So, after completely losing my mind this morning, I've calmed down and had some time to think about how to help her problem-solve here. One of the things that's bothering me is the biology professor gets terrible reviews on Rate My Professor. That + online (which dd18 doesn't do well with) + terrible internet = disaster. We had originally chosen this professor, because we set up her schedule based on her commute. We live in a very large city and you just can't get anywhere during certain times of day. I'm going to talk to her tonight about switching to another section with a different teacher (because now, commuting just doesn't matter). She's pre-nursing, so if she can't take Biology, she's in trouble. She needs that class to be able to take Anatomy & Physiology 1 and 2 and another science class (can't remember which ones). Sailing - yeah, you can't learn to sail a boat online!!! Omg. I know that sounds like a cheesy class, but it counts as a Kinesiology class and she was SO excited about it. I mean, so excited that she was going up to the Kinesiology teacher last semester and telling her she was taking her class in August. lol. Now, she's going to have to drop it and enroll in something else. Her highest GPA class last semester was English I. She had a 99% average in that class. So, I'm going to suggest she pick a literature class or something to replace Sailing. She is obviously very strong in English, so being online shouldn't be too bad. I feel so bad for these teenagers. Their whole year has been a disaster. I know I shouldn't be posting when I'm stressed out, but I feel like I've been watching everyone's lives crumbling around me all year. We know a couple of people who have died this year, my neighbor is losing her house on the 30th, my other neighbor was taken away in an ambulance yesterday and it's just ridiculous. Thanks for listening to me complain. lol

I absolutely agree. Ugh...

Boy, the internet thing is really stressing me out just thinking about it. When dd18 went to class in-person, she didn't miss a single class all semester. Once it switched to online, she was really upset, because she kept having so many problems with our stupid internet connection. And once everyone was doing school online, the internet was crashing here. Oh my, this is really driving up my blood pressure! 😂 I need to brainstorm what to do to make this go smoothly. We may need to buy dd a new computer and possibly a table or a desk for her bedroom. And we have 5 kids, so she has a really hard time working in here - there are too many distractions and it's too loud.

They switched from in-person to online. They won't switch back.

My husband and I were talking - we're wondering if there wasn't some kind of announcement privately to the colleges yesterday.

OMG, Serenade. I'm sorry. My daughter didn't want to go away to college, so she still lives at home with us. (She didn't want to leave her dog. lol). I would be beyond frustrated if we had paid for housing/meal plans.

We did. We couldn't wait until she was any older - she's already 15 and needed a palate expander. *shrug*. So far, so good.

After announcing that classes would be in-person, we registered and paid for all our classes....my daughter's classes were unexpectedly switched to online yesterday. I'm trying to keep her positive here, but this was devastating news for us. She will have to drop Sailing and probably Biology. I don't see how you could possibly do Biology online. Then, we need to find two more classes to replace those (which means another online advisor meeting and redoing her tuition). We have really cr@ppy internet and that was a huge problem last semester. Also, her cheap computer could not keep up with the online classes, which meant she was borrowing mine (which leaves 1 computer for 6 people - and dh does online college, too). ☹️ Thanks for listening to me whine. Also, check your classes!!!

I don't know what's worse - trying to choose curriculum or daily task planning! I'm sorry track was cancelled! We ended up being able to do track club over the summer, which was awesome. I think my son started to feel human again. But, now they have restrictions on groups of 100, so the track meet for tonight was cancelled. I don't know what football is going to look like this fall... 😑

When we go into emergency mode (like when moving or having a baby), we do: math writing a reader and a read-aloud We've had go into emergency mode several times. Congratulations on your baby!

Yeah, and half of the kids' activities and outside classes this year - you can barely plan for those! No one knows what's going to happen in August. And we just went backwards in our state with a mask order. It's frustrating. Our ballet school usually gives out the schedule for the next school year every March. It's almost July and we just got the schedule. I heard a rumor that the place we take theater classes might not survive the coronavirus. ☹️ I think everyone is waiting until the last minute to enroll in classes.

I think people who rely on living books for their homeschool are probably having a hard time this year with limited library services (like us).

I am the worst at daily planning. I don't know why. I'm going to try one of those big planners this year - https://shop.wellplannedgal.com/index.php/shop/planners/2020-2021-planners/2020-2021-homeschool-planner.html I don't know if that will help or make things more complicated. There's no way I could keep up with planners for each of the kids, but it's good idea! We do have checklists - like you describe. They're not on clipboards, but I have a thing on the wall for papers (hard to explain) and we just put everyone's checklists for the week into the whatever it is. (It's like a file holder on the wall)

I am a little depressed about not being able to use the library all year. I actually have about 3 levels from Five in a Row. I really could use that with ds5. I'm worried it would become very expensive if I had to buy all those books. Plus, if we bought extra books to go along with what we were studying. ☹️ I may sit down and price out the books on Amazon. I'm slowly resigning myself to the probability that this is going to be an expensive school year.

