Facial wipes dry out the skin and just move dirt around: unless you wash your face with water and a washcloth, your face is still dirty. Foaming cleansers also dry out the skin and throw off the pH, so look for a gentle cleanser like the Ceravé Hydrating one (the other has SLS, and again, detergents throw off pH). Acid exfoliants are gentler than physical ones, yet also more effective, especially for acne-prone skin (physical exfoliants just push bacteria around; acids kill it). Diluted apple cider vinegar (1:4 or up to 1:6 for sensitive skin) makes an excellent toner, or you can purchase one like the Clearasil Rapid Action pads with salicylic acid. The Ceravé moisturizer should work well, and don't forget sunscreen if he's going out.

See, to me grandma's lipstick doesn't look old-fashioned so much as it looks classic, and gorgeous. I don't wear makeup every day, but when I do it's full-on sixties-esque winged liner, etc.

I absolutely love the soaps at World Market. They smell wonderful without being overpowering or having that cloying artificial element that seems to be ubiquitous in drug/grocery store-type products, and are about $5 each. I wear good perfume, so I don't want my soap's scent hanging around; it's just for making me smile in the shower. The packaging is lovely, and I'm the kind of person to whom that totally matters. No apologies.

Try it on, and ask an honest friend what she thinks, in indoor and outdoor lighting. People tend to reserve darker colors for evening, but it's not a rule. The cool/warm color dichotomy is a useful guide, but also not ironclad. The usual advice is to look at your veins, and if they're blueish then you're cool-toned, and if they're greenish you're warm-toned. There are all kinds of guides online for what shades look best on which tones, but in general, there's a shade of each color for every tone. I'm cool and pale, and I look best in jewel tones and terrible in earth tones, for instance. Sometimes ''lip tint'' means there's a hint of color in a balm or something, or it's a synonym for ''lip stain'', which is supposed to impart a long-lasting color without a lipstick texture or gloss. A ''gloss formula'' is usually a glossy lipstick, versus a lip gloss which usually adds very little color but lots of shine (read: stickiness).

According to Lisa Eldridge, a celebrity makeup artist, there was a general trend toward balms and gloss and away from lipstick from the late nineties and until a few years ago, so you're not imagining it. Lipstick is definitely coming back now, though.

We have a ''Like'' limit? What is it?

I've seen a ''Leave of Absence Request'' mentioned specifically for NM, and in relation to medical situations. This would certainly seem to qualify as a ''medical situation''.

Have you tried Hydraluron by Indeed Labs? I think Ulta's even having a sale on that brand right now, so it's good timing. It's not a moisturizer per se because you still need to put a moisturizer on top of it, but maintains hydration so well, and makes moisturizer more effective.

My first husband was a Peter Pan (and his own best friends used those exact words when we announced my pregnancy, pre-marriage). He's a nice guy and means well, but I carried the weight of being the only grown-up in the relationship (despite his being more than two decades older). Sahamamama is exactly right: I did end up with two babies, not that I would trade them, and I felt trapped. Stuff happened, and I left him. I've remarried, very, very happily. He's still around and we're still friends (he officiated my wedding). My mother and her friends always joke that I never do anything the easy way and this is a prime example, but I made it and we're good. I definitely don't regret my children. Is the scholarship the only thing holding her back? It would be a tougher road without it, but not at all impossible. I started back at a CC when my second was a year old, and graduated with my B.S. in June, when she was seven. I started at the CC at 15, and I always say it was the longest Bachelor's degree ever, but I did have two kids and homeschool them in the meantime. If she chooses a school with online course offerings, it could be even easier, logistics-wise, while the baby's tiny. I worry that she feels she has only two options: terminate and keep her scholarship, or keep it and not go to college. Adoption is an option, and so is keeping her baby and getting a slower, harder degree, whether or not she marries the father. The people I know who've had terminations without regret are those for whom there was no question as to how they would proceed, and no angst. I also know people who terminated for financial reasons, and that's one heavy burden to carry forever. I wish you both all the wisdom and grace in the world as she makes her decision and you support her.

The most essential problem-solving strategies are ones you probably already model and teach him to employ: draw a picture, find a pattern, solve a simpler (related problem), work backwards, and so on. It's easiest to do this with the types of problems uncommon to most elementary curricula but common to all the usual suspects on this board: Zaccaro, BA, MEP, contest math, etc. The most important thing is the amount of experience he gets with the sort of problem that isn't just immediately solvable by application of an algorithm, but those that really require the use of the strategies. Productive struggle is hard for Hermione-type parents (like me) to watch, but probably the most valuable time they can spend. Contest math is probably best suited to acquiring that experience, because it's designed for that purpose and isn't also trying to teach concepts at the same time.

If you're still looking, I'm interested. I have a B.S. in pure math and am in grad school. I also just took a final on Wednesday for a class designed for future high school geometry teachers (not actually my goal but it fit my schedule), so it's all very fresh in my mind. PM me if you like.

I think it could be good on its own if you're well-equipped to make up your own problems. EU is free and Miquon is so unique and well-designed and cheap enough, though, that even as a supplement I'd say to just use it if you can, instead of having to reinvent their wheel.

