Next year is going to be a transition for us...HA, aren't they all!! My oldest was in virtual school this year for 8th grade, and HATED it. It was boring and a very shallow education, but ironically, because it is official public school, it put a lot of prestigious high school classes on his transcript and set him up to dual enroll next year as a 9th grader. So, next year he will be doing a very "spiky" course load, with really advanced math, Spanish, technology and astronomy (his passions) and mundane get'er'done other subjects: Honors Calculus (through MIT OCW) Biology (home made) Astronomy (DE) Ancient and Medieval World History (Build Your Library) English 9 (Build Your Library) Mythology (Build Your Library) Advanced Spanish Conversation and Composition (Tutoring and at home) Education (Building on his hours as a Spanish teaching assistant in younger classes) Art (mostly pottery and digital art) Robotics & Artificial Intelligence (Hands on classes) My rising 7th grader will be in the gifted and talented program at the public school again. My rising 5th grader is my musician, so to pay for all his lessons he will continue to participate in the virtual school. Thankfully, at his age they offer BookShark which I can deal with. I am putting both him and his younger sister in BookShark levels that will cover the first half of world history to keep all my homeschoolers in the same time period. He will also do ELA and science through BookShark. Math will officially be through the virtual school's high school option, Edmentum, because he is ready for algebra. But actually I am taking him through AOPS algebra, and he will be allowed to just test out of Edmentum algebra. For Spanish he will spend a day at our local homeschool Spanish immersion program. Then he will be taking two piano lessons, a violin lesson, and hopefully a music composition lesson each week. My youngest will be either a very old 2nd grader or a very young 3rd grader...with skills that range from 1st to 4th+ grade levels. She will be mostly in BookShark, plus the Spanish immersion class. She will probably be starting on a competitive gymnastics team next year which will be a big part of her schedule.

Spencer's competition season is coming to an end. A couple weeks ago he did his piano achievement testing and got the highest score in the level three years above his age. This morning he performed in the music teachers' forum competition and got first prize in the junior division that goes up through 6th grade. He played Béla Bartók's Dance in Bulgarian Rhythm #2 and won $50. (This is him playing the piece this afternoon.) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1i0FrtS3T-T7b88L10CmhtfYMOD11AVlD/view?usp=share_link

I also like the Math circle lessons and problems from the University of Waterloo as a way to go broad. Spend time thinking about math in very different ways.

Exactly. And as to the bolded, I would even amend it to "You can set guidelines for how you want your kids to address a future step-father." Because if you introduce him as Tom, and they passive aggressively call him "Czar Thomas" or "T-man" or "your husband", there really isn't much you can do. You can, of course, use carrots and sticks to try to encourage them to do what you want, but if they choose not to be swayed, it is largely out of your control. Trust me, Heart, I understand really, really wanting a child to stop a behavior. My 100 pound eleven year old regularly hits and kicks me and tries to throw furniture through the sliding glass door. But legally and ethically there is nothing I can do to stop him...so the only thing I can do is manage my own expectations and reactions. And if another adult in DS's life thought that they would just introduce the idea that they weren't comfortable with physical assault and that DS would just fall into line...well, I would think they were out of touch.

Just curious, but what is the alternative? You can't control what words/names come out of someone else's mouth, so how do you proceed if you aren't going to let the child choose what to call their step parent? Obviously you can "forbid" it, but that seems largely unenforceable. I don't have any experience with step parents, but I have a ton of experience having to choose my battles with oppositional, disaffected children. My mantra everyday is "don't take it personally". If I give even one hint that something bothers me, they will take that as their cue to exploit my weakness. So when a behavior upsets me, I first ask "Is this even within my control to change?", and if the answer to that is yes, then I ask "Is it important enough to me to strain our tenuous relationship?" If both answers are not firm yeses, then it is in my best interest to change my perception and expectations.

