I second Syllieann's good advice -- if he's there, then just do the chapter end review and move on. Many people go through just the chapter reviews until they find their child's level. Skipping is far easier with MM than a lot of other programmes. My 6 year old seems to be one of the few who loves going through all the problems (with a 'I did all of these' beaming grin). Many find it too much and skip as and when.

Yes, it's redface. I wouldn't take part or sign up for a class for my kids where that took place. I really do not understand what that would teach and I do not think anyone outside of those groups could properly teach the meaning of such things. If one really wanted to do a class about American Indigenous people, surely one about either the ones that used to live where one is and what happened to them or the ones that live there now and their connections to the wider community would be more informative than falling back to stereotypes. There are over 500 American Indigenous nations -- very few of them used ceremonial war paint compared to the whole. Likely similar to the amount of European nations war paint historically. I do not think many would teach about Europeans by discussing war paint and their meanings and I think focusing on anything like that for Indigenous peoples teaches the wrong message.

While I do not understand why taking a dig at trans people is needed in the consideration of this, I legally changed my entire name (and got far less grief for it than most of my trans friends on the issue). Having a name that really fit me was amazing -- though my current name is mispronounced and misspelled far more than the one my parents gave me. I do not think it is ever too late to consider our identity and how we see ourselves and want the world to see us. If having an easier name would fit you better, go for it.

Badly soiled/sicked on stuff is the only thing we purposefully wash separately or on hot water with maybe extra towels/more sheets to get a full load. Other than that we do not divide by colours or types of clothes for washing though I do try to not have my 2 daughters clothes in the machine at the same time as they have many similar items that sorting afterwards is a pain. I do not buy anything that needs a delicate wash and my knitting MIL only makes stuff that goes with the rest. The clothes are mostly separated though before going in, though it is by person rather than colour/type. We used to just have one big laundry box but we always seemed to be digging in it because someone needed something specific or someone was short on tops/bottoms/whatever and I truggled to keep up. Now everyone has their own cloth bag that is hung up plus a bag for random and a basket in the bathroom. The system is usually an armful from the bathroom, empty in whoever(s) in most need's stuff, then top up with the random bag until machine is mostly full and those who have things that need to be washed asap put it straight into the machine to wait for the next wash (though if the lodger needs it next it may end up on the kitchen counter). Our cloth bag system saves so much time and space and mental energy because I know I've washed stuff for this or that person without needing to remember what exactly was washed all the time.

Yes, they love it as do most of the adults who come through. It's good fun for us. Word of advice from our experience, you need either very good Wi-fi that isn't busy with other things or have it wired in. While the single player is fun and there is a dojo local mode, most of the stuff requires a connection.

I think the objections are less about you personally feeling uncomfortable and more trying to prove against the general concept that is very common that Festivals of the Dead and other non-WASP holidays and traditions are inherently anti-Christian when, especially in the case of DdlM, it is a very important holiday to many very Christian people for whom this is a big part of their faith. I would never want my Christian kin for whom this is special to feel like they were less than so there is an urge there to defend them. Also, the general concept that this - or any holiday - can only be viewed one way doesn't make sense to many and many are trying to show that it is more multifaceted than google can show those who are not personally connected to it. To me, as someone for whom this is one of the most important days of the year and I am spending a lot of time and energy planning for and looking forward to it, it is not religious, it has nothing to do with spirits, I do not think I guide spirits back to the afterlife with marigold petals even when I love watching them float down the river. The colourful traditions google is likely to show for some include welcoming spirits or guiding them home but for many, this is family time. This is remembering and getting strengths from those we have lost and having a time to deal with the complicated emotions their deaths and knowledge of our own deaths. We will have the table set and the flowers -- and readings from various sources on the feelings and points of view about death. As we lost my partner's brother just a couple month ago, this will be a rather emotional year, not but because we think he will visit (even if he could, I doubt he would visit us instead of his wife...) but because the feelings connected with death will be more complicated than in previous years when it was only grandparents' pictures at the table. I have no desire for people to do something they are uncomfortable with or lay a table at all. I just want others to understand that for many this has deep Christian meaning that is important to their faith and for others it has no religious meaning at all, but a deep personal, cultural meaning even if they do not believe they are actually guiding the dead. Also, from a former religious academic point of view, the Biblical verses against necromancy/raising and talking to spirit of the dead are about a specific cultural practices around Israel at the time in which people would fast and sleep in graveyards with the belief that the dead could tell them the future (which is why Saul is so harshly punished). They are with the anti-divination beliefs spoken of throughout those sections of text. It is very different from remembrance traditions such as DdlM which is why in some Christian traditions these remembrance days are still very important while others have more of a blanket tradition against due to those verse to create more of a barrier to prevent any temptation. Which is why it is very important that it not get into Christian vs not Christian or Biblical vs not Biblical but how much does a person personally need and what they feel comfortable with and what their traditions and community have built to support people in their relationship with death and those they've lost. For some, this is a big part of it, others have other ways of dealing with it and feel more protected without this. It's personal like all of our relationships with death.

