First of all I would like to say that I realize that there are many different types of people that make up a nation. I know you can't say that all (insert nationality) are the same. But I do think that there are some characteristics that are often true of a large number of people in a country. I'm just curious if those of you that are upset about Americans being generalised as spoiled, have spent much time in other countries. I know some of you have, but I wondered if most of you have? I personally think that most of the western world takes their blessings for granted. I don't think it is solely a characteristic of America, but it does rather hit you in the face quite often over here, at least in the middle of the country where I live. There is a lot of relative poverty around here, but people are very wasteful, and most of the people I come across are fairly materialistic as well.

I'd have to go buy some clothes in order to have 33.

I'm sorry you had such a horrible day. Your parents are very lucky to have you, as there are not many people who would be prepared to sacrifice so much in order to make them happy. But you should only do this for them if you feel able to cope with this. If it is too much to bear than I don't think anyone would fault you in any way for saying "no more".

My aunt had episodes of hallucinations and they were often associated with UTIs. People with vision problems can also experience hallucinations, and my aunt had macular degeneration so that might have contributed to them also. Eventually it was discovered that my aunt had signs of strokes on her CT scan, so hallucinations can have many causes. Definitely worth getting checked out, in my opinion, and watching carefully for any other symptoms.

I am and will be praying for you all. I am so sorry you are having to endure so much.

And yet Jason Zimba, one of the authors of the CC math standards, clearly stated that the CC math standards will not prepare students adequately for selective colleges or for STEM fields. How does this match up with the above?

Reading this thread, it is so apparent that the text book companies are the ones who will really benefit from this. New Alg 1, Geometry, and Alg 2 textbooks to replace the old?? I saw a video of one of the common core math standards developers admitting that the CC standards in math will not prepare students for selective universities, so it would not seem that the NEW textbooks will be an improvement on the old! ETA - I think the person I saw saying this was Jason Zimba in case anyone is interested

Thanks for the links and the suggestions. I'm going to check them all out.

My dd13 has asked for a book of poetry for Christmas. I think she wants a collection of some of the better known poems. Does anyone have any recommendations, or can you point me in the direction of a thread discussing recommendations. I have tried searching but had no luck. I would like to get her a book that looks nice, etc so would probably prefer a hard back - don't know for sure. Thanks for any help with this.

I really like it! That is fantastic for a 5th grader.

I must have been really lucky because my recovery was pretty much as the dr described - which is just as well because I moved house 5 days later and flew to the USA 15 days after surgery. Sorry not much comfort but I guess the recovery time varies. I did have some diarrhea in the morning for a while - I think the bile sits in your intestine overnight rather than in the gall bladder and causes some irritation and therefore diarrhea. But then the bile duct dilates a little and acts something like a gall bladder so the diarrhea subsided. Hope you feel better soon.

Thanks for all the information and the encouraging examples. We've still got quite a while before we'll be applying for scholarships but it's good to be armed with this information.

Thank you both for the information. It's good to hear that scholarships are available for homeschoolers, and that they do accept the grades you give, provided there is evidence to back them up. I wasn't sure how much of the decision, on who to award scholarships to, depended on the GPA. Some of the parents I have talked to have mentioned not having their child take a difficult class, so that it didn't affect their GPA negatively and therefore their scholarship money. This just seems crazy to me, both in terms of the child not getting the best education, and the college being more willing to reward a good grade in an easy class than a lesser grade in a more difficult, challenging class. I gather from your reply, Sebastian, that it is not simply matching the GPA to the scholarship amount and that's the amount you get. It sounds like they take more into account than that, I hope so.

My dd went to public school until 4th grade. I have been speaking to some of her friends'moms recently and they have mentioned the fact that colleges look at the student's GPA and class ranking when awarding scholarships. How does this work for home schooled kids? We are going to have her do some outside classes to validate her grades, but she will mostly have a mom GPA and no class ranking, of course. We are almost certainly going to home school high school, but we also really need to try for scholarship money in order to afford college. My dd seems to do well on standardized tests and we're hoping for good ACT/SAT scores, but how does this all pan out when trying to get scholarships? Thanks for any answers or information you may be able to give me. It's causing me a slight panic at the moment! Thanks, Trenna

I say it to myself all the time and that doesn't bother me. I like to remind myself to enjoy them as much as possible and not sweat the small stuff. But I haven't had too many other people say it to me; that might bother me. I am currently feeling a bit sad and stressed because we've only got 4 1/2 years until dd13 graduates and I can hardly stand to think of it!

