Living in America 2015

[rootypig]

New thread. In honour of:

1. allegedly Irish bangers discovered I saw in Trader Joe's today, which made me think of you lot and especially you Want2b, you pork fanatic - I will report back; and

2. taxes bloody argh! do I have to do this? NOW??? My green card was granted in August last year and I didn't earn a bloody penny. What am I supposed to put on a tax return

How else is everyone's American odyssey going?

yours chaotically, as ever,

rooty

Hello! Just popping in to see if any of you with kids in 3-8th Grade are protesting about the ELA state tests? Or is it just in NY? There has been quite the debacle in our school district with people opting out of taking them in unprecedented numbers. Anyway, I was just interested to see if this is nation wide thing, after so much hoo har over the introduction of the Common Core.

As for trips, we're heading back to the UK this summer. The flights were CRAZILY expensive for a while but seem to be coming down again now. We're hoping to fit in a week in France, just our family, in the middle bit. I love seeing all our extended family but when that's your summer family holiday, you kind of need to have a bit of breathing space at some point.
Want2B, we have the opposite. My father bought our old car from us when we moved out here. He's thinking of getting rid of it now though as it sits in the garage all winter and then, each spring, he finds it harder and harder to get in and out of it!

Have any of you been to Lake Michigan? Is it worth the trip up to camp near Sleeping Bear Dunes?!

Oh yes indeed it is well worth the trip. The Dunes are spectacular and the beaches are gorgeous. The little town of Empire is very sweet and old timey. If you rent a car you can go east to the Old Mission Peninsula, very picturesque. Traverse City has a Cherry Festival and there are local wineries. I love the area. It is super child-friendly.

math I'll probably make it a roadtrip so will drive up in my our own car. In which case, my next question would be is will a Minivan be ok or should I just "borrow" DH's pick up? It will just be me and the kids.

Thank you for any information you can offer!!

The times I drove (from Chicago) I was in a minivan and found it comfortable for a carload of children (one in a carseat, one in a booster seat plus two more) for that length of a trip. A pickup would be lovely though.. And you could have your tent and bikes, etc in the back.

likeabad we're in TX and yes, there are a lot of rumblings about opting out of standardized testing, but I don't know anyone who is actively removing kids. It's pretty ridiculous isn't it? My 3rd grader has had to spend all of his time learning how to take a test, the poor teachers are at the end of their tethers with having to meet targets and achieve certain standards and the school admins are up to their eyes in stats and meaningless figures. Sounds just like the UK! I tell DCs not to worry, just to do their best but that the tests are no indication of their ability. They absolutely hate sitting still for 4 hours...what are we doing to our kids?!

Hi all - some grumbling here about the tests, but not heard of anyone being removed. It's fairly low key - not as much fuss as SATS, for eg - in lower grades at least

To rewind a little... How do you all view ITV and iPlayer?

Itsveryyou. Here's a link (hopefully) from the lohud, which reaches out to the counties north and west of Manhattan. Ours doesn't even feature yet I've never seen so many parents saying they were going to opt out and make their voice heard that way.
www.lohud.com/story/news/education/2015/04/14/districts-see-high-opt-numbers/25767649/

Closer, I will get DH to explain so I can share it with you tomorrow but we have 2 wi-fis in our house. One is the normal Americsn one and the other one reads everything US except for tv. So I can watch UK TV from my tv, my Mac and my iPad/phone.

Hi closer I'm currently watching Masterchef through my laptop, which I have plugged into our TV. I subscribe to a VPN service thingy for a few dollars a month. It streams really well, I'll try to find the name of it if you'd like? I can view all channels, tho BBC seems to work better than ITV.

likeabad I think your east coast neighbours are a lot more willing to rebel than my lot! I think things will change over the next few years and the tests will be largely downgraded. This year, maths grades won't even count, because changes in the curriculum mean 3rd graders are being taught 5th grade stuff, but there are gaps in knowledge which can't be filled before the tests take place!

I've been to Lake Michigan but only to Holland. Havent been as far as the dunes yet. There are loads of little seasidey towns all around the lake. Some are pretty and faux-quaint (like Holland) others are a bit run down tacky sea side places.

Charlevoix is nice, but expensive and busy.

