Playmobil Lego Draw Write Now books with lots of paper and colored pencils How in the World book (my grown children won't let me give it away!) Where in the World? board game decks of cards (many!) Kate Seredy and Hilda van Stockum books And expensive, but well worth it for a child who is horse-crazy: Breyer horses.

Mazakaal, Did you want recommendations of books from any genre (a one reading the title of this thread would think), or did you want only recommendations of literature texts? You've received several recommendations of non-fiction books, which is logical given the title of the thread. But it seems from your original post that you are looking only for books that one would use literature courses. Can you clarify?

Peonies are somewhat particular plants regarding how they are planted, but once established, they'll last forever. To transplant, wait until early fall, then dig them carefully, keeping as much of the root system as possible. You will see little pink buds near the top of the roots. Those should be planted 1 to 1 1/2" below the soil line. (Yes, that is very specific - I did say they are particular about planting!) :001_smile: Dig a very large hole, 12-18" in diameter and 12-18" deep. Fill it with lots of good soil, peat, dead leaves, etc. They will be there for years and years, so give them good soil to get them off to a good start. Mound the soil in the center of the hole so that the buds are exactly the correct depth in the hole (probably a bit higher, since settling of soil will lower the plant). Then fill in the rest of the hold with soil and water well. Peonies are a favorite of mine. I actually transplanted several of my grandmother's plants the fall after she died (she lived over two hours away). Then, when we moved from the house in which we lived when I transplanted those plants, I was able to transplant them again. They're thriving today! :)

You're not alone. Many adults are having orthodontia treatment. Our family's orthodontist said 30% of his patients are adults. I think that's one of the reasons they came up with Invisalign. Yes, after your teeth have straightened, you will need a retainer for the rest of your life. I wish I had known that years ago. I had braces when I was young, but I didn't keep up with wearing my retainer at night. Moreover, after about ten years of having that permanent retainer behind my lower front teeth, I asked my dentist to remove it. Guess he didn't realize that it should be there forever either. Now all my teeth have shifted, some more than others. If I had the $$, I'd do the Invisalign.

I clicked that we finish all, but what we actually do is a mix of the options given. We finish certain subjects, but not all. Math and Latin get finished. History, we finish all the readings, but may skip a paper or two at the end. Science, we come close, but might not do the last few weeks, depending on the student's interest and the subject. My children don't take AP tests, so we don't have to worry about missing something. They'll study all the science again in college anyway. FWIW, I was more lenient before my children started high school.:)

Happy for you! I'm content to dabble here now and then, but there was a time back when I was a curriculum Queen - and long before TWTM boards existed - that I was a regular on other HS boards. Ah, those were the days! Now I'm pretty settled with my curriculum and just plodding on every day towards the end, quietly peeking in occasionally :)

We started with 100 EZ Lessons, moved on to Alphaphonics with Bob books (are they still around? My younger two were reminiscing about those books the other day.) and finished up with Writing Road to Reading. That program worked well for my younger three. Oldest went to brick-and-mortar school until halfway through second grade, by which time he had learned to read.

:iagree:I had a Speed Queen for 23 years. When it died, I bought another one. :001_smile: They're great machines, and I'm pretty sure they're still made in the US. I did a lot of research, because I wanted a machine that would last. I couldn't find anything that held up as well as Speed Queen. Really, you don't need a lot of bells and whistles.

We didn't have to pay anything when my son took the PSAT last fall. I agree with creekland that it is helpful to gain experience in 10th grade when nothing is at stake by taking the test in the actual testing environment. FWIW, two of my children's scores (ds#1 and dd#2) went down from 10th grade to 11th grade. Based on the cut-off scores for our state (IL), both of them would have qualified as National Merit semi-finalists in their sophomore years, but their junior year scores were just shy of the cut-off. They were both named commended scholars. Ds's score dropped 14 points, dd's 4 points. OTOH, DD#1's score increased by 14 points; enough to make her a National Merit Finalist. :001_smile: They all took a few practice tests from the College Board book. Since the older ones have taken the test a couple of times each, we now have a collection of past PSAT tests, so my youngest can review actual tests when it's his turn (one of the benefits of being a younger child).

My experience with my two sons has led me to conclude that the most important thing regarding handwriting is to be able to write legibly at a reasonable speed. Some people prefer cursive, some manuscript (side note: I'm thrilled that I've just written an elliptical sentence!). Personally, I'd rather read a neatly written piece of manuscript writing than a nearly illegible piece written in cursive. To wit: I worked at teaching ds #1 (who's now 25) to write cursive when he was 8-9 years old. He worked hard because I insisted that he learn to write a beautiful cursive hand. The process of me teaching and him learning wasn't always pretty, but he did develop a beautiful cursive hand - and I have the writing samples to prove it. But by the time he was in eighth grade, his handwriting had devolved into an illegible scrawl. At that point I insisted that he type his papers. He never returned to writing manuscript, and, to this day, his handwriting is nearly illegible. How his college teachers were able to read his handwritten final exams (he attended a college that requires handwritten semester finals for most courses) remains one of life's great mysteries for me. Having learned from that experience, I didn't push cursive when ds #2 was learning handwriting. I did introduce it, but because he held the writing instrument awkwardly, he struggled to make the letters easily. So I let him write manuscript. That decision meant that we avoided what most likely would have been painful sessions of struggling to master cursive - a skill that isn't as essential to being a well-educated person in this age as it used to be. Now, at 15 years, he writes neatly and legibly, and I have no difficulty reading his writing - and I don't expect that anyone else does either. We focus on the content of his writing, which I deem more important than the type of penmanship he uses. Now, that said, I would add that students do gain facility and speed as they grow older and write more. At your daughter's age, you may want to encourage her to work for another year on the cursive before abandoning it. Girls have better fine motor skills than boys, so it's very possible that, given time, she'll develop proficiency and speed. My younger son took a long time to do that even though he was using manuscript; he struggled to write neatly at a decent speed all the way through 7th or 8th grade. It's only been in the last couple of years that he's been able to write at a good pace. YMMV. :001_smile:

Q: Do you know what that means? My answer: Your kids have all run away from home. (Tee-hee) Seriously, Congratulations! Enjoy it while it lasts.

I'm curious: what testing requires that students be able to write cursive? Will they accept italic cursive? And I'm grateful that we don't have required testing here, because my 15 yo son never really learned cursive. He writes a legible manuscript; IMO, it's more important that the writing be legible than that it be a certain type. For my 15 yo, that means manuscript. FWIW, my older son wrote beautiful cursive when I taught him in second, third and fourth grades. By the time he was in college, his cursive penmanship was nearly illegible.

We focus on the Persian Wars, which are: Marathon (in book 6), Thermopylae (in book 7), Salamis (in book 8) and Plataea (in Book 9). If you don't want to read all of Herodotus, books 2 and 3, in which he describes Egypt and its history, are good candidates for skipping.

We alternated Singapore with Saxon to make sure we covered everything. For Singapore 3 year, we did Saxon 54; Singapore 4 year, Saxon 65 and so on. My children took the tests in Saxon. Whenever they didn't know how to do a problem, we looked at that concept in the text, did some related problems, and went on with the tests. HTH!

Excellent post Lori!