I know what you speak of OP. Stories of children going from not doing anything all to reading chapter books and mastering multiplication tables in days without any intervention are popular here. I think part of it is, as Storygirl said, professionals are wrong. And some of get tired of going through them when so many other see as 'diagnosis shopping' when we'd just like a straight answer and hearing it will all work out without dealing with them has a nice ring to it after going through or hearing others go through the grinder. I still have filed away somewhere the letter from when my eldest was 5 - a child who could only answer the most basic yes/no questions and did not understand why or how or when or pretty anything question based and did not ask questions himself - from the paediatrician that we were required to see to get him into speech therapy that states that this child's speech issues are only an odd speech pattern caused by his mother (me) having a foreign accent. I have a Midwestern Ohio US Newscaster like accent and the child only articulation problem was th-fronting (replacing th with other fricatives) which his father and most of the locals do as well which wasn't discussed at all. When he was actually seen by a speech therapist, it would turn out he had a significant language issues (I wish he could have worked with her - the person he ended up working with was far more obsessed that his score on correct pronouns for cartoon pictures was low and doing games to reinforce gender stereotypes to ensure he could figure out what gender a cartoon picture where the only difference is hair length correctly rather than the identified priority of using and understanding questions. It ended up being very unuseful). My partner went through knee surgery, camera inside and all, and still ended up misdiagnosed, it happens, more if you're in a group a professional has a bias about (see the stats on how dioagnosis and related medication are used - there is strong evidence of bias across the board even when unintentional). It gets tiring and many give up and cling on to anything else. Honestly, I have a 6 year old who has been begging to learn to read for over a year, learned to write all her letters neatly over a year ago but took months to remember any letter sounds or names and still has 5 or 6 she regularly can't remember. It's been almost 2 years since I stopped trying to get my eldest further professional help and the idea of going back into that makes me feel ill (especially as it would likely involve going through the before mentioned paediatrician who we refuse to work with after she made my then 6 year old A cry because apparently a small child bathing every 2-3 days rather than every day will make her a smelly no-mates even when a hospital doctor gave her this bathing routine for her skin condition). Hearing that she could just be a late bloomer sounds great when facing a well known unsupportive barrier to getting any help.

I think part of the problem is that it isn't really one holiday (and much of the stuff on its roots on the Internet is not in English or even Spanish). As it was a major festival that was celebrated throughout the massive Aztec empire and then changed considerable by force with colonization and various other waves of influence, how it is celebrated now in Puebla will be different to how it is celebrated Mexico City, to how it is celebrated by the Latinx and Mestizx diasporas. And this is before we get the wide variety of beliefs within religions and between religions involved. Much like the celebration of any other large holiday, pinning it down to say something means one thing or another is...close to impossible. Some will involve dedicating displays to people and feeling that the spirits of ancestors come through. This is true of festivals for the dead all around the world. However, within those same festivals, there will be people -- like my family -- where we put a full table display (as we also do for birthdays and other important occasions - no altar/shelf but our table) and it will have a photo of my grandmother, my partner's grandfather and my partner's brother and it will have bowls of treats and marigolds and other traditional things, but it isn't for or dedicated to them as for and dedicated to us, the living. It will be time to reminded and blessed by stories of those we have lost, work through the complicated feelings of their and my own mortality and openly discuss it with my family while working towards the goal of acceptance and even joy in remembering them and my own death that is in my future and how I would want people to remember me. I've never really thought of my lost loved ones coming back other than in passing conversation with my very Catholic mother when I was much younger as she often had dreams with them which I've never had. Paraphrasing from her, if somehow she (my grandmother) could see us and come back, I would want her to see that she is fondly remembered and that we still care for her, but it is most important for me to remember her and all that she gave and continues to give me so I can learn to accept that she is not here and one day neither will I -- and I will want someone to remember me fondly and still care for me. I'd never recommend someone make an altar/table -- it's so personal it seems like something either one does or doesn't do and I would leave that up my 15 year old in the OP's situation (comparing the various ways it is celebrated would be a good alternative project I think). Personally, I have far more issue with how much people outside the communities involved try to monetize it or even worse sexualize it -- even in the UK many skeleton related items, including "sexy" ones, that have Day of the Dead attached which just makes me facepalm because as I said, this is something very personal and to see it treated like that just creeps me out. An art project by someone who really cares and connects to it is one thing but much of what is about these days in the public eye has little to do with what even the non-religious connect to it see it as being about.