I thought maybe there would be studies carried out before the flu shot was widely available and mandatory and could be compared to studies after health care workers widely received the vaccine. Surely, if we're being scientific about this, those sorts of figures should be available. I would imagine there are some countries in which the flu shot is not routinely given to health care workers and maybe transmission figures could be compared with the US. ETA - I personally think that the reduced sick time has a whole lot to do with the requirement. Why not just be honest about it if this is the case. I much prefer being able to see the proof, or being told the real reason. I've asked at the hospital I work at and haven't been offered much information other than CDC recommendations. The people I've spoken to don't seem to be aware of actual evidence. I was hoping someone on here might know of something. FWIW I have had the vaccine and I did so prior to it being mandatory. I just don't like being fed a line that can't be substantiated.

Does anyone have any information or figures about patients contracting the flu from health care personnel? I'm an RN and I have looked after people who are very ill from the flu, but they all got it prior to admission. I can not remember looking after anyone who got the flu and became very ill with it while in the hospital. I would be very interested to know what the numbers are. I have heard of people who have gone to a doctors office for something and contracted the flu from other patients in the waiting room etc.

I can't help you with weather.com I'm afraid, but what I can tell you is that the weather forecasting in Britain was very unreliable. I think that some countries just have weather that is more difficult to predict. However, I should add that this is just a completely amateur, uninformed opinion.

I realize that fear can appear to be anger and I'm sure they are trained to not show fear, however sometimes they have been known to get angry - no profession is perfect. Thank goodness that no one was hurt.

There's no denying it is a very difficult job. In the video I watched, they came across as angry more than scared, but, of course, it's impossible to know for sure just from a video.

You seem to be implying that there are only 2 possible ways of dealing with a situation like this: 1. Smash the windows and shoot the tires. 2. Say Ëh, I'm sure they're fine" My comment was that surely there was something between these 2 extremes that would have been more appropriate with children in the car.

Does this seem like the least amount of force/violence they could have used to you? It really did not seem like they were fearful for their lives, it seemed like they were angry. I just can't see using this level of force when children are in the car. This sort of thing really gives me culture shock. This, of course, is just my opinion, you don't have to agree with me. I'm not used to seeing the police smash windows and shoot car tires. I think that there might have been an intermediary measure that they could have tried. Now I can understand police officers being concerned about their safety, but the woman was driving off. Maybe they were concerned about the children's safety, but smashing windows and shooting guns just doesn't fit in too well with that for me. Now I'm sure you guys will be able to rationalise that , but just think about it. Like I said, they didn't shoot OJ's tires and he was wanted for murder.

I completely agree that the mother was an idiot and should not have tried to drive off etc. I think, maybe, the boy was just trying to defend his mother. What I can't believe is how people just think it was no big deal that a window was smashed in with kids inside, and shots were fired at a vehicle with children inside. Watching the video did not make me think that the officers felt that their lives were in danger, it seemed more like it made them mad. Sure she deserves to be stopped and she deserves the appropriate punishment for her crime. But come on! Are you saying that the only way to do this was to smash in a window in a car with kids in it and to shoot at the car. They didn't even shoot at OJ's car, they had a little patience!

I really, really like WWS, and my dd has been able to be fairly independent with it. If she needs assistance I have found it pretty easy to open the teacher's book and guide her through the part she isn't getting. I would say that it is not completely independent, what writing program truly is, but the teacher's manual is very helpful and you don't have to prepare ahead of time. Of course, that is probably not the same for everyone, as some of the other threads have stated. We also take more time than the book states on some assignments. I think it is worth persevering with as I think it teaches writing very well. My dd does get frustrated at times, but at other times WWS is one of her favorite things to do. Even in the frustration I think she senses that she is learning a lot, and so is willing to keep at it. I don't think writing instruction should be torture, but I think it does just take hard work for most, or many, people.

Thank you so much Lori D for such good, thorough answers to my questions! That really helps a lot. Thank you for the links, I will be looking at those carefully. Trenna