I am so appalled by what is going on in France. The controlling and policing of a woman's chosen clothing is horrible. It reminds me of how fortunate I am to live in the US, and it certainly makes me more determined than ever to maintain free religious expression in our country. Although I am not religious, I strongly believe that the strength and beauty of our country is rooted in our respect for individual liberty, and that freedom of religious expression is certainly one of the most fundamental aspects of that liberty. Clearly, IMHO, liberty stops where it hurts others. So, no, you can't ignore child safety laws because your religion tells you to. You can't beat your child or wife because religion tells you to. You can't deny a citizen their rights (to marry, to purchase a home, etc) even if your religion tells you to reject their color or gender or sexuality. Government and businesses that serve the public should be required to obey laws . . . But, an individual should have the liberty to wear what they want. And, no, someone's discomfort for your nudity or your covering isn't *hurting* them at all, and certainly not to the extent that it should be allowed to impinge on the greater rights of the individual whose dress (or lack thereof) bothers you. Regarding things like proving identity (face covering). This one I think depends on the purpose of the law/rule. I don't think face covering should be completely prohibited in the public sphere, but I can see that government offices (Driver's License, etc) and even private businesses that rely on identity for safety (child care pick up or hospital visitors) or even for financial reasons (gym memberships) should be able to require face exposure for ID. It would be nice if there was a way of alternate ID (say, finger print scanner), but that wouldn't be cheap or easy to implement, and soon enough, you'll have a religious group that requires glove wearing, lol. It's all about balancing of individual liberty with public (or other people's) needs. Liberty is important enough to go to some trouble to accommodate it, IMHO.

I wouldn't personally carry a lethal weapon, but I'd be carrying pepper spray. Or bear spray if you don't mind the larger can and want a more assured and instant incapacitation of the attacking dog. Or wasp/hornet spray if you don't like those options. I'd nail the dogs as soon as they charged me (outside of the owners' property).

Roll Tide!! UA offers awesome merit money and has been an awesome experience so far!! College girl loves it, and with 5 years of tuition free (their NM package), she can get her BS & MS (in Comp Sci) tuition free (plus other money that covers most of the rest of her costs). U of Alabama is really a fantastic community. Everyone there is so nice and they have fantastic opportunities. There's a good chance our senior (son) will go there next year, too!