Lantern doesn't tell you what you have to do, but it gives very specific guidelines for you to follow if you are flailing. So, the lesson will, for example, give six different specific types of hook sentences along with examples of each. Your assignment is to make sure to use a hook sentence in your writing, but it doesn't have to follow any of their models if you can come up with your own idea. But if you are stuck, their examples are there as scaffolding. Over the years of my kids taking Lantern classes, I have compiled all those lists and guidelines into something of a writing flow chart. So, now my kids can just go step by step: Here's how to pick a topic, Here's how to narrow it into a thesis, Here's how to break your argument into paragraphs, etc. Granted, this does not lead to Pulitzer Prize winning essays, but it does get my kids writing solid, cohesive, organized essays without too much stress.

I agree that a ton of great concepts are taught in those types of videos; I just think they are a lot more subtly interwoven than in something like The Way Things Work. There are no bolded titles announcing that you are currently learning about Momentum or Electrical Insulators - it is much more whole-to-parts immersion in scientific concepts. Another similar channel that I like is Stuff Made Here.

For science read alouds, simple fact transmission has never been a particularly high priority for me. Obviously, I want the books to contain correct information, but I don't aim for comprehensive or "useful". Watching a video of Mark Rober engineering a squirrel obstacle course probably doesn't directly hit many of the middle school science content goals, but I think it instills much more important science ideas. I want my kids to appreciate that science is answering questions. That it is systematic trial and error. That it is thinking about and studying interactions. And most importantly, that science is something everyone can do in everyday life. So I tend toward "science" books that pull back the curtain and let kids see the process. All my kids LOVE Randall Monroe's books and the Horrible Science books. I read aloud a lot of books like The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, The Disappearing Spoon, Bomb: The Race to Build--and Steal--the World's Most Dangerous Weapon, How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World, etc.

Is APUSH the only class the good teacher teaches? Could your son DE US History and plan to take a different class with the good teacher?

I think hoola hoops could definitely work. I would probably establish the rule first thing that the hoola hoops MUST stay on the floor until you blow the special whistle/flash the lights/etc and then everyone should immediately show off their best hoola hooping skills for 30 seconds...if that is something you have space for. I have also found stations to work well with kids on the edge of dysregulation. One clearly designated station per child with activities that can be completed for 2-3 minutes to keep everyone moving before they get bored.

Also be ready that this could backfire big time. For my ADHD kids, active, exuberant play is the hardest time for them to stay regulated. Their impulse control is already low, and when they start moving fast, they have even less time to process decisions. In a split second it goes from controlled, purposeful running, to a stupendous head-banging crash with a peer when they forget that they have to run around obstacles. Or something like parachute play starts with controlled movements, but when they feel the parachute “pull back”, it quickly escalates into tug of war before they can stop themselves. When my kids’ meds start wearing off, that is the time I plan the most structured activities, because when a child lacks internal regulation they need a lot more external regulation provided for them. Those are times I have everyone sit on spaced out towels so they have visual boundaries for their bodies and enough personal spaces that they can’t reach each other to poke and aggravate. I plan activities that can allow lots of fidgeting and movement, but not wildness…yoga, tapping and drumming, spinning tops, walking/jumping in place, tossing very light balls to each other while staying on their towels, cup stacking races, etc.

