[London in June - Places to Stay, Things to Do]

These are marketed towards kids, but our whole family really loved doing these Treasure Trails in the UK a few years ago: https://www.treasuretrails.co.uk Throwing it out there particularly since you mentioned self-guided walking tours; it's a set of clues that takes you through a given area, and we found it great to sort of guide our wandering and take us to hidden places we never would have found otherwise. We ended up doing one in London, one in Bath, and one in Bakewell, and they were all great.

[Letting Fixed Cat Roam Small Town]

Good timing on this Vox article that my phone told me I should read yesterday: https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2023/4/11/23673393/pets-dogs-cats-animal-welfare-boredom

Quote

While most veterinarians oppose letting cats free to roam outdoors, largely to prevent more cats from becoming roadkill, only six out of 10 are kept entirely indoors. Whichever side of the indoor-outdoor debate you choose, there are ways to give cats more of what they need. If your cat does have outdoor access, try giving them a colorful collar, which catches birds’ attention, gives them time to fly away, and can drastically reduce the avian body count. You can also try taking your cat for a walk on a leash (even if your neighbors might give you a double take).

“If you decide to keep a cat indoors, then you really have to work hard to compensate for what you’ve taken from them,” Pierce said. “[Your house] should look like a house where a cat lives, with perches and highways that they can walk across high up above the floor.” She recommends the book — this is the real title and author name — Total Cat Mojo: The Ultimate Guide to Life with Your Cat by Jackson Galaxy, whose YouTube channel includes videos on how to cat-ify one’s home.

I don't think there's a great answer here for people who have cats who aren't happy being inside. We do have a "catio" now--or, at any rate, an enclosed porch the cats can't get off of, but my restless cat will still come in from sunning on the porch and immediately scratch on the front door demanding to be let out that way. We tried a leash when she was still young, and she was having nothing to do with it. I don't feel good about her going outside, and I don't feel good about confining her. And I honestly don't know how we could live with her if we did; she would not only be miserable, she would hurt people and literally destroy our house (cat pee everywhere is not something that's easy to deal with). I do think just pretending that cats are all completely content being stuck inside, not being able to act like....cats is setting people up for failure. And that's definitely out there--in particular the idea that a cat who's never been let outside will never want to go outside; IME, it's just not true for all cats (and maybe not for most cats, if we're honest in our definition of "content"). Interestingly, the main reason we have an enclosed porch now is because we had to chicken proof it so our chickens would stop...wanting to come inside and be with us. Can't win! 

The author starts out talking a lot about dogs because he's a dog owner, but he focuses mostly on dogs who are alone for a lot of the day while their people work. That's not my dogs' situation, and I don't feel like they have the same boredom issues as my cats at all. They can be with people pretty much whenever they want for the most part, they have a large fenced in yard they're free to come and go from all day long, and they're able to go on outings the cats can't. I do plan to stick to just dogs once my current cats are gone (for a lot of reasons, but this is one of them), but we'll see how my resolve holds up; I have a hard time resisting kittens who need homes. 

[Letting Fixed Cat Roam Small Town]

Tip for other people with addicted-to-freedom type cats, we've had good luck protecting birds with those birdbesafe clown collar cover things. She looks ridiculous, but we rarely have "gifts" left on our front steps for us (she always loses it somewhere eventually; I need to order her another one)

[Letting Fixed Cat Roam Small Town]

I have one of those very hard to live with if kept inside cats. We've had her since she was a kitten and never intended for her to go outside. But a couple of times slipping out the door when young kids weren't quick enough to stop her was all it took. If we try to keep her in, she'll spend literally hours leaping at the door handle trying to open it herself and scratching everyone who walks by (when she's otherwise a pretty sweet cat). And peeing in the house. Our other cat is perfectly content staying inside. 

[Omicron anecdata?]

43 minutes ago, KSera said:

I am so happy about this!! When I think about "what needs to change for life to be more like it was in the before times" I have hoped for another Operation Warp Speed type program, but I didn't think we would get one. While some of the mucosal vaccines have not panned out, some seem promising and could totally change the covid risk.

Yes! I've been really un-thrilled about the "everyone just gets covid every year or two; lots of them die, but mostly only old and/or otherwise vulnerable people, so whatever. Also long covid? yeah, we really have no idea--sucks for those people; hope it doesn't get too expensive!" plan that we seem to have been operating with. Also, it's not really catchy for marketing. 

