I am a high school classroom teacher with a student with an IEP for OCD and a mom of a kid with several OCD. My student has 50% extended time and the freedom to go to her counselor's office whenever needed. As a mother of a child with severe OCD, there have been a few times when I could tell that my student was struggling with on OCD obsession but she has never requested to leave and never used her extended time. As a mother I would say that as you lean what your daughters obsession/compulsions are you will be able to decide what accommodations she might need. My daughter was never affected academically by her OCD. Looking back she began exhibiting signs of OCD around age 7, she was homeschooled k-8th grade, went to college after 8th grade, graduated from college at 18, began a math Phd at 19, was diagnosed with OCD at 20, left the math Phd at 20 and began a special ed masters graduated with her masters at 21, and now teaches adapted curriculum in a high school. She is currently 23. Her OCD manifests primarily as contamination OCD but with food rather than germs as the contaminant. She obsesses that her hands that she has washed many times have food particles on them still and that they will rub her eyes and get them in her eye and something horrible will happen. She cannot stand to be touched with "dirty" hands. She also deals with obsessions about "evenness" One shoe is tied tighter than the other, someone touched one arm but didn't touch the other... She has a lower level of scrupulosity, and a lower level of "harm" OCD. (obsession that she may accidentally hurt/kill someone or herself. The gold standard of treatment is ERP, basically doing the thing that you are afraid to do and avoid the compulsion to "fix or undo it" until your brain realizes that nothing horrible will happen. She was absolutely incapable of ERP until we found a med combination that lowered her OCD obessions/compulsons to a level that allowed her to fight back. as a result of her food related OCD she has had 4 relapses of anorexia, but her meds and then ERP have changed so much. She is very successfully employed, has great friends and is engaged to be married. Most people will never know that she has OCD, her friends know and are used to her little oddities, her fiancé is amazing with her. Last week they went on a hike and she was stressed about a work situation so her OCD was on high alert. She stopped 4 times in about 1/4 mile to retie her shoes so they were even. He finally stopped and said "If I tie them, they can't be uneven" and knelt down to tie her shoes. She said they were still uneven but she could handle it and had a great hike. A lot of words to say that she may need accommodations for school and she may not. You will learn a lot in the next few months and that may help you to decide. Good luck, it can be a wild ride but there is hope. Feel free to PM me if you have questions.

My daughter is a working mechanical engineer who graduated from our homeschool with no AP classes. She had DE calculus her senior year in HS. He doesn't need Java or Statistcs to become an engineer. I teach engineering and physics in a Catholic High School. We, as a nation, are killing our kids with stress over college. All of our "do what you love" and "perfect fit" college have them convinced that there is one right (successful) path through life and they are terrified that they are going to mess up and their life will be ruined. Insist that he drop one AP. He needs some time each day to just read a book that he enjoys or watch the sun go down. I taught all three of my children to schedule their time starting in about 6th grade. For about three years I have them a daily schedule that I made each morning. It accounted for every hour of their day including eating meals, helping with dishes, school, ECs and free time. Starting in high school we wrote it together. Then they wrote it and submitted it to me for approval. When my 20 yo son was home from college for christmas break, I gave him a week of free time and then we discussed his plans for the day every morning before I left for work. All of my kids are gifted with no EF issues or LDs. Scaffolding is how they learn life skills.

I started using Banktivity (I think it is Mac only) and I really like it. Their sync seems to work really well. The software is not a subscription but the bank connect is.

