Exactly. If it wasn't a question about the school specifically, I will say "in Boston" (which isn't even literally true, it was Cambridge) because I usually don't want to deal with the conversational derail that happens when it comes out that it was grad school, at MIT.

Yes, apparently that is one part of the original trilogy/anthology they wrote, along with Space Mowgli and Roadside Picnic, called Unintended Meetings. He wrote that he cringes when he sees original copies of it, it was so heavily censored & expurgated. It's definitely not your typical sci fi fare, Stacia. I think you might enjoy it.

This is a great conversation. I've also struggled with designing a high school science course (Biology, at the moment) that will satisfy me, in terms of depth of coverage of key topics and pace, and that will also be test-prep material. Given the mile-wide inch deep nature of the tests, I'm not convinced that this is possible. I think I'd rather do the class I want to do, and then do focused test prep, rather than build a whole year's class around trying to cover every single thing that might show up on the test.

I have the newer, illustrated version of Bryson's book. Why did I not think of just starting in the middle and reading the parts that cover the 20th century? Good idea, I'll take a look at this. I also put the Langine book on hold, thanks Kalmia.

We watched Ender's Game, the movie, last night to compare it to the book. I must say, I watched it with great trepidation, because I love the book and worried they'd miss the whole point & ruin it in the movie. The movie did make changes, certainly, particularly in consolidating events and adding some spectacular visual effects, but they did an excellent job focusing on the book's themes. We really enjoyed it. Shannon is busy reading the Ender's Shadow series although I've vetoed Speaker for the Dead for now. ETA: Vetoed - Oh, the irony, on a post that mentions Banned Books! What I mean is, I have respectfully suggested that the book has adult/mature situations and themes, and that she will enjoy it and get more out of it if she waits to read it till she's older. Also, I confessed that I found it very disturbing (though extremely powerful and thought provoking) and don't feel like re-reading it right now. She agreed to wait. I finished Roadside Picnic last night. It was written in 1971 by Russian authors, the Strugatsky brothers; made into a movie by Tarkovsky in 1979 (Stalker); and somewhat recently re-released in English translation in its unexpurgated form. Interesting in relation to Banned Books, there was an afterward by the author where he describes going through the Soviet censorship process, and oddly, the book wasn't suppressed for ideological reasons, but heavily edited by censors because it was considered vulgar and smutty and violent, a bad influence on the Soviet youth. I thought it was a great book, although very dark, but I appreciate it particularly because I'm in the middle of a themed reading about alien encounter, and this was the most unique take I've read on the subject so far. The premise: what if aliens visited earth, but without even noticing or attempting to communicate with humans? What if they stopped off, had a picnic, and left a bunch of trash along the side of the road, and then moved on, without any other contact? Their artifacts - their trash? - is of an inexplicable, powerful, and sometime dangerous technology. But they are profoundly disinterested in even trying to communicate with humans. Did they even notice us? This book looks at the effect of this humiliating fact along with the effect of the artifacts themselves on a small town somewhere in North America (Canada maybe) near this alien Roadside Picnic zone.

We went to friends' 3-year olds birthday party, it ended up being quite a reunion of old friends. At one point, though, I looked around and realized it was a party full of women my age and older, all of whom had kids under 4. I looked over at my 9 and 13 year olds and thought, thank goodness I'm not doing the baby thing now! It was tiring just to watch them all. Anyway, so I haven't read yet this weekend, but am hoping to get a little time in tonight! I'm reading Roadside Picnic by the Strugatsky brothers. It's not really supernatural-creepy, it's more alien-encounter creepy. I definitely plan to read Slaughterhouse-Five in the very near future, it's on my bedside stack, along with The Story of My Teeth and the Chameleon book, and a bunch of Philip K Dick that I want to get to, so I might not go any spookier than that. I read all of the Anne Rice novels that were out at the time I was in college - so the first 3 or 4 vampire books and the Mayfair Witch book, along with a couple of her others (Cry to Heaven and the Feast of All Saints.) I adored the books in college, and got from it one of my guiding life philosophies of my 20s - "None of us changes over time. We only become more fully what we are." I don't know that I still agree with that, but it did steer me out of some bad relationships, and for that I'm grateful. But, I don't know, I think I've moved on - I tried to read the new Vampire book this winter, Prince Lestat, and it didn't grab me, I ended up abandoning it. Books read in October: 144. A Handful of Dust - Evelyn Waugh 143. Fairy Tales for Computers - Leslie George Katz, ed.

Hope all you east-coasters made it through the night ok. Weird to go from fire watch in CA to hurricane watch in the east. Anyway, I hope you all are fine this morning!

Oh, I totally get it. I read books like that too. Some of my "fun" reads wouldn't be remotely fun for other people, but I read them in the exact spirit that you describe. Some of my fun reads for 2016 have been The Cobra Event, World War Z, The LIbrary at Mount Char, Station 11, Set This House in Order, Ancillary Sword & Ancillary Justice, and the Game of Thrones series. Not everybody's idea of fun reads, I know! :001_tt2: :D

well, finally, a kindred reader of The Martian! I totally agree, I abandoned it, not for the bad language, or the subject (which fascinates me) but because I thought it was really bad writing and I wasn't enjoying it.. I found the character was flat and unbelievable, and since you spend the whole book inside his head, that just didn't work for me.

