retiredHSmom
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Posts posted by retiredHSmom
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I know that I am going to lose 25% of my readers with my next sentence. I am so tired of velcro shoes. I am a reasonably young adult (over 30 under 70) with no motor deficits or arthritis or hand weakness. Why do so many shoes have velcro on them?
Now I will lose 95% of the rest of you. I HATE velcro on kids shoes as well. Really. They are ugly and don't stick well and I think that kids should learn to tie and buckle shoes and they can do it fairly young with some practice.
Okay, vent over.
I need to go find some comfortable, attractive fairly dressy leather shoes to wear with jeans and casual skirts that can be worn with socks and tights and don't velcro.
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I guess what you mean by early college is part of the question for me. My oldest and youngest began taking classes at the community college at 16. That has been a great opportunity. My middle child began full-time residential college at 14. I have mixed feelings about it.
Academically it was a great fit for her. She had plenty of REU and internship opportunities. Was published at 16. Graduated with a 3.96 GPA. Had her pick of grad schools and chose a school that she wanted to attend.
She missed out on Fulbright Scholarship and similar programs because she was too young to apply. She is now 19 and in a PhD math program. Fitting in with the other students has been hard. They all meet at a bar on Wednesday night, she can't. She is teaching classes full of students 2 years older than she is that is intimidating. She had to confront a male student this week who was cheating. She doesn't feel that she really fits in anywhere. The kids her age are in a whole different world and the other grad students are nice to her but lets be frank they are just in a different place in life.
We hoped that she would find peers in her early college program but few of the students were as motivated and serious as she was. There were issues with cheating and bullying. The school did not handle issues in the student body well and there were significant issues with substance abuse and suicide attempts. My daughter transferred after her junior year.
Oddly enough, she finally found a peer. A young man in our area who is a year younger than she is. He stayed home and took college classes at the state u all through high school, graduating at the usual time. He is now in another state as a freshman in college and is not really that happy. He doesn't feel like he really fits and he doesn't, he has had a hard time making friends. They Skype most weekends for an hour or two.
I am sure that eventually my daughter will fit in with her co-workers and peers but she just hasn't gotten there yet. My daughter speaks openly about the problems in the residential early college program and does not recommend it. She also acknowledges that her friend who stayed home isn't much better off and feels that maybe being the odd-man out is just part of life for the PG students in adolescence.
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We just did that this last week with our Junior. we travelled out of state, took the general campus tour, then met with professors in the Computer Science department, attended a class with a current student, met the rugby team and the marksmanship team coach. ​With the information we got it didn't seem too early at all and now my son is much more motivated as he has an idea of what he is working for.
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I am confused by some of the wording on the NROTC web page regarding college credit prior to scholarship application. The program requirements state a limit of 30 credit hours.Then in the details they have this wording:
- College credits do not count until an applicant has graduated high school and completed a term of college; then all college credits earned (prior to and after high school graduation) count towards the eligibility requirements.
I am reading this to say that if my son takes 18 credit hours while in high school and then takes 15 hours, first semester his freshman year at college, he will have a total of 33 hours and be ineligible for the Navy ROTC scholarship. Is this a correct interpretation?-
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One of my daughters has a 2011 Kia Forte 5, the other has a 2013 Hyundai Elantra. They have both been great cars. We bought both used.
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I also had really good customer service interactions with them, including some detailed phone calls for a couple issues.
My understanding is that they are going to keep it free for students, including independent students who do not have a school section. They get the videos and can do the programming and quizzes, but don't have access to anything in the coaches packet (like additional quiz material or solutions for the programs)
They do charge for access to coaching material. This is typically purchased by a school, but could also be done by a mentor who is coaching a small group or individual. The Homeschool option is new since ds did AP CS. This seems like it is the same as the coaches option I used, but specifically for a single student.
When I click on sign up now, it asks if the student has a token or is signing up independently. My guess is that if you purchased the homeschool option, there should be an email with token info or token info is within the coach login.
If your kid is doing the course without coach support (ie, just using the student side and forums for assistance), then probably the independent option is what you're looking for.
But again, their customer support was very very good. Reach out to them.
I did email them yesterday and figure that I will hear from them tomorrow. The four modules that I found under demo seem to be complete and all the other modules are there as well just not available yet. Looking at the course syllabus and schedule the only thing that seems to be missing are the quizzes and the lab assignments. Maybe you have to purchase the homeschool option to get those now.
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I am very interested in this for my son, so I registered at the site but now I have some questions. Is this free? Or is there a cost for it? We registered and clicked the email link to confirm the account but now the site wants a token. How do I get that? I did find the first four modules open under the course demo page. Is that what your students are using? I also found a link that I could use to purchase a student license for $150. Is that what I am looking for? Help, please.
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I think this is a good question and a very subtle one too.
