Why don't you just ask outright and very matter of factly when he is going to divide up dad's money? You know, as if your dad had discussed themoney with you?

I have a teenager and a tween. I am upfront with them that as long as they are minors and I am responsible for them, I have the right to exercise my snooping rights on their devices. I do not/would not search diaries or their rooms unless I had a darned good, safety-related reason, and I do believe in increasing privacy and increasing personal responsibility as they get older. But legal and moral trouble with the use of electronic devices has far more grave consequences than a diary sitting in a bedroom. I am not so much concerned with porn as I am with other ways they think up to get into trouble, but I can understand why porn might be a concern to some. Whatever you choose to do is fine, I think, as long as you notify your DS of your standards upfront. ETA: My kids don't have smartphones, just dumb phones, and they won't have them until they are 18 and buy them for themselves. Their computer time is tightly restricted. I do this because I don't have the time to monitor the little buggers like they need to be monitored (especially DD).

The BS-ed her on this. The company knew *long* before the buyout that there were clerical errors and vacation due because combing through those records is part of the due diligence that companies do before they buy, and those buys don't happen overnight. The old company just didn't *tell* her in a timely way, probably because they needed her free labor before the sale went through.

I suspect this, as well, because this happened to me (although I worked for a decent company that was clear in informing us up-front what the deal and the conditions were).

She needs to call the employment commissioner in her state and find out what the laws are, because they vary from state to state; any burden of vacation would be on the old company, it seems. At the same time, she needs to start looking for new employment because that new company will never be a good place for her to work long-term because of potential resentment that probably has built up (understandably). She should not tell the company where she is interviewing (or even that she is interviewing), where she gets a job, or even if she is n the same city. Let them find her to enforce the non-compete clause; all that is pretty tough to do for an employee that is not high-level, so she shouldn't give that another thought.

I've never tried this, so I cant' vouch for it's effectiveness, but I had a friend who used to double-plug super+ tampons, and also use a long overnight super-absorbency pad at the same time.

I usually do.

Where did you wind up?

I will probably do this, very slightly at first, and with an incentive to reduce more if he test scores remain high and her error rate is reduced. I'll start with 5 of the problems that are easiest for her and go from there, once I see how this works.

Yes, the first bolded paragraph is very close to what we do, as I posted upthread. I can also see that this might be the case with the second bolded paragraph. I asked DD if she would like to change programs, but she doesn't. She hated AoPS when we had that. However, I am open to introducing her to a different book and seeing how that goes if anyone has any ideas on what might be an appropriate text. She does seem to need fairly extensive review (even if not quite as much as Saxon).

Thanks for the ideas! I will definitely move to immediate feedback, and come up with some incentive to be more diligent with the problems. By "newer concept" I mean those lessons and problems that have not been seen on a test yet. Although the basic concept is presented early on, Saxon adds more complexity as the lessons get deeper into the book, and the conceptual trouble with newer concepts happens in those lessons (where the lessons with more complexity haven't been tested yet). Once she has practiced something a bit, she generally doesn't make mistakes of understanding. By the time I look at the tests, she has already done the work and checked it over; I don't check the test until it is ready for grading.

I think this may be part of the problem. as well, and that she is done and over it at the thought of doing that much math each day. She doesn't care for math that much. How do you decide which problems your kid is going to do?

I don't turn DD loose to self-teach entirely. I try to encourage independence while still being close by, if that makes sense. I detailed our routine up thread to Regentrude, where I mentioned that I sit with her as she works through new lessons. I generally don't sit with her while she is completing review/practice material, however. If you could give a look-see to the routine I wrote in response to Regentrude and give your opinion, I sure would appreciate that. I don't give DD free access to the teacher manual because I like to see what is going on and I want to see what she is doing on her own, without the teacher manual. I will talk with DD and see if that is something that would be helpful to her, though. I haven't done that because I thought it would be better to struggle through a bit with the problems, rather than rely on the teacher manual at the first sign of difficulty.

