I looked on Nextdoor and there were several posts at 2 am inquiring about an explosion or loud noises that were heard all over my area. I found out that it isn’t the launch of the Space X Satellite that causes the sonic boom it’s the the first stage booster falling back down (it lands on a drone ship in the ocean or back at the launch site).

At 2 am I heard a loud thud. It sounded like someone banged on the side of the house. My 14 year old was still awake and heard it too. We looked out the windows but didn’t see anyone. I woke up my husband who said it was probably a rocket launch. Yup, space X launched a rocket. So annoying because now I am wide awake. Just felt a need to complain. Carry on.

I would make sure you are emailing not calling so there is a paper trail. Unfortunately schools won't agree to do anything to another child because of confidentiality issues, so you have to write the complaints indicating what you want for your kids. So you need to write that your twins are developing anxiety or need update social emotional evaluation or need counseling to deal with being cut and threatened with a screwdriver. The more you demand for your own kids, the more incentive there is for the school to keep the bully away from your kids. I also would be CC'ing whoever is in charge of the school.

@madteaparty Wow, had to think about that one. I spent so much time thinking about math with my oldest child. I did indeed switch the order and followed Kolbe. I think it worked better for my son but then COVID happened. Since we were locked down it was easy to finish. He ended up going to a k-8 private school and repeated algebra because that’s all they offered up to in 8th. I do remember the book he used in school seemed very different from Forster. For example it had many of the problems set up as functions. I haven’t spent much time thinking about math at all with my second son. He just started public 9th grade and at his school almost everyone has to start with math 1. Since he did algebra in 8th at the private school I signed him up for algebra 2 with Florida virtual school since it is on then UC approved list of schools/class (we live in CA).

I think an interesting assignment or maybe warm-up each day would be to read the headlines or an article from newspapers in the Middle East. During the height of the COVID epidemic, I started reading the Times of Israel because they had good coverage on COVID especially the Pfizer vaccine. I went down rabbit trails reading other articles because it was interesting to learn more about political parties and groups. Maybe reading that newspaper plus others like Al Jazeera to understand different viewpoints. Then the history that you are studying can more easily be related to what is happening today. Here is a link for the week in review from Al Jazeera. Reading it with a map by your side would also be helpful to learn the geography of the Middle East as well. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/10/middle-east-roundup-us-iran-jostle-for-control-of-gulf

There are many colleges that have a course in “History of the Middle East”. Have you tried googling the course name plus syllabus /readings? Hete is one from MIT open courses. It has the syllabus plus links to some readings and videos. https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/21h-161-the-middle-east-in-the-20th-century-fall-2015/pages/readings-and-videos/

Sorry she is dealing with this. Is she in any honors classes? Often times classes are more structured and kids aren't as rowdy in honors classes in public schools. I think the mean girls will soon lose interest in her and move on and pester someone else as long as she just keeps not engaging.

Thanks! And seamos is supposed to be desmos, not sure what happened with that typo.

My 10th grader just uses an online graphing system like seamos and if needed a calculator that doesn’t graph. Is the benefit of buying this that you can use for the SAT or AP tests? Is there a better SAT/AP calculator? Is this the same calculator on Amazon on sale for $99? https://www.amazon.com/Texas-Instruments-TI-84-Graphing-Calculator/dp/B00TFYYWQA/ref=asc_df_B00TFYYWQA?tag=bngsmtphsnus-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=80539344142752&hvnetw=s&hvqmt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=m&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4584138872176588&psc=1&th=1

I am not sure I get test optional with such high English and reading scores. The math score is average. I would want a college to see the high English /reading scores. Here are the approximate percentile ranks: Composite: 27; 86th percentile rank english: 35; 99th percentile rank reading: 33; 94th percentile rank science: 23; 72nd percentile rank math: 17; 47th percentile rank

