Based on my sample size of two, there is a range of typical (unless one of mine is not typical and I don’t know!). DD20 went to college a year and a half after graduating high school, at 19. After insisting she was never going, she suddenly changed her mind and wanted to go to a small private school halfway across the country. She made the phone calls, sent the emails, read the info online, and figured it all out herself. She is paying for it with money she’d saved before she left and working summers and longer breaks between semesters. No loans so far. I really have been very hands off except providing her transcript or information for FAFSA, stuff like that. I still make some medical appointments for her as it’s just easier for me to do it since she works or is in school. But that is for local appointments. If she needed an appointment at school, she’d figure it out. We are unable to help out much with her school expenses but we cover her cell phone while she’s at school, and send supplies, snacks, and things like that as we are able. DD18 just started her freshman year at a local community college, which is free in my state. She very much wants to be independent but it is work for both of us to make that happen. I would love to step in and see if she needs help studying or planning her schedule but I try to refrain. I am available if she asks for help, just as I would be for anyone else I cared about. She wanted me to contact her advisor and email the school for information about applying, registering for classes, orientation, and similar things but I refused. I felt it was important for her to figure these things out for herself. I did get on the website with her a couple of times and help her find names and contact info of people who would likely be able to give her the information she needed. She was late, or last minute with a few things but she’s getting there. She works part time and has a regular babysitting job and she manages both of those things without me. For both girls, they are welcome to live at home rent free for as long as they need. I like to know if they’ll be home for dinner and where they will be, just as my DH and I keep each other informed, but they don’t need to ask permission. I provide prepared meals and ingredients just as I always have but if they want something different they have to take care of that. They buy their own clothes and personal items. An older friend gave us a car when they were no longer able to drive and we spent a little money on repairs to get it on the road. The girls can share it until they want to buy their own cars but they are responsible for their own gas, insurance, and repairs. It’s an old car so it‘s inexpensive. We pay for our older daughter’s travel home for breaks as a small thing we can do to help her, but any other travel, entertainment, etc is up to them to plan and pay for. We want to help our kids get started in life although we aren’t able to help them much financially. But we also want to give them opportunity to develop the skills they need to be independent. This is the balance we’ve found. So far it works ok.

I may have just found my tribe….Like a PP said, I do ok with the basics. We’re not living in filth. But there are things that I just never seem to get to. We’ve lived in this house six years and there are some windows that have been washed less than half that many times. My large room that is half sitting area and half dining area has a large dresser sitting in, right in the doorway, on its side, and backwards. My girls started reorganizing their room this summer and this dresser left their room but only made it this far, waiting for the time that it will make it on to marketplace. In the meantime it collects dust, cobwebs, and dog hair. We are starting school tomorrow but my dining table is currently covered with last year’s books and papers waiting to be put away. There is a small, beautiful square of carpet under my coffee table while the rest of the gray rug is a dingy tan-ish color due to our ridiculously large dog and everything he tracks in (we’ll blame it on him anyway). The flower beds surrounding my beautiful patio have been taken over with this obnoxious little vine that is now growing out onto the patio. Also, there are many weeds growing between the patio bricks. I let it all grow wild this summer. There are so many other things. At the end of next month I’m hosting my IL’s 50th anniversary party at my house. One couple we invited are among the family’s closest friends, as well as being very, very dear friends of mine. They also happen to be the original owners of this house and we purchased it from them. So now I will have eight weeks to get things in shape around here, or I will simply have to un-invite them from the party. (jk, of course, they don’t care, but I’d REALLY like to catch up on some things before they come over.)

These kinds of decisions aren’t typically made by law enforcement. They’re made by the courts/judge/prosecutor. LEO’s find it completely frustrating and sometimes (often) can feel like their jobs are pointless because of it.

We’ve done a variety of things over the years. When the DC were little we schooled year round, 3-4 days a week, with a longer break from Thanksgiving through New Year’s and a couple of weeks in the summer. One year we did roughly six weeks on, one off. Another year we took a cross country trip in September and October so we did school November through August. Now that DC are older and one has graduated it makes more sense with their activities to keep closer to a traditional school schedule. I’ll be down to two next year and I’m thinking of shaking it up again. My younger two didn’t have the laid back beginning to school that my older two did due to tagging a long with the older ones. So I’m looking for ways to give them that at the end. I’m going to bring them in on the brainstorming though because both of them really like a predictable schedule and may not want anything too flexible.

Yes, this has definitely been a factor. She and most of her friends are staying local for school or work, but she’s feeling the change in relationships. Everyone is busier and it‘s hard to find time to get together with people. Also, their views on life are changing and those differences are sometimes hard to navigate. It’s been an emotional time.

