I'm so glad everyone's being taken care if so well. Speaks highly for PA homeschoolers and Debra Bell's classes. :D And hope that all is as well as can be for the instructor who quit so suddenly.

We went ahead and started with the kolbe syllabus and dragonfly book this year. I already had it on hand - used it once with the science-loving daughter and had her do a TON of the work. Didn't realize how much until I got the kolbe syllabus, and saw the questions they omit. :p dd#2 is very glad we ordered the syllabus. ;)

We wound up signing up with Blue Tent for AP Literature (instead of the Lang) - and I have been SO, SO impressed. If they take late enrollees, I cannot recommend Brigid highly enough. She has this down to a science!!! DD is going to learn so much this year!!!

We're considering buying a new Kia - their warranty is a big reason we're looking at it vs a Toyota. We don't know anyone who drives a Kia, though - so I'm hoping someone here has some input? Do they follow through on their warranty promises? Does the car hold up well over 5-10 years? We're looking at the Kia Forte and the Kia Soul primarily. Thank you in advance!!

At this point in my life... How Fast Can I Pack?!?! Heck, yeah I'd go! When my kids were around 2, 3, 5, and 7? I probably wouldn't have taken the opportunity. But Today Me would want to whack Baby-Mama me upside the head for making that choice! ;) The kids will be fine. Bad stuff can happen anywhere, any time. You & your dh or you and all your kids are often in vehicles all together at the same time - chances are higher in those situations than while traveling. Make sure you have established who you want the kids to be with in the unlikely event something happens to you and dh (which should likely be done anyway) so that isn't weighing on your mind, and go and have a great time!!!!

I'm a little bit in shock that we have all but one thing decided upon. I just ordered Kolbe lesson plans for biology. Just received the Sonlight Psychology lesson plans today. AP classes are paid for, and starting to generate emails and excitement. Algebra class is beginning in a week. All the books are purchased, arrived, and on shelves. Binders are prepped, notebooks are ready. We're actually ready to get started officially on Monday! It's been a really long road, this year, getting things sorted out. And here we are with only one loose end to take care of (and I can't deal with it until dd is back in town from camp, so there's really not much for me to do right now!). It's a bit surreal. . . Two high-schoolers and the boys entering the upper elementary/middle school years. And I feel prepared. :mellow: waiting for the other shoe to drop... :rofl: I'm sure that, by the end of September, when *everything* has started, I'll be back to feeling frenzied, though. So I am enjoying this peace while it lasts because I know it's fleeting. :willy_nilly: I have to say. It's a very nice feeling, this. :cheers2:

I was that kid too - and never completed college because of it. I knew what I wanted to do - but also knew what I felt I should do. Kept trucking on with what I should do and hated it. Dropped out and it's my biggest regret. Maybe encourage a business/marketing path in college alongside art? Then she'd come out on the other side with a good idea of how to market her product and how to manage her own business - taking away some of the unpredictability? I know several working moms who run their own various art-based businesses right now and they are doing very well and absolutely love what they are doing. edited to add this quote by Maya Angelou---> It's brilliant & I wish I'd read it when I was in high school. ;)

I feel your pain! We are outsourcing WAY more than we ever have before. I wouldn't have even considered it two years ago. But, dh and I discussed (and I changed my mind... and discussed... and changed my mind again... etc) and decided it was worth whatever cost for a more smoothly-running year. Truth is, my younger two aren't getting as intense an elementary education as their older sisters because I am still so heavily invested in what the older two are doing and there aren't enough hours in the day for me to be as much "a part of" what they each need from me. So - we outsourced the classes I tend to have to poke & prod the oldest to do - the classes (like foreign language) I know nothing about - and the class that the 2nd daughter has the most challenge with. The rest, they are pretty self-motivated to do on their own. So - the hope is that I can use "all that free time" where the girls will be busily working on assignments assigned by someone else and asking someone else questions if they have any - and spend that time doing more hands-on, engaging activities with the boys. We shall see. It hurt - sending in the payments for the classes. I feel a little (lot) guilty about it - we could've paid for a family vacation with as much as it cost! :/ But - the peace will be worth it. (repeat, repeat)

:( What a truly horrible day. I am so sorry...

Can I PM some of you with some specific information about dd? I don't want to post it here publically, but would like some outside opinions to see if she'd be as strong a candidate as I think she would be before we start down this path of paperwork and keeping track of things. :p The athletics area would be a weak area, but I suppose she has a year or two to change that. Right now, I think she'd work toward this as simply a reach school goal (any other "reach" schools would be out of our league financially, so the plan has just been to apply to the state U's, which aren't selective at all, but would at least get a gosh-darn degree in the family!!). I know, even if she's a good candidate, that the chance is still small - but I like that she'd have that carrot to keep chasing after.

