I use and love Wordpress as well. :)

There's a reason companies generally split up the duties of CEO and CFO. ;) Yes, you need to have a good grasp of math, balance sheets, profit & loss, etc. to do well in the business world. But that does not require advanced math skills. To succeed in business and management roles, you need a skill set that goes well beyond math. First and foremost, you need excellent people and leadership skills, followed closely by skills/aptitude for written and verbal communication, operations/business management, goal setting/planning, results orientation, problem solving, strategic thinking, project/program management, and the ability to effectively work with/lead teams. That's not an all-inclusive list, but those are the most important skill sets IME. If Business, Finance, Economics, and STEM-related fields are off the table as majors (due to the math involved), I'd look at majoring in Communications, Marketing, or Organizational Development.

I wouldn't let the fact that your child doesn't see math as a strong suit prevent him/her from considering a business degree. I never saw math as one of my strong suits (I did fine in math up through Algebra II but struggled a bit beyond that - my strengths were always elsewhere). I decided to major in business and completed both my B.S. in Business Administration and an M.B.A. Yes, there's math involved (mostly statistics and some accounting) but there's a lot more to it than that. A business degree with the right specialization will open more doors in the business world than a history degree. I spent 20 years in the corporate world before homeschooling and I didn't meet many history majors. In terms of identifying potential college majors/career paths, a good starting point might be to help your child identify his/her top 5 strengths (i.e. areas where he/she has natural talents/gifts) and top 5 interests/passions (i.e. causes or fields he/she cares deeply about and is naturally drawn to). Write those down and then identify career fields where his/her strengths and passion intersect. For example, someone who has a natural gift for persuasive writing and public speaking, and cares deeply about the environment, might enjoy becoming a grant writer/fundraiser for an environmental organization. The more strengths you can match up with one or more interests/passions, the better the potential fit. Once your child has narrowed down the majors/career paths, I'd encourage him/her to set up some informational interviews with people who majored in those fields and pursued careers in his/her area of interest. These can be people your child already knows (through extracurriculars, parents of friends, people from church, etc.) or he/she can contact a local college alumni office or companies in the area to see whether they can help arrange some informational interviews. If your child is old enough, pursuing internships (paid or unpaid) or volunteer work in career fields of interest is an excellent way to really see what potential jobs/careers are like firsthand - and also provides fantastic connections for future employment.

I used to think that too, but then I realized that our founders actually actively engaged in anonymous free speech themselves. Founders Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay wrote the Federalist Papers under the pseudonym "Publius" and "the Federal Farmer" spoke up in rebuttal. So our founders used anonymous free speech to grow support for the movement that eventually resulted in the Revolutionary War, the Bill of Rights, and the U.S. Constitution.

I agree. I don't think there's a wide-scale "verification" process that can (or even should) be implemented for online review sites. This will continue to be hashed out in the courts, so I think the adaptation to the realities/issues of freedom of speech on the internet need to come from there. Personally, I would have liked to see more protection of the reviewers in the case cited in the OP (via an independent third party verification as I suggested in my previous post). At the same time, it's imperative that people are held legally accountable for libelous speech because that's the only chance we have of keeping anonymous online reviews and other content in check IMO.

Libel/defamation has always been a recognized exception to First Amendment rights. While the Supreme Court has ruled repeatedly that the First Amendment protects the right to anonymous free speech, that protection can be removed in the case of libelous speech. By definition, libelous speech = false statements. You can make damaging statements, and remain protected, as long as your statements are true. Whether or not the plaintiff in this case provided sufficient evidence to support the libel claim, it's hard to say based on what was reported. There is the issue of the 88 reviews for this business that were hidden by Yelp (which is something Yelp apparently only does if they suspect the reviews of being false or violating their terms of service). So it seems that this business was in fact receiving a large number of questionable negative reviews. An alternative ruling in this case might have allowed for Yelp to turn over the reviewer names to an officer of the court or another third party, to allow them to cross-reference those names with a customer listing from the business owner. This would have provided for independent verification of whether these reviewers were actual customers of the business or not. Once that determination had been made, the case could have been settled appropriately. But it would have protected (somewhat) the anonymity and free speech rights of the reviewers until a definitive determination was made, instead of turning over the reviewer names to the business to make that determination.

I'm smiling through tears here too. You deserve to be very proud of the wonderful young man you've raised. :)

No one in my circle has come down with the flu this season, and I haven't heard anything about it on the local news. The kids and I never get the flu shot, and have never had the flu. DH is required to get the shot every year (he's in the Army Reserves), and he's also never had the flu. We've all had one or two colds already this season, but nothing too serious.

Chris Christie has a reputation for engaging in political payback and this sort of bullying. This isn't the first time he or his office have pulled a stunt like this. I wouldn't be surprised if he knew all about this from the get-go.

I haven't heard about the issue of songs in one's head specifically, but I have heard from many people that they or their kids focus better when listening to music. As long as math is getting done and having access to the iPod doesn't appear to be a distraction, I'd let him use it. My DS would be distracted by the iPod (he'd start surfing the web or be tempted to use the calculator), so this wouldn't work in our case.

