Retelling (not Modern though) Alice in Wonderland Looking Glass Wars Series (Beddor) Fairy Tales Beauty and the Beast: Belle (Dokey) Cinderella:), Ella Enchanted (Levine) Bound (Napoli) Just Ella (Haddix) Various : Once Upon a Time Series (Weyn/Dokey/Viguie) Various books by Napoli, Levine Pied Piper: The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (Pratchett –Discworld Pratchett!!) Macbeth Lady Macbeth’s Daughter (Klein) Hamlet Ophelia (Klein) Sherlock Holmes Enola Holmes Series (Springer) Young Sherlock Holmes Series (Lane)-Prequels Fairy Tales Beauty and the Beast: Beast (Napoli) Red Riding Hood/Rumplestiltskin/Hansel and Gretal: The Witch’s Boy (Gruber Rumplestiltskin: A Curse Dark as Gold (Bunce) Pied Piper: The Ratastrophe Catastrophe series (Stone) Myths Books by Stephanie Spinner Prequels Tempest Ariel (Tiffany) Peter Pan (Barrie) Peter and the Star Catchers Series (Barry)

Alice in Wonderland (Carroll) Down the Rabbit Hole (Abrahams) A Christmas Carol Marly's Ghost (Levithan) *I'd preread based on reviews King Arthur Alfred Dropp series (Yancey) Dracula (Stoker) IDrakula (Black) Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare) Jenna and Jonah's Fauxmance (Halpin) Romeo and Juliet Son of the Mob (Gorman) Pride and Prejudice (Austen) ENthusiasm (Shulman) -also MidSummer's Night Dream Emma (Austen) Espressoligist (SPringer) Fairy Tales Ugly Duckling (Anderson)/Duckling Ugly (Shusterman) Little Red Riding Hood (Grimm)/Red Rider's Hood (Shusterman) Goldilocks(Grimm)/Dread-Locks (Shusterman) Beauty and the Beast (Grimm): Crazy Beautiful (Logsted)/Beastly (Flinn) Snow White/Rose Red: Shadow of a Bear and sequels (Doman) Greek Myths Various: Percy Jackson Series (Riordan) Medusa/Midas:Dread-Locks (Shusterman) Midas: The Eyes of King Midas (Shusterman)

I should be able to be there. There is a coffee shop in the same strip. The owner is an extremely nice man. My daughter and I stop there often. It's not huge but I think it could hold 10-15 of us. Maybe more if it's not too busy. There is also a Greek restaurant nearby and of course, the mall has a lot of places.

Some pairs we didn't use but others may like: Arabian Nights Between Two Ends Great Expectations (Dickens) Mr. Pip (Jones) THe Haunting of Dickens (Buzbee) Hamlet Total Tragedy of a Girl Named Hamlet (Dionne) Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare) The Juliet Club Romiette and Julio (Draper) This Must Be Love (Sutherland) Various Shakespeare Plays The Wednesday Wars Numerous Steinbeck Novels Steinbecks Ghost (Buzbee)*** The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankenwieler and Wrinkle in time also show up in this book Stuart Little (White) Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little (GIfford) Pride and Prejudice (Austen) The Season (Maclean) Love, Lies, and Lizzie (Rushton) Sense and Sensibility (Austen) Dashwood Girls Secrets of Love (Rushton)

We added: Diary of a Young Girl (Frank) Call Me Hope (olson) (I was intrigued by a book called Annexed but it's not appropriate for my DD's age) I've been looking for books to go with A Tree Grows in Brooklyn but not found any that directly references that book. I think we may use Waiting for Normal as a comparison. I've also been looking for a book to go with The Story of My Life by Helen Keller. I have found Miss Spitfire which is a newer book but the character is Anne Sullivan, not someone of today. I found Ferris Beach but it's not age appropriate (icky rape scene). I think we may combine it with Things Not Seen by Andrew Clements. It has a male protagonist which is not the norm for my DD but the storyline looks interesting and was one of few books with blind character that seems to have modern appeal.