Early menopause is strongly correlated with a longer perimenopausal stage with more and stronger symptoms so maybe those who are later go through it will less? I started getting hot flashes when I was 28, and had horrible headaches near my periods for over a year before that which I've since been told are not uncommon as a first sign for premature menopause/ovarian failure. Over 2 years since then, I've also wondered if I should get more pads or if it will finally stop soon - though recently I was told that it could be another 5-12 more *years* like this! :(

They aren't game books like Peggy Kaye's, but Jolly Music has rhythm activities and volume/speaking vs talking/high pitch vs low pitch games from early on. I'm not sure abut the ear training, it is designed to be done pretty all with voice rather than instruments, but I could see that easily added in.

With my family member, he literally went into hospital with a hospice doctor who had all the paperwork - including showing how this cancer was eating through his spine and sciatic nerve - to get treatment for another bout of pneumonia among other things and he was denied methadone by hospital staff because 'that's for addicts'. This happened multiple times to the point that he made everyone swear never to take him to hospital again. Many others suffered as he did because, as a wider society, the rhetoric is that those who use said stuff just need to buck up, just need to realize how bad it is and quit. My partner, who has mechanical damage to his spine and several joints and is never not in pain, has been denied pain meds (and was once given sugar pills) even when he has recorded history with multiple surgeries for his issues because of this view - he just needs to toughen up and do without or he's just after the drugs. Our - meaning wider society - view of addiction hurts everyone. We cannot help people with addictions or anyone else who needs help with how things are now. Individually we can all see it is wrong but the wider system is set up to reinforce very damaging ideas. Personally, I've never known anything that gets better by ignoring or not talking about it. Silencing has only for me helped those who cause pain to others. People love to dismiss, tell people not to talk about the pain they are in. I am a survivor of child abuse, I was told repeatedly how I was not to talk about it, how no one was interested, that I was the problem, that I just need to be strong and get over it and 'be normal', that if I stopped talking about it it would stop hurting me. I internalized all of it and it led to me being abused by medical professionals and so many others because I learned it was a shame to me if something happened to me and it only made me self view myself that I needed my computer and my work to be a worthy person and that it would protect me as no one can hurt me through a screen. I avoided talking about it for years - and I woke up with painful nightmares, I would blurt the randomest stuff while I had flashback, random smells would send me into a panic that I tried to hide for years through gritted teeth and tears and more. I was constantly holding on to pain because I thought I would only get free of it if I tried to ignore it. I only actually started to break free of that pain when I openly admitted I am a survivor of child abuse, I spent my childhood living in fear of a violent death which means on bad nights I still stare at the light around the door feeling that sense of doom, and my PTSD and attachment to my computer is an understandable way that my brain has learned to try to help me survive and cope. Knowing and acknowledging my brain means I can get the support I need to work past. I spent hours earlier this week working up the courage to take one sip of mead -- I left home over a decade and that alcohol smell is still in my brain associated with pain. That one sip was a victory for me that I only got because I was open about it and got support from discussing it. I don't think I will ever really enjoy it, but relearning how to cope with it around and to not see it as a threat will give me more and only possible if I can talk about it. We have very strong evidence in animals on how environment affects addiction. Until we - as a wider society - view addiction as something beyond something we can control and power through, as something beyond a failure, we won't see how much pain our current environments cause people and how our brain works so hard to cope and survive in those environments. That is why threads where we can openly discuss what it feels like are good and important. Society tells me it is all about highs, but I have never felt that way. My brain associates my computer and work with normality, with safety, with survival, with hope, with being able to cope with threats that I sincerely believed would kill me (I still get surprised that I survived to adulthood), and the accomplishment that that was for me. I feel normal and like myself whereas I had to relearn as an adult to get that feeling elsewhere and only did when I could talk about and get support and set up my environment to help me do so. Not everyone can get that, many get the messages I spent my entire childhood hearing or worse - like my parents - have people actively cover up and/or support the destructive behaviour because talking about the harm was seen as a shame and a no-no to admit and get support.

