I'm so sorry for your terrible loss, Rosie! :grouphug:

I picked up Monuments Men at the library this afternoon. Woaw, that's a chunky book. It didn't look that big on Amazon, but it certainly is in this Dutch translation I have sitting on my desk right now :svengo: . But I'm looking forward to it!

Pam, how old is your daughter? My dd10 asked me if she could read Fault in Our Stars, and I vetoed it based on the short summary I read about it. What age do you think would be good?

I have been trying to limit my computer time lately, which is working out reasonably well, but when I check in on this thread at the end of the week....the thread is so long already and I feel like I have missed all the fun. I'm going to try and visit this thread more frequently, without reading the rest of the board ( :smilielol5: yeah, that is going to work). I have read 15 books since last time. I read Het leven is verrukkulluk by Remco Campert, Indische duinen by Adriaan van Dis, Hart van steen by Renate Dorrestein. These are all from the Dutch high school lists, I don't believe they have been translated so they are not very interesting to you here, but I'm pleased that I read them :001_tt2: . I started Blauwe maandag, by Arnon Grunberg, which has been translated into numerous languages including English: here., but I decided not to finish it. Arnon Grunberg is one of the big names in contemporary Dutch writing, so I really felt I should read his first novel, but I'm probably too big of a prude, I just don't like reading about how depressing live is and how the only way to cope is with lots of alcohol and visiting prostitutes. :001_rolleyes: My dd10 asked me to read Charmed life by Diana Wynne Jones and Beauty, by Cynthia Schultz (misslipgloss.nl), which is a Dutch book about blogging. I pre-read Holes by Louis Sachar for her. Homeschool related: I read Deconstructing Penguins and How to read literature like a professor for kids. My reading for Lent was Sacred Reading, the Ancient Art of Lectio Divina by Michael Casey. I think it was a recommendation from Elaine. Thank you! It was an excellent book for Lent. Circe recommendations: I read Abolition of Men and I finally, finally, finally read Norms and Nobility by David Hicks. Turns out that I found the book much more readable than the prologue, so now I feel a bit silly that in all my attempts to read this books, I never got any further than the prologue :blush: . Anyway, this time I did it :lol:. I read What about me? the struggle for identity in a market-based society from Belgium Professor of Psychoanalysis Paul Verhaeghe, which was very interesting, especially in conjunction with Abolition of Men and Norms&Nobility. After all this non-fiction reading I really needed a fiction book to disappear in. I don't know why, I think I must have read some recommendations for it somewhere and put a library hold on it, but I got an email from my library that I could pick up In This House of Brede, by Rumer Godden, and that was exactly the right book at the right time. What a beautiful book! I'm really tempted to re-read it immediately, and I almost never re-read a book. And then for fun: Dragon Reborn and The Shadow Rising, book 3 & 4 of Wheel of Time. I'm halfway through book 5 now. For those that like to read Scifi, I recently heard that if you buy a supporting membership for Loncon 3 (World Science Fiction Convention) you will recieve most of the books nominated for the Hugo Awards in e-book format, including the whole Wheel of Time series (read here: Wheel of Time and the Hugo Voter Packets), which is an awesome deal! Complete list: 42. In This House of Brede – Rumer Godden (chunky) 41. Norms & Nobility – David Hicks (Circe recommendation) 40. Abolition of Man – C.S. Lewis (Circe recommendation) (N) 39. Sacred Reading, the Ancient Art of Lectio Divina – Michael Casey (BaW recommendation) 38. Identiteit (What about me?: the struggle for identity in a market-based society) - Paul Verhaeghe (N) 37. Beauty – Cynthia Schultz (misslipgloss.nl) (N) 36. Holes – Louis Sachar (N) 35. How to Read Literature Like a Professor for Kids – Thomas Foster 34. The Shadow Rising – Robert Jordan (WoT4, chunky) 33. Deconstructing Penguins – Lawrence & Nancy Goldstone 32. Hart van steen – Renate Dorrestein (Dutch N3) (N) 31. Indische duinen – Adriaan van Dis (Dutch N3) (N) 30. Dragon Reborn – Robert Jordan (WoT3, chunky) 29. Het leven is verrukkulluk – Remco Campert (Dutch N3) (N) 28. De negen levens – Diana Wynne Jones (N) 27. Getting Started With the Traits, grades 3-5 – Ruth Culham 26. A Deepness in the Sky – Vernor Vinge (Jo Walton recommendation, chunky) 25. Tolstoy and the purple chair, my year of magical reading – Nina Sankovitch (BaW recommendation) (N) 24. In gesprek over seks (‘Talking about sex’) – Arjet Borger (N) 23. Het woeden der gehele wereld – Maarten ’t Hart (Dutch N3) (N) 22. A Fire Upon the Deep – Vernor Vinge (Jo Walton recommendation, chunky) 21. Getting Started With the Traits, K-2 – Ruth Culham 20. The Fast Diet – Dr. Michael Mosley (N) 19. Jij kan beter (‘You can do better’, gifted education) – Tessa Kieboom (N) 18. De kracht van vrouwelijke hormonen (‘Female hormones’) – Prof. Dr. Sylvie Demers (N) 17. Kees de Jonge – Theo Thijssen (Dutch N3) (N) 16. Mijn hoofd en ik, omgaan met migraine (‘My head and I, living with migraines’) – Noortje Russell (N) 15. Howards End is on the Landing – Susan Hill (BaW recommendation) 14. No More I’m Done, Fostering Independent Writers in the Primary Grades – Jennifer Jacobson 13. Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell (BaW recommendation) (N) 12. Op Hoop van Zegen – Herman Heijermans (Dutch, N3) (N) 11.What Makes This Book So Great - Jo Walton (BaW recommendation) 10. Het pauperparadijs – Suzanna Jansen (N) 9. Leisure, the basis of culture – Josef Pieper (Circe recommendation) (N) 8. Unwind – Neal Shusterman (BaW recommendation) 7. Every Woman’s Guide to Foot Pain Relief – Katy Bowman 6. The Mood Cure – Julia Ross 5. Born to Run – Christopher McDougall (N) 4. The Historian – Elizabeth Kostova (BaW recommendation, chunky) (N) 3. Great Hunt – Robert Jordan (WoT2, chunky) 2. The Goldfinch – Donna Tartt (BaW recommendation, chunky) (N) 1. Eye of the World - Robert Jordan (WoT1, chunky)