Also in the logic stage, especially grades 7 and 8, kids are ready for getting a budget and making their own decisions. This can be a clothing budget or a party budget, etc. I gave my daughter a budget for her 12th birthday party and other than to drive her to where she needs or apply my credit card to the online purchases, I stayed out of the way. She wanted a Monster High Costume themed party. Monster High is not available in the local stores but Party City has it online. She looked at that and what was available in the stores that wasn't Monster High but had similar looks. She figured up costs of the Monster High themed and costs of plain black or pink things, etc. She figured up costs of store bought cake vs homemade, etc. She put all of this in a data base. In the end, she ordered some Monster High themed stuff online (and found coupon code LOL) and some stuff from Dollar Tree and Five below. She decided to save money by using evite instead of mailing inventions. This required her to email/call a few moms to get the emails of other moms that are not my friends so not in my email. She created her own decorations by printing out graphics from Monster High site and and gluing them on cardboard and dowels, raiding our Christmas and Halloween decorations and dress up box, strobe light, lava lamps, etc. She was very resourceful and measured various things to make sure she had enough, etc. For example, she lined our walk way w/Monster High Skeleton Heads glued to cardboard and dowels. She figured out the spacing, measured the walk way on both sides (it curves so not same on both) and figured out how many she needed. SHe also had to problem solve how to make our living room dark enough for the strobe light to be effective (she used $1 plastic table cloths over windows and the walk through between living room and kitchen and made designs on it with pink sticker stars). She made her own costume to look like one of the characters AND helped almost 50% of the guests with their costumes. She made her own cake (and had to use math to make sure she had enough for her guests, doubling the recipe, etc). She came up with the cake decorating design (cake decorating is her hobby). She made up "ghoul juice" and other funky foods and made them herself. She came up with the activities and made the music playlists. She made pie chart of time and how much she should allot to eating, opening presents, and various activity ideas and what songs would go where. She made the goody bags, and wrote the Thank You notes. Everyone who came has raved about this party. None of the parents can believe she did it all by herself and did it for $200 (a good chunk of it going into goody bags for 20 girls!). Again, she had to research, make a database, do a lot of measuring and calculating, writing, problem solving, decison making, time management, budgeting, visual art skills, and real life skills of cooking, baking, sewing, decorating, and cleaning all without it being "school."

If your child is in Scouts or 4-H, there are lots of activities and projects that apply "skills." There is research, charting, interviewing, writing, making presentations, volunteer work, projects, etc. (If your child is not, look at the online merit badges, etc to get some ideas) Far Above Rubies/Blessed is the Man curriculum has a lot of project based learning ideas. Just looking at the Units online might give you some inspiration. You can turn a lot of things into applied learning without them realizing it. For example, my daughter wanted horseback riding lessons. I had her research on the internet all the local places that have them. She made a database so she could put in place, distance, cost per lesson, length of lesson, number of kids in class, type of riding style, etc. I had her calculate the cost of gas to drive to each place and then figure out how much it would actually cost and the cost per minute of class. I had her research different riding styles to see which one she wanted to learn. She also had to email several places to get more information. She narrowed it down to the ones she was most interested in and we visited those places. She called or emailed to set up interviews, prepared questions to ask, etc. Then she made a presentation w/ charts made from excel and presented it to her dad and I on which place she wanted and why. This involved research, mapping, math, computer, typing, writing, phone skills, interviewing, note taking, presenting, etc and she never once thought of it as "school" because it was her interest area.

My DD and I were tossing around an idea for her upcoming literature: To pair a classic book with a strong female main character with a contemporary/Twaddle book that goes with it. Here is our list: Little House on Praire (Wilder) Little Blog on the Prairie (Bell) Little Women(Alcott): Mother-Daughter Book Club (Frederick) Little Women and Me (Baratiz-Logstead) *To be released in Nov 2011 Sisters Club: Rule of Three (McDonald) Anne of Green Gables (MOntgomery) Much Ado About Anne (Frederick) Scones and Sensibility (ELand) Daddy Long Legs (Webster) Dear Pen Pal (Frederick) Pride and Prejudice (Austen) Scones and Sensibility (ELand) Pies and Prejudice (Frederick) Prada and Prejudice (Hubbard) Prom and Prejudice (Eulberg) First Impressions (Sachs) Betsy Tacy In Spite of Herself (Lovelace) Home for the Holidays (Frederick) **Released Oct 2011 Wrinkle in Time (L'Engle) When You Reach Me (Stead) Road to Tater (Hemingway) To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee) In Search of Mockingbird (Ellsworth) Also Known as Harper (Leal) Mockingbird (Erskine) Jane Eyre (Bronte) Callie's Rules Zucker It All Began With Jane Eyre (Greenwild) Understood Betsy (Fisher) Secret Book CLub (Martin) Island of Blue Dolphins (ODell) Bronte's Book Club (Gregory) Now if I could find one to go with "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn"..... Any other recommendations?

When people say it's weak in the reading portion, what does that mean? Is it reading for sake of reading? Do you feel a concept isn't covered until it's read about multiple times? Are the explanations not covered in detail or explained well? If you understand a concept, how much do you have to read about it? This always confuses me.

