Darn. Pretty sure it would take too long to get the CAT/TerraNova here in time. Yes. I think the too-many-emojis thing has come up on this thread before. I'm so glad your father is doing so much better, Mary. I'm sorry I haven't commented more... it's just that a friend's dad slipped on ice about 1.25 years ago and hit his head, and while he seemed to be getting better for the first 1-2 weeks (not like, good, but, he was conscious for a while, he then got worse (shocking all his doctors, because he was really healthy before the accident), and he died. And I didn't want to mention that at all, so, sorry I only said something like hugs. I'm not sure that makes sense. I guess what I'm saying is that I wanted to be all "I'm sure he'll be fine" and all that, but just felt too apprehensive. So, anyway, so glad he's improving so much. :)

Pretty sure it's public record where we lived in Texas as well. Not sure if it's online. We did not have an HOA and do not plan on ever having an HOA. I wonder if you could just convince the credit people that the HOA's stuff is BS.

If you hadn't washed the goat maybe we wouldn't have been.

Figuring out what to charge Batteries? Anything with batteries? Or, nothing at all... usually people are more concerned with HOW to charge something than with WHAT to charge. ETA: rechargeable batteries, obviously... don't try charging the non-rechargeable ones.

I love it! Let us know how it works out!

:lol: But then they'll think your kid is too negative, and they don't want negative people. Realistically, probably something like "I liked the other schools, but I like this school better, if we can afford it". That said, I don't know - I could be completely wrong.

I haven't used it yet, but Hewitt has a Conceptual Physical Science and a Conceptual Physical Science Explorations. The former should be fine for 8th grade, and the latter might work for advanced 5th? I think they're supposed to be pretty similar, with the latter being easier. Anyway, maybe someone else will chime in.

I was talking about the US in general, listing possible disadvantages poor and/or poorly performing districts have, not NY specifically. Not everything is about your district (whichever that would be). But hey, rant away. And while I mostly wasn't thinking NY when I mentioned A/C, yes, A/C is an issue even in NY when it's 90-something and humid, like when my oldest had PT and Speech one summer... the physical therapist got a fan from the district because one of her students was heat sensitive, but realistically, those therapy sessions were pretty ineffective because everyone was too hot to do much, and part of the reason I declined summer therapy after that summer. Farrar, yes, occasionally they'll come up with some new weird phrasing for something. For the most part though, if the school district buys 1 copy, teachers can make sure to include that new phrasing in their teaching. Like I said, I agree it doesn't help... I just think it's one of the smallest problems schools have.

If you do that enough you'll eventually forget that you're trying to learn an your nth language through your xth language. Like, it typically doesn't even cross my mind that I could try to learn a foreign language through my native language. And when I lived in Thailand I bought a book in Thai on how to learn Chinese (I did some of that book, but did not finish it).

I want to see the Schoolroom of Doom.

Dumbed down textbooks is different than "not the latest edition"-textbooks, and a dept chair deciding to not cover part of a book is also a different issue. I stand by what I said... having the previous edition of a book doesn't doom a school to having terrible standardized test scores. It might make a few points of difference, but it's not going to take a school from performing well to performing poorly (and if a school is really concerned about obscure material, they need just 1 copy of the latest edition so the teachers can see what new obscure topic is in it and teach that topic, like the thread on the high school board about box plots... it's not like 90% of the material students learn is obscure material that changes every edition). Again, I get that a few points will make some difference and that it doesn't help... I just think that having the previous edition of a book pales in comparison to having kids coming to school hungry, or tired, or distracted by whatever problems their family is having, having bad teachers, having no heating in the school, having a large percentage of kids with lead poisoning, or w/e issues a school might have (and yes, again, I get that not all schools are as lucky as to have enough previous edition books and paper and pencils and all that... but that *was* the argument... that having previous edition books was hurting poor schools, and preventing them from doing okay on standardized tests... and I'm saying that if everything else was wonderful - well-fed, healthy kids without worries, good teachers, good building with enough desks and heating and A/C and all that, that having the previous edition would be a minor inconvenience, not the ultimate test-score-destroyer).

I call BS. Yes, if you don't use the newest textbooks that are perfectly aligned with the test, you're less likely to have kids get perfect scores, but you certainly don't need the latest textbooks for kids to get good scores (as in, >90th percentile). I'm sure that tons of boardies can attest to this, since possibly most of us don't use the latest perfectly aligned textbooks. Now, having slightly dated textbooks is of course an additional obstacle on top of all the other problems poor schools have, but IMO, it's one of their smallest problems (assuming they do actually have enough books in usable condition for all students and the books are less than, say, 25 or so years old and were good books to begin with).

