We’re dropping her at college today! She already knew one student in campus, found a long time exchange student who works in career services, and- thanks to a boardie- a native Russian professor. Seems like a good start.

Can he double major? My dd28 did a pre-pt (science-heavy) program, worked as a pt assistant for 3 years. She didn't like working with people who didn't take care of themselves, and went back and got her MBA instead of doing PT school.

lol. No doubt. Maybe it’s a boy thing. We help both our DS pack to, um, move them along. Hubby was so mad at ds2’s messy lack-of-packing that he dropped his belongings on the curb and left him. Twice. Now that he’s 30 we can laugh about it, but we were definitely not sentimental at the time.

This part made me laugh.

Dd is home for three weeks between NSLI-Y and starting college. So we went on vacation. My IRL friends are questioning making her travel more, but we have a huge, messy moving project for an aging parent and we just wouldn't have stopped to hang out otherwise. She leaves in 2 weeks. I feel good about her year.

My dad worked until well after 70 and he had a degree and worked in banking for years. Not great stock market, poor choices in money matters. I'm not saying it's the right choice for these students not to go to college, just offering an explanation as to why Indiana is one of the ones who has a lower straight to college statistic.

In Indiana's case, you still can make a decent living here without a four year degree. Cost of living is low in most areas, there is something of a skilled labor shortage making wages competitive, and the steel, auto, and biomedical industries are doing fine. There's a good CC system. I know a few brother - sister situations where sister got a degree and brother works a skilled job in manufacturing. Brother makes more. It is hard to justify debt if you know very many of those situations. That said, my old dc had a horrible guidance counselor in high school. We basically did it ourselves.

We did IKEA/ Target yesterday. When we got home DH said, “Where is everything?” We didn’t end up getting a lot. We had the good luck to have Dd’s room posted on Facebook as an example of what her dorm looks like, so we could be pretty precise in what we bought. That, and after living out of a suitcase in an old Soviet apartment for the last 2 months helped her evaluate what she really needs to survive, lol. Her “big” item is a dorm sized freezer. I did just order a hot pot for her. (Celiac-athlete). DH can’t wait to take the freezer up 4 flights of stairs, lol. Her bed is lofted and she’ll need a lamp to put up on her wardrobe for up high task lighting. Target had ones with a USB/ outlet/ phone holder for $14. IKEA had canvas pockets for the bed rail that look pretty handy.

Yes, a surveying class, and she’s bringing in most of the freshman math and science. She’ll be behind after the second quarter if she switches then. Her schedule will be tight b/c of the double major.

Don't quote me, please. Dd hasn't even started the semester yet and is considering a change in major. I think it makes sense for her goals. I know she plans to talk to her guidance counselor, but she's gotten a little push back from some engineering family members, so thus a crazy check. She wants to go from Mechanical Engineering to Civil. She has said she wanted to Mechanical Engineering since she was 12- driven by a love of Aerospace. At her college Civils get teased for being in the "easy major". Given that they take Organic Chemistry just for the Civil minor, I think that's a relative term. She's always known she would probably do grad school outside of engineering and she is interested in urban planning, food production, conservation, and political science. Even more so now that she went to Europe. She wants to travel abroad a lot more and her language skills plus a knowledge of drainage lets her have lots of opportunities for that. Sound logic? What would she do for grad school? Law school? Economics? Urban Planning? PoliSci? Are these things that she can make a living at?

I would guess the CS major wants to attend Dd's school. That is definitely a challenging program- actually all the programs there are, lol. Love the campus culture. ETA- Russian was on her college "wish list", but it's rarely at schools that have engineering or is too much to combine them if it is. Her school is working with her to apply her outside Russian towards an International Studies double major. I think she's going to try to go abroad next summer again or do the Indiana University Russian Flagship program.

Sure. Terre Haute Indiana. There's a Greek Orthodox church, but there doesn't seem to be anything Russian, even at the other colleges in the area.

There doesn’t seem to be one in the town where she will be in school.

Does anyone know of a not-sketchy place online where my dd can speak Russian with others? She just returned from a NSLI-Y intensive and conversation is an area where she's made a lot of gains and wants to continue to improve. We have a local friend, but she's looking for something that she can maintain in college (no Russian at her school). Cпасибо!

This looks like a really useful add on for "classical" writing light or review. I can see this used along side a lit course: https://styleacademy.byu.edu/instructors/

She's an outdoor kid, so possible.

I thought of long Covid, but it doesn't quite fit. Good thought on the B12. That's one that can be a problem for Celiacs.

Dd 17 has one dx autoimmune disease that is well managed (celiac). She has new symptoms that look a lot like thyroid problems: fatigue, brain fog, focus issues, weight loss and clumsiness. Her thyroid numbers are perfect. Her vitamin / iron levels are normal. I'm not sure what else to explore. The NP is pretty good about checking whatever we ask, but I'm just not sure what it could be. She has an appointment early next week. My mom is the ADHD poster child. Could it be something like that? She starts are really rigorous academic program in 3 weeks. I don't want her to go in with health issues. I have multiple autoimmune disorders, but nothing stands out to have checked. Thoughts?

Any suggestions for cookware? Dd asked for a nesting set for graduation, but what she got is suitable for dolls. She has food allergies. She’ll be on the third floor with a shared kitchen on the first so she’ll be toting back and forth. No elevator.

My fall teaching schedule just got really complex. I'm juggling three different courses (one is a last minute add-on that I haven't taught before, two are face-to-face and one is online), creating video content for another course I don't teach, and doing multiple versions of information literacy sessions (one for engineering, one for humanities, etc). Plus my regular duties as library director. How do you all keep your lesson plans? My regular face-to-face classes are all on Tuesday/ Thursday, so just writing them in my planner isn't ideal. I usually use Excel, but I don't have a plug-and-go setup for my laptop in one of my classrooms so I need to "sign in" to access everything from a shared folder. I dislike our uni's Office 365/ Moodle set up. I have to Duo every time I open up any software when I'm away from my desk. I do have an iPad. Thoughts? Give me your best practices, please! ETA- I use both Google and Office. My To-Do list hovers around 50 items most days.

There are actually 6-8 courses there. I think the original was Big History Project, which we used in a "do the next thing" kind of fashion around 7th grade or so. We liked it.

OER Project? https://www.oerproject.com/world-history

Does the ballet program have an attached high school program? I know sometimes they do (our localish one does, anyway.) I think Blue Tent has some flexibility with their live classes in that a video can be viewed later. They are very rigorous. CLRC is on Pacific time, so some of the live classes might actually work for her, depending on her afternoon/ evening schedule. Silicon Valley Online High School might be fine to fill in around the edges. More of a "get it done" kind of credit, though.

Well, I'm not sure Terre Haute is "great" little town either. It's a small college city with at least two other colleges and community is supportive of the schools, but it does have some rust belt vibes. The Rose campus if fairly self-contained and has easy access locally to green space, parks with good hiking, and Indy less than an hour away.

I liked the French version of these as a supplement... the Russian not really at all.