Me, too. It is why I am grumpy about room and board financial aid for the first year.

And, really, a GOOD high school education should more than prepare someone for that. Even as an Engineer, I never really used my degree. I remember being tickled pink to actually use the quadratic equation. I remember telling all the other engineers at the company and they were impressed.

50+ years ago people could get a decent job with a high school diploma. Many people did not get high school diploma. Going to college was not assumed and it wasn't for the poor. In that world, college could be about expanding your mind, becoming a well-educated person and possibly training for a profession that actually required more than a high school diploma. I used to be an engineer in a non-union manufacturing environment. In the 90's, about half the manufacturing staff were people that had been hired in the 70's when the only requirement was a SSN and the willingness to get on a cattle-call bus and go to work. I think the pay was cash at end of each day until the person was hired full-time. None of them had a high school diploma, and most of them had zero high school class time. At the same time in the 90's, new job openings required an Associates Degree. The job hadn't gotten any harder.

Patsy Cline? As long as you afraid the He Left Me songs.

Has he had an sleep apnea test? My DH was like that before he had the machine. His apnea was so bad that they only tested him for a couple of hours instead of one night, and went straight into testing machine settings on his first night. Instead of episodes an hour, they told him episodes per minute. I don't know how that is possible. One thing I've always done for myself is to make sure the bathroom is really really brightly lit. I find whatever max wattage is allowed for each fixture, and then use that. in the morning, I turn on ALL the lights. I start out moving slow with slitted eyes, but by the time I leave I am wide awake. With the LED bulbs you wouldn't even have to worry about the max wattage since what they use is so low. Another idea, and only if he is on-board with the idea. with some internet connections it is possible to turn the internet off for certain hours. Assuming he is piddling on the computer with something that requires an internet connection and time gets away from him, maybe having the internet turn off at say 1 am might make him realize how late it is getting. I know with my DH, he is a bit delusional about when he is really going to bed. He doesn't look at the clock so he thinks it is 2 am when really it is after 4 am.

Before I had a child I remember being disgusted by a story of a parent rigging the Candyland deck so their child would win quickly and get the game over with. When I started to play Candyland with my child, it was so mind-numbly boring I had to institute the rule of 'Draw from the cards face-down in the lid spread randomly" to keep myself from doing the same thing. There have been some good ones mentioned. We also liked the Ladybug game. It is so cute, and it was designed by a kid as a class project. There is a path with two obstacles. To get past the first you either need to get a "Bug Off Mantis" card or land on the bridge which takes you past. The second you need 10 aphids to get past. To move you draw cards with large font numbers on them. There will be a number from 1-4, whether you move forward or back, and if you should draw again. It isn't too long, so the attention scan isn't a problem. Uncle Wiggly is good too once they can count up to about 15. The little rhymes on each card is pretty cute. One thing I like is that every space is numbered so sometimes I can point out addition possibilities. How could I have almost forgot the Lego game! Depending on the color you roll, the game changes. So, one person might make a little lego thing that everyone else has to copy, or people try to bowl over some little lego pins. One thing we do, whenever one piece passes another, they go "kiss kiss kiss" to each other.

Oh, yes, the auxiliary smokers club. I am a member. I actually hate smoking, don't want to be around it or breath it. But, those crowds of people can get so overwhelming! So at a party, I spend lots of time with the smokers. I never knew that about INTJ leading when the leaders are incompetent. I have totally done that. It is so hard having an E daughter. I don't think I could have survived her preschool years without McDonald's play areas.

" most of his time is his time." I think this is the real problem. My DH's sleep schedule is the same as your DH's. Eventually I figured out that I had to stop catering to him when when he was sleepy past a certain point. 10 am in our case, although 11 am if there isn't a need for him to wake up. I got a bad sinus infection that just would not go away. I needed extra sleep on weekends and DH wanted extra sleep because he'd stayed up late watching TV or on the computer. That was the wakeup call for me. Another thing I did was to insist that the things he needs to do alone be done when the rest of the family is asleep. So, instead of concentrating on the sleep pattern ask him to switch his activity pattern during his awake time. For example, the only activity from the time you guys go to sleep to when he goes to sleep is his woodworking job. So, that certain hours, e.g. evening hours, are reserved for family time. I know for a little while there, I felt like a single mother.

It is truly amazing what calculators can do nowdays. Well, I'm over 40 and I remember other students using their calculators in cal 2, cal 3 and linear algebra. The same students were likely using their calculators in cal 1, but I didn't really interact with other students in that class. The reason I remember it from Linear Algebra is that there was a weirdly easy problem on the final exam. If you have a strong test sense like I do, you naturally learn a professors test style. I remember my internal alarms went off because there was a really easy problem where a medium-difficult problem belonged. Normally that means that the problem isn't as easy as it appears. Later I had the same professor for PDE and he saw some students using their calculators in class. He warned them not to do that and he mentioned the Linear Algebra class where he took out a normal problem and substituted one that would be impossible to do with a calculator. I had one of the fancy calculators, but I only mainly used it for the Reverse Polish Notation, being able to save about 50 common physics constants, and geek status symbol.

If you are just interested in the Sonlight core, you could look at Bookshark. It is the same people and cores, just secular and you can buy just the core. Last time I looked Sonlight made you buy LA, which irritates me. Since you might not be using the LA anyway, why buy it?

