Don't flame me anyone: I'm wondering where the line is between poor social skills and being on the spectrum, with my mom at least.

Do any of you have a mom you know or think might be autistic? My attempt to google this came up mostly with articles about being the autistic mom or about having an autistic dad. My mom has some traits that either point to ADHD with poor social skills and/or being on the mild end of the spectrum.

DS2 is about to finish Foerster Algebra 1. It's gone well, although he seems to forget what he's learned easily and needs much more regular review than DS1. What geometry programs should I consider? DS bounced between Jacobs (2nd. edition), Derek Owens, and a Thinkwell. Jacobs seemed like endless proofs. (Maybe I assigned too many problems.) Thinkwell seemed like maybe it was too easy. I also have a Jorgensen edition from the early 80s. I don't know how to find a teacher's manual or solutions for it. I picked up a Larson Geometry book as well. I don't know how good it is, just that it looks like a typical textbook with far too many colors and pictures. (The older math textbooks from the 80s-90s are far less distracting!) Any suggestions? I've never used Saxon, but I understand it is heavy on review. Maybe a spiral approach would work better for DS2? If not, I'll need to make regular algebra 1 review sheets for him, which I can do easily enough with Infinite Algebra 1 software. Anyway, I wish Foerster had a geometry book!

Other things that have helped: We did the theme-based books at an older age than suggested because we started IEW late. I gave a brief try at Writing With Style 1 in 8th grade, but the instructions were overwhelming, especially for a kid who won't read directions. I think he did the Ancient History book in 8th-9th grade. It was written for elementary school, but it still worked well. The topics were also good for a history-loving "boy's boy" type kid. We did the Medieval History book (middle school level) in 10th-11th grade, and now he's doing the Advanced American History book. My point is that doing the books at an older age than suggested didn't hold him back. If anything, it was good, because it enabled him to feel successful. Now he's "caught up" with the suggested grades for books. All the Minecraft fan fiction he wrote and creative writing classes he took through Lantern English helped. For his essays he likes to use dramatic openers. Here's an example of one for an essay he wrote about WWI last week

DS1 did the Expository Essay 1 when he was 16. He had done some of their creative writing classes, but none of their essay classes. During weeks 3-8 of the course, he wrote a 3 page, a 3.5 page, and a 4 page paper. I thought the pace was too fast. I didn't think it really allowed time to find and use quality sources (something that was new to him). I decided to not have him do the next course because I'd rather have him spend three weeks on one quality paper than two weeks on just churning something out. The rest of his essay writing (before and after) the course has been using IEW materials. I think they do a much better job working on having good content. ETA: DS has ADHD and was very delayed with writing when he was younger. In 4th grade he was working on Writing With Ease 2. The IEW theme-based books have worked extremely well for him because he doesn't have to guess if he meets the requirements. The process of "easy plus one," meaning require what the child can do easily plus one new technique is great. IEW got me used to editing everything he writes, so I also took on that role for the Lantern English classes. IEW's focus on both frequent writing and fixing things that can be improved has worked unbelievably well here. I never would've believed when he was in elementary school how good of a writer he could be with time.

Just to clarify, you don't believe every American deserves a fair trial?

Today to teenage son: "You've never had to go to the hospital because of a math test." This was in response to him saying he'd rather ride with Toad from The Wind in the Willows than take his test. (Toad crashes cars regularly.)

DS17 used to be one of those kids who was hardly ever sick. He'd get a little sick for 1-2 days when DS14 and I would be down for a week. Ever since we all got sick at Thanksgiving and then got Covid at Christmas both kids have been getting sick monthly, and DH and I are getting something about every two months. I've been fighting off my second virus in the last month, and now both kids are sick again, DS17 for the third time in a month. We all take vitamin D3. I guess it's time to have us all take zinc, elderberry, etc. Anyway, I think it's time to take him to the doctor. What sort of tests should we have run?

I have considered cruises because it sounds like it might make dealing with the food easier. I'd like to have a vacation where I don't have to put so much effort into finding ways to eat. I don't really want to have to spend so much time cooking, grocery shopping, or trying to bring most of my food with me. Which cruise line was this? How did you handle lunch if you were doing an all-day shore excursion?

Technically I don't have food allergies, but I do need to strictly avoid gluten. I also avoid dairy, although I have a little more leeway with cross-contamination. I feel better avoiding corn and rice, although I'd be okay if I had to eat them on a trip. DS is allergic to eggs. He's not anaphylactic, but they do give him digestive issues and make his asthma worse. I'd like to plan some international trips, but the food is so hard to deal with. I've learned not to trust restaurants until they have a totally separate area for cooking gluten-free food or it's a place like Chipotle where only nearly everything is gluten-free already. As a result I almost never go out to eat. Even domestic travel is a pain. I either have to book a place with a kitchen and cook or get grocery delivery of foods I can have. Any ideas?

