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SanDiegoMom

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Everything posted by SanDiegoMom

  1. So my neighbor went away and asked us to feed their turtle. They are very good people and I don't know the story but they now have this turtle that they know is is illegal but I suspect they took it in for someone else. It looks like a juvenile. I don't think they know very much about how to take care of it. We don't either, but one look at the set up makes me think they haven't put too much thought into it. There is a lamp but they haven't been using it much. There are some rocks but he is young and has a hard time getting up on them, and from what I read it seems they need a dry rock to bask on. They have just a small thing of pellet food for juvenile turtles and she said just give him 5-6 per day and didn't mention anything other food. We are googling right now and trying to see if there is anything we are missing but if there are any turtle experts out there, can someone let me know if I'm missing something here? This is honestly why I never allowed any caged creatures in my house (for the most part -- we had one hamster and one gerbil long ago). It is so stressful and I feel so guilty looking at critters in cages.
  2. I've listened to all his podcast interviews but haven't read the book yet. I am going to order it now. Research was mentioned upthread -- just guessing here but I think the push has for so long to improve female performance and equity, and the flip in outcomes now has been so swift and sudden we weren't really prepared for it. One of the things Reeves mentioned (at least I think it was him -- it was quite awhile ago!) was that there is no good model/slogan for encouraging young males. We have "Girl Power", "The Future is Female", "Girls Rule", "Girl Boss" etc. But what do boys have? There's toxic masculinity, and then we have the biblical/conservative model of male as provider and head of the household. But what if you are liberal, centrist or atheist? Regarding careers and using math/computer science as an example. For years there has been efforts to close the gap in a lot of the sciences. And I absolutely hope there are no barriers to women anymore in what they choose to pursue. But if computer science is 80 percent dominated by males because most girls just aren't interested, why do we keep on throwing scholarships and program opportunities to encourage girls in some stem programs and bemoaning the fact that the statistics remain skewed? The latest research I had seen was that in the most progressive countries (Denmark for example) where the gender gap was smallest, the employment skewed the heaviest towards traditional gender norms.
  3. A few months ago while trying to help my son come up with ideas about what to do this summer I came across some of these programs that mentor students to do research and then publish a paper. I had always seen those posts on college confidential -- 4.7 gpa, varsity captain this, president that, and published a paper, etc etc. I didn't know how they had done it. And then I saw these programs. One was over 6k to go through the summer research program, and an extra 2k to publish. It just felt so wrong. I really hope colleges are catching on.
  4. Every school is different and every student's experience is different, but I will say on paper my kids are both taking a decent amount of AP classes (junior year one has four plus cc linear algebra, and one has 3) and I really haven't seen hours of homework. Now, they do both take study hall, which helps a lot, but over the course of their high school so far the horror stories never really materialized. I have seen periods of heavy homework interspersed with days of no homework. However, I have also seen a lot of high achieving students who spend longer than they need doing homework, who study longer than they need to on tests, or wait until later in the evening to start homework and then complain about having to be up until 2 am doing homework. My kids have decent but not overwhelming EC's, do homework at a reasonable time, and are in bed by 10 pm every night. Now, my son doesn't have to study because it all just seems to come easily to him (even Physics E and M) while my daughter is more selective about what she takes! It was a big adjustment to the hours in class and loss of free time, but they did adjust, and don't regret going. Neither is aiming for Ivies.
  5. Our neighborhood has tennis courts and two have been converted to pickle ball courts. During the pandemic we went as a family off and on to play, and it is so much fun. I enjoy it so much more than tennis. The only problem in our family is that two of us have a similar skill level, one is not super strong, and the last one pretty much mops the court with us, lol. Of course I have been dating/married to him for 31 years so I am used to his ever present athletic abilities, but my kids could get pretty irritated! I think I am inspired to reserve a court again for this weekend!
  6. We have a Venza -- almost got the hybrid RAV 4 and opted for the Venza which is also a hybrid and has similar gas mileage. My area is hilly so it doesn't hit the optimal mpg - it is supposed to be 40 mpg and I get 37.5. A fill up is about 10 or 11 gallons and I get 475 miles out of one tank.
