So, he has interests, but just isn't iterested in " school". At this age, school may just be a thing to " get through", but that doesn't mean it has to be boring or traditional. Try Keeping a notepad of what he does NOT during school time, to help you track the " education" in his everyday activities. You got books from the library, how else can you explore his interests? - documentaries, computer games on the topic, museum trips (even if just virtual ones), 4 H dog training class or group, living history.... There are all sorts of Mine Craft related books now- chapter books, comics, " how to create mods", etc. My son did 2 of the Minecraft Homeschool classes a few years ago- Vikings & something else. They watched videos & read things, then had building assignments based on the time periods, it was really cool. Does he still like lego or playmobil? My son spend hours listening to the SOTW audios while building with lego, playmobil, or snap circuits. He never would've been interested in the SOTW activity guide activities, but practically memorized the books. Have you tried lego robotics or technic? Board game or chess clubs? Astronomy? Nature or hiking groups? Skiing or kayaking programs? Build a catapult? Backyard ballistics or archery? Dangerous book for Boys? There is lots of neat educational stuff out there for 12 Yr old boys, but we did not find it in curriculum. We "unschooled" most everything but math till high school. But he still learned a ton, it just didn't look much like school. I did go out of my way to find cool stuff in all the different subject areas, so, I'm not saying just leave him on the play station 24/7. Made reports to our district harder to write, but keeping track weekly or daily helped. I tried to be sure on a weekly (some people do daily) basis, he read something , created something (lego,art, whatever), wrote something, interacted with other kids, got exercise, played board games, watched something ( documentary or youtube), did math. Both my big kids have gone through stages in those preteen years when " everything" was boring. It got better.

Just wondering if anyone's kiddo has attended RPIs summer engineering exploration program (for high school students, non credit) & wants to comment on it:) Ds went to one at UVM last summer & loved it. Looking at RPIs for this summer, but it's a few less days & more $. But they have different concentrations there & the wind tunnel to play with, which UVM did not.

My kids read that one, but I didn't. Good to know. Out of MY Mind was incredible, I thought. I have a non verbal child who cannot use a communication device & has no method of communication with us at all. I cried through most of the book. But, it's not a sad book, it was just my viewpoint of it & our family's experience that upset me. Most of the middle school kids in our local group read it around the same time & loved it.

It is confusing;) EIW not IEW. Two completely different programs. We love EIW with Mr. Stevens!

Mid grades chapter Books with characters with disabilities in them: Wonder Out of My Mind Rules

We use Essentials in Writing for writing (& grammar review- included in middle school levels) Literature guides (free online from Glencoe ) for my own made up list of lit for each grade level. (I looked at Lightening Lit, but decided the free guides were almost as good & I could choose which books we used then) Plenty of child chosen reading Creative writing or journaling with prompts (gleaned from random online lists) Attendance at as many local theater productions as I can drag them to, & participation in one production per year. Oh, we did some spelling using the most commonly misspelled word list & most commonly used lists too. Next year though, I'm outsourcing writing only so someone else can critique;). Perhaps Bravewriter, Write at Home, or DE at CC, haven't decided.

I should've titled this "is it better to switch math programs now or later, if you know you'll be switching, even if what you have is working"?-- but you have to switch since yours doesn't go high enough/ isn't challenging enough We've used MUS & TT (& public school cast offs for elem) Ds is currently finishing up TT Geometry. We'll switch to Lials that he can do on his own, or to Derek Owens, or possibly DE at CC. But we won't stay with TT,he needs up through Calc. & I can't teach it myself. Trying to decide if he should stay in TT for Alg 2 when he finishes Geometry in Feb, or switch now to Lial's for Alg 2, or, if we're going to do DO Pre Calc, switch to DO now for Alg 2 so he gets used to that format earlier than later? Plus, DO, you can start mid year, & he needs that, since we wound up on an odd schedule (squeezing 3 maths into 2 academic years) I hear rave reviews about Jan in TX, but no pre calc & classes in a set schedule... So he couldn't jump in to Alg 2 mid year, since classes are live. Arghh, decisions. I know people think TT is "eh", but it's worked well for him for Alg & Geo, so I was tempted to keep it for Alg 2, but I do not want to use their pre calc & they don't even have calc., so maybe we should just make the switch before Alg 2??