Thanks so much everyone! What an interesting conversation! What does she want to do? - - - I haven't even broached it with her. I have always had a firm plan of NOT graduating early, lol. She's young, we've never stressed grade level assignments. I won't broach this with her for at least another year or two. Maturity -- She's very mature for age at THIS TIME. However, I've already raised two teens, so I know it's totally plausible for her to stall or go backwards emotionally between now (going on 14) and when she's 16-18 and academically ready for college. This is actually the primary reason I've never seriously entertained my kids going to college early. NMSC grade -- That's AWESOME to hear it's easy to change the NMSC grade designation. That takes a lot of pressure off! I'll just be sure that if I haven't yet decided to graduate early or not, that she preps and does well for PSAT 10th grade to leave open the option to change her grade designation that year. Awesome to know! Huge help! Thank you! Extracurriculars -- Brag alert: My daughter excels at pretty much everything she touches. Sorry, but it's true, lol. She's a powerful little person and always has been. Since she was a baby, I joked that she'd either run the world some day or be a master criminal of some sort. Fortunately, she has a good heart and strong ethics, and so ruling the world seems more likely, lol. Her EC activities are very strong. Lots of leadership and activity in two areas -- local environmental groups (100s of hours a year, leadership roles, etc) and also music (advanced classical pianist as well as a contest winning and paid-gig-doing old time fiddler/banjo player/singer). Next year she'll also join our local super awesome FIRST Robotics team (that my senior son has been very involved in), so she'll have a full plate, so to speak, and I'm not sweating her EC resume. That said, ECs are not really a huge deal for us for college apps, as the elite schools are off the table due to finances. (BTDT, investigated the options . . . Short version being that we will NOT qualify for ANY need-based aid for her, but we can not actually afford the 70k+/yr full price tags . . . We have an unusual financial situation due to having had huge business and student debts, which are just now getting paid off after 15+ years of large payments, but won't all be paid off until she's actually in college . . . But that means a BIG part of our taxable income goes to debt repayment, which doesn't fit into the EFC calculators nicely. They see a high income and want a big chunk of it to go to college . . . They don't care that we've been spending a large (huge) part of that to pay for our business acquisition and our educations and another huge part on taxes (as that debt repayment is taxable income) . . . and that we just now started funding our own retirement as those debts have begun to be paid off . . . So, anyway, we have to be able to pay cash for college, which means we need to keep her costs under 30k/yr which means, in essence, she needs merit money, which will mean state schools with automatic NM or other Merit money or possibly 2nd/3rd tier schools that offer competitive merit money. None of the most elite schools offer any merit money.) Anyway, her current plan is to be a vet (like her dad, and to take over the family business, lol), in which case we'll for sure want her to go to an undergrad for free or super cheap so she can use our "bank of mom and dad" money to help reduce her vet school loans -- as vet school is crazy expensive (exploded costs in the last decade or so, and the job market is much tighter than it used to be due to rapid increase in enrollments, and salaries have not REMOTELY kept up with cost of schooling), much more expensive than makes sense for the earning power of a vet . . . We don't want to quash her dreams, but realistically, the only sensible way to go to vet school REQUIRES you to minimize debt. So having us fund her first year or two will help (a lot) with that, and we can do that if she doesn't spend much during undergrad . . . So that's the plan we're preparing for, while of course keeping as many doors open to allow her to change her plans later as desired. Some graduating vets are coming out with 400k+ in debt and earning an average of 80k in wages . . . Meaning a lifetime of debt . . . No way do we want that for her, so unless she redirects herself to human medicine (I keep nudging, lol) or a similarly lucrative field, we'll for sure want her to minimize grad school debt, meaning we'd like her to save *our* money to help with that if possible. Thanks all for the input! I really appreciate being able to bounce ideas around and hear y'all's feedback. Keep it coming!!!

Well, with her AoPS, she did ALg 2 before GEO (at least we did for this kid) and she has also done other "extra" maths (Counting & Probability, a middle school level Geo, etc, etc) . . . The only reason she's not much more accelerated on the traditional high school math route has been our extensive efforts to avoid that with deeper/extra subjects . . . Even with AoPS (the most challenging math I've found), her current trajectory has her doing Calc in 10th grade, or latest 11th grade (if we spent 10th doing more "extra" maths instead of typical curricula). As she only has Alg 3 & PreCalc to do before Calc, and she plans to do them both in one school year (next year, 9th grade) as her older sister did (easily) . . . She'd be doing DE by 11th grade at this rate if we don't otherwise change her grade.