She's reading through the Air Force Academy homeschool packet now and plans to look at the websites tonight when we are back home. I agree she needs to lead interest and enthusiasm-wise. She's who brought it to my attention after she met the kids and some were planning on applying to the Academies. She asked why we'd not looked at them before, so I started researching to tell her why it wasn't a good fit. Lol. But the more I read looked more and more like it would actually be a great fit for her personality and interests. Thanks for all the info. I will feel much wiser about all this soon! :)

Thaaaaaaaank you guys for all the information!!!!!! Going to crash course this with dh and dd over the next couple of days. Thinking we might need to make another choice for Physics this year (was planning to use BJU with the videos), so need to learn all I can ASAP. Lots of reading to do tonight! :)

She's going in to 11th. :)

Just exploring options for dd, and I know nothing - we are very much civilians. ;) We've never seriously considered military options for our kids, but dd has spent a lot of time recently with teens who are all on various military-bound paths & it's peaked her interest. DD is currently interested in civil or environmental engineering. She's entering her junior year in high school. Looking over the homeschooling information on the Air Force Academy's website, it looks as though dd would be a strong candidate. Solid test scores, strong extracurriculars, excellent grades (most of them are well-earned "mom" grades...), tons of volunteer hours, athletic (although not on a team of any sort...). But, I know nothing. We have family who were in both the Navy and Air Force, but those uncles passed away in an accident years ago. I have cousins who were in the Navy, but they entered right after high school. Does anyone here have any experience with this kind of thing? It's way out of my scope. DD thrives on routine, is strong as an ox, thinks living on a big ship or submarine (as a scientist, anyway) and going all over the world would be the greatest way to live a life (sounds like torture to me! haha!), is smart, has an iron-trap memory, she works best when told what to do, and when rather than left to her own devices.... all of which seem well-suited to an Air Force or Navy environment... She doesn't want to work on planes, but wants to fly them - but we've never bothered with CAP since military just wasn't on our (parents') radar. How important is ROTC or CAP for the application? But - what do I not know?!? Anyone? Should I continue looking in to this or abandon the idea. Maybe it's a lot tougher to even get in than I imagine (even with solid test scores and solid STEM transcript). I did see they need a letter of recommendation from 3 teachers. She's taking two online AP classes this year, so she'll have those recommendations. And possibly a course at the CC during the spring semester, so there'd be that as well... We could even add additional external teachers this semester if it's needed to have more outside validation. We hate the idea of her signing away so much of her life choices to the military (always has been my main objection) - but maybe it's easy to serve the minimum and run for the private sector? I'm thinking Air Force/Navy would be less... intense (that's not really the word I am looking for, but I'm coming up blank)... than the Army or Marines? I'm just wondering if you can even make a decision to want to apply to somewhere like this this late in the game. :o It always seems that no matter how much I learn about college applications, etc - there is always so much more I don't know!! So frustrating! Dh and I have zero experience to glean from (dd is a first-generation college student - she comes from a long, long, long line of intelligent, hard-working underachievers. Dh and I are trying to break the cycle with our kids, but it is so hard when you have no family history or background to dig from!)

