I liked The World of Islam up to 1500s by Fiona Macdonald in the Collins Living History Series It is only about 60 pages long, presents documents, artifacts and pictures in the form of sources, and is nicely illustrated. http://www.amazon.com/World-Islam-1500s-Living-History/dp/0003272311 Looks like you could get it quite cheaply, under $10. I just bought it a couple of weeks ago and love the source based presentation. Also there's this short 10 minute video featuring Ben Kingsley that sheds light on the role of the Muslim world in the dark ages: http://vimeo.com/9334270 Enjoy!

Wow how do you have the discipline to stick with sotw fpr so long, I would keep getting sidetracked!

Have you seen One Thousand Roads to Mecca, a compilation by Michael Wolfe of narratives concerning the Hajj spanning 10 centuries? It's divvied up chronologically and I am planning to use extracts for outlining in History for my 8th grader. DD just did a comparative write up on the Cave of Hira story, comparing the version in SOTW and the narration in Bukhari. We're still trying to find out what's the source for the version in SOTW, as it's quite unusual. But I thought it would be a good exercise for dd to compare the two narrations, understand primary and secondary sources, as well as training oneself to suspend judgement long enough to write a fair summary of a seemingly inauthentic narration. Just thought I'd share! We haven't really done much outlining before, so time to catch up.....

We've all tested positive for strep in our family of 6 except dh over the past 6 months, one mistake we kept making was to get re tested for strep as soon as our antibiotics finished - of course they came back negative as the antibiotics were still in our system. Recently I decided to only go in 3 weeks after antibiotic treatment, and only one child came back positive - we figured she was the carrrier as she had no symptoms and she was given a carrier's treatment schedule of antibiotics. So far so good. And yes we wondered about our pet: a cat, but after asking the local veterinary college, decided it was not impossible, but highly unlikely.

^ ^ Looks good Also this: http://www.shukronline.com/womens-skirts.html?page=0&sf=&sd=a#sortblock You could also consider other Muslim or Orthodox Jewish online retailers.

:lurk5:

Just wondering if anyone here is familiar with Hebrew. Does the top line say shalom? Looks like a cool linguistic graphic

I homeschooled my 6th grader after she asked me to. In grade 7 I asked her to continue, saying that one year of h.schooling won't be very beneficial. Now we're heading into gr 8 and she'd really like to go back to school. But just today i explained that most likely we'll continue homeschooling and why. But of course it's not about what's logical, it's the emotional connection to her peers, even though she still has scouts and stays in touch with her friends. So I hope that we don't have to discuss homeschooling too much and just kind of get on with it. Dramatic outbursts are inevitable: just pray silently during them and go out for a slushie or something. This past year I've been treasuring the happy moments she's felt when she gets her work done, she gets quiet time etc. I'm hoping she'll continue to feel these in the coming year but I realise there will be lows that are inevitable with someone who was expecting to rejoin their peers.

A nice medieval modern bridge is Muslim Child It may be intended for younger audiences, but an older child could enjoy it too. Also have a look at Aramco's online magazine, a well written publication intended to show the culture, history and legacy of the Arab and Islamic world to American audiences. This is the abridged section for children.By the way Frank Holt's I witness stories about pre-Islamic civilisations in the middle east are an absolute treat.