We block schedule all through primary school, largely because we were Steiner folks back then. Steiner/ Waldorf block schedules. I loved it.

Visa is best, with ATM access for getting cash out (keep in mind that he'll probably pay a $2 atm fee to access his own money). He'll need cash for most small shops, especially take-away food. Rosie mentioned bus tickets - in Sydney, if you want to use public transport, especially buses, you'll need to buy an Opal Card. Most buses no longer sell tickets on the bus. You can buy Opal cards at many Newsagents. Put $10 on one, $20 for an adult - they work out cheaper in the long run. You can charge them in-store or online. Don't be fooled into thinking that you might buy them at a train station - that would be far too convenient! They work in NSW only - Victoria has its own system. Most taxis take visa, but prefer cash. And tell him not to tip - its a nasty American habit! D

My mum would tell you to chuck Silas Marner. She studied it for the leaving certificate in 1956 and still hates it! Can't mention it without swearing (for the record, my mum is very well spoken, classically educated by the St Joseph nuns and not prone to swearing about literature....).

You want the Gaskell one, set in Northern England in the 1850's. Its beautifully written, has wonderfully complex characters across several social levels, and lovely use of dialect. Its one of my favourite novels. Gaskell is interesting due to her friendship with Dickens. Some copies have lots of notes in an appendix. Mine copy is a cheapy and doesn't. Try to watch the BBC miniseries with Richard Armitage and Daniela Denby-Ashe as well - very nice indeed.

Your Money or Your Life is fantastic! Beg, borrow or (as a last resort) buy a copy. Its a life-changer D

Sorry - double post. I told you I was tired! D

Nothing useful (I'm too tired tonight), but I am loving this thread! Some random thoughts: Yes to the distraction of potential activists! To the distraction of mainstream society, really. Busy, indebted, scared of all the wrong things, dumbed down. Endemic in Australia, largely because mostly of us are just too comfortable. I mix with a lot of young activists (I'm now a middle-aged activist). I'll try to make some time to ask them for some recommendations. I suspect they would all say that being able to recognise fallacies and construct a lucid argument are vital (and I would add, using that knowledge without sounding like a wanker is even better!) I get the trigger thing, and its different for everyone. DH, DS15 and I all did a first aid course today. Its an old experience for me (I was an Army Reserve medic), but DS seemed quite empowered by it. Highly recommended D

This is really helpful, Hunter! And I could rant all day about the children of great men profiting from their legacy. Its one of the reasons I would be happy to flaunt copyright on Kings stuff (I've already read it with DS), but I'm not writing curriculum. Mind you, plenty of curriculum writers just refer to stuff - how the user lays their hands on the material is the user's problem. I love Dialectica's idea of a study of copyright and access. I might steal that - my son wants to design apps and games, I am a scientist, so intellectual property is a topic of interest for both of us.

I need a kick in the pants....I'll come back next week :leaving: (don't question me - I'm in Australia. We are highly dysfunctional in January) D

I'm not sure I understand the copyright issue. King's speech is readily available on the internet and must be in most libraries. Can't you just refer to it and instruct the student to procure it (eg copy it at the library or borrow a book)?

How about a unit looking at those who fought for freedom in the last 50-60 years? Martin Luther King is a must, even outside the US, add Mandela and perhaps Malala Yousafzai - her inclusion covers both women and Islam and is highly topical (she's on my reading list for DS15 this year, as are MLK and Mandela). Her book should be in your library. There are strong leadership discussions to be had about all of them, too. As for Islam, perhaps you could approach your local Mosque and ask for their advice. Ours is very welcoming, with tours, open days, lectures and food - oh the food!!!!! If you want survival stuff, have a look at some of the permaculture sites. I like Peter Bane, Brad Lancaster and Toby Hemenway in the US, but there are loads of others. Very practical stuff around food, growing and making do. Or join a community garden. Not sure if you have history listed, but I am super impressed by the Big History Project atm. All free if you have an internet connection (so doable in the library). Great final big sweep of history, with some science and geography thrown in.

