We had the spring break week to visit houses. We had already sold our house on the East Coast but the girls and I were staying in it renting until the end of the school year. My husband had already started his new job in California at the beginning of the year and was commuting from her brother's 80 miles away. We did a lot of research online prior to spring break, but we basically visited the house and the neighborhood twice before putting an offer. I flew back to Maryland with the girls and my husband took it from there. I didn't see the house again until move in time in July. I still am happy with the house and the neighborhood, 9 years in. Yes, there were many things you could only find out after living in the area for a while, but nothing turned out to be a deal breaker.

Do your either of your daughters have a preference? Would they be bored if the school math was too easy? Would they prefer it because it would lessen their anxiety? Option 3 would probably be a good compromise if the girls have no clear direction right now.

Our public middle school has a 6 day Washington D.C./Philadelphia/New York trip. They fly out of San Diego and return to LAX then motor coach to the school. Cost is $2,500. They sleep at well known hotels like the Marriott Marquis in New York. ETA It is optional. It is a very popular trip, but many families opt out. It is fine either way. The best thing you can do is to let your kids in advance of 8th grade what your plans are. At my kids' old Pre-K to 8th independent school in Maryland, they had an 8th grade New York trip. We had just moved from the East Coast when my then 8th grader joined the public middle school. We let her go because we had planned all along to allow her go to her old school's New York trip anyway, even though the cost was significantly higher. Our younger daughter is also going because we let her older sister go.

My daughter did rhythmic gymnastics up to level 4. She had the splits down and worked regularly on her oversplits, as all the other gymnasts, but the coaches never pushed anyone like that. They might push someone's leg down a little bit for a few seconds to help but that was it! This is ridiculous!

With your additional information, I personally would concentrate on doing Urdu and Arabic thoroughly. Languages are time intensive to attain and maintain. You need strong motivation. This could be extrinsic by needing a language to communicate, or intrinsic by a personal desire to learn the language. For example, my husband is not a language guy, and yet, he speaks 3 languages. His motivation was extrinsic. He was a linguistic minority in a country with 3 official languages. He had the need to use all 3 pretty much on a daily basis, including at school. I grew up monolingual. My mother tongue was the majority language, and I lived in a monolingual area. I had no need to speak anything other than Spanish. However, I started studying English at school. I realized that I was good at it, and started to become interested in the language and the people who speak it and their cultures. My motivation was intrinsic. I had no real need to put in the time and effort, but I was fascinated, so I learned. The same happened with Italian when I took a class in college. ETA You can always add Spanish later, when you can commit to doing Spanish consistently.

Does Urdu really have so much in common with Arabic other than the script? I thought Urdu was basically the same as Hindi with the exception of the script system. Is your son learning Arabic as a spoken language or only in order to study the Quran? Adding Spanish might depend on what your son thinks. How does he feel about it?

What a neat idea! You basically have all of the old British empire at your disposal! It was vast! You can choose among several continents. You can also pick a big, better known country like India, or one of the smaller, lesser well known, like Sri Lanka, for example.

I will be at school with a classroom full of kindergarten age kids in an immersion language program. That means right now we have about half who still don't understand the language of instruction. Plus a couple of kids who, regardless of language issues, will do exactly the opposite of what is asked of them. We are in the 50% area. I hope we adjust recess times so we are not outside during the actual eclipse. We will have some eclipse related activities. It's up to the individual teachers how to handle it. Some teachers have bought glasses for their students and plan to be outside, others haven't. We are the only school in the district already in session. My 13 year old will either be home or with a friend but will want to watch. My oldest is at her college town. She has a job interview later. I don't know what her plans are for the eclipse. There hasn't been a lot of hoopla in our area, we are too far from totality.

I have specific items I always buy there. Some are ethnic foods at excellent prices. It's the only place where I can find extra aged Manchego cheese, yum! I also buy their Spanish chorizo and ham deli packs. Some flavored nuts, Indian samosas, Spanish style gherkins, British crumpets. There are items I sometimes buy there, like yoghurt, butter, cream, and very reasonably priced cookies and desserts. If I didn't have a Costco membership I would also buy plain nuts, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I usually get my produce at Sprouts or other supermarkets, but I will buy there occasionally and their quality is good. ETA I also buy from their frozen section. They have a good selection and good quality.

The second incident actually happened yesterday, after midnight local time. It's summer time and night life is alive and well all throughout Spain.

Terrorism is not new, unfortunately. It is also, very easy to do harm if you have the intent. All you need is fanatism and intolerance of any kind to drive people to do horrible things. In their minds, they are righteous and are willing to go to any lengths to support their cause. It can happen anywhere, anytime. It is scary, true, but we must never bow down, we must keep on living our lives or else terrorism wins!

Prayers. A way to help families in these circumstances with air travel is by donating air miles. I recently donated to two different organizations that help with patients and their families travel needs. Something to look into, although the miles don't go to specific people but to the organizations themselves who then select candidates in need.