Just exploring options for dd, and I know nothing - we are very much civilians. ;) We've never seriously considered military options for our kids, but dd has spent a lot of time recently with teens who are all on various military-bound paths & it's peaked her interest. DD is currently interested in civil or environmental engineering. She's entering her junior year in high school. Looking over the homeschooling information on the Air Force Academy's website, it looks as though dd would be a strong candidate. Solid test scores, strong extracurriculars, excellent grades (most of them are well-earned "mom" grades...), tons of volunteer hours, athletic (although not on a team of any sort...). But, I know nothing. We have family who were in both the Navy and Air Force, but those uncles passed away in an accident years ago. I have cousins who were in the Navy, but they entered right after high school. Does anyone here have any experience with this kind of thing? It's way out of my scope. DD thrives on routine, is strong as an ox, thinks living on a big ship or submarine (as a scientist, anyway) and going all over the world would be the greatest way to live a life (sounds like torture to me! haha!), is smart, has an iron-trap memory, she works best when told what to do, and when rather than left to her own devices.... all of which seem well-suited to an Air Force or Navy environment... She doesn't want to work on planes, but wants to fly them - but we've never bothered with CAP since military just wasn't on our (parents') radar. How important is ROTC or CAP for the application? But - what do I not know?!? Anyone? Should I continue looking in to this or abandon the idea. Maybe it's a lot tougher to even get in than I imagine (even with solid test scores and solid STEM transcript). I did see they need a letter of recommendation from 3 teachers. She's taking two online AP classes this year, so she'll have those recommendations. And possibly a course at the CC during the spring semester, so there'd be that as well... We could even add additional external teachers this semester if it's needed to have more outside validation. We hate the idea of her signing away so much of her life choices to the military (always has been my main objection) - but maybe it's easy to serve the minimum and run for the private sector? I'm thinking Air Force/Navy would be less... intense (that's not really the word I am looking for, but I'm coming up blank)... than the Army or Marines? I'm just wondering if you can even make a decision to want to apply to somewhere like this this late in the game. :o It always seems that no matter how much I learn about college applications, etc - there is always so much more I don't know!! So frustrating! Dh and I have zero experience to glean from (dd is a first-generation college student - she comes from a long, long, long line of intelligent, hard-working underachievers. Dh and I are trying to break the cycle with our kids, but it is so hard when you have no family history or background to dig from!) edited to add: She also has a contact who can get us directly into contact with a Congressman or Representative for the recommendation needed. If the contact doesn't work, she's won a few state-level awards that should help get a foot in the door too, with some legwork on our part.

:iagree:

Her extracurriculars cover PE and Fine Arts credits. She's heavily involved in art/music for the past two years, and we'll incorporate it into her transcript over the next few years, but I didn't want to add it into her transcript this year and make it look watered down, so it'll just be listed with extracurriculars this year. :)

Thank you!! So many good suggestions here!! A sidenote- we watch a lot of girl power, funny, action movies but dh and little brothers usually watch those too. We're specifically going for movies that dh wouldn't voluntarily sit through happily, or that we inappropriate for younger brothers to see, or movies where they can swoon over the romantic stuff without dad sighing and rolling his eyes dramatically. ;) Adding many of these suggestions to our list to choose from!! Anything PG13 and most R in this genre are okay for my girls to watch with me. :) The long version of Emma is my very favorite ever! Trying to determine if we want to get involved in the BBC collection I have here at the house or not. Or plan another weekend just for those!! ;)

DH & the boys are going away for the weekend. The girls & I are making plans to never leave the house, eat plenty of ice cream, and watch all the girly/romantic/non-action movies we can possibly squeeze in while the boys are gone because we never get to see them when they're here. ;) But I am drawing a blank and need suggestions - I know there are movies much more recent than what's on my list. My brain is going back to when I was a teen and movies I fell in love with, haha!! So far I have to choose from: Dirty Dancing Forrest Gump Pride & Prejudice (probably the Keira Knightly version because it's shorter) When Harry Met Sally Ghost Pitch Perfect

:( That's terrible! Prayers for fast and full recoveries for the both of them.

The further the post kept slipping down the page without anyone immediately finding a flaw was a huge affirmation! I feel such relief! She & I can officially stop thinking about it! :lol: Two kids down - two more to go... Luckily, the younger two are a lot easier to throw together. :)

After a lot of readjusting, I think we've narrowed down 9th grade for dd2. Please take a look and lmk what I'm overlooking. :) (1 cr) English I: IEW US History Vol I and II, continued grammar and vocabulary, literature from MFW Ancient History plus additional books and discussions assigned by me. Plan to modify some of the US history assignments to Ancient topics, but she just finished a year of modern history, so I also think some review on the topic won't be amiss. (1 cr) Math: Algebra I, live online course using Saxon. She did Algebra I with TT this year, but I do not feel that she really *understands* what she is doing, or why. So - on to Saxon and a live instructor & if it's an easy math year for her, then that will only grow her confidence in a subject that's long been her nemesis. The goal will be pre-calc and or statistics senior year. She's not a STEM girl here, so I think this will be fine. (1 cr) Science: Bio I using Apologia with a co-op and Miller Levine at home. (1 cr) French II (1cr) Spanish I (her choice to do two languages) (1 cr) AP Comp Sci Java - she has programming experience and I think she'll love this class. Older sis also taking it, so can assist if/when there are math issues that might pop up (1 cr) History: MFW Ancients She has tons of time-consuming extracurriculars in addition to this, so I think this looks pretty solid... But we've changed and shifted so much the past couple of weeks, I'm probably missing something obvious to outside eyes. ;)

