Using the calculator, 100K for a family of 4 puts you smack dab in the 50th %ile, and 250K puts you at the beginning of upper class (20th %ile).

Preach! :coolgleamA: I agree with Hornblower, I think that you need to make a stronger defense of your daughter. Yes, it is important to learn that there is a time and a place to be trendy (which is why my body mods were always hidden beneath clothes), and that we don't always get to dictate our appearance in the real world, but this isn't about him complaining about how she looks when she goes off to her job or an interview. He is criticizing her general appearance re her style of makeup. That is simply not appropriate, IMO.

I agree. I've also noticed that even speeding tickets are more of a pain in the arse in Canada -- no talking your way out of it, etc. like we have here. I explained to my husband that, if he ever got pulled over here, he needed to be extremely polite and contrite, and that he had a good shot of being let off with just a warning. That was something he had never seen before in Quebec. Especially in California, in general, and unless you just get caught at a random stop/check point, you really have to be driving obnoxiously to get pulled over for speeding and/or a DUI. I only know one friend who has gotten a DUI, and she was a functioning alcoholic who drove drunk all the time. Nothing really happened to her over it either; she just got an attorney, paid whatever fine he negotiated, and that was that. She was still able to drive, etc. I don't know the details of her defense, but I get the feeling that this is not an uncommon result here in California. ETA: "A good DUI defense attorney can often get 1st-time DUI charges reduced to a lesser offense (such as a "wet" reckless1, dry reckless2, or exhibition of speed or "speed ex."3 ) and sometimes dismissed altogether." http://www.shouselaw.com/first-time-dui.html And now with Uber and Lyft, most people who are really concerned with drinking and driving have so many options.

Totally.

Anchoring the boat with some friends in Glorietta Bay/Coronado, so the kids can play on the beach, and then watching the Big Bay Boom fireworks show from the deck of the boat. I love how the whole thing is synchronized all over San Diego: http://www.bigbayboom.com/

I would also add that, if I had to drive in Canadian weather, I would be much more concerned about this. Living in Southern California, weather is just not a factor in driving.

I also notice that there are a lot of Canadians posting in this thread. From what my husband has explained to me, DUIs used to be a huge problem in Quebec (I assume Canada generally as well). So, the government really cracked down on it. From what I have observed, over the last 10 years of being around Canadians, they are much more concerned about this issue vs. Americans, so I think the government PSAs and laws have had an effect on the national mentality.

I put in 3 drinks, 2 hours, and my weight/sex into the BAC calculator, and get 0.038, which is still way under the 0.08 limit. Am I understanding this correctly? As long as I eat, I generally don't worry about how much I drink. I am a big girl and drink wine with dinner.

Thank you so much!

I tried to access them today, but could not find them online anymore. All I see are the chem videos. Can someone link me up? Thanks. http://www.gpb.org/chemistry-physics/students/physics

This might be helpful: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/366368-killgallon-story-grammar-vs-sentence-composing-for-elementary/

I have both. We started with Story Grammar, as it looked easier.

After Scratch, mine moved on to Minecraft modding with Youth Digital. He loved the class.

For first grade this year, we did WWE2, MCT Island, Mosdos 3rd grade level, Junior Great Books 3rd and 4th grades, Killgallon Story Grammar, Rod & Staff Spelling 3rd grade, and read lots of books. ETA, we also did New American Cursive 1. Next year, for 2nd grade, we are moving up in every level, except switching to Megawords for spelling, and adding Athena's for lit, and Treasured Conversations and CAP Fable for writing. I really want to move him into writing paragraphs.

I've met at least one person from the Hive in person, but I hope to meet more! :)

I am the same way. Southern California is very dry, but Northern California could definitely be a fit. Yes, SF and coastal areas can get gloomy, but you just go inland 10-20 miles and it's usually gone.

You could try asking for more information here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1701738830074393/ And here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/964284686950034/ We don't homeschool with Inspire, but they are very popular in our area because of the $$$.

What kills me is that the thing was only a million in 2001. Not that I had a million in 2001, but still. :lol:

Yeah. You need to room with Liz and I at our beachfront pad in La Jolla.

On the water in Bird Rock/La Jolla. I like to fall asleep to the sound of the ocean. Moderate climate year-round, no humidity, no bugs, plenty of things to do in the city, easy access to the airport for travel. Something like this: http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/5672-Dolphin-Pl-La-Jolla-CA-92037/16855592_zpid/

We are also with a CA charter. It has been a great fit for my extremely extroverted son. I feel like we get the best of all world's homeschooling this way.

I needed to read this today: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/06/15/what-happened-when-an-orthodox-jewish-congregation-went-to-a-gay-bar-to-mourn-orlando/ I hope it touches others. Also standing in solidarity and love.

Alpha Oops is awesome!

Thanks for all of your thoughts. To answer some of the questions, we have Kaiser, through what used to be called Healthy Families in CA, but is now included in the Obamacare Medicaid expansion. Basically, they expanded Medicaid/Medi-Cal to include middle class families that used to be excluded. His ped at Kaiser put in a speech referral when he was 2, but my understanding was that Kaiser's speech services were very poor. I was told by several other parents that we would be better off calling the San Diego Regional Center to get EI services, which we did. And the therapists have been great. Our coordinator assigned him an SLP that is very well regarded and also gave him an OT/teacher (when he really didn't need OT) just so that she could work an extra hour per week with him on speech. As I said, he has made a lot of progress -- he talks up a storm, has extensive vocab and use of language, it is just not intelligible enough. He has great eye contact, and is extremely social. No one suspects ASD or any other issue beyond the speech delay. He has his 3 year ped appointment coming up soon, so I can try to follow up on the speech referral to see if Kaiser offers anything worthwhile (since he will now have an IEP). I did check with my SLP and she has the basic level PROMPT training. There only seem to be a few SLPs in SD that have the next higher level certification. I will not be able to keep him home with me because my older son requires a lot of my attention. Plus, Ronen absolutely loves preschool. He would hate being stuck at home all day with very little attention from me. Re swimming, Ronen has been in the water since he was 5 weeks old, and now can dive and swim across the short end of a pool. His gross motor skills are off the charts. He rode a regular (not the toddler version) Razor scooter before 18 months and was able to ride a regular pedal bike with no training wheels at 2.5. He plays soccer and is a total athlete. His fine motor skills are on target or perhaps slightly ahead. He can do puzzles and play games that are beyond his age, though no where near like my (gifted) oldest could. As far as I can tell, it is really just the intelligibility that is the issue.

He will be 3 in August. I would estimate that he is intelligible less than 25% of the time with strangers. I guess, I am just trying to figure out exactly what I should be asking for in this meeting, in terms of goals, services, etc. I feel so lost.