I'm looking, too. Let me know when you find it :)

I will have to check that out. I live in Maryland but I just assumed it was the same except maybe adding the specific State's American History! Thanks for mentioning it!

We have the Grade 5 Science and Social Studies and I really like them. The Teacher's Guide has the workbook of questions and fill in the blanks for reading comprehension. I was surprised how throrough they for American History. I think you can use these as a spine and then add additional books for reading for historical periods. They have craft ideas, like make a compass for the Explorers Age. I am just using them as a supplement. The Science ones also have workbooks in the Teacher's Guide and one or two experiments to try for each issue. The science has great visuals to explain the concepts. I am impressed with these. http://studiesweekly.com/ AND THEY ARE CHEAP. It's a GREAT price and it is pack full of info!

OMG---THIS is awesome! I have to try this even though we don't have a hectic schedule. Great idea! Thank you for sharing.

I LOVE this! I was here back in November and decided then that I would use this when I start my paleotology class and the geological timescale. I am going to present the Big Bang this way and then have the kids draw on black paper of when light began. And then each week we go thru the geological timescale with activities. So cool! I am now doing this geology/paleo class and I couldn't remember where I read this activity to do. I was so moved by it :)

:hurray: This is exciting!!!! Thanks for sharing. ooooooooooo I WANT this feeling, too!!!!!!!!!!! :)

We just watched a great DVD that we got from the Library. It was History's Channel show called "How the earth was made." It was great!

Thank you. I have looked at things like you and was thinking about getting Darwin Doubts when I realized my library had it. I haven't read it, yet. I just don't have time at the moment but my son wants to learn evolution and I read somewhere that scientists now have new and different theories breaking away from Neo-Darwinism. It is such new stuff and really want to get into before I teach evolution to ds. Something inside me tells me there is something not right with Darwinism and I even read in Darwin's biography that he even knew he needed to make changes, too. But I don't know what it is. It is something I will research in the next couple of months. My plan for teaching evolution is start at the beginning with Darwin and then move through the history and arguments to the present times. Did you get the book? Someone here has posted a ID curriculum that sent me to the "Darwin Doubts" website site but now I cannot remember that curriculum site. I will look at the video when I am home. Thanks!

Really??? How very cool! But that doesn't help me (LOL).

I struggle with this daily. Ds is in 5th Grade this year and I think, next year will be the year we will bog down and do more work, but then I think, play is important, too. And my 10 yr old loves to play and actually *needs* it to thrive. You can always add these things in upper middle school/High school and they still would get alot out of Latin, picture study and nature study. BTW, you can always do 1 day a month do some type of nature trail walk and then start once a month to bring a sketch book for outdoor walks.

Me, too!

Thanks Lillybell---- The link with the book lists are helpful. I found some books that I did not know about that I want to add. I have an advanced kid in middle school and artsy kid, so stickers are not going cut it. We are going to actually do a very elaborate timeline book with pictures of him drawing what earth looked like, describing the atmosphere and the conditions and drawing any fossils for a particular time period. The book will be folded like an accordion and he can open it all up to see it all. Each time period will have a different color cardstock. We will take some field trips in the Spring.

Cool, my 10 yr old son liked Moby Dick, too.

We are using LOF Fraction as our spine. Occassionally, I will add a sheet from MM on a concept as a test of his skills and memory and he is doing fine. But, I have a quick learner who grasps the concepts quickly as well as, seeing patterns quickly. (NittanyJen - it's working for us :) )

I liked REAL Science Odysssey LIFE, but it includes animals, human body, and plants. I just did the animals portion last year and I am doing the plants one for this year with combo Ellen McHenry's BOTANY. But that's because I have a 5th grader. The REAL Science Odyssey is enough for the younger grades. I highly recommend it that the books that are suggested in the REAl Science Odyssey. http://www.pandiapress.com/?page_id=82

Someone on MCT Yahoo group that questions and Mr. Thompson replied that his book "Classics in the classroom" lists the classics. Roadrunner did you mean "Classics in the Classroom" or is there another book called "classics for children?" Just wondering if its the same book. http://www.rfwp.com/book/classics-in-the-classroom There is some pages from the book to look at.