Oh and I forgot to post early: I think we can all agree that if you think Autumn Oak is beautiful in her Avatar, you should see her in person. She lights up a room!

I thought he was one of the best speakers I have ever seen! He is so passionate about language arts!

MCT was awesome! He is such a great speaker. I was so moved. I called my husband and said "Honey, if I don't come home, it's because I ran off to be a groupie of the Grammar Guy." Whether you use MCT or not, if you EVER get a chance to see Michael Clay Thompson speak, you must do so. He is FABULOUS! Laurel Dodge was great and it was her first conference! I love her book. I loved her slides and nature table. Wasn't she wonderful? I learned a lot from Shelia Gallagher's first lecture. I can see us applying that lesson pretty soon. I wanted to see the second one but I had to get on road. As it was, I had to pull over and have my husband come get me to finish driving me home. Wah! I was only 30 minutes from home but I was swerving. SWB was good too but of course that goes without saying. I really liked looking at Writing with Skill. Thanks to Tom at RWFP and Capt Uhura! It was so good to meet everyone. I have known CaptUhura for years but it was nice to meet Jumping in Puddles, Luckymama, Anj, Melissa, Starr, Nestof3, TJLufkin, Rentmom, Cleo, and so many more.

What are you going to do -put him on the street???? I am sure they probably mean well but why not just offer up a silent prayer? I understand praying telling someone that you will pray for them when they tell you something that is going on in there life. Often, it is just what people say when they want to tell you that they care about you and they want to do something to help you but in reality, there is not much they can do. I pray for people from here and on facebook all the time. Sometimes, I reply that I will pray and sometimes I won't. It depends on the person and the event. "I'm rushing Mom to ER" -will get a "sending a prayer" reply. "I got drunk yet again last night" will get a prayer but no reply LOL. "I'm having a bad day" will get hugs or prayer depending on person "I'm having a bad day" post every day of the year (yes, I have one of those friends) gets ignored. Heck, I have sent up silent prayers for moms struggling in the store with melting kids or people I see who seem to be sick, poor, or otherwise in distress. However, I just can't fathom walking up and telling them I"m going to pray for them without knowing anything about them.

Well I have two MILs. The biological MIL doesn't care for me. She has finally stopped the barbs and seems to be trying to get along the past few years. Fortunately, we only have to see her once or twice a year. Step-MIL is family to me. I just love her to death! I only wished she didn't smoke so much so that I could truly enjoy being in her house more often.

Well not me personally but others in general. My sister was diagnosed with leukemia at age 4. She will be 40 this year. She's had various remissions and relapses over the years until she had a bone marrow transplant at age 16. Since then she got meningitis and was in a coma 11 days. She's had a partial hip and shoulder replacement and is having a total shoulder replacement this month. Each time her hair fell out for chemo, it came back thinner. We are a thin haired family to begin with. She has sensory issues and doesn't wear a wig. She is not into make up or dressy clothes or "looks" in general. If you see her in public, you just know that something is not "right" with her health. It is obvious. That said, random people that she doesn't know walk up to her all the time and tell her that they will pray for her. I know they mean well and yes, she can always use extra prayers. However, just notice and pray. You don't need to come over and tell her. How do you think it makes her feel that people can just look at her and tell that something is wrong based on how she looks? She's not vain or into looks but having this happen over and over again still plays havoc on your self-esteem!!!!

I love the idea of the tri-fold boards as cubicles! That is brilliant!!!

No help but welcome to Raleigh!

You've described my daughter to the T. She's always been this way so it's not a teen thing (Mine isn't even a teen yet). She's organized. She does whatever is on her list. It just doesn't stick unless it is something she wants it to stick. Mine can't even keep it long enouigh for a test.

It is called Blessed is the Man There is also "Prepare and Pray" which is a year long unit study based on Swiss Family Robinson. It has a lot of survival skills, etc.

I have issues w/gifts for DH His office is a PIG STY. I think his co-workers want to call Hoarders. Therefore, no kid made things or pictures. (He's not sentimental anyway -the ones he got when they are toddlers are sitting in attic -looked at the day he got them and shoved in a corner). He isn't into clothes -wears a uniform anyway. He loves to read but really a Barnes and Nobles Gift card for every occasion every year is boring ME. Besides, he never departs with the books and it contributes to one more thing for him to hoard. He'd love video games but he has over 1000 of them. He won't get rid of any and he spends too much time playing the ones he does play. I'm not buying anything else that causes me resentment LOL. All the cool stuff I'd like to give him, I can't afford.