I would love an invite, my kids are 25, 22 and 19

I would be very concerned that your daughter has anorexia. My daughter has anorexia and is in the middle of recovery from her 3rd relapse. She started off with a very restrictive diet and, yep refused to eat healthy fruits and vegetables because she was afraid she would "binge" on them. She was eating 300 calories max on week days and 500 on weekends. Anorexia causes all these problems. When you stop eating (and 1000 calories a day does not count as eating) your body stops producing the enzymes needed to digest food. When you start again it takes months for these symptoms to disappear. Someone mentioned upthread that recovery eating is 3000+ calories a day. That has been true all three times for us. My daughter reached that threshold in about March and she is still dealing with gas, bloating, water retention and stomach pain after every meal. She usually experiences nausea about 15 minutes after eating when her blood sugar starts to rise. Her blood sugar was so low that she had a seizure and from October until March she started shaking every time her blood sugar dropped which was about every two hours. Gas-x and miralax are our friends. Anorexia is NOT glamorous. These are also symptoms of malnutrition. One year ago this week, I came back from a two week long training class to find that my daughter hadn't eaten anything at all during the week for the last two weeks, she only ate on weekends and the was a max of 300 calories. She had lost 50 ponds. She was freezing all the time and wore a sweater through our humid Virginia summer, her hair was falling out and she took multiple naps a day. We were on relapse number 3. Today she weighs 40 pounds more, she is happy. She is still scared of many foods and situations. She sees her therapist twice a week and her dietician once a week. Get good ones that are known for eating disorders. They won't take insurance, none of the good ones do. I file out of network claims. It is expensive but it is saving my daughter's life. Said gently, find a new doctor. Walk away from the special diet. People with a predisposition to eating disorders cannot eat restrictive diets, especially early in recovery. Excluding any food group gives their brain "permission" to restrict. Your daughter needs to eat carbs, and fat and protein and sugar. She needs to eat 3000+ calories a day and she needs doctors and support staff tat understand that.

Judgemental much? Yep, its all fat peoples' fault for being so stupid. And sugar is not addictive. The study that said it was, yeah they hadn't fed the rats for 12 hours and then gave them a choice of cocaine or sugar. One is non-nutritive. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/aug/25/is-sugar-really-as-addictive-as-cocaine-scientists-row-over-effect-on-body-and-brain https://www.psychiatry.cam.ac.uk/blog/2016/07/21/sugar-addictive-probably-not-say-cambridge-neuroscientists/

There was a consensus on fat in the 80's and 90's and consensus on cholesterol too. I remember hearing on the news, that no one should eat more than one egg a week. We are now beginning to realize that fat isn't so bad and that most people filled the place fats had held with sugar. Eggs are no longer vilified either. I do not believe the "consensus" No food is bad or evil, especially if it is not made in a lab. Food is not moral or immoral.

This is the only thing that needs to be said on this topic, ever. I live with a loved one who struggles with anorexia and I am so tired of hearing everyone and their brother have an opinion about what anyone eats. I am tired of hearing that 1200-1500 calories a day is reasonable for women. Go read about the Minnesota Starvation Experiments. Food choices are NOT moral choices. Food has no morality. The diet industry is evil and is preying on our insecurities. Follow the money. Free yourself, buy this book.

You once mentioned a religion book (catholic) that you used with your early elementary kids. I remember it being pretty old and when I looked at the link you provided, I really liked it. I thought that I had saved the link, but I cant find it. Can you remind me of the textbook/curriculum? Thank You Tania

My son is a fourth (freshman) at Virginia Military Institute. He loves the school and we have been very impressed by everything about it, but its marketing phrase "No ordinary college, no ordinary life." could not be more true. It is an extremely spartan, regimented life, full of close friendships, tight-knit community and school spirit. Definitely go visit. The first 6-7 months of school are dominated by the rat line. Extremely strict, military life style, no cell phone etc. Sports are a huge deal at VMI. Club sports have dedicated practice time each week and the school has 16 Div 1 NCAA teams. They have one of the few women's water polo teams on the east coast and a number of women come out from California just for that reason. Overall VMI is about 85% male and 15% female. Do you have specific questions about VMI?

Virginia Military Institute has an Arabic language program

You are not overthinking this. Do not comment on a person's weight...ever. I have a daughter with anorexia, I can't tell you how much it triggers her when people comment on her weight (usually complimentary) because while Americans think thinner is better it is not true and she actually needs to and is gaining weight and it kills her when people mention her weight because she worries that if she looks great now she will look bad when she reaches the weight that her doctor and dietician have decided is healthy for her.

Do not listen to a single person here. They do not have any training in eating disorders or recovery. My daughter is back in treatment for her third relapse for anorexia. Her dietician has her eating 2800 calories per day and she is still increasing her. Due to restricting during the day, it is not at all unusual for my daughter to eat 500-1000 of that after dinner. It is not binging. Years of restricting really messes up your endocrine system. My daughter struggles with blood sugar regulation right now and frequently shakes uncontrollably from low blood sugar when she needs to eat (and she eats every two hours). Cutting carbs etc, as recommended above is all bad advice. You need a dietician and a good therapist. Both need to be experienced with eating disorders. The people that are do not take insurance. I file for out-of-network benefits. My daughter sees her therapist twice a week and her dietician once. It costs a lot of money but when we tried to use in-network before they really didn't know what they were doing and her we are again, in relapse.