[AP Human Geography]

My kid took HUG as a co-op class that just met once a week and covered a lot of the AP material but not all (it wasn't intended as an AP class). I gave him the Barrons test prep book a month or so before the test, and he went through that and did fine. My number one tip for human geography (I've also taught it in a small group setting) is for kids to remember that they already know a lot of this stuff just because they're humans living in the world. Not all of it, obviously (and there are some concepts, particularly at the beginning of the course, that are very tricky for some kids). But on the FRQs especially, if they just say things they already know to be true about religion, immigration, agriculture, cities, etc. they can get a lot of the points. My experience is that kids tend to grasp for things they learned in class specifically or overanalyze what the questions are asking and fail to put down things they know. 

ETA: and this song is really great: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzxREH08EkI

[Anyone still masking?]

20 minutes ago, Halftime Hope said:

I have been aware of the 'controversy' and the statement.  What they apologized for was for wording the summary in a way that left room for interpretation.  When I read the new  summary, versus the initial summary, I'm hard pressed to find a practical, everyday difference between the two. Honestly. And again, remember, I was and am a masker; it is NOT that I'm an anti-masker. My opinion and experience is that the best a well-fitted N95 will do for me is to diminish the amount of air I breathe that is contaminated, because I can't eliminate all leaks around the bridge of my nose, hard though I might try.

As my very cautious dentist said, "We're just doing the best we can."

Do you think it's significant that they were basically only looking at studies conducted pre-covid (with the exception of two that did show a reduction in transmission)? I just don't see how anyone could use it as evidence that masking to prevent covid in particular is ineffective. Like...I don't even understand how they would try to pass it off that way; it makes no sense to me. 

[S/O: What is your MB type?]

INTJ ....I just took it again because it'd been awhile and I thought maybe I've gotten less introverted and/or judgy lately....but I guess not so much 😂

[Anyone still masking?]

The Cochrane Review looked at 78 studies, two of which were conducted during covid, and both of those studies found that mask use did decrease transmission. We're less careful about masking than we were before since we all had covid a couple of months ago...which is to say I'll sometimes go without a mask when I'm going into a store for a few minutes or somewhere else that's not crowded and has high ceilings. And we'll do indoor restaurants now when outside seating isn't available or practical. My husband still masks at school and my younger kids mask in classroom settings (no idea what my college kids are up to these days; I would be surprised if they're masking in classes, though). Everyone who still lives in my house wears a mask in any crowded indoor setting. 

[Derek Owens & Western Civ]

We haven't done any of his classes, but I'd considered them from time to time. When I first heard about this in another group, I wondered if it was really that bad (I mean, I live in the same area as him; I'm certainly used to encountering and interacting with homeschoolers who have different views than I have on a whole bunch of issues, and usually it's not a big deal)....but I was blown away when I read the course description. Wow.

[AP Test panic, talk me down or give advice]

I'd just have him practice lots of timed questions between now and then. That might be all it takes. And try to take the pressure off the score; I don't know what his goals are, but no one has to see the score if he's not happy with it, and the worst thing that happens is that he needs to take calculus again at some point, this time with a really strong foundation in it. 

[Preparing for AP exams with Khan only]

11 hours ago, TrustAndLove said:

I have a 13 yrs old needs some challenges. And her current school does not provide AP. The only online, free AP preparation classes I can find is Khan. And the program is flexible enough that she can work in her own pace and time. Has anyone have any experience with using Khan only then taking AP exams? Are those Khan classes itself sufficient for the AP exams? Thanks!

It depends on the exam. We've used Khan stuff as our "textbook" for a couple of AP histories/social sciences with good results (that's not ALL we did, but that was our main source of course material). One of these was world history, though, and, last I checked, they haven't updated the material to reflect the new exam. We used Khan for government, too. And for AP art history, Khan is great; I'm on an APAH teachers group on Facebook, and pretty much everyone uses the khan material for that--it's more engaging and better tailored to the exam than any/most textbooks. You definitely need to add in some kind of test prep, though...essay writing, etc. 

[5th grade planning 2023]

I thought I'd already posted in this thread, but I think I must be thinking of the 4th grade planning thread from last year. Because that's how time works now, I guess! 

