outside and poured on the flower beds. After a week of carrying several bucketfuls of water outside each day, her showers became remarkably shorter.

18 yo dd has worked as a U. S. history tutor at our local community college for the past three regular semesters. She had a job as a companion to a mentally handicapped teen last summer. 15 yo son just got a job as a lifeguard for this summer. Last summer he worked on a farm building fence, working cattle, and doing foundation work for a concrete slab.

I went through the same thing a couple of years ago, feeling like homeschooling had become the sum total of my life. Truly I was in a rut and needed something that was mine apart from homeschooling and parenting. After lots of prayer, two opportunities opened up: coaching a homeschool cheerleading squad for a six-man football team, and joining the pit crew of my brother's desert racing team. If someone had asked me what I expected as an answer to getting out of that rut, I never in a hundred years would have guessed these two activities. However, they both have been instrumental in bringing back my confidence and joy in life. So while you are looking for something to shake things up, don't forget to look outside the box as well as in it. And remember, sometimes a little change can make a big impact. The desert racing only happens a handful of weekends a year, but the excitement from those weekends lasts months. (For the record, I am the non-technical person on the pit crew. :) My job entails taking care of the driver and co-driver when the car pits, feeding the rest of the pit crew, and assembling the 30 foot antenna on the long chase races.)

I assign one lesson, odds only, over a two-day period. This works well because the first day involves reading over the lesson and so fewer problems are worked on that day. Cathy

My oldest is in the middle of applying. So far she has finished her application to Abilene Christian, and is working on essays and the common ap for Texas Tech and Texas A & M. She wants to get into the Honor's College at Texas Tech and major in English. She is feeling the pressure to get those applications in, work on raising her ACT score, and keep up with her DE classes and tutoring job at the community college. Tomorrow she starts co-op classes, as well. Add in cheerleading practice and Friday night football games, and her plate is very full. (She cheers for a homeschool 6-man tackle football team.) I've been pleasantly surprised at how she has assumed ownership of all of this. Last year I thought I would have to drag her through the applications kicking and screaming. Then we began visiting colleges and she found one she loved. Hooray! Cathy

Round steak~ smothered steak, swiss steak, chicken-fried steak, Chinese stir-fry (cut it into bite-size pieces, add marinade, and refreeze it without cooking it)

We used the 7th edition with great results.

I used the second edition high school Conceptual Physics book, and have the student edition, teacher edition, test booklet, laboratory manual, and TE laboratory manual. Some of the labs in the lab manual have been things we could do at home, but a lot aren't. The ISBN number for the text is 0201286513. Teacher text is 0201286521. Tests (answers included at back of booklet) is 0201285061. Lab manual is 0130542571. TE lab manual is 0201286548. If you can find them, the Conceptual Physics Alive dvds or vhs tapes are fabulous! Paul Hewitt teaches in these, and does lots of experiments. He is a great teacher. I borrowed the dvds from the library because they are too expensive to buy. PS~ clearly I didn't read your post very carefully before replying. None of what I wrote answers your question~sorry. Perhaps it will help someone else though, so I won't delete it.

We used The Teaching Company's "Europe and Western Civilization in the Modern Age" by Prof. Childers during that time period. My dd learned to take notes from lectures, which has helped her greatly in her current DE classes. I highly recommend these lectures. Sorry I don't have a textbook suggestion. We used Spielvogel alongside the above lectures, with my dd writing essays for the textbook's chapter tests. Cathy

My dd is also taking classes at ACC and loves them. She opted to take US history so that she wouldn't have to take it in high school and again in college. She will also take government and economics there, as well as a math class and a science class her senior year. She will not be going to school out of state, and thus her classes will transfer. But her cousin, who is going out of state, chose the AP route instead because her college of choice would not give her credit for DE. This might be something you want to check out. The first semester my dd took English comp and the first US history. The English comp was very easy, but did include a ten-page research paper, which made me happy. The US history really helped with her timed essays. And since we had studied history in-depth, she spent the first few weeks commenting on the slant of her textbook and beliefs of her professor, who is more liberal than we. For me, this was the perfect time for her to hear others' views and see what she thought about them. She's going to be facing them in college soon anyway. I wanted her to start that journey in small doses while she is still living at home. She really liked this professor and is taking his second US history class right now. Some other classes her homeschool friends have taken at ACC include speech, human geography, spanish, p.e., and calculus. These have seemed to have been good classes across the board. English Comp II is the only class for which other parents have overwhelmingly given bad reviews due to the content of the stories that are read. Cathy

A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury To Build a Fire by Jack London

"The Importance of Being Earnest" with Reese Witherspoon, Colin Firth, and Rupert Everett was a favorite when we were in that time period. Cathy

way back in the late 80's from Texas Tech. I received six hours of credit and took sophomore level English my freshman year. It's good to know they still do that! Cathy

After living over-seas for almost six years, we moved back to the States and my dh went back to school. Because we had lived in Texas before we moved, we were still considered Texas residents and didn't have to pay out-of-state tuition. You might want to check and see if that is true in your kids' cases, too. Cathy

I was worried about those things, too. But here we are in the second year of high school, and those things have worked out. Dd told me earlier today that a boy has already asked her to go to the homeschool formal with him in the spring. Because she has a friend who recently started public school, dd and a group of mostly homeschooled friends were able to join their p.s. friend at the football games this year. Two weeks ago dd went to a masquerade ball/dance for halloween. She had a great time. So the answer is no, they don't have to miss out on these things. Just look in your area and see what is available. We've been pleasantly surprised at all there is. Cathy

Thanks for the update. The benadryl is most effective at the beginning of the reaction anyway, so sticking with your regular allergy meds is probably the way to go at this point. I hope they shorten the duration of the muscle aches, and that you don't have to deal with this a whole week. Cathy

Jean, Did you take some benadryl? That helps more than anything else here. We take the kids' chewable version ( up to 4), because it touches everywhere the milk touched, calming the reaction as it goes. If that isn't enough, you may need to ask your doctor for prednisone. (I carry a couple prednisone pills with me at all times for severe reactions, since they are more convenient than an epipen.) Good luck! Let us know how you are feeling tomorrow. Cathy