Thank you! This is super helpful.

If you have a fully electric (i.e. not a hybrid) car, what has been your experience? What model do you have? Do you love it? Wish you had made other choices? I test drove a 2014 Nissan Leaf yesterday and have to admit that I was impressed. Would love to hear others' experiences with their EVs.

Bumping. Nobody?

My son really enjoys Brain Pop and the My Incredible Body apps for the iPad. I would like to find him more science related apps. Do you have any recommendations? Late elementary to middle school level content would be ideal. Thanks so much for any recommendations.

My heart is broken for you. Words cannot express my sorrow.

We are enrolling my son in a charter school with a homeschool program for K in the fall. You can take up to three days of enrichment classes on site (which is what we plan to do), homeschooling the rest of the time. His classes will include math games, unit studies, science, literature, Spanish, Legos, gardening, art, music, and musical theatre. There is no issue of fitting in because all the kids at the charter school are homeschooled.

Tried here in CA, and it's a no-go.

Another vote for Singapore. I've never seen Saxon, but we switched from Math Mammoth and are very happy with it. We plan to transition to Beast in a year.

This is very helpful information. Thank you so much for taking the time to explain all of this. I was clicking on the wrong link before.

Perhaps, I am looking in the wrong place, but all I see is a series of Q&A from users, sorted by keyword. Reading through the various topics, I am completely overwhelmed. So many brands and sizes. How does one even know where to start in choosing? And, it's not like these things are returnable if the fit isn't right. Isn't there a menstrual cup 101 video that can break it all down for newbs? And do you really have to go fussy around with your cervix to do this?

Are there some brands that are known to be better for heavier periods? I've thought about switching many times to cups, but always heard complaints of leakage. Now, that we are back on our sailboat, I'd rather not deal with tampons (that I cannot flush down our marine toilet) and pads.

What is your source for this information? I have never heard such a thing. ETA: http://www.disabilitysecrets.com/page7-11.html

It's not that I am unsympathetic to the OP, or that I don't understand her dilemma. But, she asked for opinions on whether we would say something, and I personally would not. That's not a commentary on anyone else's choices, but like I said, I cannot imagine doing it personally. I likely just have a different perspective, given that I live in a very communal environment on a sailboat. You have very little privacy in a marina. You can see/hear into other people's boats and they can see/hear into yours more readily than in a home. My family has seen nudity and people having sex, had neighbors blast music with explicit lyrics, and yes, watched people broadcast all manner of shows on TVs mounted outdoors on their decks. We also just returned from a year in Mexico, where it was not uncommon for loud parties to go on well into the night, regardless of the feelings of the uppity American who just managed to get her baby to sleep. My next door neighbor also used to blast novellas loudly into the night; they had explicit content that my son could understand and hear clearly from his room after he went to bed. So, it's not that I've never been in the OPs position. Perhaps, it's that I have been in a similar position so often that I have just learned to let some things go (because neighbor squabbles in communal living tend not to end well for anyone), or found ways to adjust my own life so that my neighbors' behavior didn't affect me/my family as much. That doesn't mean that what I would do is necessarily the right thing for her. In short, YMMV.

Game of Thrones is hardly pornography. I can't imagine telling my neighbor to turn off one of the most popular shows in the country in his own home after 8pm.

My husband and his family have all had similar wait times (2-3 years) for surgeries in Quebec. My husband was in pain for quite a long time because of it. He is now a dual citizen, but is still often amazed by the comprehensive and speedy care that he receives in the U.S. As an aside, I had a severe asthma attack when I was visiting Quebec one summer. My meds were not working to resolve the issue and things were getting worse. We went to the ER. They triaged me very high (according to my husband), but still told me that the wait would likely be close to 24 hours. They also required a $1500 deposit before they would treat me (even though I had insurance that covered me while out of the country). In the U.S., an ER has to treat you no matter where you are from or what you can pay. I found it interesting that Canada, or at least Quebec, did not share the same philosophy. We ended up having a doctor friend phone in a script for a steroid for me to a Canadian pharmacy.

Ask a liveaboard sailor. Ask an Army vet. Ask a Stanford grad. Ask a college football fanatic. Ask a wine snob. Ask a [retired] lawyer. Ask the mentally ill (bipolar). Those last two are likely related. :)

Ideally, Monte Carlo or Tel Aviv. Realistically, probably on a catamaran somewhere.

Thank you. To be clear, especially for anyone contemplating an Orthodox conversion, while the process is long, and can be frustrating at times, and while the Orthodox world can seem intimidating at first to outsiders, I found the Orthodox community to be very welcoming overall to anyone expressing a sincere desire to learn and grow in a Jewish life. I came to the Orthodox world with a very feminist worldview and numerous misconceptions about the treatment of women in traditional Jewish life. People in the community opened their homes, their families, and their way of life to me for shabbat, for festivals, to mentor me -- so much so that I frequently had to turn down invitations because I had so many. These people, my people remain today some of my closest friends and mentors. I will forever be grateful for their chesed/kindness and generosity.

