Definitely agree with this. British class systems have gotten more fluid and American more rigid. I'm currently reading a book about the UK servant class. The old UK Middle Class is probably more akin to the "Established Middle Class" of the quiz.

The wealthiest individuals have been paying an increasingly less and less in taxes. That tax burden then gets shifted to everyone below through cigarette taxes and gasoline taxes and property taxes and sales taxes and a myriad of other taxes that did not even exist when the equivalent of today's billionaires were paying a much larger percentage of income tax. I have a multimillionaire friend. He employs no one. He's a rich guy making other rich folks even richer. He's not smarter or harder working or more gifted than most college professors. If he were paying a higher percentage of his wealth in income tax (instead of the 15% he pays in investment income), if he didn't have five homes and even more cars, I would begrudge him much less. If we didn't have "working poor" or "wage slaves" or people who didn't have basic health care or who could buy fresh produce instead of junk food because they could afford to, I'd shut up. But we have the greatest wealth disparity in America since the 1920s. We all know how well that turned out. Believe me, it won't hurt the uber-rich to be taxed more. Maybe they won't buy that sixth home or get their sons Rolexes and their daughters Chanel jackets, but they won't be hurting. I think if they say it will mean less jobs (for those uber-rich who actually employ more than personal servant types), I call BS.

1- her family's income 2- her family's $2 million home 3- her own admission, "how else could we afford the $50,000 tuition costs?" I know of no Middle Middle class family who could possibly afford $50,000 a year in tuition. Most probably couldn't outright pay even a tenth of that. So while her family might not appear wealthy because of the HCOL, she's still Upper Middle Class because of what her family can pay toward her college education.

I've studied American social class and even done a panel on it and I'm always baffled that Americans don't make the distinction between the two very different, distinct middle classes. If you're a Downton Abbey fan or anglophile in general, they have three classes depicted on the show that are representative of their three socio-economic classes- the aristocracy and super rich (think the Granthams), the middle class (think Matthew Crawley and his mother before Matthew was heir) and the lower/working class (everyone downstairs). We are much different. The UK middle class most likely had servants (think the Schlegel sisters of Howard's End) and either had enough money from inheritance or work not to have to do domestic duties. And their servants were most likely live-in. Our middle class wouldn't have servants at all and most likely wouldn't even have help occasionally. Dh and I are in the 4th quintile and we can't afford someone to clean our house even twice a month. America is a bit more stratified. Upper class, Upper Middle Class (where the OP probably belongs), Middle Class, Working Class, Lower Class. I think that if you can outright pay for your child to attend a public state university, you're probably Upper Middle Class. If you can afford to take a yearly vacation in which you pay for all meals and lodging on your own (rather than staying with family and friends), you might be Upper Middle Class. Alright, I'll stop teaching. I just really wish we wouldn't include the $2million home sort in the "middle class." I firmly hold they are Upper Middle Class.

I'm disgusted.

Didn't get around to working out yesterday as I was working on a giveaway for my blog and then it was also my birthday. Today I need to work off the duck dinner and tiramisu. ;-) Headed to the gym in a bit.

Thanks once again, everyone! It might be they are a bit out of practice as lately they were using calculators because they were doing exponential notation. I'll get to drilling them for a bit in preparation for the eventual PSATs/SATs/ACTs. It's just so weird to have that marked disparity between the math fluency and everything else. BTW, this is their last year for WJ as my state requires such testing only in 3rd, 5th, and 8th. Happy, happy, joy, joy!

I've seen it said here that SM's 7th grade year is a slog. It's been. They are finishing it up, but are on set notation. Set notation in 7th grade! My dh who nearly got a minor in math in college never did set notation. So I'm not concerned that they seem "behind" in actual grade between what SM says in 7th grade and their grade in school. I am still confused about how this is shaking down on their scores. I'll just lay out one of them to show y'all exactly what I'm talking about: BROAD MATH is a broad measure of math achievement, including math calculation skills, problem solving, and the ability to solve simple addition, subtraction, and multiplication facts quickly. Grade Equivalent 10.6 and Instructional Range 7.3 to 13.0; Her performance in each area is shown below. Based on a comparison to others in her grade, ____'s Broad Math national percentile rank of 66 means that she scored higher than about 66 percent of eighth-grade students nationally on that measure. AVERAGE MATH CALCULATION SKILLS is a combined measure of math computational skills and the ability to do simple math calculations quickly. Grade Equivalent 10.0 and Instructional Range 6.7 to 13.0; Her performance in each area is shown below. Based on a comparison to others in her grade, ____'s Math Calculation Skills national percentile rank of 62 means that she scored higher than about 66 percent of eighth-grade students nationally on that measure. AVERAGE Math Fluency measured _____'s ability to solve simple addition, subtraction, and multiplication problems quickly. Grade Equivalent 8.9 and Instructional Range 5.5 to 13.9; Her performance in each area is shown below. Based on a comparison to others in her grade, ____'s Math Fluency national percentile rank of 53 means that she scored higher than about 66 percent of eighth-grade students nationally on that measure. AVERAGE There's always been a disconnect between the listed grade equivalent and then the nationalized scores and percentile rank. I mean, how can one be at or significantly above grade level (the 10.0 and 10.6 GE) and still be average and in the 60s percentile rank? Anyway, thanks for commiserating. I'm glad to hear other SM families have the same issues.

