I agree with this, and doing the same for quadrilaterals. I would suggest tearing the angles off though, or else highlight the angles before cutting up the shape, otherwise it's easy to get lost on which ones were the actual interior angles of the shape and which were formed when you cut/tore it apart! (personal experience talking...)

This is a possibility. There is also a local school for the blind, which I *might* be wiling to violate my no-teaching rule for. 🙂

My cousin is a respiratory therapist. This is a good one to look into, I will ask him about visual requirements. Thank you

I feel your pain! 😂

You might be interested in Destination Imagination Instant Challenges. Destination Imagination is this whole complicated science competition, but they also have what they call "instant challenges" which are used as mini-projects to get groups working together, solving problems, communicating. http://www.cre8iowa.org/resources/instant-challenge-library/ You'll want to look at the task-based challenges probably. They do have an actual book of challenges. Actually, I think they publish one book per year. But you can also find many for free just by googling "Instant Challenges". We have had a ton of fun with these over the years. Enough fun that I have used them as birthday party games on several occasions.

I can do emotional angst, what I don't want is actual workload following me home. But I do have a contact with a PT who I hope to shadow soon. You're absolutely right I need to talk to a career counselor. Right now I'm trying to get together a list of options to talk to them about. Luckily the social network here is such that I can receive free (through disability insurance, essentially) counseling specific to my situation.

More that I don't want a desk job. Can't drive.

Probably not. When I use a computer, I use a program to magnify a portion of the screen, probably not possible on a sonography machine.

Just to clarify a bit, some other fields I've considered but ruled out due to eyes are: - electrician - machinist (like my dad) I'm looking for that overlap between manual skill and knowledge. My strongest area of intelligence is probably my ability to research and synthesize information.

I won't completely rule out desk jobs, including IT, but I've done So. Much. STEM in my life I'm tired of it.

@BeachGal I do thing working with the elderly may be a good option, as it's always in demand. It's not necessarily an option I feel super passionate about, but I know the need is there. @katilac The competition here is not nearly as steep, we actually have a huge doctor/nurse shortage. If my eyes were perfect, I would much rather become a GP, even with the added years of schooling, and I feel pretty certain I'd be very good at it. PT is actually one of two medical fields that has slightly more applicants than places, but the weed-out test is a logic and general competence test, which I am not worried about scoring high on. The bigger concern is that I would be applying as a "dossier" candidate, rather than a straight-forward application, so my age will be a possible negative factor. This whole thread is actually prompted by the concern that I would not get into the program, and that I need to have more than one egg in my future-planning basket. 🤣

My vision is pretty good for being bad. I have central vision loss, which means I need aids to read typical print size. I have facial recognition issues because of this. I can see macro level things quite well, for example gait as you mentioned. I could not watch someone's eye movements from more than a step away.

Since you're not aware of yourself falling, I'd be concerned you are losing consciousness. Have you done a seizure study?

I agree. It started out with a lot of promise, but it does feel like he's painted himself into a corner.

Am I having a midlife crisis? Probably not quite. But looking toward a mid-life change. I am 38, and would love to be working at 45. This does not actually get all of my kids through 9th grade (end of Swiss obligatory schooling), but it gets them a fair way down the road and I'm getting comfortable with the idea that it's ok if the life of the last two doesn't look exactly like the life of the first two. But here is my real question: I am willing to go back to school with the goal of learning a trade type job. By that I mean I don't need another bachelor's degree in a more theoretical topic. My background is this: Bachelor's in Physics, 1 year of grad school in Environmental Engineering (did not finish program) 1 year teaching math in private school SAHM ever since. Certification as a doula with occasional clients, very short term contracts in the local school system as an exam expert in English and with the Swiss military as a scenario actor for skill training programs. I have "low vision"- this eliminates some of my top career options, like midwifery, because I can't do IVs or stitches. I am able to compensate for low vision is almost every aspect of my life, but cannot drive or do very fine work quickly (I can do detailed fine motor, but need to bring in magnification tools) I DO NOT WANT TO TEACH. Don't even suggest it! 😂 I am drawn to the medical field, and am most drawn towards Physical Therapy. It is a 3 year degree here. I want a job that has both physical and mental aspects- not a desk job. I also want a job that stays at work, not the kind of thing where I'm going to be bringing a lot of angst and worry home due to unfinished tasks. Besides physical therapy, which is my top contender right now, what else could I do that is actually in demand? I'm not married to medical, I just think I would do well in that domain. I do not want the additional work of starting or maintaining a business.

