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Donna

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Everything posted by Donna

  1. I don't have time to read through all the response so hopefully I'm not being too repetitive. Homeschooling does not have to be "school at home." You don't have to pick a grade level and your child does not have to be doing every subject at the same level. My advice would be to take some time to get to know your child as a student to figure out strengths, weaknesses, interests, etc... then decide on curriculum. You can look at samples for a lot of curriculum online or ask on this board what parents found to work best. Your library may have or be able to get you some materials to try or you can find some used curriculum online until you figure out what works best for your student. Definitely read TWTM because it will help move you out of the mindset of b&m school and into the possibilities of homeschooling....following your child's interests, hands on learning, cross-disciplinary learning, etc... I wouldn't worry about high school and college at this point. As you figure out what you are doing, things will fall into place. There are many options for high school students such as AP courses, dual enrollment, and CLEP, but you can learn about those options as you get closer to needing them and you will know when your child is ready for them once he has exhausted everything else. You might try reading a book like The Teenage Liberation Handbook for ideas of how school could look when your child gets older. I can tell you from experience, any planning I might have done for high school for my dd when she was 8yo would not have come close to what is working best for her now.
  2. We did not set curfews once they were adults but did expect ours to send us a message letting us know where they are and when they expected to be home (or if plans changed for some reason). My reasoning is if I woke at 2am and someone wasn't home yet, I wanted to be able to look at my phone and know they were on their way, staying with a friend, or whatever rather than stay awake worrying they were crashed in a ditch somewhere.
  3. Try Pinterest. We find a lot of great vegan recipes there and make mostly everything gluten-free as well. We eat a lot of ethnic foods especially when traveling because they are the easiest restaurants to find vegan options then we attempt to copy the recipes at home. Whenever I feel like I am missing something, I figure out what it is I want then dd and I work to come up with the perfect way to get as close as we can with a vegan, gluten-free option. I like tofu with a lot of seasoning but dislike any of the "meat" substitutes that are took similar to meat. I also dislike most vegan cheeses...they're just too plastic-y in texture for my liking...but we recently came up with a vegan grilled cheese using vegan cream cheese, vegan mozzarella then adding vegan pesto and it was fabulous. We've come across some gluten-free flour mixtures that substitute well when making bread.
  4. I was the only girl on the "boys" soccer team in high school and later in life, when my boys started taekwondo, I decided to take as well since I was sitting there for many hours a week. I eventually worked my way up to a black belt and taught classes. I've never felt I should not try my best when competing against males. Maybe because I grew up doing it? I don't know.
  5. I allowed my boys to run errands together when they were 10 and 12yo. There were two of them so it felt safer plus we lived in a neighborhood with a little store a short bike ride away with no busy streets to cross. We have not lived in a place where dd could run errands on her own because we moved to the country by the time she was that age.
  6. My oldest ds (23) has been dating a young lady for over two years now who is perfect for him. He was my "wild child," always living on the edge, and she has been a stabilizing force for him. We love her like one of our own. I am fairly sure marriage will happen once she finishes college next year...they have already talked about it with us.
  7. Dd and I each purchased one of these backpacks from Kopack off Amazon. We love them. They have so many pockets and a spot for a laptop computer. They are very durable. We've been traveling all over the world with ours this past year. The straps are thicker so more comfortable when the backpack is heavy.
  8. We are paying $200 for 7 days for our neighbor's ds to watch our two dogs in our home. It was $20-30 per night per dog to kennel them or hire a pet sitting service. I do not think you are being unreasonable.
  9. I agree. For real change to occur, children need to be taught healthy eating habits. Children need to be offered healthy foods in order to develop a taste for them rather than fried foods and sugar. While visiting nursery schools in the slums of Bangkok, I was amazed at the lunches the children were offered...seasoned rice or noodles served with steamed vegetables and some sort of protein and a piece of fruit. The food was delicious, freshly prepared, and whole/not processed. I wondered how these schools in poverty stricken areas were able to get children's lunches so right while American schools with much more resources do it so wrong.
  10. Another option you might consider if you don't think your dc will be good high-stakes test takers might be dual enrollment. My dd did one AP course and exam her freshman year and did well but once she turned 15 and was able to take DE in our area, we went the DE pathway. There were a number of personal factors that went into our decision but partially because she hated the stress of everything depending on one test.
  11. I loved when my dc were your oldest's age! So much fun to play with science and history! Science was exploration, hands on experimentation/exploration (nature, gardening, astronomy, anatomy, etc...) of anything that interested them, reading books, and following rabbit trails. We took nature walks (identifying plants and animals) and drew in nature notebooks. We experimented with growing conditions in the garden. We experimented with cooking and recipes. We learned about rocks and minerals. They made models of things like the solar system (the best to the boys was a to scale of the solar system in the yard), the human body and its various parts, and plants. We had chemistry kits and other science kits. I found books with experiments on every science topic I could find. They played with simple machines (ramps, pulleys, etc...) to learn physics. They learned to develop their own experiments then carry them out. History involved reading, watching documentaries, and visiting historic locations with lots of rabbit trails if they showed a particular interest. We tied history to music, art, and literature so they could do craft projects and connect everything.
  12. My dd had two online CC classes that required exams to be proctored. She had to go to the school proctoring center for Statistics and her Biology professor used the lockdown browser with video recording.
  13. We travel a lot so splurged on a carry-on piece by Away. We absolutely love it. The wheels are extremely sturdy and the case covers the bottom wheels a bit so has a bit more space than the usual case of its size. There is a piece that squashes the clothes on one side so it fits more. It has a removable cell phone charger and a small laundry bag. My dd and I have fit enough clothes for two weeks on the road (in cold weather) in that case by rolling everything.
  14. We've gotten a lot of questions over the years about homeschooling. Sometimes people are just curious and I am happy to let them know why we are doing it and why it works for us. Sometimes they are trying to justify their own decisions and in those cases I tend to pass the bean dip. Sometimes the questions come from elderly people or others who do not know anything about homeschooling and I'll answer depending on the nature of the questions. I always tend to laugh when people ask about socialization. These tend to be people (usually elderly people) who have just watched dd give an amazing performance interacting with the audience (and sometimes fellow musicians) and who have spoken to her afterward then come up to me talking about how poised and confident she is. I tend to roll my eyes...at least on the inside.
  15. Donna

