This looks amazing. Thank you. I asked my son if he would be interested in this as a class and he is more excited for this than he is for any of his other classes. I'm going to order the book tonight so I can try to get the chapters lined up with the history book we are using.

@El... I would love your resource list. We are doing US History and lit this year and I think my son would love this.

@Clarita Thanks for working it out for me. It looks like he doesn't have a unique method. He's just way faster at mentally manipulating numbers than I am. I often split up problems like this but I think his 4+4+4 threw me because like you said 6x2 is easier but I'm guessing he is just comfortable with fours. We actually have the addition facts that stick book but haven't really used it. I'll have to pull it back out again.

I think this must be what he does. He's not as fast as I am with the multiplication table recall but he's pretty close and he says he calculates the problems in his head every time.

Opps. I mis-typed. I asked 9x8.

I just asked him if he didn't know 9x5 how would he work it out. He immediately said 9+9-3+30. Then I asked how he would work out 7x6. He said, "Add 4+4+4=12. Everyone knows that 6 fives is 30. Then add 12 and 30." He's typically good with math so I've always let it go but I'm worried that his unique way of solving will make it harder for him in the future. I'm trying to figure out if how he solves problems is logical and I'm so use to how I do it I can't figure out his method.

My oldest struggles to memorize his nine multiples. He can do it but he just isn't fast so I've been randomly asking them throughout the day. I asked 9x8 and my youngest says, "oh, that's easy .... double the 9 subtract 6 and add 60." Can anyone walk me through the mental way this makes sense. He uses methods like this for a bunch of problems and he always gets them right but in my head it doesn't make sense.

When my kids get bites they swell and itch. We tried all of the various creams and what works the best for both of them is lavender essential oil. It doesn't reduce swelling but both claim it does better at reducing the itch than anything else.

I have ADHD-inattentive. I wasn't diagnosed until after college and had to figure out some ways to stay focused. Here are a few things that I still do to focus even though I'm now on medication. Maybe they can help him. When I have to pay attention to something I'm reading that I'm not interested in, I read it out loud. I can also comprehend it faster when I read it out loud to myself. When I can't shut off my brain and need to focus, I make lists. Once it's on the list, I can think about other stuff. Normally, I don't even look at the list again. I just need to get it out of my brain. This is the biggest helper for me. I found an old one the other day that buns, dog, purple, pay water on it. I'd love to know what I was thinking that day. When I was young I'm pretty sure there weren't any fidgets. Since I was in my young teens I've done figure eight patterns on my thumb with my finger. My husband calls it my antsy meter. The more antsy I am the faster the figure eight. I mention this because I've tried to get my 11 year old (also has ADHD-inattentive) to use one but he doesn't like them (I think he's embarrassed to use them) so I told him to find a small movement that isn't distracting to others. He's started doing circles with one of his ankles. It sounds silly but I think it helps him to focus. Whenever he does math you can see his ankle spinning around. For me audiobooks are painful. I try so hard to pay attention but 20 minutes in, I realize I've only hear the first 5 minutes.

I would say that people like me are one reason why there shouldn't be loan forgiveness and perhaps low interest rates. I graduated in 2005. I still have ~$24,000 in loans. I could pay it off in full but I managed to lock in interest at around 1.8% (I don't remember exactly and it is currently at 0% for covid relief). Currently, I make more by investing that money than the cost of my monthly payment on the loan. In my current situation, it doesn't make sense for me to pay it off. What if they decide to forgive loans? How do they decide who to forgive? Do they forgive me? It's been 17 years and I still don't have it paid off. Honestly, if they decide to forgive loans I'm not going to say no even though I don't need forgiveness and I'm betting no one else would either. That's the problem. A bunch of people that have already paid off their loans or chose not to go to college gets stuck paying. I definitely think there needs to be changes made. I don't know what those changes should be but I think whatever changes should be going forward not forgiving past loans.

I agree. There is a lot of crazy talk out there, but what about the doctors that were ostracized for promoting ivermectin? What about the people kicked off social media for claiming the virus came from a lab? and I'm not going to lie... I totally had everyone I know that got the vaccine try to stick a magnet to their arm. As expected, none of them stuck but it was fun to try.

No, I understand what you are saying and I can also see how I could be frustrating. Like I said previously, it comes down to a persons perceived fear. The trial has been completed, but out of safety to the control group, they offered the vaccine before the observational portion was supposed to be complete. My hesitation of the vaccine is with the long term safety of a brand new, never to be approved before vaccine.

I agree. Save the kids, but they can't then refer to that trial as if it's untainted. Give the people the vaccine, but they can't toss out their numbers as fact when they have no control group to compare to. I'm not saying it was wrong to give the vaccine. I'm saying it's wrong to use the data from the trial as if it is from a well-run randomized trial.

I'm glad you noted this, otherwise I would have probably scanned your quotes and moved on. Instead I took time to read it. It was interesting. I really struggle with the misinformation label. Who is to determine what constitutes misinformation? At this point, I feel anyone with a differing opinion to the status quo gets that label and not just a differing opinion about the vaccine. I'm wondering if anyone has really sat down and talked to those that are hesitating and not just relied on informal polls? Pretty sure "sprinting" for approval will have the exact opposite effect than what they are hoping for. I agree the science has been done for the last 1.5 years. "there is no vaccine where adverse effects first appear more than eight weeks after the shot. So we can be confident that we now know what to expect." In the entire article, this is what jumps out at me. How can they be confident when they are comparing never before used mRNA vaccine to more traditional vaccines.

I’m new on social media. It’s definitely different than real life. I’ve found it fascinating the last few days to watch how difficult it is for people (one either side) to admit fault with their side. I guess in real life, people get called out, but on here it’s much easier to ignore what you don’t want to deal with. I admit to posting because I was interested to see if any of the pro vaccine people would say that this was a bad way to conduct a scientific study. We’re on a homeschooling forum. I’m assuming that means most posters either homeschool or homeschooled in the past. Every fall, I get to go over the scientific method and how to set up a good experiment with my kids. What Moderna and Pfizer did, does not make a good experiment. I don’t actually know where I stand on this. I would assume that most people who signed up for the trial did so because they believe that a vaccine would provide protection against covid. Disregarding the fact that they joined a trial, is it right to withhold the vaccine from them? Again, disregarding the trial that they signed up for, I’m all for people making their own health choices. That doesn’t change the fact, that from a scientific standpoint, Moderna and Pfizer pretty much screwed the pooch.