This is making me crazy. I moved my desk in front of a huge window in my kitchen and have a nice view of my tiny suburban pond. Anyway I’m working late(past 1am these days) and I hear constant…squeeking? Sounds like a little bird. There are bushes right outside. Are there small birds like this that sing in frozen nights? (I’m in NY). Or is this a mouse and I need to really freak out? my husband is zero help as he has some hearing loss and can’t hear this. many thanks for any thoughts and yes I know there are real problems…

I’m looking for a tried website versus just Google searching as one never knows what comes in the mail. I also don’t want to graphic design my own lol. I’d look to the artist’s own websites but in some cases pickings are very slim/sold out in the kid sizes. Taking some kids to concerts next year and wanted to give the tshirts/merch as gift for Christmas. Specifically looking for Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo and AJR. If you’ve experienced some decent quality merch for 11-14 year old girls, please share! many thanks

Thank you all. Keep the ideas coming. This particular family needs absolutely nothing. Which is why I’m looking for fun ideas 🙂 🙏🙏🙏

Big sis is 5. Assume no limit on budget but needs to go in the mail. I used to be so in the loop and the coolest gift giver but alas, I have college age kiddo now and am very uncool. Hit me with any recs!

I’m feeling stupid about how long I stayed on the call 😞

This itself is a fraud right? I only caught on to it when they transferred me to a governmental agency (!!) it was a 718 number. I initially stayed on the phone bc they claimed there was an Apple laptip bought. I of course have no such charges.

I agree with this. Reading Comprehension is the most useful skill in my practice 😉 Also depends what area of law. I’m a finance lawyer and there were barely any useful classes *in law school* that helped me when I started out, never mind undergrad classes.

No I’m not willingly limiting my food choices as I think climate change will do it soon enough. Plus I love a good baguette and pain au raisin 🙂 I’m also not in the business of denying myself some of these pleasures lol. Life is short and miserable enough, etc.

This is for juniors. In my son’s cohort, no one did anything amazing summer after first year (some including mine worked for CTY and travelled, a ridiculous number was lifeguards etc). He is working now on his sophomore summer internship and has been through one of three rounds with a company. He’s looking for something specific (which I’m not familiar with) and it seems to require an absurd amount of networking. The networking seems to be a job into itself. Which he loves 🤷‍♀️

Home by Penelope Mortimer. I read her Pumpkin Eater years ago and liked it. I also bought two anthologies of short stories, one for winter one for chrismas to read with DD but realized the first one in the winter set was an Alice Munro one about working in a turkey slaughterhouse so now I need to preread these🤣

Elegance of the Hedgehog. Eta to second The Count of Monte Cristo. I don’t know whether to read that or A Tree Grows in Brooklyn with DD next.

Indoor freesbie/boomerang thing. I always take a plant up when I go.

My DD goes to school so does whatever science is happening there. At home, she’s doing chemistry with a tutor using a IGCSE text and monthly “experiments”/demonstrations. She’s also doing Science Olympiad through her school (parent volunteers). I picked the IGCSE text as I could not find a middle grade’s chemistry textbook. It’s currently very basic but it will pick up. I completely failed at middle grades science when DS was homeschooled (besides being grateful for classes like Jetta’s physics and then later on, community college classes) but my DD leans that way so we are trying this.

Are we still doing this? No. Why?

Well if it helps at all my kid in brick and mortar school has very little undirected time, and she plays no instrument. Any free time she would play Fortnite with her dad so it’s no great loss 😉

I’m writing you.

I’m looking for, how to put it, less “bummer”, video-based, news sources in French (not easy French) for my middle school child who needs to summarize a news event this week. Her spoken French is excellent, her understanding probably a child b1 or B2. Generally she’s fairly sheltered and I like to keep it that way. I know 7 jours sur la planete (this is good bc I can chose the segment) but am thinking more scientific discovery/human interest other than hard core news. I did French a different way with my boy and it’s been a long while. Thanks for any suggestions.

Can’t seem to quote—I certainly did not go to law school to be Atticus Finch but I will say this job makes me more useful to my little nonprofit because I can donate more $ and can also connect them with pro bono legal advice etc. As for the moral utility of jobs like ours, I subscribe to Singer’s philosophy. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-charities-altruism-idUSKCN0Q10M220150727

Well, I left that career and had some fun and homeschooled a kid and am right back to it. I have a ton of flexibility but also not (just like the way you describe: I worked a bit every single day of vacation this summer. I also drive my daughter to school and back and to tennis everyday and barely need to go to the office. I work some most weekends, etc.but I grocery shop middle of the day too 🤷‍♀️ mine is probably not as lucrative as yours as I’m not (and don’t want to be) partner. It’s lucrative enough. I’ve decided i have an obligation to my kids to live in decent areas for the schools and to pay in full for at least their undergrad. So I am going to stick to this, my nervous system permitting:) until DD heads to college. Then I’m immediately moving to Paris 😉 (I mean we have a Paris office so maybe I will do that a while. Can’t think that far. Generally I feel a responsibility that if someone is willing to pay me that sort of money, I need to stick to it. This is a little bit of an immigrant mentality but here we are.

Specifically looking for the online experience (realizing they have in person classes). Many thanks

She’s in a FLL team. They use the block code though not Python environment. We will switch next year, it’s too late this year

We all do better that way here rather than self paced, yes.

Does he like it? Are they following a particular curriculum/sequence? DD also works with a tutor now but it’s very casual, like a playdate with Python thrown in and I have no idea what they do 😉

I know about AOPS and Alphastar’s. What else is there, and if you have any experience with them, can you drop a line? Many thanks!!

Do you think this one lends itself well to audio? I just downloaded it for our drives.