https://penndixie.org/wny-earth-science-day/ I should take the kids. I want to take the kids. I don't want to take the kids by myself. Can somebody come with me, or take the kids for me, or something?

I don't think all schools in Britain are like that. That said, while that's workable as a 1-1 tutor, I'm not convinced it would work in a classroom environment.

Also, might the little potato be interested in debate club?

Well, then it's time for fall break!

I would absolutely do more, if she wants more. I think they call that interest-led, or something, right? I would also possibly use it as a bribe (though not necessarily... it depends). I'd probably be willing to do a lesson a day if the kid wanted it (okay, I don't know FD, so I can't really say for sure, but I don't see a reason why I would be unwilling to spend an hour a day on logic if that was the kid's favorite thing (unless I hated logic, in which case I'd try to find independent logic)). So, it could be used as a bribe to make her do (more) writing - if you finish your (extra) writing, we can do a chapter of FD. Which is also a perfectly valid approach, imo. But, if a kid loves a subject, I'd try to find ways to let the kid do more. Your library or ILL might be good resources too - not everything has to be purchased. I'm thinking books with words like 'brainteasers' and 'puzzles' in the title might be things to search your catalog for (or, if you look at Amazon, you can click on "customers also bought", or "customers also looked at").

FWIW, DW bicycle commutes to work (she works downtown), but she did so when we lived in the suburbs too (she has spiked tires she puts on in winter). Buffalo is bicyclable, but not with little kids. If I need to go somewhere downtown (something I generally try to avoid - there isn't much there worth going there for anyway), I generally park at DW's work (because she bicycles almost all the time, I get to use her parking tag) and walk a mile.

I didn't mean that they don't exist... I meant that even if one were to move to the inner city or down town or w/e here, it's not necessarily "walkable". Also, while I technically live walking distance (several blocks) from a grocery store right now, it's a chain I hate (overpriced, etc), so it makes more sense to drive to the nicer and cheaper grocery store in the suburb (also, if I have to lug groceries by hand for several blocks, I'd have to grocery shop more often, and the kids are terrible in the grocery store, but I can't leave a 6yo and a 10yo home alone while I go get groceries, so doing groceries multiple times a week would be hellish (also, walkable is a lot less walkable when the sidewalks are slippery or covered in a couple of feet of snow... yes, people are supposed to shovel within 12 hours of snow falling or something like that... which means that often there's snow that they haven't had to shovel yet, and also it's not all that enforced). That said, while I live in the city, I don't live in the inner city/down town... I'm fairly close to the suburbs. The liquor store is very walkable though. #priorities (j/k) I walked more when I was in the suburbs because I didn't feel as unsafe walking alone after dark (or, well, in general), and because all the playground options were several blocks away... here there's a playground nearby (much shorter walk), with broken glass and trash and the like... so, why bother going there.

To be clear, they can tack on a few days at the beginning or end of the mandatory ones, so long as they meet the required number of days of school for the school year - they just can't make kids go to school on mandatory school break days.

I should probably add that fall break (and spring (voorjaar) break) dates are recommended dates. Summer, x-mas (kerst), and May (mei) break dates are mandatory.

That seems awfully soon. Here schools didn't start until after Labor Day, so it's only been a month. In NL, they started a little sooner, but they haven't had fall break yet either: https://www.schoolvakanties-nederland.nl/zomervakantie-2017.html https://www.schoolvakanties-nederland.nl/herfstvakantie-2017.html (zomer obviously means summer... herfst = fall, and NL is divided into 3 regions for school breaks, to reduce traffic jams when people leave for vacation... either way, fall break this year is Oct 14-22, or Oct 21-29, and summer break was July 8-Aug 20, July 15-Aug 27, or July 22-Sept 3). So, I guess the last day of summer break here was Sept 4, which would put us pretty much on schedule for fall break Oct 21-29, by Dutch standards. Not that I go by their calendar. I agree. [pout]

:svengo:

You should not be trying to flush school work. However, if you do, it'll probably clog the toilet, so even then not *everything* will go down the toilet.

I'd like to meet this "walkable city" thing mentioned... DW wants to live downtown, but I don't see the point. When we moved to WNY, and I tried to find a ped, the closest one who was taking new patients was a 20 min drive away - just because there are a zillion doctors that are closer, doesn't mean they take your insurance or new patients. Museums are scattered all over the place. Busses stop every flipping block, so are basically unusable. And having to park downtown would kill me from high blood pressure by the time I'm 40. Bicycling with 2 kids (in a place without bicycle lanes), one of which is special needs, is crazymaking (if I need to tell one to stay on the right side of the road one more time I'm going to lose it). Etc, etc, etc. So, no thanks.

