Are you sure you aren't talking about my ds? That was exactly what I was thinking this time last year. The freshman day helped a little, but not as much as I'd hoped. Hang in there.

A light dinner here on the weekend is sometimes popcorn and smoothies.

Oops, I misread your signature. At 2 and 6 mine were definitely jumping on furniture. Making obstacle courses that included jumping on, running across, and sliding off angled cushions was a favorite. :lol: To each his own. I don't see it as a big deal if a young child thought it would be ok to jump on your couch. You have every right to tell them no and they should obey that without argument. They probably hadn't been told it wasn't always an ok thing to do. I don't think you were rude at all to tell the dad that you are concerned about your furniture and don't want the kid jumping on it. It is your house, your furniture, and your rules. I'm sure he was just embarrassed (or clueless). I would have been mortified!

I hope for reimbursements faster, but I don't really expect them in less than 30 days.

Yeah, I eat between 7-6, so I use an 11 hour window, it is just earlier than yours OP. I'm a morning person and the more I eat after lunch, the less likely I am to lose weight. Your body, your rhythms. There is nothing wrong with finding what works for you. Congratulations on breaking your plateau.

So, what is it that you are trying to do with photos that your iPad can't handle? I'm just curious. There are a lot of reasons I wouldn't give up my MacBook and go all iPad. I thought about it when we got the iPad, but there were too many things I couldn't do or couldn't do as well. However, photos weren't one of them. That makes me wonder if it could work for you.

This. My oldest had sensory processing issues. He really needed to jump and crash into things. We had therapy equipment in the house, a platform swing, a trapeze bar, a jump-o-lene, and a huge mat. However, we also encouraged cushion fort building, cushion slides (not on stairs), balancing on arms and backs of furniture, you name it. My kids never really tried to use couches for trampolines, but they did play actively on the furniture. I doubt it ever occurred to me to warn them not to try this behavior at other people's houses, however, I did always emphasize that you follow the rules of the house you are in. OP, by the ages of your kids in your sig, I would not have expected kids to be jumping on furniture. It was more of a pre-school early elementary thing. 8 & 10 are too big, although at those ages we still offered plenty of active play options. Oh, and my furniture is now 17 yrs old. It held up with no damage through the wild play years. Although the throw pillows on the couch suffered lol.

What reef said exactly. There are many legitimate uses of science lab time. One is to learn the scientific method, apply it and discover something. Another is to see the application of what you have learned. Demonstrations count if the child is the one demonstrating - not you. So if the lab just demonstrates a concept, that is absolutely an appropriate high school lab. I have seen the lightbulb moments that happen why my kids do demonstration labs. Learning to use lab equipment, dissections that allow kids to see what the pictures are only hinting at, there are so many ways to use lab time. Some of them are quick and easy. Some of them are messy. Some of them are long. Variety is wonderful in all things, science labs are not excluded from this rule in my opinion. :)

Someone suggested on your other thread that you separate out the high schooler when making your plans. I agree with this. Is your oldest currently in 10th - 11th next year or are you planning 10th next year. What classes is he/she doing? What do you want him/her to do next year? I would take the high schooler and plan 1 subject at a time. For example, it might make sense to do TT for math, but not if they are already going into Pre-Calc, because that is as far as TT goes. TT is not cheap, so using it might also limit your budget for other subjects, but it might be worth it to you if you need independence. Excellence in Literature is an inexpensive and independent English curriculum for high school. What history do you need? What science? Foreign language? Electives? Give us some specifics and we'll help you come up with options. You can also look through the pinned threads at the top of this board for science and math options.

Caveman Chemistry might work.