I do live actually about 30-45 minutes from the southern border. I didn't pick that answer because the only time I went through that border was when I lived in Europe and came to the U.S. for a vacation. We included a 3 day stay Mexico, but that was well before the drug cartels got cozy there. I do vacation sometimes abroad, but the vacation part is always a small part of family visits. My family is in Spain, my husband's close family is in two different continents. If we had more disposable income, or if my family had more disposable income and visited us sometimes, we would schedule more vacations overseas unrelated to family visits.

The Chancellor's statement is just as I expected, and consistent with past practices. Students with academic deficiencies are rescinded, while those with missing scripts are admitted once the bureaucratic issues are resolved.

I grew up in Spain, our washing machine was initially in the bathroom. It was basically a top loader and you connected the rubber pipes to the sink I think, trying to remember because I was very young then. We had the bathroom renovated shortly after and the washing machine went into the kitchen. I don't think it was inconvenient, we lived in a small apartment, so a few feet here or there wouldn't have made much difference. Also, we didn't have an open kitchen so the noise could be contained. It's also true that the overwhelming majority of washing machines are front loading so they don't take kitchen top space. ETA Our house in the U.K. was a small Victorian town (terraced) house - think long and narrow. The one bathroom was an addition placed all the way at the back on the ground floor. The washing machine was in a small room between the kitchen and the bathroom. We had no dryer at either place. The worst place ever was in our town house in the Mid Atlantic region. Bedrooms were on the second floor and the washer and dryer were in the basement! Here in Southern California, our washer and dryier are on the first floor right next to the door to the garage. That works well.

The UCs are known for rescinding this late in the game, it's just that it has never happened at this scale before. When students send their applications, they self report grades and classes. When applicants receive their admission, this is still subject to conditions such a as keeping a minimum 3.0 GPA, no Ds or Fs senior year, no dropping academic rigor, etc. The university then does a review of the official transcript sometime in July. This is when the rescission can and does happen. What is unusual this year with UCI is the sheer number and reasons. I expect the kids with transcripts not received will probably still end up at UCI, but those with academic deficiencies will have to go to community college this year.

Prayers for you. Hoping for clear answers and a good prognosis.

Girl Scouts here have a three tier price for camp. I have never sent my kids there although there were some really good ones that my kids would have loved. I have a budget for camp. Camp is not a need for us because I am home, so anything above my low cost limit is out. I would feel bad paying the lowest tier because we are not low income so it feels like I am abusing the system. I think I would be able to be swayed to enroll and pay the lowest tier only if the fact that you need bodies to fill seats was emphasized.

I am just quickly posting to say thank you. I will look at all the suggestions. We don't have 4 wheel drive, so I guess the only options to see the Sedona landmarks are to park and hike or get a jeep, right? We will be in Sedona mid week. The forecast is dry and hot. Please keep the ideas coming!

We are spending 2 nights at each place. We have some plans but we still need advice for the remaining time. Day 1 we will arrive to Flagstaff mid to late afternoon. Day 2 we are doing a day trip to Grand Canyon. Day 3 at some point we will drive the scenic route down to Sedona. Day 4 we would like to spend time at one of the natural water slides and celebrate my husband's birthday at a nice restaurant. Day 5 we will have some time in the morning before heading back home. Please help me fill the gaps. There are 4 of us, 3 adults and 1 young teen. We are relatively in good shape and enjoy moderate hikes but not in the sweltering heat. We know it's going to be very hot in Sedona. I know about the beautiful scenery. I checked out the jeep tours, but I would rather not spend over $400.00. What do you guys recommend?

In the Washington D.C. metro area, all the schools I was familiar with had a drop off and pick up system, which made the process bearable. When we relocated to Southern California, I was in for a surprise. Not only was there no free school bus, there was no drop off or pick up system in place either. Fun! We live within walking distance to our elementary school and we did that for the most part except on drop off days when I had to go straight to work. Our elementary school does auction a few reserved parking spots to the tune of thousands of dollars each, so a great fundraiser for sure. Middle and high schools are not walking distance so we find families to carpool with.

How about public policy? Apparently, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, USC, Brown, and UC Riverside all offer a major. UCLA offers a minor.

Not only the kids who are in the top X% of their class (Eligible in the Local Context), but also the kids who may not be ELC but who still are in the top 9% in the state (Statewide Path).http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/freshman/california-residents/admissions-index/index.html "If you're in the top 9 percent of California high school graduates and aren't admitted to any of the UC campuses you apply to, you'll be offered a spot at another campus if space is available. We use a formula — called an admissions index —to determine if you fall in that group."

Many prayers for you all.

Wow! Your school gives credit for 3 hours of dance a week? In our district, at the high school level, you must do 15 hours/week minimum, plus provide proof of being a serious performing or competitive dancer. Even in middle school, the minimum number of weekly hours is 10. They do not award any credit for recreational level activity. Otherwise, you have to do the 5 hours a week of school P.E.