Thank You everyone for your thoughts. To answer a few questions: I began the year teaching much the same way I homeschooled. No homework was graded. I only teach 1 lesson out of 7, the rest of the days are collaborative work; concept and math development exercises; virtual labs; full-blown fancy lab equipment labs; demonstrations etc. Tests were open-note to encourage them to learn to take good notes. The first problem that I ran in to was that nothing got accomplished that wasn't graded. The first thing that I heard every time I introduced a concept or handed out a page was "how many points is this worth?" Then if I said none, nothing got done. They would chat with each other, stare in to space, do homework for other classes. In frustration, I began grading everything. The one day that I "lecture" and introduce the new concepts and equations in the chapter, the kids would literally sleep through the class. No one paid any attention at all. I started giving them a multiple choice quiz on the lecture immediately after the lecture. They knew it was coming, no one paid attention. I have about 4 students per class that get A's, 8 that fail and a bunch in the middle. I also have 33 out of 135 students on IEPs (primarily for ADD) that require that I give them class notes, so I started using the power points provided by the textbook (Conceptual Physics, by Paul Hewitt). Then students were showing up for the test with printouts of the slides. They weren't studying, just sitting there and searching their notes for the answers. So tests became closed-book, no notes. I would have the students solve problems in class, and then I would provide the answers on the board immediately and walk through the solutions so that they would understand and they would sit there and do nothing until I gave the answer. I am a big fan of collaborative learning, the day after I introduced a new chapter, I gave them a concept development worksheet by the publisher to complete in groups in class. My class looked like a commercial for collaborative learning, students working in small groups, talking about physics. I collected the sheets to spot check them, every single one was wrong. They taught each other the wrong answers, And here I am. I still believe in providing quick feedback so that they know whether or not they understand what I am teaching, I grade work for 2-3 hours every night. I have quit reading and sewing because I am grading. The cheating is as bad as ever and if they were learning the material, I could probably reach a zen state about it, but their test scores just keep falling. We just finished momentum and the average test score was 12/30. Two of the test problems they needed to solve were on their homework, word-for-word. This is the second test I have done that on. No one even noticed. Many students got the homework question right and then failed the test questions. They really believe that after a chapter is done they should never need to see the information again. I had a revolt when work, energy and power questions )our current chapter) required them to use the momentum equation from last chapter. And this is why I am frustrated and exhausted. I don't spend my life trying to catch cheating, it is so obvious that I can't avoid seeing it. My administration is good about letting us run our classes. I do not have to use specific tests or anything like that. I do need to use the Conceptual Physics textbook but I like the text. I think that I am going to go with Regentrude and Pippen's suggestion and go back to ungraded homework, with a quiz each unit with questions directly from the homework. The quiz grade will count as their homework grade.

I do make my own materials pretty regularly but as a first-time teacher it can be time consuming and overwhelming so using some of the publisher produced materials helps. Physics is required for graduation. I think my biggest frustration has to do with that fact that they do not understand what they are doing. (The test average on the last test was 13/30) but they persist in cheating rather than learning the material.

I can turn them in to the honor council (their decision is a recommendation, I can do what I will to punish the transgression) and I do every time. I am just overwhelmed though with the frequency.

Help! I graduated my youngest from high school in June and started a teaching job in August. I teach physics at a parochial school in the metro area of a large city. I teach 135 regular students each day, no honors or AP and the cheating is going to send me over the edge. In September I caught 60 of my students cheating on a homework assignment by copying the answers from a website. The answers on the website were wrong, so I caught them. The next week one student cheated on an extra-credit assignment. It was a video with a question at the end. The student copied the answer from the comments section on the video on another website (I had embedded the video on my class website) Then I had quite a few copy the homework answers from each other. Last week one student took a picture of another students work right in front of me. Then, tonight, I am grading an assignment that was completed in class, and 12 out of 18 copied the answers directly out of an online copy of the answer key. 2 definitely didn't cheat and 4 probably did but they were smart enough to change their wording. I am frustrated and tired. I am seriously considering collecting all their phones on Monday and then passing out a copy of the worksheet and having them complete it as test grade. Any ideas on how to stop them from cheating or reaching a zen state where I just don't care?