I'm so sorry, Rose. :grouphug:

Great idea! Could I please have the address?

Very cool! :thumbup1:

Lizzie, I'm praying for you and Rowan. :grouphug:

:hurray: for the Burnout workshop and the History and Middle school workshops! I can't wait to hear them! And I understand why you only want to do the other workshop live.

Yes, please!

The 'second day of Easter' is a national holiday, so I'm not tackling anything :lol:! We are going to visit my sister and eat dinner there. I'm going to read some Latin and finish reading my scifi book. I hope everyone has a great day :D.

You are right, I'm pretty sure I read Boy in translatio and there will definitely be a translation of Jane Eyre available. But I'm not really in a hurry to read Jane Eyre with them :blech:

:grouphug: Jean :grouphug: I'm so sorry, Jean! I hope you will be able to go to the chiropractor soon and that he/she will be able to help you!

Thanks! Boy and Jane Eyre would be good ones to read to get rid of the idea that boarding schools are always fun! Their English language (=foreign language) skills are not yet on that level, but I will keep it in mind :D.

Not school envy, we have boarding school envy here :D. My kids would never in a million years want to be away from home, but those British boarding schools sound like so much fun!

I'm really behind. I was reading the prologue, then I had several bad migraines in a row, just when this discussion thread started. Then I came back and you were all discussing so many things, so I went :leaving: . I'm going to try again, starting with chapter 1 and trying to catch up to you all.