I had a melting down senior two years ago but assumed it was just her personality. DD2 jumped into senior year excited and on top of things. The complete opposite of DD1. She started weeks before I planned for us to start, was getting up a little early to get a subject done before work, and generally seemed to be managing it all just fine. Until the past couple of months. DD3 will be a senior in the fall. We‘d already planned on a lighter year for her as she‘s already passed where her sisters were when they graduated in all but one subject and she has no desire (right now) to go to college. But as we make our plans, I will be extra aware that this is a “thing” senior year and focus on the fun stuff in the spring.

We came up with a plan similar to this. We found logical end points for Psychology and Chemistry and are dropping math for now. This summer she will spend a few minutes a day pinpointing the areas of Algebra that need review and working on them. We will end the school year with the big speech tournament. She’ll schedule some last minute coaching to prep for this. We both feel better about this plan. I feel like she’s finishing what needs to be finished, and she feels like some of the weight is coming off. This leaves us space for some of the fun parts of being a senior that were starting to feel very stressful due to lack of time. We’ll go shopping for a dress for the co-op dance coming up, get some new suits for speech, schedule graduation pictures, and plan a graduation party for some point in June. She’ll have time to get some rest and hopefully be ready to enjoy her last trip to camp this summer. And I’ll have plenty of time to get final transcripts to the school by mid-July.

I am a major finisher too. Actually, until this year, I have insisted on finishing every book each year of high school. But that back fired because we would end up just rushing through the curriculum at the expense of comprehension. So this year I decided that we would slow down and focus on quality of work. We’ve roughly kept track of time spent as a way of determining when we’ve done “enough”. As we got closer to May, I looked through each subject and picked ending points that seemed reasonable. But the end of April/beginning of May got insanely busy with a musical, speech championships, and three weeks of a seasonal job for all three kids on top of all our regular stuff. I’m going to sit down with her today to take a closer look at what she has left and see what our options are. She doesn’t usually give up when things get tough and I don‘t anticipate any problems when she’s in school. In fact, I think she’ll do much better in a classroom at this point. Homeschooling has been great but we’re both ready for her to move on. Thank you for this.

She is definitely overtired. And she’s not always great about going to bed at a reasonable time at night. She stays up later than she needs to. One job ended today so that will save her 20 hours a week. I did convert some things to just reading. Those subjects are done now. I can’t do that as easily with Chemistry and math. Math has been review this year. She wasn’t as solid on Algebra as she needs to be so we’ve been going through the basics again. But it‘s all familiar so she doesn’t feel like she’s learning anything new. I have thought of this too. She’s 18 and will need to figure out for herself how to balance everything and not over commit. I just worry because she’s had some mental health struggles in the past and I don’t want her to spiral back there. Maybe I’ll try to talk to her tomorrow (if her outlook has improved with some sleep) and see what she thinks she should do.

My senior is starting to panic about finishing school. She had a mini meltdown during dinner tonight saying that she just needs to be done, she’s learning nothing at this point, her brain can’t do any more. She IS tired. The past few weeks she’s been working 2 part time jobs, plus babysitting several nights a week (only about 2 hours at a time), and cleaning a house every other week. She also had a multi day speech tournament in the middle of all that. One of the part time jobs was a temporary, seasonal position and ended today. That will help. Co-op is over except for end of the year presentations this week. I’m happy to let her skip that. She really doesn’t have much left to do. Three subjects (Science, Math, and Psychology) and 2-3 weeks left of each. But we were hoping to be done next week and she doesn’t feel like it’s possible to finish by then. I’m fine with her spending another week to finish. She’d still be done by the end of May. But she’s starting to come unraveled a little. I’m trying to figure out how to handle this. I already required what I consider to be the bare minimum this year to accommodate all the other stuff she had going on. But maybe it’s still ok to skip the last 8-15 days? Or maybe I give her a day or two to unwind and then we get back to tackling the rest with a plan to finish by the end of the month? Or do I just let her be done now? Then she can take the next couple of weeks to focus on her speech for nationals next month. Maybe that’s more important than finishing the next chapter of Chemistry? I feel like this should be an easier decision but math and science are her weakest subjects and I worry about how she’ll do when she goes to college in the fall. (But really, what will ten more days do?) Also, I’ve seen the times when she wasn’t using her time as wisely as she could have. I need outside opinions.