I agree. However, we've reached the point in our culture where people think it's fine to be on phones call while going to the bathroom in public bathrooms, so...I guess I'll just have to hope that manners are taught again some day.

If I remember correctly, people who have familial hypercholestemia (abnormally high LDL levels) have genetics that reduce the number of LDL receptors in their livers. (Please correct me if I am remembering incorrectly.) This means their liver doesn't remove LDL from the bloodstream as well as it does for regular people.

Every time there is a thread about sleepovers I've been glad we never allowed them. I'm can't remember if I've ever seen a post that said, "We should've allowed them," but I've seen plenty saying there were a mistake in many or all circumstances.

What is the difference in time required (driving+practice) and money between what she is doing now and what she was doing before?

I see the authors also have a Make: Calculus book and one coming out in the fall for trigonometry. ETA: I'm now strongly considering having DS1 do the above book after he finishes precalc. He is a kid who likes projects, so I think he'd like this better than a traditional program.

Oooh, we have a 3D printer. Please let me know how this one looks. I'm guessing it's probably a better supplement than spine.

DS2 is almost done with Foerster Algebra 1. He's doing well with it and is often able to work independently. Here's what I already own: AOPS - I don't want to use this. One year of dragging DS1 through AOPS Algebra by doing it all with him was enough for me. AOPS would be torture for DS2. Jacob's, 2nd edition - DS1 did about 1/2 of geometry through Thinkwell. He though the videos were clear, but I didn't like the multiple choice nature of much of the course. I had him switch to Derek Owens (parent-graded) for the second half while using Jacob's 2nd edition. He did about ten thousand million proofs. In all, geometry took about 15 months to get through. I don't want to go through this again. (Maybe we tried to do too many of the problems in the book. I think he often had to do 10 proofs per day.) Jurgensen, 1985 edition - I haven't used this before. I don't know if tests and solution manuals are available. Larson, 1995 edition - I haven't used this before. The book looks very busy and makes me twitchy to look through. DS2 is a good math student, but I don't think he'd like discovery methods. He also needs more review of previous chapters than DS1 did. Any thoughts?

SVB went without a risk officer for eight months. That can't have helped matters.

Oh, I agree that excellent progress was made in many areas since then. Although I mentioned going to the moon, in my mind I'm really comparing things more to the 90s. This is more what I was thinking - not that decades ago everything was better, but that politicians and businesses made serious attempts at fixing problems. I know corruption has always existed, but it seems like it's getting worse (or at least more obvious).

Do you ever feel like we just aren't a serious country anymore? There are so many problems, and it seems like there is just a cultural apathy about fixing even the most basic things. Examples off the top of my head: Cities without clean water After the water problems, Jackson, Mississippi stopped having trash pick-up Government agencies and businesses still way behind from the pandemic with no apparent plans to catch-up As of a couple months ago the IRS still had millions of tax returns from 2021 to process and tens of millions of pieces of unopened mail Schools that can't bother (maybe from fear of lawsuits) to discipline violent students, even when they attack their teachers Hospitals are now supposed to post prices on their websites, but enforcement is so lax they don't do it or hide it in tiny fonts that are the same color as the background. It took until this year for Congress to pass laws saying in-network hospitals can't charge you out-of-network prices for doctors you have no control over using, such as anestheologists. Blackouts in California States shutting down nuclear and natural gas power plants without having reliable sources of power to take their place. Terrible customer service just about everywhere. Can we please not let this thread descend into political bickering? I get that the media and social media has us all angry at each other all the time, but there are so many things we all agree on. For example, everyone agrees that cities need trash pick-up and clean water. We are a country that put man on the moon before calculators! Surely we can make progress on some of the problems that are non-partisan.

Did/do the students back home behave better than what is allowed in US schools these days?

If I understood the website correctly, the forms are incorrect if you choose not to apply any subsidy until filing your taxes. (Thanks government!) I think they might be fine for people who applied subsidies throughout the year. But who know? As a side note, our relatively uncomplicated tax return was almost 200 pages between federal and state! DH and I area each self-employed, but he has few business expenses and I have none, so they are about as simple as it gets for businesses.

The cynic in me wonders whether one reason US schools keep lunch so short is because more free time leaves more time for students to bully each other, do drugs, have sex in the bathrooms, etc.

If you buy health insurance through the marketplace, make sure your 1095-A form is correct. This year when I filed my 2022 taxes using TurboTax there was a note to use the HealthCare.gov tax tool if column B shows all zeroes instead of the premium for the second cheapest silver plan in your area. I checked and every single 1095-A form the marketplace has ever sent me has had all zeroes! I just finished filing an amended return for 2021 with the correct numbers and I'm getting another $2800 back.

Modern States has expanded from CLEP prep materials to AP test prep. I saw biology, environmental science, computer science, and English courses when I was scrolling through. There are probably others I didn't notice.