DS just wrapped up 7th grade, and it was just so much fun. As much as I enjoy first steps, first letters, first counting... this stage of being able to have really interesting discussions is just fantastic. Middle school here is US grades 7-9th, then DS will be done with obligatory schooling and go off to "gymnase," equivalent to US 10-12 honors/AP track. I'm definitely feeling the need to squeeze every drop out of the next two years, but at the same time shifting even more comfortably into a home atmosphere of learning and enjoyment of the process. Any other middle-school lovers out there?

I just posted that I liked the Draw Europe but couldn't find any other books in there series. Thanks to you mentioning the author, I've now found them all. Thank you!

We've had amazing success with the Draw Europe book mentioned above. Unfortunately, there is not one for every region in the world, so we are switching to freehandmaps.com for the next part we want to draw. ETA See below. But freehandmaps.com does still look like a good resource as well.

Pre-reading a few books Reading Russian history and novels Designing a middle school philosophy course Reading The Writing Revolution

Yes, the dragon ones, sorry I should have named the author as well! They feature a woman in a Victorian-like England who takes up the study of dragons and their cousins, an accepted branch of the animal kingdom. I suppose they are fantasy, but there is no magic, it's more like just an alternate natural history for Earth. For those who like Lady Trent, I highly recommend another series: The Athena Club books by Theodora Goss. They are very similar in tone and theme and setting (alternate Victorian England), and a surprisingly deep but lighthearted investigation into femininity and feminism. The audio version is also excellent, with a narrator who is able to give a separate accent to each of the many female main characters.

I have also suddenly stopped receiving email notifications. It's probably been at least a month now.

This method and software sound very interesting!

Just waking this thread up again to say... I've just finished book 4 of the Lady Trent series and I've just LOVED them. They are page-turners without being overly suspenseful, the story is truly unique and intriguing... just wonderful. And for those who like audiobooks, the narration is excellent. Now I'm combing back through this list to see where to go after book 5... I've found two really great series from this thread!

Thank you for starting this thread. I've been really wanting to do an audiobook version chronological Bible in a year with my two oldest, and adding in a coloring Bible might be just the thing to make it feel special.

Location, capital, and probably climate/biome category, like Great Plains vs Southwest vs Coastal vs ....

I wanted to expand on my comment above to list a couple things that we've done that have worked well: - Shakespeare February. Last year, we dedicated all of February to Midsummer Night's Dream. We did math and a bit low LA, but everything else was Shakespeare. It was a great way to break up the long winter doldrums. This year, we did the same thing but with Molière. - This year I'm going to try a Literary Friday routine. Fridays will be our day for writing instruction and assignments, discussing books, poetry tea, and reading journal discussions. I've got a lot of ideas floating around about this that I need to make more concrete, but I'm looking forward to it!

I actually did my junior year high school big research paper on Ayn Rand and read a few of her books, but somehow not this one. I did Anthem, The Fountainhead, and Atlas Shrugged.

I've got that one, Endless Steppe, and 1-2 others on my list for the kids to read, but when I'm really unfamiliar with something, I read books on my own time for "teacher's ed". I've learned a ton with homeschooling!

I'm reading through The Writing Revolution and really loving it. If you search the board, you'll see some discussion of it.

A little update: I finally put together my list and have started reading (actually mostly audible listening) 1. The Romanovs, 1613-1918 by Monteliore 2. And Quiet Flows the Don 3. Life and Fate, and Everything Flows 4. We the Living 5. The Master and Margarita Thank you all for your help! edit- forgot a title

@Lori D. @lovelearnandlive Sorry for the late reply, I have not been getting my notifications to threads lately! Thank you both, these resources look excellent.

We have several of these versions- note that you can choose if you want original text, modern text, or easy-read versions. We chose the original text, and with the images, my oldest two kids had no issues with Midsummer Night's Dream. We read the graphic novel, watched the animated Shakespeare movie, and memorized a small scene and several quotes. Huge success. I also really got a lot of teacher's ed from the How To Teach Your Children Shakespeare book by Ludwig.

My dh's work recently sent out a little email about being "bored out" as opposed to "burnt out". When we were talking about it, I realized that I am personally much more susceptible to "bored out" than "burnt out". I can work hard- really hard- as long as I'm not bored. I homeschool best when I change things up pretty frequently in our content subjects, and even in our methods of learning.

I don't suppose you have a nice list of your BFSU questions that you'd like to share? This is a really interesting idea. I think another way to look at what you're describing is to really dig into the big ideas, as opposed to just the facts. I've just started reading The Writing Revolution (still in chapter 1) but I did an exercise from the foreword where we took a kernel sentence and expanded it three ways, using "but" (contrast), "so," (consequence), and "because" (cause and effect) clauses. I was so impressed with the connections my kids made in this easy ten minute follow-up to our history reading. I knew they could define "manifest destiny," but completing the kernel "Manifest destiny was a doctrine many American's believed in..." rally gave me a good idea of whether they had integrated the idea well into the context of what we'd been learning.

This looks like exactly the resource I was hunting for! Thank you!!!

I don't think I've ever seen such a tiny baby look that mad before!!! She's going to be a handful! 😂 They are beautiful and I can't wait until your dd gets to bring them home.

My son (13, rising 8th grade) would really like me to help him write a novel. He's had some bursts of creative writing on his own time, but wants me to help him by setting deadlines, constructive criticism, etc. I'm happy to do that and feel comfortable doing that. What I'm looking for are some books for him to read- I don't particularly want curriculum, as I think having him work on separate creative writing assignments that pull time from his pet project would be discouraging. I'd rather find books aimed at a general, probably adult audience that are both inspiring and contain really tips on improving fictional writing. One of my favorite books on creative writing is Steven King's On Writing. I plan on having him read that. I'm looking for other resources that are also "theory of the craft," yet accessible to a 13 year old. For example, I've read Writing Down the Bones and enjoyed it myself as a hobbyist writer, but don't think it would be very interesting for a 13 year old. I'm willing to consider a Great Courses class, but again, not sure it would be helpful to a 13 year old or just weigh him down. He is an across-the-board accelerated student in every way but spelling. 😂

I'm considering having my middle schoolers (rising 8th and 6th) keep reading logs. I originally found this idea as a page format for bullet journals, then stumbled across it again in a French language resource on encouraging close reading. The latter had a setup of title, author, start date, etc, then had a numbered list with a 1 sentence summary of each chapter, written by the student. My idea is that of my students' assigned reading, they would keep a page for each book, and they could then pull from their book logs to write a paragraph each week on various cross-curriculum subjects. I'm trying to flesh this idea out in my mind, so if you'd like to share how you've used book logs in your homeschool, I'd appreciate it! This would be a mixture of fiction and non-fiction books.

Still to do: - RR order - Daily schedule- write it out and make it reasonable (No 17 hour school days...) - Weekly task list template for 3 kids - Plan writing projects (10) - List book club books - Reorganize school area for the new year's materials As my dad likes to say, when you feel like you're about 90% done, you still have 90% left to do...

GH is also helpful to continue because he will continue to gain (muscle and bone) mass at a healthier rate WITH GH replacement than without (assuming deficiency). Studies are showing that continuing GH treatments into early adulthood is good for children dealing with true low GH.