A nice, staid New England private liberal arts school would be just the ticket. Kids at my college used to study in the library until 11pm on Friday, then maybe go to a pretty calm party. Think: Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Smith, Mt. Holyoke, Vassar. But then she'd be far away from home.

Most of the authors below have published many books. I give only one example from each. Specifically Herpetology: Discovering Amphibians by John Himmelman http://www.amazon.com/Discovering-Amphibians-Frogs-Salamanders-Northeast/dp/0892727039/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320170021&sr=8-1 The Year of the Turtle by David M. Carroll http://www.amazon.com/Year-Turtle-Natural-History/dp/0312147724/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320170064&sr=1-1 Insects: Chasing Monarchs by Robert Michael Pyle http://www.amazon.com/Chasing-Monarchs-Migrating-Butterflies-Passage/dp/B005OHXVTQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320170129&sr=1-1 Broadsides from Other Orders by Sue Hubbell http://www.amazon.com/Broadsides-Other-Orders-Book-Bugs/dp/0395883261/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320170164&sr=1-1 Near Horizons by Edwin Way Teale http://www.amazon.com/Near-Horizons-Story-Insect-Garden/dp/B0007EB24C/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320170275&sr=1-1 Other: Wild Season by Allan W. Eckert http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Season-Allan-W-Eckert/dp/0913428310/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320170215&sr=1-1 The Trees in My Forest by Bernd Heinrich http://www.amazon.com/Trees-My-Forest-Bernd-Heinrich/dp/0060929421/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320170333&sr=1-1 The Edge of the Sea by Rachel Carson http://www.amazon.com/Edge-Sea-Rachel-Carson/dp/B003L1ZYKQ/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320170361&sr=1-2 The Living Year by Richard Headstrom http://www.amazon.com/Living-Year-Richard-Headstrom/dp/B0007E2THQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320170471&sr=1-1

Gly-oxide. Find it at the drugstore. Works wonders.

Not curricula, but botany resources if you must cobble something together: A Golden Guide Botany (closest to a text) http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=Taylor+R.+Alexander&sts=t&tn=Botany&x=72&y=12 Botany for All Ages by Jorie Hunken http://www.amazon.com/Botany-All-Ages-Discovering-Activities/dp/1564402819/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319577050&sr=1-1 Botany in a Day by Thomas J. Elepel http://www.amazon.com/Botany-Day-Patterns-Method-Identification/dp/1892784157/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319577097&sr=1-1 The Trees in My Forest by Bernd Heinrich http://www.amazon.com/Trees-My-Forest-Bernd-Heinrich/dp/0060174463/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319577160&sr=1-1

I haven't lived in Maine for 20 years, but if people ask me where I'm from I answer that I live in NY, but I am from Maine. I actually LONG to move back to Maine.

I have been thinking a lot about this topic lately, and with some help from Michael Clay Thompson (grammar and poetics);Wanda Sanseri and Margaret Bishop (spelling);the Image Grammar Guy (writing); as well as the Lost Tools of Writing guy and Ward Farnsworth (arrangement and rhetoric), I am beginning to understand that there is no perspective on our language that is superfluous, not spelling, grammar, writing, poetics, arrangement or rhetoric. The roots, syllables and phonemes of words give them their history and their beat. Grammar gives groups of words their structure and puts them together to form ideas. The writing process involves the organization of ideas into paragraphs and essays. The application of rhetorical devices enlivens and enriches the language used in the writing and helps emphasize the ideas within. When all those elements are deliberately put together by writers who have mastered every level of language, you get a speech like Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" or a poem like "Jabberwocky" or a book like Wind in the Willows.

An unfortunate misreading of a line from The Story of the World: "The Etruscans taught the Romans how to dress like Geeks."

Trilobite: Eyewitness to Evolution by Richard Fortey Fossils: The Key to the Past by Richard Fortey

"I'm thinking of adding in some WTM ideas- having a section in her binder labelled "People" and having her write one or two sentences about people that come up in her readings." We use Human Odyssey. There are plenty of famous people profiled. Most of them have an illustration or painting included. I have my son draw the person and then write the following information below the illustration: Who, What, When, Where, & Why. He enjoys this more because of the illustration component. I made a sheet with a box at the top for the illustration and lines beside the prompts. You could have your child choose one person per chapter or more.

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I'm with Bill. Logophiles are created when their parents let them browse through a dictionary for entertainment. Both my mother and I spent hours reading the dictionary when we were children. I don't know if you can bring up random words in an online dictionary. Even if it is possible, it cannot possibly compare to the sense of awe a curious child gets when they first encounter the sheer number of words available in a real dictionary.

"I do shop the perimeter of the stores mostly and don't buy the junk food, but I love to bake it :D cookies, cakes, pies yummy." by SwellMomma Look at that! You are already ahead of most Americans. You buy whole foods and you know how to cook! When my dh went to a nutritionist with a list of what he typically eats (mostly fairly healthy homemade stuff--that was back before homeschooling when I still cooked for him), she was surprised and said "Most of my patients eat cheetos and coke for breakfast!" Portion control is my husband's hurdle too. Just measure your portions (measuring cups or scale) and aim to reduce them slowly over a period of weeks. You'll hardly notice. You might also want to try replacing some of the sweet dishes with savory ones--also satisfying. You can do it!