I'd like to hear from anyone who has graduated a child early due to acceleration/gifted issues. All my kids are super smart/gifted/accelerated. My first two have thrived with a standard-age graduation. We used APs, CLEP, etc, to give them a head start on college level work, no problems. My youngest is in 8th grade this year. She's also super smart, but she also, for good or bad, benefits from being Kid#3. For all subjects, she has a teacher (me) who has BTDT with two similar smarties already, so I don't waste time with poor-fit curricula and typically I teach with the same materials I've used before, so I better anticipate needs, streamline teaching, etc. I'm just a better teacher having done it at least once before, and she learns just as well, but typically faster/better since I anticipate things better, etc. So, anyway, this is technically her 8th grade year. She's an October birthday, so on the older side for her grade. She's working at an advanced high school level and has been for over a year. She self-taught Spectrum (high school level) chemistry last year and has been self-teaching Art of Problem Solving math for a couple years already. When I say self-teach, I mean that I might have spent 10 hours in total last year checking (100% on everything is easy to check) her chem and her algebra. I don't think I spent more than an hour all last year teaching her anything. She just reads the book, nails the assignments, and carries on. So, now, here we are in 8th grade. We've got a nice selection of work for her this year, all great stuff. MCT for English, MCT for lit, SonLight (easy, but we have it, and it's solid and fine) for US History, PA Homeschoolers for AP Environmental Science, AoPS Geometry (self-teaching with the text, as usual, she doesn't need the classes), and the last in the Galore Park Spanish series (equivalent of Spanish 3 or 4). I'm starting to wonder if for this particular kid, we aren't going to want to go ahead and graduate her a year or more early . . . The last thing I want is to be an empty nester a year early, but I do want to consider what is in HER best interest educationally. We have 2 universities in easy commuting distance. I think we could do "dual enrollment" there while still calling her a homeschool highschooler. If we do that, chance are she'll have a couple years of college credits by the time she graduates from high school. This is probably my current default plan. Alternatively, I could accelerate her a year, and she'd still graduate with many courses of AP/etc credit since by next year, since she's started AP this year and likely will continue with that to a large degree. Pros/Cons? BTDT advice? I really have never given this serious thought before, and I'm looking for ideas to consider. FWIW, it will NOT be a good idea for her to wait until after 9th grade to decide to accelerate (so, about 24-30 more months). The reason for this is that she will nearly positively be a national merit scholar, and the critical test for that is given fall of 11th grade. NM scholarships are HUGE here in our house (as in >100k in scholarship money per kid), so I will need to plan for that, and the most sure thing is that we need to know when it is her 11th grade year to declare that so her PSAT that year is her official NM PSAT . . . So, anyway, I need to decide for sure in the next 18 months, by mid-10th grade for sure.

I would try all brand new rings/lids. If the rings are sound, they shouldn't be able to blow off. So, I'd be assuming your rings are just worn/defective. I suggest running out and buying a new batch of rings (and sealing lids). If you have two brands to choose from, then I'd buy one of each. :) Similarly, if you are already using new rings, then I'd buy a different brand or go to a different store (to hopefully get a different lot).

Honestly, I'd probably do a full background check. I'd even pay a PI if the alarm bells were ringing. I'd only disclose this to my daughter if I found something worrisome. Meanwhile, I'd stick close like glue to dd and the man in question. I'd invite them over a lot for meals, outings, special events. . . I'd spend lots of 1-1 time with my dd, maybe taking her to pedicures (adjacent chairs), etc, to have plenty of time to chat. I'd ask lots of open questions. Depending on the kid, I'd be anything from secretive to open about my concerns. Some kids are more receptive than others. My girls would want me to tell them my concerns. My boy, probably not. I'd be careful and thoughtful and loving . . . I'd go all in if my creep-o-meter was ringing about a person in an intimate relationship with my child. I would try not to be super obvious.

FIRST Robotics has been awesome for my teen son. Great kids, great mentors, great learning, and lots of opportunities to build meaningful friendships with an excellent peer group. So awesome that I'm certain to make sure my youngest daughter joins next year in 9th grade. If there is a FIRST team in your area that accepts homeschoolers, I *highly* recommend checking it out!

IME, front loader *washer* doors are not reversible. You want the washer on the left. If it's on the right, it'll be opening away from the dryer. FL washer doors are really important/complicated compared to top loaders, since they have to be water tight! Dryer doors are more often reversible even on front loaders, I think, but for sure, washer is not. I think they make the dryer door reversible in case you stack them.

