Please post how the publisher’s website homeschool edition ends up working and if Kolbe was useful. I really wish they had a sample to see. DS informed me today he wants to switch to Spanish from Latin next year. Uggg.

I think this is the heart of why I’m struggling. DH is a doctor. He struggled getting into medical school because he wasn’t a great test taker. Don’t get me wrong, he had good grades and MCAT scores, but they weren’t the highest. But after college and med school, he’s excelled. He’s now a very highly thought of specialist, chair of his department, and on the Medical Executive Committee of the hospital. His patients love him and other doctors seek him out for advice. DS takes after his father. It’s not that he doesn’t know the material, he does. He’s great at math. The problem is how do I reflect that on a transcript?

OP here - I think this is why I’m struggling. My boys have used Math Mammoth through grade 7. We would work through a chapter and when we thought they mastered the material, they would take the chapter quiz as a way to verify that there were no gaps. Anything they missed, we would redo. There were no grades, we would just go over anything until they were completely fluent in it. Now I’m trying to figure out how to translate this to a “transcript”. And with a child with anxiety, the idea of quizzes and tests being “high stakes” rather than an assessment tool is a problem. As an example, chapter 1 in Foerester is all review for him but he really struggled mentally taking the test (he ended up with 96%) because of a few boneheaded mistakes. He can do his math daily work in minutes joking how easy it is, but because it was a test, it took him hours. We’re going to continue to teach to mastery - I don’t know how you can’t in math, but how do I approach giving him a grade?

Hi everyone. DS is in 8th grade and has started Algebra 1 using Foerster and Math without borders. This is the first time I’m having to grade and I’m unsure how to weight everything (homework, quizzes, final exam, etc). DS has diagnosed anxiety and sometimes struggles with testing, so I’d prefer to weight exams as low as possible but I’m not sure what’s reasonable. Any advice? Jenn

MIL and I have completely different ideas and tastes. This year she got me an electric fly swatter. It was the same thing she gave me last year. Older DS has decided that he wants it so he can use it on his brother. Then DH told her I wanted new heavy duty, dark cookie sheets in a certain size (I think it was 12x18, he measured my existing ones so she couldn’t screw if up). I got shiny ones that were so big they literally do not fit in my standard size oven. At least this year she didn’t try to get me clothes.

Thank-you Lanny. I didn't see your reply until after I posted but it's great to see you confirm what I thought I was seeing.

This is where I'm having a problem. I have no idea how to tell what the best graphics card is. All the specs give info, but I don't know how to compare them. I think from my reading that a solid state drive is faster than a hard drive (and laptops with SSDs seem to get better reviews on bestbuy.com) and I know that roblox and minecraft and word processing don't require much memory, but then I heard that not having enough RAM could also make the laptop slow. I feel completely lost and helpless. I was looking at the HP 15-bs121nr which has Intel HD Graphics 5500 with a core i3-5005u (2 GHz) processor. Would that work? It doesn't look like it has a touch screen. I would rather spend more money if it's necessary to get him what will work, or not get anything at all rather than get something that won't work. The problem is, I have no clue about computers. I use my v3 IPad for almost everything and an old Toshiba (5 years old, I think) for paying bills. So any help would be greatly appreciated.

All older DS has asked for Christmas is a laptop. I've been looking into them and I'm lost. He wants to be able to do his schoolwork on it, but also play minecraft and roblox. After spending days searching, I'm overwhelmed by the choices. I'd like to spend about $300 but could go a little higher if needed. Does anyone have any suggestions or could point me in the right direction? thanks!

You can definitely scan bar codes with the basic version of MFP. I can also bring up macro nutrients for the day without having to subscribe to the premium version. It also connects to the apple health app and the garmin vivoactive.

Thank-you all for your opinions. It was interesting to see the range of responses. Jenn

Hive - I could use some advice. Long story short: DS11 asked to play Fortnite saying several of his friends play. DH and I went to download on the Xbox and thought that the violence was too realistic (shooting lifelike people) so we've said no. We're not opposed to shooting as DS is allowed to play Roblox and uses the air gun to shoot and kill chipmunks that are in my gardens. What say the Hive? Thanks!

All the medical practices at my husband's hospital (New Hampshire) have practice managers. Their role is to oversee all the administrative personnel and lower level medical staff - including the front desk, schedulers, physician assistants, and nurses. They also "oversee" the physicians and nurse practitioners administratively - vacation, calling in sick, expense reports, and handle some patient complaints. They do not have anything to do with medical decisions.

The price may or may not be reasonable. But having used a company where the owner had an attitude like that - avoid them at all costs. Every night before they came, I would almost be in tears as I was trying to straighten the house and dreading what she would say to me this time. I finally got up the nerve to fire her when my husband was changing jobs and we needed to save money. A couple months later, a couple of her employees (who were always nice) stopped by to see how we were doing and let us know they were going out on their own cleaning and to keep them in mind if we ever needed help. We pay them $25/per hour per person and even when my house looks like a tornado passed through and I apologize, they tell me that that's what they are here for. There's no judgement. Since I pay them by the hour, the messier my house is, the more it ends up costing me, but they are more than happy to do anything I ask them to do. They are wonderful! We also priced Merry Maids and their prices were outrageous! They charge a set price based on the size of your house which may or not be reasonable. For us, we're fairly minimalistic, so I don't have a ton of nicknacks to dust and I run a Roomba so it's mostly bathrooms and the kitchen.

Not addressed to me, but I would have a hard time spending any time in that room even after it was picked up. There is something "jarring" about it (for lack of a better word) that would make me want to leave the room. In my house, my rooms are comfortable - Lots of earth tones, area rugs breaking up the large expanses of hardwood, and pictures on the wall framed in natural wood tones to break up the walls.

There's something discordant? about that room. Even with every item picked up, I think there would still be something jarring about it. With the white, white walls and dark furniture and rug on the floor, it just doesn't feel comfortable. Because of that, every item that is out of place seems wore than it is. I have a throw blanket (or 2) on my couches, but they don't seem as messy. The room just doesn't feel joyful for some reason.