King Arthur Flour has a great classic whole wheat bread recipe (I make it with honey) and many more on their website. http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/classic-100-whole-wheat-bread-recipe Using the more finely ground King Arthur organic whole wheat flour makes a lighter loaf. Use a half packet extra yeast too if it doesn't rise enough for your taste.

Pretend there is a "Healthy Cart Award" at the grocery store. Don't put anything in that cart that puts you at risk of losing your award. Peek into other people's carts and see all the bad food they are buying! You are winning! Think of it this way: when you buy junk food and processed food you are basically spending your hard earned money to make yourself and your family sick! Shop the perimeter of the store. Don't go down the junk food aisles at all. Fill the cart with veggies and fruits and whole grains, lean meats, eggs and skim milk. If you don't bring it home, you can't eat it. If anger motivates you, read (or watch) the recent books and movies on how the food industry knowingly creates and markets dangerous processed foods that they know are addictive and unhealthy: Fast Food Nation; Supersize Me; Food Inc.; Food Fight. Walk with your kids everyday. Capt. Uhura and LG Gone Wild are excellent exercise role models. Listen to them. Exercise (at your level) will help you balance your emotions, really helps with depression.

A good beginning: Teaching the Classics: A Socratic Method for Literary Education by Adam and Missy Andrews. Doesn't teach the literary essay, but explains conflict, theme, setting, characters, exposition, rising action, denouement, conclusion. There are nice videos you can get with it.

These aren't free but they are cheap! http://www.amazon.com/Skills-Sentence-Structure-Through-Diagraming/dp/1568221754/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1317853845&sr=8-7 http://www.amazon.com/Better-Sentence-Structure-Through-Diagraming/dp/1568221762/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1317853845&sr=8-8

You could break it down by time period: ancient times, middle ages, early modern, and modern times to go with the history cycle. Alternatively, you could do what we are trying to do: memorize the list in order without dates. Once we have the names and order down, then we'll add in the dates.

The New York Military Academy's website says it has a classical curriculum.

We used to know our son was awake in the morning because we'd hear the "shooting" begin. He is 11 now and he just ran up the stairs making shooting noises. It will never end.

Love Firefly! Would not let my 11 year old watch it. A 15 year old maybe. There is a very scary episode where sweet Kaylee (sp?) is attacked and almost r*ped. Frightening even for me as an adult. And unless I am wrong and it is in the movie, there is an episode where it was explained that they'd all be "r*ped to death" if the bad guys caught them. I for one don't really feel up to explaining that statement to an 11 year old if asked.

I had free reign of the library when younger and don't believe I was damaged in any way by my reading (however there are a few movie images I wish I could bleach from my mind!) That being said a segment of the young adult popular fiction is now far more graphic than the contemporary adult novels I now read! The following is an editorial from the Wall Street Journal about one mom's experience in the young adult section of the bookstore. I believe she rejected 78 ! titles, and she is not coming from a conservative religious standpoint. This is an eye-opening read: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303657404576357622592697038.html

The Nobel prize winning Russian poet, Joseph Brodsky, Collected Poems in English.

My ds11 enjoys reading journals or written works by historical figures. Since time is limited and we are in middle school now, I have weaned him from historical fiction (which he liked well enough). I think books like the following better serve logic stage goals. Here is a sampling (be aware that some of them require an advanced reading level) The Four Voyages by Christopher Columbus; The Narrative of Cabeza de Vaca by Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas The Journals of Lewis and Clark abridged by Anthony Brandt for National Geographic William Penn's Own Account of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians The Vinland Sagas Penguin Books. Great Speeches by Native Americans Dover Books Great Speeches of African Americans Dover Books Black Elk Speaks Benjamin Franklin Autobiography and Other Writings Oxford World Classics Of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford

Your daughter certainly writes beyond her years. I love Beowulf and thoroughly enjoyed her essay and learned something new in the process of reading it. She makes excellent use of quotations from the the text, and these are seamlessly integrated into her essay. Her thesis statement indicates that she is investigating how references to gold in the poem represent three values/virtues in the culture of the protagonist: nobility, duty and good and evil. The exploration of gold representing nobility is well defined with many supporting examples. There is a nice topic sentence transitioning the reader from the 1st paragraph which examines gold=nobility, except your daughter uses the term royalty in this section's topic sentence instead of nobility. I generally find "royalty" to refer to a class of people while "nobility" refers to a virtue. Are these terms interchangeable to her? Or is this an additional (4th) symbolic meaning for gold and if so why is it not in the first paragraph with the others? Have her consider sticking with the terms she introduced in the thesis statement. The exploration of gold and duty is also well-defined and includes many supporting examples. There is not a clear transition marking where the discussion of nobility ends and the discussion of duty begins. But the exploration of gold and good and evil is not fleshed out. I find only one example and it is mixed in with the royalty/nobility examples. There is no topic sentence in the body of the essay dealing with this either. Mind you, these are only organizational suggestions. The essay is bright and lively. The sentence structure is sophisticated. And the thesis is important and manageable. I think the conclusion will come together after a little reorganization of the body of the essay. Great job. I know of few 14-year-olds who could produce such work. Pat yourself on the back and do a final revision and you'll have your own gold nugget in your portfolio!

Thank you SaDonna. It would be great to hear more good day stories like these on this forum. Very heartening and inspirational.