He hasn't finished Alvin Maker either... argh!

Thank you so much!!! I appreciate your long reply. I have several of these on my list for this year and next. I'm glad to see Dear Martin, as I haven't read it yet but have it assigned for Civil Rights because I stumbled across it. I'm looking forward to discovering several other of these titles. Great list!

I'd love to see this list...

Final thought: We'll skip Night this year. I will have ds read it next year. This topic is just too hard. Argh.

If I could censor that scene, and the one of the son strangling his father for a crust of bread in the train cattle car, those would be the two I would remove. Unfortunately with covid, travel is out for probably another year or so, but it is something I would really like to do. I'd also like to visit the beaches in Normandy.

@Lori D. @Carol in Cal. I think the metaphor to porn is pretty apt. What I've been asking myself as I read is, "How does this compare to Steven King?" I went through a Steven King phase in college, and I'd definitely qualify him as violence porn, although it is my understanding that he is actually "light" in terms of horror, which is quite disturbing to me! Anyway, I would never touch SK books again, as you said Carol, I still have some images from his books stuck in my head. Night didn't feel like SK to me. It was more matter-of-fact and while it had scenes of horror, you don't feel the author relishing and indulging in gratuitous detail like you do with SK. I think Lori is right in that, to a certain extent, innocence is protective, even when reading a book like Night. An 8th grader doesn't have enough life experience to truly put himself in another's shoes. When we read Between Shades of Grey, about the gulag labor camps, my 6th grade dd was completely riveted to the story and felt it very deeply, though not in a bad way IMO. My son thought it was a good book, but did not have that emotional connection. Night has a male protagonist, so we will see if that changes his connection in some way. I think we're going to try it, but I'll give him permission to stop if it is bothering him.

Yes, Exodus definitely looks like something I need to read for my own education!!! I appreciate your perspective on this. Holocaust books are so hard to classify and quantify. I will continue to give it much thought. We found such an incredible book for the Russian Gulag, it was just the right amount of awful while still being hopeful. But I'm struggling to give a fictional Holocaust account to an 8th grader rather than a memoir. But memoirs are more raw and also more powerful, for obvious reasons.

While Exodus looks like a great read for me, it's over 600 pages, so I don't think we can squeeze it in. I guess... I want the Holocaust to be horrible and shocking. I feel like I can't really wait much longer than 8th grade before exposing those horrors. I think my current 8th grader can handle it, but I do think it is a definite mandatory pre-read for parents to decide for themselves. Have you read the sequel: Dawn? I want to pre-read it for the Israel/Palestine chapter because it might be nice to stick with the same author for both stories.

@Carol in Cal. The Moon is Down looks amazing. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. It's moved to the top of my reading list!

Is everyone tired of me talking about this yet? This week I pre-read 3 Holocaust books- Boy in the Striped Pajamas Survivor's Club Night by Wiesel Of the three, I've chosen to do Night by Wiesel with my oldest (8th). It is slightly more brutal than survivor's club, but only half as long, so although Survivor's Club was a smidge gentler, Night was over quicker, but more powerful. Night is also written by Wiesel, a nobel peace prize winner. It is well-known and appears on many booklists. While Survivor's Club had some advantages over Night, in that it covered the post-war period for Jews, as well as several different types of concentration forms- ghettos, factor work slave camps, and finally death camps, it does not have quite the first-person authenticity of Night, as the author was 4-5 years old during the war, and the story was pieced together by his daughter, an investigative journalist. It is very well-done, but I think Night carries more weight. Boy in the Striped Pajamas is useless as an intro to the Holocaust. You need to already know about the Holocaust to understand the book's dramatic irony. As literature, it is not bad, though the horrific (but not graphic) ending is predictable. We might still read it as an example of point-of-view and dramatic irony, but only after we have covered the Holocaust. My younger (6th grader) will do Number the Stars. For both, we are also reading: The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler Maus (this is a moving graphic novel, should be pre-read for appropriateness. Different animal species play out the roles of various groups, but this does not make it appropriate for younger children) Two overview graphic novels: Under the Shadow of the Swastika Against the Rising Sun For Pacific, i still need to pre-read Empire of the Sun and Code Talker.