Forgot PE - what about mindfulness meditation? If you are going to launch her into the world with a fire in her belly, self-care is vital, and a quiet mind can be very powerful.

Caveat: I am a raving leftie. A paid-up member of the Australian Greens who teaches permaculture for a living. I am also an old-style atheist married to a Hitchens-esque new atheist. All my suggestions should be taken with these facts in mind.... If she's done Animal Farm, don't do it again - its one of those"lesson learned" books. I loathed Braved New World at that age - so gimmicky, but probably still worth reading. Could be a nice comparison with a few other "brave new worlds" like setting for The Tempest (my least favourite Shakespeare - more on him later), or Lord of the Flies, or you could use Ben Elton's Blind Faith, but you'll need to pre-read it because its both weird and graphic (my 15yo isn't mature enough yet). Its good - basically when facebook and over-sharing take over the world. Now for Shakespeare - if you want to pursue a slightly feminist bent, Taming of the Shrew might be good as an insight into the treatment of women. My pick, though, would be The Merchant of Venice. Its got feminism, bigotry, vengeance, mercy, money-lending, trading and the law, the blokes all come off looking a little bit daft, and the women carry the day very nicely. and its got a cracking speech to memorise! For Church history you could go completely modern: pick a couple of international challenges she is interested in like climate change or the refugee crisis, and look at current church leaders' public commentary eg the Papal Encyclical on Climate Change (surely there is an Anglican equivalent?). Could test out her compare and contrast skills. You could look at Peter Singer for food - namely The Ethics of What We Eat. It is confronting, though, and her home circumstances may not allow her the luxury of food choices. Michael Pollan is gentler.... One of his docos is free on PBS in January. Hungry Planet, What the World Eats and Material World are all good talking points and have really useful discussions in them. Good for comparing distribution across countries (highly political!). Another author pushing an anti-materialist lifestyle is Mark Boyle, the UK's "moneyless man". His book, Moneyless Manifesto is available for free online, chapter by chapter. Jared Diamond is another author worth reading or watching. DS really enjoyed watching Guns, Germs and Steal and took away lots of info. Small is beautiful is also an excellent recommendation. For the politics of science, I don't think you can go past Darwin. In fact, I would love to design a study looking at the treatment of Socrates, Darwin and modern climate scientists because I think there are lots of parallels! There was a great doco about Darwin, the Church's reception of The origin of the species (uneventful in the UK - the fracas kicked off in the US), his inner turmoil and that of his wife. I think it was a BBC production - I wish I had the name of it. I think Science Matters is a fabulous choice for a science text. Don't forget the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and International Human Rights, as well as a bit about how the UN started and operates. Some other random thoughts: "The Falcon and the Snowman" I found absolutely chilling, Banksy might be a nice study for modern art, and song lyrics at 20th-21st Century turning points would be a good poetry study. And for angry poetry, you can't beat the epic self-loathing of Robert Lowell, product of the upper-class he both clings to and despises. Also worth looking at Alain de Button for commentaries on all sorts of things like architecture, happiness and philosophy.

Skellig by David Almond.

No, but only cos its still holidays here. In Australia its permissible to spend almost all of January in a funk. D

Wait, Sadie, you have multiple tea pots? I'm coming over......

Thanks for the folded paper reminder, Hunter. Just what I need this year D

Sonlight will send you the first ten weeks of a program if you email them. That might be enough to get you started. I'm a compulsive tweaker - 10 weeks of following someone else's program is more than I can manage anyway. It might also be worth having a look at Classical House of Learning for her excellent literature plans for the grammar and logic stages. I think they are better than Sonlight, and they're free! I think planning is one of those "don't let the perfect get in the way of the good" things. I've spent hours fiddling with planners. Hours that I should have spent teaching DS...... D

