Oh, I did. Ack. So horrible and I stand by that he clearly thinks the texted is the sad one when he is.

I assume that you already checked into this, but there's no chance that you ordered on someone else's account, like your spouse or anything? I have been finding that as data gets more and more complex in these various systems that it keeps disappearing for times. I've mostly noticed it on social media, but it doesn't surprise me that it would be happening on Amazon, though that's more disturbing.

As for the posting it online... It's interesting because it doesn't strike me as horrible. It's just a happy birthday text and a light laugh. But it's predicated on the idea that texting the wrong number year after year makes the person awkward and sad. But many of us would agree that not just replying to say, hey, wrong number and then posting about it every year makes that person the one who is actually socially awkward and a bit sad.

I don't usually, but I have when it's relatively clear it's a human and a genuine mix up. A few years ago, my son got a hilarious text from what was contextually someone working pretty high up at a large corporation complaining to a coworker about a certain boss who happened to be a CEO who had been in the news. Kid replied wrong number but that yeah, CEO was clearly a complete jerk (though he used language that was... ahem... in keeping with the original text). The guy replied with a sorry, an lol, and a thanks.

Seniors with classes already sent in, updated at the midyear. Obviously it could impact decisions and might have a little bit in a case I know of. But I think colleges are just a bit more forgiving about second semester senior year stuff. Now, if we're talking Ivy Leagues and similar level, they may not be forgiving at all. In fact, I've heard of students with admission offers rescinded for a single C in a senior year course at that level. So I'm not saying oh, it's whatever, go forth and do anything. More like, there's some wiggle room for a course or two assuming the student had a strong build up and a strong senior year otherwise.

As long as the student swaps for something else in the same general area, I've seen it be totally fine several times. I've even seen it be fine in several cases, even at some pretty selective schools when the student dropped to something lower (like AP Subject to regular or obviously hard dual enrollment in science to obviously blow off in pop culture studies or something along those lines).

I don't know what the rest of his activities look like, but I second getting the public speaking off the transcript at least in part so that it can be an activity instead of a course. You can use something that robust for both to an extent by dividing up some of the prep vs. the actual time in competitions or working with the team, but you never want the main activities to look like you just double dipped them wholesale. And activities are super important. I feel like on this board, people don't talk about them enough. And there are a couple of commonly used transcript templates floating around that have families list them on the transcript, which you absolutely shouldn't do. Yes, you just get 150 characters (plus the name of the position and organization, which often helps you get in a few more - like instead of "Debate Club" it can become "Debate Club of the City Organization of Homeschoolers" or "Debate Club, a Homeschool Competition Team" or something along those lines) on the Common App. But abbreviations are okay. The College Essay Guy's website has some good breakdowns about how to successfully talk about activities. You can also potentially break up a huge activity into multiple entries. For example, one about the main club, another about the invitation only group from the club that went to a national tournament or something. My ballet dancer didn't list "ballet" as one activity. I think it was five or six. His work for the company, his core ballet classes and student performances, and all his summer intensives. Conversely, you can also combine various little things into a single activity. For example, a year that a student volunteered for a week doing one thing, then another week doing something else, then another month doing another thing - so all pretty sporadic - could become just "Volunteer, various organizations."

You definitely don't need personal finance. Unless it's required by your state/school, it can even look remedial. I have only seen colleges ask about government/civics once or twice. Not a common college requirement. In general, you have to remember that some of the things that are typical high school graduation requirements (like, PE, for example) aren't things that colleges care much about. And they're more focused on what YOU required as that's part of how they'll evaluate your student. Doing the WTM method (but with added US History as a credit because that IS something colleges sometimes very specifically want to see) or doing the public school style or something else entirely is all fine. But unless your student especially love social studies, I would NOT try to double up on social studies credits by keeping a toe in both worlds. First, it's an opportunity cost - what could your student do with that time that would be better. Second, it will make them look like they focused on social studies. If they actually want to go into, say, biology, or English, but they have 2 social studies credits every year and only one single English every year or just one biology credit period, that's going to look odd. They won't present as well. Instead of adding extra requirements, spend time on their interests - either so they can specialize a bit and show that off to colleges or so they can just explore the things they like.

Dh and I had the booster and the flu shot. Everyone else got sick with things in the last month. Clearly different things at different points. One thing that started like a stomach flu, burned with a fever and ended fast. And then another thing with a long term drippy nose and mild cough. No one tested positive for Covid, but given the cost of the tests, it's not like we were testing over and over and over. So who knows. Covid? Flu? Whatever. Dh and I stayed well. The unvaccinated among us got sick. But the unvaccinated were also the young adults who were around tons of other young adults more. So there could be a lot of factors.

There's literally no way to set up Canvas without giving weight to the assignments. You can put all the assignments into a single pot essentially. You can classify the assignments the same way you would the modules. But there's a set up. The default setting for Canvas is to let students play with their grades to see what they need to get certain outcomes. I'd just go from that.

We loved Christine's classes, but my kid did her live classes (in person and then online) and not her lit courses. Those classes (philosophy, stock market, and geopolitics) are all super relaxed and fun. They're rich in content, but not heavy in work. I've heard the lit classes are more output because there are more little assignments, plus a lot more reading. But nothing on the level of Blue Tent.

