Thanks in advance for any suggestions/advice. *sigh* My 3 year old son has started stuttering - severely. It started basically overnight and it's constant. He stutters the first letter of each word. He's also been very advanced verbally. Something he said yesterday while he was playing with some plastic dinosaurs, for example: "Actually, this is a hybrid brachiosaurus." Ok, so you get the picture, he's a little odd. Lol. Really intense/clingy...has separation anxiety if I leave the house. Super smart. Potty trained in like 48 hours. Can sit for hours (he can actually sit through an entire church service), not very physical...pretty bad motor skills...doesn't want to play outside when I offer. We are trying to encourage him to play outside more. He does NOT like other small children. No friends. No toe-walking or anything like that - no hand flapping or jerky head movements. His face doesn't tense up when he talks. Ok, so there's a snapshot. *sigh* once again. This is really stressing me out. Does he sound ok?? What's causing the stuttering? Is it just a phase? Should I take him to the pediatrician? There isn't anything in the house producing anxiety (that was my first guess). No changes. Nothing traumatic. He did just have a pediatrician's appointment a couple of months ago, but didn't get any vaccines this time (he had a reaction to the rotovirus vaccine, so this actually crossed my mind, too). Thanks again for reading and any advice.

This is how my daughter was taught.

300 History and Bible is really good. I did cut out about a fourth of the books, because you're right - it could take 2 years to read all those books. I have another kid (dd13) using SL 100 and that's going great, too. It was perfect for her this year.

It's just grammar exercises with short explanations. They generally do 1-2 exercises each week. I think we are going to take the rest of high school to finish the book (just trying to keep their grammar sharp). The reader... https://www.amazon.com/Komm-mit-Beginner-Reader-Level/dp/0030656370/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1536325784&sr=8-1&keywords=komm+mit+reader There are several readers, but we started with Level 1 this year, because it is actually challenging for them. They're not the best readers out there, but I've really struggled with finding high school level German materials we can use at home.

We are on Week 14-15-ish of our school year, so we have hits and misses already. But, our homeschool seems to look different from everyone else's on this forum (so not sure if it's worth posting). Hits: Komm Mit 2 with the reader (German textbook) German Grammar Drills by Ed Swick Zola's Introduction to Hebrew Sonlight 300 History & Bible, 200 Literature is good, too Apologia Biology - especially the slide set that was super-expensive and I was afraid to buy. Misses: Trying to get Robotics going with Vex IQ. So far, this hasn't been going well...at all. ? The Apologia Chemistry supply kit I bought from Rainbow Resource. Sigh... I ended up buying some Pyrex beakers from Home Science Tools, because the glass beaker it came with already burned at the bottom over the alcohol burner's flame. Ok, that's another thing. I don't know about that alcohol burner it came with. The flame shoots out like 50 feet into the air and we can't seem to adjust the flame at all. Also, everyone is afraid to put the flame out. You have to stick your hand under the metal mesh platform to put the lid on the flame, to put the flame out...and the flame is enormous. I've been putting it out every time, because I'm afraid to let the kids do it. This hasn't been the best year ever...we're using more "curriculum" than I prefer to use, but this is what we needed this year. The 3 year-old is really a handful and I didn't have time to build our year from scratch. I'm thinking I might be able to put our stuff together again next year - as he gets older.

Eh...we're using Mathusee. Lol. Also known as another "lite" math program. I actually really like it and I think it's appropriate for high school. Getting ready to buy Precalculus in a couple of months.

The community college thing always upsets me, because it seems discriminatory against families who do not have a lot of money or resources. I've also read a study that said doctors who start at a cc are more likely to volunteer and work in underserved communities. I started at a community college and I thought the classes there were actually much better in quality than the big-name university I graduated from. Oh well. Grrr... And the other parents at the admissions presentation looked frustrated when they spoke of the APs & cc. The parents have to pay for the AP classes and stuff, right?

Yeah, we don't do online classes, but since this is week 2-3 of all of our activities/enrichment classes, I'm feeling the same way. I feel like I've overloaded my kids and I'm not sure how I'm even going to get through the school year - and it just started. ? I'm going to try not to schedule so much next year. We may not do outside classes anymore after this year. I think part of it is the initial shock of a new schedule. I'm sure we'll get used to it. Another part of it is the last few local remaining homeschoolers who are my kids' age (high school) don't seem to put their kids in anything. So, our family looks massively over-scheduled compared to theirs. I don't know. It's hard to make any changes when the kids are doing so well. My kids are doing very well and like to be challenged and busy.

That's right! They do block scheduling here. I forgot about that. The kids will have a lot of credits on their transcripts here, then. I'm going to keep those things on the transcript. One of the colleges on our list is a Lutheran college and I'm guessing they would be used to that on there.

I'll PM you!

That sounds like the public schools here. Ours are drugs + overcrowded + the kids can't read/write/spell. Maybe you can keep working on the possibility of moving to another school district? If you don't like the ps, your extended family probably doesn't, either. Sorry you're having a hard time. I would be frustrated, too. (You had me on your side at "$85 uniform skirt")

Over the summer, I had to pay $100 to have our upright piano taken away. ? I offered it for free everywhere. We ended up buying a digital piano. At least I won't have to pay money every time I want to move or get rid of it. I can just pick it up and carry it around.

Wow, I wonder what ISD requires 31 to graduate! OK, I don't feel so insecure about it anymore.