I would swap Pride and Prejudice with North and South. North and South is much better for showing the different classes and different areas of England, the impact of the Industrial Revolution and the beginnings of the union movement D

I did Pride and Prejudice with our teen book club this term. We had our yearly wrap-up on Wednesday. Two of the boys picked P&P as their favourite for the year. I was sure Lord of the Flies would be the one. I am very proud D

While the kettle is boiling, I thought of another one. When you attend an external class with your child, be quiet. The class is for the CHILDREN. Don't ask questions from the sidelines, don't play one-up-manship games with the instructor, don't let your little kids disrupt the class, and don't talk loudly with the other parents. Sit quietly or go outdoors. I could also have a rant about multiple - child discounts, but my tea is ready..... D

I work part -time as an adult educator. Plenty of adults spend the whole break talking and then go to the toilet during the lesson. I don't let it bother me - they pay me to attend a course. If they want to miss bits of it because they can't attend to their personal needs, thats their problem. I treat my bookclub teens the same way - its really undignified to have to ask to go to the toilet. If you need to go, just excuse yourself and go. I do have a few pet peeves, though. Parents of gifted kids who think that they are old enough to attend all the older teen activities. Yes, they may be able to write 5 page essays and do year 9 maths, but they are not teens and they do not have all the same social skills and needs as older teens. i'm sure they are both lovely and brilliant, but if they are not old enough to sit in class without you, they are probably also not old enough to sit through some of the discussions that the older kids are having, and those kids have a right to discuss that stuff. They don't need to moderate it because you insist that your 10 year old is on the same level. Nor does the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney have to change its science education programme to accommodate you and your 9 year old in a high school class (yes, this really happened). And my bookclub peeve. I don't care if you are a radical unschooler. If you send your kid to my bookclub, I expect that he/she will have read the book. If I give you a list of books at the beginning of the year, get the books or don't come. This is an educational activity, not free child minding. And if you aren't going to come, let me know, i do this for nothing. Be polite. Knock yourself out! I think I need a cup of tea now......

We bought a Kindle copy of Conceptual Integrated Science. I am a scientist and DS is a STEM kid, so I went for the college level book. Try the high school level "explorations" book for your DD. They are absolutely fantastic. This book will do us for a couple of years. I just pick the chapter I need, work through it with DS taking notes, watch the on-line videos, and work through the questions. The authors are lovely and if you have a problem you can just email them. Only need to add labs. Another possibility is Ellen McHenry's stuff. It is pitched at slightly younger kids but is very meaty and might help your daughter get her confidence back. Elements is particularly good.

We have two weeks of year 9 left! It looked like this (with some nagging, ranting and hair-tearing on my part and some grunting, whinging and general teenage vagueness on his) English: Finished off Analytical Grammar, punctuation using Eats Shoots and Leaves, Literary Lessons from Lord of the Rings, homeschool bookclub Maths: Cambridge Maths (Australian curriculum). We're a bit behind in this one, but I'd rather have a solid foundation. Science: Chemistry (Open2Study online, part of Open Universities Aust), Physics using Conceptual Integrated Science (this is FANTASTIC!!!) Human anatomy and physiology, Cellular Biology Geography: globalisation, Mapping the World With Art, basic geography skills History: World History Odyssey, Modern Times with Australian add-ons (up to 1918 - we'll complete this next year). I really like this supplier- I wish they had more level 3 stuff Commerce: Personal finance, introduction to International Economics, consumer law Drama: local production company: film making, production, three plays, various other performances, acting techniques Guitar IT: designed and built (and saved up for) gaming computer, lots of fiddling and fixing and building Mac and PC systems for friends and family, some 3D and games design. Study skills, a few read alouds, and some exercise with DH Wow - I've been berating us for not getting everything done. I feel better now I've written all that down. No wonder we are both knackered!

And lapbooks - these make school fun again for many kids. Loads of free lapbooks online. Google some images and have a look at Homeschool Share http://www.homeschoolshare.com/lapbooking_resources.php