Jump to content

Menu

Sk8ermaiden

Members
  • Posts

    1,001
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Reputation

2,278 Excellent

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

  1. I agree. The HIG is extremely useful for learning to teach it "the Singapore way." I did find I didn't need the textbook until 4th or 5th grade though.
  2. I really didn't understand people saying it got harder. It was exactly the same in my book. Until yesterday, geesh! I though I wasn't going to get it. Today's was back to very easy again though.
  3. Saying food is disgusting when other people eat/like that food is rude. Just like saying, say, animal prints are hideous when you know full well there are people in the world who like and wear them. All you need to say is that YOU don't like them. That said, I am very hard to offend, myself. But I still teach my children how to be polite.
  4. Dordle 3&5/7 QUARK&DELVE ⬜🟨🟩🟨⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩 ⬜⬜🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜🟨⬜🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 zaratustra.itch.io/dordle
  5. Wordle 234 3/6 ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜🟨🟩🟨⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
  6. Yes. It's not as cut and dry as what you buy your home vs. what you sell it for and that's the gain in your family value. That was really the very smallest peice of the puzzle. It wasn't "I bought a house and now we have a higher net worth." It was "I bought a house and now my family has stability and a safe place to land, and eventually I won't have a large monthly payment which will help me when I'm old on a fixed income. And when I die and my kids sell it, they will inherit mine and have no mortgage, or have the money to help THEM buy a house and provide stability for their kids, and maybe be done paying for it even sooner which will help THEM help their kids...." Because landlords sell from under you, because rent is constatly increasing, the families I am friends with who rent move CONSTANTLY. That has effects on everything from community involvement to education... And they are always moving into less and less desireable accomodations, because their wages are not increasing at the same rate as housing is. My very first thought was as Carrie says - what person who can not afford to buy can afford to invest???? The money not spent on a mortgage goes to their rent. Also, I bought in 2007. My monthly payment has been locked in. Even with tax and insurance increases, I now pay *HALF* of what the current rent on similar houses is in our area. Rent keeps going up forever. By the time my daughter goes to college, I will own my home and what was my mortgage payment can go to college expenses. I can help her if she falls on a hard time. My money in retirement will go farther so my children will not bear the financial burden of feeding/housing/caring for me. Those are just a few of the ways owning a home can help pull families out of generational poverty.
  7. I can't pull stats or references out of my hat - my memory for specifics is generally very poor. But every book and article I have read on generational poverty and systemic racism has pointed out that the inability of families to own a home is a major contributing factor to generational poverty (in the US) - dating back to the days when banks wouldn't give loans and people wouldn't sell to those they deemed "undesireable" and still having a large effect today. But I don't think everyone needs to own a home. I do think that the average wage and the average expenses should leave enough room that home ownership could be within reach of most families - should they desire it. Someone upthread pointed out that someone's home had appreciated 3.6% a year and that wasn't a great investment. My question would be - have wages in the area increased 3.6% a year? Have prices for utilities only increased by 3.6% a year? It's not so much about whether that home was a good investment - it's whether housing prices have gone so insane that normal people with decent jobs can no longer afford one. When corporations or foreign investors are snapping up all the real estate, so they can rent it back to people at high prices - thus guaranteeing they can never build equity or family wealth - I think it's a big problem. I 100% agree with taxing the heck out of corporate and foreign homeowners (if they are renting out the owned property).
  8. Living in Houston, I worry constantly about the fact that "100-year floods" are coming at an exponentially increasing rate. We are also very close to sea level and I wonder at what poing you sell and move before it's too late to find a buyer. With aging parents and our entire support system here, that's an impossible decision for me to make at this time, but I keep hoping it'll be OK for a while. If my kids move away after college, I will probably follow suit.