What if it becomes the only way someone can relax? The only way you feel you've had "me time"? What if one struggles to feel pleasure or clear ones head or feel themselves without it? Person is fine to go days without it, doesn't feel bad or a strong need to do it when there are other things to do but nothing feels right/fun until they do this one thing? What if it is the only thing you just want to do beyond responsibilities? That was me - and still is during hard times. I had to relearn how to enjoy reading a novel - it wasn't work or computer and my mind had great difficulty -just- reading a book. I struggled to just watch TV without my laptop going as well. Part of me is really glad my shaky hands make tablets and smartphones hard to use so I can dismiss them. To me, I can go without my computer for ages, but I never feel done or that I have done anything for myself until I've worked on my computer - even when I spend hours working on something for others, it still feels for me because it became my comfort blanket as a child and it still is today. Cutting off my feelings has nothing to do with it - I can go days without it without missing anything, but I'm not *me* without my computer work. I was raised thinking I would die violently any day, I do not think it is surprising that my brain still puts great importance on what helped me cope, survive, and find the life I have now. Personally, I'm not bothered if people call it a habit, coping mechanism, or addiction, but it is a pathway ingrained in my brain that - without outside help - would lead to negative consequences for me and those around me. It isn't as destructive as my parents alcoholism, but I think that is more to having support in my life than the fact it is a non-consumable. I think limiting addiction to drugs demonizes those drugs and addicts (and having had family denied methadone he used as a painkiller for advanced stage cancer because hospital staff viewed him as a drug addict, this demonization can affect everyone and even those who are addicted do not deserve that) and dismisses how powerful our brain is in finding ways for us to cope in the worst environments even to our own and others detriment and only through acknowledging that do I think we will have real support and change for people.

My parents are both addicts. When I was little, it was easy to see my father was addicted to tobacco. At 10+, alcohol became noticeable to me. 13 or so, I noticed the pain pills and the pot. It wasn't until I was almost an adult that I saw how many non-drug addictions they had and how important these thing were to them even as our family fell apart. They would never call any of them addiction - even calling it "habits" is too strong for them, they're "just having a good time", they're "what adults do" and I'm the one wrong for not taking part according to them (I literally got a lecture just before my 21st birthday on how rude/paranoid I was for not having a beer on it - even though I was thousands of miles away from them. I stopped talking to my mother soon after that). Their lives revolved around their coping mechanisms regardless of how it affected others - and to deal with theirs, I had developed coping mechanisms of my own that I would not notice for years because to me it was "what I do", "my only way of coping", "how I have fun" even though it resulted in a lot of horrible decisions. Anything can be addictive - that's why so many places have warning requirements for gambling. Total non-consumable but even regulation-shy industries are willing to admit that some come to harm by using them as a coping mechanisms. Mine is computers - It still affects me - when I am poorly, when I am stressed, when I am pushed too far, the addiction I built in my childhood to cope with my parents is still where my brain first reaches to for comfort. To me, it doesn't matter if someone called it a habit, coping mechanism, or an addiction - unless they're trying to shame another (strong evidence that shaming pretty much always leads to less willpower and worsening of addictions) - its destructive cycles that the brains has gotten hard-wired and stuck in to cope with something. The brain mechanisms are powerful things that can easily negatively affect us and the sooner we openly admit as a society how willpower is a limited mental resource and rather weak and stop treating these things as a matter of just powering through/moral for most people, the sooner we can face how our environment is a major cause of how many are facing it. We have strong evidence of it in other animals (put a rat in a tiny cage and give it plain water and one laced with drugs and it will go for the drugs until it dies, put them in a healthy and happy environment, they'll go for water) but few in power want to see how that relates to ourselves. Unless we can help change that, anyone with addictions is going to struggle to stop.

