Thank you for letting me know about the situations. Definately not for ds right now. It is so nice to be able to ask someone. For years so much of my reading was prereading. I really appreciate just ruling something out without my reading it! It always seems like I get 3/4 through a book before something totally unacceptable happens! I did go ahead and request it. Maybe I will give it a try for me. Still curious about the Canterbury Tales tie in. :lol: He has read some Prachett. Not sure which ones. I have put the other ideas on my list for him and start hunting. Dd has read and loved the Garth Nix and the Prachett. Thanks for the great ideas!

Dd's Lemon Drizzle Cake is fabulous. It always gets rave reviews and is the easiest lemon drizzle we have made. Cake mixture: 200 g unsalted butter softened 250 g sugar 3 medium eggs finely grated zest of 2 unwaxed lemons 250 g self-raising flour 1/2 teas baking powder 100 ml milk Topping: 100 g sugar Juice of the two lemons Preheat oven to 350 F. Put sugar, lemon zest, butter, and eggs in a large bowl. Dd mixes by hand here altough recipe does not call for it. Sift in flour and baking powder. Add milk. Mix until completely smooth. We generally bake it in a rectangular pan because we serve it cut in small squares like brownies. Our pan is the same basic area as the 20 cm round springform pan the recipe requires. We line with baking paper really well. Bake 50 to 60 minutes. Simply mix the topping together and prick the top of the cake all over with a tooth pick. Pour topping glaze over hot cake and cool. The glaze will soak into the cake giving it a great lemon flavor.

Here is my Sour Cream Coffee Cake 1 cup softened butter (used 1/2 c butter and 1/2 c margarine) 2 cups sugar 2 eggs 1 cup sour cream 1 tsp. Vanilla 2 cups flour(sifted but I don't) 1 tsp. Baking powder Topping: 2 tsp cinnamon, 4 Tb brown sugar, 1/2 cup chopped pecans I normally skip the nuts and double the cinn. And b. Sugar Cream butter and sugar, add eggs, then fold in sour cream and vanilla, add dry ingredients. Pour one half of batter in greased and floured 10 inch tube pan. Sprinkle half of the topping over layer. Add rest of batter. Purest of topping on. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes at 350. Let cool before removing from pan. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

We did no formal outside activities until dd was 10. We did one time field trips with groups and attended church. Plenty for us back then. My dh has his own business and we spent lots of days with Daddy when he had unexpected time off. We still do not do as much as many of our friends probably because we still prefer to do spontaneous family activities over scheduled. I don't regret it at all and find it really hard to get school work done when the calendar gets too full.

Just lost my post. "I think" someone posted on the board that their child won this last year. Can't search but I know I looked and bookmarked then. I need to talk to dd and see if her Fire will work software wise but may try her with $20 option for fun. Sounds like good practice.

:grouphug: I can't imagine how you must feel but it seems positive that you are the person he turned to when he was upset.

Dd15 just became more emotional. Lots of drama but no difference in school performance. She has never been able to find her belongings and she has not improved! Ds13 seems to be rather slowly emerging from a great year long fog. For instance I sent him to find something in his room and found him quietly sitting on his bed staring into space 15 minutes later with the book on the floor right by his huge feet. He forgot, sorry mom. This is the kid who finds my lost items for me! When he engages in the subject he is really bright but that is really hard to accomplish these days.

Soooo cute! Thank you for the link. I love going to see the puffins nesting. I had no idea babies are pufflings!

I am on the wait list for Cuckoo's Calling. Glad to hear it will be worth waiting for! I just checked and the library has quite a few books by Dan Simmons including Hyperion. The Canterbury Tale tie in intrigued me. Would this be appropriate for my ds13? He loves all 5 Hitchikers Guides to the Galaxy books and reads many Star Wars books. The review was talking about the pilgrim's problems. Just wondering if those problems are ds age appropriate. ;)

When we first moved to the UK that book was on the library's classic shelf for children so I did it as a read aloud. I kept thinking it would improve. Ds remembers it well but not fondly. Lol

I did a Florida/ Michigan split for years with 3 to 6 weeks in each location. I normally packed in small boxes from Scholastic because I could fit 3 or 4 accross the floor in the minivan. Also not too heavy to lift. I found different school methods suited each location and planned accordingly. One house suited a arty discovery style. Lots of space for supples with a large yard for experiments. The other house had lots of fun outside activities but curling up and reading was really easy there. I would also plan according to my libraries. One house had a fabulous children's library. With their math books and what I considered ongoing programs like language arts we didn't need much more. We did Galloping the Globe at that house with great library books. That house was the art project house too. I kept all the messy supplies there! Because mine are close in age we kept a Sonlight core at the other house and did our normal math and LA. We did SL science there too.