Here too. Sorry. & it makes me sick. I used to just outlaw it, but she really wanted it & it's the go to present for teen girls, apparently. I try to have her stick to lotions, shower gels, hand wash pumps, & hand sanitizer- they smell less than perfumes or body sprays. She's not allowed to use body spray or perfume at home, but can if she's going out & I'm not doing the driving and the other mom who is driving isn't allergic either. Personally, I wish all scents were banned, everywhere, like many schools I've worked in do.

My 13 yr old just did this for her birthday party. She has worked at the food pantry & really wanted to collect donations for them. She has plenty of stuff & her b day is right before xmas & she really did not want more stuff. We worded the invites "no presents please, but you may bring a donation for the local food shelf". She was very proud of the donations that were gathered & beaming when we dropped them off. A couple of her closest friends also gave her small presents (at a different time) or a homemade gift certificate for a day together. Several others brought a card to the party for her with their donation, but just a card.

I bookmarked it for the following summer, then!

Oh, I saw that. It says for rising seniors only, he'll be a rising junior. Was your dd going into her senior year? And, did u attend the optional parent meetings?RIT is way up there at the top of his interesting schools list. Thanks

Mental health, health, &'self esteem issues are really getting in the way this year. Dd, 13, struggles academically, tests borderline IQ (super low processing speed & working memory), & is awaiting a full neuropsych eval. The last 12 months have been full of problems with depression, eating disorders, self esteem & social problems, & a newly diagnosed very low iron count ( just started supplementing). I feel like all this stuff is making it so we can barely get any academics done. School work (like 15 minutes) exhausts her. I realize depression, malnutrition due to the ED, & low iron all cause tiredness too. We're doing very minimal academic stuff this year (almost all remedial & then topics of interest to her- reading is Dr. who based, for example, lots of art) & I know it's all she can handle, but she's already so far behind, I hate to " waste" a year. Obviously health is more important than school work though. ( Eta- we did take off 5 months completely last spring/ summer when things were the worst.) But we do live in a state where we have to show a year progress &/or make a minimum score on standardized testing (she doesn't come close). I feel like she should just be on " medical leave", but when I've mentioned taking time off, she gets annoyed because she's not " doing school" at the level her friends are already. We couldn't be much more relaxed about academics than we are lately & still call it school. ( well, we unschooled primary school, but she really needs 1:1 academic teaching to grasp concepts) We spent 20 min this morning working on her 4H presentation for next month, about ballet, a high interest topic for her, & now she's sound asleep. That will likely be it for the day other than her drawing & listening to an audio book later. I guess this is just a vent mostly. My goals for her are, of course, to increase her academic functioning (currently grade 3/4 for a 13 yr old), but seriously, we need a break from the health stuff first!

It's summer program app season:) I've seen some people mention they give their LOR writers a cheat sheet of info about their student to refer to if needed. What do you include? Thanks. Ds will be asking his FTC Robotics leader & maybe his 4 H leader for LORs (it asked for math & science teachers and that's as close as we have at this point). They've known him for years, but as leaders for a couple years only. He participates in several other things, but they aren't math or science related.

I do not look forward to writing those "why & how we chose to homeschool" essays for admissions. You're right- it's an essay question for the parents, yikes! I mean, I know why, but putting it eloquently into words for admissions officers is another issue.

Oh, I hope so! I do think that as homeschoolers, we need to show "more" at most colleges than the ps kids, to prove what we say about our kids though. (Be that through DE, AP, CLEP, SAT2s, etc). We're not trying for Ivy League.

