I am sitting on the same decision for my dd next year. The school she will attend requires a math placement exam but even if she scores high enough for pre-calc, which is likely, we can still choose college algebra. At our school College Algebra 1 and 2 is acceptable in place of pre-calc. Being her first DE experience, we will likely go that route if she is close to the lower cut-off for pre-calc. This varies widely by school so that would be a factor if I were in your place.

The opposite happened to me last week. I asked for a "bunch" of asparagus. Apparently it was not bunched at the store, you just took what you wanted and paid by the pound. Dh brought 6 stalks. 6. What am I supposed to do with 6 stalks?

We are on our 19th year of being CSA members and are on our third farm (due to retirements). I love it and it is cost effective for us. Some years we have even ordered double shares and winter shares on TOP of my gardening. We are a family of three big eaters and we like most veggies. I should really say we now like most veggies. There were plenty we had never tried or I had not figured out how to prepare in a way we like before I was forced to figure it out with the threat of wasting good food looming over me. We waste almost none of it. Like others have said, we got introduced to all sorts of produce I never would have tried on my own. It still happens once in a while. The first few years of being in a CSA taught me how to not waste food, in general. I learned a completely different approach to menu planning and cooking that is useful to me at times other than CSA season. I can seriously use up, or figure out how to store for later, just about anything now and that extends outside of our CSA foods too. I am sure that the benefits I saw are not across the board for everyone but I would encourage you to consider it in the future if you have the time to devote to figuring out how to manage it and the interest in broadening your palette and skills. I can get all of the same stuff at the farmer's market for about the same price, but I find the additional benefits worth it.

My kid is not in college yet but my dd is getting her first B in high school in an outsourced class. I too am just about DONE with listening to it. We are doing some spring cleaning and I came across high school transcripts for dh and myself. I knew I had not been a great student in high school, but the reality is I was actually quite a poor student. I got a C- in the non-honors version of the honors class dd is getting a (very high) B in. Dh was better but certainly not a 4.0. I shared these with dd. I have no idea if it helped her feel better but she did stop the my-academic-life-is-ruined talk. I also keep emphasizing with dd that having the attitude and grit to continue trying your hardest, even when you know the grade you want is now out of reach, makes me far prouder of her than getting an A.

That is really cute!

We do something very similar. We also use the critical thinking prompt for each chapter from the study guide. I ask dd to answer this in handwritten form and in less detail than the sample answer includes. This is to help bring together the themes of the chapter and gives dd practice in short essay writing. I assign longer essays on a monthly basis that ties together her history and literature. She is usually reading a Great Book from the same period of history she is studying that month.

Thanks for the replies so far. I know this varies so much by region. $50 seems like a lot to me too but is the minimum, it seems, in my community. Or at least in the circle we run in. I would say $100 is more standard for the situations I am describing, but that has simply been outside of our budget. I agree it would just be strange to give the boyfriend money. That seems so impersonal. And no announcement/party makes it even more odd. But also seems strange to do nothing as he has been a big part of dd's life, therefore ours as well, for over two years. I like the college sweatshirt idea. The only concern is that he is like my dd in being extremely picky about how clothing fits. Even with her help there is a good chance we would pick something he won't end up wearing. I also like the collection of gift cards to local places. That is something I think he would really like.

I am surprised no one has started one of these yet this year. We have a handful of family friends each year that has a graduate. We go to the open houses with a nice card. These people are typically in the $50 check category. That is our gift level for "we know the family but are not super close" graduates. And we tend to only give this is we get an open house invitation and/or graduation announcement, regardless of whether we go or not. This year we have two new situations and need some advice on gifts. Situation 1. Graduate is a close friend of our dd's. We are closer with the family in general than grads of yore. Family is significantly financially better off than we are and graduate has a full athletic scholarship to the school she will be attending. We were invited to the open house but will be out of town so cannot attend. If we got the typical check route, how much? We are open to other ideas. I'd say we are on the line of knowing her well enough to think up anything with personal meaning. So either money or a practical going-to-college gift. Situation 2. Graduate is dd's long-time boyfriend. We know the parents and we socialize occasionally but are not super close. He is not having any sort of party, did not send out announcements, and in fact is not even participating in the school graduation ceremony. Family is also significantly financially better off than we are, graduate has a substantial scholarship, and graduate is living at home so will not need any sort of household/dorm items. Obviously dd is very close to graduate but cannot think of anything with personal meaning or even practical use that would make sense for us (the parents.....dd is on her own!) to gift. The closest we have come is a gift card to the campus bookstore. Again, how much is appropriate? I don't want to be cheap but also have to be reasonable. I am not even sure a gift is appropriate if there is no announcement or open house. Help!

