This is true for me too.

I am also hoping for the return of social groups. Any idea when we might be seeing them? Thanks!

I had EMDR therapy about a decade ago. It may have saved my life. I was a complete skeptic but desperate for relief after a very traumatic experience left me unable to eat, sleep, or live without debilitating anxiety. I felt relief after the very first session and felt (almost) normal after about the fifth.

Celebrating with you! I remember when my dd was at a weird stage in her learning where I was having trouble finding books that worked for her. I ended up writing some stories with her as the main character and the animals and people in our lives as the other characters. They took very little time to write and she enjoyed them immensely. I still have a few that she illustrated, a great remembrance of how hard we worked to get where we are today.

Thanks, Farrar. I will look into Jacobs'.

Thanks, Ravin, I will consider that. My only concern is that it might not be complete enough? When I compare JA to Saxon, it is much more inspirational, but way less complete. Maybe I am wrong about that.

My dd(12) has been doing Saxon math since Kindergarten. It has worked well for us, and I never really looked at other options because she always liked math. We are doing Saxon 8/7 this year and the math joy has just drained out of it for her. I bought Jousting Armadillos a few weeks ago, which we are alternating with Saxon. My dd absolutely loves it, and I am beginning to think I will be robbing her of a thoroughly enjoyable math experience by continuing with Saxon. I will finish Saxon 8/7 and Jousting Armadillos with her this year, but I am dreaming on a different math option for next year. I would like some recommendations for a solid, but not gifted, math student who has a mom that struggles to keep up. (My math skills have atrophied over the years and I don't think I ever had the deeper understanding of math that dd does.) Also, dd is very dyslexic, so even though she understands concepts, she often makes errors due to transposing numbers, reading things wrong, lining things up poorly. She is getting better little by little, but the majority of her math errors are due to these mistakes rather than a lack of understanding of how to do the problems. It is possible that we are just hitting a puberty wall, but hit me with your favorite algebra programs and ideas, please. Thanks!

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Oh my goodness! This is a lot. Many hugs for you and your family.

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It is abundantly clear that you are an amazing mama. You gave your daughter everything a parent can give. May the memories you made together, and of her art, dance, and determination, lift you up and sustain you. I am keeping your family in my thoughts.

I have not read the book, but my brother graduated from college at seventeen. My parents did not push him at all. In fact, they were kind of asleep. When my brother was a freshman in high school a teacher noticed he was bright, recommended going to the university for some classes, and the university just absorbed him into their system. He excelled in this environment academically but had no social life. While he was in graduate school he had a bit of an awakening (Friendships! Love!) and felt that lots of really bright people went to high school, and he could have been academically stimulated while still getting to be a kid. He felt that he missed childhood, missed being able to make mistakes, to develop, to play sports, to have a girlfriend, etc. Even though I always felt that I lived in his shadow (the average little sister of the exceptional older brother), he told me many times as an adult that he envied my much more rambling pathway to adulthood. Obviously this isn't the experience of every person who goes to college young, and it's not the same as taking a few classes at the community college, but I think it's worth remembering that there is no hurry and there are important ways that adolescents are developing that are not academic.

Another great free resource that might pair well with Duolingo is the Destinos series, a telenovela that teaches incremental Spanish and is free through Annenberg Learner. My dd is doing something similar with French in Action (also free through Annenberg) and Duoloingo and I cannot believe how much she has learned. At some point she will want to incorporate a textbook to deepen her understanding, but she really is learning to speak French this way.

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My dd is half way through sixth. Math: Saxon 8/7 and just starting Jousting Armadillos Writing: Jump In (very slowly) Typing/Spelling: Touch Type Read and Spell (I highly recommend for dyslexics and struggling spellers.) History: Human Odyssey and literature Science: RSO Biology 2 French: French in Action and Duolingo Grammar: Evan Moore daily grammar practice Geography: Online games Art: Artelier It looks like a lot when I write it out, but we don't do it all every day.

I remember this. I think her kids would wear their uniforms and walk around the block before starting school. The photo was fantastic.

This is heartbreaking. There are still dozens of people missing.

Hooray!!!! Good job mama and dd.

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I love this. Thanks for the suggestion. January: I am doing the Whole 30 this month with my dh. I am also walking every morning with dh before school/work. I will have to dream a little on next month's goal.

This was so encouraging. Thanks for posting.

I was married at nineteen and divorced at twenty eight. I am so grateful that my parents were (outwardly) supportive of the marriage even though it didn't work out. It would have been hard for me to come to them when my marriage failed if I had felt their disapproval. Divorcing was already hard enough without having an "I told you so" attached to it. I needed my parents support and love an I always felt it. You are absolutely doing the right thing.

I have used my blender to grind coffee the past. Necessity is the mother of invention.

You mean it isn't the basket right next to the dirty laundry pile?