It would take me much longer than a minute to do that problem...LOL. 😄 I am pretty slow at computation. (As an aside, my DS13 who is super fast at computation and has done well in a speed-computation-related math competition used to sometimes race with me on a calculator and him doing a problem in his head. He would win at least half the time on mid size problems. I can't even use a calculator very quickly I guess!). Here's short division. I mean, it's basically a short cut. So, conceptually I probably shouldn't have taught it before long division, but it doesn't seem to hurt anyone. I just think it is the coolest thing so I am eager to tell everyone about it. BA's method of long division is something like asking yourself to make an estimate on how many times the divisor fits in the whole dividend. Write that on top where you would normally be writing your digits one at a time. Whatever estimate you want to make is fine as long as it is not too big. BA suggests picking something easy to multiply by like a multiple of 10, 100, etc. Then multiply your estimate by the divisor and see how much is left. Then make a new estimate of how many times your divisor will fit in what is left, and write that on top of the last estimate. Later, Rinse, Repeat until you only have a remainder left. Then add up your stack of estimates to get the final quotient. If that doesn't make sense I can try and post a photo of a problem done that way later. I can see how it can theoretically be faster if you make really excellent estimates...but our experience so far is that DS ends up doing many more subtraction problems because he "plays it safe" with small estimates, then having done an easy multiplication for each estimate, still has to subtract every time to get down to the remainder or lack therof.

Yes, I was wondering if a leader of a country who was at one point rightfully elected refusing to give up power (or changing the rules in a shady way to stay in power) is still called a coup or if it has another name. There's also the situation in countries like Venezuela where a leader was elected, but many people thing he may have rigged/cheated to get elected. It may not be totally legitimate but it doesn't seem to be called a coup.

RightStart math teaches it! I used RS math with my DD in grades K-4 and we both learned it there. 🙂

My middle school age DS's are doing each a different curriculum with labs this year (one was originally supposed to be doing the labs for his book through a local in-person co-op class, but long story short it didn't end up working out - but I had already bought the books for the course used last spring so wanted to stick with it). I knew it would be a lot to have two kids each doing different labs so at the end of the summer we went through the supply list for both books, and i had them help me figure out what we needed to buy (things we didn't have in the house at all), what would just be "always easy to find" items (like salt, baking soda...stuff we always have in the kitchen), and what we could gather ahead of time (things like 5 paper clips, 10 pennies, 2 antacid tablets, etc). Then I ordered or bought at the grocery store everything for all year we didn't have. There are like 2 'fresh' items I'll have to remember to buy as the year goes on. Each DS has a box for his supplies, plus a box of shared supplies like rubbing alcohol. I even put in their boxes stuff like tape, permanent marker, etc so they wouldn't waste time running around the house for those items that are known to get easily misplaced in our house. Each DS just does the experiment/demonstration on a day when called for in the science book. I've encouraged them to save it for last so it doesn't delay other things and doesn't distract DS8, who is done with school sooner in the day then they are but gets super distracted if they try and do an experiment when he is trying to do his school work! At 11 and 13 they can basically do it on their own, with me answering a few questions here and there or sometimes being an extra "hand" to hold something. The only thing I've done is light candles for the 11 year old because I don't trust him with a lighter yet!

I never did a time goal on long division, but my general experience so far is it was just proportional to their general computation speed on other types of subtract/multiply/divide. My one kid that is super fast at computation was super fast at long division, and kids #1 and #3 who are slower processors in general just could never do it nearly as fast because they just move more slowly (yet still methodically) in those kinds of problems. I also teach short division first, which seems to be the best-kept math secret hardly anyone teaches, so at least that is lightning fast when it is usable. I am teaching DS8 long division right now, and he wants to do it the way BA teaches it. I dislike their method. My oldest is too old to have done BA, and my next two DSs thought BA's way of long division was silly and ditched it as soon as I taught them the regular algorithm. DS8 doesn't even want to hear about the regular algorithm and I really think BA's method is slower.

As soon as I installed YouTube music, it could "See" all my files stored on the device, The only thing that didn't transfer over from Google PLay music is my playlists I had created in that app -- I'll have to recreate those, but luckily I didn't have many. No ads as far as I can tell to play my own music that I have stored on my device. I don't really prefer the interface though -- you are constantly having to switch tabs from the online/youtube music tab to the "device" tab to play your own music files. This app seems to be pretty highly rated, so I might try it soon: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=in.krosbits.musicolet&hl=en_US Edited to add: I just realized that I didn't have any playlists on this phone specifically (I guess they were all on my old phone I got rid of a few months ago -- I hadn't even noticed) - so it is possible your created playlists in Play music may transfer over to YT music app.