Picoboard looks awesome. Too bad the pico kits were discontinued :(

Me, too

Yes, I was reading the BIG Evolution thread a while back and it made sense with going deeper explanation with studying genes. It's just children's books just go from whale to dog so quickly and I never understood it until I thread that particular thread. Clearly, you need to study genes and DNA to see where they are coming from. We will read about Charles Darwin and Mary Anning. Charles based his theory or started thinking about (I don't know much details, yet) with Anning's finding of the fossil. AND Anning is one of the founders of paleontology study is really cool to me :) This was all interesting to me. I also want to know how Darwin took Anning's fossil and started thinking about evolution. I know it also began with his travels to other lands. We will delve deep into this as far as my son wants to go. If he wants to delve deeper into genes and DNA and evolution, we will do this for next year science.

We are doing Botany and LOVE IT!!! So Go Ellen!

Goodness gracious! I never read the preface! Duh, I always skip them because I think if it not important enough for inserting into chapters it's not important. There it is "Eight week freewrite and revision." Thank you SunnyDay :) And thanks for the tip about peter Elbow's book. I am off to read this and finding the book :leaving:

Yes, that is what I want to find out. How are you using "specifically with your family" --- this helps to inspire me on how to do it with my ds. I learn visually and kinecstetically and if I cannot transfer the words into a "vision" than I am lost. Intuitively, I believe BW is right for son but I am in the process of how to make it work. So, I am trying to figure out the next process to do with the freewrite. Continue just doing freewrites keen obs or go to the next step. This where I am stuck but I think I will be just doing freewrites with different topics and then where it takes me. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't skipping any important steps (whatever they may be) to get to the next step in the writing process. But it looks like you follow your child's lead on what they are ready for :)

Yes, you are correct. So, she takes stuff out of the freewrite and does revision. When I think of revision, I think they already wrote something once with complete sentence structure, atleast, AND then are ready to do a revision. I thought there was a step before the revision process, but I guess I am wrong in thinking that. I keep looking for the extra step and trying to make it be more complicated than it needs to be. Yes, I like getting clarification of what the goal is. This is a great example that I am looking for: WHY and HOW you are adjusting. This seems so simple but I am beginning to see how many times I come across this about teaching a subject and then trusting the process. Thank you.

Drat for me, too! I thought you would contact Julie and have a link at your fingertips :) But I love what you did find. It is very useful in many ways. So, are you doing anything with your weekly freewrites or do you just do them and let it go? It is point of the freewrite exercise just to help them get comfortable to write anything?? Thanks again!

Did you ever create a seperate place for Bravewriters? I would be interested in joining. I love to read what others are doing with BW. I did the Keen observation exercise, which ds loved and I did one freewrite exercise, that ds also loved to do. He wants to do them more! But ok, what do I do with these exercises? How do you use them? For example, do you take a topic he likes, do a freewrite but then do you ever take a freewrite and make a perfect writtten piece????? Or do you just do these exercises and just let them go? In BW, Julie has examples for Keen Observation, she has someone's list of observations, then she her comments to the list the child made but then it jumps to a polished piece of writing. Julie does not seem to walk you through from Keen Obs to how to write a solid piece writing. Am I missing something? Also, What is my end goal for freewriting? How do you go from freewrite to a polished piece of writing? I like the idea of showing my ds the project listed for Partnership Writing and having him pick the activities. I will try that. You know the project on the 5 W's? Where can I get a clean copy of the 5 W's page for the child to work on it? I love the page with the head on it :) We are doing National Write a Novel Month, starting today. He really enjoys writing fiction novels. (Sorry for typo errors.......)