This is a very, very important point. The value of your personal effort in helping them find unique and fitting opportunities, not to mention setting them up academically to pave the way, cannot be understated. This is a parent contribution of the best kind.

I think it can be doable for the right student in the right situation, especially those students with stats to get merit scholarships or those students with both stats and high need who get admitted to a meets-need school (which tend to be competitive). However, for students who aren't eligible for financial aid and don't have high-enough stats for merit scholarships at any level of school, in many states paying one's own way entirely to a 4-yr school is not realistic. Room and board alone at many schools run in the neighborhood of 15k; that *might* be covered between a student's earnings and federal student loan, but that doesn't touch much of tuition. My suggestion would be to examine this question as early as possible so that the family has realistic expectations, for costs, for the types of stats it may take for merit scholarships at any level of school, and for possible alternatives such as starting at community college. I think it's important for all to be aware that certain factors in a student's situation - such as the family financial picture (EFC) and state of residence (cost of in-state options) - are entirely outside of the student's control. (As an aside, I worked 30+ hrs per week for most of college and yes, in retrospect, that was too much. We are full-pay and fortunately we will be able to do so. Nonetheless, there will be value comparisons of possible options.)

FWIW, the 500mcg (0.5 mg) melatonin we use is a peppermint chewable from Trader Joes. I think it works best to use it as a lozenge. https://www.amazon.com/Trader-Joes-Darwins-Melatonin-100tablets/dp/B004OLL190/ref=sr_1_7_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1505960927&sr=8-7&keywords=chewable+melatonin

I might think that way if this were a 4 y.o., but for 12, I don't think the girl twin's feelings will be hurt if the boy twin's friends don't bring her gifts. Tweens aren't little kids. Just sayin'.... I would ask the invited boy in what context he knows the birthday boy's twin sister. (As a mom of twins, I would feel bad if one of my boys' friends felt an obligation to bring something for the other one, whom they don't know well. At the middle school level, I dunno, it would feel odd.)

For many people, less-is-more when it comes to melatonin and waking up in the middle of the night. I would try a fraction of that 6 mg dose. (e.g., I use 500 mcg or even 250 mcg, that's a half or quarter of 1 mg.)

Like the others said, a 12 y.o. twin will not be expecting a gift from someone he or she isn't friends with. (My twin boys have completely different friends...)

Miquon

emphasize that 69 = (70 - 1) and that it's easier to multiply 70 than to multiply 69 in one's head. 69 x 4 = (70 - 1) x 4 then the 4 is "distributed" = (70 x 4) - (1 x 4)

Do you need the score for entrance to a gifted program or you just wanted to see how she might do? Perhaps try a practice SAT on Khan Academy to get an idea of whether taking a college entrance test is worth the effort at this point in time, especially considering the student's current math level (TT6 ?).

If you can get the echo, that is the most important thing for cardiomyopathy for right now. (And of course the EKG for any other anomalies. My kiddo has an abnormal EKG too, but it's not due to the cardiomyopathy; separate thing)

Then to keep it simple, I would just do percents in MM with the promise to move on as soon as she's done. Integers will take like thirty seconds.

er, try some Alcumus for a while? Move on to whatever prealgebra you are planning on?

FWIW, I would not expect the cardiologist to go outside the cardiology aspects to look at genetic syndromes. I would expect the cardiologist to be able to order genetic testing for cardiomyopathies. It may be that a mutation for a cardiomyopathy also indicates a genetic syndrome, but I wouldn't expect the cardiologist to be looking at other symptoms of the syndrome - I might expect a referral to genetics for that. After our cardiologist found the mutations, we were sent to the genetics dept within the same children's hospital. It was our second time having an appt in that clinic. My kiddo has all sorts of genetic issues, including a tethered spinal cord. For the second time, genetics found no syndromes based on observation (e.g marfan, etc.) and did NO bloodwork. The genetics docs we saw do not like to go on fishing expeditions, sequencing the whole genome, etc. They would only look for specific genes if they see certain symptoms. ETA, and our genetics dept is at least a 6 month wait for an appt (for nothing).

FWIW, I would be extremely skeptical of the suggestion to substitute computer programming language for foreign language for most colleges. Unless I see it on the specific college admissions websites, I would assume that's not going to cut it.

What are the behaviors of concern?

From the little you have written, this sounds more like an age/mood/phase/sleep/hormone thing than a math thing. Is there any way she can correct her own work? (I have a kiddo who did a lot of "Help me! NO DON'T TELL ME!!!" in middle school. It wasn't the math :) ) ETA, maybe Alcumus for a bit? one problem at a time and self-correcting... (Also, fwiw, I would probably have put a 7th grader in AoPS Prealgebra rather than BA5, but it honestly doesn't matter as long as she likes the books.)

I would definitely not skip it. At most, you might combine the addition and subtraction sections into a single lesson. I think it's a pretty important method for solving systems, including multiplying to get one or both equations to a state in which they can be added or subtracted in order to eliminate. (as for substitution, eww) I'm sure it's hiding in Dolciani someplace as well.

There are a number of different possible genetic cardiomyopathies. They are not all included in 23andme. My ds has two mutations for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, MYH7 and MYBPC3. I know for sure at least the MYH7 rs id# was not included in his 23andme. Long story, but ultimately when it was noticed on echo, the cardiologist ordered the genetic testing. And then our other five kids had to be tested (negative). Dh opted to have the cardiology workup instead of the genetics and I have totally flaked on getting tested - one day I need to do that, but the doc guesses it was probably a spontaneous mutation. I would be inclined to find an adult cardiologist for an 18 y.o. FWIW, we are still at the ped level with our 14 y.o.; we see a cardiologist who sub-specializes in cardiomyopathies (actually, it's the "cardiomyopathy clinic" within the cardiology dept at our local children's hospital).

Just so you aren't surprised, I vaguely recall that the question may be asked when setting up the college board account. Note that many such questions are optional even if it isn't immediately obvious.

At my kids' school: 97-100 = A+ = 4.33 93-96 = A = 4.0 90-92 = A- = 3.67 At my other kid's school, there are no plusses/minuses, so: 90-100 = A = 4.0 80-90 = B = 3.0 Plusses and minuses are a double-edged sword, IMO...

Many years back, we had been dealing with infertility. With our oldest at the playground, an old man with a heavy foreign accent came up to us, said something about her, and wagging a finger in the air, added "Next year, you will have a boy. No, two boys!" and then walked away. His prediction was correct :)

Exactly like my Nextdoor too. Someone posted it there today. Except that I didn't post the picture of the bobcat that showed up in our yard one day. And I too appreciate knowing where the bears have been spotted lately, even if it was on someone's security cam at 1 am.

- if you go out to Concord, go to Minuteman National Park and see the brief multimedia presentation at the visitor center. - Bunker Hill - depends on how much you like history. It's a brief stop. - on our most recent trip, Google directions on my phone led us astray in Boston at least four times due to the overlapping decks of streets. - we have a habit of eating at Legal Seafood at least once have fun :)

Can you give an example of a college you wanted to check out the requirements for? Or your state?

I buy cheap shoes. When they were little, we went to the Stride Rite outlet, but that's gone now. I shop at Target as much as possible. My 14 y.o.'s recently got real shoes, from Kohls or Famous Footwear. I have six kids and the younger ones usually only have one pair at a time (sneakers) unless there's a special occasion involving real shoes. I save what I can but for the most part, sneakers can't be saved. As long as they don't need the same size with the next purchase, I don't mind too much - that doesn't happen to me very often.