My kids are part of a shared time program through the public school that pays for extracurriculars and requires that we primarily use Bookshark (secular Sonlight). I put up with Bookshark because the public school funding ($3000 x 3 kids) is worth a lot of aggravation. But, for us, Bookshark is not rigorous or delightful, and we do as little Bookshark as possible so we have time for more individualized education that is more enriching and less busywork. This year we are using Bookshark History B and G, ELA 3 and G, and Science E. My kids find the history books boring, and I don't like that they don't seem to include any differing perspectives, primary sources or logic stage thinking skills even in History G. I find many of the ELA assignments ridiculous, boring and counter-productive. We are entirely doing our own, separate ELA on top of Bookshark's, and doing the Bookshark assignments together as practice in how one can create meaningless, teacher-pleasing drivel quickly without fixating on the inanity of the exercise. The science is so, so dry, simplistic and surface-level, and every year more or less covers the same topics. I agree entirely with Clarita that, "all-in-one curriculums do similar things over and over again through the year and the years".

My kids are all pretty close age-wise - 2 year gaps between each - but they are not particularly close playmates, especially those closest in age. #2 has too many mental health challenges to really be a good playmate to anyone. #3 is off in his own classical music world and has little interest in other play. And #4 is an outdoor, sport-loving, worm digging girl in a family of indoor, bookish boys. So it is entirely possible that you could have another baby and end up with two lonely, needy littles who don't want to play with each other.

I mostly focus on what my goals are for "socialization". I want my kids to... - be comfortable in a group setting with a teacher/coach other than me. - have opportunities to play/interact with other kids of various ages. - have other adults in their lives who know them, value their interests, are positive role models, etc. - have one or a few closer friends to invite to birthday parties and the like. - be able to function in the adult world - ordering food, answering questions about how they want their hair cut, etc. - have opportunities to practice group planning, decision making and small conflict resolution. To this end, I try to give them some less structured group time, such as open gyms, board game groups, nature days, etc. Times when they have the space to disagree and try to broker a compromise. My kids have wildly different socialization needs and styles, so rather than ask "is it enough" or "is it too much", I instead ask "are they moving toward my goals" and "are other priorities being crowded out".

Is coop going to offer a science with labs next year (like they offered physics this year)? If so, I would be very tempted to take them up on the lab part, even if you did the rest of the class on your own at home.

This is where I am. Around here, most highways have 3 lanes, and the right lane is primarily for large trucks and for cars entering and exiting who are traveling a bit below the speed limit. I spend most of my time in the middle lane, driving 5-10 over the limit, but I don't hesitate to safely switch to the left lane (leaving plenty of following space) to pass around slower drivers or if that lane is a better match for my speed. I feel it is safest when everyone tries to match their speed to the traffic flow in their lane, so if I decide to move to the left lane to pass a slow driver in the middle lane, then I will increase my speed a bit when I move left so that drivers behind me don't have to abruptly slow down. I will say that not driving too close to other cars can be a bit of a luxury. Here in suburbia where I do most of my traveling mid-day, I can always wait for large openings in traffic. When I used to commute around Boston during rush hours - forget about it - sometimes you had to start changing lanes when it didn't appear there was any space, much less enough.

At those ages we really liked Mr. Q science. The (online) texts are conversational and funny, but also introduce deep science concepts. There are optional worksheets, lots of ideas for experiments (don't feel like you have to do all of them), and some of the experiments are extra in-depth and take kids through the scientific method (as opposed to many elementary "experiments" which are actually just demonstrations that don't really test anything). The best part is that the elementary life science book is entirely free.

My DH and three of the kids were just outside of Indianapolis for the eclipse (had amazing weather), left right after totality, and are making great time coming back north to Michigan. They are almost halfway home, already to Fort Wayne, and at this rate the return trip will take about the same as driving there - and that didn't take any longer than any other day. The highway is flowing at full speed, and they should be home by bedtime.

Great Courses / Wondrium have a number of courses he might enjoy. Introduction to Paleontology is about the profession, the tools, and the fossil record...some dinosaurs, but a lot not. Major Transitions in Evolution has a couple lectures about dinosaurs, but mostly non-dinosaurs. A New History of Life is an interesting mix of biology, earth science and paleontology...most of it non-dinosaur.