    Thanks!

    We recently renewed passport and it took 3 weeks (non-expedited) but that was in March. I'd pay the expedited fee in your shoes just to not have to stress over it.
  16. Ah. They decided not to do the transvaginal ultrasound and only did an ultrasound over her abdomen which showed nothing. Dd started her period at 12 and was very regular. It just stopped coming two years ago this July. She doesn't mind not having it but is worried she may have difficulty having children someday when the time comes.
  17. Would ovarian cysts show up on ultrasound? They did an ultrasound a few months ago but everything was normal. Thank you for sharing your experiences.
  18. The doctor called today. Dd and I leave on June 9th for the entire summer in Ireland so she knew we were very anxious about the results. They were looking for a pituitary tumor. Dd has not had a period in almost two years and did not have one even when the endocrinologist tried three times to stimulate one plus her ACTH was high on her most recent labs six weeks ago. The MRIs of her brain were normal...no tumor. The bloodwork that has come back so far (most will take a week because it was sent out) is good. She does not need any medication right now for her cortisol levels. Still no ideas as to why she has no periods but so very thankful the answer is not a tumor. Thank you all for the prayers. It has been a very scary few weeks having that possibility floating around in my brain.
  19. I think that's a thoughtful gift.
  20. All the testing is done. Now we wait for the answers. Thank you all.
  21. When doing the walk through before closing on our previous home, the sellers were still moving out and not nearly finished (closing was in an hour). They broke a window moving a gun cabinet while we were walking though. They showed up two hours late to closing and when we went back to the house after closing, it was filthy...disgustingly filthy...not "broom clean" as it was supposed to be. It took us three days of cleaning until we were able to move our stuff in. They left a couple things like a boat chained to a tree and a trampoline. He came back for the boat the next day and tried to take the trampoline six months later, at which point my husband told him no. (They also left an entire, very stocked cabinet of liquor...which would have been great if I drank at all.) When we purchased our current home, my husband did not even see the home in person until the walk through before closing. We were moving from NJ to NC and dd and I were in the town and walked through a few homes about eight months before our home sold. When it did this house was still available. Dh is very handy and would normally have done the inspection himself but with such a long move, it was less expensive to pay an inspector. Luckily he loved the house once we bought it and there was nothing horrible wrong with it.
  22. Dd is having medical tests in the hospital tomorrow for an issue that has been going on awhile. They've ruled out almost everything else with every other test imaginable over the past eight months...now testing for something that could be a bit scary. Positive thoughts and prayers appreciated. The timing really stinks.
  23. My husband can fix most anything so cosmetic things don't concern us. We look for solid structure, foundation, safety (like electrical and plumbing) and big ticket items like the roof and chimney in decent condition. No mold or chance of mold. We just purchased an older (1954) home and I was looking specifically for hardwood floors, larger rooms, one story, and the above mentioned items. We've repainted and put on gutters. Bathrooms are dated (late 1980-1990's) so will need remodeling eventually but fine for now. Kitchen is older but we love the solid cabinets and will only need to change floors and sink.
  24. If you don't mind walking and want as close to free as possible...Independence Hall, The Liberty Bell, and Ben Franklin Museum (even if you don't go in, you can see a "ghost house" showing where he lived). If you walk the streets near the Ben Franklin Museum, you will find the New Hall Military Museum, Carpenter's Historic Hall, 18th Century Garden...all between Chestnut St. and Walnut St. (between 3rd and 4th St.). If you walk around there is a foundation of a 1700's home discussing home size with shop on the bottom. My dd and I love walking around that area of the city just to see the architecture and read the signs. There is also a Museum of the American Revolution nearby but I don't know what it costs and have never been inside to see if worth it...it's newer. If you are in Philly on the 1st Sunday of the month, the Philadelphia Art Museum is free.
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