Curriculum, books, board games, art supplies, & children.... Or at least it would seem so from looking around my house;)

We're in upstate NY & are looking in NY & New England. Just found one at Stevens Institute of Tech in NYC. Will keep looking.

Last summer, my ds attended an " exploring engineering" summer program at UVM where they learned about different fields of engineering & completed a project in one area. It was awesome! This summer, he's looking at going to a different one. But, he's also interested in Computer Science. Does anyone know of any Summer programs for Comp Sci like that? Not " learn to code" summer camps, but "live in the dorms, learn about college comp sci programs & careers". He's in an FTC group & is their head coder this year & has done EdX Intro classes & is DEing CS something next year, so, really looking more for "what you can do with a comp sci dregree " type programs. If not a summer program, do you know of anything else like this, online, perhaps?- Brown has an exploring engineering online class, for example. Or even a text? We have an intro to engineering text that has neat coverage of college & careers in the different fields. All I'm really finding with Google is fun day camps about robotics or coding. I know applications usually open after the new year, so we've got to work fast:) Thanks! Edited to fix pre coffee typos

Mothers helper or sitter for the littlest one:)

Who is planning to do US Govt for the election year? We're going to re arrange our original history sequence to cover it (hopefully) mostly over this upcoming summer, then lots of current events & election coverage following in the fall. A plus of doing the book work this summer is it'll free up some space in ds's next year schedule for DE classes too:) I was hoping to have ds also volunteer for a candidate locally, but he's not thrilled about that & he's pretty busy, so maybe not. I know there are lots of past threads about US Govt resources, but if you want to share what you're planning to use, that's good too!- We've got the Idiots Guide for Govt & Politics book (& an Uncle Eric book somewhere) and I have access to Notgrass, but not sure if he'll use that or not.

Now I'm dying to know what college she attends:) but it's ok if you don't want to share too

Earth Science regents is grade 9, here in way upstate, at least (our schools don't offer accelerated tracks, maybe other areas do Regents ES in grade 8?). Physical Sci in grade 8 here. Will definately outsource some, for the CC labs & non mommy grades:) My degree is in Bio, so I'm comfy offering lots at home too. He's already in 10th & has done so far: Physical, Earth, Bio ( currently), Environmental Science (currently), robotics/ comp sci He could DE Physics senior year, that's a good idea since we don't have AP locally (& I don't prefer online) if he does Chem at home in 11th (& maybe Clovercreek Physics in 11th too as intro beforehand?). I don't want him to DE too much his first time in 11th, so he will just DE 2 classes in 11th, likely CompSci & math in the fall, at least, depending on what's open. Plus there's math to concentrate on too. Decisions, decisions...

Public schools here (NY) do Earth Science, Bio, Chem, Physics for the high school sequence. We thought we'd do the same, as DS will be applying to colleges in our state. Thinking now he may do: ES, Bio (both already done), then ??- depending on what he can get into for DE classes next year. He's also doing science electives- robotics/ intro engineering, Environmental Science. And DE intro to Comp Sci in the fall. Trying to decide between Chem or Physics first in grades 11&12. Does it really matter what order they are done in, as long as they're done?(& they have the math needed for them already) Does anyone do them both in one year ? Maybe too much when combined with DE, as he may wind up DE math too. STEM oriented kiddo, but we won't be doing APs, they aren't really offered around here (very rural area).

My teen also really liked the Dies the Fire series (a novel of The Change). I thought the first couple were good for something different. It's more post- apocalyptic than dystopian, like One Second After & the other newer post- apoc lit genre (EMPs, nuke, zombies, plague, etc style). There's a ton of that stuff out now too.

Do they work? Any kind to look for or avoid? How do you use yours? Thinking we could set it on the table during tea time & art time (these happen several times a day usually) closest to the person who needs it the most. Two of us deal with depression & it's dark a lot of the year up north here. (& our house is solar powered, so we don't have many indoor lights, but can get enough power to run it when needed- we have alternate ways of charging our system) Our big warehouse store had them last night & thinking of going back to snag one. Thanks!