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HTRMom

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Posts posted by HTRMom

    Employers requiring genetic testing

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    Well, what if you think of it as a 30% discount if you're willing to take a genetic test?

     

    If you don't want to know, could you just stick the results in a shredder? (That takes an incredible amount of self-control.)

     

    Employers like to get health info from employees even if they aren't going to use it because it helps them budget. They also think that you will be more conscientious of your own health if you're aware of certain things. Or maybe less likely to have children? (That would be a creepy motive!)

     

    I'm not really in favor of genetic testing, but I don't know that we need laws against employer discount offers... Interested in responses.

     

     

    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

    Paper plates for most meals?

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    I like the idea of cloth napkins but they're always stained with mustard after a few uses. They're just harder to wash than plates. Ditto with diapers - spraying poop in the toilet is much more unpleasant than wiping food off of plates. Anyway, I don't think there's anything wrong with paper plates either. We've only used them for a few weeks postpartum. I enjoy my meals more on ceramic plates with metal utensils, and it's worth the extra 15 minutes per day to me.

     

     

    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

    • Like 2

    DE for student headed into engineering?

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    Just a comment about "graduate early""

    in STEM majors, many classes must be finished in sequence and cannot be taken out of order since they build on each other. If a degree program is designed to take four years, often some courses are only offered every other semester or, for upper level classes, even less frequently. So don't count on graduating early, even if the student transfers in a lot of gen ed credit.

    Good to know! I guess it depends on the school.

     

     

    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

    • Like 1

    Healthcare Bill Ridiculousness

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    Is that just your share though? Employers absorb much of the cost, which greatly impacts small business. The company I do bookkeeping for gets killed on insurance. You better believe it effects how companies can grow (or not).

    Yes, sort of. My husband's employer is a big company with their own insurance, so they don't pay shares of the premium, they pay for the actual healthcare beyond that. They've actually lowered premiums the last couple years because costs have been less than anticipated! But it's complicated because they're the primary employer in town and have negotiated such low rates that they're driving the doctors out of business. I think we would all rather pay higher premiums and keep the doctors! So we will see how it plays out the next five years.

     

     

    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

    Healthcare Bill Ridiculousness

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    Yes. They are not paying $14,000 premium with $5000 per person deductible all of which is paid for with already taxed dollars to boot.

     

    40% of $50,000 is $20,000.00. The above scenario of $14,000 and one deductible plus a few dollars is that right there. And you paid taxes on it. And you have the insurance company to fight with, and they still might not pay, and some test might be ordered from the wrong lab, and...

     

    Not only do you get reasonable healthcare and access for your above dollars you also get decent schools, public transportation, more safety net, fewer homeless, less malnutrition.

     

    People need to do the math.

    Yes. That's true, if you do pay that much! We "only" pay 20% in taxes and about 5% for insurance plus deductible. I knew individual was higher, but this is the first I've heard of 14k insurance and 7k deductible! That's nuts. Something has to change.

     

     

    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

    Planning out 3 months of meals - UPDATE: I did 2 months

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    Various things one can prioritize in selecting meals:

    -Freshness

    -Variety

    -Cost efficiency

    -Family favorites

    -Simplicity, lack of stress

     

    IF your highest value is getting bargains, shop first. Sure. If your highest value is reducing stress, and figuring out meals is stressful for you, it makes sense to just do it once and be done with it, even if you end up spending a little more or missing the freshest thing in store.

     

    I serve veggies as a side and don't include them in my meal plans, anyway. I just pull something out of the fridge or freezer. We buy months worth of meat at one time and we always have all of the types in stock, so it doesn't matter whether I eat chicken this week and beef next week or vice versa. I already have both.

     

     

    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

    • Like 2

    Healthcare Bill Ridiculousness

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    My friend recently took his daughter to the ER in Germany for a staph infection. It turned out that their coverage didn't cover her in Germany and he was bracing himself for the bill.