Yes, you can. :) They may not make -the- sound, they will make -their- sound for that letter and you can listen for that as you work through any programme. Personally, we love the I See Sam piper books because the boost to my eldest's confidence at 'reading a whole book' was magic for him after struggling with talking and communicating. He still struggles with pronunciation at times (this year we're using piper book's mature reading instruction books to give him further pronunciation and reading outloud practice) but he is a confident re-reading The Hobbit and always seems to have a book in his hand reader now :) I also recommend Super Star Speech for speech activities you can do while you wait. For what it is worth, my eldest, who had a significant speech and language delay, found learning to read far easier than my now 6 year old who was an early quite articulate talker who could write in neat joined-up script at 5 but still struggles with remember some letter sounds, many letter names, and with reading in general. Speech ability does not always connect with reading ability. Hoping the best for you and your daughter.

I have horrid chronic sinusitis that didn't respond well to a netti pot - some damage to my nose that contribute to the sinusitis also made using a netti pot really painful and not drain as well as it should. For me, what has been my magic life saver nasal irrigation system, was a saline nose spray - I use Sterimar allergy response which is sea salt and water - that I spray once, sit with my head back, blow my nose and then spray again if needed *and* an allergy barrier spray either after or at a different time. I use Boots pharmacy own brand, it's actually a plant cellulose and peppermint powder mix that you squeeze up there and sniff it back. It is suppose to create a gel-like barrier that helps the nose lining -- and it works fast. The two together means I get through most days like a normal person which after years of painkillers, every type of allergy and sinus capsule, multiple antibiotic courses, steroid sprays and such feel like a magic lifesaver - especially as I can use them as and when without a page of warnings with them. Wishing you best for finding what work for you LavenderGirl, chronic sinusitis sucks :(

You might be interested in MindUP. I'm using it for our spine for metacognition and mindfulness - it includes breathing and meditation-like exercises that can be extended as well as lessons on the whys behind it: how the brain works, how the breathing helps, bringing mindfulness and senses together, and so on. They have a K-2, 3-5, and 6-8 books which all have the same format (so the table of contents is the same) but the readings and activity suggestions are set to age. My kids really enjoy it, and I like it because it does explain at their level and it's really flexible - it has a main lesson per section then a bunch of activities, readings, and ideas that you can pick from and it's easy to add other books and topics to along the way

There is the Horrible Geography series of books. We have the Horrible Geography Awesome Atlas Jigaw Book which is well loved and the Lonely Planet Kids Amazing World Atlas. For cultures, Children Like Me and a Life Like Mine (both DK books) are my kids favourites. Where is the World is Carmen Sandiego is available at internet archive as is Where in Europe and Where in Time last time I checked. The Spy's adventure in Europe is another old game in the internet archive game database. BBC Earth Unplugged is a youtube channel which has quite a lot of geography and nature science (link has autoplay video). Along with Stack the Countries, there are lot of other map quiz games available like Seterra, Sheppards, Geoguesser, and Kbears (automusic at this link).

We both changed our family name, though he kept his as a second middle name out of respect for his siblings. We were creating a new family, we're both estranged from our fathers so that wasn't a big deal (though weird when we had to list them on our marriage certificate), and I was changing my name anyways so it seemed normal to us. I use Mx. or Ms. as a title when required but prefer to be without. For others, I would use whatever title or name they wanted. I do think it is quite disrespectful and downright rude to call someone a name or title or other identifiers they do not want even if it is tradition. Traditions are made by people and changed by people, people are always more important. As someone who often has people call them by a different name (a visually close more common name that is pronounced very differently) and am routinely written off when I try to correct people - or have them try to rewrite my name differently, it feels like people don't view me as enough of an individual person to bother recognizing me by my own chosen two-syllable identifier.

