When the kid was young and bright colors mattered, I got everything from the dollar stores. Rinsed and kept out of sun light they easily lasted a couple of seasons of heavy use. . Not bad for $7-10. Around age 6 or so, when he got rougher on the toys, we used a combo of our garden tools (very decent quality at dollar stores), camping gear (collapsible shovel), and homemade ( laundry detergent bottles with tops cut off (handle left intact) for scoops and buckets). When he his taken to the beach by others, it is all dollar store, and homemade: no worries about left behind items.

2015?! No cd?! Then that was you I passed the other day. https://goo.gl/images/ZXvfrA

Er, write all the applicant statements early.

Such personal stories are tough to call. A couple of years ago, I helped with a personal essay for a UC borderline, maybe even weak, applicant. . He wrote how his divorced father emotionally abandoned him after the father remarried. The kid wrote about how struggled until he became a peer counselor at his school, and found contentment helping others. He got accepted by UCI and UCLA. I helped him change the story to something positive, rather than the moroseness of his initial draft Your child should make the call on how to handle it, and it should be in his statement, not in the counselor's .

If they ever find the thief, I hope he gets a stiff sentence.

To those of you with younger kids who took the SAT/ACT, how did you prep them for the reading comp section. As posted above, the new 7th grader is prepping for the October PSAT. Math not a concern (final chapters of alg 2); fill in the blank is very strong; grammar, very acceptable given his grade level. The area that needs lifting is reading comp. In particular, the page long passage questions. Since he tends to get the first few questions right, and the last couple wrong, I think he is drifting off by the end the passage. Right now I am having him just read the passage a couple of time , and margin outline the paragraphs, Then we review the outline before he answer the questions. Doing one long passage a day. All tips appreciated.

I could not get the article in OP to opern. But here is a story from the Orange County Register (Southern Calif0ornia) about a local guy who met 19 of his donations. http://www.ocregister.com/2017/06/30/father-of-our-country-los-angeles-sperm-donor-connects-with-19-of-his-children/

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Luther Ingram - If lovin you is wrong i don't wanna be right

MY office is street level on a busy street. We get the meat guy every year or so. A couple of people in the office have bought it. They said it was okay. But no matter how I calculated it, there was no savings from the market (btw--try calculating a savings from Omaha Beef). The bigger scam we see.is a 25 yr old lady or man trying to pass themselves off as students from the local high school doing a fundraiser. They come dressed like a teen with a backpack.. For kicks, I told the last one that my son goes to that h.s., you must know him because he is captain of the football team, editor of the paper, and student body president. If you can tell me his name, I will give you a $1000 donation. Oh well, then if you can show me your student ID, I will still give you the $1,000. I did not write a check that day.

For the last 3 years, CTY residential program + 1 week summer camp = 1 month downtime.

I hate to express this concern about D.O. because I really like the program. The 7th grader did pre-alg, alg 1, and geometry with Thinkwell. Started TW alg 2, but a couple of chapters into it we switched to DO because I thought TW did not have enough practice problems. Turns out DO and TW have about the problems, and, in ways, TW's are more rigorous. We are wrapping up the last three 3 chapters (trig) of DO. I don't mind paying the higher cost for DO. i like DO hand grading.. However, I am having too much difficulty keeping the kid on pace. There is no way to daily and remotely monitor progress with DO. Also, there have been long lags in getting graded work back, The lag forces me to decide whether to move forward without whether the kid mastered the material, or wait a few days. . With TW, , there is checkoff page showing progress, practice questions at the end of every lesson and immediate grading. I am seriously considering returning to TW for pre-calc, or try the one at EDX for free.

20 years ago, I got a used Bissell system--just like the rentals in the market. i paid around $250 on EBAY. A great investment if you have whole house carpeting. Will pay for itself every year. I would not do it now. As soon as any bonus $$ come in, I am replacing all the carpet with wood or tile.

My s/o has a government job with great benefits. She receives several job offers every year that would double, sometimes, near triple her salary. I always have to explain that the net/net loss of government benefits (including ,a real pension and union protection) and job security makes the offer ridiculous .

I never refer to the new 7th grader as gifted. I prefer advanced. Mainly because we started the 1st grade math track while he was in pre-k (Headstart actually). Now, he is up pre-calc. Advanced, yes. Gifted, I don't know.

To all, thanks for the SAT tips. The new 7th grader is prepping for the October PSAT. Although he nailed the PSAT 8/9 & Adv. SCAT, decided on the the PSAT because he has not taken a geometry/algebra level test. As son as he finishes the PSAT, we will gear up for a shot at CTY SET. He won't be 13 until June 2018, so I think he could prep for the SAT at a comfortable pace. The math reference books listed above look great.

Hang in there. Any day now, congress will repeal the ACA and replace it with a plan that provides for more coverage at a lower rate.

No experience with a foreign language. But my 7th grader's math circle meets once a week. The class is two hours. Seems about the right amount of time to get in-depth without wearing out the kids.

It is never too early. The new 7th grader has taken classes, attended seminar and sporting events on many campuses. When we travel, we try to visit the top school in the area. It is just walking around the campus, but it gives us something to talk about.

Helena, it is time to turn out the lights.

Another possibility, the misspelling of a common search word or term will inadvertently lead you to porn. The classic is the now defunct whitehouse.com instead of .org or.gov. I tell this to the boss all the time. Technically, I believe it is now against U.S. federal law to do so, but the web is global.

Jackpot!

Is he going to the local school? If so, time to make friends around the neighborhood. Having one friend on the first day will really help. Also, the kid already there can you the feel for the school. The students will be more impressed with your son if he just does the work, and not explains how he already covered this, and how much more he knows . You will know when the time is right to discuss acceleration.

The 7th grader just outgrew the Zuca bag, I think this is ice skating gear, but every kid at his former lower school uses one through 6th grade. They are wheeled, and hold everything. But its a 30 lb lift in and out of the car. he has moved on to a large Under Armour bag. We tried out a cross body bag not Kavu, maybe UA as well) for a day or two. Did not carry enough.

Thanks for your cautionary tale. I'll give mine. I transferred from a cc as a junior. Up to this point in my life, I had very limited sexual encounters. No money, no car, and did not have my own room at home. My first week at the new college, I meet a gorgeous girl. She was all everything academically: joint ba/ma program, honor societies,, key clubs. She would study everyday from 8 p.m. to approximately 11 pm. I would go to her dorm to study with her.. This should have been an ideal mentor for me, except for one thing. When she would finish studying, she would want an extended romp in the hay every night.. My downfall, instead of studying , I did everything humanly possible to help her finish before 11pm. i got her snacks, opened her soda, turned her pages, lit her one cigarette per day, wiped her brow, whatever it took to get her to finish at 10:59. Anyway, I failed a class this first semester. Also, ended up in the infirmary for a week with an std ( where I add that I also found out that infirmary beds squeak).. Fortunately, she decided to be chaste the second semester before marrying her fiance (a graduate student at another school) on her graduation. I would have never completed my junior year otherwise.