Several years ago there was a bad pie pumpkin crop and I remember it was impossible to find either cans or whole pie pumpkins. This year my nearest regular grocery store has tons of whole pie pumpkins and was out of canned! I'm really hoping Aldi has some when I go this weekend. Usually I have no trouble buying it in September for making pumpkin bread and muffins!

Yes, I feel like the one thing BA never taught were those standard algorithms for multi digit multiplication and division. I had to teach those separately. My 2 older boys did a bit of practice on facts with Xtra math in early elementary, and then BA was enough practice after that for most things, but mostly because they seem really good at remembering concepts. My youngest seems to forget things a little more easily, so I am wondering if he will need to do some review outside of BA. As long as we're airing all our BA grievances, let me say that I hate the placement of that perfect squares chapter when they've just barely learned multiplication. My first DS went through it needing a bit more help than on other chapters, but promptly forgot all the "tricks" he learned in that chapter (rare for him, generally - he usually retains really well). My next DS was just not ready for that chapter having just learned multiplication, so I wanted until between 3D and 4A and he was so much more ready for it. Did the same thing with DS#3 and that was perfect for him also.

I use bookfinder.com and used.addall.com - those search multiple sites at once, including lesser known ones.

Yeah, that's kind of weird, oddly specific situation to be asking anyone in any forum about...like, how would anyone BUT the school and maybe the specific administrators involved in allowing that know? I don't think that online/distance public schoolers are totally out of line in asking questions in a homeschool forum (like topics others have mentioned above -- entertaining younger siblings, socialization, setting up schedules or a good learning environment), and some of us have both homeschool and public school kids and can give suggestions related to both. But so much varies from school to school that asking things beyond general questions seems weird to begin with.

Duffle bags for car travel and especially for car camping - you can smoosh them into weird spaces if you are short on space (under back seat in minivan, etc). We bought cheap ones at ikea for this purpose, and have nice rolling suitcases for air travel.

Yes, this is causing so much division in so many churches. I know people who have left or are considering leaving churches on both sides of the issue (they want a church that is more open, not following rules...or they think their church is being too open/reckless). I can see how it could feel like the right thing to do to try and walk the middle ground and make everyone happy -- but ultimately people will probably still be unhappy. I lean more toward thinking avoiding division is a bigger motivator than money. In our circles, what I hear (about a few different churches) is that giving has either remained steady/increased (thanks to online giving, people being concerned for the church during the pandemic) or if it has decreased, the decrease was no more than what could be offset by changes in expenses due to not meeting in person or offering fewer services (not buying coffee and refreshments, not needing VBS or Sunday school supplies, not needing to pay for as many hours of building cleaning if most of the building isn't in use, etc).

It really depends on the insurance coverage and price of lenses. My contact lenses are twice as expensive from the eye doctor BUT if I order them online myself my insurance won't reimburse them. I have to order directly from the eye doctor to get the benefit, so getting 75% of my yearly supply covered by my insurance company is better than 0% covered if I order directly. Same thing with glasses. If I order online the insurance doesn't reimburse but if I visit the eye doctor and order from them, it covered all but maybe $100 on a fairly expensive pair of glasses. I figure the eye insurance is probably in cahoots with the "preferred providers" somehow - but since several of us in the family use the eye doctor every year, we come out ahead on exams and glasses/contacts even with the premium factored in. I'm sure many people opt in for the eye insurance and then never use it or only get a basic exam...which is how the insurance company still makes money .

Do you recommend any in particular?