My college degree is in engineering. I homeschooled all three of my children through high school with my youngest graduating this last June. In January of this year I decided that I wanted to substitute teach or teach small classes in the homeschool community. Our local public schools pay subs $100/day. A lady that I had co-taught a co-op class with taught at a local catholic high school, I met with her to go over how to word my co-op classes on my resume. She asked me to apply for a job opening at her school in her department. I did and was hired a few weeks later to fill a different position at the school. In August I began my first year teaching high school physics and engineering at a catholic high school. I teach 143 students each day in five physics classes and one project lead the way engineering class. I love my job. I love my co-workers. The kids are great. They are polite and bright and kind. It is also very challenging. I spend a lot of time planning and have a lot to learn all the time. I do need to earn a certificate. I can choose to get a state certificate or a Catholic schools certificate. The catholic schools certificate requires fewer hours so that is my current plan. the most challenging aspect of my job has been that most of my students aren’t reall that interested in learning. They want to do the minimum required to get a good grade. I had a problem at the beginning of the year with a large group cheating on a homework assignment. Many that I caught were apologetic but all said that they figured it was better to cheat than to turn in an incomplete homework assignment. Dealing with the lack of intellectual curiosity has been emotionally challenging for me. I want to teach and I want them to be excited to learn. The family adjustment to having me at work rather than at hone has been better than I expected. I still cook dinner most nights but my husband has taken over laundry. It is harder to shop on weekends and sad that I cannot just hop in the car next Friday morning to pick up my son from college for thanksgiving break. We are having to arrange a car pool. i see myself being in this job for quite some time. I am 46 and really do enjoy teaching. I do not see myself in the public schools. I make $47,700 each year. I do not regret homeschooling my children through high school and if I had another child I would do it again, but I am where I was meant to be right now. I never even considered teaching when I was growing up but I love it now.

Our doctor wanted genetic testing for medicine decisions. She used a company called genomind. The company filed with our insurance (who doesn't cover genetic testing) and then appealed their refusal for the maximum number of appeals and when it still wasn't covered they gave us a "scholarship" that covered all but $300. They believe that all patients should have access to genetic testing for health reasons.

I love learning to make new things. I have made: shampoo bars (didn't like them, I have curly hair and it is very picky) lye soap (fun to make and not really that hard to do) bath bombs (lots of fun to make and use) herbal salve (a favorite with everyone. Everyone I give it to, wants more) Bath tea (a great gift) homemade salt scrub Willow and Sage magazine has great recipes for bath and beauty products and is beautiful homemade cheese (I have never been successful with mozzarella but I make paneer and ricotta regularly) cultured butter (delicious) I make my own cultured buttermilk all the time italian sausage and breakfast sausage beef jerky cocktail cherries (homemade maraschino cherries, like luxardo cherries but a lot less expensive) vanilla raspberry cordial ( the recipe said raspberry micronutrients, and I realized about two steps in that I was making alcohol, its delicious) homemade lysol wipes laundry detergent (we have hard water and it just didn't work as well as Tide) I can my own jam, applesauce and canned peach slices most years I have canned cherry pie filling, chicken, beans (pinto and garbanzo), diced tomatoes, spaghetti sauce and green beans one or more times. I make and can my own chicken broth periodically I know there are other things. Like I said, I love to try new things

Last week I was at training for my new teaching job (post homeschool career) and was surprised to discover, in my small sample of engineering and technology teachers, that the primary cook in all of their families except mine was the husband. My brother and his wife both work full-time and he does all the cooking and frankly most of the childcare (and I am not criticizing my SIL, I really like her) Who does 75% or more of the dinner cooking at your house?

The book A Can, A Man and a Microwave is full of microwave recipes that were featured in the magazine, Men's Health over the years. My husband has used them many times while deployed or on military business travel in hotels with a microwave and refrigerator.

Yep, that's what we use.

I finished a rocking chair with Varethane (water based) 22 years ago in a satin finish. It still looks great today. We have used varethane on all of our wood working projects since then and beeb pleased every time. Use a separate wood stain, do not use in all-in-one.

My son's favorite daypack is the REI flash 18. It holds just enough, has comfortable straps and can hold a water bladder if you want one.