Oh wow! Thank you all so much! I'm so glad I asked! I keep telling ds that I can see how these models have the potential to be really helpful. We are both just getting frustrated learning them with the level of complexity of the problems. We'll keep trying and I will check out everything all of you have suggested! I can't thank you enough for the help! :grouphug:

Hi Everyone~ My ds (11) is taking his math class through The Potter's School this year. We had decided to have him take Spanish through them, and he asked to also do math. He is in the class labeled Math Accelerated 5. They are using Singapore starting in 5A. Ds has previously used Horizons as well as Teaching Textbooks. Last week, the teacher introduced the "bar model." I am not getting it. The textbook is definitely not helpful for me. Do any of you have any suggestions or resources to help understand this concept? I reached out to the teacher and she gave me a few resources but I feel like I need more. We can always attend her office hours for extra help, but I am trying to do some self study on this. Thanks for any help!

I'm trying to get a jump on it. I just bought something for dh and I am looking for the best price on Hunter Wellies which are on my dd's list. I also already bought something to put into a stocking for my mom. :)

:grouphug: and chocolate...

I've been checking and checking this thread. I'm so sorry to hear the search has been called off. Praying for your miracle. :grouphug:

Yep...I lived in Orange County almost my entire life. My son went to college for a year at UCLA. Forty miles from my house. On Sunday evenings when I would take him back after a weekend at home, it would take less than an hour to get there. On Friday afternoons? At least a two hour drive. That's why he would take the train home on a Friday and I would give him a ride back on Sunday night. :D

So true!! You can easily spot tourists when they say this. :D I love the Getty in Brentwood! If you're not staying close to there, however, the traffic on the 405 is a nightmare!

Hey Swim Moms! It's the start of a new short course season. I'm sitting at the pool right now waiting for practice to end. :) How are your swimmers doing? Mine is getting a little more focused. He keeps asking me what he should eat to help with his training. How do your swimmers fuel themselves? My guy is allergic to nuts, so that eliminates an easy protein source. :please I'd love your ideas!

Thanks, Katie. It seems that thyroid cancer in dogs is not very common. There is a surgical option. It just depends on if the tumor is attached to any other structure in her neck. However, she is showing signs of it already being metastatic. We're still waiting to hear back from the vet after her consult with the oncologist. Right now I'm just making sure she is living the life of a princess. :)

Hi All~ My 9 1/2 year old female basset hound was diagnosed with thyroid cancer today. She has had some mild, seemingly unrelated symptoms over the past few months. In isolation, they weren't really concerning at all. Monday, she woke up a completely different dog. She was crying in pain, wandering around in circles, and head pressing. It was very sudden. We were able to get her in to be seen within a couple of hours. She spent all day at the vet being observed, having some x-rays, getting blood drawn, etc. The vet found a mass on her neck and did a needle aspiration. She called this morning to say that it is thyroid carcinoma. The vet is going to have a phone consult with an animal oncologist to provide us with some more information. Does anyone have any experience with this? Did you pursue any treatment? Did you just use palliative care? How long did your dog survive? Thanks for any input.

I am so sorry... :grouphug:

I just want to say that I feel for you! I haven't read the other responses yet... This sounds somewhat like me the last several years while my oldest was in college and did not have a license. The last couple of years he took the commuter train to school since it was only a half mile from the train to campus once he got there. I still took him to the train and picked him up at crazy hours. And, I was only homeschooling my youngest; not trying to hold down a job. It sounded, from your OP, like the girlfriend can drive? Can she help with his transportation if he helps with gas? Does the bus go near campus? My son didn't mind taking the bus places to save me the driving. Just as an encouragement, my son is almost 24. He used to suffer severe anxiety when attempting to drive. One day last spring, he came home from classes and said he had gone to the DMV and gotten a permit. I let him drive from then on and he got a license about 8 weeks later. It's a good thing because he got a cool job a Google and had to move out of state just a couple of weeks after that and now has to drive himself all over the place. :)

Tacos are one of my very favorite foods! I lived in Southern CA my whole life until 3 years ago in a town where I could get tacos from Mom and Pop type Mexican restaurants any time I wanted. It's one of the only things I miss! :) I prefer soft shell corn tortillas with carne asada, onions, and cilantro! I love a side of refried beans with them! They have only the potential to improve American culture! I can't imagine a life without tacos! :D

I have homeschooled full time since the 1999-2000 school year. :) My oldest when to a private school for K and 1st. He was then homeschooled through high school. He just graduated summa cum laude with a BS in Computer Science. :D My dd was homeschooled K-12. She starts her junior year of college next week. My youngest has been homeschooled from the beginning as well. He will be 11 in September.