Reading/Lit: Bravewriter's Arrow--we've been doing this this year and it's been going well, lots of audiobooks in the car, book club books from the book club at the library, whatever I find to pair with history

Writing/grammar/vocab: Leaning Michael Clay Thompson Town Level right now. We didn't do Island with him, and I was thinking we'd do WWS, but now I'm thinking we're doing a decent job on our own covering most of the WWS-type skills, and this kid appreciates whimsy, so MCT might work better. I've also been having him do research projects on things he's studying or interested in (like he made a Mystery Science style video about narwhals and now he's working on a podcast about Athena, Greeking Out style), so we'll keep doing that sort of thing

Math: he's doing Beast Academy 5 now, so we'll give AOPS pre-algebra a try when he finishes that. My older kids were not fans, but I'm hoping having gone through BA will lend itself to more success this time

Science: Science Mom...we just started Earth Science (we seem to have trouble sticking with a traditional academic year around here!), so we'll finish that in fall sometime and then do Chemistry. He might take a science class about conservation at the homeschool co-op, too. 

History: History Quest Middle Times

Other: small group Spanish class, a couple more classes at homeschool co-op (math enrichment, rock band, ???), piano and trumpet lessons, homeschool band, baseball. This sounds like a lot, but he's in an enthusiastic about everything phase, and I don't want to waste it! 

 

[Math Dad Pre-Algebra (vs. AOPS maybe?)]

1 minute ago, amiesmom said:

They announced recently that they are not doing an Algebra 1 class this coming year because they did not have enough interest. They may in the future, but it's not a guarantee. So you may want to take that into consideration. 

That said, I have not used their math courses, but we are big fans of their science classes and will continue using them for as long as we can.

ah! That is something to consider! That definitely tilts things in AOPS favor (although I've had 3 kids go through Jacobs Algebra with good results so far, so that's another option after math dad if we go that way)

[Math Dad Pre-Algebra (vs. AOPS maybe?)]

1 minute ago, Not_a_Number said:

Never heard of it. Link? 

https://sciencemom.teachable.com/p/pre-algebra-bundle

It follows the Desmos middle school curriculum it says. I asked DH about it and he says he's not familiar with it but is a big fan of Desmos in general.

[Math Dad Pre-Algebra (vs. AOPS maybe?)]

Anyone done the Math Dad pre-algebra? Thoughts? My 4th grader is doing Beast Academy 5 now (just started it a couple of months ago, so he won't finish until at least sometime in fall). I'd always figured he'd try AOPS pre-algebra after that, but then he found the Math Dad vs. Science Mom videos the other day and watched all of them within 24 hours, so I'm wondering if the Math Dad class might be more engaging. Combining them somehow would be too much math, yes? Even for a very mathy kid? I'd been planning on just having him do the book on his own with AOPS (or, well, on his own/with his dad as needed, who's a math teacher, so also a math dad), but the live class I guess is another option to consider. 

[Chemistry on a shoestring]

I haven't done it, but GA virtual school course material is all available free online, and it looks like the chemistry course incorporates the GPB material but adds in more complete lessons: https://gavirtual.instructure.com/courses/2690

[Enrollment Cliff ???]

28 minutes ago, Roadrunner said:

I like the idea of k-10 for general education and 11 and 12 more focused on perusing interests. I would  love my rising junior to be able to concentrate on 4-5 classes deeply  instead of having to chase full load (7 classes here) to prove rigor to colleges. I don’t mind Chicago style core but most colleges I think do general Ed very badly with random string of classes with no coherent story. 

well, high school's a different issue, but I will see that I see a trend toward this kind of thing in a lot of schools already...my husband's old school had a program where kids could study veterinary stuff and another for agriculture. And I do think that kids who are aiming for selective colleges are expected to do just TOO MUCH in general. But that takes us back to population trends...it's just sort of what happens when too many kids are trying for too few spots. But I'd also say that I always want there to be plenty of space for kids who DON'T want to specialize early on and DON'T know what they want to do yet and do want to try out a lot of different things and get a broad education. Humanities departments shutting down at struggling colleges gives students fewer choices and leaves less room for those kinds of kids. 

[Enrollment Cliff ???]

1 minute ago, shoestringsandducttape said:

Are AP and DE really getting out of gen. ed. requirements? They seem to just push college off onto high schoolers. At this point, it feels like a four-year degree takes six years when all the DE and AP classes are factored into it. 

I guess I don't get what you're saying then...you want K-12 to be when kids get a rich and diverse education across different disciplines, but you also don't want them to do anything could be considered college level work in high school so that they can, in fact, focus on their major field more when they get to college? At any rate, there are plenty of LAC that have pretty much zero gen ed requirements if that's what someone wants.

[Enrollment Cliff ???]

1 hour ago, shoestringsandducttape said:

However, I do believe in a person's ability to find his or her own interests and pursue it, and replacing the general education courses with more work in the major area is something colleges could and should consider on an individual basis.

