Yes, I highly recommend you look into LeTourneau. We've had two sons graduate from there. Another spent three years majoring in biology there and then did his final year at a state school. He's halfway through dental school now. He was surprised at how inferior the education at the state school was compared to LeTourneau. He married the summer between his junior and senior years and so didn't live on campus at the state school. But, he had one professor who made it a point to mention every single class period how stupid he thought anyone who believed in intelligent design was. In contrast, LeTU seemed very open-minded and even hosted debates between evolutionists and intelligent design scientists. He was down at LeTU with me last month for another son's graduation, and while there he said he wished he had just finished at LeTU. It's a great school -- wonderful atmosphere and rigorous academics.

Your whole post was super informative. Thank you. I've never heard this about coffee before. I'm going to try it because I do love coffee, but my stomach pays the price.

I did one Whole30 a few months ago and took off all the weight I'd gained last fall while taking a difficult course to finish up my degree. (I earned an A and 8 pounds from that class.) More importantly, I felt a lot better. I'd like to get back to a strict Whole30. I'm allergic to gluten and dairy and hadn't eaten either of those for years, so I think the Whole30 was a bit easier for me than for most because I'm already used to not having those two things. But, I used to put creamy concoctions (made of cashews and dates or coconut milk and honey) in my coffee, and I quit doing that. Learning to drink coffee black was the hardest part of Whole30 for me, but I did learn to do it, and I'm still drinking it black. I got Well Fed out of the library and liked it a lot. Pinterest has countless great recipes and ideas. There are many great Whole30 compliant recipes on the Stupid Easy Paleo website. Here's my favorite breakfast. Her recipes tend to be simple and unique. The new Whole30 cookbook is excellent. We've made several recipes from that book and every single one was perfectly delicious.

No. It's always been that expensive. That's one I would keep.

I don't really qualify as a TOG dropout. I bought it used and resold it. Just looking at it made me hyperventilate. I don't ever see this mentioned here, but I'll say that www.thegreatbooks.com has worked well for us in high school. My kids, some who are graduated from college now, still talk about this as one of their best memories from their homeschool years. We've also used and liked straight TWTM as described in Chapter 26.

Good thinking, Sue! I hadn't thought of that. Dd is set on her major, but I'll keep that in mind for my younger kids.

Where would I find a good list of questions to ask at a college visit?

Some people would rather experience life than read about it. We have three people who don't read for pleasure in our home. One is a doctor, one is in nursing school, and the other is in dental school. Maybe your son is destined for a career in healthcare. :-)

This. I've been here for 15 years. This has definitely become a problem here recently.

Even easier: I do this without the onion.

Over the past 15 years, I've encountered several people who have asserted that WTM is too intense. In every single case, the longer we talked the more apparent it became that they either had not read the book at all or had only read a small portion of it.

We've had it for several years and love it. Great customer service. They helped us replace the player several years back when it was skipping, and they've replaced our remote for free. We would really miss Clearplay if we didn't have it.

I don't think this type of response is conducive to getting what you want. Just sayin'.

My favorite historical fiction (and favorite book ever) is Kristin Lavransdatter. eta: Island of the World is another one I loved.

Great Expectations (along with perhaps Gone with the Wind, which I read aloud back-to-back in a fit of craziness a few years ago) remains our most discussed read aloud ever -- everything from dinnertime discussions about table manners (according to Herbert Pocket) to dating advice from younger sisters ("Stay away from that girl. She's Estella!") Some of the dc complain about that "interminable book", but no one ever stops discussing it.

Along the lines of what Texasmama is suggesting, Diane Stanley has a beautiful (and short -- read it in one sitting) biography of Dickens that explains the times very well. Even though this is a picture book, it's appropriate for all ages.

I think this is an excellent point. I'm currently reading A Christmas Carol aloud to my 7-18 yo dc and it's going surprisingly well. The 7 yo can narrate it beautifully so I know he's getting it. It happens that we recently read a biography of George Mueller together, and as I read I keep thinking about how serendipitous it is that we read these two books so closely together. I think that's one of the biggest reasons they get it. I also think Dickens is a bit of an acquired taste. The more we read him, the more we like him. Except the 7yo, my kids have been exposed to Dickens (originals) before, and his writing seems to grow on them gradually. It grew on me that way.

Yes, they are very hard. As others have said, the free reading choices are meant to be read alouds until the child is ready to read them on his own. Most children can grow accustomed to the language of these difficult texts. I've been shocked to see what my kids can understand when exposed on a regular basis to the books on AO's lists. The most helpful technique has been to slow way way down. Read a paragraph, have them narrate, read another paragraph, have them narrate...until they can handle longer portions. Do this for short periods every single day and you'll be surprised at the results.

I'm glad you mentioned the Jotham's Journey series. My kids really love these too. I noticed that Bartholomew's Passage and Tabitha's Travels are only 2.99 on Kindle right now.

Our family advent book is Handel's Messiah Family Advent Reader. We used this last year and liked it so much we decided to do it again this year. It's only available used, and the price this time of year is outrageous. The trick to getting this book is waiting until off-season. I waited until February a few years ago and got it for $12. We are looking forward to the book Truce as well. I checked it out of the library last week. We also plan to read Christmas Carol. Ds read the excerpt in WWS for his writing lesson last week and then begged me to read it to him. I told him he had to wait until after Thanksgiving, so we plan to start this afternoon or tomorrow. AO has a lovely list of holiday stories and poems here. I'm looking forward to reading a poem each day. My kids are also asking to do the Lessons and Carols copybooks by Julie Shields available at Lulu. They did these last year but want to do them again.

Books by Clyde Robert Bulla

deleted double post

The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe is a gorgeous coffee table book that would make a nice gift. Would you mind linking to the videos?

Yes, it's very rough watching that kind of pain. My husband and several of my kids (8 out of 12) experience frequent, severe migraines -- extreme pain, aura, vomiting, limb numbness...It's ugly and can knock them flat for 24 hours or more. Identifying and avoiding triggers has decreased the frequency by at least 75%. Definitely do some research into triggers. It's so worth the effort.

That's wonderful! I'm very happy for you.