Yes! It’s good to know that someone else is considering something that might be a little “crazy”! I need to sit down with DD and talk about it but she just wrapped up a long week as part of a musical and now she’s working for a few weeks at a tulip farm. She’ll need life to calm down a little before she’ll be ready to think about senior year. But I’d like to have a plan soon! Even if it’s a plan to not have a plan. Ha!

9th grade for my youngest. He would like this year to be 9th but I’ve pretty much decided that this year will be grade 8.5 and next will be 9th. He meets the age cutoff in our state but has a November birthday and there’s no need for him to graduate at 17 and a half. Also, this year wasn’t as strong as I would like for 9th grade. The 13/14yo boy brain fog has been pretty strong this year. Hoping that will lift by the fall. He also struggles with reading although I feel like I can finally hand him a book and expect that he’ll be able to comprehend it and learn from it. But I have to watch the reading level. Math - We’ve been doing MUS Algebra 1 but have only made it about halfway through. He still sometimes gets confused by negative numbers although we’re making progress. So more Algebra 1 next year. Either with MUS or maybe switching to Saxon. Social Studies - I think we’re going to do World Geography this year. Not sure with what. I have Notgrass but also plenty of materials to put together my own thing. I try to use a variety of audio and video sources with him in addition to books as his stamina for reading is still low. Science - Biology probably. I have Apologia and will just use that. We’ll use the audio book and I think I have the video instruction somewhere too. English - IEW has worked extremely well for him so we will continue with that. He’s finishing up Level B Year 2 now and we’ll probably do a Theme book next year. I’m thinking the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. We’ve been doing Fix-It Grammar and we’ll keep going with that. I need to choose some literature for him to read, a mix of lower level to practice reading and higher on audio book. We also need to keep working on spelling. Electives and Extra Curriculars - Piano and Cello, Swimming, Karate, running club (hopefully. The woman who’s running it is moving and no word on a replacement yet). Other enrichment classes at co-op. We’re hoping for robotics and maybe exercise science.

I usually have our next school year completely planned out by now. But not this year. I’ll be down to two 12th and 9th (ish) so it feels easier in some ways. But these two are also a little more complicated in some ways. DD16 will be in 12th. She is quite bright, has a number of undiagnosed language based learning challenges, loves art and crafting and music, is an introvert who needs plenty of downtime at home, and has no desire to go to college. She has already done as much or more in all but one subject than my older two did. But I don’t feel the need to “graduate” her early as she’ll still only be 17 when she graduates next spring. So here is our “plan”, such as it is. Math - She’s doing Pre-Calculus right now. She’s pretty much teaching it to herself but I think we’d need a class of some kind if she were to keep going. So maybe we won’t do math next year? I thought of a Consumer math but I think she’d be bored with it. Social Studies - She’ll finish US History and do US Government and Economics. All with Notgrass. She’s doing US History right now but is a slow reader so won’t get through it by the end of the year. Science - I have no idea. She’s done Physical Science, Biology, and is doing Chemistry now. She does pretty well at all of it but doesn’t really care for science. We’ll either skip science next year or I’ll see if maybe she wants to do something like horticulture or marine biology. Any other less traditional ideas? English - No idea. She writes pretty decently actually, although spelling can be a challenge and she still writes some letters upside down or backwards. Maybe just read books and write about them? Electives/Extra Curricular Activities - ASL class, karate, swimming, piano, co-op enrichment classes (hoping for baking, chorus, art, and drama), she’s also been doing a lot of sewing and crocheting lately. I’ve thought about doing a completely out of the box year and just let her unschool the year and follow her interests. This kid is always busy and doing things. If I told her we were going screen free for the month of May she would be completely unfazed and find plenty of things to occupy her time. But she also likes to have a plan so no plan might be too scary for both of us.

We have a Town and Country and find it works for our family of 6 adult sized people very well. DH is 6’3” and has plenty of space. DS14 is a little over 6’ and can still fit in the third row, although it is a bit of a tight fit now. We like that all of the seats in the second and third rows fold down into the floor. The seats fold very easily, in seconds, and we can fit a full sheet of plywood flat in the back, and have even moved a large couch in it with the back closed. We only have a cello to fit, but I think you could fit a double bass depending on which seats you fold down. I’m really not sure why the Chrysler minivans aren’t more popular. We’ve had several. They’re so much cheaper than the Odysseys and Siennas but we’ve found them to be very reliable. We’ve gotten all three of ours to 200k miles +. The last two were still running fine when we sold them, and our current one is at 210k miles and still going strong.

What is the Common App? I ended up just sending the transcript with all of senior marked “IP”. Oh well, if they want more than that I guess we’ll get another email.