Mine wants to go to grad school in a couple of years. Meanwhile, she wants to work in the area of the masters she is interested in. For my indecisive kid, this is a great accomplishment. She has a clear view of her goal and has researched how to get there!

I am dismayed to hear that so many of you had negative experiences in kindergarten because you or your kids could read! I have not had that experience either as a mom or as a teacher. My older daughter could read fluently since she was three. We never had a problem. She was just given reading material at her level. My younger one started kindergarten just knowing her letter sounds. She took off soon enough and ended up at the highest reading level in the class with kids who could already read at the beginning of the year. Where I teach, kids are evaluated during the first few weeks of the school year and separated into five different groups according to level. We re evaluate periodically and re arrange groups throughout the year. I just don't understand how some teachers and administrators can be so negative about something so positive!

We have a chihuahua mix who also hates the cold. That is why I don’t go lower than 68 when we are not home. She usually finds a sunny spot to curl up and sleep. We have strategically placed cushions for her for this purpose. At night, she has warm blankets so she is comfortable.

I have to say that it is true that sometimes taking a vacation during the school year can set a child back. For example, in my dual language Spanish immersion classroom this year we had two non Spanish speaking kids take vacations and, of course it did set both of them back. They were gone on overseas vacations for two and three weeks each where they were immersed in a different language. When they got back you could notice the difference compared with their other non Spanish speaking classmates who had not missed class. Another case is when a low performing student misses chunks or is consistently absent, especially when there is no home support, even if they are native or heritage Spanish speakers. For a kid like yours? No problem! They pick right up after a vacation!

Also in California, but higher temperatures than you. Winter time thermostat is set for 70 during day time hours when home, 68 when away, and 65 at night.

I sympathize with you. It must be irritating. I would let go though. The situation is already over, no point in reliving it. It's not going to be helpful.

The LilacFire is already 2000 acres and 0 % contained.

Beautiful, cosmopolitan place. Cost of living is high. It is situated in the Basque Country region, so they also have Basque as co-official language.

I think you are presenting a false dichotomy regarding Spanish from Spain and Latin American Spanish. Yes, there are some differences between standard Iberian Spanish and Latin American Spanish. Mainly, the pronunciation of the syllables ce, ci, and the letter z is like the American th sound in think, thanks, etc. Latin Americans (like others in parts of Spain, pronounce these as an s sound). The other difference is the use of the informal plural you, vosotros. In Latin America, this form has been lost and replaced by the formal plural you, ustedes. Again, this also happens in parts of Spain, so it is not strictly an Iberian versus Latin American Spanish issue. The truth is also that there is no single Latin American Spanish either. As you well point out, your daughter found the use of the word goma confusing because it was a text from Mexico. South American Spanish has distinctive features that Central American Spanish, Caribbean Spanish, or Mexican Spanish don't and viceversa. So to think that if you learn Spanish in Puerto Rico or Mexico is going to save you from issues with Spanish from Chile or Argentina is false. There are going to be certain issues no matter what. The same issues a Brit, an American, an Australian or a South African etc. speaking English can have. Regarding parts of Spain being hotter than blazes in the summer, absolutely, some are. Fortunately, there is a wide variety of climates to choose from. I guarantee that places in the northern coast will not be like that.

The Portuguese National Exam. http://www.aatsp.org/page/NPE ETA the teacher needs to be a member in good standing of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP).

She loved Positive and I am Malala. Any recommendations?

Of course, that is why you sometimes get to be the cheerleader and sometimes the rain when they come home from school. At a large public school there are many different sub groups in terms of academics, not just those two, not to mention culture, socioeconomic or interest driven groups. As a parent, you have to be aware of how your child fits in all of that.

Yes, even if you don't homeschool you will still have to rain on your child when it comes to academics and school work. If your kid went to school, he or she would complain about certain things. Sometimes you do get to be the cheerleader, some other time you have to sympathize and love but be the rain that sides with their teacher or school. I understand that with homeschooling it is the degree that is different. That part must be very difficult. Hugs.

My daughter said no to mid west or southern universities. She agreed to south west states. Arizona and New México are good ones to get merit. In the end she wanted to stay in state. She is an hour and a half from home, which was a very good thing indeed when she had an unexpected and serious health crisis last year.