 

Is that hard to find in the US, though? My oldest kid went to a liberal arts college thinking he wanted to take a big variety of classes, but he ended up taking almost all math and geography (and computer science and statistics, which are in the same department as math). It's fairly easy to get most core requirements for most schools out of the way in high school these days, between DE and AP credit. There are still some colleges that are very committed to a certain academic experience and that won't let you opt out of a broad core with credit from high school, but those are easy to avoid if that's not what you want (though the ones that come to mind are definitely not schools that are hurting for applicants...like UChicago springs to mind immediately as having a pretty rigid curriculum, from what I understand. My next kid is at Vanderbilt in the music school, so he's VERY specialized, but arts and sciences has fairly broad core requirements that you can't use AP credit to get out of (though you can use DE, interestingly). But at almost all of the LACs my oldest got into, there are either no requirements or the requirements are so broad that by the time you transfer in AP credit there's very little you'd HAVE to take outside your area of interest and in closely related departments. Like in theory the liberal arts experience is about a broad range of experiences, and you certainly CAN have that, but it's also, in my experience, about pretty loose requirements that give you the freedom to EITHER explore or specialize.

[Dr. Hive - back pain (kind of updated)]

23 minutes ago, KSera said:

It sounds like you had a crummy PT. It’s just as likely to get a crummy chiropractor and a bad chiropractor can be dangerous. A good PT will do massage as part of the treatment  if it’s applicable to the problem.  

 

Oh, I definitely did. She sort of...pushed on my back for a few minutes each session, but I wouldn't have called it a massage. But mostly she didn't seem the least bit interested in actually solving my problem. She had me mostly doing leg strengthening exercises, and the only explanation I got was "it's all connected." Well, yeah, but my legs have been wimpy forever, and my back suddenly started hurting a month ago, you know? At one point she seemed to have forgotten that back pain was even why I was there. But another reason I mention a chiropractor or massage over PT is that the OP is concerned about cost. I paid over $1000 for 3 PT sessions, and that was the negotiated rate through insurance. I was shocked, even after spending my entire life in the US healthcare system. One of the sessions, I wasn't even the only person she was working with.  Even if I'd met my deductible, my part of the cost would still have been nearly $100/session. I.e. even if it HAD been helpful, I couldn't afford it. Chiropractors and massage are generally priced to be affordable OOP. I've never actually been to a chiropractor. I thought PT would be the better route, but mine was worse than worthless. I remain skeptical, but I know a number of smart people who swear by chiropractors, so...who knows? 

ETA: also, my Chiro-skepticism would have led me to make a much more careful choice than I did with PT (I just went to the place very near home that the spine place referred me to)...I was collecting a lot of personal recommendations and scouring websites before my back started to get better.

[Dr. Hive - back pain (kind of updated)]

Just now, Kassia said:

Thank you so much.  I do have some of those patches here - maybe I'll try one.  I'll look at the link you posted too.  I saw some physical therapy stuff on bob and brad's youtube channel so I should try those too.  

I love Bob and Brad! They're way better than the real life PT I went to 😂

[Dr. Hive - back pain (kind of updated)]

When my trigger points were really bad/all over the place, I definitely felt burning. And muscle relaxers (or ibuprofen) didn't really do much of anything for them (those salonpas patches worked better). And they were better with movement and stretching. I kind of hate to throw more stuff out there because I know there are so many things it could be when you're trying to google or whatever...but for me once I started treating my back pain like trigger points (which basically involves massaging the crap out of them), I made a lot more progress. So I also don't want to NOT throw it out there in case it resonates. The checklist here was the most helpful for me: https://www.painscience.com/tutorials/trigger-points.php?id=6470287 

 

[They won’t take the old ones away!]

Will your trash pickup people not take it for an extra fee? Our city has bulky trash pick up for $20/item.

[Dr. Hive - back pain (kind of updated)]

1 minute ago, Kassia said:

ugh - I'm sorry you wasted so much money on a spine doctor and PT sessions.  I don't have a PCP.  I had a very bad one and tried a new one who was actually worse than the bad one.  All the good ones around here aren't taking new patients.  DH had a great PCP but he retired last year.  

Maybe a chiropractor then? They're pretty inexpensive out of pocket. I'm a skeptic, but in retrospect I'd definitely have done that over the PT, because at least they'd have TRIED to fix my back. Or even just a good massage! If you know it's muscular, I think dealing with it as home is as effective as anything else...the problem is diagnosing it for sure, of course.