Thanks. As I said, the situation is delicate, and I have been purposely vague and left out many details. The children are not being neglected. Not physically, or educationally according to the laws in our state. Also, one of the people aware of the situation and lending peripheral support holds a position where mandatory reporting is a huge part of their job. So we are all very aware of where the lines are on the legal end of things. The goal of all of the adults involved is to step in BEFORE things reach those levels. So far, I believe things are being kept in a safe zone, but the situation is being closely monitored.

We are in a no regulation state. Not even a Notice of Intent. So no legal requirements to worry about. I hadn’t thought of CLE for the 6yo but that really may be easiest for the ones doing the schooling. I’ll add that to my list. I didn’t realize that the “system” changed in higher grades. Thanks for pointing that out.

Thank you! I’ll check into it. In our state we have no homeschool legal requirements so I’m not familiar with these kinds of things. When I talk to my friend tomorrow I’ll get a better idea of what they need. Having a lot of options will be good.

Yes, my recommendation for the 6yo was going to be to keep it really simple. Do you think two days a week are enough to teach a six year old to read? I always aimed for 3-4 days a week with mine. I hadn’t thought about CLE for the teen but maybe something like that or Paces would be good for this year. Paces wouldn’t be my first choice but as an emergency fill in might be ok. I will definitely recommend diagnostic tests for math and reading/English. I’m pretty sure the teen reads ok but I’ll ask about that.

Using an umbrella school isn’t really a thing where we are, I don’t think. Are these state specific? Or National? I’ll add it to my list of things to research tonight.

Thanks for all the suggestions! deleted for privacy If you quoted me and wouldn’t mind deleting I’d appreciate it.

I have seven siblings and we all played multiple instruments growing up - lots of piano, a couple of violins, a couple of cellos, trumpet, flute, guitar, and voice. Sometimes several of us would practice at the same time (in different rooms of the house) and we’d all try to play louder than anyone else. Obviously trumpet and piano had the advantage here but those high notes on the flute and violin could cut through sometimes too. I should maybe apologize to my mother for this. 🤔

My DH is also in law enforcement. When he first started we already had our four kids (ages newborn to 5yo). It was rough! The first 6 months he was in the academy, which is a live-in program here. I had our 4th baby two weeks after he started. After that he rotated shifts every month. I think the thing that made it doable was that I was a SAHM and I homeschooled. That gave us the flexibility we needed to make it work. It was still difficult though. I taught piano lesson at the time so I had a set schedule while he did not. Also, it was difficult for him to keep track of the family schedule when his was constantly changing. That created a fair amount of frustration for us. I tried all different types of schedules to make things work better. Sometimes they helped, other times not so much. Now, his shift is constant, 3pm-11pm (not counting overtime, of course) but his days off rotate weekly. This is a challenge too. Our kids are all older now and have pretty set schedules due to activities. I have to handle most of this on my own. I can only schedule activities for the kids if I can be the one to take them as DH is only available to help with kid stuff sporadically. And with his days off rotating weekly he almost never remembers what the kids and I have going on each day. It definitely feels like single parenting sometimes. He likes to spend time with us, which is nice, but his days off are often on days that are busy for the rest of us and he finds it frustrating that we aren’t available to have a day “off” when he is. We have made it work for over 10 years now but it isn’t easy. Our marriage has had it’s challenges as well which adds to the difficulty. But we’ve managed. If I was working too I don’t know if we would have made it. I can definitely see why so many shift work marriages and LE marriages specifically end in divorce.

Same. I was thinking “What? I can sell my pet peeves? Cool! But who would want them and why in the world would I want to buy anyone else’s?!” Then I realized I should probably get some sleep or something. Ha!

Thanks! I hadn’t thought to google kid’s habit trackers. There are so many ways to google this. I want to do this myself too for some habits I’d like to work on. Seems like doing it with my teens would be a good idea. I’ve found close to what I want but not exactly so I may just modify something meant for another purpose.

I have sedentary kids and would like to encourage more activity for all of us as we go into a new school year. I’m thinking an activity tracker similar to the sheets available from the 1000 hours outside page (but with fewer spaces) would maybe be fun for my artsy kids. I’d like to make each coloring “space” only 15 minutes so I don’t want too many spaces. I also would like to know how many spaces there are without having to count them up. Does anyone know of anything like this? There must be something but I can’t figure out how to search it.

