It works better for me as a daily preventative. (You actually take it every other day.) Although I have breakthrough days/weeks where it doesn't seem to work as well, it has been a life-changer for me. If your insurance won't pay for it, see if your doctor can get it for free for you, as they have a free goods program for people whose insurance won't cover it. For me, there has been no detectable side effects, which I love.

Kotex Teen. My teen won't use anything else willingly. She says everything else is too big.

Smart TVs suck. It won't be a one-time issue.

Super fun! My DD would have loved them. ☺️

Yes, I know there are links posted in the motherlode, but most of those threads are several years old now. Pre-Covid even. I'm looking for easy-to-implement test prep for both the PSAT and ACT for this coming year. Both tests will be paper format, I believe, if that makes a difference. I was thinking about having DD get started on Khan Academy's SAT prep next week. Does anyone know whether it's good? Or, should DD spend her time on something else? (She scored 96th percentile on reading and writing last year, but not near as well on the math. This was the first standardized test she had taken since kindergarten. She was super nervous.) Thank so much for your help! 😄

Boston without a car. Buy a weeklong Charlie Card and have a blast.

I have no experience with Jacobs, but DD did use MUS Geometry last year. After using CLE's new/revised Algebra 1 the previous year, DD wanted a math that wasn't going to fry her brain and derail the rest of her school day pretty much every day. MUS fit that bill. It is 100 percent doable and can be contained to an hour a day. Videos are short. Quizzes and tests are multiple choices. DD finished way early too. So, she worked through Khan Academy Geometry afterward, which was a nice supplement. She hasn't take anything but the PSAT yet, so I don't know how it will come out in the wash.

She received a text from an assigned academic advisor the day before I posted this thread. DD thought it was spam and ignored it. I guess that was her acceptance letter, in a sense. 🤷‍♀️ (I do see in the my USPS Informed Delivery e-mail this morning, though, that we are receiving some kind of letter from the college in today's mail. Perhaps that's the official acceptance letter.) After I had her respond to it, she was sent an e-mail to set up an online account and register for classes. Even though it seems like students can register on their own for classes online, I guess DD has to go through this advisor. The texting thing is interesting. Kind of nice, in a sense. But, it also feels a bit unofficial. DD is now getting communications through text, her personal e-mail, and the school's e-mail, I think. Hopefully, nothing falls through cracks. But, I guess that's today's world. When I enrolled it college, e-mail was just coming online. My student e-mail had basic white (or green maybe) text on a black background. 😳 In any event, DD is now officially enrolled for her first DE course. She seems excited. I hope it all goes well. I'm more stressed about how it will affect my ability to cope with family stresses right now than DD's actual ability to do well.

I pretty much see the DE stuff as an extension of homeschool curricula. I'm putting quite a bit of effort into researching which courses she should take DE and which ones she should try to CLEP out of. There's only so many she can potentially CLEP, so I don't want to enroll her in one of those DE courses. And, there's an overabundance of social and behavioral science courses that would end up as electives, if we don't pay close attention. (She only needs 9 credit hours and at least one has to be American history or US government, and her potential degree program requires psychology and sociology.) We're still paying about $300 a DE class here, so I don't want waste.

Just wondering. I did fill out pretty much all my paperwork in high school, minus the FAFSA form, but my mother wasn't that involved (my father was ill and wasn't capable of being involved) in my education and college aspirations. I don't think she cared whether I went one way or another. My high school did announce when things generally needed to be turned in and distributed registration packets, etc., so they kind of propelled me along, I guess. ETA: DH had it even worse than I did. We've talked several times about how we're surprised we even made to college.

ETA: Apparently, DD got a text yesterday morning that implies she has been accepted. She took it as SPAM and ignored it. Nothing in her e-mail yet, though. So frustrating! I put down all my contact information to receive duplicate communications, and the schools just ignore it. Who the heck do they think is paying for classes? It's definitely not my 16-year-old DD! 🤪

I'm trying to get curricula finalized for DD's junior year this fall. We decided last week (or maybe it's been two weeks ago now) to possibly enroll her in an online DE class or two. (We originally weren't going to this semester.) Now, I'm chomping at the bit to know whether she's been approved from admission to the community college so I can see what classes are left there for her to take and then purchase the rest of our curricula. It's totally my fault, but with the UPS strike looming, I'm feeling a little extra stress in getting things decided and ordered. Anyone know how long I should expect it to take for the CC to get back to us with an admissions decision? I honestly thought they'd have said by now. They were quite prompt in answering my pre-registration questions.