With cars, we require training - often hours of it and often with official approved lessons, tests, licenses. There are medical and behaviour restrictions that allows a license to be removed. Cars themselves are required to meet certain safety and condition requirements. Deaths by cars steeply nose dived when these restrictions were put in place even with people illegally driving. If the US required as much for cars as for guns, then a similar nose dive especially in accidental deaths by firearms could be possible. Personally, I don't drive and neither does my partner. Neither of us think it safe with our conditions even when we would now likely pass medical restrictions. Our car-loving families really do not understand. I just can't get past what could go wrong - the slightest weakness in my legs could bring disaster. Our lodger who does drive either keeps his keys upon his person or locked in his room. So some of us do treat cars with similar respect in the damage they cause as we would guns and are glad the law has made it far safer for all of us. It's sad when there is so much money being thrown to prevent that happening with other dangerous situations.

Off-topic nerdy factoid: While it cool that you found a system that works for you, the hypothesis in that link has been around for years -- and has no basis. The history of maths and Hindu-Arabic numbers that we now use is interesting, and the people involved made many discoveries and inventions with them, but a number system built on angles is not part of it. Here is a graph of how our numbers evolved: And that I do have this filed to have it so quickly to hand/paste shows what a big nerd I am :lol: OP: Assessment for dyscalculia or processing that others are recommending may be a good starting point for more targeted resources. For us, Math Trainer is a free maths fact site that my kids enjoy working on really helped break through certain blocking points in math facts. You can set what they working on, how many seconds for each (from 2 seconds up to 1 day), and it gives a visual chart at the end in the version we use that helps show problem areas.

Pretty much every study has shown strong evidence that people with mental illnesses are more likely to be abused and killed by those without those conditions than to abuse or kill others. The idea that locking away the mentally ill would make the community safer is both not true and the exact kind of ableism that perpetuates violence against those who are mentally ill. Seeing as it is currently schizophrenia awareness week and many survivors of medical abuse are speaking out, I find it sad that this sort of idea still gets so much praise. Multiple medical professionals that discussed this have said that those mass killers who had mental illnesses and were on medication (which is quite few of them compared to those who weren't) that the treatment could have made them violent - multiple medications for mental health conditions have been known to do this and the testing required to find who is not yet common - or funding by insurance in most cases in the States. And that is before we get into medical abuse and bias in who does and does not get a diagnosis and treatment. The idea that it would be so different when people are still being violently abused by medical professionals without recourse just doesn't work for me. Also, with so many privately run prisons in the States trying to sue when they don't have enough people in beds to be profitable, I doubt anything that will affect that will happen anytime soon. The massive US prison industry would need to be dealt with first before anything that would take their numbers down would get any funding.

I said it would depend on what data you are using though the most recent stats I've seen say the top 1% in the US controlled ~50% of the financial asset and owned about a third. The top 20% owns about 85-87%. They're likely quite comparable but the idea that the UK is so much more equal is a big reason we have less gun crime is laughable. If this were truly my country, I would have spit out tea reading such an idea, but I've never taken to the stuff (as it says in my signature, I'm from the US, I'm giving a point of view from both sides of the pond). In the UK, the ownership of land wealth and concentration of power are clearer stats here as so many at the top own a lot abroad which alters how much UK wealth they have (~1/3 of all land in the UK belongs to a titled family, over 30% of MPs come from 2 universities) and recent austerity charges by the government has left thousands dead within weeks of changes and over a million on reliant on food banks to survive. We have riots and mass protests, but no mass shooting and no desire for changes to gun laws even when London was burning. Personally, even if your stat were correct, as someone who has lived a while on both sides I've found that the disparity is rubbed in people's faces a lot more in the UK than the US. People dying of starvation, many at the bottom predicted to lose thousands of pounds in yearly income with tax changes coming in, and the Prime Minister wants to tell us we're all in it together while taking over a million of pounds of taxpayer's money "to relax". The classism is far more inescapable, like Christmas decorations (as there is no separation of church and state here, it's everywhere - even now - even my kids complain about it when they spotted some last week - thankfully they aren't in school as there are no secular schools here either - all Christian unless a school applies to be another religion - so they'd get it even more there. I never found Xmas decorations as overwhelming the States either even in super-church territory. The need for distraction is a theory I've put for before on this). As I said, The UK used to be a massive gun country and is still very traditional. We still have people fighting to ride around in little red suits on horses to chase a fox with dogs so they can watch it be torn apart because "it's traditional"/"it's the culture of the countryside that needs protecting". Dunblane made people willing to change when it came to guns, took a traditional country with a big rural hunting culture base realize the effort and change was worth it - and there is no energy to change that back even with the government's actions on one side and riots on the other. Guns are more associated with terrorists than protecting oneself or ones' home for most I know here. The laws did what they were designed to do which had nothing to do with lowering homicide or general crime rates but preventing further mass casualties. I cannot even attempt to imagine an event big enough that would encourage the US to change after all that it's been through nor any change to the US's economy that would shift anything either. With the voting laws coming in left and right that prevents some groups from voting (even when denying those over 18 their right to vote is against the US Constitution) more than voter fraud it will be even harder to get political will for change as some of the popular will means less to them.