If you want to camp you have to book 6 months ahead and be poised to make a reservation as the nights become available.

Mackinaw island and city are quite good for a weekend if you're heading up that way, and if you want to make the round trip. taquemenan Falls in the UP are nice.

If you want to get a ferry across the lake, you need to book months in advance as well.

A second wifi / VPN So the Beeb think you are in the UK, presumably?

Yes. UK TV mainstream channels see me as UK but every single other website on that Vpn see me as US based. Channel 5 doesn't work though.

Closer you don't need anything as mad as that, if you're watching on a computer. I used a free firefox plug in that took 30 seconds to download. Called Media Hint. Stream all UK services no problem.

As mad as that?!! Ok...

Thank yo kissass! That's not a sentence I thought I'd be saying lately!!

*you. I'm not my teenage kids....

Ha, it's just faster to stick a plug in on one computer if you're happy with that. I meant mad, effort, not mad, nuts!

But it's not. We have it set up so it's literally the difference between pressing 02 and 302 on the remote control.

But setting it up....? or even explaining it?

Rooty, DH is going to email me the instructions and I'll put them on here. I have no idea how it got set up in the first place!

Loving all the Lake Michigan talk. I'd love to see that part of the US sometime.

Likeabad our local radio WNYC just had a big piece on opting out just now. Sounds like quite an opt out movement! My eldest will start kindergarten this sept so I'll know more about it then. All seems a bit complicated to me at the moment!

My DCs went to a RC elementary where they did the Terra Nova test every two years. There is a new RC school test the school piloted last year, but my youngest DD didn't take it.

This year she did the Explore test as part of public high school placement testing. I wish the Terra Nova test had been more realistic about her maths issues all along. The Explore test revealed that there is a real problem there and it's a little late in the day to get it remedied but we have to try.

High school features weekly testing in most classes, there are state and national standardised tests, APs and Sat subject tests.. Most students in my experience take the ACT and SAT a few times. There is no getting away from testing as far as I can see, and getting used to it at elementary and middle school level seems to me to be a sensible course.

What's silly is the punishing of schools for poor results, which can tempt teachers and administrators to cheat (as seen in Atlanta recently). The results should be only used for research into educational issues imo - why some students are failing, what can be done to help. Except that everyone knows why some students fail and nobody wants to do what is necessary to help. All of us seeing our children off to school on test days with their 2B pencils and their permitted calculators are participating in the fiction that America is the land of untrammeled opportunity where everyone can do everything they want if only they are prepared to work hard enough for it.

The times we went to Michigan, we stayed in very inexpensive rented cabins off the beaten path, on the shores of inland lakes, and we made little trips to the places we wanted to see. We usually booked in about May for an August holiday. The accommodation was usually just about one notch above camping as far as comfort went but a loo and kitchen went a long way.

I think I'll need step by step directions for the tv thingy

Also starting to think about summer - and possibly a long weekend in Niagara before then. Has anyone done this?

Math, that pretty much sums up how I feel. My kids are doing the tests, much to their disgust! I've just told them that it's great practice for their Regents and their SAT/ACTs.

Closer, we went to Niagara for Memorial weekend one year. The actual falls are well worth the trip but the town is more than a bit crappy! We stayed the Canadian side. Because it was MW, it took us 10 hours to get up there from NYC. It was only about 7 to get home as we put the kids in their pjs and drove home Sunday evening/night.

They are stunning though and it's a lot of fun standing at the bottom getting soaked!

Niagara falls is wonderful, especially when it is hot. You get on the maid of the mist and get drenched. Then you walk around and dry off. Def stay on the Canadian side. It is cheaper and much more fun.

NJ seems to be very intent on punishing teachers for students who are not performing. 70% of the kids in my town in public school are on free meals. The parents are working 2-3 jobs each and are not around to do homework and do the general parenting we take for granted. The teachers do an amazing job IMO. DD has been tested monthly in preK and I am fine with that. It is their way of measuring progress and identifying gaps in knowledge.

So, I'm new to this buying gifts for teachers. DD's teachers have been amazing and DD is a different child to the one who started school in September. I want to give a nice gift and I am thinking cash in a card made by DD as both teachers live in small apartments. How much is the right amount?