  7. Well, he just applied to the nearby Aops campus to be a math assistant during the summer camps, so fingers crossed that will work out! Covid combined with this kid's personality has made it really slow to convince him to add group activities. The things he did join took a lot of convincing, and often in his mind the opportunity has to be "perfect" before he'll consider it. And perfect doesn't mean most elite or prestigious, it means lined up perfectly with his interests, perfect amount of hours, perfect time of day, etc. So the job I thought he would be perfect to apply to at a kid's coding studio, he refused. Even though the hours were great, it was nearby, and his closest friend works there, he had the impression it had a bad manager and he decided it would be too painful. The four hour a month chess club assistant he didn't like because he felt he wouldn't be good enough at chess. (he has invested time in watching chess videos, reading books about chess, but doesn't spend every day playing so he doesn't think he's good enough). I did convince him with the promise that I would help him quit if it turned out to be a bad fit! He's got a lot going on despite the rigid mindset, so I'm not too worried overall. I just hope he can get into a UC that is nearby and is a major that he is happy about!
  8. I really hope so, since if other opportunities don't pan out, he will be taking the group theory class this summer, and it will be taking a significant amount of time!
  9. it's the age too, probably. Just my two cents, but my twins definitely slumped academically around last middle school, needing more time to veg out and play on MC and talk with friends. Now as juniors they are much more intellectually engaged again with the world. 🙂
  10. I did not read the replies but I will just say that my mom was with me for the first four months, and after that things were still not easy, but survivable. Neck strength on their part was a big help, and by four months one was only waking up once a night and the other twice, and it was more routine. That's not to say I wouldn't have kept help if it was still available, but things started to get more predictable.
  11. Are you using the Intensive Practice workbooks for Singapore Math? I didn't bother with the regular workbooks with SM. We just did IP, and he blazed through those fast enough. He was ready for PreAlgebra by the end of second. We didn't have Beast Academy then. He went to Aops PreAlgebra in 3rd and that took about a year and a half. We had lots of books on the side for him to read/do. We did Zaccaro, we had Life of Fred, Murderous Maths, He loved Computational Fairy Tales (coding, but it appeals to the quirky math kids). He did Perplexors.
  12. I just went and counted -- he should have (assuming he takes the CC math class and takes the course load planned for senior year) 28 A-G classes. 13 AP's.
  13. He wants to take AOPS Group Theory this summer. Which won't count for A-G, but he's really interested in it! He's also probably going to try to take Diff EQ at the CC as well, if he can handle both. That's a lot of summer math, but at least Diff EQ is A-G I am assuming, since it's at the CC. And it's one last class to add to the UC GPA as it's the summer after 11th. These complicated rules surrounding the UC application are so onerous. It's no wonder so many people are confused. I think the GPA is the worst. My kids have three GPAs listed on their school account and none of them are the actual calculated UC GPA.
  14. As a PS student, the only course listed in my kid's course catalog as an honor's class with an extra point is the Honor's Principles of Engineering. It is a UC approved honor's point. All the rest of the honors classes do not have the bump. Only AP classes. I think within the school they have a bump, but we have never really calculated that GPA - only the UC GPA. I think rules for homeschoolers and those applying from out of state are different. However the UCs do look at the number of A-G classes, and I really haven't looked enough at the range of accepted student A-G classes. My son should be ok, as all of the classes he's taken WITHIN the PS (other than PE) have been A-G. And he's taken two CC college classes, which should count. I just didn't know how they treated classes that don't really have official A-G approval (not taken through a charter, no approval through PS). As long as I can list them somewhere!
  15. So I know in the past AOPS and UC application questions have been answered, but most of my searching only brought up answers in context of homeschooling. My son will be applying next year as a public school student. He's ok with extra curriculars, but not a super strong standout -- he didn't get much into competitions, only minor leadership, only applied to a couple of internships and that's not looking good this summer. But he has taken a LOT of AOPS courses, has devoted a LOT of time to them, and I would like to at least have a place for that to be acknowledged. In particular, his Intermediate Number Theory course (from 8th grade??) and this summer he will be taking group theory -which should be a substantial time commitment. Also he took Connie's Intro to Organic/Biochem in ninth. None of these will have A-G approval, which he really doesn't need to cover his bases -- he's got them all covered through high school. Will he be able to add them anyway? I really need to just make a dummy account to look at the UC app. Or just be patient until the summer when it opens for next year!