Julia, I'm truly, truly sorry that my words have hurt you so much. I deeply apologize, I never wanted to hurt you or anyone else! I can totally understand that you are not teaching Latin now, you have so many more important things to care for.:grouphug: Please don't let my words scare you away from this incredible forum! I tried to communicate - but obviously failed- that in Europe there is a certain definition of classical education, which makes reading about classical education on an American forum confusing to me. This does not mean that the European way is the best way, or that everyone must follow that definition.

Sounds like a good decision! Are you happy with it? Do you want a hug? :grouphug:

Bumping for you! (I can't imagine it matters, but....I have never done the NLE or ELE, so I can't be totally sure.)

Classical or ecclesiastical is only important for pronunciation (and later when you are doing poetry.......much later). You can pronounce Latin words any way you want in your own home :D, although it's a good idea to choose a way and stick to that. Henle is Catholic, so it uses an ecclesiastical pronunciation, but you can easily use the classcial pronunciation. Henle is a great text! And there is an awesome Yahoo group where you can ask questions!

Done: -took dd5 to swimming lesson, finally managed to find the right building! -church (Palm Sunday), kids gave crosses decorated with sweets, bread and palm branches to elderly friends in church -Greek & Latin vocab -study chapter Latin -study half a lesson Greek -read two chapters in SWB's History of the Ancient World -made several puzzles with dd3 ToDo: -need to think about dinner -laundry -order a gift for a friend -declutter window-sill near homeschool area....ehm, no :blush: (I spent time crotcheting) -ordered vitamins

:hurray: That's great news, Lizzy!

Loved your post, Faithe! Thanks, 8. I'm slowly starting to get to that place of confidence when I look at what we are doing, seeing the learning that takes place, seeing my daughters grow. I think it's a place I need to grow into. Side note: I used to be quiet good at ignoring external pressure. That all crumpled when last summer our Secretary of Education announced plans to make homeschooling illegal. It has been a difficult year.

I wasn't directing my post at you and certainly not as a criticism! :grouphug: I really like your description of your day and the way it is structured seems to be very much Circe-ideal. Actually it looks very similar to what I'm doing with my K-er. But even my 7yo is already spending more time in foreign language (English) instruction than in Dutch LA. So this Circe-ideal model is *in my situation* only applicable in K-1st. Therefore if that is what is shown as 'the model'.....it is *to me* quiet frustration inducing :D. BTW, I think it is GREAT you are studying Greek and Arabic! It will be so helpful!! I have been working on Latin and Greek for a while, I'm more or less at the reading texts stage in Latin, but with Greek I'm still battling grammar :D. I can already tell that this self-ed has been hugely helpfull, there are only school-curricula available for Latin & Greek here, which all assume a teacher with a degree in classics (TMs don't even contain the translations of the texts) so I would absolutely not have been able to teach my dd10 the Latin I have, if not for my self-ed of the last few years.

I loved your whole posted, but snipped some of it because of length! Different background knowledge and even just 'different background' in general. I'm not American and when I hear 'classical education', I can NOT fathom something without classical languages. So nice relaxed schedules of lots of Morning Time and content subjects in the morning with all kids together, followed by a short session of Math & LA after lunch....without any mention of studying Latin/Greek or any modern foreign languages.....boggles my mind. Learning a foreign language (classical or modern) takes a. lot. of. time. (Studying some vocab or spending a year on the Greek alphabeth isn't studying a language, it's playing with a language. Which is fun ;), but not what I'm thinking about. Studying a language 'as a family' (a new-to-me expression I have been seeing lately) which seems to mean that everyone studies at the same level, is also incomprehensible to me. A 12yo should be on a comletely different level of foreign language study as a 7yo.) Studying several foreign languages, which we have to, will garantee I will never be able to spend hours on Morning Time. I love reading Circe threads, I always find some inspiration. I have read most of the books recommended, listened to lectures. Like other posters I would also love to see more practical how-to-do-this-stuff, on the other hand the practical day-to-day schedules give me a nervous breakdown :lol:, so maybe I should better stick with theory :D.