Not arguing at all. I believe these things can happen. I just don't think they are a given on college campuses and IME are quite rare. I don't think they are any more common on a college campus than in the general public. If your teen is leaving the house without an adult, they should be prepared for all of those situations. The OP has already had kids in DE so likely knows what she is getting into on that front. I just didn't want anyone to come on here contemplating putting their first kid in DE and think they will see someone shooting up in their chemistry class. I think your advice is wise in that any teen leaving the house should be prepared to see/handle all sorts of situations. I just don't find them any more common on a college campus than anywhere else. And college is meant for adults so yes, if you have a young teen attending a school targeted for adults, they should be prepared to hear adult words and discuss adult topics in classes.

My work has me surrounded by college students all day and this is not my experience at all. I cannot recall hearing any extremely foul language on campus or in class. Perhaps the occasional word/phrase here and there, but certainly not common or extreme and no more than what I encounter in the outside world. Although, full discloser, foul language happens in my house and amongst my peer group on a regular basis so not something that would be a concern for me. I have also, after working on a college campus for 13 years, have never seen open drug use. Not once. I have heard people discuss parties/hangovers, although not frequently. Talk like that is usually reserved for private conversation with friends. I would also not expect advances on campus or during class, although would discuss the possibility with any DE (or fully grown, for that matter) student if I felt they would be unprepared to handle it.

Me too!

I did not even think of that, We covered it last year but another pass though it might be the ticket.

That would be ideal. But she will not be at a boarding school (long story) right up until DE spring semester starts when she gets back home.

I work at a public university. My office door opens up into a large study area on campus and due to the lack of sound dampening in my office, I can hear at least five different groups of students at any given time. All day long I hear engaging conversations from students who are clearly driven and passionate about what they are studying. And some talk about Netflix too. When I open the door to look at them, they (collectively) look like a middle school sleepover gone horribly wrong. There is a student out there right now with bed head, wearing sweatpants and SLIPPERS with non-matching tube socks. He is practicing a lively in-depth presentation with three other students about a topic I cannot even understand. Hopefully he chooses different attire for the actual presentation! I wouldn't judge a student body on appearance or what they talk about casually. I doubt there is any college out there that a single student could not find their tribe.

I did look into that option but I feel like it will be more in-depth than we are looking for and difficult to chisel out an over-arching introduction. The reason we left AoPS is dd was spending WAY more time than she had available on math each day. She enjoyed the approach but is really not the target audience for AoPS and that became very obvious once she got past the Intro series. If only we had unlimited time.....

That looks great! Thanks!

We are finishing up Algebra II for the year and will be done a little early. I'll have 3 weeks leftover and would like to spend it on a short, low pressure, intro to trigonometry. Any ideas on what we could use that is cheap or free? Fun would be nice too. Dd will likely be taking DE Pre-Calc next spring after a semester break from math so I would prefer she not go in 100% cold. We used Forester for Algebra II and there are trig chapters but I am struggling to filter out an appropriate 3 week intro from that. And dd does not really like the book, after 3 years of AoPS, so it will be a hard sell.

I am close to many heavily tattooed and/or pierced people. I do not personally know anyone with a face tattoo but several with neck and hands. All are perfectly normal people with no prison record that hold normal jobs. My dh is heavily tattooed in ways that are pretty impossible to fully hide and he is a very successful professional that has never had a problem getting and/or holding down a job. I am sure there are (many) employers that would discriminate based on this and he knows it but also does not want to work for/with anyone who would so it all works out. He also has a facial piercing that he used to remove for important business stuff but stopped doing so ages ago and very much enjoys experimenting with hair color too. I have a few tattoos myself but am not as into them as he is. He sees them as art and has been adding to his "collection" for 20 years. There is no struggle or life issue involved. There is nothing "wrong." He just likes them. That is true of anyone I know well enough to know what motivates their tattoo acquisition.

Update - So based on your responses, I went ahead and called HR. I CAN use sick time for this! Which is a great relief. Thanks for weighing in! Don't ask me why I didn't just call. I guess I was worried they would laugh then hang up.

Well..... She "handled" it but struggled with Intermediate Algebra, which is why we jumped ship. But I do see your point.

Wow. I'm surprised. I figured this would kind of be a for sure no-go. I didn't even want to ask the benefits office if it was way off base. I'd welcome more input.