I'm guessing this thread is leaving you more overwhelmed instead of less. I'm probably not going to make it better. To start with, all the wonderful options in tWTM can be overwhelming to a new homeschooler, particularly jumping in at Jr High/High School There is fear of getting it wrong without time to fix it, particularly for the 9th grader. I'll tell you not to panic :). You can follow SWB's suggestions or you can use some prepackaged curriculum to make jumping in easier. Here are my suggestions if you want to go the later route. For grammar, I would use Analytical Grammar. For your 9th grader, do the whole thing in one year. For the 7th grader you can spread it over 3 years - there are plans included to do both. For writing, certainly take a look at WWS. However, some kids have a hard time adapting to a classical approach to writing when starting at later grades/ages. IEW is a good choice for those who want clear instruction and a very structured approach to writing. If neither of those approaches appeal to you (or your boys), you could look at Sharon Watson's writing materials. Jump In is perfect for 7th grade and The Power is in Your Hands is her high school level course. I consider each of these to be much more like the writing instruction that they will likely have had in the ps, but they will help the boys get on track for their age/grade. To finish out their English Credit, you will also need to add in some literature. Lightning Literature 7 is a great introduction to literature for your 7th grader. For high school, I prefer Excellence In Literature. Be careful about overloading your English credit for your 9th grader. You probably won't want to put more than 1 credit of high school English on his transcript. It is easy to overload that and have him working a couple hours a day on English. Take your time. If he needs to work through Literature and Writing spread across 2 years, that is fine. Just have him work on it consistently and make sure he is making progress. For math, I suggest looking at some samples and letting the boys take some placement tests. Saxon is very unique in its teaching style and approach. If they haven't used it before it can be difficult to jump into. TT is much easier to jump into, but is considered somewhat light. I don't know what levels of math you are looking for so it is hard to give any suggestions. I'd suggest you look through math options for the high school maths on this pinned thread on the high school board. If you haven't already, you should come on over to the high school board. Your 9th grader is already there and your 7th grader isn't far behind. Homeschooling high school can be intimidating, but it is well worth it, I promise! Welcome!

Ds did this. He got into his first choice school with the merit aid necessary for him to go there. Then he started talking about not going to college. Ds did have a major in mind, but really didn't have a career in mind, so he started saying college would be a waste of time. It was nerves talking. How it has played out (so far). • We convinced him to go on a semester by semester basis. Try it. You aren't committing to 4-years, you are committing to 4 months. • He liked school and dorm life once he got there. He has multiple LD's but has chosen not to use the accommodations he was granted and has had some challenges. • He took a class that he loved and was able to see how changing his major would allow him to pursue a similar career and for the first time really sees a career plan ahead. • He is now double majoring and planning to get a degree. He has a career in mind and his degree(s) will be very helpful. He enjoys school overall.

None. There were no subjects that we didn't do daily when we were working on them. Many subjects were only done for one semester, either one or two hours per day for .5 or 1 credit. Of course there are days that a subject just doesn't happen because other things are taking priority, but I never created a schedule that planned only a couple days/week for any class.

I thing the best answer here is to defer to the teacher. I taught my kids not to use first person. It is important to have that skill because most English teachers will mark down for first person references like those mentioned by the OP. OTOH, many teachers are fine with the use of first person and some even encourage it. Make sure your kids know how to write without using first person, but also make sure they are capable of following ANY teacher's instructions. In college, they will do a lot of writing that will be graded by teacher's who were not English majors i.e. science, history, philosophy, etc. Making sure their writing is pleasing to their audience is key.

MUS Geometry covers everything on the ACT. Proofs are not on the ACT. My kids never missed a geometry question on the ACT practice tests (I didn't look that closely at the real thing). I definitely consider it enough to be a full high school geometry course, or I wouldn't have used it twice. I'm not sure it is the best choice if your student will need Calculus and above in college. MUS geometry does only offer a light introduction to proofs. If your child is going to do math that will require extensive proofs in college, I think they would be at a disadvantage.

I'm going to chime in with another vote not to worry. MUS Geometry will NOT take a full year. Keep plugging through Algebra and start Geometry when she finishes. I will bet she finishes Geometry on time next year, even with the late start. If not, it won't take all summer. She'll be fine and ready to go for Algebra 2 the following year. Both my kids used MUS Geometry. One is very slow with multiple LD's and even he finished MUS Geometry in less than a year.

This. I think when people point to individual schools with high tuition, they are missing that there are schools in every state that are still affordable, and in the majority of states, tuition & fees average at state universities average less than 10,000/yr. There are multiple colleges in my state that have OOS tuition around $12,000/yr and many colleges offer in-state tuition to neighboring states or regional discounts. College isn't cheap, but with a little shopping and an open mind, it can still be affordable for most people.

I'm not a phone person, we used email. I agree with 8, make sure the answers to your question aren't on the website and don't look for trouble. Provide everything they ask for, but don' suggest additional requirements. :)

First child - one. Then I made him apply to a financial safety. He was right, one was enough. He's there now. Second child - Two. Dd applied to one school, visited, was accepted, planned to go. Then last week we were looking at the fall course listings as they came out and were very unhappy with class sizes. She did an application to her (previously) second choice school and we're going to visit next week. I'm wishing I had made her follow through with them last fall when she considered them. It is another state school with guaranteed admissions with her stats and very late deadlines, so she will still be accepted and have a guaranteed scholarship. However, she has missed the first housing priority deadline and I could have lived without the last minute whirlwind. She will decide which school after the visit next Monday.

You don't need a placement test for Lial's. They teach every concept from the beginning. If she is missing skills, she will pick them up as she goes. It is a great book for transitioning from a weaker math program (ds transitioned to if from MUS). The only caveat there is that if she doesn't already know the first sections of each chapter that are supposed to be review, it will take her a long time to get through the book. I still recommend it in your situation. Can't help with Saxon.

DIVE is a full semester of Chemistry. In my opinion it is the perfect amount to include in Physical Science, but it may be too much to fit in your schedule :). DIVE does have a syllabus that matches to Apologia adding in internet links for what Apologia doesn't cover. That might work out ok for you. The first 15 weeks are Chemistry, it looks like less than 4 weeks of that material is covered in Apologia though. I haven't used any of the other resources you list so I can't comment on those. We did use some of Ellen Mchenry's stuff. Carbon Chemistry is organic chemistry and while it wouldn't hurt, that isn't what is typically covered in a physical science or even the first year of high school chemistry. But you're a homeschooler - you don't have to stick to what is typically covered if you don't want to :). ETA, if you supplement with DIVE, just watch the labs and DON'T use his tests. Just a cursory run through of the material added to Apologia might not be too overwhelming. Just thinking out loud.

Ds goes to a small private LAC. It was the only place he really wanted to go. I encouraged (forced) him to apply to the local state U where he got their top automatic scholarship and could have lived at home. It would have just cost a couple thousand a year and we could have done that easily. He didn't want to go there, but until we got all the scholarship info in from the LAC to be sure he could go there... I required he apply to a financial safety. The local State U would not have been free for ds. If finances were tighter still, we'd have used the local CC for a financial safety. My definition of a financial safety is a school you are sure your children can get into and you are sure whoever is paying will be able to afford. What that means to each family varies.

I bought the same one. We did buy ds a memory foam mattress topper to go under this (he was used to a memory foam mattress). It came in a reasonably small package and we did not open it and let it expand until we got there. For dd, we will probably just go with the mattress pad. She's not a fan of memory foam.

I'll admit that this is the #1 reason ds is in college. He needed the safe place to grow up a little more that I think the college environment provides. Do I care that he will also get a degree in 4 years (hopefully), well of course. I don't know what exactly he will do with that degree and neither does he. I hope he is able to figure that out along the way. In the mean time he does the growing up thing, and at the end he has a degree which prevents the glass ceiling effect of not having a degree. BTW he has an academic scholarship that will allow him to graduate without anyone taking on any debt. Dd has definite career goals with her degree, but she will go to a (relatively) small State U and again, will graduate without debt. We are not rich, but we did save. We value higher ed in our family and think it is worth the cost even without a definite plan on how it will all work out in the end.

Yeah, but in my state that is 1.5 miles.