Since I play mostly historical games, I like to use the Simlogical Flexi School system. It works pretty well in most cases; however, in families that have had a new baby, I tend to artificially age the kids up to be Child age, skipping over their baby and toddler years. I do this with the SimBlender, and I believe that this may be tending to render those aged-up kids ineligible for enrollment into the Flexi School program... the household kids don't show up in the pie menu, but ones from neighboring households do. Now, haven't made a strict scientific investigation into this; it's just a hunch, since this doesn't happen in every household (I suspect that, where it does work, the kids are ones that I've created in CAS).
Am I correct in thinking that Blender-aging is incompatible with Flexi School? If so, is there a better option for aging up those kids, or will ANY artificially-aged kids not show up in the Flexi system? I like for Sims to realize their dreams of parenthood, but I also like for all my Sims to be at least somewhat self-sufficient, so I try to skip over all that messiness if possible. :P

I don't know exactly how the school mod works, but if you want to age up sims "properly", it's best to avoid selecting the age, but instead make sure they do the "grow up" action for every new age. You can add days so it's set to one day before their birthday, then do the ingame "Grow up" action, the same option in Blender (different from selecting an age), or take them to a cake.

If you just select an age, or entirely skip an age via SimBlender, it's not certain the game registers it as the sim having properly aged up. Selcecting an age can occasionally be mildly buggy, at least for some functions (wants and fears can show with empty slots or with the wrong options, while the aspiration level can drop to red level - you may want to cheat it up to gold/platinum before aging up the sim just to avoid them tanking to red).

(And avoid aging backwards, since it makes the wants panel even more wonky).

I doubt it has anything to do with CAS vs born ingame kids. It's more likely the aging-up method.

I just meant that the kids who I create in CAS are invariably already kids (I very rarely create toddlers), and don't need altering.

Come to think of it, though - I've had some weird things happen before with kids and teens spontaneously turning into grownups (and levitating to achieve grownup height), and I'm gonna bet that was down to manually selecting their age, too, rather than aging them up normally.

Here's a question, though: if I use the "birthday cake" method, do I need to go into testing cheat mode, and do the "set to birthday" thing, or will the cake do the trick by itself?

The CAS kids - yep, it's what makes it even more likely it's the aging method causing the issue. If "normal" kids, or "normally aged" kids show up fine, then there's something iffy about the aging of the other kids. If they're hovering, the game sees them as adults or teens. It's a bit less visible with teens, but they're likely registering as adults.



Like I said, pretty sure you can set the age of the sim to within a day of the sim's birthday with SimBlender (subtract days). I'd think "set to birthday" works, too. The cake can be used from when the sim has one day left - I often prefer this for babies and toddlers, because occasionally the parents carrying them can get a bit stuck holding the little one if their birthday is pushed before they can get to the cake.

The issue with sims turning into grownups, hovering, etc. is a known issue with the aging up method, if done in a spesific way (The way you'd do it intentionally is to have a sim previously saved as the "behavioral age" (saved in the previous load of the lot - can't have changed age in the same lot cycle). Then aged up/down to the "visible age", Then deleted and summoned.) - but it's absolutely possible for it to happen accidentally under simialr circumstances.

Wellp... I tried getting the kid in question to age up normally (just using the "grow up" action as a toddler). That part obviously worked fine, but she still doesn't show up in the Simlogical pupil token pie menu. Now, I did have to first use the Blender to "age baby Roberts" (this is Westley and Buttercup's kid in my "Princess Bride" hood) to get the birthday-cake interaction to show up (take ___ to cake). But that's the only way to accomplish that (I think), since babies can't be selected as playable. SO... either THAT action screwed something up, or it must be some other variable that makes kids enrollable or not using Simlogical. I suppose I could try asking at the Simlogical site, if they have any contact info or something like that. Meantime, if anyone reading this has some specific knowledge of this mod, please enlighten us. Like I said in the original post, for some families the Flexi-School system works perfectly.

Something I hadn't considered: it could be that the neighborhood is corrupt somehow. I guess I could check to see if it makes a difference what hood I'm in. The other time I remember this happening, with the neighbors showing up as enrollable but not the in-house kids... yeah, that was in this same hood. Again, this is just conjecture, but... certainly possible, I suppose.

Anyhoo, now that she's "in the system" (via the School Changer) but not officially enrolled (via the Pupil Token), maybe I don't really have to worry about her grades getting her in trouble, etc. Could be that she'll just work on stuff on her own? I dunno, even though I've used the Flexi School thing before, there are still parts of it that confuse me. Worst comes to worst, I guess I can always use the College Adjuster to keep her from completely flunking, but not sure why I'd even bother with that, since I have the Social Worker turned off in my game. Still, it would be nice to figure out this problem.

Do they have a unique surname?
SimBlender sometimes bunches up sims under the same "family" if you've got sims with identical surnames, and could be something similar with the selector for the school mod as well. Might want to take a look to see if anyone has been stored away under a different family tree.

Babies can be set as playable, but this has limited use. They need an older sim to grow up. Toddlers can grow up without a cake (click on sim, "grow up" is available when they have one day left in their current age).

I think there's some documentation/read-me stuff with the school mods. Have you checked those?

I guess that's what I did with the toddler; added three days to her age and then clicked "grow up". As for surnames, the household in question is the only one using that surname. And there's just the one kid. She has the same name as her parents, if that's what you mean. She doesn't show up in the pie menu, but the neighbors' kids do. I should go to their houses and see if the reverse is true there.

I did read the instructions on the Simlogical site, but it was a while ago, so I suppose it's worth a re-read. Also, it looks like they have a Discord now, so maybe I'll post this query there.

edit - the Discord appears to be just the general Sims Discord, so if you're on that... you'll probably see this same query there.

Update - I tried going to the neighboring households, and from there, I could enroll not only their own kids, but also the one who wouldn't show up at her own house. Then I went back to her house, and was suddenly able to enroll her... nothing changed otherwise, so I really don't know what the heck was happening before. Shrug. One of life's little mysteries.