Thanks. I’ve been here for years and typically don’t mind reading “all sides” or just scrolling by some people. But some posts are too short and I read too fast. I end up catching everything before I get past things I’d rather not see. Off to find this “ignore” feature.

How do you block someone on here? I don’t comment often but I read a lot and there’s some things I just don’t need to read.

Thanks. I like the looks of it overall and I think the step by step instructions will be helpful. It’s just not laid out as clearly as the other IEW materials we’ve used. Maybe I’ll choose a new topic too. The suggested articles are pretty dated at this point anyway.

Yes! I was definitely thinking in circles! Took a break yesterday and will get back to it today. The goal is to finish the planning by the end of this week and this middle school history/literature thing is the last one. The end is in sight! But yes, solving other’s “stuff” is definitely easier! I’ve gotten a good amount of school planning done for my sister lately and found that to be MUCH easier. LOL

Thank you Lori! I always appreciate your posts. I’ll look through these ideas and see what my library has. Your “confused” reaction was completely warranted. LOL I was confusing myself at that point. I think I was on my fourth edit of the post and/or title and was completely confused myself! I was definitely overthinking and then I started mixing up dates and time periods in my head and wasn’t sure if my question was making sense. So I just deleted it. I just needed to take a break, I think. Anyway…thanks again!

This conversation about fetal cell use in vaccine production is a good one to have, I’m sure, but that wasn’t my question. I was actually just wondering if anyone knows whether J&J is at all effective against delta. I suppose I could go look for that information myself but I’ve been busy and the women here are usually so informed I thought maybe I could save myself the trouble. One more shot and I guess then I’ll have to stop being lazy and go do my own research. So….does anyone know how effective J&J is against delta? My friends’ hesitation could POSSIBLY be because of fetal cell use, but I don’t actually know that it is. Also, does anyone know how close novavax is to being approved? Or how it’s looking against delta?

Possibly because of fetal cells but I don’t know if that would be an issue with Novavax as well. Primarily, these friends are among the vaccine hesitant who are now considering getting off the fence and getting a vaccine. The J&J would be a first choice (among approved vaccines) but if it doesn’t have any effectiveness against delta it seems kind of pointless as delta is responsible for the vast majority of cases around here.

Does anyone know how the J&J is holding up against delta? I’ve seen reports about how “they” think pfizer is doing but nothing about J&J. Also, has anyone heard anything new about novavax? When it might be approved? How it does against delta? Last I heard it was highly effective, comparable to the initial effectiveness of mRNA vaccines, but with significantly reduced side effects. I believe I read that it was extremely effective against variants as well but I don’t know if delta was one of them. I read an article about it a few weeks ago (that I can’t find now) suggesting this might be the better vaccine option once approved. I know several people who are hesitant to take an mRNA vaccine that would happily take this option if it was available.

Deleted because I’ve been planning for next school year non-stop for days and I no longer know what I’m talking about or what I actually need. I’m going to come up with a loose plan and then wing it for the rest. Ha!

I’m going to be working through IEW’s Writing Research Papers with my high schoolers this year. The beginner level uses pre-chosen articles on Social Media for the first “research” paper. Am I missing something regarding finding these articles? Are they all together somewhere? They don’t seem to all be in the book. Only a few. Or am I just supposed to find them all online. Not a big deal, I guess, but if I’m missing an easier way I’d love to avoid the extra work.

We like ear cuffs here. I don’t find that they hurt if I adjust the tightness to fit my ear. All of my daughters and I wear them for an “edgy” look but without the commitment of a cartilage piercing. One of DDs has one that connects to a matching earring with a chain that she wears if she wants something a little more bold.

And I have no intention of giving up raw cookie dough! Ha!

MAYBE the people who responded saying that they would no longer require their under 12s to mask come from states that already don’t have a mask mandate for anyone regardless of vaccination status (there are quite a few from my understanding). Perhaps they had decided as a family to mask anyway, per CDC guidelines, regardless of what their state was or was not mandating. But now that the CDC guidelines have changed again, and a large majority in their state will no longer be masking, maybe they’ve just decided to let their unvaccinated children go maskless as well. No longer following CDC guidance, but also not breaking any of their state’s rules. I don’t live in a state without a mask mandate so none of this applies to me, just thinking we could give people the benefit of the doubt rather than assuming they plan to lie.