Thanks! I'll check that out. I don't think either of us thought of VW for some reason. I think Turbo would definitely meet the fun to drive criteria, and under budget would be great. I grew up and learned to drive in the mountains and love Subaru, too. We actually had a Forester before the Sienna and I liked it. I think the room in the back was a bit skimpy, but I think they may have redesigned it since then, and there's other models to check out. I'll have to see if they're "cool" to my husband (who knows?) but other than that I think you're right.

The Sequoia is probably bigger than we'll go, although it looks and sounds great. Just to show you how illogical my husband's criteria are, when I suggested the RAV4, he said, "But we already have a Toyota. We can't have 2 Toyotas." :confused1: We are very happy with my Sienna. We have noted before that we've not had more than one car by any car company, but I don't have any idea why it would be a negative to do so.

Thanks! I am bookmarking that now; we definitely need that kind of info.

Kids are currently 7, 9, and 11. It does come up often enough that my car is unavailable (I've taken it or it is in the shop or seats are out because we're hauling stuff, etc.) and all 3 kids are in the back of his car. Usually stuff is also involved (Costco run being common and descriptive; not talking about big items but Costco groceries). This is currently squishy with 2 backless boosters and oldest in the middle, and leg room is barely OK for them now. Since they will be teenagers before we get rid of the new car, more room will be needed. It is not the most common way we use his car, but not being able to use it this way would be a big inconvenience.

We'll be replacing my husband's car sometime soon, and we are having trouble finding something we can agree on. My requirements: < ~$30,000 (possibly into 30's for a hybrid) Able to comfortably seat the family, including 3 kids who will be teenagers before this car's time is done Able to take a good Costco load in addition to the people Reasonable gas mileage Good safety and other ratings Probably AWD or 4WD as we will be moving to a place with snow and he has very little experience driving in snow My husband's requirements: Fun to drive (seems to mean good acceleration and handling) Cool (seems to mean has something unique about it; pickups and convertibles are both cool to him, but the small SUVs/crossovers I've suggested are not) Manual transmission (may be able to get him to agree to automatic if it seems fun and cool) We don't do regular hauling or anything, and my car is a minivan, which has been able to haul anything we needed to haul so far. His current car is a Hyundai Elantra, which he hates. Partly because it's boring, but it has also had a number of issues. He drives my minivan when I don't need it because he prefers it to his car, but he does not want another minivan, and says a large SUV would be the same as getting a minivan, so also out.

Did your daughter end up taking the SAT II for US History?

I would probably just start at the 5yo's level, inviting the 4yo to participate as much as she can/wants. If she keeps up, continue together. If not, start her on her own later. It would probably end up being a mix like ktgrok said (maybe not even at first, but when math and LA get a little more involved).

That makes sense. Thanks!

Yes, in addition to using mirrors. Unless you have a backup camera, it could be dangerous not to do so. Blind spots are real, and animals and some people will walk behind a running car.

What are the problems with engine braking? I often see signs at the top of mountains "No Engine Braking". When I lived in the mountains (as a teenager), I drove a manual and used a combination of engine braking and brakes. I don't remember seeing these signs. Now I drive an automatic and only drive on slopes when traveling, and I notice these signs, so it made me think there's a reason not to use engine braking. My guesses were increased emissions or increased likelihood of failure. These replies indicate that brakes are actually more likely to fail, so now I'm wondering.

Athena's offers them (we haven't taken those classes, but I remember seeing that they have them). http://www.athenasacademy.com/mod/page/view.php?id=2157

Yes, amazon does. :) https://www.amazon.com/Subscribe/b/ref=sns_myd_store?node=5856181011