As an example, my children are 25% Japanese. They do not look Japanese at all. My oldest has extremely pale, clear white skin, bright blue eyes and dark curly hair. My middle has golden, pink skin tones, blond "asian" hair. (very fine, very thick, very slippery) and green eyes. So it would be easy to dismiss the fact that they are 25% Japanese as inconsequential because they look white and are treated that way.
My MIL was a teenager during World War II, living in Japan and didn't emigrate to America until she was in her mid 30's. She raised my husband in a very traditional Japanese home. He used many of those traits in our home. My children are often very deferential especially to authority and will rarely rock the boat if a person in authority is wrong. They will go out of their way to let every other person go before them in social settings. Understanding her influence explains a lot about them.
Lastly my oldest daughter inherited the "asian glow" it is an enzyme deficiency that causes her to turn bright red all over when she drinks alcohol. It affect 36% of Japanese, Korean and Chinese individuals. The flushing is mild and seems not to matter, it also causes a runny nose and worsening of asthma which is a little more worrisome but "ALDH2-deficient drinker who drinks two beers per day has six to ten times the risk of developing esophageal cancer as a drinker not deficient in the enzyme.[3][13]" so understanding her 25% Japanese background might really matter. Even tough she looks white and was raised in the US.
I am tired of seeing race/ethnicity questions on every form we fill out though.
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Go look up Maudsley or Family Based Therapy. Basically you choose all her meals beginning today. Skipping is not an option.
Undereating can cause anxiety, depression and OCD behaviors.
I would also cut off all contact with the piano teacher's daughter, immediately. Especially if the daughter is in denial. At a minimum I would require 100% monitored visits.
I have real-life experience in this topic.
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This morning I discovered that we somehow just cracked the second crockpot liner in a year. It is leaking all over the place. (I have no idea how, but that fact that my 16 year old son helps with dishes may have something to do with it). When this happened 8 months ago I discovered that it was almost as expensive to replace the liner as to by a new slow cooker. So..in looking to replace it I came upon the idea of getting an instant pot instead. The problem is that I have no idea which one to get.
We are an asian family and have a very nice rice cooker already (If the instant pot can replace it, great but not a purchase point for me)
I have a sous vide and use it to make yogurt so that is not a needed program.
Which instant pot should I buy? Why?
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My dad started losing his hair in high school and by college was totally bald with just a rim of hair around the sides and back. It doesn't seem to be that uncommon but isn't unheard of either. I am sure that it is hard to acknowledge another "problem" in his life but in the grand scheme of life early baldness doesn't seem that bad. My brother began balding at 30 and shaved his head completely about 2 years later.
My 22 year old daughter has started finding gray hairs. I found my first gray hair at 42 and my 66 year old mother still has far, far more brow than white hairs. My daughter seems to have inherited the early graying that comes from my Japanese MIL..
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Just picked up our CSA box yesterday and we had fresh spaghetti squashes and collard greens. Yum! Didn't know what to make with them, so I created a new recipe using up some food from the fridge as well.
Ingredients:
1 spaghetti squash
1 bunch asparagus
1 bunch collard greens
1/2 lb brussel sprouts
salt & pepper
Tofurkey chicken & apple sausage
Wash vegetables.
Roast spaghetti squash for 1 hr at 350F, and scrape flesh out with a fork. While spaghetti squash is roasting, roast the asparagus, collard greens, and brussel sprouts at 425F, tossed with a tiny bit of EVOO. (First time I used my 2nd oven since Thanksgiving!)
Mix the vegetables together and season with salt and pepper.
Slice the sausage and warm in a pan.
Sprinkle the sausage over the top of the vegetables and serve!
If your family is picky like mine, you may want to add a sprinkling of vegan cheese, but I prefer it plain.
Enjoy!
DH and the kids loved it. Even my five-year-old niece (who I was babysitting) enjoyed it!
We have one spaghetti squash left though. Any suggestions?
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I have tried it. My MIL was Japanese and it was one of her favorite foods.
I am not at all picky, I will try most things. I loved my MIL and worked so hard to earn her respect at all times. My parents raised me with very good manners.
I took a bite and horror spread across my face, I could not swallow and I could not hold it in my mouth. I ended up spitting it into a napkin. That is the only time in my life that I have ever done that. I was so embarrassed about my poor manners.
My MIL, laughed and laughed.
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look for "bath bomb molds" I have used these from Amazon
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My ds12 is a lefty and did just fine with the Varsity pens. The ink dries fairly quickly.
Thanks
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How does this work out for lefties? I have a fountain pen that I have used for years and the ink takes so long to dry that I think a lefty would end up covered in ink.
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My son took a co-op class that used Schoology
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My son just finished his eagle project. Lowe's sold us materials at cost. What that actually means varies from item to item but overall the discount was 30%. (its lower on wood, higher on hardware). We were lucky in that the beneficiary paid for the materials. I do like the idea mentioned upthread of "selling" boards in the gazebo. I suspect that the families of the residents might be willing to buy them and local businesses too.
