My dd used her university’s matching system and reached out to two girls that were a high match after looking them up on Instagram. One already had a roommate but they ended up working together and became friends anyway. She roomed with the other girl and they had a great year and are planning to live together next year too.

Ooops, I should have kept reading! You’ve read more Dickens than I have. What about A Tale of Two Cities?

I recently read Oliver Twist and David Copperfield. I liked Copperfield more, but it’s quite long. The other one I’ve been wanting to read is Hard Times.

End(ish) of February update: Finished: -Plato’s Republic - wish I had read this earlier! I think his Theory of Forms is beautiful even with its flaws. I like his idea of the tripartite soul governed by reason. The idea that education is meant to transform the mind so that it is able to understand the beautiful and so the soul is oriented toward the good... well, it doesn’t get much more classical than that! I certainly take issue with some elements of his “utopian” Just City, but overall I really enjoyed reading this. Jane Eyre. Love, Love, Love this novel and have read it several times. I wish I had read this book as a teenager when I based my worth on how well I lived up to other’s expectations. Jane is passionate but also profoundly moral and is her own best friend and advocate. The Mill on the Floss. A realist novel but surprisingly tragic and deterministic. I liked some of the characters but the family dynamics were so toxic. An important work, though, and I’m still thinking about it, which tells me there is something worthy there. -Rajmohan’s Wife. This is a Bengali novel written during the Victorian period. Short and fun, with robbers, kidnappings, family feuds, and a secret romance. Still working on: -Piers Plowman. There is some beautiful religious imagery in the story. Love is described as growing so full and heavy up in heaven that it spilled over onto earth in the form of Christ. But it’s also as small and sharp as the sharpest needle, one that can pierce through the highest wall or the strongest armor. Love can’t be kept out. Started: - Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics - I’m on Book 4 out of 10. I really like the idea of virtue ethics - that the kind of person you are is what matters, rather than the isolated outcomes of your actions. His idea of being-at-work, that virtue is an active state rather than a passive one, seems like a good thing for today’s passive generation to contemplate. -Aristotle’s Way by Edith Hall - she takes Aristotle’s ethical ideas and applies them to our modern times. It’s nice to read this alongside the primary text. Next up, I’ll be studying the Victorian poets for my class, reading Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, and seeing how Aquinas adapted Aristotle’s ethics for his Christian medieval audience.

I went back. I teach at a small private school. The pay isn’t great, but I have a lot of autonomy in my classroom and really do enjoy teaching. I also treasure the relationships I have made with my co-workers.

Some people, especially introverts, process emotions privately. This is normal - for them. I know that, for me, keeping busy staves off anxiety and depression. Busy-ness might look like avoidance, but sometimes it is a coping mechanism that allows people to continue functioning and processing in manageable bits, and keeps their thoughts from lingering too long in a dark place. You might just let your friend know you have been thinking about her and care about her, and that you are available for her if she needs to talk.

You should definitely try one!! I started a year ago and have really enjoyed them. Their logic/critical reasoning course and another course on critical reading were both excellent introductions. And there are always such interesting people participating - of all ages and from all around the world.

It is clear to me. The third term has a degree of zero so you don’t write the variable. But the -16 is still considered to be the coefficient of the term.

I love reading, but my current reading load has been positively exhausting!! I teach ancient and medieval literature at a small private school. For my ancient lit class I am 2/3 of the way through Plato’s Republic and about halfway through a related commentary. For my medieval literature class I just finished Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (the general prologue and about 6 of the actual tales) and the Cambridge Companion to the tales. Next up is Langland’s Piers Plowman and Chaucer’s Parliament of Fowls. I am taking some literature classes through Oxford University’s continuing education department. We are currently studying Victorian literature. For that class, I’ve read The History of Mary Prince, The Wonderful Adventures of Mary Seacole, and Oliver Twist. I’m currently working through Jane Eyre and Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss. And I am reading excerpts from a fascinating text on Victorian child psychology called The Mind of the Child. I’m enjoying all of it while also longing for time in my schedule for a “fun” read or two...

