If we do come out with, say, an erotic dinosaur cake decorating kit, I will never stop laughing.

Thanks to Lip Sync battle, I am pretty sure I am going to be thinking "I'm Rick James, Bitch" for the next couple of days.

Kids went to bed just fine, so phew! And that friend I am working with had a way worse day than I did so we aren't grant writing tomorrow, which means I can devote the day to syllabus writing instead. So much less stressed now.

Parenting anxiety question: So my daughter got tracked into the regular math track, not the accelerated math. I strongly suspect this is where she belongs right now as last year math was such a flail. Like she had 6 simple problems for homework today and got all 6 wrong on her first go. I made her erase and go back and review the explanations first, then reread the problems and redo them. I keep telling myself it'll be fine, and that common core math is aimed to get everyone through the college pre-reqs. But the school district makes a big deal about dual tracking for math and she seems to have just slipped off the higher track. Not sure what to do.

So my daughter got tracked into the regular math track, not the accelerated math. I strongly suspect this is where she belongs right now as last year math was such a flail.

Well, I've had to deal with this from both Emmett and Matilda. I will note that we got Emmett a math tutor in Middle School and it did help him increase his test scores.

Unfortunately, that made him just barely place into accelerated math in HS which he promptly got a D in, and had to retake. So in my experience if you have any question about whether they should be in accelerated math, then they should probably be on the regular track.

My hard-won experience is that Accelerated Math is for people who excel at it, love it and are into it. Not for smart kids who can kind of get it with much tutelage. That was a recipe for failure for us.

I can't find the mouse for my desktop computer. Either it wasn't in the box with everything else for the computer, or I threw it out on accident because I'm at war with all this damn packing paper.

I think wine is the correct next step.

I think wine is the correct next step.

That sounds right.

Wouldn't it be better for them to kick ass at regular math and get comfortable with it there, rather than struggle with accelerated and dread the subject?

Thanks Hec and Connie. Emmett's experience is precisely what I would worry about for her. She so dreaded math last year, and it was such a heartbreaking slog. We do have a tutor for her that she started to work with last Spring. I'm going to ask the tutor to work with her mostly on math and test taking strategies. I figure I can work with her on the English and the history at home.

Mac is not in any high level classes even though he is completely capable of being in at least 2. He won't do the work required so it is it worth trying to push and drag him.

In my experience, putting kids into more difficult math classes when they're not ready for them is a recipe for disaster. The ones who are good at school stuff will figure out tricks and methods for how to get the right answers, but never actually learn anything, and those tricks that they figure out will often be based on totally wrong ideas that they'll have to unlearn in later classes.