All drugs can have side effects that, in rare cases, may turn out to be worse than the original disease. If statistically speaking, more sufferers are helped than harmed by a drug, then it is a reasonable chance to take. I think it's pretty obvious that I wasn't saying suicide is no big deal - I frankly think you are being disingenuous and unfair to me by implying that I'm somehow callous and uncaring about suicide. The fact is, more people commit suicide due to untreated depression than due to medication. (I'm setting aside the issue of pediatric use of these medications, which I know is much more complicated. The original thread was about "women" so I'm assuming we are talking about adults.) Furthermore, it is notoriously difficult to figure out whether a given suicide results from the underlying depression or from the drug. Lastly, I think it is clear from my post that what I was referring to was the self-destructive downward spiral that drug abuse leads to. There is a big difference between taking an SSRI as directed by your doctor, and, say, drinking yourself under the table every night, possibly starting to miss work or even lose a job, or abuse or neglect your children, or destroy your liver. If you truly don't see the difference, I'm not sure how else to respond.

The school my kids attended before we started homeschooling used Open Court. I HATED it. Mind numbingly dull. On the original question, I agree with those who said it may not be a complete thought, but it is definitely a complete sentence. If it has a subject and a verb, it is a complete sentence.

So sad. This is exactly what happened to me between my fourth and fifth children. I went for my 16 week checkup and there was no heartbeat. It's a horrible, horrible feeling, and I feel bad for her and the whole family.

That's a great idea. Thanks.

What I do is similar to your first idea. I say that a "third" is just a thing, like an apple or an orange. If you have 1 apple, and you add 1 more apple, you have two apples, not two oranges. If you have 1 third and you add another third, you have two thirds, not two sixths. Do you have Trivial Pursuit? Each wedge is a sixth. If you take them out of the pie holders, no matter how many of the wedges you gather in your hand, they are all sixths.

:iagree: I haven't read the rest of the thread yet, but this is EXACTLY how I feel about it. I don't care about my looks any of that, but I get depressed about getting older because it takes me closer to dying.

:iagree: Exactly. Science is empirical. Trying a medicine to see if it works is science whether we know the mechanism of the disease or not. If we waited until we thoroughly understood all diseases before prescribing medicines we would have hardly any medicines. How about plain old aspirin? People noticed that certain tree barks helped to relieve pain before they had any idea whatsoever why.

I totally understand about withdrawal symptoms. I had a doozy of a time withdrawing from Zoloft, which is why I hesitate to go back on. But that doesn't mean the drug is worthless or should never be prescribed. "Less self-destructively" is not entirely in the eye of the beholder. Cocaine, alcohol and many other drugs can lead to complete ruin, emotional, physical, familial, financial. I have yet to see anyone have that happen because he or she was taking Zoloft.

In our case (not the OP) we don't need them for extra practice, but I was wondering if they are more "test like" in appearance and content than the regular problems. I sometimes worry that we don't have any formal math "tests," but just keep moving through the curriculum. I thought maybe having official "tests" would be a good idea, so I could say, "You have a math test tomorrow, go study for it." And I'd be able to give a real grade. With the Reviews and Practices, I'm never sure how to score them. If problem 5 has one part, but Problem 6 has a, b, c, and d, should I count Problem 6 as four problems? I thought maybe "official" tests would solve that problem.

:bigear:

I have a friend, a single mother, whose daughter is biracial. She (the mother) is very sensitive to racism. She enrolled her daughter in a Waldorf school this year. I would bet a million dollars that she has NO IDEA that Steiner said any of this stuff. If she did, I bet she'd pull her daughter from the school.

While this is obviously racist, the the first adjective that springs to mind is "psychotic."

I medicate my ADD with COFFEE. Dear, lovely, wonderful ambrosia: coffee. Unfortunately, doesn't do much for my anxiety. :tongue_smilie:

Actually, I think the illegal drug argument is more of an argument FOR using anti-depressants. Many people drink or do drugs as a way of self-medicating for a condition that could be treated better and less self-destructively with prescription anti-depressants.