Your accountant probably misunderstood your question. We own a business that carries inventory. Inventory purchase cost is a fully deductible business expense. Sales are income. So, if I spend 10,000 on inventory and sell it for a total of 15,000, then I now have a taxable income of 15k-10k=5k. But, I will get to deduct more expenses (office supplies, utilities, rent, etc) from that remaining 5k of "income" so probably the final taxable income will be close to zero. (Sales tax will be paid all along as sales occur, FWIW.) I think I know what your accountant was getting at . . . The borrowed money that represents the value of the business itself (excluding inventory value) is sort of a "Thing" I buy when I buy a business. (Imagine I'm buying a huge diamond instead of a restaurant/etc.) OK, so I buy a restaurant from someone else for 500k. I borrow 500k over 15 years to repay this debt. The first year, I pay a total of 70k in loan payments -- 40k towards interest and 30k in in principal. That INTEREST is a deductible expense. However, the principal payments are NOT a deductible expense and essentially that income "passes through" (at least in most very small business corporation classes) to the owners as ordinary taxable INCOME. So, me, the restaurant owner has ON PAPER earned an extra 30k this year because we/I (the business that I own) has paid down some of the debt. This makes sense since I, the business owner, now own 30k more of my business than I did last year . . . I have 30k more equity . . . So I'm 30k "richer". It does not "make sense" in the fact that I, the business owner, never actually see that money. It is "on paper" only, until, someday, I sell that business. Keep this up for 15 years. Each year, the owner pays down more and more principal and so, on paper, is more and more rich, and all along is paying more and more taxes. Overall, it makes sense IMHO, but it is a huge PITA during the pay down period, as you don't FEEL richer since you aren't getting any more money to SPEND but you are owning a bigger and bigger part of that restaurant/diamond/whatever, which is a good thing overall (and can be cashed out someday). That "on paper" income has to be FULLY paid taxes on, including popping you up into higher brackets, losing income-based deductions such as child care, student loan interest/ IRA eligibility/ etc. So, even if the business owner is actually only taking, say 40k/yr out of the business in cash for herself to live on, she's paying income-taxes based on that 40k+principal pay down, so maybe 70k-90k as the years progress in the above example (as later loan years will have greater part of the loan payments be principal while the interest part goes down). As you can imagine, there is a HUGE difference in tax rates for someone who earns 40k vs 90k. So, that 40k cash salary might need to pay for 15k-20k in taxes (state, federal, etc.) Leaving them 20-25k to LIVE on despite a paper income of 90k. Yikes!!! This is *exactly* the scenario that caught me off guard around our second year of business ownership. It still causes us trouble, but we now just accept/understand/plan for it . .. and is largely the reason why we can NOT afford the Estimated Family Contributions that the various calculators suggest we should be able to for our kids' colleges. Each year, we get (a good bit) richer (ON PAPER) due to principal pay down on our family business. So, we pay taxes on all that (as we should, really, because someday, when we sell, we'll have that equity to cash out) . . . So, we pay a big part of our take-home pay back out as taxes, making our take home even smaller than you'd think. Add in retirement contributions (given our ages, a necessity), and your actual cash available to spend is (much) lower again. Add in that we don't get nearly any deductions/etc that are income-phased out because of that huge part of our income that is phantom paper-only income . . . Alright, this is all fair, IMHO, in the grand scheme of things. HOWEVER, the FAFSA, etc doesn't care that most of that income is "paper only" until/unless we sell the business (which is our entire livelihood and supports all of us, so not an option) . . . but FAFSA doesn't give a hoot. So, FAFSA thinks we should be able to SPEND that paper income on our kids' colleges. Indeed, we *could* but ONLY if we took more loans, since that paper income is not at all accessible. It's like saying "you have a 500k house . . . so you should be able to spend some of that value each year" We all know that the only way to spend a house's value is to BORROW against it. It's not like cash in the bank that you can just withdraw. So, anyhow, this is why our kids can't go to elite colleges that don't give merit aid. Period. Because the only way to pay the EFC is to borrow against the value of the business . . . Which at 70k/yr for 3 kids x 4 years would wipe out just about exactly the entire value of a lifetime's work by the end of their undergrad. No thanks. SOOOO, anyway, IME, the trick of this sort of thing is that, yes, it's great to, over time, gain wealth via business ownership/principal pay down. The big negative IME is these complicated tax/financial consequences of the "paper/phantom" income while you pay down principal. If you never BORROW money to acquire the business, then this shouldn't happen quite so badly. But, if you borrow big to buy a business, then the entire period of principal pay down will involve a lot of phantom income that makes you FEEL like you have outrageously high taxes/EFC/etc. In our case, we just accepted the fact that we can't truly afford our EFC (truly affording our taxes isn't an option, lol, or we'd pay less in taxes, but we have no choice there, lol). Our kids can't go to colleges that we can't pay cash for the entire amount -- no need based aid period -- merit aid is our friend. We look forward to the day our last large business debt is paid off (5 years 3 months, but who is counting . . . ) because then, the last of the phantom income becomes actual cash in our pocket . . . and then we will be able to afford the things the various taxing authorities/colleges/etc have THOUGHT we could afford all along . . . during the first, oh, 18 years of business ownership, lol.