The time is not totally set in stone. There is a lot of flexibility. If reading takes her 20 minutes AND she is comprehending, that's fine. If she completes a day's lesson in under 30 minutes, that's great!!! I gave times as a guideline for her to gauge what is an appropriate expectation. Trust me this child would have no problem telling me she read the books, did the math, Greek, projects, etc all in 30 minute (total) a day for weeks on end and then throw together some piddly thing as a "project" and be totally surprised by the bad grade she receives. What I've told her is that if she is not consistently spending less than 30 minutes on a subject (especially if it's under 20 minutes on a regular basis) then perhaps she is not challenging herself.

This is what my daughter and I have compromised on: 3 hours: Do one requirement (or spend 30 minutes) from a Scout Badge of her choice. She is highly motivated to do badges and there is a ton of skills that can be taught with them. Read (approximately 30 mintues)-1 chapter a day from a classic/Newberry or historical fiction from our time frame AND a non-fiction book (history/science/logic/Uncle Eric book, etc) of her choice. I will read same books (as she is prone to make things up if I don't) and I am going to watch Teaching the Classics to help me facilitate off the cuff. I showed her various ways of finding books -various lists, how to do keyword searches at library, using amazon, etc but she has to pick the books. She is responsible for finding a way to tell me what she learned. Do 30 minutes of math. I let her look at pre-algebra programs and she has picked Kinetic Pre-Algebra. If she is having a hard time, she can try to find a cyberchase video or Khan Academy video. Do 30 minutes of writing -Thank you cards, letters to Grandparents, blog, newsletter, writing contests of her choosing (she likes these), If she did writing in Scout badge then she can waive writing for the day. She can also work in her MCT grammar book or edit previously written work. Do 30 minutes studying Greek (the language she's been begging to learn instead of Latin). 30 Minutes working on presentations of what she has learned. (I expect a lot of cooking lol) For history, she has decided to study food and fashion of the 20th century. We've already found some great resources that tie the trends w/what was going on in the world. For science, she wants to study the chemistry in cooking. Again, we've found some great resources at the library. Then 3 hours left in school day for things she wants to do like: Online film making class/Make videos (but no posting until after school since posting seems to lead to random youtube surfing) Make crafts Sewing lessons Practice her dance and guitar Do a volunteer work Field Trips (I've decided that I will tell her about opportunities that come up but I will no longer sign us up if she is not interested) Work on spelling bees, geography bees, science fairs if interested. Read Twaddle books Watch a movie or documentary related to area of interest (has to be approved by me -no Hannah Montana!) Work on her business She has to make a to-do list every day to stay focused. The kids alternate walking with me and I have been using that time to talk with her about her goals, her progress, what can I do to help. The hardest part for me is to NOT suggest. Once I suggest it, it goes into the "never in a million years" portion of her brain. I may need a support group to hold my hand through this next year to keep me from taking over. I gave my son the same options. He wants me to pick what I think is best for him because I seem to get what he loves 95% of the time anyway and he said I've introduced him to many loves that he would have never picked on his own. (note-my daughter could say opposite that I have made her hate many things she would have loved simply because it was my idea.) He said he was fine doing "more" because he has different goals. PS: I recommend the book Strong Willed or Dreamer .

I think we have similar children. My DD is like your son. I posted about it a few weeks ago.-http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=277532&highlight=edison+trait. Most people tell me that I should push her anyway, that she needs to learn that we all have to do things we don't "like" etc. However, I don't see the point in spending all my time researching, teaching, grading and she spending her time "learning" if at the end of the day she doesn't know anymore about it than she did before she started. The ratio of input to output is not very economic. She does not retain anything that I assign. She does the bare minimum in anything I assign. Even things that she would probably like are hated because I "assigned" them. On the otherhand, she doesn't have the maturity to structure her time and to work toward long-term goals over immediate gratification. When we 100% unschool, she spends all day texting and emailing friends, looking at youtube videos on Monster High and making videos of Monster High or watching Hannah Montana and ICarly. All of this is compounded by the fact that her brother loves to learn. Yes, he'd rather play video games and watch tv but he can find something exciting about just about anything and his inner perfectionism leads him to try even when it's not "exciting." We are going to try a self-directed learning approach. I have gave her some perimeters (read some classics, learn some history, do something scientific, write something, work on math and a foreign language in case you want to go to collage. I'm giving her the option of how to do it and trying to work with her as a guide/counselor/mentor than a teacher or autocrat. I told her 3 hours of basics and 3 hours of self-iniated projects or other out of box learning (just about anything goes w/following exceptions -NO random or non-educational tv watching/internet surfing/ and ZERO social media until after 4:00.

