I would recommend the Dear America series of books (historical fiction diaries by children in significant historical events/time periods), as well as the Signature and Landmark series of biographies (these three are not religious-oriented). The latter two may not be easy to find, but they are worth the search. These three series take up 3-4 shelves in our library, so they should keep him busy for a while! One other item...some 10s may be ready for the "violent and mean" part of history; I'd guess most are not. In my experience, most of them don't have the ability to really comprehend the evils committed throughout history (e.g. the Holocaust) It's just too much to wrap their heads around. My 13 yo ds has always been a history buff and has always loved reading historical fiction and non-fiction history books. He is now fascinated in the exploration of all parts of history - the good, bad and the ugly. It makes for some thought-provoking, mind-stretching discussions at this age, especially because he has such a strong background in history from his years of reading. He's about to start 8th grade (next week!) and this shift happened for him in earnest during the beginning of 7th grade. Hope this helps!:001_smile:

I'm not sure if this is where you're going, but maybe you can work with it. :001_smile: Many people and autonomous influences shape the education of a child - parents, community, culture, school administration, teachers...and most importantly, the child himself. Initially, each child's unique strengths, weaknesses, prior knowledge and internal motivation are factors independent from the influence of a teacher. And yet, as the relationship between teacher and student develops, the teacher has a special role in nurturing strengths, encouraging progress in weaknesses, enlarging the sphere of knowledge, and boosting the motivation of each individual student. The teacher ultimately chooses to foster and grow this relationship. By modeling admirable character traits and educational ideals, the teacher increases his or her ability to be an influential figure in the life of a child. After reading your post, the above was my paraphrase of what I "heard" you saying. Hope this helps!

Hi. First take a deep breath. There are many high school options out there for you. I have recently done quite a bit of research preparing for high school at home. I must admit in two years of on and off research, combined with 5 months of intensive (daily!) research, I have not heard once of Bridgewater. So I'd listen to others' posts about being careful. Here are some options for you to look into. 1. Veritas Press High School 2. Great Books Academy 3. Keystone National High School 4. University of Nebraska-Lincoln Independent Study High School 5. University of Oklahoma Independent Learning High School 6. North Dakota Division of Independent Study (state university) 7. James Madison High School 8. Calvert School - this coming school year 2010-2011, they ARE offering a pilot high school and are currently accepting for students interested in the pilot program. You'd need to contact them to find out if they are offering all grades. I am hoping that one of these is right for you! Take care.

Our schedule - Beginning of June - start on a part-time basis. In past years, I chose 2-4 days per week. This year, because of sports involvement, I will move to one week on (5 straight days), one week off, to coincide with our other plans. It won't be absolutely precise, but it doesn't need to be. We continue this schedule until after Labor Day. Post Labor Day - full-time (5 days/week) Generally three weeks off for Christmas holiday time Then full-time until mid-April. Oh, my! That means we are about to finish up! Yes...final exams this week. :D Then off full-time until the beginning of June. We have a little vocabulary to finish up, and the dc will continue Great Books reading, but this is our "big" break. I've used this schedule for three years now. It's worked great for our family. It allows for sudden medical appointments, helping out family/friends unexpectedly, spontaneous occasional days off, and LIFE in general...which doesn't always go as planned. :) Additionally, it lets us enjoy our nicest time of year outside. My dc are finishing 7th grade (ds 13) and 5th grade (dd 11). There are lots of different ways to do year-round schooling. I tried many approaches that just didn't work out right for us, for a variety of reasons. This schedule seems to mesh with our lives very well. I would encourage you to choose a schedule you think will work with your family. If it doesn't, feel free to change it. You will hit upon just the right one for you!

I thought I'd share some concrete examples of what helped my children (now 13 and 11, finishing 7th and 5th grades this week!) grasp area and volume, as well as perimeter. 1. Perimeter is the fence around a yard. When we measure perimeter, we are just measuring how long the whole fence is. 2. Area is the grass/dirt/whatever inside the fence. It is flat. It is the ground inside the fence. It has two dimensions, length and width. (If you use graph paper, you can illustrate why the formula is length x width by drawing a fence and then counting the squares inside of it.) 3. If we fill up the whole fenced in area with water to make an enormous swimming pool (with the water not leaking out of the fence! or soaking into the ground!)...we now have volume. Volume is three-dimensional. It has length and width, but now the water also has height. (If you have multilink cubes or even legos, you can build this.) You can also use the cubes or legos to illustrate all three in the above order. Have your wonderful daughter do the same. Hang in there :) Hope this is helpful.:001_smile:

I don't know the particulars of your 12yo dd's headaches, but my 11 yo dd started having headaches about a year ago (that also track with my hormonal migraines). For both of us, extra calcium in supplement form has helped so very much. I am on it daily - that is finally what got mine under control. I give dd a calcium supplement once a day the week before my "visitor" is due. (FWIW, she does not yet have a "visitor.") Now if she gets a headache it is a mild one. Just thought it was worth mentioning. Thinking of you.

The Llama Who Had No Pajama (by Mary Ann Hoberman, ISBN 0-15-200111-5) is a marvelously fun poetry book for children of all ages! It has 100 poems - and they are not only great to hear aloud, they are tremendously fun to read aloud in animated, rhythmic fashion. Ds 11.5 and dd 9.5 have enjoyed these since they were about 4 and 2 respectively. It is a favorite in our home...and likely always will be! Hope that helps.