I like this series of books by Gerald Shroeder, who is an MIT-trained physicist. He gives a very interesting take on the creation story from a scientific and Jewish perspective. http://www.amazon.com/Genesis-Big-Bang-Theory-Discovery-ebook/dp/B005KB0V62/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398973040&sr=8-1&keywords=genesis+and+the+big+bang

Thank you, Eliana. That is very kind of you to say, but I am undeserving of such praise. As I was going through the very protracted Orthodox conversion process, while I understood on an intellectual level the reasons for the lengthy ordeal, a large part of me felt that all the hoop-jumping (made all the more complicated because I was a single woman at the time, not motivated by engagement to a a frum man, which seemed to expedite the process) was supremely unfair and ridiculous. Historically, conversion has played an important role in the lives of Kol Yisrael, and I sincerely doubt Ruth and her contemporaries had to endure anything resembling the modern political quagmire that is today's Orthodox gerus process. Nevertheless, Yael is right. Converts flame out and do not fully embrace the yolk of the mitzvos. It is hard to leave one's old life behind -- for a variety of reasons. I was not really converting "from" something per se -- true, my family is Catholic, but I was never a Christian. I *always* knew that much, even when I struggled to define my relationship with Hashem. I never mourned the loss of Santa and the Easter bunny, so much as the loss of non-kosher restaurants and USC football games on Saturdays, even though those things are just as superficial. The loss of my 24/7 connection to the modern world was the biggest challenge, made all the more complicated because Judaism is meant to be a family and communal affair, and I was a single woman working 80+ hours per week in a large law firm in a relatively small Jewish community. It was problematic on many levels, as you can imagine. Unlike Yael, my level of observance has waxed and waned over time. So, I suppose it is fitting that things progressed as they did with the RCC. I did eventually marry. My husband is from Montreal. He is not Jewish. He was not raised with any religion, but it was a requirement for me that we would have a Jewish home, which I defined to mean that there would not be any other competing religions. Our children are obviously raised as Jews, and welcomed in the Conservative world based on my conversion. Over the 7 years of our marriage, he has grown in his knowledge of Judaism (even attending several Chabad seders with me -- you can imagine that commitment!), but I would never force a conversion on anyone. He has expressed an interest in making aliyah someday, so, if it takes us 10 or 20 years to get to the point where we are completely shomer mitzvos and complete an Orthodox conversion as a family, then that was simply Hashem's plan all along. But, I know that I am a Jew, perhaps just a slow learner who takes a circuitous path. ;)

I guess I can chime in on this one since I have personal experience with the Orthodox conversion process through the Beth Din at the RCC (Rabbinical Council of California) in LA. My experience was sadly very political and not unlike what Nasdaq described. My sponsoring rav was at a Modern Orthodox shul in Orange County -- not exactly the epicenter of the frum world. About a year into the conversion process, my rav and his family made aliyah. It took the shul another 1.5 years to find a new rav, but the RCC did not feel the new rav was suitably machmir to oversee the conversion, which was, in most everyone's opinion, ridiculous. But, regardless, the RCC did not give a hoot about me or my feelings on the matter. At that point, I was already 3 years into the conversion process and incredibly frustrated by the whole experience. I ultimately backed away from the RCC, and was born into the waters of the mikvah at the University of Judaism in LA several months later, based on my studies in the Orthodox world. I understand that that fact makes me not a Jew to many in this thread, and I respect that. Most of my Jewish friends and mentors are Orthodox, and they understand that I made the decision that was right for me at that time. At some point, the bitterness of the experience with the RCC will likely fade, and my family and I will make aliyah and complete an Orthodox conversion. But, for now, I am content continuing to learn and grow in the Conservative world.

I am in the same boat. As my 9 month old has become more mobile, and my 5 year old more interested in Minecraft than in sitting down to focus on school, I've been slashing things from the schedule right and left, realizing that I've been overly ambitious about next year. The 5 year old is only going to be homeschooling with me 3 days per week. The rest of the time, he's going to be taking classes like art, gardening, Legos, and World Beat on site at his Charter School. And I've resolved to be totally fine with it. He's already doing second grade work. He deserves some fluff in his K year. I need time to focus on the baby. I know women on this board manage to masterfully educate 10 kids at a time, while keeping a clean house, and scratch cooking dinner, but I am just so not that person! :)

Eliana, if it isn't too personal, I am curious if you grew up in a frum family or if you are a BT? I appreciate you sharing your learning and wisdom in this thread.

A timely thread on Yom HaShoah. Yasher Koach for doing this.

This is why I love this board. Ask a practical question about which books to use to save a buck, get an enlightening discussion about developing deeper mathematical understanding. I have a serious crush on this place.