I completely understand. This is hitting too close to home for me to reply overly much. I don't want to short out my own brain thinking about all my stuff too much. But, I will say, that it may help to identify something relatively small that is stressing you out and then solving it...for yourself. Something that will make your life easier. For example, we eat a lot of fruits and vegetables that we store in the fridge. Every day, I had to contend with shuffling all the different types of containers and bags to get out what I needed for a particular meal. I'm always in a bit of a hurry, and it frustrated me to have to make multiple trips to the fridge and/or balance various containers just so. Every couple of weeks, one would fall and send blueberries, blackberries, or whatever rolling all over the floor. Or, I'd knock a container of sour cream or something off the shelf and it would splat onto the floor. So, I'd have the additional mess to clean up too. It got to the point where these days felt like personal failures, and it would take me hours to mentally get it over it. My solution was to buy fridge storage bins off Amazon. I told and asked no one; I just did it. It felt really good. And while the bins aren't perfect, they are extremely helpful. I can just grab one or two whole bins at a time and sort what I need on the counter. After you get some momentum going, you need to figure out how to start pushing things off your plate. (Much easier said than done.) It's become pretty clear to me in my situation, that no one is going to swoop in and rescue to me as I have so many others. Start mulling over long-term solutions in your head and start working toward them. It will be slow going, but having even a little movement in a more positive direction might keep you going. And, do whatever you can not to take on more.

I don't recommend Essentials in Writing either. We attempted to use it in 8th grade, I believe. It was a hot mess. We chucked it about a month in, I'd say. We switched to WWS, but I wish we would have used CAP's W&R then. We have since used W&R for focused practice and generally like it. It can be adapted a bit for self study. I copy some of instructor pages for DD to use for the discussion parts. You do need to stay on top of grading with it, though. And, be able to provide helpful writing advice. Sometimes, the sample essays are not realistic representations of student output because they seem to include information not provided in the reading selections.

OMG! This sounds amazing. I love the moose pics. Maybe you could start a hiking club for all of us. Lol. So glad you were able to have this experience!

Thank you! I saw another thread about signing up for the SAT and it seemed one was supposed to sign up for all desired dates as soon as registration opened. I didn't know whether the ACT was the same way these days.

Thank you. I heard back from admissions again. He/she said something similar to what you and others have said. I guess I'll send in an application and go from there. It's free, so there doesn't seem to be much risk.

This is exactly what I'm thinking and am afraid of. The CC's description for the particular type of online course I'm looking at is such that it's almost contradictory. It's like they're trying to say that it should be a certain way, but they leave to door open for the instructor to do whatever. I wish I could see the syllabi before registering. That would help tremendously.

I am wondering whether American History might not be the best to start off with. I figured it would be a lot reading and writing. I'm not sure what else to look into, though. I don't want to start with a math or hard science either. I'm also looking at what CLEP credit the university that she most likely will attend accepts and trying to not to choose a DE class that she might be able to CLEP out of. There's not a super long list of what they will accept. American History isn't on there. We still need a government class. That is on the CLEP list, though. Although, I've read it's one of the more difficult ones to pass, so I'm still thinking on it.

Good, this is reassuring. The description for this particular type of online class states it is distance-learning format. I assumed there would be pre-recorded video lectures in this day and age but maybe not. It doesn't say so. I have an e-mail out asking this and few other things. DD really enjoyed Clover Valley Chemistry last year. We did the parent graded. There were video lectures...more like PowerPoints with audio, so I thought the DE classes might be a little like it.

Thank you. No, we don't want a live class. We want something that is flexible for a variety of reasons. Really, we want something as much like we typically do at home as possible. Something that we can pretty much just slide into our typical day. What kind of assignments did your student have, aside from the discussion boards?

This is what we had for our dog growing up...more or less. (It was a cable with one end attached to the house and the other a tree.) She was a small/medium inside dog, though. We just let her out on the cable for bathroom and recreational purposes. We had those screw-into-the-ground tie-outs with our dog (that we had as adults...not the one mentioned above). She was a small/medium terrier as well. She was able to pull these out even when they were all the way screwed in. She still managed to wind herself around them too. Although, the winding wouldn't be as bad as wrapping around a tree. We only used them when we were outside with her, or monitoring her closely from inside. She was an inside dog as well, but she liked to sit outside when she could. We eventually quit using them and tied her to a heavy dumbbell that we could pick up and move around.

We weren't originally going to pursue any DE classes with DD, who is a rising junior, this fall, but we're reconsidering. I found that our nearest community college (40 miles away) supposedly offers asynchronous online classes. The wording on their website is a little wishy-washy to me, so I am in the process of trying to figure out exactly how the classes function. It seems as though there are no set times for meeting, which is good, but then they check attendance, so I don't quite get that. Does anyone want to share how their DC's online classes function? DD really doesn't want it to be like the Zoom classes kids had to sit through during Covid. She doesn't want to be on camera either. ETA: I'm editing this to also ask what DE classes your DC took? We are looking at an American History class to start out with, mostly because we need to check this box, and I'm having a hard time coming up with American History curriculum. DD loves history but not American History, so this would also get her out of having to repeat it in college, hopefully.

Well, I've been a homeschool teacher for going on something like 12 years now. 😉 But, one of my degrees is in journalism with an emphasis in magazine design. So, a mix of both of sorts, which actually makes me a pretty good candidate for TPT. I create resources for K-3 mostly with the idea being of providing things I wish I would have had for DD when she was in the early grades.

I registered DD for the December 9th ACT date. Should I go ahead and sign her up for the April one now too? Or, wait and see how the December one goes?