Yeah, I would be done and don't worry about it. Four years ago, when dd18 started high school, I did the whole hour-tracking/recording every little thing we did and honestly, it really stressed me out. I also realized that I was making decisions based on how it would look on her transcript or course descriptions. It's like I wasn't teaching my kid anymore, I was teaching the transcript. I don't do that anymore. I just kinda "eye" it. If I feel like it was probably a credit hour, I just give them a credit hour. I do that with grades, too. In TWTM, there is a section where Jessie Wise describes how she gave grades in high school - it was how much effort she felt they put into the course. That's what I do, too. Edited to add: And I think I was a much harder grader for high school than I should've been. DD18 has a 4.0 GPA (and on the Dean's List) in college. She did NOT have a 4.0 in high school. It was like a 3.7 or something. And that was Mommy Grades compared to college. *shrug*

I may just actually email them. If I get a response, I'll post back!

Right! Well, and that's kinda what we do anyway, except I try to schedule everything out every day. And I think I just plan too much. It may be less pressure/stress just to throw everything in a bin and tell them to dig in! Also, now I'm wondering why I methodically plan their booklists every year. Maybe they could choose what books they want to read for their bins.

I love this idea! I'm glad it works for your student!! I feel so bad for co-op teachers right now....well, and just all teachers in general. I have no idea how they're supposed to plan for August.

We're year-round homeschoolers, so we actually won't finish this round of curriculum until about November. However, ds5 will be finished with MFW K in September. I really need to plan for my 3 remaining homeschoolers. I'm having the hardest time in the world. What is wrong with me? I'm usually great at planning our school year. I just realized that one of the reasons I'm having a hard time planning is Covid. Yeah, Covid is wrecking my homeschool plans! Normally, I use the library for almost everything. Unit studies? No problem! Check out 15,000 books from the library! Ugh. That's probably not going to be possible this school year. Field trips? Geez, I don't think we can do those either any time soon. ☹️ Outside classes/activities?? What if I pay 3 million bucks for a class and it ends up on Zoom? Double ☹️☹️. Anyone else having a hard time? Am I just whining? And my 15 year-old is acting like I personally created Covid in a laboratory to thwart her plans to do musical theater this year. Ugh... I almost feel like I need to purchase ALL the books the kids are going to read this year, which is something I never do. And if I do that, I need to plan early, because I'm going to have to stagger my purchases. I also have this really strange idea - which I'm not sure if this will work or not. I'm thinking about not even scheduling the next school year. I'm kicking around the idea of designing a Charlotte Mason curriculum for dd15 and dd12, buying all the books and just boxing everything in a bin for each student. Every day, we can do math, Latin and German. Then, they can work at their own pace through all the books in their bin. I would give them daily writing assignments based on what they were working on. Does anyone do this? Is this a strange idea? I want to do unit studies this year, but without the library and field trips....unit studies would be awful. 😖 Maybe I could somehow do unit studies.... Anyone else having a hard time planning? Wanna commiserate? Lol I really need a crying emoji.

I wish they had more information on their website about what kinds of labs/hands-on activities this includes....

Has anyone used this? Are there actually hands-on activities or labs? Good? Junky? I appreciate any reviews or experience with this curriculum! Thanks in advance! Here's the link: https://www.masterbooks.com/applied-engineering-studies-of-gods-design-in-nature-curriculum-pack

My neighbors are Syrian refugees who were targeted by ISIS and they're terrified of police. When the police wanted to come into their house, I just walked across the lawn and followed everyone inside. *shrug* And no, I didn't know them very well, either. I just barged in there uninvited. I know typing this makes me sound like a nosy jerk, but when the police left, the lady had tears in her eyes and gave me a huge hug. What no one knew is that I actually speak Arabic and I used to live in the Middle East. The adult refugees don't speak English. I walked into their house in case the doo doo hit the fan and they needed an adult to translate. I wasn't trying to be a nosy jerk.

Oh my goodness, yes. We also had to use several algebra books to pull problems from - even Khan Academy. Has he ever taken a standardized test before? Because we had a strange experience with dd18's first standardized test. It may be that he just got nervous, didn't test well, etc.

What you keep describing is actual educational neglect. That's what was mentioned upthread. I've met probably hundreds of homeschoolers and like I was saying, I've only met two families who weren't working with their kids. Honestly, I've only met one family who didn't use a math curriculum to teach math (and like I posted, that lady eventually went nuts, bought curriculum, put her kids in outside classes at an enrichment center and the kids are fine). Those things you mentioned in your post would've been covered in a math curriculum. I'm sure there are homeschoolers like your MIL out there (not doubting you), but most of the homeschoolers I've met swing in the other direction - pushing their kids way too hard, forking out thousands putting their kids in every class/camp/activity available. Paying thousands for umbrella school programs, which are completely unnecessary in Texas.

Oh, absolutely! And, of course 8 can disagree with me. No! You may not disagree with me! 😆 lol. (I'm becoming loony from being cooped up in the house too much) I posted this before, but I've really only met two families (in 12 years) who were actually neglecting their kids' education. One family ended up just putting the kids back in school, which worked out fine. I mean, the kids turned out fine. The oldest starts college in August. The other family surprised me and suddenly got their butts in gear and the lady really started working with her kids and they actually seem fine, too. (I assumed they would eventually put their kids in school, too, but they didn't.) If I could give any advice for middle school parents getting ready for high school, it would be to concentrate on and make sure writing skills are solid and you're at least finished with pre-algebra, if not Algebra 1. That's basically it.