And, actually. Sometimes they believe their own lies. This is something I recently came to realize after reading up on it on the internet. I confronted the liar in my life about a small thing they lied about. It was about where they found something. (Not as in where they bought something, but literally found something in their house.) I knew where the object was beforehand, but they didn't know that. They told me they found it in a completely different place. When I confronted the person, they got a blank look on their face that quickly turned to confusion. They told me they thought they found it elsewhere. (The find had only taken place 5-10 minutes prior.) Now, it all may have been a front, but there was no reason to lie about where they found the object. The object was not salacious in any way. There was zero reason to lie about it. The person started crying afterward.

If this is something you want to do, why "put on" a happy face? Show him your real happy face. Let him feel your hard-won happiness radiate from you. Don't try to make him happy. Just let the happy that you have now show. Otherwise, the experience will take you to a dark place.

To everyone's disapproval, I quit track my senior year (and joined golf), and dumped band halfway through too. I was pretty decent at track, but I realized that neither made me happy. When you're in middle school, you want to try everything. After a couple of years of band, I realized I didn't like it (music isn't my thing at all...I don't even listen to music much now), but I was forced to stay in it for years because my parents bought the instrument and the band director "depended" on me. I was on the college prep track and had space for only a few electives. What I really wanted to do was art (and shop...lol), but I never had room on my schedule because of freakin' band. I ended up with a degree in journalism with an emphasis in magazine design. I regret not taking art in high school or double majoring in art in college. It is my art and design (and writing) skills that enable me to make a living designing digital products online now...not band and not track. Also, I wish I would have played golf all four years in high school. That sport would have served me better as an adult. I know that probably wasn't overly helpful. Lol. I was very involved in high school, and a lot of teachers/coaches used me. I did it all for the almighty college app and to please other people. Some I enjoyed, a lot I did not. Some were worthwhile, a lot were not. I was horribly tired by the time I graduated. College was a promise of a new life to me...MY life.

Thank you. I thought the half price applied to the online course as well. Just wanted to be sure. One more question. Is the complete set of the Jacobs book required, or just the main textbook? I see Derek Owens has his own workbook.

I didn't realize there was a self-paced, parent-graded version of Derek Owens. Can all homework, quizzes, and tests be worked on paper and be parent graded? And, do you know whether it's half price for the parent-graded version of the online class, or is that just for live classes?

This would be okay, if we can keep math to about the same. Now that we are nearing the end of Algebra, math has gone from no more than an hour and a half to up to three hours per day. The problems have more steps, and there is quite a bit of graphing. So far, this chemistry option excites me the most. I really hope it works out. I'm going to scrutinize the schedule a little better after I get the textbook in the mail. DD doesn't traditionally do schoolwork on the weekends either.

I love this! This is the kind of thing I'm looking for. Authors would be great!! DD could easily read books and watch videos during the summer. And, we could take some themed field trips that relate to the books/authors too. Themes are my thing. Lol. I'm trying to get DD to come up with some subjects she wants to study, but she's pretty much interested in everything. And when she's interested in something, she self educates. The stuff she regurgitates makes my brain fall out of my ears. I would wager that she knows more about Russia and the war with Ukraine (the history, why, and reasoning for it) than anyone else in our town...probably for several towns around.

I found a copy for $6 at Better World Books yesterday. 👍

Do you feel like the workload is reasonable when the videos run long? How long is long anyway?

That's a good thought! It probably wouldn't be too difficult to find some IRL opportunities relatively locally to add to it. I think a foraging edibles class would be interesting, but I don't think we could come up with enough to make it a credit. Maybe a half credit over time. I think there are some tours and classes in "the city" we could take advantage of, but I don't know how Covid has impacted them.

This actually looks REALLY good!! Quite doable, I think. Thank you so much for posting it. We're using a QSL kit this year too, so DD will already have experience with how that works. I am quite excited about this. The teacher sounds more appealing than some others I have heard. I wish I could see inside the textbook. Do you know whether the instructor has videos for the labs?

The reason I'm hesitant to sign DD up for any online classes is that we have some very intense family challenges on two fronts. Both issues are very different from one another, but both have the potential to cause us to have to uproot our lives at any moment. She possibly could make it through the classes without any disruptions, but there is high potential that all the money poured into these classes and her grades could go down the toilet because she might not be able to make the classes or meet the deadlines without tremendous stress, and that wouldn't be fair to her. These challenges aren't hers and shouldn't be. She's also undergoing orthodontic treatment, and we like to travel at odd times of the year. On the video front, this is our third year using Memoria Press Form Latin series. Jessica was our video teacher the first two years. She was quick and to the point. Shawn (not sure about spelling) is our teacher this year. While we appreciate his humor, he's a lot more draggy. Even when we speed him up a bit, he takes too much time. Some weeks there are multiple videos, and there's no time left to work. It's very frustrating. We don't desire anymore Shawn situations. Lol. Thanks for the suggestions so far. I plan to look up each one!