I thought so as well Tanaqui when I first saw them and I know some reenactment people and cosplayers who've gotten in trouble for painting even obvious bulky nerf guns when someone's called up panicked here. The vast majority have the orange tip, but not all. At closer look they usually have the same cap but it's coloured to match which seems pointless as the cap is hard to see at a distance. This is usually at cheap stall and poundland type places that I've spotted these - some are quite realistic - and I've seen kids at parks playing with them. Like lailasmum I really do not like them and pointed out the issues with them to my eldest a few times which is how I noticed it at first. Personally the ones with sound effects are the worst I think, cap or no cap, they can be really unsettling. Nerfs and similar are quite popular and liked here so you should have little issues with those Calizzy :)

We have a whole box of nerf guns and crossbows. They and their knock offs are sold widely here at often ridiculous prices. While realistic toy guns are frowned upon by many individuals on a personal level, they aren't an issue as a whole. You can find realistic toy guns in pound shops readily. And if you are moving to the UK, you should know that there are very few things Europeans agree on other than the others are wrong and should be shouldering more of whatever issue. ;) The Swiss have lots of guns, UK has guns but it illegal to have one that can be concealed and it's a lot of paperwork and faff to get other ones that few want to deal with anymore (UK traditionally had lots of guns, this shifted dramatically after the Dunblane school massacre. After that, the UK's been more open to gun being controlled as a privilege to be earned by few).

You may lose that bet depending on what data you used. We literally have people starving on the streets vs people living on massive country estates and castles. We literally have a government that had to report on how many people died within 6 weeks of being affected by recent changes - and it went into the thousands, many from poverty-related causes including starving. We have communities that have been crumbling for decades with the destruction of industries with no help or hope. We may not have people getting into massive debt for basic health care like in the US, but wealth disparity and lack of social mobility the UK has in spades. I cannot imagine more disparity than royal family and dying homeless. We had riots across the country in 2011, we literally have people starving to death while our politicians get their bar in Parliament subsidized with taxes, we have mass protests but no mass shootings. We have people fighting to bring back fox hunting with dogs and the death penalty, but there is no energy for greater access to guns even in the face of the riots. The Dunblane school massacre, where 16 5 year old were murdered with their teacher, took a very traditional and then a very gun heavy country not dissimilar in amount to the US and changed popular and political opinion. It doesn't make any of them disappear (and the law changes were focused on preventing further mass casualties - which it was successful at - rather than reducing homicide rates especially considering homicide rates naturally go up with population density which has risen massively in the UK) but the attitude and cultural around guns changed with Dunblane. Sadly, with what has already happened in the US, I cannot imagine an event big enough that would cause the same there. The idea of something that big frightens me. It isn't even the constitution - there is nothing in the wording to prevent greater rules behind licensing just as the amendments about voting laws doesn't stop several states making their rules about how people can register. And that's before we get into the constitution has been changed many times and has some really off stuff in it still that people are fighting against (slavery is illegal - except as a punishment for a crime as an obvious example) and laws are only there through cooperation and/or force. It's just that I think it would need to be really big compared to what brought about the shift for other countries as so much has already happened in the US that hasn't done it.