The Biblical Studies credits...those are actual courses for us. Not just the workshop and her knowledge on the subject (I just kinda blurted that out). Especially since we're using Sonlight, the Bible credit is written into the program.

We took driver's ed in high school and got a half credit for it. I guess I assumed everyone did... My kids have a ton of extra-curriculars, but they're not really package-able into high school "courses". I'm just leaving them for the application, I guess.

I'm probably not the best one for advice, but I don't grade writing, either. I know there are rubrics out there, but I'm really bad about keeping grades. Every time they have a writing assignment, I go over it with them. I critique everything from format to sentence structure, grammar, etc. And it's been a long time, but dd16 LOVED Mapping the World with Art. (And anything else Ellen McHenry). Don't forget she has a Youtube channel that goes with the curriculum. I'm looking at that Mapping the Body with Art for next year.

OK, I think we just have WAY too many credits and I feel very insecure about this. I'm working on dd16's transcripts right now and it looks like she will have about 30-31 credit hours after next year. And that's doing a light-ish year next year (7 credits) and leaving off stuff... I left off Driver's Ed...I left off a couple of other things that weren't mission-critical. Looking at ds15's stuff, he may have more like 32 credits by the time he graduates. This is from schooling year-round, taking classes at a homeschool enrichment center and, in hindsight, I think I might've pushed my kids too hard. ? I have 2 credits on there that are Biblical Studies...I could take those off the transcript, but I hate to, because they have a great working knowledge of theology and dd16 actually traveled to a university over the summer and attended workshops/debated a pastor in front of a class full of teens. Anyway, I know most public school kids wouldn't have Biblical Studies on their transcripts... How many is too many credits? We do have 1 credit Physical Education on there and 1/2 credit Health, but that's actually a requirement in TX public schools...and ds15 wants to major in Kinesiology. So, I guess colleges would pretty much expect to see that on there. Thanks for listening! And TIA for any advice.

I should've asked that at the admissions presentation...

OK, I actually like this, because it's a mixture of by year and by subject. You can easily see how many credits in each subject were completed.

Thank-you. You, too!

Yeah, she did tell us that they don't use Common App. They have their own system. Oh, and I PM'ed you.

I have a gifted 8th grader who is planning to major in studio art. (Not trying to brag, but just so you know where we're coming from. I've been told to warn people before posting.) So, none of the homeschool art curricula was really enough. I think at one point, we tried Artistic Pursuits...didn't seem to go in depth enough, but that was actually a good program for kids who wanted to start art (tried to talk my other kids into using it). She has found a lot of value in art instruction books written for adults that cover very specific topics....you know, like, a book about polymer clay...or a book on drawing faces. She's always gotten a lot more out of stuff like that than curriculum. She went through a phase a few years ago where she was learning some stuff from art instruction Youtube videos. Make sure you keep plenty of supplies around. We have a rolling cart and a bookcase full of art supplies. This year, we threw in the towel and set up a table just for her to work on her art. It's a cluttery eye-sore. I cringe when I walk past it. She also has one of those big bags to transport her art to and from classes (sounds cheesy, but the bag helped a lot). We ended up paying for her to meet with an actual art teacher every other week. This is a bit of a financial strain on us and I think we were the first family that this lady has ever done this for. The teacher works with her for about an hour in a classroom at the art school, looks at her projects/artwork and then assigns her homework. She'll assign her real artists to research, also. This has - by far - been the absolute best thing we have ever done for dd13. And art classes on their own weren't enough (she did those for a couple of years), but working one-on-one with a teacher has been absolutely awesome. I think this is our 3rd year doing this. Also, next year (when she's in 7th grade) look into the Scholastic Art & Writing competition. DD13 competed in it last year as a 7th grader. Huge learning experience. She didn't win anything but an Honorable Mention, but you get to see all the other kids' artwork online! Awesome. And her teacher had never had a student enter than contest before, so she was excited. lol. It's a very famous contest. They've had some famous alumni like Andy Warhol and Truman Capote...Robert Redford. You submit everything online (super easy). The deadline pops up before Christmas sometime, so look into that next year. It was fun looking through all the kids' artwork and watching the mini-films the kids made. Sorry for rambling. Hope something out of there helped!

I don't have much advice, but my oldest two teens went through some kind of really negative, brooding phase when they were about 13-14. As in, they wouldn't even socialize with other kids, because they were so negative. We had to force them to do everything. My son hated everything - especially schoolwork. And they were both lazy. Oldest turns 17 this fall and ds will be 16 over the winter...and they pulled out of whatever awful phase that was and are like completely different people. Something happens at 15 and they change drastically. It was so apparent that the younger kids were making fun of how much they changed. lol

Congratulations!! I think I now understand how important it is to go to the meeting with the admissions counselor before applying. I learned a lot about what they were expecting when you applied. This school wanted the transcript by semester and NO course descriptions (I actually asked, because I have not written course descriptions). They seemed to be all about ACT/SAT testing scores. They also came right out and said they consider APs to be wishy-washy and their program gave "less points" to community college transfers. Yikes! It was everything I was hoping wasn't true about college admissions. Anyway, I learned a lot! Forgot to ask if they wanted a notarized transcript... And resume? Are we supposed to write something up specifically with activities/extracurriculars? Besides the transcript?

PM-ing you!