I can't speak with any real authority, but keep in mind that Into. to Alg. was the first book published, and Pre-A came last. Intro. to Alg. wasn't written with the intention that only students who'd completed AoPS Pre-A first would be able to use it, and my guess is that having already completed an algebra program--and Jacobs is well-respected around here--should be sufficient preparation for Intro. to Alg. Finishing off Alcumus would be great, both for enrichment purposes and to make her accustomed to the AoPS style of questions before beginning the online class.

They'll need their own accounts if you want them to be able to turn in/post their assignments individually. If you're just following along for fun or they'll be working together, they don't need separate accounts. Often these things have quizzes and discussion assignments. Mine are younger, so I can't speak to the credit questions. However, you could easily beef it up; there's actually a lot written about comics from a historical/sociological perspective. Research project! Or you could go more of a literary criticism route with a graphic novel study, though that would be easier with older teens due to a tendency toward mature content.

My kids wear a shoe size for a good two years, so I only buy Keens because I know they'll last. After those two years we hand them down to a family with five kids, and we're still waiting to see when they'll wear out. My son wears their Oxford/sneaker hybrid and my daughter their Mary Janes for Fall, Winter, and Spring, and then both wear the sandals for summer. The sandals do get stinky, but we just set them in direct sunlight some days and wash them once every week or two. No big deal.

OT totally, but I just showed my ten year-old your post, and when he saw your username, he instantly knew who you must be and said ''OMG it's him! You can talk to him? Can we meet him?''

Of course the answers do matter, but the process is worth more. That's why teachers want students to show their work, even if the answer is correct. Regarding your second paragraph: I've heard about that scenario before, and I agree with you. That's why I'm looking forward to the curriculum Phil Daro's writing, and hoping it'll be popular with the school districts. Knowing the difference between rows and columns will important eventually in matrix multiplication, but not in third grade.

It is. Phil Daro, one of the authors of the Common Core standards, gave a talk on this at our MAA section meeting last year. They absolutely did draw from what's been working so well in Asian schools and Asian-inspired programs like RS and SM, because all of those focus on the concepts rather than procedures. Some of what's had ''Common Core'' slapped on it is garbage, but that's because the publishing companies really don't have much incentive to make good books, since the districts will buy from them regardless. Daro is working on his own--to be published Pearson, I think--and I'm desperately hoping it's widely adopted.

What we've been doing for centuries has resulted in an ever-widening gap between the US and other first-world countries in math education, so there's clearly a need for change. That does mean doing things differently, and that there will be a learning curve. If we allow a desire to make sure things look immediately familiar to parents to be the top priority, nothing can ever change. Having said that, the transition could be made much easier by hosting a workshop for parents, or at least sending home some instructions. I get that that would cost a bit, but not nearly as much as changing everything over to Common Core, and then changing it back because parents are in uproar.

Have you discussed it with her? I find mine are more likely behave in mature way if I treat them as if they're mature. I started grad school in September and we sat down to have a talk about how I needed to be really efficient with my time, and if they wanted to continue homeschooling, I'd need them to be more self-directed. We talked about how to structure our days and made a plan, and it's worked out very well. They helped design the plan, and so they feel a sense of shared ownership over it. We're at the point now that on days that I need to study and can't do anything with them (usually once/week), they have a set of things they can do on their own (some individually, some together), and they do it entirely without me.

You might be conflating (quite reasonably) Joy Hakim's series The Story of Science with SWB's standalone The Story of Science, both of which give a chronological account of the history of science. I really wonder why SWB didn't give hers a different name, since Hakim's books are fairly popular and there's a strong overlap of demographics going on there. ETA: SWB's won't be released until May.

Similarly, when I was little another little girl told me her mother was in ''gel''. I had no idea what she was talking about, and she finally had to go into a bit of detail to make me understand that her mother was in ''jail'', so then I felt terrible. They had just moved to California, but I don't know where they'd come from.

In the US, your best shot for finding a multitude of acceptable options in one place (rather than maybe one acceptable item out of every few websites), might be to search for ''modest'' dresses. Most sites will be marketed to conservative Christians just because that market is bigger here, but the motivation is similar and most dresses don't carry actual symbols, so it seems like it could work. Actually, I just did that and found this site, that allows for impressively diverse searching by faith tradition: http://www.modestclothes.com Can I just say how pleasantly surprised I was to find a site like that? Modesty isn't a concern I share as such, but it's wonderful to see people recognizing and facilitating similarities between groups so often portrayed as being at odds.

When my son was in second grade, he had a test question that said ''Jenny wants to write a report about her favorite singer, Beyoncé. Where should Jenny look for information to write her report?'' Two of the four possible answers were the internet, or a book. My son chose the book, because I'd told him many times that information on the internet isn't necessarily reliable, but that books go through a more thorough vetting. That was wrong; he was supposed to choose the internet. And then I'm wondering who thinks it's a good idea for second-graders to be Googling Beyoncé, so I try it and find a video of a dance team of seven year-olds dancing to a song of hers in the skimpiest costumes ever, with moves that would make strippers blush. Beyoncé's own video for the same song was actually fine. So no, second-graders shouldn't Google Beyoncé because they might find videos of other second-graders that amount to dissemination of child pornography. Sorry, just a bit OT there.

Or if you're in Colorado, Washington, Alaska, Oregon, or DC, you can break out the big guns. You might even be able to get a prescription, if you're in a state that does them.