  9. I agree with people who say that just because your kid hasn't been affected doesn't mean it's not a big deal. My DD is 12 and I try to keep a pretty tight reign on the SM she consumes, but her friends' parents don't. 😑 So she is exposed both through what she sees and what she sees when with friends. What I have seen among this group is a huge emphasis on mental illness and sexual labeling. HUGE. 2/3 of these kids are homeschoolers and 1/3 are public schoolers. ALL her homeschool girl scout troup minus one belive they are some form of LGBTQ. As well as half the homeschool gymnastics team, and half the neighborhood swim team in her age group, and all the girls in her grade at her tiny homeschool hybrid school. They're trying to figure out if they're pansexual and all insisting their pronouns are they/them, and I really, really believe that for 90% of them it's just that they've barely even started puberty and haven't even experienced love or desire yet. This is the age when girls of my generation said, "Boys are gross and stupid and I'm never getting married." But girls today are assuming that those feelings mean, "Oop, I must be a lesbian." When my kid told me she thought she might be bi (at *ELEVEN*) I just said, "That is totally fine. But lets not worry about it until you've gone through puberty and dated a few people." I am also seeing a lot of girls who assume if they're not a stereotype of a feminine girl, they must be non-binary or trans. My own daughter claimed she might be trans or non-binary, and when I dug into her reasoning it was really because she doesn't like how women are treated by society, as well as not being super "girly." I thought I'd been hammering it home since babyhood, but we had to have another overt chorus of "there's no wrong way to be a girl." My only real issue with this is 1) I don't really think it's healthy for children this young to be so obsessed with these topics, and 2) I am afraid that some will become so entrenched in an identity that eventually turns out to not fit that they have trouble backing out later. I've told my daughter to give herself time and space to figure out life and not label herself too rigidly with any particular label until she's figured out a bit more. And that some things will become a LOT more clear once she's out the other side of puberty. The other issue is mental illness. I don't think this is something that would affect neurotypical kids on social media, but if a kid has anxiety or depression or the like, they almost automatically get sucked into mental illness social media and it is a long, dark echo chamber. I do believe it greatly amplified the struggles my daughter was having at the time, and when I pulled back her social media even more, it did help her.
  10. At gas stations I am able to find a lot of things that are in short supply at grocery stores, oddly enough. Also, the variety pack of chips we get comes with a few bags of fritos and I have been able to consistantly get those varitety packs.
  11. I use the Clairol Natural Instincts hair dye. It's only a semipermanent dye, so instead of roots that require upkeep, it just slowly fades out. I redo it whenever I notice, or if I have an occasion I don't want to look so old for. I do usually use it a bit lighter than my hair so it only covers the grey. I am also not a high maintenance person, and definitely do not have the time or money to be at the salon all the time, so this works great for me. I do find my greys are color resistant, so I really focus on applying it directly to the grey areas the most, and then leave it in a bit longer than the time in the instructions.
  12. I got the J&J in March, because it was before the vax was available to the general public and I felt lucky to be able to get it. We didn't even know what we were walking in to get that day. I would normally wait until they approve Moderna for a booster, as we mask and maintain pretty low risk activities. HOWEVER, I am heading on a cross country trip with a friend in mid-November. There will be a lot more mixing with people and eating in restaurants (and airports) than in my regular life. My instinct is to get my J&J booster as soon as it becomes available, so that I'll be back up to better protected status by the trip. That makes sense, yes? Vaccine mixing will likely not be approved in time.
  13. We only used the teacher's guide and workbook through 4th grade. We usually used the Extra Practice workbooks to prevent summer slide. Fifth grade I believe we might have added the textbook. I used primary math for K-6, and then did Dimensions 6 after that. Then my kid went into Saxon Algebra I (but if I were still doing her math education we would have continued Dimensions through 8.) I plan to do the same with my second grader. The key with Saxo is to us it how you need it. Kids who need less practice only need the textbook, needs more practice, get the EP workbooks, etc. There's no wrong way as long as your kid is understanding and retaining it.
  14. Just thought I'd give a final update. We completed Math Mammoth 3B and then 4A&B. He took the Saxon placement test and easily tested into 6th grade math. 🥰 So he's doing Saxon 7/6 at the school and finding it very manageable. He was telling his mom the other day that he got all the problems in class right, and then the teacher put two "challenge" problems on the board and he got them both right too. He said, "Maybe I am not actually bad at math." Which of course WE knew and I had told him many times, but it's different seeing for yourself in a classroom setting, I guess. My daughter ended up in Saxon Algebra I, which scared me a bit, but she is also finding it pretty easy. Next week I take over my friend's 3rd grader's math education, and I think I will stick with MM for him, though it is tempting to switch him to Primary Mathematics so I could do lessons for him together with my son. And just because I like it better. Hmm. I'll have to think. 😀
×
×
  • Create New...