Thanks, everyone. I've shared your posts with dd - they've been really helpful. She definitely does not want to do anything in the medical field. That much she does know. She likes to be outdoors. She'd rather not teach. She can spend hours working through math problems and not get bored. We're in Canada. I don't have a clue which universities we should start with, but I'll start digging in to the research now. We do live in a city with a fantastic university but I don't know anything about how their math and engineering departments compare to other universities in Canada.

My strengths are reading and writing and yet I somehow ended up with a daughter who loves math, does really well in science and can't stand to write an essay or have a lit discussion. She graduates this year and has been trying to figure out what she wants to get into, but the problem is that neither of us know very much about STEM careers or degrees. Does anyone have a child who has gone into math, physics, engineering or chem? Are there other areas to consider? How did they choose their major? And how do they figure out what kinds of things one does with those degrees? Just the sheer number of engineering options confuse me (electrical engineering, computer engineering, bio-engineering, chemical engineering - yikes!).

I agree and I have to be careful to remember to even take enough pictures. I'm sure that someday I'll really want to sit down and look at the pictures, or scrapbook or something, but I'm really bad at remembering to take pictures.

We're still trying to figure out how to make things work. Math - 1.5 hours three (or four) times per week Violin - 1 hour practice every day Writing - 1 hr per week Science - 1/2 hour four times per week History - 1 hour five days per week Literature - 1 hour per week Piano - 1/2 hour, five days per week Independent work - 1/2 hour per day (typing, math drill, music theory, handwriting, logic) French - 1/2 hour per week (really should be more) Classes French - 2 hours per week Science - 1.5 hours per week Writing - 1 hr per week History - 1.5 hours per week Violin - 7.5 hours per week Piano - 1/2 hr per week Taekwon-do - 3 hours per week Theory - 1 hr per week Spelling tutoring - 3 hours per week

What about the dangers of having only two people in a marriage! I've never heard of a church where there are only two elders - perhaps marriage should include more people so the family can be run as an egalitarian committee.

I'm with you. I've never found anything on FB that takes me longer than a couple of minutes to read, I love staying in touch with family and friends who live across the country (and across the world!), having pictures of my nephews has been really lovely, and I don't have anyone dramatic. I do have one friend who posts icky pro-abortion stuff so I just set it so that her pictures and posts don't show up in my newsfeed anymore - problem solved!

For those who consider it a time suck...what do you *do* on FB? I don't post a status update every time I'm on or even every day. It takes me about 2 minutes (if not less) to check my FB. Unless someone is posting a whole whack of pictures I'm not sure what would take up so much time...

It's kind of like the boards for me - I pop on a few times a day for a couple of minutes and then I carry on with my day. I do enjoy seeing pictures of my nephews, my cousins, and my friends' kids. I also like seeing updates from my mom and other family, but I've rarely found anything on Facebook that keeps me on there for longer than a few minutes. And when there is something like that I have a hard time actually going through with it - a friend of mine took her kids on an amazing road trip through 11 national parks and she posted the pictures a couple of days ago but I haven't had the time to sit down and look at them yet (there are over 100 shots!).

We must have great insurance. We don't pay for any routine dental work - cleanings, scalings, fillings, sealants, etc.

I wouldn't have even thought about attempting the gym with young kids. When they were that little, my attempts at working out included waking up before all of them to get on the elliptical or do a workout video at home. Now they're old enough to leave at home, but I still don't want to go when they're awake. There are two 5:45am classes at the gym that I attend each week and I've also started going to the 6am spin class three other days a week. Dh goes with me when he's in town. I'm home and exercised by 7am - just in time to wake everyone up :)

My Well-C-mug has been a favourite for years - although mine didn't come with a spoon.

My kids have iPads for school. They can do all of their word processing, power points and internet research on them. They also use their iPads for math (Khan academy, Singapore math, math drill apps), language arts (Sequential Spelling, PDF novel study from Progeny Press in the Notability app, books in iBooks or Kindle), music theory, and other subjects. They use apps like Toontastic and now, Explain Everything, to do assignments for me. I've had my co-op class make videos in Toontastic depicting the rise and fall of Constantinople and how Christians were persecuted by the Romans. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. The potential for creativity in using an iPad for school is endless. This was probably the best investment we've made and it certainly won't be something that ends up collecting dust on my shelves.