My dad grew up on a farm. I benefited from someone else's genealogy interest and I know that all my paternal great-grandfather's ancestors at least back to his great-great-grandparents were farmers. Except for one guy who wasn't. He was considered uppity because he was a sheriff and married an English woman who used forks. Mom's paternal line was steel workers and blacksmiths before that. Hearing my grandmother talk, they did largely live off the land. But, they still bought some stuff. There was lots of trading going on too. For example, I remember her talking about the standard partnering between a Rich Farm Wife and a Poor Farm Wife. The Rich Farm Wife would pay for what was needed to raise some chickens. The Poor Farm Wife tended to the chickens on her farm and they split the eggs and the rooster meat. Vegetables were traded that way too. You might agree to trade half your crop of X for half of someone else's Y crop.

Also, what if you pay to have it dry cleaned and it can't be brought back to how it was before? At that point you've taken responsibility for it.

I'd be donating that shirt and few others he liked to Goodwill. I'd probably think about also returning one of the gifts he did appreciate and then decide against it on the grounds that he is 11.

I wonder why that is? I am very much an INTJ. I think my lowest percentage is 76%. In my case it was because I'd wished I was homeschooled. Maybe that is more likely to be true of INTJ's?

pasta tends to get way overcooked in a slow cooker. I've been doing something I learned from Cooks that works very well. Heat up some oil on the stove or use the fat leftover from browning meat. Dump in the dry noodles and stir for about a minute. The coating keeps the noodles from ... I forget the food science but they don't get bloated.

I know of two Indian Chinese restaurants nearby. The name actually says "Indian Chinese" or "Chinese Indian" I forget which. I asked my husband, "How would that work?" He was eager to try.

I remember the time I was working in Manchester, England and I ordered a Tex-Mex dish in a "Tex-Mex" restaurant. It actually had Tex-Mex in the name. In my defense, I'd been away from home for awhile. The hotel restaurant had wonderful fish and chips and mashed peas. I lovvvvveee mashed peas. After eating that about 14 evenings in a row, the Tex-Mex restaurant called to me. I ordered Queso and chips. OMG, that was ghastly! I am pretty sure I was served an undiluted can of Campbell's nacho cheese soup. I didn't think about cultural appropriation. I thought, "Well, that was dumb of me. I think I'll order the bangers and mashed". I also remember the time I ordered lasagna in Munich and there were no diary or tomato products in the dish. Just a risk you take when ordering food away from its origin.

That is the reason I drive about 50 miles to our dentist. I likely drive by a 100's of honest, good dentists because that is 50 fully developed miles. But, I KNOW I had one try to cheat me, and I KNOW that the one I drive to is good and honest. I needed some work, but the spamming dentist said I needed 14K in work and I really needed about $900 in work. He will also use the x-rays and special lights to see cavities, but then he checks them out himself. So far one of the "we need to watch this area" has needed to be filled, and the other two have improved on their own.

My bright 5-year-old loves Set. We started with the Set for Kids and then got the real version. Kids version doesn't have pattern and the cards are the thickness of puzzle pieces. She also loves Uno. Particularly since the time she played her daddy and she went out without him actually playing. She's been enjoying Camelot Jr. It is a logic/puzzle game meant for a single player. Although usually mommy or daddy watch and help setup and then we do it in our head. She started that at early 4, though. You might want to get the next older one. The Ratuki game is nice. It is a speed game that also teaches that 5 fingers and "5" and "Five" all mean the same thing. Ghost Blitz Board Game is an extremly interesting game. There are 4 or 5 play pieces, like a green bottle or a red chair. Someone turns up a card with a drawing on it and the first person that picks up the correct game piece wins that card. The correct game piece is either the object that is in the card, e.g. there is a green bottle in the drawing, you need to pickup the green bottle. Or if there are no matches, you pick up the object which does NOT have a matching color or object in the drawing. So, a red bottle and a blue ghost means you shouldn't pick up the green bottle, or red chair, or gray ghost or blue book. But you should pick up the white Something (I forget what it is). It is amusing because people often figure out the object at the same time and then reach for it. Or people will be scrambling looking for an object and it takes a few seconds to realize someone is calmly holding the right thing. Or sometimes the strategy of "I am going to pickup the red chair, regardless" actually works.

I agree with you. An overbite is mentioned sometimes as a cosmetic problem. But, I remember the vet recommending against a particular puppy because he had an overbite. The reasoning wasn't that he wouldn't make a good show dog or some other cosmetic reason. It was that he wouldn't be as healthy long-term. The vet had no monetary reason to say that. He wasn't saying "Your puppy needs braces" and he didn't have another puppy he wanted my parents to take. In fact, if he had any bias it would have been toward telling mom and dad what they wanted to hear. I figure if it will be a problem for a dog, it would be a problem for a person. Probably more so with our longer lifespan.

Has anyone had success with a designated playroom? And making a rule that the toys can leave that room only while being actively played with?

My ideal preschool would be like an ideal home environment with a bit of playdate thrown in. Lots of books being read, lots of running around. Maybe some executive function games for that age like Simon Says or that game where you dance around and then when the music stops you have to freeze into a position that matches a card you saw at the start of that dance. Messy art like finger-painting. No electronics.

Probably a two thirds unless the parents explain some things while reading to them. I forget the source but I've read that about 1/3 of kids figure it out for themselves. 1/3 of kids can learn to read using any method. 1/3 of kids need to be Taught very deliberately.

Or they had a political motivation to make a study which showed that National Dental Care wouldn't be such a bad thing.

I forgot about the selecting the story from the picture. That was one reason the DK fairy one was such a hit. I had to make a rule, though, that I read them all in order first.