Igor Frankenstein... Frankie Boris

Farm City. It's a great audio book. Someone here recommended it to me when I was down in the dumps. :)

Write@Home sounds like a good fit.

We've done the Great Courses lectures. My daughter gives that a thumbs up. We just bought a class on Craftsy for iPhone photography. I'm excited about that one! http://www.craftsy.com/classes/photography?_ct=wberqbdql-sbqiiui&_ctp=photography/recommended

TTB WHAT??!!!!! Do you know if you can opt out of that stuff? How does your daughter work around that?

Yeah... my 14yo is finishing up the orientation right now. She's all worked up. :/ My kids each picked out a fun class too. I just want it to all work out. They're saying that they're fine if it works out to be like a fun book or film club. Watch/read/chat/next. Fingers crossed!

Thanks! They're more than willing to try, but I'll write her if it's a bust.

Oh sheesh. Why is everything an uphill battle this year?? It hasn't even begun! The folks at Online G3 have been awesome, but our charter school, who's funds we're using to pay, have been difficult to deal with. My gut reaction is that if I try to drop, we'll never get the funds back. Maybe I'm wrong... We'll hope for the best and see how it goes tomorrow. These are just fun supplement classes but there's no way they're doing BrainPop.

We're using Online G3 online classes for the first time. The class starts tomorrow, so today they have to watch a bunch of required videos on BrainPop and Discovery Education. My kids are 14 and 17, and they're pretty upset at being made to watch programs they used in grade school. I've told them to wait until tomorrow, to see how the class runs. Now I'm getting a little worried... Will they have to watch these videos throughout the classes?? Any BTDT??

I'd encourage my husband to start a poker night with some buddies. He can get it out of his system on guy time. :)

Laura The cold weather is much needed. We're from Southern California and it's been miserable there. Would you believe we ate vegan haggis today?!? The classical music is also appreciated, as we've just spent the last four days at a punk music festival. :) Can't wait to explore the city tomorrow!

In Scotland, sitting by the fire, listening to Lark Ascending! Thanks ladies! :)

Thanks everyone! I'm adding everything I can on my amazon app.

Ha! That's how I was thinking too. :) I added Erik Satie as well.

Imagine your driving through the English country side, it's a rainy afternoon, you've just left behind a stupid amount of stress and problems and it's all melting away now. You pop in a cd (or however people listen to music now)... :) What are you listening to? Educate me! Thanks for any help

We like to play a game where you turn the radio dial all the way to the left and stop at each radio station. Someone has to dance to every song you hit. You can change it when you've had enough of each song. It's most fun when there's lots of different types of music. Here we have english variety, spanish, vietnamese, etc. The secret is to really get into it, like through your back out silly. We're sweaty and laughing by the end. You'll be ready for zoned out boredom then . :) You can do a free version of Hedbanz: http://happilyblended.com/2014/11/hedbanz-game-home/

Here's some old posts of mine on the subject: Speeches http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/476692-id-like-to-find-10-famous-speeches-to-study-next-year-any-suggestion-update-i-have-one-more-question/ http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/477613-a-little-more-help-on-my-famous-speeches-unit-study/ Poetry http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/400863-im-hunting-for-poems-suggestions/ http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/559546-looking-for-poetry-thats-a-little-more-thought-provoking-intense-mature/ And an old favorite for finding nature related poems and quotes: http://www.gardendigest.com/winter.htm hope something here is helpful :)

No specific method. They go over them everyday. They break up the longer speeches (and sometimes the longer poems) so that they don't start zoning out. :) They used to be very good about memorizing the poems, but I've never asked them to memorize the speeches. We like to do dramatic readings, sometimes one will read and the other will act out. Jabberwocky is a great example of that! Also, you can focus on random recitations of the most famous part of the speech or poem at a clever and appropriate time or place. When they can do that, I feel like they've bonded with the words. KWIM? We have a poetry and speech bulletin board. I print of the work, an iconic photo of the writer/speaker, a few quotes, maybe a bit of historical/political cartoons. General Stuff like that. I try to make it so that it's not a time suck. We have a packed schedule. We're the tortoise. Over the course of a month I hope they feel a more intimate connection to the person and work. It's not so much about memorization anymore.

We've been doing this for a few years now. The poems, since the beginning. We love it, and have found that it's well worth the time and effort. The kids feel much more culturally literate because of it. My favorites are many of Malcolm X's speeches and Lou Gehrig's farewell speech. My 17yo really liked Malcolm X and Socrates' Apology 14yo says MLK's I Have a Dream and The Pleasure of Books, by William Lyon Phelps Last year we got a lot out of the blog The Eloquent Woman: https://www.theguardian.com/books/series/poemoftheweek This year I'm using this site for a few speeches: http://www.bbc.co.uk/timelines/ztpqxsg And for poetry: https://www.theguardian.com/books/series/poemoftheweek I add in links to bios, films, youtube clips, blogs, websites, recorded readings etc. We've done good guys and bad, some film speeches as well. Lou Gehrig is probably everyones fav. We watched the movie as well. It's a real tear jerker. This year so far I have: Lucy Parsons, I Am An Anarchist Patton's Speech to the Third Army Churchill's We Shall Fight Them on the Beaches Kennedy's Inaugural Address We do one poem and one speech per month. I think I'll add in letter or two with the speeches.

If you want a unique gift, Land of Nod is a great place to look. Sometimes they have the same products on Amazon. hth

My mom bought me some tap shoes at a garage sale once and said have at it. :) Thanks mom and Gene Kelly!! Does that count? Haha! Yeah it's totally impacted my life in a positive way. I'm broke and I have no life, but I can always dance in my kitchen. We play Soul Train Dance Line sometimes, and it brings a lot of joy to our lives! My kids on the other and have had all kinds of activities.

Medium Woodland Jellycat Bunny. They make a great gift!

Johnny B (Boden) Brass Plum (Nordstroms) Abercrombie Kids We love clothes shopping at garage sales and thrift stores, but this age was super hard (for us) to find their sizes.

My 17yo likes Lisa Eldridge and Zabrena.

Honestly... I'm saving for garage sales. :) I save change and 1s and 5s. Except for big ticket items, I almost alway find exactly what I need/want this way.