I am in NC too. My son is going into 6th and will turn 11 in September -almost a quarter into the school year. He's in the same grade he would have been in when he started school (back when cut-off was Oct 16). With the new cut-off and in most other states, he should be a rising 5th grade but academically he is ahead of my rising 7th grader! THe biggest problems we had were in public school. He was put in the gifted program and was the only boy. All the others were girls. One just missed the October cut-off by a day and the others had been red-shirted and were MORE than a year older than him (starting K at just turned 6, whereas he started at 4 and turned 5). The teachers couldn't seem to understand why he couldn't sit still and WRITE at the same level as the gir ls!!! Behaviorally and emotionally, I think DS is behind his peers. There are a lot of factors -birthday/age, being homeschooled, being a boy, Aspergers, being the baby of family, etc. My DD has a June birthday. She was way more mature at same age but she is also more social and a girl. On the otherhand, she has "Younger" interests than some of her same age public school friends while being more responsible in independence areas (she babysits at 12 whereas are neighbors who are same age are still being baby sat. She can cook just about anything -they were just given permission to use microwave. However, she likes Littlest Pet Shop, Barbies, etc. whereas they read Twilight and think toys are for babies). Teaching preteens at church though, I see a wide spectrum of maturity among kids the same age so I think it pretty much evens out in the wash. Regardless, SOMEONE has to be the youngest of each grade!

World War 2 Bio ****{Endless Steppe-Hauzig ***Diary of a Young Girl –Anne Frank/Picture book of Anne Frank *The Upstairs Room Never Give In-Mansfield (Winston) Hitler-Marrin Stalin-Marrin Winston Churchill, Soldier, Statesman, Artist Upon the Head of the Goat: Hungary 1939-44 HF *Number the Stars *Snow Treasure –McSwigen *Escape From Warsaw *I am David *Twenty and Ten (SL) House of Sixty Fathers So Far from the Bamboo Grove Stones in Water (Napoli) - Italy, WWII, ages 12 and up When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit When My Name was Keoko The Bomb –Taylor (YA) Don’t You Know There’s a War On?-Avi Friedrich (1930s ww2 jews) Hiroshima: A Novella Journey to America/Silver Days –Levitin Lily's Crossing Art of Keeping Cool Someone Named Eva-Wolf Devil's Arithmetic-Yolen The Book Thief-Zusak 1940’s –After War/Korean War/1950’s Fiction Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis (older)(preview) Mustang, Wild Spirit of the West My Side of the Mountain –Jean Craighead George Lord of the Flies Pippi Longstocking New Boy-HOuston Good Night Mr. Tom How Angel Peterson Got His Name Bio IN the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson Bat 6 HF Year of Impossible Goodbyes Israel/Chinese Culture Wars/Civil RIghts/60's One More River and Broken Bridge by Lynne Reid Banks. Habibi (good explanation of the Israeli conflict) –a bit more modern Red Scarf Girl, by ?? To Kill a Mockingbird (SL) (older) Watsons Go to Birmingham My Mother the Cheerleader (time of Ruby Bridges) Wrinkle in Time-L’Engle Meet the Austins-L’Engle Where the Red Fern Grows-Rawls The Outsiders Vietnam Children of the River by Linda Crew. Set largely in the US, but addresses the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. 1970s *Chu Ju's House-Whelan (Population control/life in China) Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (and sequels) - graphic novel about Iran during the revolution and the Iran/Iraq war. Summer of the Swans –Byars Watership Down-Adams Revolution is not a Dinner Party Sweet Thang-Whittenberg 1980s Bio Gifted Hands by Ben Carson (older) HF Journey to Jo’burg (s. african apartheid) Goodbye Vietnam (Whelan) - Vietnam boat people Fiction The Green Book-Walsh 1990’s Bio Basher Five-Two: Capt. Scott O’Grady A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier-Adult HF Girl of Kosovo Fiction The Giver -Lowry 2000s Bio Born to Fly: Downed US Navy Pilot Shane Osborn HF Breadwinner (Ellis) - Taliban, ages 10 and up –sequels Riders of the Pale Horse by T. Davis Bunn (older)-terrorism Little Brother –Doctorow(terrorism) Under the Persimmon Tree (Staples) - Afghanistan war When Heaven Fell (Marsden) – Vietnam (daughter of soldier in war) Sunrise Over Fallujah Fiction Homeless Bird (Whelan) - modern India, ages 12 and up Heir Apparent-Velde Surviving the Applewhites –Tolan Schooled-Korman