How's the cat doing with her schoolwork? I recall a thread where somebody was saying that (on average) the low-income kids came into K less prepared for academics, but tended to have more life skills, such as knowing how to climb on top of a washer to do their own laundry. Not that I'm recommending letting your kid climb on top of the washer... just a thought (we have a front loader, but the basement floor floods, so I have no particular desire to let my kids take clean clothes out of the washer or dryer to just accidentally drop them on the floor, or drag them across the floor, or w/e... I just can't imagine that floor is very clean, nor obviously worth bothering to clean). I should maybe make them load the washer more often themselves, but it doesn't matter all that much. They occasionally did their laundry at the previous place we lived at, and will again at the next place (I'd imagine)). Congrats! :party:

:grouphug: Yesterday evening I was so tired it was like a physical thing - like walking into a wall of blankets or something (I'm butchering the poetic way someone has described extreme exhaustion before, but I hope it at least conveys the idea). That said, I at least know the cause, albeit not necessarily the solution (repeated extreme tantrums and meltdowns from a 6yo are exhausting, as is catching a cold or something, and I woke up way too early yesterday morning (okay, not super early, but significantly earlier than usual, just from the stress)). So, self-care, and somehow getting the 6yo to move past all these tantrums and meltdowns, should do the trick. I went to bed early last night (along with some medications), and woke up late, and have spent part of today in bed. I did manage to do 2 chapters of LOF with Celery yesterday evening though, and 1 chapter and 1 bridge today (and 1 chapter of LOF with Broccoli today, which is 1 chapter more than I felt like last night), so, that's a win. And, Broccoli hasn't had any meltdowns/tantrums yet today, other than screaming at Celery once for taking his pencil, which was brief and fixed by telling Celery to return said pencil. I even managed to get him to do Dutch grammar without him throwing a fit. I have heavily resorted to bribing though (as in, if you do this, then you can do that, where, for the most part, 'that' (watching TV) is stuff I probably would've let him do anyway today since I'm not feeling great, but turned it into a bribe instead). You were just repeating your humanities lecture for us, twice, obviously. At least you're not on Venus (where days do eventually end too... after 5,832 hours): https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/days/en/ Is that a phone thing? I just click on MultiQuote as I read stuff, and then at some point I just decide to reply, at which point it takes me more than the mandatory 10 seconds to write a post like this.

But I didn't hear the lecture. I think she's got to give it again.

I wanted to like your post for this part, but I'm not sure, because of the whole "he's dead" thing, so, argh! Condolences for your husbands former colleague and family.

Btw, that was a JAWM post, I think.

(for clarity, I ended up lying in bed for an hour or so after finishing math with Broccoli, and it's been a little while since that too, so I'm doing better. I didn't do math with Celery yesterday either (we ended up going to the Botanical Gardens, and then TKD, and then Broccoli threw an hour+ long tantrum (not really the right word... I don't know) after we got home because I told him to take his TKD clothes off before having dinner (which is always the rule - nothing new there)), so, I probably should do math with Celery. I also maybe should get Celery to do math more independently... I don't know... with AOPS I'm sure he'd just read the problems and then continue straight to reading the solutions, without really thinking about them, and with LOF it's kind of like story-time together, plus, again, I suspect he'd go to the solutions without giving the problems a real try... of course, at some point he's got to learn to actually do the work before looking at the solution, but, he also only turned 10 a month and a half ago, and has special needs, so, meh... that can wait until he's a bit older).

Next up: do I have it in me to do math with Celery? Stay tuned.

I don't know what possessed me to do the last 5 chapters of LOF Goldfish with Broccoli this afternoon. It wiped me out. (to be clear, I wanted to do only 2 chapters - he made me do all 5).

Actually, they discriminate against those who don't have much to say (and type fast). If you write entire essays for each post, you wouldn't have this problem. (I find it annoying too, btw)

I'm not allowed to get chimes for roughly that reason. Not that I care much, and if I did get them, I'd probably only put them up part of the time, but anyway... sensory issues suck. Prove it.

You could still start a thread, and possibly end up with more questions than you want. :)

We need to invent Age-Flexible Kids, where you can change their age on a whim. Also, with a special feature that lets you disable tantrums and meltdowns.