Most of the Suzuki teachers I have run across highly value note reading - just not right at the beginning for small children. All of my boys have done Suzuki lessons and transitioned easily from learning by ear to learning by reading notes. There is a fantastic Suzuki resource called I Can Read Music that teachers note reading. http://www.amazon.com/Can-Read-Music-Reading-Students/dp/0874874394 One of the advantages to the Suzuki method is that students get a really thorough grounding in learning by ear and are also able to fluently note read. It's a lot more difficult to start learning by notes and try to integrate some ear training.

My 12 year old spends about that long working on AoPS pre-algebra. I set the timer for 45 minutes for my 10 year old. He's doing Singapore and sometimes will get through a number of exercises in that time, but other times he'll only complete a few problems. My littlest guy spends about 20 minutes on math. My eldest, who completed Singapore 6B when she was 9, never spent more than an hour a day on math (and often much less).

Yes - parking in the city would be tricky. The science centre has good parking. Anything else that is central can be walked to or skytrained to. There are cute little ferries that will take you to Granville Island. I strongly dislike driving in Vancouver - I will walk long distances to avoid driving there. It's much easier to take public transit or walk than it is to drive in the downtown core.

I have a major sugar addiction and a tiny bit of alcoholism in my family. I wanted to recommend going to a naturopath. I found out that my adrenal gland was depleted and there were some other deficiencies that were addressed with supplements. I was taking the vitamins and smoothies religiously for a few months and I seriously experienced a miracle - I didn't crave sugar. I didn't try to stop - I just didn't want it anymore. No desire for chocolate or candy or cookies at all. Then we did a couple of trips and I wasn't taking my vitamins (I'm actually horrible at taking things every day) and then it was summer and, well... I'm back to taking my supplements and going to the gym and am hoping that the same miracle repeats itself :) I know it was the supplements because there is no way I could have used willpower to change my mind like that. It was such a weird experience.

Going to Victoria would be a very long day trip. If you do plan to see Victoria, I would recommend getting the earliest ferry you can manage. First one leaves at 7am. It's an hour and a half trip and then about a half hour drive into Victoria. Plus, if you're downtown Vancouver it could take you up to an hour to get to the ferry terminal. There is plenty to do in Vancouver. The Science Centre is really cool and (I think) well worth going to. I could spend a whole day there with my kids. We really enjoyed the police museum. It's small and inexpensive but very cool - especially the morgue. It's right near China town. http://www.vancouverpolicemuseum.ca If you wanted to get out to Burnaby, the museum there is pretty cool. http://www.burnabyvillagemuseum.ca I like just walking around downtown Vancouver. There's the Pacific Centre mall and Robson Street where the shopping is fun :) The Vancouver Art Gallery is down there as well. Oh, and make sure you check out Granville Island http://www.granvilleisland.com Have fun! Vancouver is a great place to visit.

Man, I thought you were talking about the NDP...and that list of symptoms fits, too. (Good thing Canadian politics aren't banned)

Salmon, quinoa, and steamed broccoli. I'm not very popular around here tonight.

Maybe the location in Ontario matters? I'm talking Southern Ontario - KW, Brantford, Toronto, Port Dover, etc. I last visited about six years ago and I just wanted to sit inside by an air conditioner at all times. I don't mind the heat - but I like it to be dry. And you can't even escape the mugginess at night - it's still there coating everything...ew.

I'd call it hot and muggy compared to Western Canada. I don't enjoy being in Ontario in the summer.

I think you win. You're obviously much better at giving birth than those other women are.

My dad *always* puts malt vinegar on his fries :)

Nope. Although we visit there often. We lived in the Lower Mainland for a couple of years when we were first married but I didn't like it - it rains *way* too much and there's no snow. And the summers aren't hot enough. Ick. Plus the housing market stinks. I can't imagine shelling out a million dollars for a 1970's split-level in Burnaby: http://www.realtor.ca/propertyDetails.aspx?propertyId=12414080&PidKey=1768813449

We have walk-in clinics that anyone can go to so no ER visits for simple things. I haven't heard that finding a doctor is hard in our area although my doctor is hard to get into for regular appointments because he only works half the week! I think he's enjoying the Okanagan lifestyle a little too much.