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I am so sorry.
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I live in Northern VA, just outside Washington DC.
We have natural gas (basement and 1st floor) and electric (2nd floor) heat, electric AC, electric oven, gas water heater, gas stove, gas water heater
We pay
150/month (average for the last 12 months) electricity
66/month (average for the last 12 months) gas
54/month (average for the last 12 months) water and sewer
trash is included in our HOA dues as is snow removal
We have no cable and pay 76/month for very high speed internet
We have VOIP for our home phone at 5/month
Our cell phone is crazy ($300) as we have 5 smartphones
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My daughter commutes to campus and just paid $750 for the year for a parking garage that is literally right outside the main building that she has classes in.
My other daughter lives in a pretty major city. On Campus parking is about $700 for the year for a parking garage. She lives off campus. Her apartment is literally across the street from the engineering building on campus and she pays $75 per month for an assigned parking garage spot.
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I agree that children are only children once, but how DO you balance these very ADULT goals with that childhood? I have NO idea. I feel so torn in many directions. The kid who said he will apply early to colleges but commute from home is now saying he would like to live in dorms. How to I reconcile myself with that? This might not be Donna's concern but this is a grown up decision and one I want to honor but also strike down because I am not ready to see him go off like that. Not now. Not so soon. But I might decide to because I have trusted him all this while, maybe I should have more faith?
If it helps your decision any, my daughter, who is now 19, says that 14 and 15 year olds do not ever belong in dorms. I am sure that she would be glad to pm you more if you would be interested.
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Yes, I have been there and am still standing there, to be honest. It seems at times like life with her is a constant crossroads and that we are always, always waiting on an answer or decision from somebody.
I can honestly say that if I had to do it again, i would have taken paths that allowed my daughter to pursue her interests but kept her more in line with her chronological peers. I would have preserved her "teenage years" so to speak. We kept thinking that our decision would allow her to find peers, people like her and they didn't. Now, funnily enough she has finally found a friend who is very close to her in age and ability but he is about to leave for college and she is going to grad school. All those grad school peers who are in her classes, they like her and like to spend time with her but she is not their "friend" they don't socialize outside of work. And work is another issue itself. She is teaching 4 recitations this fall and her students will all be older than she is. The other grad students get together at bars at the end of the week to grade together and she can't even get in. She wants to volunteer with several outreach opportunities in our community and she is too young to participate in them. Its not that she can't find another opportunity its that our world is based on an assumption about how old you will be at certain check points in life and being substantially younger prevents you from fitting in. I know that she will outgrow this eventually, but right now it stings for her and she always, always is the one that gets talked about in whispers and professors give her advice that they wouldn't give to her peers no matter how many times over she proves herself.
I don't know what crossroads you are at but I would really suggest that you consider all the future implications of the choices you have. Some paths will definitely be opened and some closed by your decisions and remember that no matter how mature your daughter seems she cannot understand how the decisions that are made will affect a life that she hasn't lived yet. Someone explained this to me and I didn't believe them and didn't listen and you probably won't listen to me, but our children, no matter how advanced, will really, truly only be children once. No matter how un-childlike they seem to be.
Now that I have said all that, I do not regret the choices we made. They opened many more doors than they closed and made my daughter who she is today. But...if I could do it again, I would have made many different choices starting about three years before the "final" big choice was made.
And we are at the crossroads again, this time as a spectator because while my daughter is only 19 she is now fully an adult. She has graduated from college and is totally financially independent. She has been accepted to a fully funded Phd program and has a highly interesting job offer from a government agency and she has one year to decide which path to take. If she finishes the PhD, surely they will be interested in hiring her again in four years and if she takes the job surely they will pay for her to complete a PhD and yet we have no crystal ball.
Enjoy the ride, try not to look back too much and remember that a 14 year old with the executive function skills of a 20 year old is still only 14.
(By the way, I have read your blog and realize that your decision is probably music performance related and that does put a different spin on things as you are probably looking at delayed academics rather that accelerated academics but I think that some of my points still stand.)
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Vent about shoes - JAWM
in The Chat Board
Posted
lots of dressier casual shoes for women have velcro. I am not a very casual dresser. Shoes like these: (sorry links and not pictures, I don't want to get SWB into trouble)
http://www.clarksusa.com/us/womens/womens-shoes/womens-casual-shoes/evianna-doyle-black-leather/p/26116318
http://www.clarksusa.com/us/womens-collections/womens-wide-width/everlay-luna-navy-leather/p/26120819
http://www.clarksusa.com/us/womens-technologies/womens-ortholite/un-briarcrest-black-leather/p/26121440
http://www.bornshoes.com/Product.aspx?ProductID=12259