Ooooh, thought of another question. What about age differences? In our home school world, my kids could probably not directly tell you the age of several of their friends unless they really thought about it. Age and grades just rarely come up (unless it is time for a birthday). So - is a 9-12 month age difference too great? What if the girl is the older one, does that make any difference? What if one is a junior in high school and the other a sophomore? What about a 14yo 9th-grade girl and a newly 18yo 12th-grade boy (a shy, 'wholesome' 'home-made bread' sort of kid - I've known him indirectly for years and he is most every mother's dream child, but he and dd only became aware of one another recently & he was unaware of dds age for quite a while (see note above: age doesn't come up a lot naturally!)? Surely that is too great an age difference, yes? (DH & I are in agreement, while secretly hoping they can meet up again in college ;)) ...but my dd would certainly like to think otherwise...) The boys who are interested in either dd seem to make an immediate leap from 'nice to meet you' to 'will you be my girlfriend and make out on the couch'. It has happened dozens of times this year alone (the asking - not the happening). Talked to a few other friends (who don't live near us, but have kids similar in age) and they say that is how a lot of 'dating' is done in their kids' social circles. the kids are boy/girlfriends and rarely even see each other except at school and texting. Seems bizarre to me, but it is such a different world from back in my dinosaur days. Thank you for being kind in answering my honest questions. I have an analytical/mechanical kind of brain, and personal relationships are more than a bit of a mystery to me. Luckily, I am surrounded by people-people in my family who usually explain how people-stuff is supposed to work to me - but none of us are really sure what to do with the whole dating thing. If the kids were all driving themselves, it would be clear that we/parents would have little involvement, but since they are not... mom and dad have to be involved just to get the kids to the same location. And that's where I get confused as to the social rules (which I generally disregard and just use a Golden Rule approach... it is much easier). We have a wonderful relationship with our girls and are just going to continue to play it by ear and not set a lot of arbitrary rules. They've been good kids thus far and I expect nothing different. Rules and curfews will be set on an as-needed basis and we will keep communications open with the girls as well as be on the stealth lookout for red flags they may not notice. We certainly want to avoid any secret-meetings-at-the-mall or 'I am staying the night at Shelley's house' sneak-outs (gleaning from my own teenage experiences... :001_rolleyes: )

This is enlightening and helpful to see the different experiences and points of view. Thank you for your sharing your input. I just know that the other family might be a bit leery when they hear their son is dating one of those weird home schoolers (haha) so I would like to add as little additional unintentional weirdness as possible (we are wacky enough as it is). But also would appreciate having some idea of where they are (in loose terms, not going to have either dd micro-chipped - yet :p) and an idea of what they're planning to do. If they're just hanging out, they can do that here as much as possible. :) So - basically - no point in getting to know the parents except for a general hello/goodbye while picking kids who can't drive yet up from one another's homes unless the kids are dating for 6+ months or whatever "long-term" is considered to be. I just don't want to be rude. We do have a lot of house parties etc (because I am the single introvert in a house full of extreme extroverts) - and if we show up to pick up their ds for the party... it just feels odd to not invite his parents when there will be so many other kids and parents at our house! Goes against my nature to not invite someone. :o But we are free to get to know the KID himself, invite him to our cheesy picnics,costume parties and kayaking trips. Right? Don't mind a bit the thought of the girls dating - especially if the kid can come along on our family/friend adventures. The girls just assume that's the way it'll be, and I don't expect they'll date a guy who exclusively wants them to be only with his friends/family (and that's a red flag I do know to look out for). Just when this gets to be the new normal, my boys will be old enough to date. I imagine that's a whole other ball of yarn... :coolgleamA:

First - in our social circle, many of us have known each other for years. We go on trips together, have bbqs together, we take each other's kids on vacations... that's our 'normal'. When the kids make a new friend, they are generally enveloped to varying degrees into our circle without anyone giving it too much thought. So, for our circle, having one of the girls go to someone's house that we do not know from Adam is just - odd - in our reality. lol :p Hence my question here - because I realize that the other kid's parents are not in our regular group of people & don't want to freak them out by inviting them over (which would just be a normal thing for me to ask to a new friend the kids have made...). Interesting... I wonder if that's a regional thing. Around here, friend-zoned just means that they enjoy the friendship and don't want to risk messing it up with turning it into anything else. So, in their case, they use friend-zoned in a friendly/mutually agreed upon manner. I'll give them the heads-up on the different meaning, though, so they will use the phrase with care around people not in their regular groups. I like the public places idea - especially in the beginning. Ahhh, now I'm curious! No snark, please (to future posters, lol)! :p :Angel_anim: