As another adoptee, I thank you, too. My birth mother gave me the best gift I will ever receive.

I am having the same problem with my gifted 15 year old. He can communicate verbally in ways that amaze me, but ask him to get those ideas on paper and it is a chore. Like Carol has suggested, we are going to go with freewriting. Our plan is to have him freewrite in a journal for at least 15 minutes every day right after he does his reading for literature or history. He can write anything he wants without fear of critique. Then we we get ready to do formal essays on his reading, he will pull from his journals as a starting point. I hope this helps you some. Even though I have a plan for Sushi, I still need to find a way to get him involved in a semi-public editing process. He needs to learn to share his writing, get feedback, and revise without breaking out in hives.

My husband and I are Millsaps grads, and I have volunteered for years with my sorority on campus. If you have any questions about the school, I will try to answer them. What you were told about the Greek system being friendly is very true. I never considered myself the sorority type, but then I got to campus and saw that at Millsaps there isn't really a single "type" that goes Greek. It is inclusive with something for everyone. I was actually proud to be in a sorority.

I was going to suggest Dave Ramsey, too.

I took a break from the Internet for most of June, but I'm back now and have a Wordless Wednesday post, too. It was my first time to bake with yeast. Usually my sweet husband handles the yeasty things. Link is in my signature.

We have a fun one this week. http://msmathmom.blogspot.com/2010/05/wordless-wednesday_18.html

I wasn't going to have one today, but an opportunity just presented itself. I don't know whether to be proud of the creativity or shake my head in the truth that no matter how hard I try, I can't take the country out of girls in Mississippi. lol http://msmathmom.blogspot.com/2010/05/wordless-wednesday_12.html

I am so surprised and thankful for the responses! I was afraid people would tell me we are weird. lol Elizabeth, some of my favorite people are from Greenwood. Your dad must be good people!

It's a yummy WW at our house. Enjoy our Nutella poptarts. http://msmathmom.blogspot.com/2010/05/wordless-wednesday.html

Thanks so much! Both links are very helpful.

MCT for my 3rd grader. She can't get enough of it! Her vocabulary has improved, her writing has improved, and she is enthusiastic about language. And for my Kindergarten girl, my mom's old Dick and Jane readers proved to be the best thing we used all year. She went from reluctantly reading simple 3 letter words to eagerly embracing longer stories. Those books were better than any program we tried.

I imagine this will be a rather obscure request, but does anyone know of any online literature classes with a gothic focus? My son will be doing Mississippi History this summer, including Mississippi writers whose works often fall in the Southern Gothic category. I think he would really enjoy reading and comparing these works to other works that aren't based in the South.

This schedule is subject to change over the next few weeks, but I think my 10th grader will be doing the following next year: English II through the Mississippi Virtual Public School program AP Human Geography through PA Homeschoolers Honors Chemistry with ChemAdvantage.com Algebra II with me :) using a combo of AoPS and other materials I have from my working years *maybe* Mandarin Chinese III with a private tutor (We may switch to either Japanese or Swedish depending on how travel opportunities look.) That's it for formal academic work. The fun stuff includes: Formalizing his computer programming tinkering by listening in on open source classes from Stanford and MIT. We are also working on setting him with an online internship with a friend of mine that develops apps for Apple products. Interning with a former cheerleading buddy of mine that is a producer for a radio cooking show. Sushi thinks he may want a career in the food industry, so it is a good fit. Creating even more Steampunk costumes and artifacts. He has been working on his sewing skills and is getting pretty good. His former middle school theater teacher may have some backstage opportunities in local productions related to this! But our number 1 goal is for Sushi to get healthy. He hasn't been the same since he was diagnosed with mono in November.

We are up today, too. http://msmathmom.blogspot.com/2010/04/wordless-wednesday_28.html

For what it is worth, I just downloaded an app for my iPhone. The app was written by one of my best friends in high school. He has had 4 apps approved by Apple and is working on at least a dozen more. Stu is brilliant beyond words at what he does, but he never did well on tests or in regular classes in high school. His ACT score was barely above a 20. He was blessed with parents like you who encouraged him to do his best and to excel in his passion.

There are two parts to the competition- long term and spontaneous. Your team will chose one long term problem and create an 8 minute presentation of your solution. Some problems are "Classics" meaning the solution will be mainly literature based while some are more technical such as a building problem or a mechanics problem. Even the technical problems have themes, so you will create a mini-play of sorts to act out a scene related to the theme. Some topics require that you present a non-verbal presentation, while others will be scripted. It all depends on the problem you choose. Spontaneous problem solving happens on-site. The entire team goes into a room and is given a problem to solve. Sometimes it is verbal (How kinds of rings can you name?) and others are more physical (Move a bunch of ping pong balls across a room without touching them using these x objects.) The team has a very short time period and is graded on creativity. Is this helping?

My husband and I both did OM as kids and teens and agree that because of the program we are stronger team players and creative problem solvers. Between the two of us we competed at World Finals 6 times in the 1980's. It is a fun way to learn to work with others, work under deadlines and budgets, and to stretch your mind. My childhood best friend and former teammate is a coach now in Texas and says it is even more fun on that end of the competition.

Can't help you there. My Sushi boy is planning to sew a costume hat today and make dinner. :lol:

That was our experience, too!! I ADORE the series. Who would think that a kid would look forward to grammar each day?

I didn't see a thread for today. Hope I didn't miss it! This week I am not posting my best picture, but it does make me smile. I looked up from Sushi reading The Prince, Bacon slaving through spelling, and Peanut working on place value with her abacus to find that Egg had dressed herself as a Disney Princess and was watching Teen Titans on my iphone! http://msmathmom.blogspot.com/2010/04/wordless-wednesday_21.html

We went to the Y today and tried out the underwater features of Bacon's new camera. http://msmathmom.blogspot.com/2010/04/wordless-wednesday_14.html

Just a day to post only a picture and no more than a few words on a blog. I use it as a day to capture exactly what is happening at the moment in my family.

Late jumping in, but I did post a Wordless Wednesday yesterday. I'm so excited that my oldest is almost old enough to get a driving permit. He is ready! Link is in my signature.

I'm up, too. The link is in my signature. The picture is from our homeschool group's park day yesterday. I loved seeing all the big and little kids play in the sand together.

We are using SWO with MCT Island, but I plan to switch to Sequential Spelling after our June break.