I have read these but not gotten around to putting ours down yet. Thanks for the opportunity! DD (just turned 11 and finished 5th grade): Got accepted into DYS Placed 1st in the state and 3rd nationally in Math Kangaroo Worked through first 16 chapters of AoPS Intro to Algebra and re-discovered a fondness for math Made good progress in writing despite no fondness whatsoever Qualified for regional and then national finals in the National History Bee, and national championship in U.S. Geography Olympiad (we were unable to attend the nationals for these) Auditioned into the mid-level youth orchestra (mostly middle and high school students) Competed in her first FIRST LEGO League Attended first sleep-away camp last summer (1 week) and enjoyed it so much she's going back for 2 weeks this summer Made friends with some neighborhood girls Handling her diagnosis of scoliosis - and having to wear a brace 14-18 hours/day - as well as she can DS (8, just finished 3rd grade): Got accepted into DYS and CTY Placed 3rd in the state and 16th nationally in Math Kangaroo Worked through AoPS Intro to Prealgebra Made good progress in writing and discovered an interest in fiction writing Qualified for regional finals in the National History Bee, and national championship in U.S. Geography Olympiad (we were unable to attend this) Auditioned into the lower-level youth orchestra (mostly middle school and upper elementary students), and earned second chair for one concert Attending first sleep-away camp right now (just 4 nights) DD (6, just finished 1st grade, not as gifted/advanced): Got accepted into local gifted magnet (will attend next year) Completed first Math Kangaroo contest Completed second grade level of most subjects Made friends everywhere she went

How frustrating! If it was me, I would probably talk to the 4th hour teacher as soon as you know who it is. I would explain the situation, and ask if your son could do those days independently (picking up any materials the day the class should be). If they agree, great. If not, drop that class and have the kids just use that hour as study hall.

I would probably either write "I am (Elizabeth) Jane's mom, Jackie", or "I am Jackie, the mother of [your preferred way of stating daughter's name]."

What a great experience for him. Congratulations and good luck!

I definitely understand why it was hard to get any answers; that's even kind of what I was trying to say. Long-term planning and guiding is hard, and ALs, particularly ones who don't have an area of passion, just add another dimension to that. That's a great idea about open houses; I'll have to look for some in our area. Thanks.

It's definitely a balance here. I am homeschooling mainly because public school does not provide enough challenge (and I am still wary of a challenge to this day due to never experiencing challenge in school), so pushing them a bit is important to me. But I also try to follow their lead, and tend to lean more to the nudge/provide opportunities end of pushing (although I sometimes do do more). One thing I've done a number of times when there's been an opportunity that they were wary of is ask them to do it once, or do the first step/level/part, and then they can decide whether to continue. Usually even though they were wary about taking on the challenge initially, they found they enjoyed it and chose to continue (but if they didn't, I let them not continue it). And there are plenty of times when they need normal pushing because they're kids and would rather not do their work or whatever, but I think that's different than being a pushy parent. I am never sure how much is right, either. I think them not having any particular focus/passion makes it somewhat harder, because they are good at and enjoy so many things. It is easy to think "what could be" with more work in any one area, which can be exciting, but obviously they can't do that in every area (to their great frustration). So then the question is do we pick an area or 2 to really step up even without passion or just let them be less advanced than they could be? To date I've let them be less advanced (though still quite advanced) by spending normal amounts of time/effort on each subject, and let them do more subjects and activities instead. But as my oldest is going into sixth grade we're thinking about stepping up a couple areas. We're trying to pick based on what she seems more interested in generally and might want to pursue a career in (and she's definitely participating in the discussion), but it's hard when everything appeals to her. We're thinking about stepping up in science, and I even started a thread trying to get an idea of how to do that, but it's hard to articulate, or even figure out exactly, what we're going for. I want to push her, but not too much, and not at the expense of other interests. :willy_nilly:

We really enjoyed History Pockets as the base for our first time focusing on American History. It meets your points 1 and 3 only, though. There is not a spine text or list of supplemental reading. We did not have a spine with them, but I did keep a shelf of American History living books, from which they picked what to read. It included all of the American History books we own, plus library books I borrowed based on the current theme (it was really easy for me to just find that area on the shelves and grab whatever looked interesting).

Tuck it all the way, then pull it mostly out (and kind of fold over pants) and it will cut the length below the top of the pants in half.