Dd will be a junior next year. She is currently finishing up Algebra II using Forester. She started the year using AoPS Intermediate Algebra and successfully completed AoPS Pre-Algebra through Geometry. Intermediate Algebra was taking too much time and we decided to switch course mid-year. Most of Forester has been review for her due to covering much of the topics in AoPS Intro to Algebra. But because we switched course mid-year, we will not get to any of the trig units. I am now trying to plan the rest of her high school math. Dd will be taking fall semester of 11th grade off of math entirely. She is attending a one semester boarding school that does not offer math. So, I have three semesters in which to complete two full high school credits of math. I have a great DE option at my disposal. While researching this option and making an assumption that college Pre-Calc is the next best route, I see I have two options. She could either take one semester of Pre-Calc or two semesters of College Algebra and Trig, which translates to one semester of Pre-Calc. Both options would translate to one high school credit of Pre-Calc. She will have to take a math placement test but I suspect she will be eligible to take Pre-Calc so the choice would be ours. I am only considering the two semesters of College Algebra because she has never taken a non-mommy math class so is not used to tests and strict timelines, although she has taken other tough outsourced classes with success. And she will have had no prior exposure to trig. The downside is that there would probably be a lot of review which could be boring and it forces us into having her take DE Calculus I during the spring of her 12th grade year in order to get the full 4 math credits. If she just takes the one-semester Pre-Calc class, she would have more options for that last credit of math such as Derek Owens, taking it at home, or taking two semesters of DE Calc if Pre-Calc went well. What says the hive?

I am in the process of helping my elderly mother, who suffers from dementia, move into assisted living. I live quite far from her so will be taking a full week off of work to conduct the actual move. This is a bit tricky because I recently started this job and will have to take all of my available vacation time and "borrow against" future vacation time to make it work. This puts my meager summer vacation plans at risk since I will not have any time left. This is not the end of the world and I just assumed that was what would happen. I was discussing this with a friend and she said I should look into using sick time instead. My employer's sick time policy (as mandated by state law) allows me to take sick time to help family members with medical-related tasks. My friend is arguing that because my mom's move into assisted living is being done because she is not medically safe to live independently and was advised by a doctor, it should count. That seems like a stretch to me. What do people think?

Thanks for the input so far. It sounds like there might be hope. I am juggling a lot of drama and stress in my life right now so this was probably a very unwise decision. We are going to try in earnest to continue the introduction plan. But to be honest, I have about 1-2 weeks before I will have to wave the white flag. The sheer amount of time this is all taking is not sustainable and we just learned that we may have some emergency travel in the near future. There is no way I can leave this situation as is with a cat sitter. I am still happy to hear more advice or feel good stories with similar situations turning out ok.

I need to know if this situation is hopeless. After the death of our beloved 22 yo cat in December, we decided we were ready to add a new cat to the family. We already have a 14yo female cat who is quite sedentary and not terribly affectionate. We went to the humane society and adopted a 1.5yo female cat two weeks ago. I was hoping the two cats would be friends (but happy to settle for toleration) so we have been following the standard introduction process very carefully. New cat has her own space and we slowly went through letting them explore each other's spaces without the other present up to the point where both cats have been all over the house on their own for days. We then moved on to feeding them treats or meals with one on each side of a closed door with a 2 inch gap underneath. Lots of hissing/growling at first with new cat trying to swipe old cat through the gap. After a few sessions of this, they calmed down. The next thing we were to try was feeding them with each on one side of a baby gate. There was an adult with each cat. Despite this precaution, the moment she got the chance, new cat jumped the gate and viciously attacked old cat. It happened so fast. We didn't even know she could jump like that. We got them separated. Dh suffered some serious scratches and bites from new cat during the break up. Serious enough that I think he will need medical attention. Old cat was scratched up but luckily no serious injuries. One scratched is disturbingly close to her eye. Old cat somehow does not seem seriously bothered by this. She is behaving normally and has even been "patrolling" the door to new cat's room from time to time in a non-agitated, curious sort of way. Meanwhile, we are starting to understand that new cat is very clever. We can no longer enter or exit "her" room because she bolts out the second the door is cracked. We are pretty agile and fast but she now gets past us about 50% of the time. We now have to lock up old cat to even go into new cat room because we fear another altercation. Last night, new cat figured out how to work the door handle. She has been working on this skill for days but last night she succeeded. Luckily, I heard the door open and was able to grab new cat on her way to get at old cat, just in time. I used a few thumb tacks to temporarily secure the door to get through the night. She continued to work the door knob all night. Dh installed a hook-eye lock on that door as soon as we got up. When new cat was in the shelter, she was free roaming with the other cats. There was no indication that she did not get along with other cats. This was listed in the description of other cats there so we assumed she would be OK. New cat is super sweet and lovey to humans. The only real biting/scratching she has done was during the breakup. Old cat was never "friends" with the cat that passed in December. But they never physically fought. They pretty much ignored each other. Is there any hope? Any tips on what to do next? I am worried that I will never trust new cat loose in the house. The attack is seared into my brain. It was very traumatic for all of us. Do we have to consider taking new cat back?