I love both our sets of front loaders. :) We do TONS (maybe 30 loads a week for years, now down to maybe 20) of laundry and they all have held up pretty well. Our LGs and our Samsungs. I've had the LGs maybe 7 years, no big problems. I think we spent $150 or so one time on the door seal or something like that with the door of the washer. The Samsungs are newish (about 18 months light use, as it's our secondary set), no problems at all and lots of neat settings. They were a steal at about $1000 for the pair on sale. Both have buttons with which you can turn off the ding-ding if you don't want to hear it. :) I think the set at college dd's house is Whirlpool, and I've done a couple loads there, no problems, but we haven't owned them long enough to really vouch for them. I'd just go with whichever has good ratings, decent settings, and is cheaper. :) I don't use a lot of fancy settings, but I do use the "extra rinse" and the "extra water" buttons sometimes on both, and I wouldn't want to have a set without them (especially the extra rinse, as we have skin allergies combined with very dirty lifestyles, so I like to be able to use strong detergent but get lots of rinsing . . .). Oh, and some sort of delicate/handwash cycle is needed, but I presume that's standard in all sets? I do use a "prewash" setting on our main (LG) set, and if you have lots of gross stuff -- like poopy diapers or nasty barn clothes, then that is an awesome setting, as it does a sort of short wash getting out the mud/poop, then goes back to a full cycle with fresh water/soap. Anyway, I'd make sure the set you choose has settings you need. Those are the settings that are most important to me.

The "magic pills" for the cat (presumably Comfortis) are going to be a lot cheaper than Orkin. If you only have one pet, then, for SURE Comfortis is going to be a lot more effective and cheaper than all that other stuff. If you have 10 pets, then it can be a larger budget issue (not any less important, though). Really, get Comfortis for your cat. You can just buy 3 doses if they'll split doses. One dose a month until a few weeks after the fleas are gone (i'd go 6-8 weeks after the fleas are gone if at all feasible). Cure. Woohoo. You have a walk, breathing, flea killing machine in that cat. Meanwhile, vacuum/launder/etc. Unless your infestation is super severe, you don't have to use any pesticides. Just the Comfortis. Comfortis is prescription, available at the vet) Accept no substitutes, IMHO. (And, no, I don't work for Elanco!)

I wonder why the US teams don't have "minders" or "babysitters" or "bodyguards". It seems like in Rio they might have benefited from all of the above! Considering the vast expense of the Olympics, it'd be a small investment to add a security detail to follow them around when they are out of the Olympic Village/training areas/etc. I wager that future Olympics might just have that . . . Just to protect their safety and their reputations . . .

Dh did a lot of research on Zika/repellants before our family trip to Costa Rica in May. He determined that picaradin was as effective as DEET but safer. We used a lot of it (lotion form) in CR and it certainly seemed effective and was much less nasty smelling/feeling than the DEET ones we also brought. Also, the Repel brand of eucalyptus repellant seems very effective and is presumably safer. Also, you can treat clothes, shoes, hat, etc with a long lasting (many wash cycles) permethrin spray. It is stinky when you apply, but then it's just on your clothes and you can't smell it. (I'd have your dh apply it to your stuff since you are pregnant, just to be safe.) Just a couple thoughts. It must be very stressful being pregnant in an area that may expose you to Zika!!

