CNN10 has some fun aspects (the host loves puns and sometimes they have a fun animal video at the end), but they do cover serious news. It is generally one or two big news topics each day. It won't cover a ton of topics in any one episode, but they do cover current events over the course of the week. There is a written transcript available to look at if you want to quickly review what the topics of the broadcast are. It is a week-day daily show. Fridays are a little shorter because it includes a review of the previous week. There have only been a few times over the handful of years that I have felt that the show was bias one way or another politically. It seems fairly well balanced (for CNN). Some of the topics can be pretty dark (ISIS, nuclear threat from Iran or North Korea), so use your knowledge of your kids to know if it will be acceptable for your kids & your family.

I wish there was something on the website about Landry's failure & his "come to Jesus" about making sure he doesn't let families down like that again. (I understand the problems, but he should have been more straight forward instead of keeping people in the dark all the way up to the end!) I can't see myself using them with no apparent change of heart about being transparent to the families who would be using them for classes.

I have some kids who are ready for this when they are younger & some who need(ed) to wait until they were older. I'm going to try it for those who are interested this year, so any of mine can watch now. If it gets too difficult with world events, I'll restrict it to the older kids. My ds#1 really wants to watch it this year. He reminds me a lot of dd#1 - who is the reason we found it in the first place.

I have a relative who had straight As in high school, honor society, etc. She took the ACT multiple times & always scored the national average which is below the state average where she lives. A sibling of this relative was an IB graduate, but her ACT never got close to 30. So, either they were poor test takers or the grading & school system were inflated. Or both?

This is very timely as yesterday two dogs who were visiting our town with their owner (all from Florida) attacked a cat. The cat was so badly hurt that she had to be put down. The rule in our town is control (which can be voice control) while on your property. Off your property, the term is "immediate control" which is defined as being to hold in physical restraint. If the animal is considered dangerous or ferocious (defined as manifesting a disposition to bite), it has to be in a secure facility or chained up (wording is different, but I think this is what it means). The police issued a citation to the visiting dog-owner & the cat's owner was going to try to get them to pay vet fees. It isn't enough, IMO, since the cat is dead now.

Haircut a couple times a year. Wash every 2-3 days. Brush daily, sometimes twice a day depending on the wind. (Takes less than a minute.) Leave it down, put two clippies in (10 seconds), or put up in a ponytail (5 seconds). If I put it up, it is because it is bugging me on my neck (hot or itchy). My hair is turning grey, but I have no plans to dye it.

Just a note that it'll be starting back up next Monday already for those of you who enjoy it as much as we do! CNN Student News (now known as CNN 10)

I hate group projects due to the dynamic of some people saying they will do their part & then they fail you at the last minute, so the ones who are left have to scramble. (I didn't run into this as much in the real world, but it happened for every group project at school.) I'd rather read a horrible book & do group discussions.

For physics, we often got grading in two days or less for homework. Tests sometimes took a little longer. If you submit questions to the right email address, you could get next-day answers. Just make sure you get the correct email address & don't use the same one you use for other things like homework.

Only in the Hive can you ask all sorts of physics questions & then follow up with a Latin question in the same thread & get solid answers. :hurray: :drool5:

:iagree: Eldest has already gotten it since she does summer camps. All the kids will get it as teens. Once I looked into it, it made complete sense to get.

I haven't had to so far. My grading scale is tougher (93% A, no minuses, but includes pluses (89-92% B+)) or matches every outside provider we've used so far. This is a great question. :lurk5:

Others have said all I could about the situation between your DH & your DD. I just wanted to add another kudos to your DD for taking those art classes this year. As a mom of a kid who would feel the same way about showing her work in a class of other kids who are also talented (and who would consider going away to college very scary), I'm so proud of your DD for pushing through to achieve her dreams. Please continue to support her financially & be there for her emotionally.

One wonders what the rules are about selecting this option, from the FAQ:

:hurray: :thumbup1: :thumbup: :coolgleamA:

I have a contemporary world history text, but I see dd wanting to put together a history of country music class for senior year. We'll see!

I've only had one go through Foerster Alg 2. I found it no different than any other text or topic for her -- if she understood it and had enough practice, she retained it. If she didn't understand something, didn't do enough work and review periodically, she immediately lost any knowledge she gained. We saw this with Derek Owens Physics, especially, until I personally added more problems, more periodic review, and made sure she redid any missed problems (sometimes over & over again). There are a few topics that Alg 2 introduced, but I know she didn't get enough practice with. Most of these she'll see again in PreCalc.

I let my oldest stop, and I regret that. Once they are at the point of voracious reader, I switch to have them read aloud portions from some of their other schoolwork. So, perhaps a section of their history book or science book, but often it is a book we're working on in religion class. It isn't everyday, but it is weekly.

The third option doesn't have a choice for those of us who do travel, does it? (Makes it hard to answer the poll, although obviously a lot of people have figured out how to do it.) :hat:

Some communities have volunteers who help older people with some of the things prairiewindmomma indicated. Our area calls it, "Neighbor to Neighbor" or something like that. Others have "Angels" of some sort. Might be something to look into. Medical transportation, lawnwork, small handyman fixing, etc. Search for elder care volunteer & your city/town name. I'll be honest that this is the time that discussions about medical & financial power of attorney are the easiest. It is SO MUCH easier to get paperwork done now than later. If they don't already have their bills on autopay, that's something else to consider doing now, if possible. Adding someone to a bank account is something to ponder, as well. Decisions on that will be family-specific, of course.