This is pretty much exactly our experience with public school 5th - 9th grades. Plus, Elliot is HARD on supplies, and after we sent in the very reasonable requested supplies at the beginning of each year (one binder, a couple folders, a couple notebooks, a couple writing utensils), the school has replaced them as he loses and breaks them. He evens came home with a new backpack from school when he swung his old one around until the strap ripped off. The school offers free after school care for elementary and middle school, and free summer school for anyone who chooses to take classes. Breakfasts and lunches are free for everyone (through the summer too), fundraisers are entirely optional, field trips are reasonably priced and there is a plentiful scholarship fund to pay for anyone who needs it. Busing is usually convenient…and they have not pushed back against paying for special needs busing for Elliot For us public school is very nearly free.

Homeschooling is so, so, SO much more expensive for us. Lost wages are a huge part of that. I was an engineer before having kids (and hated it), and was making ~$70k. That would have gone down a bit in absolute terms when we moved to an area with a much lower COL before our oldest was born, but it also would have gone up considerably if I had been working for the last 15 years. But another big cost is extracurriculars. I'm sure my 10 year old would be taking piano lessons even if he was public schooled, but there is no way we would be juggling two piano lessons, one violin lesson and a music composition lesson every week if he were at school all day. We would not be paying for a full day of Spanish immersion every week. I'm sure my youngest would be in a sport or two (and she is too young for them to be through the school), but we would not be paying for team gymnastics + swimming + dance + yoga + skating every week. Oddly enough, I also lump therapy into this category, because around here there is such a shortage of kids' mental health providers, that before/after school appointments are nearly impossible to get. So my homeschooled kids can only get weekly therapy because we can go during school hours. Thankfully, we have a half-way-between public school and homeschool option. My kids are technically public school students, get most of their curricula purchased (from a list of approved providers), get big chunks of extracurriculars paid for, and get to attend on-campus electives if they want, while retaining most of the perks of homeschooling. The cost is bureaucracy and submitting evidence of learning...but, honestly, not much more than it sounds like are required of homeschoolers in some of the higher regulation states.

Well, my 9th grader is at the public school this semester, and he isn't really learning for much more than 2 hours a day. The school day runs for 6 hours and 40 minutes, but 40 minutes total is passing time between classes, and 30 minutes is lunch. So that gets us down to 5.5 hours in class, but his (school issued) Chromebook log frequently shows that he is spending 3+ hours each day playing games after his work is done, so that gets him down to 2-2.5 hours at most of learning. Subtract interruptions, announcements, passing out supplies, etc, and he is probably under 2 hours a day...and he is getting 95-115% in each of his upperclass, college prep courses. Last semester, when he was homeschooled, he was staying productively busy for 8+ hours a day, but much of it did not look much like "school". He spent on average 2 hours a day on math, writing, history reading and his DE science class. The rest of his days were filled with art classes, Lego robotics, reading literature of his choosing, hanging out at DE office hours asking all sorts of astronomy questions he was interested in, playing chess with his Spanish tutor, Dungeons and Dragons club, student teaching, watching Wondrium lectures, etc.

We do not get to select a delivery date. We have signed up for delivery summaries from USPS, Fedex, and UPS, so we typically know ahead of time what day they will be delivered. If we are not there, they leave a sticky note on the door saying they tried to delivery and couldn't get a signature. They try again the next day, leaving another note, and then hold the package at the post office/Fedex office for a week for us to pick up. I prefer when they send through USPS, because then I know pretty closely what time of day the delivery will happen (our mail tends to get delivered between 10:30 and noon). Fedex and UPS are much more variable, and could be at my house anywhere between 10am and ~8pm.

We do in my state, but mail order is the only way our insurance will allow 90 day prescriptions, so it is worth the hassle for us. We have taken to calling the mail order pharmacy and asking what doses of Focalin XR they have in stock, and then having the psychiatrist write for that dose. It means sometimes a kiddo is taking three 10mg XRs instead of one 30mg XR, but the kids are all good pill swallowers, so that is fine.

