I swear, you should be a life coach. Thank you again for all of this.

Thank you, as well, for saying this. All hell is currently breaking loose with my 8th grade DS because of precisely these issues. Having used the AoPS online platform for so long, my kid is in their Calc class and still barely writes anything down (except, he is finally improving on his writing problems -- hallelujah). Seriously. I have no idea how he solves this stuff in his head. That works OK in the homeschool environment, but my kid's chemistry prof at SOHS isn't having any of it. My DS literally would get questions correct on his assignments, but because he didn't show his work, she would give him 1/10 of the points on the question. Brutal.

Catching up on old threads, but want to thank you so much for saying all of this. Having "watched" your son grow up virtually on this board over the last decade, this gives me hope. I often worry that my 8th grade DS is not going to be successful because his executive functioning skills seem so delayed compared to many other gifted kids. I mean, one professor literally reminded him 4 times this semester to put his name on his submissions because he was losing points each time. Multiply this type of behavior across a very rigorous course load for his age and I am often asking myself if I am doing right by him. My husband (the kindler, gentler Canadian) assures me that our son will become independent in time, and that I should continue to scaffold him until then, but I am often left wondering if I am doing more harm than good and impeding his independence.

Update, cross-posting from my FB page: We found out last night that, unfortunately, Sacha was not selected as a CDB scholarship winner. Although we are all understandably disappointed, we are honored that he was recognized as a finalist and given a $1200 award to use towards his studies. As we explained to Sacha, these types of programs are like winning the lottery -- you can't ever count on them; you just roll the dice and see what happens. The best thing for one's mental health, obviously, is to enter a lottery without any expectation of winning. However, that got a bit more difficult to do (for all of us) once Sacha was named a finalist, so I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't disappointed that he didn't win. But, we all left the interview knowing that Sacha did his very best, and if they chose other candidates, it wasn't a reflection on anything that Sacha did or did not do. It was clear that the scholarship committee was interested in building a diverse class of scholars, and that they were looking to help students find mentors and the right fit for high school. As we left the interview, we got the impression that Sacha is fortunate because he has two very involved parents who have been homeschooling him the past 8+ years, already found a good fit for high school in Stanford OHS, and is lucky to have so many mentors and resources available in his life. CDB was meant to help gifted kids of substantial merit with additional access to high-level mentors and schools. If we failed at all, I think it was in showing the CDB committee how the scholarship would change Sacha's life. And the reality is that, as much as I hate to admit it, the committee was probably right: the scholarship likely wouldn't have changed Sacha's life very much. True, he would have had the prestige of winning the award, and would have had access to the community of scholars, but I am not sure how different that access is vs the amazing community of scholars and mentors to which he currently has access at SOHS. Mostly, it would have changed things financially for my DH and I. But, the award isn't about us; it's about the kids. So, I get it. Or, maybe, they just had too many boys interested in space and Sacha didn't make the cut. Who knows? These are lotteries, after all. So, all and all, a bittersweet result, but a good learning experience for him, and for us about managing expectations (and a preview of how competitive college admissions will be). G-d help me!

Oh, that is such sad news. I will be praying for her and her family.

If he already completed Intermediate Number Theory, I would have to think that Calc should be pretty easy for him. But, I agree that the mathematical logic courses at IMACS look really good. Fingers crossed on admissions decisions.

I am sorry, Farrar. Since Omicron, the loss of taste/smell is not as pervasive as a Covid symptom.

I am a relative newbie compared to most of you. I only joined in 2013, when my husband was trying to convince me to homeschool our precocious four year old, and I told him that he had lost his ever-loving mind! But, I read Susan's book, which I found so inspiring, and found this board, and you all gave me the courage to think that homeschooling might be something we could actually pull off. I'm not sure how homeschooling will turn out -- the precocious one quickly bypassed my own abilities! -- and I am also not sure that I could ever give up this very special place. You all are just so generous and kind with your wisdom and experience! I feel very blessed to have found you all. ❤️

Same.

12 lbs of Envys in my Costco cart, to be delivered over the weekend. Sacha inhales apples.

Like I said, I am so terribly sorry that you have been put in this untenable position. As with so many things right now, our country is truly failing to live up to its principles.

I would just get the 9205 or 9210. The only difference between them is the 9210 has a softer band around the head. The 1870 has higher fluid resistance to the mask, which is why it is cleared for surgical/healthcare settings, but I don't imagine you would need that.

See, I'm not buying the whole 'living in fear' nonsense simply because I wear a mask. We watched Maverick in a packed IMAX movie theatre. We flew on a packed flight over Memorial Day weekend. I went to my 25th college reunion. My whole family was with me during all of these things. We are leaving on a 3-week Mediterranean cruise in October, which will include my son's Bar Mitzvah in Israel. We are not living in fear. We are actually able to do all of these *without fear* because we have good masks to help protect us.

I am sorry -- I really truly am, on a profoundly deep and agonizing level -- that our government and fellow Americans have put you in such an untenable position, forcing you to make such a terrible decision. People truly don't understand how the decisions they are making today are harming themselves (if not directly with things like Long Covid or strokes, pulmonary embolisms, or brain issues in the 6-12 months post-infection then indirectly by cratering our healthcare system). I worked over the weekend and had an obese patient that we needed to take for a stat head CT. I work night shift in the ICU and we are having serious staffing issues throughout the hospital. We could not get this patient to CT until day shift because we simply did not have the manpower to move an obese patient to CT on night shift. Think about that for a second: we are a stroke-certified hospital. In our last review, we got some gold star rating or whatever for strokes. And if you came to our ICU, and I suspect that you have a brain bleed while in my care, and are too fat for me to move, sucks to be you, you gotta wait until day shift because the pandemic has so decimated our staffing. But, by all means, let's not worry about Ba4/5 -- more transmissible than Omicron, but with the gut punch of Delta. Buckle up. This summer is going to suuuuuuuck.

