I wouldn't assume that the district can't afford textbooks. Several of the popular "Fuzzy math" curricula don't have textbooks by design. And they are very expensive. Maybe you could email your district and ask what curriculum they use for math. Then you can research it online. There is lots of information at mathematicallycorrect.com or NYCHOLD.com

I believe West Virginia and Mississippi have a medical exemption only. Anyone have different information?

This year's best finds: Chalkdust Prealgebra IEW SWI B Apples and Pears Spelling Megawords English Prep series Vocabulary for Achievement Hake Grammar Latin Prep

Why do you not like them?

I couldn't sleep last night after I read some of the student models at the site Jessica posted here. My 7th grader doesn't produce anything remotely like this. We have tried several different writing curricula, and are currently using IEW SWI B. She has always struggled with writing, but I thought we were making progress. After reading through some of these, I'm feeling panicked. Is this really representative of 7th grade work?

It was great for review and filling in minor gaps for us, but not so good for learning new material. It doesn't explain new concepts very well. We'll use it over the summer to keep their skills up.

There are tests available at the website. In the new edition of Science Explorer there are codes to access them, but I don't think the older editions have them.

Ground beef, or ground chuck for the more expensive stuff. Iowa.

Soaking uncooked rice is fine. The problem is with improper storage of cooked rice. The spores germinate after cooking, if the rice is not cooled immediately.

I wouldn't, but I was trained as an infectious disease epidemiologist and my risk tolerance is probably lower than most people's. Improperly refrigerated rice is associated with Bacillus cereus food poisoning. Spores in the rice germinate in warm conditions and create a toxin that is heat stable, so even if you reheat the rice, the toxin won't be destroyed. I can't quantify the risk, so I would err on the side of caution. Rice and beans are cheap. I'd just make more.

I think she expected me to be a total failure.

Visit his family.:ack2:

Any ideas on how to handle a child who never wants to do what the rest of us are doing? Whatever we're having for dinner, she suddenly hates. Of course, it may be the same thing she begged to eat last week. If the rest of the family wants to go to a movie, she wants to play tennis (which she usually can't stand). And so on. I am a total nonconformist. I encourage my kids to be independent. But she doesn't get that being part of a family means you've got to go along with everyone else sometimes, too. She seems to want to be different just for the sake of being contrary. She isn't defiant or anything, she'll sit at the table with us, but she'll scowl at her plate and won't eat. Anyone BTDT?

Black bean soup and grilled cheese.

LOL- We were posting at the same time! This is what I was trying to get at below.

I should have mentioned that my field is the health sciences, which relies heavily on data. So we use PowerPoint mainly for presentation of data and study results. I don't know why anyone would really want to use PowerPoint for presentations that don't use data or visual material. It's unnecessary and I personally don't like them if they aren't adding anything visual.

Well, I have to agree with much of what he says. I agree that there shouldn't be many words on a slide. This is a pretty standard recommendation, and it's meant to prevent people from writing in complete sentences and reading it to the audience. Those presentations are deadly boring and the audience will completely tune out the presenter. They may as well just give everyone the handout and go home. I also agree with content lite and picture heavy. The presenter should be providing the content. The slides should be giving key words, graphs, charts, and other appropriate visuals. I totally agree that the whole presentation shouldn't be on the slide. The audience should be taking notes if they want to remember stuff later. I don't know about the length of time. I think it's fine to break it up a little now and then. But I would expect college students to be able to sit through a 90 minute lecture. I would also add: avoid all the flashy animation, sound effects, and busy backgrounds. They are annoying and distract from the speaker. His recommendations are pretty standard. They are exactly what my dissertation committee recommended when I was preparing my thesis defense.

A lotion containing urea is usually very helpful. Carmol-10 is good. It usually isn't on the shelf but the pharmacist can order it for you- it's non prescription.

I agree with Marie- there is a condition called cholestasis of pregnancy that can cause intense itching. It's probably more common than this link says. It's definitely something to mention to your provider.

We did Singapore through 6B and tried to go right to Algebra. My girls weren't ready-- the conceptual understanding was good but they needed more practice with exponents and fractions. We backtracked and are quickly going through Chalkdust prealgebra. I feel much better about doing Algebra next year now.

End of first grade is plenty early to recognize a reading problem. I suspected by the beginning of first grade that two of mine were dyslexic. One was easily remediated using a good phonics program, the other is still struggling in 4th grade. I'd have her read Reading Reflex (her library probably has it) and then use ABeCeDarian. She also might want to look at this. Good luck.

Never mind, this answers my question.

My dd got her results today, and I understand how to interpret them-- but I don't really know what to make of them. Do you know of any kind of trajectory? Like if a 5th grader scores at the 80th percentile, how would they likely score in 8th grade? Someone said "High test scores could open up opportunities for more testing though." What is a high score? TIA.

We started IEW last month and are very happy with it, and we used R&S for several years. But we've also tried Writer's Apprentice, Writing Strands, Classical Writing, Imitations and Writing. I've had a terrible time finding something that works for us.

Where do you live? I don't know if every state has this, but in Iowa the court records are online. Here's a place to start.