We had lots of things that worked well for high school math. Thinkwell Art of Problem Solving (our favorite) Life of Fred Those all worked really well around my house.

Then again, when my kids were little, going out of the house for some time was a break. I worked 1 day/wk when my youngest was a baby, and it was like vacation going to work to leave them at home with dh. :) So, I'd suggest trying out the PT working thing for 3 months. See how it goes. If it goes well, then you can keep doing it. Even if you hate it, you can just quit and call it a lesson learned. If you make it 3 months, working say 10 hr/wk at $10/hr, that'd be $1000+ (after some taxes) or so to add to your ER fund. Personally, I LOVE little kids and I wanted tons of kids (dh cut me off at 3), but I'm sure if I'd had young kids for 15+ years, I'd desperately enjoy a few hours of grown up work each week. No shame in that!! So, I say "Go for it . . . and quit if it doesn't work out."

Good luck! I was so nervous about it all, rather panicked, really! I hope your kid has a great first day and first year!

When we moved to WV 12 years ago, the roads were in great shape. Since then, the Tea Party took over our state legislature, and between them and the ordinary idiots in both major parties and cronyism/inflated administration budgets/etc, they have managed to gut road budgets, and in fact, all state spending. The standard "11 year repaving cycle" (or something like that, it was, according to an acquaintance in local politics) is now more like 30 years, or longer -- or simply NEVER if you live on a low use road like mine. So, if you lived here sometime before the last 5 years, you wouldn't recognize the road conditions; it's very sad. Having Robert Byrd in the Senate all those years brought lots of road money, as did a flush coal economy. Now coal is cleaned out, and Byrd is gone, and things have changed for the worse in our state spending habits, which is especially visible in our roads. I keep trying to be civil to you, seeking some sort of civil discourse and intelligent discussion on our different perspectives, but you seem intent on being hostile and on avoiding understanding anything you don't immediately agree with. I respectfully request that you put me on "ignore" now, as I have done for you, and we can go about our WTM routines without this sort of negative interaction. It's easy to do. It'll make your day better, and mine, too. Since I'm putting you on ignore, I will (do my best to) avoid reading or responding to you in the future, so feel free to get your jollies vilifying me without (likely) risk of me countering your assertions. Or, maybe, just maybe, you might decide to walk away from your aggression and perhaps channel your energy into more constructive pursuits. Like, maybe go for a run. Or a walk. Or take a nap. Or go dig holes in your yard and then fill them back up. (Or roll the wheelbarrow full of dirt to the nearest pot hole and fill it up.) Certainly you have something better to do than to this. Cheers!

This was a favorite meme on my WV Facebook feed last year. Very apt.