Resurrecting this thread to share something: I just watched a Julie Bogart periscope/podcast about homeschooling philosophy, specifically talking about unschooling People who were drawn to this thread might really enjoy this talk: https://www.periscope.tv/BraveWriter/1yoJMNgQPBDxQ

You could have them write in it, but it is not necessary. We did it orallly and didn't write in the book so we were fine with just one copy. Depends how you use it, I guess.

I finished A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh last night. Ugh. It definitely wasn't what I was expecting. I thought it would be a satirical, comic look at the manners and social mores of the British lower-upper class post WWI. The first half was, kind of, but the whole thing really resolved into a whole, bleak demonstration of the emptiness of it all. The characters have no moral center, period. Everyone behave selfishly in not very interesting ways. No one believes in anything or cares about anything. No one is evil, really, just selfish and vain. No one connects or relates, they just see other people in the context of what other people can do for them. No one is good. You feel kind of sorry for the main character, he is definitely getting the short end of the stick but he's so vague and ineffectual that you can't muster up too much sympathy. Then, when he finally seems to grow a backbone and take a decisive act, you take hope: maybe he will make something of himself! But no, he just goes on to suffer, ridiculously and ignominiously. His wife is a selfish vapid cow. No one seems to care too much about anything or anyone. So is it a brilliant elucidation of the perils of the modern world, suffering from the horrors of war, losing its faith? Everything we used to believe in gone, floating away on a sea of moral relativism and self-involvement? Its definitely a strong example of Modernism and everything I associate with that school. It's a better book than Vile Bodies, which I thought was very vapid and shallow (which maybe was the point) but thoroughly depressing.

the internet seems to be broken this morning

I just put it on hold again. I'll take another look at it, but I suspect it's not going to be as in-depth as I was looking for. But maybe. thanks for reminding me about it, we were just talking about this on another thread, but it didn't come on my radar in this context.

I guess I should look at that again. Does it go all the way up to the modern era? That's what I feel like we're lacking, we've studied a lot of science/history of science pre 20th century, but not much (outside of astronomy) 20th century discoveries. We'll cover genetics/biology stuff in the second half of the year, but I wanted to hit on major discoveries in Physics during the first semester.

Well, maybe. Shannon would have been up for the writing at that point, but not the deeper thinking. I'm glad we waited till 12. I don't think there was anyone under 12 in the class, ages ranged from 12-17. I know age is just a number, and YMMV, but again it wasn't the writing - it was the ability to be both analytical and introspective about the products of your own consciousness. That is something that Shannon really didn't have at 10 or 11, although she was a great writer.

:lol: Shannon turns 13 in one month and two days. But she has been calling herself 13 for most of the year. And she looks about 16. I will be glad when the calendar reality catches up with her internal reality!

Wow. Well, it sure took a dark turn halfway through. Not sure how he is going to manage to carry on with the humor.

My copy of Handful of Dust arrived and I started it. It actually seems pretty funny, satirical, and interesting so far, I think I'm going to give it a go. I don't even remember what I disliked so much about Vile Bodies - I think I just found all the characters totally morally reprehensible and unsympathetic, but I don't even really remember the story. But this one has been quite cleverly satirical so far, so we'll see how it goes. And, the Chameleon book and the Teeth book both came in today, too! Which do I read first??? What a dilemma!!!

She loved the Kidswrite Intermediate class. I was skeptical at first, because I didn't see this as the next logical step in more challenging academic/essay writing, but I listened to a bunch of Julie Bogart's podcasts and seminars this summer, and decided to try it out. I'm sold, I was really impressed with the whole approach. She definitely learned tools she will continue to use in the future, in her academic writing. Plus, it's just 6 weeks, so it's not signing your whole year of writing instruction away.

Ruth, B & Shannon are so much alike as writers!! They must be the same kind of long-separated twins that you and I are. She is also good at thinking about books and having discussions, but her "literary essay" type writing is both more challenging and less smooth and polished than her creative writing. Definitely different systems! One of the things I've liked about the Bravewriter class that she's just finishing up is that they really do encourage kids to maintain their great voice and to use more creative techniques to bring out their ideas on academic topics. I think that will be good for Shannon, and will help her to bring that same level of articulate-ness, for lack of a better word, to her academic writing that she has in her creative writing.

Aww, now I want to come over and give you a hug!

That is such a great point. As much as we try and keep our kids' options open, we really can't do it all/have it both ways. You can strive for balance, but you can't fully embrace both a child-led, project-based, group project/co-op style of unschooly education with a more reading and writing intensive, subject-based type of studies and feel that you are doing justice to both. At least, I don't think you can. I think everyone makes choices, and tends to embrace one style or the other more. Seeking that balance can definitely be stress inducing. But so can *not* seeking the balance, and trying to do both.

Can anyone help me find a good, readable, living book/trade book alternative to Hakim's Story of Science: Einstein? Something that covers 20th century history of science/physics in a broad & conceptual way? This is for my 8th grader's Science Literacy/History of Science year. We want to cover cosmology/astronomy, quantum physics, relativity, etc. This doesn't all have to be in the same book - you could recommend your favorite book in either or all topics. Hakim's book covers what I wanted to cover, but dd finds the book very annoying - both the fussiness of the pages, with all the distracting sidebars, etc., and also we both hate the fact that she writes in the present tense. These are not insurmountable obstacles, but if I can find some alternatives, I'd like to offer them.

Agreed, if I were to skip a book it would be the Instruction book. Although dd would rebel if I did so! But the truth is, my dd doesn't always understand the lesson as presented in the comic book, she usually needs to work through problems in the workbook to really get what the little monsters are trying to convey. The workbook is the critical component, IMO.