Nice! On the plays - may I recommend Arsenic and Old Lace? You can read the play and watch the movie version too. My dd loved it last year. She's an actor who prefers straight plays to musicals, too, so she really enjoys reading plays, watching theatrical versions, and watching movie versions and comparing them. My dd read Bradbury's Invisible Man this year, and loved it. She is also going to be reading Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy and Frankenstein this year. She really enjoyed Dr. Jekyll and And Then There Were Young last year. Have a great year!

My basic plan was created over the summer, too, but I do spend time prepping for the following week each weekend. I make my 8th grader a weekly schedule now, with everything she needs to do independently and that we will do together listed by day. I don't assign much on Friday, so that is a catch up day if the weekly items don't get finished. She's free to do her independent things when she wants to, but she basically follows the list and does each day on its scheduled day. I print out anything I need to and put it on her clipboard. I also look ahead to the following week or two and put anything on hold at the library that we'll need. I also make any adjustments to the big-picture schedule based on what happened in real life (i.e. she finished a book sooner or later than I thought, needs more or less time for essay revisions, etc.) For my younger it's similar, though I don't print out a weekly list for her, I write a daily to-do list each morning. But I make sure I have everything printed, handy, etc. It does make the week run more smoothly.

That all sounds awesome! I hope you guys have a great year. My 8th grader is doing BW's Kidswrite Intermediate class and will do Expository Essay in the spring - those are the two online classes that correspond to Help for High School. She is really enjoying Kidswrite and learning a lot from it. I have HfHS, and could have taught it myself, but I knew I wouldn't do full justice to the assignments, they seem kind of nebulous and touchy-feely when I read through them - but they are not. They are great, really well designed and dd has learned a lot from doing them. Big History was a huge hit here last year - my dd remarked the other day how sad she is that it's over. I'd love to see the list of books you guys picked, if you feel like sharing!

There is James Owen's series, Imaginarium Geographica, which has dragons as characters. The first is called Here There Be Dragons. I don't know if a 10 year old would like it? It is absolutely crammed with allusions/references to other classic children's fantasy lit and stories, so for the well-read or well-read-to youngster it might be a hit. My 12 year old loves it. ETA: not that it's too difficult for a 10 year old - it's not. Just that it won't be as good if you haven't read some of the things it draws on - CS Lewis, Tolkein, JM Barrie, HG Wells, Arthurian legends, Chronicles of Prydain, stuff like that.

I didn't read much last week, with everything going on, but I did finish listening to Here There Be Dragons. I had started and abandoned this awhile ago, but Shannon, who is reading the whole series, assures me that the series improves and begged me to read along with her, so I compromised and did the audio. It was ok. It was a fun puzzle figuring out all the literary allusions. I've started reading the second book in the series too. It's fairly undemanding reading, so isn't a bad choice for the moment. I'm also listening to Excellent Sheep which is a really wonderful and challenging attack on the elite US educational system. I'm reading another brain-bender at the moment, but I'll post more about it when i finish. Books Read in September: 134. Here, There Be Dragons - James Owen 133. Invasion of the Body Snatchers - Jack Finney 132. Memoirs of a Porcupine - Alain Mabanckou 131. Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded - Simon Winchester 130. Itch: The Explosive Adventures of an Element Hunter - Simon Mayo 129. The Castle in Transylvania - Jules Verne 128. Andrew's Brain - E. L. Doctorow 127. The Dark is Rising - Susan Cooper

Well, it depends on where you live, but field guides for sure. I have a ton of CA-specific resources but I don't know how relevant they'd be for you. But get native plant guides, wildflower, bird, insect guides, and find a place you can visit regularly and make observations and identify the flora and fauna around you. One nice nature journaling resource is this one: http://www.cnps.org/cnps/education/curriculum/ it's a free download or you can buy a printed version. We are really enjoying two books, which we are reading over the course of the year (they have dated entries): The Year of the Turtle - David Carroll - he's got other books on wetlands, swamps, and trout but we've really been enjoying the turtle book. He's a fantastic writier. The Forest Unseen: A Year's Watch in Nature - David Haskell Definitely read things like Silent Spring, Sand County Almanac, A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, and other classics. Maybe it's too soon for Walden, but that's on my someday list. Letters to a Young Scientist - E O Wilson Not really curricula, but books we love.