I think of learning information like a wave washing onto the beach. It starts shallow and gentle. The first time my kids encounter a concept, I introduce it at a grammar stage level, no matter how old the child is. We talk about definitions and vocabulary. For instance, I introduce perimeter when my kids are 5 or 6 at Christmas time when I am hanging lights around a window. We discover that a linear string of lights can be bent around a rectangle, and that if we take the lights back down we can measure how long of a line it takes to go "all the way around". Next it swells and gets deep. Once my kids are proficient at addition, they can go deep into the whys and hows of perimeter. They are ready to think logically about it to realize that rectangle perimeters can be found by adding two adjacent sides and doubling. They can be challenged to design the biggest enclosure that uses a set amount of fencing. Finally, the wave is mostly passed (and the child is deep in learning about a new topic), and the last remnant of the first wave is spend reviewing the concept at a deep "rhetoric" level as it can be tied into new learning. Long before I introduce pi, I challenge kids to find the perimeter of a circle and defend whatever (imperfect) method they use. Because rhetoric level math isn't doing really hard math that you have been taught, but solving problems using methods you have never been taught. So, my kids are working at all the levels at the same time in different topics. My 7 year old is still at the grammar level of writing strong, diverse sentences. She is at the logic stage of working with perimeter. And she is at the rhetoric stage of color mixing/theory, having learned the terminology, experimented with the whys and hows, and now fiercely defending her proposition that pink should be considered the third primary color and red simply a shade of pink rather than the other way around. 😄

I would also take the school's assessments of his skills and challenges with a grain of salt. - Maybe he is weak in "applied mathematics", or maybe they were asking him to apply mathematics to situations he couldn't relate to. - Maybe he is weak in reading comprehension, or maybe they were asking stupid questions about what color the character's shoes were instead of giving your son the opportunity to tell them about all the things he did comprehend in his reading. - Maybe he is weak in composition, or maybe their expectations were wildly age-inappropriate. - Maybe his social skills are weak, or maybe a classroom setting just isn't where his social skills shine, and he will do better in small groups for shorter times. I have four kids with severe ADHD and other special needs. They require a tremendous amount of accommodation - homeschooling them is a constant dance of research, experimentation, and tweaking. But, over the years, all of their traits that schools would have labeled as struggles and deficits, we have been able to turn into positives. They might not act or think or socialize like their neurotypical peers, but with time and support we've been able to help them find their own ways to thrive in the world.

I agree. My kids are in a ton of activities, but other than occasional one-off parks and rec classes, they never interfere with family dinner or evening/weekend family time. Now that my 9 year old is entering a lot of piano festivals and competitions, there are some Saturday commitments, but typically just for a couple hours, and DH can spend that time with the other kids. Plus, since DS's goal is to be a concert pianist, I consider his piano performances to be part of his schooling rather than extracurricular.

It was an honest mistake, and the longer she is on it, the easier it will be to plan for all eventualities. I don't know if it would have helped in this case, but I always carry several doses of all my kids meds in the car. I know it is not ideal to keep some meds in extreme temperatures, but I would rather have less effective meds than none at all in case of emergency. I agree with Carrie that I would view her dependence as confirmation that the med is doing its job keeping her healthy, functional, and capable of engaging in life, learning, and thriving. That is a really positive outcome, not a problem. The alternative is forcing her to live in that nonfunctional state constantly and denying her the solution you now know exists. To me, that is on par with denying a child glasses or a wheelchair because you don't want them to rely on them as a crutch.

For what it's worth, the wrap around sweater appears to be a faux wrap around. In the video snippet on the pattern it shows that the inner "wrap" is attached at the side seam meaning it still needs to be pulled over baby's head.

My oldest is only in 8th grade, but needs a high school transcript to apply for dual enrollment next year, so I put one together for him. I decided to keep it simple and only use straight letter grades (standard grading scale), no pluses or minuses. I included (high school level) classes he took at the public school, notated accordingly on the transcript I made. BUT, now that he is pretty much done with his virtual classes, I asked the public school for their transcript for him, and they do use pluses and minuses. And one of his courses with them, he got an A-. To accurately reflect the grade they gave him, should I indicate it as A- on my transcript as well? I don't know what their cut-off is between A- and A (they don't list that information on the transcript), but I know that he got a 94%, which to them is a 3.7 GPA...but according to the scale I list on my transcript would be an A worth 4.0. Also, they designate two of his courses as honors classes, but they don't weigh honors courses (only AP/DE). On my transcript I offer both weighted and unweighted GPA, and I do weight honors courses (by .5). What do you think is the least confusing, most straightforward way of writing up their courses on my transcript? Thanks

Thanks. That is what mine says too, but I didn't know if that was right.