I do ours (uncomplicated) with TurboTax. It used to be a bigger headache when I used to let DH help. Even back then we used TurboTax, but DH would fret about every little thing. It would ask if either of us were in the military, the answer is a resounding "no", but DH would question: well, he does some contract work for the military through his employer...do I think we have to count that??? NO!! This is not a hard question; click the button and move on!! It used to take hours and hours and hours. Now Turbo Tax autofills almost everything, I click through that nothing has changed, and I'm done with both federal and state in 30-45 minutes.

You could try a small cup, or sippy cup with the valve removed so he doesn't have to suck on it.

Our local high school is separated into a 9th grade building and a 10-12th grade building. At the 9th grade building, the rule is a pretty strict "If we see it or hear it in class, we take it". Every teacher has a supply of zip lock bags. If they "take" a phone, they have the student label the bag with their name and drop their phone into the bag. Bags are delivered to the office where students can pick phones up at the end of the day. This whole process seems time-consuming and disruptive to me. If nothing else, if I was a teacher there, I would have repeat offenders pre-label a stock of bags ahead of time. The rules get much, much less strict when kids move to the upperclassman building. There the rule is much more, "If your phone is causing a disruption, we will ask you to put it away. If you refuse, or cause frequent disruptions, then you will be disciplined in the same ways as for other misbehaviors."

If she has even a little bit of editing experience, and if her goal (or someone's goal) was to manipulate the photo to show a narrative that is not true, then by golly I would not have chosen that background or pose. Literally every element in that photo would make undetected editing harder. The reflective panes of glass, the geometric tiles, the foliage in the background, and all the overlapping hair and limbs and clothing. If their goal was nefarious manipulation, wouldn't they have found a solider, more neutral background and a pose that didn't have everyone draped all over each other?

Not here, or at least not within my social circle. Every homeschooler I chat with chooses (often agonizes over) and teaches from various curricula at home. They often outsource a few things - an Outschool writing class, online Beast Academy, dual enrollment science, etc. - but all carefully chosen individual classes that supplement what they do at home.

To make life harder, our state only allows electronic prescriptions for controlled substances. And prescriptions for controlled substances cannot be transferred between pharmacies, even between branches of CVS if our closest one can't fill one of our scripts but can see that the one down the road has stock. In all of those cases we have to have the doctor rewrite the prescription. So now (annoyingly, but understandably) our psychiatrist's office will not send any scripts unless we call the pharmacy that day and confirm they have stock.

We haven't done any ASU classes yet. I also worry about the quality, but that worry is mitigated by the fact that 1) these would be get 'er done classes that Peter doesn't cares about or actually need much instruction in, and 2) the most we could be out was the $25 registration fee.

I can say that for my kiddo, a DE class in 9th was a very good choice. My DS is very strong academically, and took Astronomy which was a high-interest class. He earned an A+. The other CC students were not academically strong, so it would not have been a good choice for DS for a class that would build toward his probable major (math), but for an elective science it was fine. And it was a good way for DS to learn the ins and outs of college classes without also being a huge academic load. The other students were mostly standard college age...but DS was actually much, much more comfortable in the CC classroom than he currently is in the public high school. DS's 9th grade DE class was a full semester, but the plan is for him to finish out his high school years with a mix of semester-long and 8 week DE classes. The semester long classes will be his high-interest math and science classes taken at local 4 year universities. But all low-interest classes will be taken through ASU to allow him to crank through them as quickly as he wants, and to eliminate the risk of failing due to disinterest or procrastination. He has the added incentive that most of the ASU classes will transfer to the university he is strongly considering (as would the math and science classes he wants to take), so if he grits his teeth and makes it through the dreaded Comp classes in 8 weeks each, then he won't have to take any writing courses ever again.

The drug shortages have been a disaster for my family. I have four kids, with a total of 11 Focalin prescriptions in different dosages...plus 14 other psychotropic med prescriptions. Even in the best of times, when we are able to get 3 month prescriptions for all the meds and multiple refills of all the ones that aren't controlled substances, it is a full time juggling act to make sure we don't run out of any of them. But now never knowing which pharmacy might have stock and having to settle for partial fills that throw off our schedule and negate the rest of the prescription which requires more new scripts to be written...it is a losing battle.