Thanks for all the replies. I will check out those stories and that book for sure, and look for lewelma's posts. I have read a number of dmmetler's posts, and I should have clarified that I am not thinking that level, since she doesn't have the passion for it that dmmetler's daughter does. Just a step up. She has done a ton of science reading in addition to doing a curriculum each year, and therefore has a pretty good base of knowledge. Of course there's much more scientific knowledge available than any one person could really know, but I'd say she has at least the knowledge level of the average high schooler. I agree with the idea that trying to "do science" without the background doesn't make sense, which is one of the reasons I haven't had her really do any to date. But I think a little doing would be good at this point, in addition to continuing to increase her knowledge, so that's what I'm trying to figure out. And I'm definitely not worried, or trying to get her to choose a career path asap, just trying to help her see some possibilities. I guess partly because I feel like I didn't really understand what scientists (or most other professionals) really do until I was an adult, and I also enjoyed/was good at everything but never knew where any of it could lead, I want to give her a little more insight into these things so she's not as completely unsure as I was when it's time to choose a college, major, and career path.

We went to our ceremony last night, and it seems they've switched to giving prizes/certificates to the top 10 scores nationally (vs top 20 previously, and still for listing on the web site). My son was somewhat disappointed since he was expecting to get 2 recognitions, but only got the state one. Just a heads up in case anyone else had kids get a 11-20th score nationally.

Intel ISEF is in our area this year, so we went to the public day today to check out all the projects. Very impressive, of course, and inspiring. We tried asking a number of the finalists how they got to that level, but they all just told us how they picked their subject. I think it was partly language barrier with some, and partly that they were prepped to be able to answer that but not our question. To date, we have only done some simple science projects (basically demonstrations or simple variable testing). They have done a lot of science reading, too. I purposely went this route for a number of reasons for elementary, but now I'd like to step it up for my oldest, and work in some "doing real science", building up each year. My oldest will be in sixth grade next year. She is highly gifted, and advanced in math (past the Algebra 1 portion in AoPS Intro to Algebra). She doesn't have any focused area of interest at this point (she enjoys almost all subjects, to varying degrees, with which one she likes most changing often), which I am totally fine with. When she does get more interested in something, she is very ambitious about what she wants to do with it. My goals in stepping things up would be mainly for her to: 1) Have some experience doing some real science so she understands the process and rigor of science 2) Start to determine if science is a field she might be interested in as a career 2) Have the background there so that if science does become her focus/passion in high school, she is adequately prepared to start doing things that could possibly lead to ISEF-level work So, how do I do this? What does high-level middle school science work look like?

Yes, it is a bit strange, and I do clarify if discussing with people who are not familiar, but it doesn't really bother me because it is clear what it is. And I did not realize that about the fourth graders this year; that is unusual and makes it more unclear than usual. But I don't think anyone is using their results to say they are one of the top 20 students in their grade in math in the US. No one is going to expect a test taken by <0.1% of students to be able to compare those who took the test with those who didn't. The difference is really between 0.5% (20/3600) and the percent of "top 20 scores", which in this case you're saying is close to 50%, but seems to usually be around 15%. Still a huge difference, but not as huge as you say. And due to self-selection, as you mentioned, the top 15% of test takers is probably going to the top few percent of all students in that grade, so now we're talking less than a factor of 10 between what some may perceive and reality. And at that point I do say, "who cares, it's just fun for the kids and nice to get the recognition". :) FWIW, I keep a file with my kids' accomplishments (for future applications to programs and schools), and for MK I include national percentile in addition to place, partly because I don't want them to assume incorrectly that they rank traditionally if they are not already familiar with how MK does the rankings. But I don't feel that need to clarify that the rankings and percentiles are as compared to others who took the test, and not all students in their grade.

It's more like 20% or less from looking at my kids' placements and percentiles over the years. It varies by year and level, and I don't have a fourth grader this year, and never had a kid get exactly 20th place, but I have had them place 15, 16, 24, and 25, with percentiles of 87, 82, 89, and 84, respectively. So still a lot of kids placing, but not anywhere near 50%.