That is very helpful. What should I enter for the second question: What is your primary job function? The instructions made me think "Home School Provider" would be an option. But I don't see that.

A YouTube baking channel tried to have ChatGPT generate a cake recipe. At first glance it looked and sounded like a plausible recipe, but fundamentally it didn't make sense. Thing like, it kept telling you to use half of the chocolate chips...long after all the chocolate chips were gone. It had her whip up three bowls of various "frostings", one of which was just whipped cream with chunks of butter in it, and then at the end just ambiguously told her to frost the cake. Also, it had her top the cake with sticks of gum. 🤪

It is hard because, as others have mentioned, education happens most of the day, and "school" is only a small subset of that. "School time" starts at 8am and runs until 4:30 when the kids get an hour of screen time before dinner (though, ironically, they often choose to play on Prodigy or compose music on Musescore or play chess, so even their recreational screen time trends toward educational-ish activities). That is our schedule, more or less, seven days a week, though on the weekends they have more chores and outings and one extra hour of screens each day. But clearly my homeschoolers (ages 7.5, 9.5 and turning 14 next week) are not doing "school" for eight and half hours a day. My 8th grader has ~20 hours of book work planned each week. He also has several extracurriculars (art, PE, Spanish, etc) that he doesn't consider school, but that clearly contribute to his education. The rest of his "school time" is spent playing, exercising, reading, drawing, etc. My 7 year old spends about 10 hours a week on book work, and a lot of the rest of her school time on gymnastics. My 9 year old spends about 15 hours a week on book work and most of the rest of his school time on piano.

I don't have a clue how much the rules differ program to program. Some might list the information on their websites, others you might have to call. I have a love/hate relationship with our program. They offer so much flexibility, and so many amazing opportunities, but they really fail on the communication front. The website is confusing and out of date. There is a hodge podge of people and systems communicating with families - sometimes you repeatedly hear about something that entirely doesn't apply to you, and other times important information falls through the cracks.

No. I don’t know if it is a universal rule, but for our program we have to live in the same intermediate school district or one that is adjacent. That covers a huge area. We are a 45 minute drive from the district we participate with, and we could be quite a bit further away and still qualify.

Yeah, Michigan is great for homeschooling in that it requires nothing of you - no registration, no testing, no portfolios, etc - but it also isn't known for allowing homeschoolers to utilize any public school resources. There are, however, more and more "shared time" and virtual programs in Michigan. The district we participate with offers both shared time and virtual options: Shared Time: - Student is a part time public schooler - Parent homeschools core classes with no help/interference from the district - District gets public money from state to provide elective classes for student - Electives must be "equivalent to" what the district offers their full time, brick and mortar students - Electives can be at the school campus, virtual, dual enrollment, or through "community partners" such as local gyms and music teachers - Electives have some red tape, like requiring a virtual component for classes that aren't taught by licensed teachers Full Time: - Student is a full time public schooler, even if they never set foot in the district - Student takes core classes virtually or through hybrid options - Districts offer wildly different options - ours is starting to offer BookShark - Districts can offer a lot of flexibility is they want - High school classes receive credit, and students can graduate from the district if they want - Electives work the same way, but often full time students get to take more electives

Some from my kids' Spanish play list: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzbzWerC9AM&list=PL496DA5BB82848663&index=73 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6Cq8w9tOFo&list=PL496DA5BB82848663&index=70 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiVG-8aZTVI&list=PL496DA5BB82848663&index=71 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mxOVctxckY&list=PL496DA5BB82848663&index=72 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxWxXncl53U&list=PL496DA5BB82848663&index=68 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alUhI7WUnh4&list=PL496DA5BB82848663&index=67 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQGhtnKH9I0&list=PL496DA5BB82848663&index=66