The Wildlife Conservation Society (Bronx Zoo) has ecologists and zoologists doing research in the Congo. I bet they have information online somewhere about the qualifications necessary to be a researcher. I'm guessing graduate work in zoology. Working as an employee of WCS or similar organization is probably a lot less stressful than having to constantly keep your research funded by writing grant applications. Is there a zoo, nature center, arboretum, botanical garden, etc. nearby where he could intern/volunteer?

I don't know the difference in the qualifications of the instructors, but on brightstorm you see the instructor, on khan academy all you see is the blackboard. My son has loved brightstorm physics (the sound/light/and waves guy is crazy).

Have you tried recognition based on the questions they answer? Adverbs and adverb phrase/clauses answer these questions: Where? When? Why? How? or To What Extent? (Adjectives and adjective phrase/clauses answer these questions: Which one? What kind? Whose? or How many?)

http://www.brightstorm.com has biology, but it's not a course, just a supplement.

My dh has extensive experience in test prep. I'll ask him his opinion when he gets back from taking ds to swim. First of all, I think you are a truly caring and compassionate person. Secondly, I agree with the posters that say counseling is necessary, but since providing it is not your responsibility and getting through to the father will be a challenging process, I think in in meantime you should encourage her interest in nature. I mentioned before that time in nature can be emotionally healing. Some psychologists even integrate nature experiences in their therapy. There should be time in the day (lunch at the pond? as a reward for work done?) to indulge her in this one expressed interest.

5th and 6th grades or 7th and 8th? My recommendations might be different for the older set, but here's some for the younger... The Hobbit The Secret Garden Treasure Island Black Beauty The Wonderful Wizard of Oz A Wrinkle in Time Wind in the Willows Heidi Anne of Green Gables War of the Worlds Watership Down Around the World in 80 Days Oliver Twist Alice's Adventures in Wonderland The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Gulliver's Travels and my favorite modern 'classic': Hoot by Carl Haaisen

Yes, there is such a thing as video game addiction. I think they even have treatment centers for it in Japan! I've read articles about the growing problem of gamers failing out of college because they cannot control their gaming enough get to class or do their homework. Google video game addiction. Several lists of symptoms come up. I suggest that everyone in the household go cold-turkey. We are almost to that point ourselves (but DH plays...thus the root of the whole problem). Replace it with physical activity. Be prepared to go to the mat and don't cave in. There will be drama for a few weeks. The pace and intense visual stimulation of video games leaves all other activities seemly dull by comparison. Also the player cannot save the game at any given moment, thus you have the battles about finishing. If they stop before a "save point" they loose all their progress. A very Mom-unfriendly design feature to say the least.

I second anything by Joseph Bruchac! If you are this along with your history studies you may want to incorporate some of the speeches in this book:Great Speeches by Native Americans, edited by Bob Blaisedell.

DK Eyewitness: Evolution The Human Story Our Evolution from Prehistoric Ancestors to Today by Dr. Maeve Leaky and Dr. Louis Leaky (National Geographic) The Evolution Book by Sara Stein If I were giving this talk, I'd try to remember to mention that there are Christian denominations that accept the scientific theory of evolution and do not see it as conflicting with their faith.

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is an excellent book. It doesn't have the r*pe references that are in To Kill a Mockingbird, but the racist actions affect the protagonists of the story directly making the story imo much more intense. The protagonist in To Kill a Mockingbird is an observer. This is an odd suggestion, but what about Driving Miss Daisy?

What about Ray Bradbury's Dandilion Wine? It is set roughly in the same time period. 12 year old male protagonist. Little bit of magical realism. You can see a plot summary on Wikipedia.

This is really a cuddle up on the couch and read aloud kind of curriculum. Read a chapter at a time. Discuss the examples, review the concepts, then do the assignments from the teacher's guide or modify them for your individual child (as I did). The Practice Books (Practice Island, Practice Town etc.) are the "workbooks" for grammar. Begin those after you finish the student books. With a good diagramming reference like Warriner's or Rex Barks, you can add in diagramming of the sentences in the empty space at the bottom of the page when the kids are ready.

