Yes, slow down, but I would pick steady and more distance between cars to avoid the need for sudden acceleration or braking. I don’t see as many people stuck on hills as I used to since the advent of front wheel drive and traction control. Traction control has kept me from getting stuck on the hill at the end of my street many times - glorious use of technology! My pet peeve is with people who speed by in their 4x4 or all wheel drive thinking that will help them on ice. They obviously missed the unit on friction in physics class.

I may have to look into speed queen. My old whirlpool died last year after 17years of service, but I couldn’t find anything comparable. I ended up with a GE because it was the only one that I could select the load size/water level myself. It is OK, but not great. It is sensitive to overloading and since it locks the lid during the spin cycle you can’t stop it to open up and rebalance the load. It also doesn’t show where it is in the cycle like my old one did. I don’t know about speed queen, but while my GE has knobs, it is still all electronic for the actual operation. I really want my old machine back! If speed queen is this good, I should probably buy a backup now to have around when this GE dies.

I like the norwex cloths for my stainless appliances. It takes a bit of elbow grease, but it cleans them better than any spray I have found. The same ones work really well for mirrors. All they use is water. Wool dryer balls are cool as well with some essential oil to make the laundry smell nice. They also help your laundry dry faster. I gave up dryer sheets a long time ago. I got mine on etsy, but quite a few places sell them now. You might check out grove collaborative. I don’t exactly love their model, but they do have a good selection of green cleaning products to see what is out there. I love their blood orange hand sanatizer.

I would say that there is at least one person coming that is allergic or afraid or generally doesn’t like dogs. I think many people don’t like dogs, but are afraid to say so. I have been stuck at MIL’s house when one of dh’s siblings or their kids bring dogs. One of my kids gets freaked out by dogs that get too close. I would be quiet, but fuming inside to be invited without being informed a dog would be there. Yes, you will know the puppy is there. You can say crate only, but it will likely be let out by one of those 24 people in the house who feel sorry for it. I would say no.

I plan on keeping a consistent grade scale across classes. I have used different providers with different scales so 90-100=A is what I use to keep the transcript consistent.

One of my minor gripes with swi was some of the segments were 10 minutes long and some were 45. It was written in the plans how long the video would run, but it was very hard to schedule in that wide a time range without messing up the rest of the day’s schedule. Especially with younger kids, they couldn’t adequately focus on a writing video for 40+ minutes. Hopefully that was some of what was addressed in this new release. I think original was recorded at a two day session at a conference so it probably explains some of the awkward divisions.

This would be a good description of myself...decent writer, but I don’t know how to edit and give constructive feedback. I love MPOA, but I was the complainer about writing on the forum awhile back and I did find more company than I really expected. My daughter completed HSCOMP 1-3 and I liked many things about it, but it didn’t serve her well at all In writing about literature. The foundations class looks good, but I didn’t like the teacher. My daughter had her for a literature class and she was very slow in getting feedback to the students and what feedback she gave was minimal. There were posts on the books, but very minimal writing instruction. That was part of my complaint. I liked the IEW class my son had a few years back, but one thing to watch is that grammar is included and each level moves up a book so the intro high school class uses something like fix-it book 4 or 5. This year my son in 8th didn’t continue to the high school classical comp classes with MPOA, but is taking Intro to Lit and Comp with CLRC. He is in the two day per week session with Mrs. Grey. It is a challenge for him because he is very slow, but I think he is learning. She breaks the writing up, makes them submit a thesis and rework it if necessary before requiring an outline, etc. It includes grammar, literary terms, literature, and writing so it is pretty complete. I don’t know what direction we will go next year, but I do like CLRC and the price is pretty reasonable. Great Books looks amazing, but I might have him do the Intermediate Lit and Comp first. His writing still has a ways to go. My son’s only observation is that he feels MPOA is better setup technology-wise than CLRC. He doesn’t care for Canvas because it is hard to navigate. I am interested in hearing about some new to me teachers like Mrs. Lange. Thanks for starting this thread.

These do go up to -8. Also, in the water you generally do not need the exact same prescription as out of the water. If eyes are different, buy two pairs as the lenses pop in and out. Much cheaper than optometrist goggles when you are basically just trying to see the wall or the scoreboard at a swim meet. https://www.swimoutlet.com/p/tyr-corrective-optical-goggles-3465/

A very popular meteorologist around here committed suicide recently from depression brought on by lasik complications. https://www.freep.com/story/money/business/2018/12/18/meteorologist-jessica-starr-suicide-lasik-questions/2335467002/

I buy quite a few books, but I donate quite a few as well. Very often we buy from the library sale, read them, and donate them back. I have been known to check out favorites that I already own to save wear and tear on our copies and to make sure they are checked out periodically. Libraries often decide what to keep based on circulation. I have a love/hate relationship with I!L...it always makes me nervous to have them in the house.

I love Christmas cards! I send out about 80 or so, but I usually end up ordering closer to 100 because it is cheaper. I don’t save all the ones from people, but love receiving them and I do keep them out in my entryway until Epiphany. I have a small scrapbook with a copy of the family card from each year. The trouble I have is throwing out the extras at the end of the year. I used to write a letter on the inside of my cards when I had a shorter list and more time. Now I write a line or two on most of them. I know the cost adds up, but I am willing to spend a couple of dollars a year per family to stay at least a bit connected since I am not on Facebook.

I graduated from Baylor and it was great. My niece graduated from there as well and loved it. I came from Michigan and the only negative was that it was fairly regional at the time. However, I never lacked for an invitation home with someone for Thanksgiving. The cost has likely taken it off our list for my daughter as well since this year they eliminated that automatic full tuition for National Merit Finalists. I can’t justify the cost without it. According to the alumni magazine, they have one of the highest student debt loads of any school in Texas. The article in the Baylor Line highlighted multiple students with over $100,000 in student loans. The school used to be priced to help those multigenerational families of Texas Baptists send their kids. Several years back the school made a concerted effort to change itself into a nationally ranked university. I went on a national merit scholarship, but I also knew my parents could afford it if something happened. That is no longer the case.

I would say my 14yo 8th grader works about 6+ hours a day on school. He has two online classes (MPOA 4th form Latin and CLRC Intro to Lit and Comp) which take more time than they probably should as he is a day dreamer and a slow writer. He did pick the twice per week class option for each to keep himself from procrastinating so much. He does algebra with me as of a couple weeks ago because it was not getting done effectively (or efficiently)...we are down to under an hour to work through a section in Foerster with understanding. He has a few other shorter subjects mixed in as well. Friday morning he has a homeschool field biology class at a local university environmental center, so that day is a bit longer. He currently isn’t playing an instrument, but I don’t count it for the others who do.

I drew a rectangle roughly four times as long as the height and then chopped it into four pieces (they visually looked like squares) Next, I took the area of 196 and chopped it into 4 pieces (aka dividing it by four) and wrote the answer 49 in each box I believe a 4th grader doing Singapore challenge problems should (or with some prompting) recognize that a square with an area of 49 has a side of seven. I wrote a 7 on the vertical height and a 7 on the base of the first square. Since the squares making up the large rectangle are all equal, they should see that you add up (or multiply) all those 7s to get the perimeter. unless we had done something recently, my older kids would likely have needed a quick prompt along the lines of “what’s the definition of perimeter?” I didn’t start early with Singapore math and I struggled with those bar drawings and figuring ways to solve the problems without algebra. Variables would have had some blank looks in fourth grade.

I would not recommend paying the money to have the test hand scored. My daughter scored between 8-10 points lower than her practice tests and only 2 points higher than her 7th grade score in math when she took the test in September. I paid the money, but only received a 3 line letter that everything was fine. Apparently, they used to hand score with an actual person, but now all they will do is confirm that the correct test key was used to score the test. Doesn’t seem like much for $50, plus if she needs the scores soon you won’t have a response in time for the December test date. My daughter will be retaking the ACT in December so that we can have a copy of her test book and answers in case there are any issues. I don’t think I will let any of my kids take an ACT or SAT in the future unless it is a test date that those are available.

Very interesting...I was not aware that Kolbe had an honors algebra 1 course plan. I have the plans for the non-honors version and it covers the chapters in order. My daughter completed the book straight through as well. The honors plans look new and maybe they have decided it is better. I do like that my algebra 2 plans from Kolbe show regular and honors side by side so you can see the differences. I think Foerster does cover quadratic equations earlier than many algebra texts. I have plowed into chapter five a couple of weeks ago with my 8th grader so we will see how it goes.

Sorry! It was in the 20s here last night and dh and boys were tent camping last night. I guess I just have furnaces on the brain.

5000-10000 sounds quite expensive for a replacement furnace. Ours was $2500 about four years ago. The contractor did not take credit cards and requested half up front. He did a great job, nursed the previous furnace along through the winter a couple of times for free because he thought it would be better to install the new furnace in the spring so we wouldn’t be without heat with little kids for a couple of days. He has been over at 9:00 at night when I called saying it was making weird noises. The only thing I would say is don’t buy a Bryant. The heat exchanger cracked after a year from an obvious manufacturing defect.. The company rep wouldn’t admit it and was in my home telling me I must not have had the vents set properly. Bryant doesn’t treat their installers well and my HVAC guy refuses to deal with them any longer.

My 16yo daughter just got a job at our local library as a youth page. She is super excited, but needs an account for her direct deposit. I don’t really want it going into our checking account. Do those of you whose teens have jobs get them a checking or a savings account? How would I decide? She doesn’t really have any expenses that she needs to be paying right now. As a side question, do any of your teens with earned income open a Roth IRA? Thanks in advice for any advice!

My first grader started piano this year and is really enjoying it. I think it helps if they can read. I have had other kids start with Suzuki violin, but that is harder on the ears and the pocketbook.

I can’t speak to the particular class, but AP Physics C is a hard exam. I took it longer ago than I care to remember, but the class was a killer due to an awful teacher and a worthless textbook. I made my dad explain the material every night so I could do my homework. The thing about physics and engineering school is that you have to do your homework and you have to read the problem. There was a pretty clear correspondence between grade and time spent on homework daily, not just before the test. Have him organize his thoughts before he starts and write down what he knows and what he is solving for before he starts working, along with a diagram. An organized process should help some of the stuff you describe.

For those of you who use FLL, do you also use WWE at the same time? I used the old FLL with the combined level 1 and 2 and when I went to FLL3 I added the recently released WWE3 and it seemed like a lot of overlap to do both. I am starting over with a new little one this year and looking for advice. i don’t have experience with Rod and Staff English, but liked FLL 1-3.

As for slant, I found it interesting that the D’Nealian book I purchased for later this year shows it acceptable to slant right or left. The only one they didn’t like was a mix. Books/notepads with smooth paper are good for everyone!

My daughter really liked those in your last category. She also liked The Candymakers Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane Chasing Vermeer Anne of Green Gables series Theodore Boone series Wrinkle in Time (but skip the movie) -sort of fantasy Austin Family Chronicles - same author, but not fantasy

What is the weather like in your area? Is the highway drive city or country? Here in Michigan you have to figure in snow during the winter. The longer the base commute, the higher the potential for a really long delay. We technically live a 50 min commute from UMich-Ann Arbor, but I can’t imagine driving it myself everyday. I worked around there one summer just out of college while still living at home and even in the summer it was 55 min there and an hour and a half home with traffic.