Ditto. My 13 year old would absolutely love some of these topics. He watched this week's 3Blue1Brown video where Grant talks about Group Theory and DS was just saying, "Oh, I wish I could study group theory now...this is so interesting!". 😁

We ordered a large supply of frozen feeder mice for our snake last year and I had been wondering what the delivery driver thought of the box that said something like "Rodent Pro - Frozen Meat, Rush Delivery" on the side... he was probably glad it didn't say "LIVE RODENTS RUSH DELIVERY." 😁

Here starting as a 9th grader is a piece of cake - no tests or anything generally required. But starting any time after 9th grade, it is very school district dependent, as the state doesn't require districts to accept homeschool credits for high school. Definitely check state laws and check with local homeschoolers to find out their experience. My 8th grader will probably enter public school in a year, and one thing I did find out is that if we want placement for anything above what is "typical" for 9th grade, he would need to test to show competency. A Geometry placement is considered "normal" so they wouldn't require an algebra test for an incoming 9th grader, but since we would be looking at a pre-calc placement, he will need to show competency, most likely by taking an exam.

Yes, this! Our church could not get any kind of liability insurance without strict guidelines about always having 2 volunteers at a time in a room.

MercyA, in terms of being worried about leaving them in a lurch if you quit - Honestly if they don't have some "back up plans" for how to cover people who can't show up, that is a HUGE problem! Not just in terms of infectious disease safety (even in non-covid times, do you want a teacher with a stomach bug or strep throat showing up to teach because they have no one to cover them?), but just in terms of just good planning in general. I've been both a Sunday school coordinator and a VBS director. Besides the normal thing of people "calling in" even on the day-of because they or their kid is puking or has a fever, I've had to cover volunteer slots for people getting in car accidents, missing flights home, getting stuck at work or called in to work, cars that won't start...and so on. Life stuff preventing people from showing up to teach or volunteer. I always have back ups, and back ups to my back ups (even if that is just me and my husband being ready to jump in if absolutely necessary). They may not think your reason for quitting is fair, but if in your conscience you think this is best for your/your family's health, then it is a fair reason before God.

Garbage is all incinerated where she lives, so it is probably pretty safe. We hope. 😁

I have a friend who planted some before she knew about the warning. She actually had ordered some seeds from overseas (not China) and thought the supplier had just drop shipped it from China. I was slightly disappointed when she said she trashed it after she found out, before anything sprouted. 😂😂😂

I'd say about 50% of the pages in the workbook wouldn't even make a lot of sense as a stand alone - they are activities that require the directions from the teacher's manual - a prompt of some sort, or game instructions...etc. The remaining pages aren't really that amazing - they are things like sentences to read and match with pictures, copywork, a few basic grammar exercises, maybe some fluency pages. (Not a knock on LOE for the right kid -- I loved foundations with my two middle kids who are typically developing readers. But I got really tired of it with my youngest who turned out to be dyslexic - he didn't retain very much beyond the first half of B despite multiple tries). Maybe SPIRE workbooks would give you more bang for your buck in terms of workbook pages that are similar in philosophy? (Some of the workbook pages you would need to have the "reader" to pair with it to make the worksheet make sense, but their books are pretty cheap). I am just occasionally pulling in SPIRE resources in working with my youngest as my library has copies of all the books. It's kind of a nice lazy supplement when I don't have time for what I am usually doing. I find I don't need the teacher manual to make sense of SPIRE's other books.

My rising 8th grader wants to follow in his older sister's footsteps and start public school in 9th grade. We're still making our choices for this year assuming that will happen. But honestly the only thing I would do differently if I knew he were not going to school in 9th would be science. And that would just be I would let him try to get 9th grade biology done early in 8th if he were going to homeschool for high school. As it is,his science this year is more of a "prep" year for high school (using a textbook/taking tests, rather than just reading and watching videos and having fun with it), though most of the material will not be super new for him in the physical science class I have him signed up for w/ a local co-op. So we can cross the bridge when we get to it, I guess. Our area is just average, not a huge hot-spot right now, so I don't think we are going to spiral out of control like it feels like some places might . DD is staying with public school at this point...even if it is distance learning this year. She got her best semester ever grade-wise during distance learning last spring (Our school district said they could keep same grade or improve during distance learning, but couldn't go lower). She improved her grades in a couple classes compared to in-school classes. If it were still distance learning a year from now she would probably just do dual enrollment with the local CC instead of high school classes for her senior year.

Could you just read her the Beast Academy 2 comics "for fun" while doing the program you feel is the best fit? I often had my youngest "listening in" on his older brother's BA comics when he was too young for them (before he was doing BA or in harder books than he was doing), and he really liked listening even when the math was above his level. Life of Fred is also super fun (just not colorful) and starts out even more basic than Beast Academy 2 would.

I'm still seeing books from US sellers? Maybe something wonky happened with your settings or preferences?