It's taken me so long to answer because I spent a few hours with DD and evaluated what she was doing on every problem for today's lesson. She had an assignment near the end of the book with 30 problems; she got 13/30 wrong (roughly 43% wrong). Of the 13 problems she got wrong. I looked at her errors and classified them, and watched as she corrected them. I classified them as follows. Percentages are percent of wrong answers, and are estimated so don't add up to 100% of wrong answers): 23% Careless issues 23% Misreading question/not noticing details in question/not paying attention to what was being asked 7.5% Utter brainfarts/unknown origin 7.5% Not reducing fractions 7.5% Not using correct formula (newer concept) 23% Not proficient with a concept (newer concept that won't be tested for awhile) 7.5% Not proficient with a concept (older concept that she should be comfortable with; I was aware of this one and we're working on it with some extra practice) So, she is being nickel and dimed to death with a few things, but generally careless stuff sticks out as being 46% of her mistakes. About 2/3 through this lesson, when I told her I was considering another year of Algebra I because I had concerns about her copious mistakes, her performance suddenly picked up. There were no errors for the remainder of that lesson. She does show every step of her work; she is good about that. Here is how we work each day: 1. Review problems that she got wrong from previous day. 2. Have her read lesson and work lesson examples. If she has a problem, she stops me at that point and we work through the lesson examples/explanation together. 3. She does lesson problems (usually 2-4 per lesson). She generally can handle those without too much difficulty. 4. When I am satisfied she is comfortable with the new material, I turn her loose to do the practice problems (the 30 problems); we review errors here the next day. ETA: I don't know if this is a mistake on my part or not, but I am not terribly concerned with the fact that DD struggled a bit with the newer concepts. She does usually get these concepts by test time and after a bit of practice.

I want to mention that she gets her high scores because I have her go over the tests a second time, because she is nearly always guilty of careless errors in her work (elsewhere, as well, not just math). She generally finds a ton of errors and if she doesn't review her test a second time, her scores would probably be in the low 80s.

Yes, there are 30 problems per lesson, as well as the 2-4 practice problems for the new material.

No, I don't think it's tacky; it's historical.

For those of you who have used Saxon Algebra I or are knowledgeable about tweens and math, what do you make of this? DD is 13, 8th Grade, and finishing up Saxon Algebra I (3rd edition with integrated geometry). She uses the textbook to self-teach, rarely needs to use the DVDs I've purchased, occasionally calls on me for explanation of the lesson, and generally seems to pick up the concepts easily. Her test grades are almost always in the 90s, but.... She takes a very long time to finish the entire lesson (couple of hours from reading the lesson to finish, with another 30 minutes for corrections), and then (usually) produces homework where only 12-22 out of 30 are correct. I put a check by the problems she missed and she goes back to make corrections. She corrects 50-75% of the wrong answers on the second go-round, without any input from me. When I ask her why she was able to correct the problems the second time without assistance but couldn't do them correctly the first time, she says she doesn't know why. She has a history of rushing through things and making careless mistakes, but she's improved on that and I am not/don't think sure that's the issue here. So what do you think could be causing this? I am not a math teacher, so what's up with this? I suggested maybe she needed a second pass through Algebra I with a different text, and she smart-mouthed me and asked how high her grades had to be to pass a class satisfactorily? OK, point taken. I actually am loathe to put her through Algebra I a second time, because I think she would be pretty bored and also very demoralized. But I also don't want her plugging along into Algebra II without a solid foundation in Algebra I.

If I don't puke, I wouldn't worry about it.

Yeah, NY has a real problem with opt-outs. I don't know where you are in NY, but some places (like Dolgeville) have over 90% opt-out rate and they are worried it will effect funding. Probably a call to everyone.

I agree with this; everything would run much more smoothly if you simplified and there were not so many moving parts. This was a lesson I had to learn, and since I am somewhat thick in the skull, took far longer than it should have. My DS, at 11, works off a combination of daily checklist and his planner (the planner set up weekly in order to see his weekly task load, and the daily checklist because...11 year old boy). Eventually (8th grade for DD), I move to weekly planner only.

Some people do give 1 credit for FFL, but I do not believe it is worth one credit. I'm awarding 1 credit for both FFL and SFL. But some people don't agree with that, either, LOL.

Start with just math and English for each child; something simple and all-in-one with little teacher prep (e.g. Rod and Staff and Saxon math). Once you are established and running smoothly, add in history and make sure that is integrated into your homeschool. Then add in science, etc.... IOW, make sure you are established and running smoothly on the basics before adding in additional things.

My 11 year old DS is very independent and capable, but...not at 9 he wasn't. So I think your expectations may be a bit high there. Why don't you start with English and math that he can cope with, and once that is established, add in some foreign language. Then history, then....you get the idea. He'll get used to certain expectations each day, and you will have a better idea of where his true limits are. I do not agree that he has to be on board for everything - we parents are here to guide him to adulthood, and functional adulthood in the USA means math, English, etc.. My kids have to do that whether they want to or not; at 18 they can choose otherwise.

A Shakespeare play.