We got the ten volume Murderous Maths for DD's 12th birthday in August. Major hit! She's read all ten multiple times.

This is horrible. There is no way I'd force a child to continue with this. And why on earth is this behavior tolerated? You describe the school as a small, private school; is it Christian? The reason I ask is, from our experience, this sort of behavior would be corrected. Is there a code of conduct and an environment in which you could expect action from the principal? I am very sorry that your DD is going through this. I know that girls of that age can be horrible to each other. I hope that there is some way to improve the situation but, under the circumstances that you gave, I'd be checking out the virtual school. :grouphug:

:hurray: This is great; thank you!

:seeya: Hi! I would be that idiot! :o (Of course, the robot who called me was especially realistic...) :ph34r:

Bump.

But your bigotry is okay? It's gotten to the point that if a certain poster were to say "the sky was blue on a summer day" you would fine an excuse to attack. Please stop. So you vehemently disagree with a person's perspective; I think everyone gets that. There's no need for you to make a point of singling out those posts for ridiculously personal attacks. And here's a news flash: I suspect there are-big shocker here-some who vehemently disagree with your perspective. Should they continually launch personal attacks on you? Here's a suggestion: Visualize your ignore feature. In all this ridiculous back and forth, you seem to think that winning your little personal battle is more important than the original topic. I would suggest that you take a look at the news source of your choice. They are probably running photos of 14 year old DEAD CHILDREN. The common feature of this thread is that we are all parents who want it to stop and who grieve for those lost. I wish there were an easy fix, but there just isn't. I wish we could discuss this civilly.

Oh, YUM. Sausage and kale- two of my favorite things.

Thanks for the link. It's definately soup weather here-highs in the upper 40s/50s and rainy. Snow won't be far behind.

Oh, my goodness. The comments are a toot...err, hoot. I didn't catch them the first time around, because I have software that filters all that stuff out. Thanks for this, from another small, juvenile mind. I totally needed the laugh.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/compound-in-chocolate-found-to-reverse-age-related-memory-loss-study-finds/2014/10/26/cee91aac-5bcb-11e4-bd61-346aee66ba29_story.html So I'm off to eat a pound or two...for my health, donchyaknow!

Count me as "me, three." I seriously hope that those tweets don't reflect the behavior of what is now considered "regular" and "nice." Once again, I find myself saying WHERE were the parents? Do parents not monitor their children's social media accounts? Like an idiot, I followed a link to one of the children's Facebook pages. Which links to all the other kids' pages, included the murdered girl. Dear God. They were just babies. And I have a sinking feeling that at least some of them were engaged in adult-type relationships that they were completely unequipped emotionally to handle. It is so, so, so sad. I'm so grateful that my 12 year old still likes to dress up like a pirate and play. Please Lord, let her keep her innocence for as long as possible.

I voted "other" and 11 am. We live in a rural area with only a very small town nearby. There are few party options here if one wants to have an organized party "event." On those occasions where we've opted for that type of party, we've limited the number of invites to the number of seatbelts available in my/our vehicle(s). Gas is expensive and time is valuable; I don't want to put other parents in the position of having to spend a lot of both to attend my child's party. (Of course, this only works because the circle of friends is small and the parents all know one another.)

This is an interesting (short) article. Can plants tell when they are being eaten? http://modernfarmer.com/2014/10/plants-can-tell-theyre-eaten/

I believe that you are correct. It is likely that gun control laws would not apply to reservations.

My DD is a 12 year old 7th grader who loves logic and logic puzzles. She's done Mind Benders and Perplexors-there may be a few she didn't fully complete. We did Fallacy Detective and Thinking Toolbox informally, and we are using Art of Argument now. She loves the topic and loves the curriculum. I haven't tried the Critical Thinking book, but the Building Thinking Skills book was a bomb here, too. HTH.

This. See, I'm old. I remember the days when every pick-up had a gun rack, and high school parking lots were full of firearms (especially during hunting season.) I don't remember these things happening. What has changed? What is happening to our children? How is this mind-set, "I feel rejected. Someone must die," being created? Yesterday was a rotten day. My heart breaks for everyone touched by this. I can't imagine the mothers' pain. I am so, so glad that I don't have to send DD to school every day.

:cursing: This reminds me of the time we stopped to check out the view over the Columbia River. The view of the river cutting through the plateau was magnificent. Well, except for the graffiti and dirty diapers strewn around (oh, and there were empty trash cans available.) There are those who defend graffiti as art, though. I don't agree with them, but the idea is out there. I guess if they think it's okay to deface another person's private property, they'd also think it's okay to deface public property.

A bit of a side note: Am I the only one finding it more than a tad ironic that posters in an earlier thread were vigorously mocked for fearing things which have now come to pass? I wonder if any apology notes have been sent…

Sure you can! Just don't expect them to listen. :glare:

Well, since the dogs (I assume) are not vegan, can they have it? I mean, officially. :001_tt2:

No, no animals on the furniture here. The dogs obey. The cat believes herself to be a higher life form to whom the rules do not apply.

But, take heart, Americans! We now have an "Ebola Czar." Granted, his experience lies completely within the realm of politics and he has absolutely ZERO medical background but, seriously, who needs that? Having worked for a bureaucracy, I have never had the happy view that all would be well with this little Ebola thing and that the experts could handle it. On the contrary, I tend to be (probably overly) cynical. But even I am dumbfounded at the level of incompetence we are witnesses from our federal health care experts.

Wow. That was powerful. And it gave me much to think about, especially being the mother of a young girl. Thank you very much for sharing this, OP. I agree; it's fascinating.

We did Lial's Pre-Algebra (mixed review) and are currently doing AoPS Intro to Algebra (only in Ch. 2-too soon to review.)

FWIW, we tried it last year. Survey says: :ack2: DD is an extremely willing and creative writer. It was SO not a good fit for her. :grouphug: to you. Hopefully, your coop has many other benefits that outweigh a less-than-optimal curriculum.