My 8th grader's hits: Bravewriter Kidswrite Intermediate class - this has been a big hit! It was a good choice for a first online class. It has her doing all the kinds of thinking exercises that I never would have thought to do. She's a great writer and I've felt pretty confident teaching writing, but this class has definitely added value. Crocodiles & Coconuts - soon moving on to Chuckles the Rocket Dog. She continues to love the Arbor School math books Twelve Essential Scientific Concepts - GC. She likes this better than Joy of Science (which we are still doing anyway ;) ) How To Become a Superstar Student - GC. She loved this and was sad when she finished it. I see her applying things she learned. My 4th grader's hits: Taking a BW lifestyle approach to writing. We are loosely following Partnership Writing. It's been fantastic for her. She composes things orally while I scribe, then she takes her own composition as dictation. This has been a great interim step for her rather than expecting her to do all her own writing from scratch, or having her only do dictation from books. She is really developing her voice this way. She loves the Personal Timeline project which is the first PW project we've tackled. Simplifying - focusing on just the basics/must dos and getting rid of all the fluffy extras. So far she's enjoying the free time that provides and she's really focusing and bringing a positive attitude to school. Independent things she can do online - Dreambox, PetraLingua for German, Typingtutor.com

Third-ing the plea for more sessions by you and Julie Bogart. They were my favorite sessions by far as well. Like others, I'd be interested in more talks focused on the high school level, especially from people who advocate an outside-the-box approach to high school and college/whatever comes next prep. I'd even be interested in some talks directed to teenagers and their parents watching together. How about Cal Newport Thomas of How to Be a High School Superstar? or Blake Boles on The Art of Self-Directed Learning?

I don't have a lot to add to Kiana's great list, but I definitely suggest a Margeurite Henry binge. The Misty series, of course, but King of the Wind was one of my favorites. Black Stallion is good too. I had the entire series as a kid but agree they get formulaic after awhile. If he does branch out into dog books, I suggest *avoiding* Algonquin: The Story of a Great Dog. the beginning scene was so horrific it is still seared into my memory more than 30 years later. I cried for hours.

This is a good choice for a young student who may have some PreA holes, as the first ~5-ish chapters review key "PreA" concepts they will need to be solid on to succeed with Algebra.

If you haven't read The Tempest recently, I'd suggest reading/watching it before. BNW is so full of Shakespeare allusions, especially to that play. I know I got a lot more out of it in my recent re-read just because I had more familiarity with the allusions. Once character practically speaks Shakespeare.

I'd be up for that. I have a lovely copy of A Passage to India that someone gave me as a gift many, many years ago. I've been carting it around ever since. Some day I should actually read it! I didn't love A Room With a View, but that's the only Forster I've ever read.

:grouphug: , Heather. I hope your dad is doing well today.

Changes in January Wait, what??? They are changing January? What was wrong with it? Hmm, maybe they could make it longer, and we could skip February altogether. Pet enzyme cleaner at walmart? No, I don't think it's a good idea. They ask you not to touch any of their employees.

My older dd was too old for it, though she did have fun with the bits she did. She already knew how to write, though, so it wasn't an issue of the instruction, she just really liked the creative assignments. She did bits of Narrative 2, that's really it, we had to move on. My younger dd liked Fable a lot at first, but I started her too young and the writing was too much for her by the end. So now she dislikes the whole series and won't consider going back to it. I blame myself for pushing it too soon. She doesn't like any writing curriculum, though, and is really forcing me off the beaten path (more of a BW lifestyle) so unless something changes radically I can't see returning to it. I did really like it for the most part. Although I thought having kids outline The Three Little Pigs was just silly. I"m with SWB, you can't outline stories the way you do nonfication/informational texts.

Coming late to this party to share something I found and ordered recently. It just arrived yesterday. I love the looks of this for a 7th-12th grader to use to self-study/remediate grammar. Or even for an adult! It's workbook format, short lessons, well written, and very, very comprehensive: The Best Grammar Workbook Ever - Arlene Miller http://www.amazon.com/Best-Grammar-Workbook-Ever-Punctuation/dp/0991167406/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1442498147&sr=1-1&keywords=the+best+grammar+workbook+ever

I'll join you! I have a vague sense I read this before as a kid, but I don't remember it. I'm in a reading rut due to limited bandwidth and need something light and enjoyable. I'll put it on hold, but it may not get in for awhile. So no spoilers!!! ;)

No, I didn't use the TM at all. I figured I know what my kid is capable of and don't need the comparison. I don't mean that flippantly - I think it's hard to write examples that work across a range of ages and situations. It would probably just make me feel bad if I read them and my kid wasn't writing at that level. But the examples were probably written by adults, not 8 year olds, right?

Never mind, that funny didn't work! Now I'm on the spot to come up with something clever to fill this space, quick!

:lol: :lol: :lol: "Does this mean the drought is over?" My dh, who works in water conservation, gets this question about 11 seconds after it rains! On that note, our new roof was finished today, so bring on the rain! I felt horrible wishing it would hold off till our roof was finished, given how badly we need it with the fires and all.

I don't know how sensitive she is, but Calico Bush has a horrific scene where a baby is burned in a fire. It would have given my kids serious nightmares. Just a FYI. Calico Captive by Elizabeth George Speare was a good one, though. Caddie Woodlawn? Swallows and Amazons? Harriet the Spy? My dd liked Esperanza Rising very much at around that age.

Both my girls started with Dance Mat and then progressed to typing.com. They are both free and low stress - my kids dislike time pressure too.

Now I'm curious, but I don't see any newly locked threads. That's the only way I ever know there has been a train wreck. :lol:

What did you think of The Sparrow? I'm so scared to revisit that book given how it affected me the first time, but it keeps popping up into my consciousness - here and IRL as well.