Thanks. That's actually very clarifying, not because I'm not doing those things, but because I am. It makes it easier to distance myself when I hear comments about 'all' white people being inherently racist. I agree that there is a good deal of racism in this country, but at least I can do what I can and teach my children better. But back to the topic at hand - Simcha Fisher had an interesting and timely piece on her blog. It's not about racism, but about learning things we may have been unaware of, or that make us uncomfortable. Here's the link: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/simchafisher/2015/05/14/columbia-students-lay-siege-to-themselves/ Here's an excerpt: Did you pay the university tens of thousands of dollars to install you in a sorority house and stroke your hand and tell you you're smart? Why would you do that? Didn't you come there to learn? How can you learn, if you won't let anything in?

Well, I managed to pry off two that weren't on very well. The last one is really stuck, so I just clipped it as short as I could and left it. My girls always complain that the glue doesn't last long enough, so hopefully it'll fall off pretty soon! I'm going to pick up some acetone nail polish remover tomorrow and hope that does the trick. It'd be funny if he weren't so upset.

Nail glue. It's cheap stuff, but man it can stick. I think I need to soak it longer. Poor kid. He wanted to hear the clicking sound when we drum our fingers on the counter. He's really upset now. I think he thought they'd come right off.

Ds4 just went into the bathroom and put some of his sister's fake nails on. They're not acrylics, they're plastic kid-type ones with glue. He has track tonight and doesn't want to go with them on, or I'd just let them fall off. All the stuff online seems to be for acrylics. Nail polish remover doesn't seem to be working.

When we lived in the desert fake grass was popular and actually quite nice to look at.

Also, is Writing Strands directed at the student? I like that WWS is something the older two could probably do independently.

Having not used the program, at what level would you place a 5th, 6th and 8th grader? Assume that their writing skills are average for their grade levels.

Does Fix-It Grammar have diagramming?

See, stuff like this is very frustrating for the average white, middle-class person (me). WE ARE TRYING. I've had in-depth conversations with black and Hispanic friends about what this is supposed to look like. I'm not racist, but in our culture it feels like I have to walk on egg shells sometimes to prove it. I try to be aware, and understanding, and do and say the right things. Yet I still don't have my shit together. I know there are racist white people, and as a whole the 'establishment' has been and still can be racist. But I believe that the vast majority of white people would really like all this to be resolved, and for us to go forward as the human species. And I'm aware that some could say that my saying 'white people would really like all this to be resolved' is racist in itself. Because clearly I don't care that people have been marginalized and I just want it to 'go away'. But this isn't true! It begins to feel like a 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' situation. For example, if I support welfare, I'm racist because what minorities need isn't a hand-out, but if I don't support welfare I'm racist because minorities are valuable and need the help. My genuine question (no snark, no sarcasm, no manipulation) is - what should we do? How can we do better?

Laying on hands is not energy healing. It's just something some people do while praying for the sick. In one, the expectation is that God, who has the power to heal, will do so if that healing aligns to His will and we ask for it. There's no 'energy' involved, unless you're Charismatic. :laugh:

A little background: My kids are going into 5th, 6th and 8th grades. We used WWE 1,2 and part of 3, then ditched them because at that point I understood the concepts enough to do them myself and we switched to doing narrations/dictations out of our history and science reading. So far, so good. They all did FLL, which I liked, but at the time only went to level 2. We then did Rod and Staff which was a good program, but they really didn't like it. Last year (3rd, 5th and 6th) I put them in LLATL. It was okay. I liked that it was an all-in-one program. When I sat down with them and did it, it seemed to work. It felt light but I hoped it would get more difficult. At the beginning of this year (4th, 5th, 7th) I put them in LLATL but a grade above their level. By January we had dropped it. It was too much busy work, too many subjects (spelling, copywork) that were still below level while the grammar was above their level (predicate nominatives, anyone?). I went back to just doing narrating/dictating/copywork and spelling/vocab that I pulled out of their lit/history/science reading. It's been okay, but I'm ready to put them back into a good writing program. So what now? WWE and WWS sound good, but where to start? I have considered enrolling them in an IEW class. I tried a Bravewriter arrow. It seemed a bit too easy, except for the youngest. I also need a grammar program, however, I'm looking for something somewhat basic as the tougher grammar seems to kill their love of writing. (Except maybe for the 8th grader. You have to learn it sometime.) If anyone is familiar with the Charlotte Mason grammar approach, I'd love your thoughts. I feel a bit like we 'skipped' two years because of LLATL. CM doesn't start grammar until later - how does that work out? Thanks for your thoughts!