     

    It was $51 and included IV antibiotics. For an ER visit. No insurance.

     

    Emily

    Well, German taxes are 40% of their GDP. So they're definitely paying for healthcare.

    • Like 7

    Thoughts on Conceptual vs. Traditional math, please?

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    I used Kumon as an elementary child, which is completely process - learn to follow the formulas as quickly as possible. Then I learned more conceptual problem-solving thinking in middle and high school math. I ended up a chemical engineer.

     

    Isn't the grammar stage supposed to focus on the grammar of math, mastering the mechanics and memorizing facts, and the logic of math comes in the logic stage? That's how I've been expecting to do it. (Oldest still in preschool.) I guess I would have said that there's nothing wrong with more conceptual problem-solving work in elementary years, as long as it doesn't detract from memorizing math facts and getting really good at basic mechanics of math. You don't want to be taking calculus but getting out your calculator for 12 x 15.

     

    Am I way off base? Do kids not really need to get good at arithmetic in the era of calculators?

     

     

    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

    • Like 3

    Need help choosing Universities for a high-end math student

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    I am a baby here and just graduated from an elite private school as an engineer a few years ago myself. My husband just got his PhD in Physics a couple of years ago. So I have some thoughts. :)

     

    The fact is, hardly any students are as advanced in coursework as he is, because you basically have to be homeschooled to get there. He's in an extremely small group of high school students who know so much math. There is simply not a school he could attend where there would be a large group of eighteen-year-olds who know multivariate calculus! So just get rid of that idea. He will either be retaking similar courses at a higher level with same-age peers or will be studying math with senior undergrads and beginning grad students. He may still be thrilled to find at a selective school that his peers are just as smart as he is, and he will enjoy making intellectual friendships. But they won't be in his math classes unless he's redoing classes.

     

    Most American universities are narrowing the number of transfer credits possible, not increasing them. They don't want students coming in with years of credits and graduating in two years. Cuts into the bottom line...

     

    Grad schools also will often not allow you to finish quickly because you already took most of the classes. So at some point in his career he will have to retake classes OR branch out and take more breadth of classes. There just aren't enough math classes to fill six years of higher education starting where he is. If he's going to do that anyway eventually, might as well do it in early undergrad, where the peer interaction is so valuable.

     

    Is he just as advanced in Science? One possibility since he already knows so much of the undergrad math curriculum is to study either physics or computer engineering/programming/analysis type major, and fill in the rest of the math major too. If he wants to solve practical problems using math, math academia is probably not what he's looking for. He will probably end up somewhere in big computational supercomputer math stuff, because that's where the innovative problem-solving stuff is today. And as long as he's not advanced in computational methods already, he can start off on-level with peers. Even if he ends up in math grad school after the double-major, he won't regret the computing background.

     

    Look for a school with high average SAT ACT scores. That will give him a whole school full of very smart people with different specialties.

     

     

    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

    • Like 4

    When do I start? Advice and feedback on curriculum choices

    in PreK and K

    Posted

    I'm new to this forum. My son is three months younger than yours and sounds somewhat similar, so I'm interested in the responses! I just ordered the Kumon basic tracing workbook for him and he's loving it. I also bought 100 Easy Lessons and Phonics Pathways. Pathways starts with a couple of little games that he seems to like. We've really only started the lessons in the last two weeks, so I can't say whether it will be on-level for him.

     

    I think for letters you are supposed to teach the basic obvious consonant sounds (hard c and g) and the short vowel sounds first. But I'm 0% experienced!

    • Like 1

    New preschool mom

    in Introductions & Test Posting

    Posted

    Hi,

     

    Just found this forum after reading the book. This is such a great resource! (Well, the forum and the book!) I have a 3 yr old, an almost-2 yr old, and a 6 month old, all boys! Definitely planning to homeschool. I'm just starting a little Phonics work with the 3 yr old. We live in New Mexico. Anyway, thought I'd say hello before I start posting and asking questions. :)

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