Part of being 9 is learning what is and is not appropriate in various social contexts. I've no doubt ALL kids use a drastically different vocab hanging out with their friends than they do at home with us stodgy parentals. Even now my eldest, when home from college, is a bit more colorful, though still reserved, in speech with dear old dad (me, btw) that when within earshot of his mother. Aside from pointing this fact of life out, I don't think it sounds like much of an issue: a live-and-learn, experience sort of thing.

My son just started college, taking one class over the summer so he could train with his team (gymnast) and is now in full force. 1. How difficult was it to make sure all classes were accredited? Meaning, the online school our son attended last year was fully accredited. My kids had to suffer with me designing/teaching/grading the whole shebang. Nobody at university seemed to care. They were more concerned with topics covered; so many math credits, so many English credits, foreign language credits, etc. His ACT scores jived nicely with the grades I awarded. One university did admit that they perform deeper investigations, requiring samples of student work, if HS grades are straight As while SAT/ACT scores are below average, and rightfully so. The NCAA were another matter. It was an awful experience and they were very upfront about being far more rigorous (read that as pig-headed, please) than they are for traditional students. They have their own form for home school classes and each and every class, for all four years, requires its own form. In the end I'd created a novella for them and they still hemmed and hawed. If you have to interact with them, start a good year in advance because they are very hard on home schoolers and refuse to use common sense or to move with any sense of urgency. 2. How hard was it to create a transcript for your child? For the colleges, as easy as making a table in MS Word. I included year, semester, course title, text books along with ISBNs, brief description, grade, and credits per class. 3. Did your child have a hard time getting accepted into a college? Got accepted at every college applied to, save one, without reservation. That one college was very frank about being the only large state college available and so out of state students had a hard time due to the thousands of in-state students vying for a spot. It did help that he did well on his ACT. It also helped that he took a couple of dual credit courses at the local university so he had a collegiate track record. Then again, anything that gives your child a competitive edge will help. 4. How did you keep up with everything? Meaning, what was or is the most efficient way of making sure all is completed as it should be throughout these years. I didn't have too much difficulty. I kept record of what he took and "cheated" by looking online at local schools (private schools are pretty good about posting on their websites what credits are needed and what year to take what classes). In the end, I made sure his final transcript had all the right classes with right number of credits.

We sent our daughter to a wait-listed fine arts academy this year. She lasted 4 weeks and asked to return to home schooling. Hope you have better luck.

Maybe you do need to accept that is how he is with math. Don't give up and certainly don't allow it to become a source of misery in both your lives. But, if that is how he is just help him maximize the potential he has. It certainly does not mean higher concepts in math are beyond him. I'm 50+ with an engineering degree and a math minor. What you describe as your son at math is exactly how I did math and in a lot of instances, still do. No amount of flash cards, games, or memorizing times tables helped me one bit. Origionally, the numbers were drawn so that you could count angles and endpoints when adding and subtracting. I discovered ways to use the shapes of numbers to count out math problems because Sister Mary Holywater would pitch a fit if I was caught counting on my fingers. I never have seen a link to using the shape of the number to count on, but there must be one somewhere since that's how they started out. Addendum: I piqued my own curiosity so I found a site: http://www.slideshare.net/ghael0625/origin-of-numbers

To my wife: I just read a post about being wistful. Is there someting wrong with me that I don't feel that? Wife: You mean aside from being a guy? No, you're good.

My son tries to do complex problems in his head. What helped him was to mandate he write out all steps, skipping none, and show all work. So 3^4 would be: 3^4 = 3x3x3x3= 9x9= 81 Just so PEMDAS (order of operations rules), become: (4^2 + (24 / 3 + 3^2)) = (4^2 + (24 / 3 + 3 x 3)) = (4^2 + (24 / 3 + 9)) = (4^2 + (8 + 9)) = (4^2 + 17) = 4x4+17= 16 + 17 = 33 Tedious? Yes! But it makes problem solving the same as following a cooking recepie. Eventually it becomes habit and the pace really picks up. At least it did for us.

One summer, I bought a small book of basic "story problems" to work on over the break. It was a huge help!

Take heart! I am still finishing off last years work and am dividing chemistry into chem 1 and chem 2. We do sports. My son does it a LOT! Life is all about trade-offs. More of this nearly always means less of that. Just how it is! More learning time can come to mean less childhood time. They have the rest of their lives to fill in any gaps educationally. Once childhood is over all they can do is look back with either joy or regret. So the questions to ask are 1) are they enjoying their childhood and 2) are they preparing for their adulthood. You say they are learning so there's that answered. What say you to #1? Besides, being well educated means a lot more than simply knowing a bunch of stuff. Learning how to learn is more important and knowing what it means to be morally sound is more important still.