DD#1 has memorized many of the squares up through 26^2. Through usage, she recognizes some of the common cubes. I think those are very helpful to know, although I won't force the memorization on my math-hating children. Our elementary math program encourages memorization of times tables up through 12x12. I haven't pushed further. I, too, thought your post would have to do with memorizing some really "radical" numbers, like the approximate number equivalent to the square root of 2. Or the first 20 digits of irrational numbers like e. :laugh:

Thanks, everybody. It is always so much easier to see when you aren't the one involved. I thought I'd given up trying to get her acceptance/approval, but I realize - with your blunt & truthful posts - that I haven't. I send her info about the kids because I want her to see the wonderful things they are doing (whether it be sports, academics, extra curricular activities, camp, etc.) and most of the time, she responds appropriately. This reply harkened back to my youth with her fixation on appearance-above-all-else. My library has the Boundaries book! I'll check it out. I have a plan moving forward. It won't be easy, especially with DD#1 approaching high school graduation & college choices. (Grandma will press to know where she's applying & if she got any scholarships. We already don't share test scores with her even though she continues to ask & then acts hurt that we won't tell.) She's been able to hurt the kids mostly because they love her. If they didn't care about her, it wouldn't matter to them what she said or did. Some of them will be sad to not visit her, especially my youngest. I do always have hope that she'll change, despite all evidence to the contrary. Now, I feel like Danielle in Ever After.

I think the NSpire models are on the approved AP Calc list. If the teacher wants the TI calculator, I'd probably get that one. I know some people have said that the CAS model of the NSpire isn't allowed in some college classes (on tests?). I didn't own a graphing calculator at all (except for the model I rented that was required for Pre-Calc in high school), so I am out of my league on this topic. :leaving:

My best friend & roommate in college was a CS major. I'm pretty sure she didn't fail any of her classes. I don't know how many other females were in her classes. I got my Mech. Eng. degree. Not many other females in ME, although far less in Elec. Eng. I didn't pay much attention to the other females, so I don't know how many (if any) dropped. Plenty of guys dropped to easier engineering majors. Two of my (male) best friends in college were CS majors. I don't know if either one ever actually got their degree. (Lost touch with them once I graduated & married.) They both have "good jobs" now, but I don't think programming is a huge part of either one, although I think both do some programming as part of their jobs. I am surprised by the statistic in the article. I would think that with more programming classes in high school, all the kids (who had access to & took them) would do better in college.

You wouldn't want to marry into my family. My father was awesome, but he died five years ago after enduring so much from my mother. (All she could do was complain about him, including to strangers, right in front of him. Now, the way she talks, you would think she had been the most devoted wife ever and that she misses him dreadfully.) My aunts and uncles on my mother's side were all terrible growing up, too. But, my mother takes the cake. She has always been awful. She pitted her children against each other, was never satisfied with any of her kid's accomplishments, and told at least two of her kids (separately) that we were her "biggest disappointment." (I called long distance to tell her that I'd gotten fourth place in the top award nationally at a conference. Her reply was, "who beat you out?") She commented to one daughter-in-law, "oh, so that's your real hair color" on one of the only times DIL came over to my mom's house and hadn't touched up her roots recently enough. She interferes in every one of her adult kid's lives who lets her. Growing up, she hounded me mercilessly about my appearance and weight all my life. Now, she's a grandma. Not a cuddly, warm, loving grandma either. She told my kids she would stop loving them if they got taller than her. (She's 5'3". My dad was 6'3". I passed her up by 4th grade.) She decided she couldn't bother getting driven (by my sister) just over an hour to go to my three girls' Confirmation although dh's family drove 8-12 hours for it. The latest: I sent a link to an announcement about a very cool youth council my oldest dd got picked for recently. Her first reply was insensitive and stupid. Her second was full of criticism for Dd's outfit (telling me to take her shopping since this is a big deal) and her glasses (which she assumed were sunglasses but which are transitions because of Dd's very light sensitive eyes). I'm torn on my response. One part of me considers writing an email explaining that she has just earned herself a year "off" of my kids and that if she can learn to be a better person in that time, she can see them again next fall. Another part knows that she could drop dead any day. Most of her siblings are gone and the two that are left are both incapacitated. My kids only have my horrid mom and a less than stellar grandfather who is losing his mind. So, I could just ignore it. As my brother says, I shouldn't be surprised when I see a monkey eating a banana. This is just who she is. Plus, my oldest brother just died, so she's going through a tough time. Do I try something in between? I warned my mom that she had to watch what she said in front of my kids when she pulled the not-going-to-love-you-anymore trick. She's not said that again (damage was already done), but she is very passive aggressive now. I'm just sad for my kids. I wasn't close to my grandparents (mom's side both died before I was born). I wanted better for my kids. They deserve better. (We do have pseudo adopted grandparents - friends of dh's from work who come to all their events and spoil them with attention. The "grandpa" is now dying of an aggressive cancer, so that is hard on the kids, too.)