We've used the Instructional Fair workbooks: World Map Skills and U.S. Map Skills by Mollie Brittenum. They follow the SOTW sequence really well. World Map Skills goes with SOTW 1 and SOTW 2. U.S. comes in with SOTW 2. World Map Skills by Instructional Fair is available new on Amazon. U.S. Map Skills comes up as a used book on Amazon if you type in U.S. Map Skills Carson-Dellosa. They are both available new from rainbowresource.com Here's a snippet of the TOC from World Map Skills: Understanding Maps p. 2-10 The Stone Age Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia Early Civilizations in the Near East Ancient Greece Roman Empire Europe in the Middle Ages The Birthplace and Spread of Three Religions China and India The African Continent Trade Routes (Egyptian, Hellenistic Period, Roman, and African) Western Hemisphere (early people in the Americas) The World Today

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Learning about seafloor spreading in 3rd grade. Me: "Sebastian can you explain seafloor spreading." Sebastian: Holds his hands up, thumbs together in front of him. Me: "What are you doing? I asked for an explanation of seafloor spreading!" Sebastian: I am demonstrating in geological time.... Typing his own story at 5 years "How do you type a silent-e?" (like it must be invisible or something) At 6 years Me: "Sebastian, get out of the bath." Sebastian "Just a minute, I'll have to evolve into an amphibian first." At 9 Silo the cat is draped languidly over grandpa's lap. Sebastian: "I think cats should be classified as a liquid!" Acadia (5): "He gave it to him and she." Sebastian (9): "him and her." Acadia: "Leave Paragraph Town out of this!" Acadia: "I read, therefore I am. Sebastian:" Reading is my destiny."

Both my children started reading at two, one earlier than the other. The earliest is a voracious reader and the "late bloomer" (you know 2 3/4 years old) is an active reader. Take advantage of the interest and go with the flow. Don't worry about "comprehension" at two. He understands you when you speak, he will understand the words he reads once the decoding is automatic. There are a lot of children who begin the journey into literacy at two, three, or four. Just because the schools delay this until the majority of the children are at the same level (sometime around 7) doesn't mean you have to or that it is a good idea. It is an efficient idea. Each child is an individual. If they begin reading at 2 or 12 that is the time to begin gentle instruction.

The 5th grade book is too easy for an 11 year old. I ditched it for my 11 year too. In the meantime, we are continuing with the MCT Practice Town sentences (4 level analysis and adding our own diagrams at the bottom of the page) until I decide what comes next. Mine still needs to memorize quite a bit of grammatical material, so we'll be doing that as memory work while I think.

Stripe, Thank you thank you thank you for the Elizabeth Cooper reference. I hadn't seen that one. I LOVE vintage nature books, they are SOoooooo much better than current ones. The two hand lens books by Richard Headstrom seem a little different. There are about a hundred more pages in Nature Discoveries with a Hand Lens, it was published earlier than the one you referenced. I bet they are very similar--the one you found a revision of the one I have, maybe? Both are available on Amazon. There is no picture for the one I have. In case you want to be lured into looking at more vintage nature books (I know, I'm a bad influence): According to Season by Mrs. William Starr Dana Plants and their Children by Mrs. William Starr Dana (fantastic read-aloud) Insect Ways by Clarence M. Weed Insects and Plants: Their Amazing Partnership by Elizabeth Cooper Dame Bug and Her Babies by Edith Marion Patch (fantastic read-aloud) Adventures with a Microscope by Richard Headstrom Adventures with Freshwater Animals by Richard Headstrom