If the teachers can come up with their own material, how is that material much deeper than a textbook can offer? What's intrinsically keeping textbooks from being as deep as what some teacher can come up with? Either way you're coming up with words, images, assignments, etc, no? If the teacher can come up with those, they could write them down, print them, and call it a textbook, right? What am I missing? (I get that the teachers may be giving deeper material than what's in the textbooks the school assigns - but that's not the same as being deeper than what any textbook could possibly offer.)

Meaning what, exactly?

Speaking of real estate listings, I'll admit to being somewhat judgmental about those. For example, if the room in question were a Trulia or w/e photo, I'd wonder what on earth is wrong with those people that they didn't spend a few minutes to put stuff away* so it would present better... if you're trying to sell something worth presumably tens of thousands (or more) dollars, I don't understand why there'd be a back roller on the floor and blankets on the couch or w/e. Now, we have no clue what this photo is about, but there are definitely some houses listed on real estate sites that make you wonder why people don't spend some effort to make things look less messy. But other than real estate listings, I don't care unless it's an obvious health risk. Like I said, my own living room is worse. *They wouldn't even need to clean it up; all that's needed is to throw it behind the photographer. ETA: by that I meant, I wouldn't get how they including their realtor would have so little marketing sense to list a picture with such an easy-to-clean-up mess. ETA2: and I get that some people don't intuitively have a lot of marketing sense... I just don't get why when trying to sell something worth tens of thousands of dollars or more, some people don't put in some effort to either get a good realtor or learn the basics of marketing. The amount of money you'd make per hour (by having the house sell faster or at a higher price) by learning the basics seems like it would easily justify the effort.

You copy the link, you go to archive.org, and then you copy the link into the search box. Then it will show you which dates they have archived. Click on a date, and it will show what the website looked like on that date. E.g. https://web.archive.org/web/20170305134555/http://www.lbcc.edu/LAR/studyskills.cfm (I think that was one of the links that was meant, right?)

My oldest is only in 5th grade, so you can take this with a grain of salt, but imo, once you've gone over the basics of study skills with something like Superstar Student, I think the best way to improve study skills is by actually implementing them. So, make the kid take notes during lectures (e.g. while watching video lectures of other GC or w/e), have the student make outlines and summaries of texts (not both of the same text, that'd be overkill), make the student make a schedule for when to study each subject and then help the student stick to his schedule (and help when the schedule isn't realistic), gradually providing less support as needed (do always check up on *some* regular basis... occasionally people will post that they didn't realize their high schooler hasn't done anything for some subject for a whole semester), etc, etc, etc. I mean, if necessary, you can review study skills, but imo, the hard part isn't knowing what good study skills are; it's implementing good study skills, which is learned through practice.

Over the Februarys, ready for something new Good news, you posted this mid-MARCH. Soon you'll even be able to experience April.

I have literally not read either book, and I have literally no clue what they're about. And I'm using the literal meaning of 'literally' there. Then and again, I'm technically not an American, so, I guess this doesn't mean much.

Yes. And trans too.

(((ikslo))) Happy birthday Krissi's son! I went to the grocery store and bought a bunch of stuff, and then after that I took the kids on a 75+ min walk. And now DW has taken them to see A Wrinkle in Time.

I think most people were saying that they were low to make it a safety. I thought that to be a safety you'd want to be in the top 25% or maybe even a bit higher, not right in the middle.

Yes, physics might be a better choice if you've just done geology and chemistry. And while repeating algebra is a good idea for kids who haven't mastered it, I agree with katilac that it'd make more sense to do a lighter algebra first and then repeat it with something more rigorous such as AOPS, than to do AOPS with a lot of help and then repeat it with, well, I don't know what.

I have no idea what other people do. I was just trying to figure out your opinions on this matter, since you were saying you thought this should be more broad. Another problem with common law marriage is that if that link Jean posted is true, it's sexist, in that it only applies to heterosexual couples. Since gay marriage is legal, you'd think gay common law marriage should be legal too. But really, between the confusion about different state laws, the ease to get married the normal way, etc, I don't see a point in it.

No, I haven't. However, there are only 9 community property states, and our net worth was roughly zero when we moved to NY, and even though we got married in a community property state, that doesn't help me at all now (which I think is really wrong, btw... if you got married as community property, it should stay that way). So, being married doesn't do jack for me in the event of a divorce because NY is a screw-you state. But yes, I get your point that it can be beneficial for *some* people... though realistically, if you want to be an ass, you could just move to a non-community property state before filing divorce papers. ETA: in which case the stuff accrued before the move *might* be split 50-50, if you don't just spend it all into oblivion first... either way, it's a legal mess.