In the future, if you share it as a force copy link ("copy" instead of "edit" in the address) then no one can see it, only copy it for themselves, and then they can't bother you. But also, since it's out there like this now, you can consider adding another page with instructions on how to make a copy. Because people are... not always aware of how to fully use Google Docs.

So, I thought our basement finishing was going to be that simple and there turned out to be a lot more design decisions and little things than I anticipated, so I guess just brace yourself for that.

I chose white glove because she really did do a LOT intensively for something like 2 weeks and then came back again for another week soon after. 95% of her help was amazing. She cooked. She cleaned. She supported. She held the babies. She was so good. And we had two, so there was plenty for dh to do. Plus, he had to return to work after just a few days of parental leave. I really needed someone. But also, she and I had a fight about a week after the babies were born and it was SO BAD. She was exhausted and tired. I was exhausted and tired. I was upset about things with the birth and she kept saying obliviously insensitive things about it of the "you don't have a right to your emotions, you have healthy babies" and "the doctor was a god, I don't care how you feel about him." Like, not quite that bad, but close. My midwife/doula was there for post-partum care and I totally broke down and told my mom to cut it out and that I had a right to be upset and mourn the birth I wish I'd had and feel violated and she was hurting me and making it worse. And she took it really hard. She stopped speaking to me for 24 hours. So when you say "intrusive"... well, yeah. There's that too. Sigh.

Yeah, that's basically how I see it. I've always been wary of any course with limited assessments, period. In choosing dual enrollment classes, I just don't see much reason to opt for a class with a single (or just two) make or break assessments of any kind. There are nearly always options and this isn't one I'd choose.

But two papers is totally different from two exams. Exams are timed, cold, do or die. You have so much control over how much you put into a paper or a lab report or any other such culminating project. My point wasn't so much the number of assessments, but that the style was one particular sort. I would also urge a student who struggles with writing not to do a class that was all just two papers. Lots of English courses offer other assessments.

I've literally never in my entire career, high school through masters, had a course that was entirely based on two exams. That said, I'm a humanities leaning student. But even math and science courses I took in college had lab and short assignment grades, even if the exam was a much bigger part of the final grade calculation.

YMMV, but I wouldn't feel comfortable with a class where the grade is 100% exams. And a 3.85 isn't a stellar RMP score. It's okay, but still. Unless my kid had a lot of dual enrollment experience and felt comfortable continuing, this would be a no for us. There are other biology professors and courses in the world. And most of them give homework and more structure than "go study on your own for 18 hours a week."

Just pulling this because I grew up in the suburbs (at least at that age) and nothing for kids was in walking distance - no playgrounds at all, no libraries. And yet I still just roamed and walked. I don't feel like it's the suburbs per se. I mean, yeah, the suburbs can make it structurally harder. But I think the bigger thing is a cultural shift. But yeah, scientific. Who knows.

Anyone else read that article in the NYT about the end of the Dutch ice skating race? It used to be held most years. It was a big cultural thing. It hasn't been held in 26 years because the ice hasn't been thick enough. Young people have no cultural connection with it. Even if there's a freak year where it's cold enough for it, the idea was that it's essentially dead - this big cultural event. I found it to be a really interesting perspective about the cultural shifts that climate change is bringing.

This feels more different from the conversation about food to me. The overall diets that people were talking about didn't feel as removed from today's kids as this conversation does. I feel like more of our kids had organized athletic activities at that age and roamed the streets a lot less. Even schooled kids I know that age typically don't walk to the bus the way many of us are describing.

I'm a bit fascinated by how many of you still had recess in middle school. We had a few minutes after lunch rotation where we could walk around on the track, but half the time they just made us stay in the classroom. When I taught middle school, we totally had recess, but that was a small school.

Oh my. So that would be 6th grade? My mother felt that I should be forced to take gym. She didn't like that it wasn't required. To spite her, I failed the class. Because that's the kind of kid I was. It was so easy too. We were required to bring gym clothes. I just didn't. The tactic worked. I didn't have to take gym again during middle school. Some days, no physical activity except to walk to the bus stop (probably a quarter mile, maybe a bit less) and back to get to school and walk around the school. So very little. But many other days, especially in nice weather, I walked a lot. Like, a lot a lot. I walked to the grocery store, multiple bookstores... I probably walked 5-6 miles some days. Always unsupervised, lol.

We did senior pics and a graduation party. My dancer went to "ballet prom" which was the semi-formal that they held that year. My kids had negative level interest in attending any of those local homeschool prom type things. You can do a graduation trip or mini-trip. You could do something that's meant to be a before you leave home type experience, a weekly breakfast parent date or something. I do think it's okay for our kids to miss these things though. It doesn't ruin anything. Like you say, she doesn't know what she's missing. If she wants those types of group experiences, she can potentially choose the type of college that offers more of them. But some kids just don't care. I remember one particular college tour my kid took that was extra focused on school traditions and by the end he was just like, what in the actual heck is this place, a cult? Lol. I was like, no, some people like this stuff!

If you're okay with a bit of off color, then anything by Mary Roach is hilarious and fascinating. I especially like Packing for Mars and Stiff. They're not really history of science exactly, but they're great reads. Have you ever read Dava Sobel's book Galileo's Daughter. You might like that. Or Longitude, obviously, if you've never read it. Or how about The Poisoner's Handbook?