I've been silently judging people who use those for awhile now, but didn't know what they were called. Thank you for clearing that up for me. :p

Happy Birthday, Rosie! :)

The groups analyzed in the book are not "races". They are cultural groups which each include many races. The cultural groups discussed in the book are: Jews, Mormons, Indians, Chinese, Iranians, Nigerians, Lebanese-Americans and Cuban exiles (I'm assuming the last two groups are listed as such to distinguish them from Lebanese and Cubans who remain in their home countries). The premise of the book (based on the book description on Amazon) is that these eight cultural groups emphasize and encourage certain attributes that enable them to take advantage of academic/economic opportunities to a greater extent than cultural groups that do not instill these attributes. The attributes that the authors say these cultural groups embody are a "superiority complex, insecurity, and impulse control". According to the authors, this is the "Triple Package" (hence the title of the book) that is consistent among these cultural groups based on sociological/statistical data, and that has led to historically better outcomes for these groups in the U.S. as compared to other cultural groups. According to the book's description, the authors also note that these attributes are available to anyone (obviously) and they then discuss both the benefits as well as the potential negative impact when these elements are taken to the extreme. Based solely on the description and the stated premise of the book, I see nothing inherently racist about it. As I stated in my first post, I'm not a fan of Amy Chua's and I don't subscribe to her parenting approach. I have no plans to buy this book. However, I do think cultural/sociological studies like this (assuming her newest book is true to the description given) are interesting and worthwhile.

I'd be cautious, but would give her a chance. The invitation to the party/sleepover before she's even met you and your son would weird me out. But I'm reminded of another homeschool mom I met years ago who was similarly pushy - and she was a really nice woman who was just desperate to find friends for her son (and herself too).

I've been thinking the same thing throughout this entire thread. The book doesn't come out until February, so unless people posting in this thread have received advance copies somehow, chances are no one here has read it. It's fine to say "I found Amy Chua's first book so disgusting that I can't imagine liking this latest book." But that's not what is happening in this thread. People are presuming to know what's actually in the book, based on one (very clearly biased) review.

I made the switch to a Mac a year ago. Converting documents really is the one and only issue I've had. I prepare a lot of documents and share them with others, who are mostly on PCs. The Mac OS does have built-in conversion but it hasn't always worked seamlessly for me. While you will definitely be able to open your existing Word documents and work on them (the OS will convert them to Pages - Mac's version of Word), if you need to convert them back to Word for sharing with others that's where issues sometimes come up IME. I have found that others can generally open the documents if I send them as PDF files (which is easy to do on the Mac), but when I use the "send as Windows-friendly attachment" option to try to send them "as is" people can't always open them. In those cases, I use a free online conversion tool to convert the file. Those have always worked fine. So, bottom line - you will be able to open and work with your Word docs but it might be a bit of a hassle sharing files with PC users. I still much prefer my Mac over my previous PC, and don't regret making the switch.

I had the same reaction to her book. I love the concept, but what she describes in her book wasn't very useful to me.

I just read the book description on Amazon and a few other reviews. Based on those, this book sounds more like a scholarly analysis of cultural attributes that contribute to success, than an argument that some cultures are superior to others. Given her Tiger Mother book, it's clear that Amy Chua thinks Chinese parents are superior parents. So I wouldn't be surprised if there's an element of that in this book. But based on some of the more balanced reviews out there, I think this book is probably less divisive/inflammatory than the article linked in the OP would make it seem.

Oh and I'm a descendant of German, Irish, and Swedish immigrants. None of which made her list. ;-)

While the title of the linked article is pretty incendiary, the actual title of her new book isn't. Her book could very well just be an analysis of the cultural backgrounds of various immigrant groups, without claiming those groups are somehow superior. The article has a definite negative bias (doesn't read like an objective review), so I'd want to read the book myself before rushing to judgment. I'm not a fan of Amy Chua's, but I'd rather come to my own conclusion than take an obviously slanted article at face value.

This is me exactly.

Just updated my post - I've never watched Downton Abbey (I'm assuming that's what you're referencing).

I don't even know who Maggie Smith is. ;-) ETA: just googled her. I recognize her face, but the name didn't ring a bell. I've only watched one movie that she was in to my recollection (haven't seen any of the Harry Potter movies or Downton Abbey).

I can't relate to this kind of thinking at all. There is the potential for people to be having fun (and perhaps fun not available to us) anywhere we go. That doesn't mean our day has to be less fun. Why wouldn't your kids still be able to have the fun park day you planned for them? Assuming that the party isn't taking up the entire park (making it completely unavailable to you) you should still be able to go about your day. Sure, it might be a distraction - but I'm not following the "we're now having less fun because we see a party we're not invited to" mentality.

I don't think you sound depressed. I think it's perfectly possible to feel the way you do (ambivalent about homeschooling, wondering whether it's the right choice for you and your kids, burned out, etc.) without being depressed. If you think you might be depressed, by all means see your doctor. But that's not the impression I got from reading your post. My impression is that you're burned out, you're second-guessing homeschooling, and you need to make some changes. If I were in your shoes, I'd (1) sit down with DH and talk through my feelings as well as our educational goals for our kids (should we continue homeschooling or not?) and then (2) take the appropriate next steps based on that discussion. If you and your DH decide that you want to continue homeschooling, then recommit to that (mentally, emotionally, etc.) and make the changes necessary to make homeschooling fun and interesting for both you and the kids. I'd also spend some time coming up with a routine that will help you take care of housekeeping, etc. in a way that doesn't add to your stress. If you decide you want to send the kids to school for awhile, there's no shame in that choice either.