My son who is entering 11th grade has taken several DE classes starting with the summer between 8th and 9th. He has taken classes at three different CC's. There has been so much variability in the online classes he has taken. Some classes have had really amazing professor recorded videos, well organized material on Canvas (online learning management system where everything is posted), etc. Others had no videos, the professor took a while to respond, and seemed like they might be arbitrary and/or difficult (ex. a professor wrote an extensive email saying that students needed to read through the syllabus three times, there would be a quiz on the syllabus, and went on and on about how much time he put into the syllabus so the students needed to memorize it. Lo and behold my son found three errors including due dates from previous semesters, and when he emailed the professor to clarify the professor's reply was snarky. So my son immediately dropped the class. Now my son often signs up for an extra class to get a look at the syllabus and feel for the professor. Dual enrollment students where he has attended have absolute last priority for signing up for classes so it isn't as if he is taking space from anyone else. Then if he likes both classes he takes them both but if not then he immediately drops one of them. He signs up for classes he is interested in, so perhaps he should have more of a plan of what he takes but for now he is enjoying the classes he takes. He was interested in evolution so took Biological Anthropology. He was interested in learning more about US involvement in Latin America, the Cold War, the Narco Wars, and kept seeing some people wearing Che Guevara shirts and wanted to learn more about him, so he took History of the Americas- Modern. So he isn't taking the classes to knock out high school requirements, it is more to supplement his learning and explore his interests since the classes are free.

In case anyone is interested, here is a link to 2023 AP score distributions. Someone from the college board has been tweeting score distributions and comments. https://www.totalregistration.net/AP-Exam-Registration-Service/AP-Exam-Score-Distributions.php Interesting that the two lowest pass rates were for Physics 1 (pass rate 45%) and APUSH (pass rate 48%). Perhaps many students are encouraged to take AP classes in these subjects? Highest pass rates (besides Chinese and Spanish where heritage speakers might skew their results and AP research & seminar -not sure what they are) were for Drawing (85% pass rate) 2-D Art (84%), calculus BC (78%), English Lit (77%), & Chem (75%). I would assume in public high schools only the brightest, most academically successful students are taking calculus BC, chem and Eng. Lit. Anyone have any other theories on the different pass rates?

We have a concrete pool with plaster and it is a salt water pool. I would never have paid to put in the pool and if I had my choice instead I would prefer a really nice sports court. Most of the year the pool is a pain. I live a couple miles from the beach and my kids prefer to surf or hang out at the beach. There are days that they have had a lot of fun and those days it has been great, but they are kids who like having a pool but not kids who absolutely love the pool and would spend the entire day and evening in the pool It is often overcast and not warm enough to swim. I never liked it when my boys had kids over that I didn't know well because you can't ever leave kids unattended in the pool. When they were really young and I didn't hear them for a while and they didn't answer me the first time when I called for them, I would run out to the pool area to make sure they hadn't gotten over the fence. When our dog was a puppy she fell into the pool a couple of times and luckily we were there to fish out the puppy when she fell in.

Then it that case I hope you get overcast weather since it keeps the crowds down! Going earlier in the morning helps as well to get parking.

Done!

Maybe you already know this but California beaches can be cold and overcast in the early summer. I live in a beach town in Southern California and still feel a little guilty I would sign up my kids for the first session of junior life guards that took place in June. It was often overcast and the water was cold- total June gloom. My boys are planning on surfing Saturday with friends. The high will be 68 and the water temperature is 59 degrees. They wear wetsuits. San Diego has the warmest water in the summer but it is still cold. I just looked and the water temperature there today is 63 degrees. So hopefully are visiting late summer, if not bring layers to the beach. It often clears up in the afternoons.

I think the best thing King Charles can do for the benefit of ensuring the British monarchy continues is to step down in a few years and let William become King. Charles is 74 and William is 40. Other European monarchs have begun to do that probably realizing it isn't good for their heirs to wait so long and become elderly when they start reigning.

I have been researching more about the shortage. A health care research company looked into the Adderall shortage by reviewing both public and private insurance claims. The findings include: Since Q4 2020, volumes and Adderall prescriptions for patients ages 0-21 have stabilized below pre-pandemic levels. Conversely, for patients ages 22-44, patient volumes and Adderall prescriptions increased 50.1% and 58.2%, respectively from Q1 2018 to Q2 2022. Many of these prescriptions are from teleheath providers and this has changed drastically from pre-pandemic levels where less than 2% of prescriptions were from telehealth visits to now more than a third. Additionally, the amount of Adderall prescribed for adults ages 22-44 is outpacing the number of ADHD diagnoses. I think this is why the FDA will not increase the amounts of stimulants allowed. It seems like then the FDA shouldn't be so restrictive with children's prescriptions since they have stabilized and allow 90 day prescriptions. It is ridiculous the hoops parents are going through.

