IL New Salem is a live Museum of Abraham Lincoln. My kids adored that place ages 7-12. Starved Rock for nature fun...lots of trails in Central IL. Bloomington IL has a fun Rockwall climbing gym made of renovated silos. Peoria IL has a smaller climbing gym & an aerial fitness studio. Fear of heights? Peoria, IL has a vibrant community theater community. See a quality show for $20 a seat. Corn Stock is an outdoor theater in the round. You have to experience that at least once. Broadway Lounge in Peoria brings in a variety of talent, some national names & many local, including open mic Broadway Karaoke nights...so you know where to find me if you are interested in reliving your high school musical.🤫🤪🤣

I'm another veteran HS mom who has not used WTMA. 🤭 I find that if I am going to teach or facilitate or even supervise the course, I want to be in control of the course. It drives me bonkers to enforce work that I wouldn't have chosen. My older 2 did hybrid online/ps due to covid and one dropped a course for that reason. The material wasn't transferring well online and we were all frustrated. Another example for why I don't prefer online courses: I chose a novel for my 8yo that she had a negative reaction to. I just dropped the novel. We talked about why. It was a life lesson in making different choices for our mental health. That's not possible in an online course. But, there are many benefits as well. If those negatives don't apply to you, the online courses might be worth a shot.

I love this thread. I work as a personal trainer now. Movement was something so hard to squeeze in when my kids were little. I had an excellent routine pre-pandemic. I just opened an Aerial Fitness Studio in June so I'm getting plenty of upperbody & core work. My challenge is keeping lower body gains without overtraining grip & back. I did an aggressive trail hike today. Lots of elevation. I honestly do not count steps or miles, calories, any of it. Well, I do count protein to make sure I get enough. I measure by how I feel & progress in skills.

My teens have a fave style of jeans. Several pairs of those, 5-7. Then they have tons of t-shirts & sweatshirts. They usually buy their own shirts. They are very picky. They collect shirts like it's a hobby. Bored? Let's find an interesting shirt at the thrift store. 🤣 I make sure they have quality shoes, socks, undies. Buy an extra package of everything.

I took up aerial fitness on my TWTM hiatus. 🐦 I did a bit of silks and trained a client, then did a trial hike today 2021-07-03-131105562.mp4

I worked this morning, trail hike & grocery shopping this afternoon. Took dd8 to splash park after dinner. & now I wait up to pick up dd16 from work at 11:30. 🥴

Yes. I mean, it's still schoolwork, but they found it meaningful

Hi!!!!!! So good to see you again. And, indeed!

My dyslexic does this still. He's 18. It is NOT for lack of instruction or understanding his learning style, or anything we can change. He knows the phonograms. He's applying them. He's just seeing them inverted. Mine mirror writes in cursive, perfectly from right to left. He reads it the same forward or backwards. Advice from this end: do NOT waste hours on spelling!!! Just do copywork & dictation, and choose meaningful content. Allow him to peek, take a mental picture, as often as needed. Spend MORE time on science, word problems in math, carpentry, mechanical engineering stuffs, physical play like swinging on ropes/making ramps for his bike or skateboard/building forts and such. These kids see every angle. Literally. (It's why they words up their mix and spell shirt like hsirt) He's never going to be a great speller. It's OK. He will be a phenomenal artistic and skilled something...doing things that good spellers cannot fathom. His brain is wired for creation, not spelling. And truly, it's OK.

Omg!!!!!😍😍😍 Sweet baby!!! Congratulations!!!

Miquon MATH. Read all teacher materials while she plays with cuisenaire rods as if they were toy blocks. After you've read and she has played enough to intuitively know things like 2 yellow are the same size as one orange, then you can begin putting MATH vocabulary to it. And the process of math lab taught by Lore Rasmussen can be applied no matter what other materials you choose from there. Start with her strength. Then apply her strengths towards building up her weaknesses. My son had different struggles, but he often had 2 mini math lessons a day. One oral/visual at his challenge level, and another with easy content but challenging modality (written, for him). MEP math is an excellent resource as well. You can pull the work away from the worksheet too. Use it as a tool.

For writing specific fluidity, Kilgallon grammar & writing. It is imitation writing, and starts off with a clear model. For life, practice thinking through options A, B, and C. If I choose A, then the likely outcomes are...etc... Once a child is the habit of thinking through options, then you can add more options. D may not be easy right now, but what if (insert circumstance) were different? Can we work to make D a viable option?

That would take weeks 🤯🤣 It's tempting. I have to work though. Ha!

...when you disappear from TWTM for years and come back and your old friends are still posting to "Ignore this thread" thread. This thread is like 6 years old. 😳🤣 So catch me up. What spicy bits have I missed? Hi!!!!!!👋👋👋

Hi! I am a veteran HS mom. My oldest is 18, just graduated PS highschool. He was HS through 7th grade. This is my dyslexic is used to talk about. He entered PS at grade level in reading, for those who remember our struggle. My 16yo just started early college in June. She was HS through 8th mostly, had some rough middle school trials with PS. My 15 is hanging with just being 15 right now. He has been homeschooled mainly. Had 2 years in PS. He'll likely go to PS for HS. My 8yo is HSing and loving it.