This would be a great contribution to the homeschooling curriculum market. If I were writing it, I'd stay far away from the intelligent design/evolution "debate" and stick to the scientific viewpoint. There is plenty of stuff out there about intelligent design already. Instead address (with examples) how existing tissues can been modified over time to serve new purposes--i.e. how an eye evolves, how the digestive system evolved, how plant tissues are particularly "plastic" and can become leaves, stems, ovaries, etc. etc. Since you are anthropologists, I'd think the big bang and universal expansion not necessary. Maybe start with the conditions of the earth prior to the first signs of life. Proceed from there to present day. Are you planning on limiting this to human evolution? It would be important to explain the current thinking (I know it changes with more data) on human lineage. Especially our primate ancestors (which I last heard were lemur-like animals (not monkeys!), but I'm not sure if that is still agreed upon). I've even read that our invertebrate ancestors may have included arrow-worms, but again--a book detailing the family tree would be a lot more helpful than the snippets I've put together from various sources. If the book is not to be wholly about human evolution, I'd love to see some examples from the rest of the animal kingdom. And most importantly, examples of speciation occurring in the present time (I've heard there's a goldenrod gall fly out there speciating as we speak). Thank you for considering this enormous undertaking. We've been using Brian M. Fagan's books for pre-history and have seen some good dvd's on human evolution, but need some pre-pre history books desperately! Keep us updated. And if you need people to preview it before it is published, I'm raising my hand and Capt Uhura's too!

I'm with you. We might be a little south of you, still cold, still rainy, but as for spring we've found a pickerel frog, wood frog eggs, and blue spotted salamander eggs in the pond! The spring peepers are calling and if the weather turns around, we'll have American toads trilling in just 16-20 days! Book recommendation for a mom whose kids come across a lot of "things" :Nature Discoveries with a Hand Lens by Richard Headstrom. 348 pages of tiny print that will tell you just about everything about every "thing" you'll come across in nature. Used starting at .01 cent at Amazon and possibly available from your library.

Sounds like you live in an area ripe for nature study (which is fun, educational and free!--and also healing...) Buy her an inexpensive (blank paper) notebook for both drawing and writing. Encourage her to continue catching things in your pond and yard and to draw and describe them as accurately as possible. This will keep her observational, artistic, writing, and science skills sharp. I agree that she should be able to read any appropriate material available in the house or the library. Remember, a well-educated person is often described as well-read. See if you can find some free math practice worksheets for her grade online and print them out for her.

I know, aren't they great. If it is too long till your next visit to the US, PM me. I'd be happy to mail your copy to you if you had it shipped to me. Don't worry I am a trustworthy sort, ask Capt Uhura.

We've been doing dictation from WWE for about two years. Children internalize the skill, but it takes years. Over time it gets easier for them. Don't make a big deal over their mistakes. Complement what they did correctly instead. Also, there is nothing wrong with breaking the passage into shorter segments or repeating it five times instead of three. Also I have found that if my son gets stuck, it helps if I read aloud the portion he has already written. This seems to jog his memory, so I don't have to repeat the passage again like I did in the past. In SWB's lecture on elementary writing, she goes into more depth about how dictation not only helps with note-taking, but also with their own writing. They have to hold those quickly moving thoughts in their minds long enough for their relatively slow pencils to catch up. Dictation helps them with this skill. I also think dictation is a great way for the parent to evaluate whether the child has internalized grammar, spelling and punctuation. Frankly, I think my son should give me dictation passages. It might help my short-term memory. It has been like a sieve lately.

Don't let him get bogged down in the "quality" of his writing in the first draft. That's what rewrites are for. He's in the creation phase and must let go of his "inner editor." Once he finishes his story, put it away for a couple of weeks, then have him look at it with a fresh eye. He might even want to read it aloud at that time. He will naturally feel some changes are in order and make them at that time, the editing phase. I'd just cheer him on. The number of pages alone is a huge accomplishment. I'd also look into some books about the creative writing process written by creative writers: Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldburg and On Writing by Stephen King, maybe Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. These are written for adults, so pre-read. The creative writing process is very different from the essay writing skills we've all been fretting about.

Nature walks.