No examples? I really would like to know how some of you maybe linked up The Great Courses (or whatever) with some experiential opportunities and provided credit for them. Camps/Day camps seem like an obvious link but we're kind of limited around here. What about something project based? How did you provide credit for an already-existing passion/hobby? What did you do to make it credit worthy? Did you take an awesome vacation somewhere where you spent a lot of time learning about history/culture and somehow turned that into a credit? For example, DD and I are taking a trip to Boston in May. We will be spending a lot of time on the Freedom Trail and learning about the American Revolution. Can we take some of these hours, combine them with a lecture series, and a culminating project and call it a half credit (hitting the appropriate number of hours, of course)? I'm trying to think outside the box to add a little fun to DD's studies. I had two years of yearbook and either a semester or year of magazine in my high school credit list. Those were my fun. Band also took up a lot of my credits. (So, that's possibly up to 7 of my high school credits taken up by these pursuits, not to mention the required P.E. and health classes.) DD won't have these "fun" opportunities that very much provide some stress relief from more rigorous subjects.

I also was going to recommend a local club. I noticed just yesterday that a community college near here offers a ham radio class for the community.

I don't know about their high school products, but I purchased LL for 7th grade (was going to use it for 8th, though). I poured a lot of time into buying the books and organizing it, then I abandoned it. It just felt messy. I felt there was a whole lot of reading and not much done with it. Some lessons I liked okay, others felt like busywork. It stressed me out, so I sucked up the loss and tossed it.

I'm okay with being involved. I even want to be involved. I just don't want a curriculum that I have to spend hours puzzling out. Or, one that has ten components that I have to sift through. We don't even really have to have a video component, especially if it sucks up more than about 15 minutes of time. I really wish CLE would have redesigned their Geometry by now. We really like their approach. We've used several Christian curricula over the years. However, after using Apologia for general science in 8th grade, DD has said no more Christian resources for science. She said it was too difficult for tease the science and religion apart. I don't blame her really. Some of their associations felt like a stretch.

DD is just finishing up 9th grade. It can be a little disheartening to see how many credits some homeschool students are finishing 12th grade with when I'm scratching my head trying to figure out how we're going to fit in anything but the 24 that are required. DD is already putting in 7-9 hours a day, which seems plenty to me. And, for the most part, she isn't a slouch. It makes me feel a little better that a couple of those credits might be P.E. credits. 🙃 Not to say P.E. credits are easy, if you complete all the hours. It's been a challenge for us due to Covid and winter.

I was kind of thinking DD might like a smaller liberal arts school, but DH and I took her to our alma mater (Mizzou) this past fall to walk around, and she was pretty well smitten. I think she also is going to want the security of staying relatively close to home. I guess that's fine. Makes it easy. Maybe she'll change her mind, and we'll surely look around, but she seems okay with Mizzou right now. 🤷‍♀️

I'm over confusing-to-navigate curricula. Or, ones that require massive parental involvement. Or, ones that are time sucks for no good reason. What geometry and chemistry programs are the easiest to use? I'm not looking to enroll DD in online programs right now, as that doesn't currently work for us. However, they can have a digital video component like Memoria Press or Apologia sometimes offers. (Shorter videos are better.) DD prefers paper tests. I want the programs to be quality, easy to use/understand, written to the student, and be able to be completed in a responsible amount of time (both daily and yearly). Suggestions? I've scrolled and clicked through the pinned suggestions several times. We are using CLE's redesigned Algebra 1 text this year. And, Oak Meadow Biology. Both have been successful. Although, DD doesn't like the biology textbook Oak Meadow uses. I don't blame her. I don't care for it either. I'm not sure we want to use Oak Meadow Chemistry, though.

Yes, we are! Thanks. I do want to do the personal finance one. I won't overly worry about health then, if I can't find something low key yet worthwhile. What about CPR/First Aid, the constitution tests, and civics exam? Did you do any of those?

This sounds like a good plan. I found a Great Courses series that combined with the dig would bump DD up to a 0.5 credit for Intro to Archaeology or similar. If I could get a few 0.5 credits in fairly painlessly during the summer, I would feel a lot better about letting her run long on her core subjects during the regular school year. I tend to over schedule. It's going to be tough to finish a couple of subjects on time this year. And, I hate cutting them off.

I had no idea that you all were recording more than 1 credit hour of P.E. I wouldn't had thought of it.

Right! The requirement is for traditional schoolers. In all reality, DD will probably attend our state's flagship, so I was going to try to check the boxes for the extra little things the state requires for everyone else, but I'm struggling with health. The university only lists 17 required credits in specific subjects, and health definitely did not make the cut. Surely, an extra science credit is worth more than health. If I could find a short-and-sweet video series, I would be fine with lumping it in with A&P and listing it as such. But, I haven't found that yet.

Oh, it seems they just aren't capable of telling the truth in some situations. Like can't. You literally have to not care that they are lying to you to have a relationship with them.

Pathological liars and compulsive liars are different. I have much experience with the latter (I think the latter, anyway). It's a coping mechanism.