Ugh, this is a crazy thread. I should look away, but I can't help myself. We have pot holes up to maybe 3 feet across and 18 inches deep, and in places you will have so many across the road that you can't actually avoid all of them, so you have to go slow to muddle through, hoping none are deep enough to break something. Literally, my 0,7 mile long road has at least 100-200 potholes. There are some 20 foot long sections that have DOZENS. WV potholes are so numerous that I joke that Subarus are the official state car, because they come with standard AWD, are economical, and have *high clearance*. We have an old AWD Volvo sedan and two new AWD Subarus (and a non-AWD minivan with college girl in sunny Alabama). All our WV cars are AWD, as I will no longer buy any vehicles that are not AWD due to the lack of road maintenance -- it's a safety issue in the winter. But, the Volvo (purchased 12 years ago by my mom in good-road-country) has typical (low) sedan clearance, and so making it through our road without damaging it is a challenge each and every time. My brother recently sold (at a bargain price) his babied-but-10-yr-old Mustang convertible. If we lived anywhere else, I'd have snapped it up for a fun car, but living here, there is NO way that car would survive more than a handful of cautious trips down our road, let alone regular driving. Our road is very bad, but it is NOT unusual for lower-traffic roads in WV. Unless you live in town (which is a small city) and never visit anyone out of town AND avoid the various town roads that are similarly totally unsafe for low-clearance cars, you aren't going to be able to use a sports car here. Good for me, since it eliminates any temptation for a mid-life-crisis car, lol. Two weeks ago, a large section (30 feet long, one full lane across) of our 2 lane (one each direction) "major secondary highway" thoroughfare (55 mph) into town dropped into the abyss via sinkhole. A few weeks earlier (before the big collapse), it had dropped 8-12 inches over night. For hours/days there were 8-12 inch drops ON THE ROAD on the one 55mph lane going north. Obviously, cars were damaged before it got blocked (for many months, presumably, as they have to re-engineer things). These things just happen around here, presumably due to poor maintenance. There are many WV roads that are very narrow. There is one heavily traveled road in town (a small but affluent city, for WV) that is so narrow that you have to pull aside, sometimes into a ditch, and often brushing against vegetation, if two larger (minivan/SUV, not huge truck) are going at the same time. That road connects one of our most major (very nice) shopping areas with our largest (of 2) high schools and happens to also connect to our piano teacher's house. Going another route would add 10+ minutes to many short trips. But, taking that road (which is not marked as anything other than a regular road, and which only recently added a "not suitable for large trucks" sign on one end) means you are more than likely to need to pull aside, rub vegetation, or end up in a ditch. This road is exceptionally bad for "in town" but not at all exceptional for other areas, where people live, go to the rail trail, travel, etc, on a routine basis. We also have lots of loose gravel. Gravel for many miles of heavily trafficked roads, where other vehicles, let alone yours, will pop up gravel at the car, dinging and scratching it. And branches in the roads after a heavy rain (frequent). When you drive over a branch, things pop up and scratch your car. We have lots of trees and brush and untrimmed brush along roads. Close to roads. With lots of rough pavement/potholes and poor painting upkeep. Especially when you add poor snow management in the winter, minor fender benders/ditch dives/off the road into the brush incidents are quite common. Common enough that when you have one, another vehicle with tow straps will generally rescue you before AAA can get out. These incidents typically result in some dents, dings, and scratches. When you drive along a narrow untrimmed road, especially when another vehicle is heading towards you, you are likely to rub up against branches of brush. These things scratch. We have lots of brush and tons of tress. It rains a lot, and our soil is fertile. We have a lush, green, beautiful state . . . lol I encourage all of y'all who don't believe me about WV roads to plan a road trip (in your nicest car, not) out here to WV. Check us out. The mountains and rivers are beautiful. The people are low key and kind. If you need help route planning to see the best and worst of our roads, I'm happy to help.

My guess is that you're using a lot less salt, so you've dropped some water weight. If I'm right, then the first binge on chips/dip or other processed food will bring it right back. :( Processed foods and all the yummy things that go into casseroles often have loads of salt. LOADS. Simply using table salt to flavor home-cooked simple foods likely involves much less sodium than most of the casseroles/etc.

I did Miquon in parallel (not trying to coordinate) along with SM while my kids were that age. It did help keep the math-brain busy while they are so young while slowing down the acceleration apt to happen with super-mathy little ones. My kids pre-dated Beast (so sad to have missed that . . . maybe someday with grandkids!) . . . or else I'd definitely have wanted to check that out, as I love, love, love AoPS. Another trick is to incorporate a book of SM Intensive Practices periodically. I did that every couple levels (2? 4?) -- did the level of SM they just finished, but did the IP over a couple months. Kept their brains learning and didn't make us move on just yet. (I generally chose to do that when it seemed like there were still one or two concepts from the finished level that could use more reinforcement.) And, of course, the games are great. I loved the Peggy Kaye "Games" books. Great for practicing facts, too, which is important when using SM. (Triangle flash cards, etc, are also helpful in this. We did 5 min of math drill each day until all the facts were mastered.) FWIW, my kids flew through SM and Miquon and my youngest finished both by, oh, about 3rd grade, and moved right on to AoPS Pre-A (the first year it was out), and hasn't slowed down a bit. Math seems to be something that some kids can progress through rapidly at an early age with no harm done. I tried in various ways to slow them down here and there, but in retrospect, I don't think any harm came from their acceleration.

