Good to know. I ordered mine about a year ago and it took nearly a month. Mine shipped direct from China. We ordered our son's more recently though, and I do believe it came MUCH faster. It must have. I don't remember hearing him complain much. :-P

Each kid is different. I have one who enjoys it, but does not obsess. His obsession is chess. The others like Minecraft, but don't actually play it daily even though they all have access. I have two kids who seem to go overboard if their screen time is not limited. I am constantly talking to them about prioritizing what's most important to you. For my oldest and youngest though, this is not the case. In fact my oldest, who was given his own laptop and no restrictions @ 13, just got hired as a programmer after self-teaching in computer code. He found that one person who would let him show what he could do and they hired him. It's a darn good job--one that many adults would love to have. Tuition reimbursement, benefits, corporate housing (He's not moving out YET.). He can afford (at nineteen!!) to put himself through college, buy a new car and pay for its insurance and still save about half his take home pay. The important thing though? He is loving what he's doing. I can honestly say that for THIS kid, limiting him to 15 minutes a day would have really limited him. I do realize that is not the usual result of giving free rein, but parents do need to consider each child's needs individually. If you know *your* child needs screen time limited, do it. You'll know this just by looking at them while they're on the computer and watching how it affects their behavior. Just don't do anything because it's considered to be general knowledge. It really does not affect everyone the same way.

Another vote for Lenovo! We have two of the Y series machines, and are very pleased with them. My kids love Minecraft, and to play it on a laptop a second graphics card is highly recommended (a requirement really if you want it to run properly). These both have that. Laptops with that feature are not $200 machines though. Bookmarking that outlet site! Do you get them from there faster? I waited a long while for mine...

It's not the case for all CC in MI either. My husband was told (by more than one person) to wait to take math classes until he transferred to university instead of the CC he was attending because the university classes would be EASIER This CC has a bit of a reputation for challenging math classes. Kind of the opposite of what I guess is typical. I guess we're lucky. There are definitely a lot of them around for which that would be true though. This is unfortunate because it means students who struggled in high school still won't get the help they need. :-(

Okay. It's a fat, so I thought it might be some complicated chemical composition thing. Has anyone tried it with coconut oil? That might be yummy.

15-18 credit hours is considered full time by most schools. I don't know how motivated he is, but that would be work to keep up with that even for most adults.

I remember her. I really hope she just moved on and nothing happened to her. Anyone know?

Mine has 1/2 c peanut butter, 1 tsp vanilla and everything else is the same. Is there a peanut butter free version? Just leave it out? I will say that once we ended up using old-fashioned oats and they were... chewy. People still ate them, but it's better with minute oats.

My teen (still a teen til January) just got his first job. I can see no real reason for this kid where getting one earlier would have been any kind of benefit. He didn't need his own money for anything, really. If he had wanted one though? I don't think I would have stood in his way. He is expected to pay for car insurance, the balance of his classes (His employer will be paying 80%.), his car payment and save as much as possible each month. This is an older teen though, and definitely a rather serious (not typical) first job.

He may need to start an "Insure the Camaro Fund" as well. ;-)

I think The Trumpet of the Swan was set in Canada, but they migrate to Montana.

You remember correctly. No solution books. I've resisted the temptation to buy it based on that alone. I may have a peek at DM soon though. It's been a LONG time since I've been to their site.

I think they offered both programs for a while. I knew I remembered something, but was too lazy to look it up. :-) More user-friendly is a plus. Most drop Singapore after 6B because NEM is not for the faint of heart.

I'll take a stab at a little armchair psychology. I think it's because when someone is attacked, it highlights how very vulnerable we are--especially women. We'd like to think (even if it's erroneously) that we can avoid that happening to ourselves and our loved ones. This vulnerability makes us feel helpless. That makes us angry. Because any one of us COULD end up trusting the wrong person, and we really would like to think WE would be too smart for that.

:iagree: Also, most of the more intrusive questions also had an option for an answer that wasn't really an answer. Kind of a neat idea for a class project for AP Govt. Needed a little more thought put into it's execution. It should have been totally voluntary, truly anonymous and a "non-answer" option provided for EVERY question.

Yes. And this is something that we'll no doubt be hearing more about thanks to the internet. It's a gold mine for attention seekers. Combine that with Munchausen's? Yikes!

Neat! Thanks for posting that.

:iagree: They can be useful--and kinda fun!

So basically two Mondays in a row? Sorry about that. :-(

Me either. And I love your sig. :-)

That explains a lot. My youngest is a 5th grader--and the rest? Well... they're teens. :-P

I think you may have missed the tongue-in-cheek humor of the OP.

There is actually something in the CC standards about this. Maybe we'll see some new programs out soon. For now there is the NEM series from Singapore that begins in 7th grade (or is it called something else now?). There is another starting at the middle school level as well by the same publisher as Everyday Math. I think the first in the series is called Transition Math or something like that (Okay, that program's not integrated after that book. :-/).

Of course it's not exclusive to larger towns. It just comes up more often--especially for kids in public school. In a book series, you come to feel like you know the characters. It might be the first time--especially for younger readers, they've really given it much thought.

That's how I read it too. I come from midwestern small town of about 3,000. There are no gay pride marches here. I'm sure there are a few living here quietly (If you want to do anything quietly, this IS the place! lol!). Other than a couple of teen boys holding hands at the 4th of July fireworks, it hasn't really come up often. I *have* had discussions with them after references to homosexuality on TV shows. That's about all the opportunity I get. Oh... and my one gay FB friend whom I went to high school with recently got married. I guess there was that. But no one they know irl. I feel like when reading books in a series, you do kind of start feeling like you know the characters, so maybe a little discussion there would be a good thing.