Just saw your other post, Tap. The Vitamin D deficiency will go a long way to explain most all of her symtoms, IMHO. How old is her bed? I know, silly question, but my husband and I were having a lot of issues with being tired and realized our bed was probably past its prime. New mattress and we were sleeping soooo much better and alo of our illnesses, stress, and never feeling rested went away in a week.

Hot bath, exercise, walk the dog, good book, good movie/TV show Odd question, but is your daughter pale? Having low Vitamin D levels can cause depression-like symptoms and also lower immune responses. Perhaps get a supplement if you suspect that.

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That's the case with us, Cosmos. They want to talk and discuss more. When my husband does science with them, they'll spend over an hour discussing and questioning just 4-5 pages of a mid-sized font textbook.

Thanks, didn't realize what the "Self-Education" meant. That makes sense now. I've learned more from homeschooling my kids than I ever did in school and I was a thesis away from a Master's degree.

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A very long time ago I enrolled my kids in a cyberschool. We lasted six weeks before I switched to homeschool. Part of the cyberschool guidelines were that as the kids got older, they'd work more and more independently. By the time they were in high school, they would no longer need much, if any, parent supervision. Here, this board is titled "High School and Self-Education Board." However, I find that the older the get, the more (not less) I have to supervise, plan, teach, grade, etc. Anyone else feel my pain as sometimes I wonder if I'm doing something wrong?

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I don't think there is a panacea for your weight issues, so I want to focus on something else as this issue- nutrition and overall health- is a big thing for me. There are all sorts of things that will come from eating better (not necessarily how much, but what kind) and exercising regularly. When you eat healthy foods and your body is nourished rather than eating high-calorie, low nutrient, inflammatory foods, you will look and feel fantastic. There are certain foods that inflame my body and will cause my skin to become red, blotchy, and bumpy. Nothing over the top like caramel cream Baked Alaska, but really minor things like corn chips. So when you eat whole foods and mostly non-starch vegetables (most especially dark leafy greens like kale, watercress, beet tops, etc.) you will look better and probably lose weight. I've had a problem with bags under my eyes for a few years and nothing I put on them or sleeping 8+ hours a night with my head elevated did anything to change that. But when I began to exercise an hour at a time (to the point of sweating (a key)), those bags go away. Because I'm in my 40s, I have muscle attrition. I'm really getting gun-ho on weight lifting, which every woman over 30 really should incorporate as part of their workout. When you build muscle, you burn more calories doing nothing. Your weight may seem to plateau, but you'll find your clothes keep getting looser and looser (and unfortunately some skin, I've found, but that just takes a little bit longer to catch up.) So, all this soap box sermon to say that if you focus more on overall health rather than the scale and your body's appearance, you might find it easier to make better choices. I don't believe in diets or easy solutions or a weight-loss panacea. Those who look good, eat well, exercise, stay thin, all that jazz make a life change and keep to it. I've never known anyone who's dieted and been successful. There's a ton of documentaries that might help- Fed Up Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead King Corn Forks over Knives

I have a theory that it takes about 50 times of telling my kids something like this before they start doing it right. We all tend to graze and nest (most especially since they're homeschooled) so all it takes is my saying we need to have a dish pick up. That seems to work and they negociate amongst themselves as far as loading and unloading the dishwasher. FWIW, the only time I had a dishwasher in college, my three roommates were incapable of filling it, turning it on, and unloading it. I was gobsmacked that there'd be an overflowing sink of dirty dishes when the dishwasher was right there. I was even more shocked because I was a very messy person then and they had me beat on filthiness hands down.

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Sorry to take so long to respond, I don't get email notifications of replies. This was discussed thoroughly in the book, College Unbound: The Future of Higher Education and What It Means for StudentsI don't know how it plays out IRL, though. Do they not disclose this to the students and parents? Is it a verbal thing? When I was in college, I got a letter stating exactly how much my scholarship was and for how many years. So with this tuition discounting, who knows?

Tuition "discounts" at private colleges. This is a gambit designed to pull students in at significantly lower tuition for the first year. Come the rest of the college career, the tuition isn't discounted and the student/parents have to foot the bill.

I'm not sure it's the same. There certain target "areas" that certain courses can meet, but usually not entirely. For instance, Medical Terminology will count for one point of the Communication area and 2 points for Second Language. Now tell me that's not wonky.

Definitely something to consider as now there all these wonky General Education requirements. Have any of you seen this insanity? Instead of a core curriculum base like I had at my medium-sized Liberal Arts and Sciences university, it's all point-based instead of class-based. I'm thinking now if they audit, they'll miss so many of the prerequisites and Gen Ed points they'll need. Will investigate more. Thankfully, they're still only 8th graders.

Looking mainly for complete curriculum rather than piece meal, DIY stuff (which I do for literature). There just don't seem to be a lot out there that are complete.

They'd attend a four-year as it's w/i walking distance to our house. Dad's also a professor there and we don't have to pay any tuition for them (only fees), so it's our best option whenever possible. I can't find a law about age for dual enrollment in my state (Pennsylvania) and I've heard of other professors' kids here taking college courses (like Spanish) at pretty young ages.

Does anyone know of these programs? I am only familiar with History of the World (Peace Hill) and History Odyssey (Pandia Press). Just looking for a comprehensive list that follows the Ancients, Medieval, Early Modern, and Modern timelines. Thanks!

They're currently 8th graders.

Thanks! Will look into the subject recommendations. The usual Earth Science, Biology, Chemistry, Physics rotation is getting old, esp. Bio.

I'm wondering if this is even possible. My kids are quickly running out of things to do for science and I was thinking that some college courses in entry level (no prerequisites) science might be just the ticket. But because they are still very young and not yet the typical Junior and Seniors in high school, I though auditing might be a good compromise. Any disadvantages to doing this?

Our area uses the SAT over the ACT. About 70 per year take the SAT, which works out to be about 10-15% of all high school students here in any given year. But, again, you have over half a grade making 90%+ (A) every quarter. Doesn't add up. Grade inflation is a bane on our education system.

My local school district just posted their Honor Roll list in the newspaper. I don't know the exact number of students per grade, but extrapolating from wikipedia data on enrollment, each grade has between 115-140 students with the grade enrollment tending toward one of these extremes. The recent report of Honor Roll 90-94.9% and Distinguished Honors 95%+ was 6th grade- 70 students, 7th grade- 55 students, and 8th grade- 70 students. The high school honor roll looked similar. So, we're tallking about 50% of the whole grade making Honor Roll or better. And to add another anecdote- a young woman from the BEST school district in our area had a university visit. She stated that she had a 95%, but when her class rank was requested, she wasn't even in the top quartile. 25% of her graduating class were at or above 95%. Universities are beginning to discount high school grades and my local school district has been point blank asked to raise their standards to reflect achievement. Obviously, it hasn't (or won't) take hold. I think any admissions office that's trying to compare bricks and mortar school grades to homeschool grades needs a dose of reality. An A with my kids is truly excellent work. We can't say the same if they were at the local school and moving forward, I'm going to start crossing off colleges that aren't extremely homeschool friendly.

I should say, too, that my kids need a detailed to-do list as some of the things they complete entirely on their own. So as much as I'd like to just list books on a calendar, they'd run amok if I didn't write: October 15th, 2013 Writing- complete research for newspaper article Reading- read pages __ and __ of _______ and answer comprehension questions on worksheet Vocabulary- complete Quizlet for lesson 6 Etc. And...all that being said and now that I'm caught up in double-checking and printing our my homeschool schedules, my kid with the least amount of 2013-2014 school hours has 331 hours, so we're "officially" one-third of the way our school year. :hurray: