I have already posted about what I am doing, but I'll join in here too. After the kids went to college, I had to find something new to make my life life meaningful and valuable again. I decided I would try to teach English at the college level as an adjunct. My BS was science, so I went back for a semester of undergrad work taking 12 hours of upper level English courses. Then I started as a non-degree seeking grad student for a semester, because my credentials for the program were still weak. During that semester, I applied for entrance to the degree program and for a graduate assistant position. I am now officially enrolled in the MA English program with a Literature focus and in August I will start teaching 2 classes each semester as a GA. On a side note, I did consider a counseling/advising option too. I love helping students find their way, particularly homeschool students, but not exclusively. I think it is a natural route for homeschool parents because we have had to dive into those decision making processes.

So dh and I happily share a bathroom, no matter what is going on. This conversation actually came up in a group once and all but one couple happily shared. That said, he is WAY out of line! If you want privacy, you should be able to have it and whats more, picking the lock to get in it just beyond going to far. I like the idea of asking Rando. I don't think he could find anyone who would say his behavior is ok.

I have the option to do degree papers or a thesis. I'm undecided which I will do at this point. I did some research for a paper last spring that I am excited about and it will be expanding to either become a degree paper, or if it can't be contained there, a thesis ?. I'm actually meeting with my professor Tuesday to start getting it ready to be submitted for presentation at conferences, and we'll see where it goes from there.

Congrats! I started back last fall with a few undergrad classes to change from Science to English, and then started grad school in January. This year I have a graduate assistantship and will be teaching two classes in addition to taking my full-time load. It is a lot of fun getting back into school. I am definitely older and wiser than when I graduated (well over 20 years ago). I hope you enjoy it as much as I have!

Add my kids to the "one set of sheets" crew. They wash them and put them back on - probably about once a semester. I don't ask. They did both take about 5 bath towels, maybe two hand towels and wash clothes. They use bath puffs, not wash clothes in the shower.

I just want to give you a bit of encouragement. My oldest couldn't work independently and my kids, although close in age, hated to combine for anything. My schedule always looked like it was just one thing after another, but for them it really felt a little less so. They had independent work while I was working with their sibling and those times were pretty relaxed. Your kids may feel much less stressed by the schedule than you do. My younger would have wanted all the subjects and for them to be hers not combined too. It is ok to do that. You'll go back and forth and they'll come and go in a way that makes the day fly by. The advice you have gotten for amount of time or number of days per subject is worth considering. However, like you, my ds was a slow math guy (in fact your dd sounds a lot like him). It took an hour a day until he got older and it took 90 minutes. It is just what it took. Don't try to make your kids be someone else's kids. Do what works for you and you'll all be ok ?

One of mine was allowed to carry out one piece of fruit with each meal. He would take a banana and make a smoothie for breakfast or sometimes an orange as a snack. Smoothies, protein bars (cliff & luna are my kids faves), protein shakes (svelte), and bagels are about the only things I was ever able to get my ds to fix for himself in the dorm. He got better when he moved into an apartment.

He did't take it until 12th. We didn't plan to do APs or online classes, but threw in AP English (and stats) his senior year just because I thought he was completely beyond me by that point, and he was considering majoring in Writing, so I wanted to get some outside input.

You might be overthinking it. Ds did very well in AP English without any previous online classes. We just used Excellence in Literature for high school English prior to AP English with PA Homeschoolers. I think any reasonable literature and writing background will be fine.

Yep, Cbollin has it exactly right. Just find the test center you want to use, then pay for the admission ticket with that center on it and schedule. Test centers here charge $25 on top of the test fee charged by the college board, but tests can be scheduled during regular business hours 5 days/week most of the time. It is a little awkward, but really super easy.

I have some fish in my freezer that my dad caught. He died 7 years ago, so they are at least 8 years old.

For the wind sound you are describing, I would use sigh. For the waterfall, I would use drone.

Another vote for throwing it away if it is spoiled. I don't throw away edible food. If I notice something that has been there a long time, I might start looking for recipes that use it, but I wouldn't throw it away. My parents were both born during the depression and my mom's family was very poor. Most people who have been hungry won't throw away edible food and being raised by such a person also instills that idea.

No it doesn't.

Both of my kids were required to keep a meal plan as long as they lived in campus apartments. They both got the minimum plan, for ds that was 2 meals/week and for dd that was just a cash balance she could use. I provide $150/month for groceries/spending money. Neither one has any trouble keeping in that range for groceries. For ds it covers spending money too, but dd spends a lot more and covers additional spending with her 60 hour/week summer job.

I would guess it was chalked up to fine motor issues. Many disabilities are often co-morbid with poor fine motor skills. It would be interesting to know if he had enough artistic talent to make things look the way he saw them though. I would be fascinated to see what he saw!

My ds has had IQ tests vary by as much as 50 points! Disabilities can impact IQ tests in a way that completely invalidates them. I'm so glad the mom believed in herself enough to stand up for her child instead of giving up on him.

That is exactly what I thought!

This varies with the subject. We used the newer edition of Anatomy and Physiology and thought it was terrific. Jay Wile also gives it great reviews. Reviews of the third edition of Chemistry haven't been as positive. Jay Wile himself gave it a very negative review, but he also came out with a new Chemistry program, so I don't know if he can be considered non-biased. That is not to question his integrity - I've met Jay a few times and think very highly of him. For me, it would depend on the coop teacher. If you have a good teacher, use the 3rd edition, even of Chemistry. They can easily correct errors and bring the subject to life.

Both of my kids are automatically charged a fee that covers access to the student health clinic. We only had to waive the health insurance once and it never came up again. I thought I'd throw that out there just in case there are some parents panicking because they haven't seen anything about waiving health insurance for the second year and are afraid they missed it and will be charged. Not all schools do this.

I'm sure this is too late to be useful, but I loved Esperanza Rising and so did dd. I read Girl in Translation (I think after Esperanza), but I don't remember it well. It didn't leave much of an impression either positive or negative.

I feel your frustration! Another one I find frustrating is when teachers say they will reply to email within 24 hours and you send an email on Tuesday and get a reply the following week. I do see this statement pretty consistently, so it may be encouraged if not required. Don't discredit the idea the teacher is being required to place that in their syllabus just because others don't. It may be a departmental requirement. In my recent semester as an undergrad, I had one teacher that gave feedback twice during the semester, once two weeks after midterms and then the day grades had to be turned in. As a grad student, I had one teacher who gave his first feedback two weeks before the semester ended, although he told us to wait for that feedback before we did our final paper - 15 pages due a week later. I didn't wait.

Our experience is similar to Regentrude's - that this is a school dependent issue. Both my kids merit aid was unaffected by living arrangements, but my niece's was impacted enough that it was financially necessary to remain on campus all 4 years. Check with the school.

I'm working on that myself. I went back at 50. My master's will be in a different field than my bachelor's so I did one semester of undergrad, one semester of grad, then got a position as a grad assistant which makes school free and pays me a stipend each semester. It isn't much, but it is enough to make it easy to assure the ROI and I'm having a great time! The other advantage to being a student and part time college teacher is that I still have a lot of flexibility in my schedule. I think that is helping me with the transition from homeschooler, mom, and wife to professional. I can still do those things everyone is used to me doing.

I never thought of trying to keep the same curriculum year to year. The only subject we tried to be consistent with was math because each program uses a slightly different scope and sequence, but even there we used a different program for algebra (1 & 2) vs geometry. We did something different each year for history. English repeated a couple of times, but there was at least 3 sources per child. No school they applied to ever questioned any curriculum. Although I provided course descriptions that listed resources used, no one ever asked about anything.