Peter Pan, Robinson Carouso, Treasure Island, are all good books to read to young boys. They'd be a dreadful chore for them to try and read for themselves at that age.

We just wrapped up HS Geometry. My take on it is it reinforces Algebra 1 concepts, it teaches deconstruction of complex problems into step-by-step processes, and it trains the mind to logically approach problem solving. Most of the pain associated with it stemed from proofs. There is a LOT to memorize in order to really do a proof. I hated proofs when I took it in HS. My wife (PhD engineer) hated proofs. My son loved the application parts. He hated what little he did of proofs (we steared fairly clear). Obviously, my recommendation is to cover the application stuff, focus on building solutions to problems or conducting an investigation into a subject from the ground up asking, "OK. What do I know and where can I go?" (a sort of mathematical Socratic method), and take a very casual approach to proofs. But hey, that's just one man's opinion!

Your kids -> Your rules. Just be sure you have well thought out explanations/justifications for why you want things they way you want them.

If you are that far out, I perhaps eroneously am assuming you have a bit of land. Boys like projects. Is it feasable to have him build a treehouse or other form of personal retreat for himself/sibs?

My daughter and I have ADD without Hyperactivity. In HS mine went undiagnosed. Mine was/is relatively mild and at the time I was a bit of a punk so everyone just chalked it up to bad attitude. For me, I'd physically be reading the words but mentally I was absant so it was like I didn't read them at all. I did come up with a few strategies on my own back then so here is what got me through: 1) I read in lots of short bursts, stopping often to summarize in my head what I had just read. There were days I'd have to stop and sum up every 5 minutes. 2) If I read in long sessions I forced myself to re-read and re-read until I got it. There were days I read the same paragraph 4 or 5 times. 3) I read aloud. I made sure no one else could hear me. This led to other benefits down the road but at the time, yuk! 4) Perhaps the most helpful was that I read summaries such as cliff notes, spark, etc. before I read the material. There were two benefits to this. The first was that I had guide posts to help keep me aware of where I was in the story. The second was, since I went to a brick and morter school, that if I didn't read the material I could skate by as if I did. I know, not really a benefit, unless you are 15 and struggling! And I did freely admit earlier to being a bit of a punk at that time of my life. 5) Maybe it was puberty causing the fluctuations but some days were definately worse than others (though that is still the case and I'm 50 now!). On many occasions I simply had to blow it off entirely because it just wasn't going to happen. So another important strategy I learned was to know when it was time to walk away, be OK with that, and not view it as some sort of failure. Unfortunately that made 5 1/2 necessary. 5 1/2) I had to suck it up and come back again and again until I got through it. 6) I split my time between stuff I had to read and stuff I wanted to read. It really helped to make it through stuff I had no interest at all in reading to have plots and characters elsewhere I actually found engaging. Now the good news. I now love reading! I enjoy mysteries, classics, poetry, everything (except roomance; probably a guy-thing). It still takes me a month or maybe two to get through a book but, away from time-pressured assigned reading, who gives a hoot!? It is really enjoyable and since it does take a bit more effort for me it is a labour of love. As I grew older and became more self disciplined, less willing to cut myself slack (the Army helped with that!), and developing the attitude of this is who I am so deal with it, things became much easier. When I finally did go to college, I still worked and read very slow but accepted the extra effort as part of being me and did rather well. Sure, the time-pressured requirements were still there and tests were a nightmare since I could never finish them, but even then I had figured out ways to meet the requirements on my own terms. Everyone's situation is different so I would never presume to say since this is how it was for me this must be how it will go for everyone. Still, there is always hope your daughter will settle into her own reading groove in her and God's good time. As for not enjoying Lit., and I say this in love and compassion, she's young. To be honest, most kids are not into Lit. and I often question its appropriateness for them. It is a chore, not a choice. I dig it now but at 15, 16, 17? Oh Heck No! If the barbarians weren't quaffing ale and brawling, starships weren't blowing each other up, or rogues weren't wenching, I was not interested! On the other hand, seeds were sewn that grew into fruition later down the road.

A Seperate Peace is not a bad read for boys. Hatchet is OK too but 1) really isn't a classic and 2) is more on the 6 - 7 grade reading level. As a side note: I had to read Catcher in the Rye in HS. To this day it rates as one of the worst books I've ever read but many consider it a classic.

Is it possible to get a letter, on official letterhead of course, from whomever you submitted the letter of intent with the simple statement "Jeanne in MN has met all requirements necessary to homeschool <student's name> in the state of MN." I'm sure they have a rubberstamp for something like that. Also, it may just be as simple as going back and working with a different clerk or demanding to speak to supervisors. Printouts of the state requirements might prove helpful as well.