I'm enjoying reading this discussion and dining on lots of good food for thought. I haven't decided what to do. I don't know that I believe that there is a "lesser of two evils" this time around. I'm sure my state's electoral votes have already been gift wrapped and delivered to one of the two candidates already. Whichever way this election goes, we are headed for living in a dystopian novel. ;)

I only have one kid in college this year! :hurray: Paid the last tuition bill for the other one in June when he graduated. Our daughter has two more years before getting her bachelors degree, so most of our money goes towards that. When she graduates, I'll start rebuilding the college savings for the youngest. We've been saving for retirement for years. We are currently on hold with our contributions while paying for college. Other than that, I have been secretly squirreling away little bits of money to celebrate my dh's 50th birthday in February. I will plan a trip (probably to Vegas since my in-laws live close to there and would be able to take our youngest for a few days) and then give him a nice bit of cash to spend on something frivolous. If we go to Vegas, I will take him to the Tom Ford store and tell him he has enough for more than just one tie. :D

Welcome Sarah! :) I'm am beginning my 18th year of homeschooling. I have a 23 year old college graduate, a 20 year old rising college junior, and an up and coming 5th grader. Three years ago we moved to a new state and I needed a way for my youngest to connect and make friends. I knew about CC from others but was well along another path with my older kids at the time. I decided to try it out for the youngest. He loves it! We are about to enter our 4th year. He loves learning with the other kids and having a little something different to do once a week. He has a memory like a steel trap so it comes easy to him. I expand on what we are doing in CC at home. That said, it's not for everyone. If I were even considering it in your shoes, I would only enroll the 7 year old. There is a registration fee of about $85 and tuition is $335 for Foundations, I think. Then there will be a facility fee and a supply fee which goes to buying the art and science supplies for the campus. If you figure it out on a per week basis, it comes out to about $20 per week per kid. You do have to put the money up front, though. For Foundations, all you need to buy for the CC program is the Foundations Guide. You can certainly add some of their other products, but you don't have to. It's not a co-op. I think it's important to know that. Each class is led by a parent tutor and each students' parent is expected to stay in the class with the student all morning. The goal of the tutor is to model how to teach the material at home. For my family it is a good fit. It's not too expensive because I only have one kid enrolled. I also tutor Essentials in the afternoon so I make my tuition money back. You could go on the CC website and see if there are any summer practicums still available in your area this summer. They are a three day workshop for parents presenting the classical model and CC. They are free to parents. It's a good way to check things out.

At least $800K and up.

Just reporting back... Ds did get his honor cord. :) Bigger news....he got the job at Google! His graduation is June 12th and he starts at Google as a site reliability engineer on June 27th. We have to get him moved back down to California quickly. :) I'm super excited for him!

Well, he needs 72 credits completed by winter quarter for the honor cord at commencement. He had 68 after winter quarter. :p So, he won't get the honor cord, but he will get the summa cum laude designation on his diploma. :D

My oldest is graduating with a BS in computer science in June. He got off to a rough start so it's taken him 5 years. I'm really proud of him for recovering from his first year, figuring out what he actually wanted to major in, and doing incredibly well over the past 4 years! We're waiting to hear officially whether he will graduate summa cum laude. We're not sure if he has enough credits completed at his current institution to qualify. Nevertheless, his gpa is outstanding. :) He is actually interviewing with Google this week! He has already had the phone interview and they are flying him to their hq for a series of in person interviews. Great experience for him even if nothing comes of it. Dd has her last final of her sophomore year in college today! Congratulations to all of the graduates!

I wish I could. But, anyplace else and we would have to pay room and board. At this school he is able to live at home and commute. It's cheaper to throw away his superlative health insurance money than it would be for housing. There are lots of colleges requiring you buy their policy now. :glare:

Or gets TSS. You KNOW legal action is inevitable somewhere!

Not to mention the level of health insurance some colleges now require. We have a perfectly decent policy which covers both of our college kids. However, my son's university has minimum requirements for a policy that no normal family policy can possibly meet. So, they will. not. exempt him from buying the policy they offer at nearly $2500 per year!! So, we pay that extra for him to have the privilege of attending. :glare: If they want to take some of THAT waste of money and use it to give the low income gals some tampons, I'm all for it! I am SO glad he only has one stinkin' quarter left! He has to pay for grad school himself! :tongue_smilie:

This is exactly what I was thinking. Why shouldn't the college provide all toiletries? Why just pads and tampons? They won't be "free." I have two kids in college (thankfully, one of them is graduating this June! :hurray: ) and I can't afford another dime for them. We always told them that we would pay for their bachelor's degree so they would not have to take on any debt. We're trying to do it without taking on any debt of our own either. So far we've been able to do that. I can't afford to subsidize anything more. On the argument of toilet paper in public restrooms-that's not "free" either. Businesses that provide public restrooms include the cost of supplies in overhead. So, we pay for that in the cost of goods. The article mentioned that providing feminine products would also help the homeless community because homeless women could use those bathrooms and find those products. I can't afford to have our tuition raised to supply the general public. I will gladly make donations as I am able but it is really, really tight right now. At this point, this is not something I could get behind.