I agree with the others--begin as simply as possible as you get to know other families. I lead a co-op that started in 2002 with just a handful of families that met at the park once a month and planned a field trip for a second meeting per month while we were at the park. Our kids were young so informal social events were all we really needed. As the kids got older and the group got bigger we added classes and became a full-fledged co-op, with a support group for the social stuff on the side. 15 years later some of the original families are still in the group, though the oldest kids have now graduated. I've made my best friends as an adult through co-op, and my kids have grown up with this extended co-op "family." Co-ops are a great way to build community, but keep it simple and build from there, especially with very young children.

This has been my experience as well. Another thing I've noticed is that my child with learning difficulties, in requiring so much from me school-wise, has colored my interaction with my younger, NT child. I realized recently that I am under-challenging my youngest, who is NT, due to the fact that I've had to make so many accommodations for his brother, who is not. Kinda like I forgot how to school a NT child--realizing it has been a breath of fresh air (because I don't have to make so many accommodations this time around).

Saying this gently, as someone who has just come out on the other side of seeing two highly distractable middle school boys through homeschooling, but you are expecting a lot of a child whom you have already classified as naturally distracted. If he was distracted as an elementary student, middle school is probably going to be worse, because there is so much going on with their bodies that their minds sometimes just seem to disappear entirely. Checklists and quiet places are great and will likely help him. Just remember to keep your expectations in line with where he is, not with where you think he should be. He may be fully engaged in logic-stage thinking one day, and the next day rolling around the floor with his siblings, completely unable to focus. That's okay, and it's all part of it. Be prepared to step back, give grace, and allow plenty of time to still be a kid.

Fabulous news--congrats!

Tomorrow. 25 years. How can that be when I am so young?? :lol:

I don't have a kid story but a sibling story that should encourage you. My sister for whatever reason did not take any foreign language in high school. It was the early 80s so it was not the same intensive "what to take to get to college" experience that is now, and besides she just wanted to take fun art classes:-) So at the university, she started at the beginning with Spanish 1. Except that everyone else in the class had had a couple of years of Spanish in high school and only took Spanish 1 for an easy A. Since most of the class could move quickly, the instructor did. My sister struggled mightily and either failed or nearly failed that first class, and the next class or two in the sequence. The instructor even told her she wasn't cut out for studying languages and she should change to a major that did not require it. Stuff like this just makes my sister mad, so she persevered through the two years of Spanish that were required. At that point, she decided that since she had worked so hard she might as well major in Spanish. And study abroad. She spent her junior year in Spain and certainly learned Spanish then--she's remained fluent, married a Puerto Rican man and has taught high school Spanish for the last 10 years. So sometimes even a failed class can be life-changing!

Noxema makes a product called an eyebrow shaper. It's like a tiny razor. My 13-year-old son uses it himself, no problem.

Sounds a lot like my ds at that age. He had to be the first inside the house when we got home, first to turn off the light at night, first to whatever. And his sister is 4.5 years older so she was bigger and faster. Often she just let him win, but sometimes she got there first just to annoy him, and he would fall apart. The book The Explosive Child helped me a lot, because it showed me that his meltdowns were due to emotions he really couldn't control.

You might check what "College Algebra" means at your college or DE program. It means different things to different colleges, apparently. My oldest took College Algebra DE her junior or senior year. The highest math she had completed prior to that was Algebra 2, and College Algebra was like a continuation of that, or Algebra 3. I heard it compared to half of Pre-Calc. So in other words, a student would not need any pre-calc to be ready for College Algebra. Mine got an A, moved on to Stats, and had completed her college math requirements before high school graduation. This worked because she's a humanities major--she's been happy to be able to devote her college time to courses that are not math! And I'm another one that says drop Saxon. My middle has processing and working memory issues, and though Saxon worked for us through middle school, we only slogged through about 1/3 of Saxon Algebra 1 before calling it quits, because who has 3 hours per day for math? Kudos to both you and your son for sticking it out, now move on to something else. MUS has been great for my son--we are about to finish Geometry and move on to Algebra 2.

I did not use a name at all. It never came up, never was an issue. Colleges didn't care.