The first week in the US, while still in hotel accommodations, my dh had to travel for a week. The week a hurricane was coming. Then, once already in our new home, he had to travel again. We had a car but I was not covered by our auto insurance without a local driving license. I went down to the DMV to take the test and they would not accept the documentation I brought. I had specifically asked my bank for a bank statement addressed to my name with my new address in it. Instead, they sent one without it. I went back t the bank, they couldn't produce one on the spot! I went back to the DMV, they still wouldn't let me take the test. I was so frustrated that I even cried. Eventually I asked for a supervisor, who after explaining my circumstances, let me through. Of course, I had to have a miscarriage in the middle of the night while my dh was away in Germany. The nurse I was on the phone with had to call the ambulance while I called my friend to come and stay with my older child. Miraculously, my dh was home during the biggest nor'easter we ever lived through. For that I am extremely grateful. It took three days for snow plows to even get to our street. On the plus side, the air miles come in handy to visit family (although it is because of his traveling that we are so far away from them in the first place). The thing I enjoy the most is the hotel points. Every year we manage to get a few nights away courtesy of dh's travels.

Wanting to end crazy international travel is what brought us here from the U.K. Once, when our oldest was around 6 months old, dh had just come back from yet another two back-to-back two-week trips to the Far East and the US (both coasts), and she totally ignored him like "who is even this guy again"? He still travels but much less so internationally, so at least we usually only deal with a three hour difference at the most.

Truthfully, I see a lot of parental pressure among certain social/ethnic groups in my area. The parents are successful professionals and expect their children to follow on their footsteps regardless of the kids' ability or inclination. The pressure reinforces itself when they socialize only or mostly with others like themselves. I can see how some my my younger daughter's friends feel the pressure and they are still in middle school! This is because middle school courses determine high school course placement.

There is a current thread on College Confidential about a Chicago Tribune article regarding stress in high school. https://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/2032323-tribune-article-hs-kids-are-stressed-out-time-for-culture-change-p1.html

You may want to read this article. Not specifically about college, but still. https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/11/26/565744226/saving-lives-via-text-message?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=2054

I lived in the U.K. for over 12 years, still have some assets there. I had to add to that what we have here, plus our US income. The thing is, our US income after taxes is a lot higher than what we'd be earning there, but we have a lot of expenses that we would not have there. I am pretty sure I would not be spending as much in my daughter's college education, our family's medical care, nor would we be having to save so aggressively for retirement. As far as equivalent housing costs, well, if you are looking at square footage, houses there are usually smaller, so if you are looking for the same space you have here, then it will cost you a lot!

This hits close to home. I posted yesterday about a friend of my daughter’s from college. We had just heard that she killed herself a week ago. She was 21. She did 2 years at my daughter’s college, which was around 7-8 hour’s drive from home, then transferred to another college closer to her family. I don’t know the circumstances. Neither my daughter nor her friends were aware of any problems. Her family was, as far as we knew, loving and supportive. I can only speculate, it just breaks my heart.

When we were chasing merit scholarships for our daughter, we looked at the requirements to keep them. She ended up going to a college where she needs a 3.0 gpa but that we could still afford without the merit. For her, this has been a plus because she needs external accountability to do her best. She went in undeclared and needed time to explore several possible majors. Her scholarship came with priority registration, which combined with multiple AP credits, made it possible for her to change her mind several times, due to unexpected health issues take the minimum number of credits for full time qualification, and still graduate on time. One other thing to check is how things are handled if the gpa requirement is not met. Do they lose the scholarship straight away or do they go on probation first etc? My daughter’s first quarter was full of fun and socializing and her gpa was dreadful. She went on probation and pulled through with flying colors the following quarter and never lost her scholarship.

Yes, very shocking. So unexpected!

This is what I am struggling with the most.

My daughter just heard today that a friend of hers from college killed herself a week ago. They had been friends since freshman year when they lived in the same suite. She had transferred to a different college at the end of sophomore year to be closer to her family. My daughter said she nor her other close friends had any idea that she was having any issues of any kind. I am still in shock. 21 years old, smart, beautiful, funny, a lovely girl, with a family that loved her. It just hurts to think.