I will try and post some favorites here later. Everyone is asleep still and my rooting around will wake them up. I have a Sour Cream Coffee Cake people rave about. When I lived in the US I made it all the time, it was my no fail recipe. You name it I substituted it and stlli got a really good cake--margerine for butter, all types of sour cream. I shared the recipe with a good friend who could not get it to work quite right. We could not figure out what she was doing wrong! Then I move over here and I can't get the cake to work. Oh I get a cake just not a great cake. My family doesn't request it anymore! :lol:

Rosie-- You have succeeded in making me want to try MILO. :lol: DS will love it! Now to find it.......

You have given me hope, Thank You!!!! Seriously, I have seen a few flickers of positive things in the past couple of weeks. I would love for them to continue......

In rereading Sharyn McCrumb's series I have discovered that I normally pick #4 Paying the Piper, #6 Missing Susan, and #8 MacPherson's Lament for rereads. The characters are always a bit over the top but I think the first book may be the worst in terms of obnoxious characters. I am waiting for #3 right now so.... My favorite has always been Missing Susan about Elizabeth's bus tour through the UK based on famous murders.

WOW!!! Everyone has listed some great books this week. My list just grew by half a page. I finished "If on a Winter's Night Traveller". I enjoyed many parts of it and probably would be viewing the overall book more highly if I hadn't had some preconceived plot ideas which were just plain wrong! I won't say more because others are reading it. I am 76% completed for "Things Fall Apart" and am really enjoying it. I just requested part two according to the library...about the son or grandson? I am having some computer problems so am afraid of losing my post if I get the title. But looking forward to it. I have also added Eliana's "Hopes and Impediments" to my list. Hopefully a library will have it so will look tonight.

I have moved several times within the states of Florida and Michigan, about a dozen times depending on how you count returning to same house after living elsewhere for several years. We are currently getting ready for our third move in the UK. This one won't be far, within the village we live in.

My dc's loved Mary Pope Osbourne's Odyssey series. They were at our library and my ds read them all several times. Another favorite was the Usbourne Greek Myths book. I love Hawthorne's Wonder Stories as a read aloud. Beautiful. I have it free on my kindle if your library doesn't have a copy.

That's one on my 5/5/5 list. Glad to hear it ended well. Makes me slightly more motivated!

I finished Jeffrey Deaver's "The Kill Room" late last night. This is another series that I have been reading for years with this the latest edition. It did not disappoint! It was a good solid suspense novel where I had some surprises at the end. The characters are still good and well developed etc. This one did start slow. For those reading Dan Brown's Inferno I really enjoyed it. Totally agree about going to Florence!

Jean, I hope your health improves. It had never occured to me that a US school would automatically put them back in ninth. I am pretty shocked by that. Not sure if this would work for your ds but I just started using some Coursera mixed in with our other stuff. No formal grades although for College Algebr, pre calc, and calc there may be. Something there might suit him and take a bit of pressure off you.

I finished three books in the car. :) The first was "One Foot in the Grave" by Jeaniene Frost. The second paranormal series that I am working my way through. I also have the first in another series by the same author but haven't tried it yet. Dd and I both finished "First Among Sequels" by Jasper Fforde. Not my favorite Thursday Next. I am hoping number six is better. We also finished "Birds of a Feather" by Jacqueline Winsper. This was the second Maisie Dobbs. Nice light reads. Not bad for a two day trip. :lol: It was the only good thing about waiting over 3 hours for our ferry. Our third book, which neither us us managed beyond the first pages was "Five Red Herrings". It is my last Sayers so I really want to enjoy it!

The "good" me would go home and get something done! The other me the mall because it sounds like a treat due to distance. ;) No way would I sit there another day! Your dd probably has no clue how boring her fun really is for you and she will be fine.

I am posting so I can find this tomorrow if someone else doesn't answer what I am missing.;) There is a mom on the board (can't remember who--sorry) who majored in Greek. She has done many posts on this. She also recommends "Reading Greek" by Cambridge I think. I have been up almost 24 hours so not real clear but wanted to put that out there for the discussion.

I am just at the stage where I am sorting out what dd actually did. Writing course descriptions. Way too many credits for ninth. I am considering putting Henle latin in with Language Arts because she was heavily literature based that year. Ancient Greek may go to Religious Studies. The only language course by itself may be German. French for another year......These are my musings only so tossing them out there.