It's not "unhealthy" in the way that skipping doses of blood pressure medication or something like that would be. Meds like Focalin (and Ritalin, Adderall, and other stimulant meds), even the extended release versions, have very short half lives in the body. So the body is always accustomed to significant fluctuations in the drug level in the blood: rising to a high 30-60 minutes after taking each pill, hopefully holding steady-ish for a number of hours, and then starting to drop precipitously. The goal is normally for the last dose of the day to wear off before bedtime, and then the body has more or less no drug level in the blood through the whole night. That means that many people opt to only medicate on school days, skipping weekends and summers...which is absolutely fine if that is a choice you make that works for your child and family, but should not be forced on you by medication shortages. Of course, missing ADHD meds can be "unhealthy" in a holistic sense if that leads to failing grades, car crashes, relationship strains, etc.

My oldest is, sort of, coming back home from ps again for 10th. He was homeschooled K-7, did a virtual hybrid for 8th, was home for the first half of 9th and did a dual enrollment astronomy class, and in public school since the semester break. I think what we have learned through all that is that he likes the classroom environment, but not wasting his time if the class is busywork or filled with rowdy interruptions. He also greatly dislikes densely crowded halls and lunch rooms. So for 10th he is transitioning to full-time dual enrollment. He will take all his core classes at local universities and his electives through the hybrid school (where he will be enrolled part-time, because public school enrollment is the only way to get dual enrollment tuition assistance in this state). Since Peter is not old enough to drive yet, his dual enrollment schedule will significantly effect and change the flow of our days and weeks. 10th Monday, Wednesday and Friday on the college campuses. Due to the other kids' schedules, he will probably end up hanging out and working there for a hunk of time those days. Fall: History of Mathematic, Presentation Techniques, and Statistics Spring: Multivariable Calculus and Spanish 202 Thursdays on the hybrid school campus. Robotics Fun electives with his friends. Tuesdays and Weekends with me, touching base and helping with scheduling and trouble shooting. He also hopes to continue in his Dungeons and Dragons club, and I would like him to start volunteering at the library a few hours a week. 6th Spencer is accelerated in all areas, but spends soooooo much time on music, that everything else gets downplayed a bit. Music, weekly: 2 piano lessons, 1 violin lesson, 1 composition lesson, 1 youth symphony practice, plus two hours of daily practice at home Wondrium's Geometry: An Interactive Journey to Mastery plus Edmentum Geometry required by the hybrid Alcumus just to make sure his algebra is deep and rock solid Bookshark American History and Science with his younger sister to simplify our schedule. Realistically, most of their history and science learning comes through life: free choice books, camps, documentaries, museums, discussions, etc. All About Spelling 6 if we get around to it, but he is a very natural speller. Lantern English - he is now a master of the 5-6 paragraph essay, so I want him to take their Growing the Essay classes next year. Spanish 2 in an immersion classes Extras: Ninja classes plus on-campus electives at the virtual school, he is hoping for ceramics, cardio drumming, escape room and orienteering 3rd Bookshark American History and Science Spelling U See because she is really, really not a natural speller Lantern English - learning to write different types of compositions Math Mammoth 5 or Singapore 5, plus Hands on Equations Spanish Immersion Class which includes art, culture and music and movement Extras: Gymnastics, dance, skating, rock climbing, soccer, scouts, plus on-campus electives at the virtual school, she is hoping for cardio drumming, orienteering, zoo school, and something else cool Lots of volunteering at the Humane Society

Peter will be in tenth next year. After a brief foray to the public school, he has decided to rejoin the hybrid school in the fall and do all of his core classes through dual enrollment. Fall: History of Mathematics DE, full semester, in person Presentation Techniques DE, 8 weeks, online Statistics DE, 8 weeks, online Literature at home, light Robotics through the hybrid, light Fun Electives through the hybrid, with friends in person Dungeons and Dragons Club Spring: Multivariable Calculus DE, full semester, in person Spanish 202 DE, full semester, in person Literature at home, light Robotics through the hybrid, light Fun Electives through the hybrid, with friends in person Dungeons and Dragons Club