I see middle school (6th - 8th) as 3 years to get ready for high school, and I see high school as 4 years to get ready for college. As such, I expect the work to be a little more challenging and I expect it to be done with more independence, a little bit more each year. Because we outsource high school classes, I use middle school as a time to start preparing for that, and require a writing class with homework at co-op and begin with one class at our state's virtual school. That said, it's important to remember that there are a lot of things going on physically and mentally during these years. The changes between 6th -8th grade are enormous. With that in mind, expect a lot of ups and downs. Whatever goals you have for middle school, don't expect them to happen magically in 6th grade. It's a process that takes time and grace. My youngest is finishing up 8th grade this year. He started 6th grade at about my chin, and now he's a couple of inches taller than me, so there's that. But it's just been in the past couple of months that I've really seen the maturity start to kick in, that I've really thought he has shown that he is ready for the next step--high school. And that is a whole other post . . . The middle school years can be challenging, but they are also great as a homeschooler because they are an opportunity to continue to build on your relationship with your newly-minted teen. My advice is to not get so caught up in what's happening academically that you lose that.

I know it from The Incredibles, when Helen calls her pilot friend and asks him, "do me a solid" and loan her a jet so she can go rescue Bob. I never thought of it as anything but calling in a favor. When was that movie, 2003 or something?

I like the history series published by K-12. The High School level one is called World History: Our Human Story. There's also a middle school level called The Human Odyssey that comes in 2 volumes. You can find them used on Amazon for a song. I like to use a text that doesn't drown a new high schooler in information, particularly for who reads thoroughly but slowly. I prefer that they get engaged with the text and the "story" of history, then we beef it up with discussion and supplemental materials.

At our co-op, we have these parameters: Primary classes (K-2)--10 kids, 2 adults Elementary classes (3 - 5)--12 kids, 2 adults Middle school and high school (6 and up)--15 kids, 2 adults

They are written specifically into the lessons for Latina Christiana. I don't recall that they are for Prima or FF. It's been a few years since I taught. I think I posted more than once, sorry if I did. Not used to posting from my phone!

Well I started to say Latina Christiana, but then I read again about you wanting them to have more written work. I taught Latin at co-op for four years using MP products, from Prima Latina to Second Form Latin. My opinion based on that follows. Prima and Latina Christiana move more slowly and allow more time for things to sink in. They don't have a lot of written work, I think just a two-page spread for each lesson. It is intended to be a one-year program. FF does have more written work, including charts and things to copy. But FF moves a lot faster through the material, and IME younger students had a harder time retaining as the book progressed. My most successful FF students were in middle school and had done either Prima or Latina already. I do recommend the Famous Men of Rome book--I used this as a supplement and the students really enjoyed the stories. We didn't do Lingua Angelica, but LC does incorporate a number of prayers in their memorization lessons.

Rivka--thank you for giving us a behind the scenes peek. As a Jeopardy fan, I was fascinated to read how the categories are selected for each game. There are some categories I'm pretty good at, but for sure I'd get stuck with categories like "Opera," "Chinese History," "French Novels," and "Physics," all of which would leave me standing there without hitting the buzzer once. Anyway, thanks for sharing. I'll be tuning in tomorrow for sure!

Great things to do in St. Augustine, in addition to the Castillo: Colonial Quarter Museum--great for history buffs Pirate Museum--no explanation needed Lightner Museum--beautiful place, nice art collections St. Augustine Lighthouse--climb to the top, get a great view Old Florida Museum--another great history musuem And it wouldn't be St. Augustine without the Alligator Farm

From one kitty lover to another . . . I'm so sorry. Thinking of you and your family, and sweet kitty Thor.

It's on at 7:30 here, and I usually watch. Now I'm super curious . . .

Read the article I posted. It explains the convoluted pricing and how it got there in about as clear a way as possible. Certainly better than I could articulate here.

Though I don't find the insurance companies inculpable, you can't lay this entirely at their feet. The out-of-control pricing actually originates with the government's standards of what it will pay, and the insurance companies have just followed along with the same song. Plus there are plenty of other parties contributing to the mess. I found this very long and detailed article from Time mag to be quite informative: Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills are Killing Us. Article is from 2013. It seems to me things have only gotten worse since.

In the transcripts I created for my oldest, classes were listed by subject rather than year. One of the colleges she applied to actually asked that it be submitted this way, as it helped them easily assess if the student had checked all of the boxes credit-wise. I liked how it looked so I kept it that way for the other schools. I had a column for when the course was taken and that was recorded by year. Credits gained pre-high school were listed with the other credits. All of the schools she applied to were big state schools. She was accepted to all of them.

homeschool-life.com. Yes, there's a fee attached to it (around $7/family). But it does pretty much everything, even accounting. For a large-ish group, it is well worth the price. We've used it since 2008--no regrets.