Katie, I've been exposed numerous times (my DH was a dingbat, ate indoors, and caught it about two months ago -- probably BA2, but the kids and I did not), and regularly work 12 hour shifts with Covid patients in the ICU, and thus far have managed to escape it (though BA 4/5 will probably test my luck again). There is definitely hope. I wear a 3M Aura every day at work and it is my favorite mask. TexasProud, please don't give up. Have you seen the data on the long-term sequelae of even mild Covid? I recommend this recent Twitter thread from the Chair of UCSF Department of Medicine. He has been pretty middle of the road re Covid, IMO, but after his wife recently had a mild case, then had a Paxlovid rebound case, she's been experiencing symptoms of long Covid. He wrote this thread yesterday and it's a good summary of the data re why people should still try to avoid getting infected:

I didn't mention this in the big picture goals because there was no way that it could really be considered a "goal," but Sacha always hoped to apply for the Caroline D. Bradley Scholarship when he was in 7th grade, as long as he could keep up his grades and test scores. We knew it was a crazy long shot, and the time he spent working on the extensive application process really set him back this semester, such that he is still finishing up his coursework. But, we found out last week that Sacha is a finalist for the scholarship which, given the talented applicant pool, is already an incredible honor for him. He will have an in-person interview over the summer and is, of course, nervous about it because... adolescence... and also, because he has never interviewed for something so high-stakes. It's obviously a big deal for him. They announce the winners in September, so fingers crossed!

OMG, this is hilariously accurate. Unlike the other diligent homeschoolers in this thread, my son is a slacker AoPS kid. He comes to class without having read the textbook and without having worked any textbook problems, yet somehow manages to understand the material -- at some point. He knows by now that he absolutely has to get his writing problem in on time, but he may not always get all the challenge problems done, if he doesn't understand how to do them right away. Over time, he will go back and work on them until they mostly all turn blue. He is a terrible proof writer, overall, but either has an easier grader in Precalculus this term or is finally starting to get better at them. But, like the others, the text-based format, and lack of support on the message board when he gets stuck, has finally worn him down. He is switching to Stanford Online HS for Single Variable Calculus next fall, which is a live course that meets twice per week. It will be his first non-AoPS math class since we switched to Beast from Singapore. So, it was a hard decision for him to let go of AoPS.

So, it seems that you are talking about Fort Eustis, which is also the home of Langley AFB, and that is in the Newport News area. I am assuming that you're coming from Leavenworth or Fort Riley, which are indeed very isolated. The area around Fort Eustis is definitely going to have more traffic than rural Kansas, with Norfolk and the surrounding areas, so if driving in traffic is scary, I would try to live close to post or on post.

If we are talking about an Army post in the US, those are generally not going to be in the middle of large cities. People tend to complain when you start blowing stuff up near their expensive urban areas. So, the Army tends to be located in more rural communities where what you describe is more common. We live in the central part of a large metro area, so that would be very uncommon around here. We have Navy and Marines here, but they tend to blow stuff up offshore -- the marine life are less uppity.

I love Subpar Parks. I think someone posted them on the holiday list, which is how I found out about them. https://ambersharedesign.com/collections/subpar-parks

Both my 8 year old and I take Adderall XR for ADD/ADHD (we both also have anxiety). It's helped us both tremendously. He did not show improvement with two other ADHD meds (ritalin and concerta). Don't let your immediate feelings when you first start taking meds influence you. Give it a good month before deciding, unless you have a serious side effect.

I am so very sorry for your loss, Arcadia. May her memory be for a blessing. Sending you much love and many prayers for healing and peace.

Mine is just starting to "prep" (I use that word loosely) for AP HUG, which he has on 5/5, and he literally crammed the weekend before AP CS A last year and pulled off a 3. Seriously, zero studying until the weekend before (despite the study plan I gave him), and he had finished the course in December, so had forgotten half of the content by May. I was out of the state, finishing up nursing school, for the 6 weeks leading up the exam, and he was 12 at the time, so yeah. Just go for it. He's got this. You miss all the shots that you don't take.

I am still in shock that he is in this position. College admissions in the US is so so broken. I am sorry, Arcadia. I am so angry. This just sucks.

I wear an N95 in the ICU and may at some point switch back to a surgical mask (except when treating Covid patients), but I still don't feel comfortable doing that. My DH wears a KN95/94 when indoors (he prefers earloops, which N95s do not have). My kids wear the same to school and when doing indoor extracurriculars, like Parkour or Civil Air Patrol. We go out to restaurants, but only eat outdoors. We do indoor things, like a play, but will wear a mask. I recently started getting facials and massages (without a mask), but the spa has air filters running in every room and the therapists are fully vaccinated/masked. We do see vaccinated friends indoors without masks, and have even allowed one unvaccinated friend and her son inside because making a drama would have been unhealthy for my younger son, who has already suffered quite a bit emotionally from the pandemic. But, we still have a lot of people dying of Covid in San Diego, and we've gone this long (knock wood) without any of us getting it, and this level of risk/reward has been tolerable for us, so none of us sees the point in letting our guard down completely now. The kids are totally on board.