Your situation where you have years of documentation and testing doesn't seem like it is the intent of the DEA. Some of the online tele-health advertise "one minute assessment- take an online clinical assessment to see if [telehealth provider] can help." Then have a 30 minute appt to get adhd meds. Since you have have had in person visits in the past I don't understand why you would now need one to keep getting prescriptions.

I think smaller pharmacies can be helpful but in some cases larger chain pharmacies can be better for adhd meds because CVS and other chains no longer will fill prescriptions from telemedicine providers that opened or expanded during the pandemic and are responsible for thousands and thousands of new prescriptions for ADHD medication. This is what has led to the shortage. I think it is completely reasonable that one in person visit be required to diagnose ADHD, and prescribe medication. It will be interesting to see what happens after May 11th when the public health emergency ends and the DEA will require at least one in person visit before getting a prescription and if a patient has never been seen in person they won’t be eligible for refills until they see an in person provider.

I posted my comment and then within 5 to 10 minutes deleted it because I am trying not to dwell on the negative. You must have quoted me as I was deleting my post. I am just reading what you wrote. We must live in vastly different parts of the US because it is nothing radical to have street hawkers where I live and no one takes a second glance. There are now really big food pop up places that operate setting up tents blocking sidewalks, using several burners, etc. to cook food after 5 pm and the weekends when the public health department is closed. Unfortunately, yes my family and community are affected by panhandlers. My son's soccer team had a local permit to practice in a local park. I dropped off my son and the coach was setting up. When she went to her car a panhandler approached the coach's son (he is 16 and over 6 feet tall) and aggressively asked for money. When the coach saw the fear in her son's face she ran over and the panhandler lifted a stick over her head and began menacing them. She called the police and when they arrived they found the panhandler a block away. He was found with a large screwdriver. He was cited and released. So practices had to be moved. A coworker who is an absolute lovely woman retired last year. She was walking on the pier with a friend minding her own business and a homeless man came up and hit her in the face with an iron bar resulting in teeth being knocked out and her face cut up and a fracture. The same pier has a restaurant by it. A man was holding his little daughter in his lap and a homeless man walked into the restaurant and completely unprovoked stabbed the man to death. His family watched him die in front of their eyes. Last week in my county a homeless 25 year old pepper sprayed and stabbed employees at a Target then drove to a high school where he is alleged to have intentionally ran his car into a group of teenagers waiting at a bus stop. A 15 year old died. I was walking with my mother who is blind in one eye and has dementia to her audiologist last week and was yelled at by a homeless man as we tried to walk around his shopping cart, which was blocking the handicapped entrance ramp. So I have no idea what you meant about how my concerns about becoming jaded or these issues are small/petty/ gross to ,me.

Never mind. I am trying to stay positive so just erased what I posted.

It is hard to know what colleges prefer. Financially we are looking at UC’s since we won’t get financial aid yet can’t afford private colleges without substantial merit aid. I would think at this point there are so many applicants for the UC’s that they don’t have time to check who is taking classes DE that they could have taken at their high school. Often times there are scheduling conflicts at smaller high schools so DE is the only option. We are already manipulating the system I suppose because he is taking all of his math classes DE. His homeschool math and high school math didn’t align and he would have had to start back with Math 1 at his high school.

I am not sure. I think if his counselor signs off on a DE request then he might not be scheduled for a history class next year.

The bad teacher is not worth taking the class since my son is in a specialized science academy within his school and will also be taking honors Physiology and honors biotechnology or med tech (I forget the exact name) as well as AP Lang, AP Spanish, DE math and a sport. We are in CA so it would be better for UC’s I think to take DE us history fall plus another DE class spring instead of enduring a teacher that is less than ideal. Receiving a quality education in public school depends so much on the teacher. It is disheartening at times that it’s just luck of the draw. In 9th grade my son had the less than ideal English teacher while several of his friends had the amazing teacher. He transferred from a less than ideal biology teacher after the first quarter when he added another class to the amazing biology teacher who is also head of the science academy that only accepts 33-35 students each year. She encouraged my son to apply after seeing some of his work. Maybe he would have been accepted regardless but he felt much better about his chances after being able to impress the teacher who is in charge of the science academy.