Family Friday: Busy Gears Toy
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It seems like every children’s museum has an interactive exhibit involving gears. Bring the fun home with Playskool’s Busy Gears Toy.
For babies and toddlers 12 months and up, this colorful toy has 11 interchangeable gears that spin, along with music, sounds, and twinkling lights. Little ones can practice their fine motor skills and explore spatial skills by repositioning the gears in countless ways.
This Busy Gears Toy is under $30 on Amazon.
Sales of note for 4/16/25
(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)
- Nordstrom – 5,521 new markdowns for women!
- Ann Taylor – 40% off your entire purchase + 50% off one full-price item
- Banana Republic Factory – 50%-70% off everything + extra 20% off
- Eloquii – $29+ select styles + extra 40% off all sale
- J.Crew – Spring Event: 40% off sitewide + extra 40% off all sale
- J.Crew Factory – 40%-70% off everything + 60%-70% off spring faves
- M.M.LaFleur – New collection just dropped! Use code CORPORETTE15 for 15%
- Spanx – Lots of workwear on sale, some up to 70% off
- Talbots – 40% off select tops + 30% off dresses, skirts, shoes & accessories + 40% off all markdowns
Help me frame this please, and I’m so sorry this is long and sounds complain-y.
My now-4th grade son can enter the Standard or Advanced math class next year. Placement is determined by a quantitative cutoff – average of (1) average of 4 end-of-unit test scores, (2) annual testing percentile score on a computer platform (they use iReady), and (3) the “TerraNova CAT” score, which is some other kind of math placement test I have not heard of. Son is mathematically inclined but also much more interested in sports than anything relating to school so will historically do the bare minimum needed (and even then does pretty well). 80% average on those three things is what gets you into advanced.
We received his placement report and he placed into Math 5 due to the documented 71% unit test average, 95% on the iReady, and 45% on the “TerraNova” test. We quickly saw his unit test average was wrong – they entered a 10% for one grade and it was actually 100%, so that average is now a 94%. I had to go back and forth a few times with his current math teacher and the math department chair doing the placement to get that one corrected (it was truly ridiculous the amount of emails that it took to get this fixed), but he’d still be below the cutoff by a couple of percentage points with that TerraNova score.
The TerraNova thing is giving me so much pause. My son (admittedly an unreliable narrator) says he took it sometime in February, his teacher said it was a problem set and he could finish it later if he didn’t finish it at that time, and he didn’t know it was used for math placement for next year. His teacher hasn’t really explained what happened when administering the test (and to be honest I’m not even sure if he was the one who administered it, or if it was someone else), and it’s not clear to us what verbal or written directions were given. The math department chair is being entirely unhelpful in explaining what is actually tested and what information was given to students before starting, and is checking to see if they can share his test sheet with me.
We actually never got advanced notice of this TerraNova test, and also had no idea this was how math placement for next year was determined (the communication piece at this school is a continuing sore point). Current teacher said the TerraNova score is a clear and huge outlier and he’s surprised the score was that low, and he thinks my son should be in the Advanced class. We also think it’d be better for him to be in Advanced as a fire-under-his-behind situation instead of slogging through the standard class and doing very little.
My point is if my son knew it was more of a test situation that was going to be used for something important, he probably would have actually tried on it and done well enough to get into the Advanced class — and he’s so close as-is. There is one more chance to take some big test at the end of the year to get into Advanced, but my understanding from the school is basically no one advances based on that test because it’s so broad and rigorous. He can enter the Advanced track based on our request (with no assessment to get in required) for 6th grade, so in one more year.
How much would you push, or push back, on this placement? Thank you for reading this very long Friday afternoon frustration dump.
Would anyone know where can I find shiny clothing for boys? I’m talking sequins, shiny fabric, glitter, and any other gaudy form of decoration. We have a couple flip-sequin shirts but boys clothing is mostly so blah. I realize I can buy girls’ clothing (and I have actually gotten some girls’ sparkle sweatpants), but I’m trying to avoid the short and tight girl cuts that most of that clothing seems to be in.
We have two kids under 3 and just moved to a new city. Neither kid is in daycare, and neither adult is on Facebook. We are not religious. My job is part time remote work, so no coworkers here. How the heck do I make adult friends IRL in this day and age?
The travel questions yesterday and some of the questions about family got me thinking — how often do you travel WITH family? Or to family? And more or less with in-laws? I sometimes imagine what it will be like when my 3 kids are grown, and I have (presumably) three potential children in law. Both my brother and I moved away from our family and town of origin, so we only see each other and my parents on intentional trips. And it can be hard to coordinate, and there are only two of us! So I guess I wonder what people with more siblings really think about and do for visiting/seeing/spending time with family on vacation.
I had forgotten about this toy, but seeing it posted here brought back some really nice memories. My kids loved it. Thanks for the smile!
My boys (4 and 2) have missed about 50% of daycare since the beginning of 2025 due to run of the mill illnesses. I realize little kids are frequently sick, but this is obviously A LOT, so grateful for any tips to keep kids this age a little healthier.
The more specific the better: how to get them to wash their hands better, how to get them to sleep more, etc. They don’t have any kind of allergies, ND or anything like that. Just two unremarkable kids apart from the colds/runny noses/vomitting
We are not in the US, so unfortunately a nanny is not an option. Thanks so much 😭