One thing I don't get is why people think that an "easy way out" is a bad thing?? Is something necessarily morally wrong because it is easier than something else? Suppose to walk from Point A to Point B I can either hike up and down a steep mountain, or I can walk around the base of the mountain in less time and with less effort. Is it so terrible to "take the easy way out" and walk the short, flat route? In addition, medication works best in combination with therapy. Therapy itself can work a lot better when depression and anxiety are relieved enough to allow therapy to be productive. How many of the women on antidepressants are also in therapy? Are they taking the easy way out? :iagree: Just because something is very prevalent doesn't make it not real. Even if 60% of a population has a given disease, that doesn't necessarily mean it is over diagnosed. Isn't it possible there are diseases that are simply very common? In addition, suppose we grant, for the sake of argument, that not all the people on these medications really "need" them. So what is so wrong with taking something that helps you, even if you could technically manage without it? Does a kitten die every time someone takes an unnecessary Prozac? (Or should I say "take's"? :tongue_smilie:) :iagree: As you may have guessed from this post, I am a veteran of SSRIs. I have been limping along without them for several months, wanting to go back on but terrified of the side effects. Believe me, if I go back on, it will not be the easy way out. It will be because, despite the many things I hate about these meds, I need them. What would you say to your daughter if she came to you and said "Mommy, will you ever be happy the way you used to be? I miss the way you used to smile at me all the time."

See, that's exactly what I've been worried about; I was lulled into a false sense of security by the curriculum's claim that it meets the national benchmarks for science education in grades 5-8. But it doesn't feel like science.

Thanks! Got it and responded. :001_smile:

Thanks!

I just tested and got certified to be a freelance translator for an international translation company that contracts with corporate clients. So my rate will be reduced since the company in the middle is paying me out of what they get paid. It can't be helped, because I have no idea how to get jobs directly. Also, I think most companies and law firms only hire out to "big" translation companies. The trouble is, I have *NO* idea how to start negotiating with the translation company, because I have *NO IDEA* how much their clients pay them. I'm afraid I'll end up asking for less than I could have made. I really need this (meaning freelance work of any kind) to work out, or I'm going to get pressure to go back to work as a lawyer and put the kids in school.

My kids are learning both Hebrew and French. They've had Hebrew since preschool (they went to a private Jewish school before we started homeschooling), and since we started homeschooling, they have met with a tutor twice a week. I'm teaching them French. The older kids are using Breaking the Barrier, and I read to all of them in French and speak French exclusively with my youngest. My hope is that DH will be able to arrange a sabbatical in France and I'll be able to cement their French then, and switch to speaking all French with the older kids after that. The older kids do have a tendency to throw in Hebrew words by mistake when they are trying to speak French, but that's normal. It will get sorted out when they become more fluent. Hebrew is important to us for religious reasons, and French was a very big part of my life, so I wanted them to have both. But I've told my kids that Spanish, Chinese and Arabic are also really important languages in today's world, so I want them to hurry up and master Hebrew and Spanish so we can introduce more!

I am trying to get work as a freelance French to English translator to supplement our income (doing corporate and legal documents). Does anyone have any idea what the going rate for that sort of thing might be? Would it be by the word? the hour?? Thanks.

Now I'm confused. How do I tell if I have the old or the new WWE?

In my DH's lab, only one of his graduate students/post-docs is American. The rest are Indian and Chinese.

My almost 7 year-old is on Lesson 82 of the "old" FLL. I was planning to try to save money and not buy WWE 1 or 2, since there is some copy work and narration in the old FLL. Well, yesterday, alas, I caved to impulse and picked up WWE 1 and 2 while in Barnes & Noble (yes, I know I have an impulse curriculum buying problem). Anyway, I'm looking through this and wondering what lesson to start at. I started to give him the placement test to see if he could go right to WWE 2, since he's nearly done with FLL 1. He would be fine with narration, but it became clear right away that his copy work isn't good enough to "graduate" from WWE 1. (He skipped a line in the copy work assessment and didn't notice until I pointed it out.) So should I start from the very beginning of WWE 1? It seems too easy, especially since the narrations are often from books he's already read in their entirety anyway. (Not sure what grade level his reading is, but he's reading the Oz books to himself right now.) On the FLL side, now that we will be doing WWE, should I skip the copy work and narration in the old FLL and just do the grammar and memorization? Thanks.

:lol: yes, that describes me!