Thanks, y'all! Any suggestions for how to drill. I have Math Busters, but that seems a little too easy.

Sunday- 1 hour recumbent bike while lifting arm weights Monday- Same as above Today- probably abs and arm workouts

Make up a list of daily goals for each kid and then say they have to complete a certain number before they get an hour break to play, do this a couple of times a day. As they get older, that play time will need to shrink down to maybe half an hour, but my teenagers still break to play. It's one of the joys of homeschooling.

Well, turns out that it's unlikely they'll be able to take Biology at college next year. They'll be the LAST to register and looking up registration from last fall and this spring, I doubt they'll get into a class. So, it's probably Great Courses or Thinkwell. Thanks for y'all's help, though!

They consistently test above Singapore Math's A mark of 75%. Their problem solving skills on the W-J were extremely high. It's the calculation and fluency that were "behind" so I don't know if it's just a matter of a more problem solving-based curriculum versus a number-plugging one.

My kids just took the Woodcock-Johnson test. They scored extremely high on most of the categories (consistently 5 or more grade levels above where they actually are), but for math that are either at or only slightly above grade level. This is especially true for "Math Fluency." TBT, they are still a year behind in Singapore Math, on the last section of 7B and are 8th graders who are nearly done for the homeschool year, but they have consistently tested "low" in math every time they've taken the Woodcock-Johnson (in 3rd, 5th, and now 8th grade). Anyone have any insight or should I just chill?

He wants to go to a military academy or corps of cadets and also do anti-hacking work. Would this change anything? I'm also asking because I just don't see much in the way of Army-based computer careers.

My son is interested in going into the military, but only after completing a computer science degree and becoming a commissioned officer upon graduation. The military career paths are dizzying for me and I was wondering if anyone had experience/knowledge to help me out. He's interesting in computers, mainly coding and has been teaching himself for a number of years (he's only in 8th grade right now.) From what I can tell, the Navy and Air Force seem to offer much more opportunities than the Army. Help!

We love Singapore Math! Problem is that the way it's set up prevents nice neat Math categories that colleges like to see, e.g. Algebra I, Geometry I, Algebra II, etc. Has anyone had experience using this curriculum through the HS years and how you "label" it for HS transcripts. Thanks!

Any novels by Margaret Atwood The whole Anne of Green Gables series and its spin offs. May read young for her, but having a feisty fictional female role model was powerful for me. The Color Purple by Alice Walker For more recent stuff- The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis The Weight of Blood by Laura McHugh The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Y'all are going to hate me... I just found out that my kids can take colleges classes for less than $20 pch. So I guess my science problem is solved and I'll get them to take Bio at university. Thanks for your help!

Looking ahead for my soon-to-be high schoolers, I dread, dread, dread the idea of doing Biology. We bought a HS Biology text and began working through it last year (when they were in 7th grade) and they were able to do the work and experiments with no difficulty. But we were all bored to death by it. If I had my druthers, they'd do HS Chemistry in 9th, Physics in 10th, and then go to college for their remaining sciences. But I'm stopped by colleges' recommendations that students take at least three lab-based science courses (which ALWAYS seem to be Biology, Chemistry, Physics.) Anyone else in a similar boat and can offer advice and/or commiseration. Also, if we have to do Biology, is there a curriculum in which they can watch videos of lectures and then dh or I do the experiments with them. Neither of us wants to do Biology lectures.

That sounds like my alma mater. You technically couldn't major in education. You got your education classes and credential by going to their Master's program. It was rumored that it was harder to get into that any other Master's program and that was 20 years ago so it's probably even better. FWIW, the education graduates here have a hard time finding jobs.

In Utah, they are giving housing away to the homeless. They did a cost benefit analysis and realized it was cheaper to build housing for them and house them than it was for all the other types of services they receive as the result of being homeless (emergency medical care, for instance). The long term benefit is that these former homeless have a basic need met and so they are able to get out and get jobs. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/09/22/home-free

Double teachers' salaries, but only if they are as qualified as I outlined above.

Taking bets on how many OK legislators have or will have investments/contributions from companies who will make this curriculum and its test.

The university near me doesn't require a single class in child psychology or child development. They have a very bad reputation for having classes that deal with making bulletin board displays and foldables and also having unlimited do-overs for their grades. So many students with education degrees end up with 4.0s in their education classes the entire college of education is the laughing stock of the university.