3andme - wow. Thank you so much. I'm beginning to have some clarity on what exactly I'm doing here and that list is incredibly helpful. I didn't realize you could order just one light unit until I read OneStepAtATime's post. Thanks again to everyone for hearing me out and weighing in. At this point I'm going to order the first LU for them and do it over the summer, and go from there.

Thanks for clarifying, and FTR, I don't know her, she was a student at a college and produced the video as a class project.

Okay, my last post was a little dated because I got distracted and missed some responses. I have a legitimate question and I'd love a legitimate answer. What is 'reverse racism' and how is it different from 'racism'? If I say "white people are a problem in America" it is 'reverse racism' and doesn't count, but if I say "black people are a problem in America" it's racism. I'm not understanding this.

I'm not sure what part of my post wasn't true? I didn't say that white people don't riot, or that some people wouldn't 'get it'. I repeated the words of another person who stated that being understanding of black riots was racist and stated the question that I'm not sure how to respond to that sentiment, especially considering the opposite sentiment seemingly expressed here. I'm genuinely interested in the answer to this. This isn't helpful. This conversation has the potential to be very informative, let's not get petty. Nonsense. It's a conversation on one woman's irresponsible Twitter use. I'm guessing from your comments that I have far less experience in this area than you do, but I would state that if a college is a 'black college' it's because it self-identifies as such. Believe me, most white people wouldn't dare label anything as 'black', because they'd be called racist.

I thought her comment about shopping during MLK week was thought-provoking when taken the right way - the idea that so few stores are owned by black people. That could be a positive and educational discussion. Tweeting is the wrong place for it, and it was worded in a way that was not conversational. Yes. But again, Twitter. It's not for nuance, it's for shock value. After the Freddie Gray riots I watched an interesting video from a (black) female college student (wish I could remember which college. I'll try to find the link.). She stated that those who said they understood the riots were racist, because if the rioters had been white they wouldn't have understood. She said holding the black community to a lower standard (accepting that the rioting was inevitable or understandable) was racist. You seem to say the opposite - that there should be different standards. How do we untangle this and do the right thing, if we are really trying to do so?

I worked dispatch for the Phoenix Police Dept. Loved it. Loved answering the 911 calls, working the radio, the pace, the excitement. And the 90% of the time it wasn't exciting we had a lot of fun just hanging out. However, it was also a very stressful and intense job at times. I was glad to leave to stay home, and I wouldn't do it again, but it remains my favorite.

"Mom, you said..." :cursing: This is now fixed in my brain. Thanks. :laugh:

Ugh. Another set back. I had ds11 take the 500 CLE placement test and he failed. So... what does this mean? The only thing I can figure is that Khan introduces concepts later than CLE. I am very hesitant to take all the kids back a year. For those who are familiar with CLE, is the first light unit (review) enough to catch gaps if we spend extra time in it? Rather than repeating an entire year of math, because I really don't think they need that.

Congratulations! They look very happy. Blessings to you all.

Look on the bright side - in a few years those kids will write a book that'll top the bestseller list for weeks. They'll never have to live like that again.

My dd was torn between a good digital and a polaroid at Christmas. We bought her the good digital, because it's our money and I felt the polaroid was a total rip off. She still wants it, though, and is saving up for it. I figure it's her money and she can do what she wants. If it turns out to be a waste, it's a good lesson learned. She's 13 though, and has a regular source of income ($100-150/month - not from us) so it's not such a big deal as it might be if your dd spent several months earning money and scraping together and then was disappointed.

Oh my gosh, Amira, that sounds amazing. Tonight it's Mexican-ish crock pot. Chicken breasts, corn, black beans, salsa, cumin. Eaten with tortilla chips or rice. Hey, it's cheap, it's filling, and everyone likes it. Plus watermelon, because it's May and we finally have something other than oranges and apples! Hooray!

What a life. I put his book, "On Writing Well" in my Amazon cart.

Not a defense of them, per se, but I had some friends who were vegan who didn't use their refrigerator at all. I think they took it out and put in cabinets. They ate all plant products, and they were all fresh or dried, so they had no need. I'm thinking this is not the case for this family, but if your diet consists of very few animal products it would be doable. In Minnesota, you are required to get the biological parent's permission for quite a bit. General health screenings are mandatory, but beyond that there's a lot of red tape. As to the mental illness 'slurs' issue - having dealt with mental illness in my mother, understand that I mean zero disrespect when I suggest that it might be a cause of what's happening here. I don't think anyone else here is looking down on those who suffer from mental illness. I believe it's simply a possible explanation for what we're seeing, and one that makes us more sympathetic to their plight. Also, Moxie and Cat - cut it out. Let's not get the mods in here.