My youngest did the Algebra book, it took a bit over 1 year. She was rather young (5th & 6th grades), so I didn't rush it. She did just great. I think you can comfortably do it in a single year without much trouble. If you look at the entire table of contents, and plan for 1 day for each section (excluding the summary sections) and then 4-5 days in total for each end-of-chapter review/challenge section, that, IME, gives a very realistic schedule of less than an hour a day of work. That's how we've been scheduling my kids' AoPS for years, and it works out great (as long as they stick to the schedule, lol). It's been a while since we did Algebra, but I just checked my old schedule, and, it was 207 days of work using 5 days for the total for each of the end-of-chapter problem sets. There are 22 chapters, so if you make that 4 days for end-of-chapter (perfectly reasonable, and what we are doing this year with AoPS Geometry for her), then that would bring you down to 185 days (give or take if my 3 year old spreadsheet had a missed section or two), which is pretty close to my standard of 180 days in a school year. I love, love, love AoPS, so I wouldn't suggest skipping anything. It's too awesome to miss any of it. :)

My always-been-homeschooled son has decided (with my trepidation and my support) to do his senior year at the local high school. Today was the first day. They were super accommodating and let us hand pick his classes, etc. (Having done his standardized testing through the school in past years was helpful in this, as we were familiar faces, and they knew he has stellar PSAT, etc, so they "want" his enrollment for their school, so that was helpful.) First, it was awesome for him to come home at the end of the school day DONE. No haggling all day about X-Box vs. Nap vs. School. Just school!! And now he's done! With no homework (today)! Second, dh asked the other day about what we needed to do about buying his texts this year. Last year we spent close to 3k on his 3 online APs plus books/lab supplies/etc. I cackled as I explained that the public school GIVES YOU ALL THE BOOKS. Woot! Woot!! Third, my son was pleased that he was the most proficient speaker in his Honors Spanish 4 class. Those live-tutor sessions over the years made a big impact. I was relieved that it appears the placement is appropriate since I totally guessed. He liked both his teachers and classes today. (They have a split schedule with odd/even days, and he has a study hall one period and a double period for AP Chem, so just 2 classes today and 3 on "even" days.) That's more than I can say for his feelings about me and our home schooling in recent years, so that's awesome. OK, now to the funnies . . . 1) He rode the school bus. We're nearly at the county line, so his was nearly an hour long ride with all the stops. He was awake, but clearly discombobulated, as he stayed on the bus PAST his high school . . . and rode on with the middle schoolers (shared bus) to their school. Oops. Bus driver made a stop back at the high school to deliver him (late). 2) He went into the classroom adjacent to his AP Chem class and sat through the first 30 min of Honors Chem before realizing he was in the wrong room. When he went next-door, he was greeted loudly and enthusiastically by another homeschool friend (who attends the high school PT) as if she hadn't seen him in years (it'd been merely 14 hours since Robotics last night, lol) 3) At lunch, when he pulled out cash to pay, several students giggled at him as I guess they've been using a no-cash/bill-the-parents plan for many years, so cash at the lunch room is not done. All the staff and students were nice, and he already made some new friends and confirmed that there are lots of cute girls (one of his motivators to attend a regular school, lol) So, anyway, I had huge trepidation about one of my kids going to a regular school, but he wanted to do this, and since one of my great fears about college was "can he get out of bed" and the other was "can he care about grades enough to get the GPA he'll need for med school" . . . and I agreed that a year in public high school will be a good way to resolve those issues before starting college . . . so, here he goes, and I am relieved to report that the first day went well. Only 160 or so more days to go! :)