  16. yes, from my understanding here, Dual Enrollment gives high school and college credit, while concurrent enrollment gives just college credit.
  17. At my son's school, they only need two years of math to graduate. (It's a block schedule, so a semester equals one year course, so you could take two years worth of math in only one year). My son's ninth grade year he took a combined AP calc AB/BC course, giving him two years of math credit. He took AP Stats his tenth grade year for fun. Now the CC classes he is taking in math do require approval from the high school, but the high school is not giving him credit, only the college. The classes take place at night so there's no missing school. It's I think Concurrent Enrollment, vs Dual Enrollment? He will put the classes on his college app and submit separate transcripts.
  18. My ds is globally gifted and enjoys many aspects of literature, poetry, philosophy, etc. But his true love was always math -- from probably age three. By five he was reading Murderous Maths, Life of Fred, Penrose the Mathematical Cat, and so many others. During his 6th-8th grade years he spent half the academic day on math by choice. His MAP scores were both 99th percentile in second grade (the last year he was tested) However the Verbal score was like 2-3 grade levels advanced and the math was 4-5, probably because he spent so much outside time on math by choice.
  19. I'm not sure I'm following -- I know many kids who go into engineering in college who are taking math at the CC during high school -- so it's pretty common for kids to be done with Calculus by the end of 10th grade, and very common (among these kids) to be done by 11th. They take Multivariable and Linear Algebra during their 11th and 12th grade years. They get the college credit and free up room in their schedule to take fewer classes, or they retake with a stronger base of knowledge. That being said, both my kids we very happy having used AOPS. My strong math student loved the challenge, and my weaker one felt anything she learned from AOPS she understood better than the math she's gotten at the public school.
  20. I think the "autistic inertia", whether I could actually be diagnosed or not, is often a good description of what I struggle with. The Youtube channel Autism From the Inside (thanks @Rosie for suggesting this one way back!) talked about his struggle with monotasking, and getting stuck when there's something with a time frame coming. You can't do anything but wait. My dad does this -- if we are going to go somewhere, he gets ready and then just sits. He can't multitask, he's just sitting. Right now we have people working non stop around our house, it's noisy and intrusive, and I just find I can't move forward on anything just knowing they are here. I have the Landscaper coming by to pick up and a check and I started just "waiting" for her to come, feeling I couldn't focus on anything until after she leaves. (Writing this is a lot for me, otherwise I would jut be mindlessly sitting!) She could be late. I have no idea. But if I go start brining the chicken like I need to do, what if she shows up right then? My husband is very different -- he can work on anything, anywhere, at any time. He can jump back and forth between projects and family obligations easily. I feel like I can only concentrate on one thing, and when I am in an emotionally heightened state of anxiety, then I can't really concentrate on anything. I just spin my wheels. Sometimes just forcing through that wall to really CLEAN - like mopping, vacuuming, dusting, etc works, since it gets me active. But it's VERY hard to get started.
  21. I had this yesterday - hadn’t had it happen in so long I forgot how it felt. My anxiety was so high I felt like I was going to jump out of my skin. I couldn’t concentrate on anything major and my worries just started looping. The thing that works for me honestly (which I didn’t do yesterday and I should have) is running. Walking is ok but running releases so many more endorphins, and I always hit a meditative state after 2 miles or so. I just don’t get that with walking. I should maybe try meditation though as a backup for when I can’t run.
  22. It must have increased after I went to high school. We had only five APs (Macro and Micro taught as yearlong but two tests) and very few people took Calculus. Now I look at my high school and they offer 21. However they don't offer Chem or AP Physics C. It's not a high performing school - midsize (around 1600) but somewhat poorer area of town.
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