The letter is pretty funny... the picture is terrifying 🤣

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/our-familys-chatgpt-generated-holiday-letter

Hi all! I’m going to try to participate in these threads this year. I’m currently 150 pages into Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss. I’m enjoying it so far. The last book I finished was Broch’s Death of Virgil which is one of the most challenging books I have ever read (haven’t read Moby Dick but I bet Broch would provide Melville with some serious competition). It’s an extraordinarily beautiful book if you can manage to get through it.

I’d get her screened, but just as another data point, my youngest was super flexible like this and it wasn’t EDS. She’s still more flexible than normal at 16 but has lost some of her flexibility as she has grown older. She was a gymnast also.

I’m another who has found that as I get older I just don’t need as many calories. I usually have a cup of tea or two when I wake up and maybe a latte around 10. Then a pretty small lunch around 1-2 and a normal sized dinner. Maybe a carby snack in the afternoon if my energy gets low. I’d guess I consume around 1500 calories a day but I don’t really keep track. When I get bored, I drink more tea. I drink a lot of tea 😁

We went with an online charter school for high school. We thought about grade skipping, but instead dd simply started high school at the normal age and graduated a year early. She took 2 CC classes each semester which enabled her to get more than enough credits in 3 years. She went off to college a year early - we were comfortable with that as she is a pretty mature kid and had been navigating CC pretty much on her own for 3 years. It was a good strategy for her.

Dh had mild cold symptoms - back in early 2021 DD’s symptoms were more flu-like. Throwing up, fever for 3 days, headache, body aches. No respiratory symptoms. That was this past summer. I have somehow managed to escape it despite known exposures. I’ve actually never gone so long without coming down with something...

We didn’t technically skip a year, but dd finished high school a year early. Her transcript shows 3 years of high school instead of four, plus some credits from middle school. She started taking some high school level classes in 7th and took 2 classes at our community college per semester from 9th grade up until she graduated.

I had something similar happen with a tendon in/near my thumb. I overdid it when we were moving back into our house after a renovation and I was using that hand to pull book after book out of boxes. It was sore for months and not really getting better. Then I did a Google search and found a very specific stretch on a PT website for that tendon. I started stretching it per the instructions every day and it was completely better within a week. So, I guess the moral is that there might be a simple exercise or stretch a PT could give you that could quickly resolve it.

The mom’s behavior concerns me. I’d consider it a blessing that her daughter called off the sleepover and would not encourage that relationship going forward.

Amex allows you to set custom monthly spending limits on each card.

My dd completed First Form and Second Form before she took the NLE Intro exam. From there she moved on to Lukeion Latin - they use Wheelock’s.

I started using black eyeshadow for eyeliner. I brush it into the base of my lashes with a small angled brush. I feel like it makes me look more awake without being overly made up. It’s easy to go lighter or darker and it washes off easily too.

For writing, I discovered The Writing Revolution after my girls were in high school, but feel it is an excellent framework for teaching writing from K-8. I also like the Killgallon sentence composing series for teaching sentence variety and light grammar. A few things from the younger years that our family really enjoyed: We invested in some Waldorf art supplies when my girls were young - high quality colored pencils, paper, pastels, etc. and I taught handcrafts like finger knitting and then regular knitting. Michael Clay Thompson’s Poetry curriculum was a hit. We also enjoyed Story of the World. Many, many picture books. Lots of reading while snuggled on the couch. I always read to them while they ate lunch too. Lots of “field trips” to museums, theater, days at the park, educational travel opportunities, etc. These are the things they remember most fondly. It sounds like your dd might work best with a block schedule - longer periods where you can immerse yourself in a subject. Some subjects like math and reading could be done each day, and others like science or history could be done once or twice a week in longer chunks. If writing is a challenge don’t let it become overwhelming. Work on it a bit each day. Then let her dictate to you for the rest. Incorporate a lot of discussion as well. I really like Spaulding’s method of teaching handwriting. I hope you have a wonderful first year!

Computer programming Intro to ethics Photography Psychology SAT prep / study skills Astronomy Economics

My dd had it, and before I knew it was Covid she slept with me in my bed. This was while she was throwing up and had body aches and fever. I thought for sure I would get it, but I didn’t, and no one else did either. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Really bizarre.