I loved Book Thief! Such a beautifully written book. Another I'd suggest is Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Someone suggested Peace Like a River... I read that about ten years ago and LOVED it. It's one of my all-time favorite books.

I think Hammer Nutrition products are excellent! Their website is very educational: http://www.hammernutrition.com/ I also like Cytomax and think it is well-regarded: http://www.cytosport.com/products/cytomax

We like the series God's Design for Sex. Book 1 is "The Story of Me," and is very basic. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1600060137/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1368565151&sr=8-1&pi=SL75

I am dying to see the rest! The first episode completely hooked me. Any clue how to watch it from an iPad? (The site linked above I am not getting to work from the iPad...) Am I stuck until it airs in the U.S.?

Another question..... Anyone have any idea whether it's possible to view this on an iPad? I've searched online without success. I watched the first episode and now we're finally having some much-needed work done to our computer. I am eager to see the rest!! Thanks for any help!

The Soldier by Rupert Brooke (poem...beautiful)

Thanks! I'll look up all of those!

My MIL loves mysteries and I would like to get her one or two as part of a gift... I've seen people on here mention the Flavia de Luce series... I'm thinking about getting a couple of those... Any other recommendations? I am not positive about what she has/hasn't read but could find out from my SIL before purchasing... She's generally pretty to please. Any suggestions? Thank you!

Oh thank you! I didn't even notice that. I'm excited to try it out later!!

Thanks! Looks very interesting. Do you have to put in your credit card to access the episodes? Or is there another way?

Oh, I see!! Thanks for clearing up my confusion.

Ugh. I really hope he doesn't grow bored... He is a pretty easy-to-please child, especially with school work, but I don't want to kill that in him. And we have three younger boys who will be going to this school too, so my concern will be the same for all of them. The next in line will be in kg next year (they'll be every other grade), and I'm going through Saxon 1 with him this year. He actually really loves it. I chose it figuring it'd be a seamless transition come time for him to enter school, but am now wondering if I should do something different from the beginning for our third son... They'll have Saxon at school, unless the administration makes a curriculum switch, and then I can supplement their math curriculum with Singapore. Great, that is helpful! I hear such good things about Beast Academy but have trouble getting over the comic book format. (Not a fan of comic books.) Our children haven't seemed interested in comic books either, but then again, my own aversion has (unintentionally) limited their exposure (i.e. I haven't sought out comic books for them but when they've been around them they also haven't shown interest). I looked up BA yesterday and it did seem pretty neat and well done, so maybe I should explore it further... My impression is that it is really high quality. Is the whole thing comic book format? Maybe I should just look past my disinterest...?:) I think this answered the question I asked to Bill just now... TB over HIG. I am happy to get either or both but have this tendency to acquire things I don't need and am trying to avoid doing that! Thanks so much!

Perfect! That's what I am wanting to achieve.

Thank you! I'm glad you both mentioned that. I'd hate to invest the time but then accidentally miss the point I was trying to achieve!

How did you choose the Textbook over the HIG? (You mentioned that you don't think getting the Workbook and not the Textbook makes a lot of sense... Do you mean either [Textbook or HIG] or specifically the Textbook?)

Excellent. Thank you so much!

Bill, Thank you so much for your help! I was gone all day yesterday and waited to respond because I thought I had a few follow-up clarification questions, but after reading your post a few times, I think I understand everything you wrote. The various titles/labels are new to me so it all felt a bit dizzying at first. That is funny! Thanks for these other suggestions. I have heard of them both from browsing this forum but haven't looked at either very closely. I take it since you use Singapore that is your favorite of those three/the one you'd recommend? Very helpful!! That makes a lot of sense.

I've searched a bit but couldn't find a thread to answer my question, so thank you all for any input! Our children go to a classical Christian school which uses Saxon for math. At the start of each year they are tested and placed into the appropriate level. Our (elementary school aged) children are both pretty math-y and I have heard that Saxon might not be the best fit for children like this. I would like to use Singapore during the summer as a supplement but am trying to figure out a few things: Standards vs US -- from what I understand, Standards is more thorough? I plan to just get that one unless I come across a reason why US would make more sense for us.... (Why does the company offer both as options? I take it there is a benefit to some for US?) Our 1st grader is in Saxon 3 this year. Next year, I am assuming he will be in Saxon 5/4 (he'll be tested in the fall and they only place up to 2 grade levels up). He loves math and is frequently asking me to make math worksheets for him to do in addition to his homework. I would love to have Singapore on hand to give to him (or something else that would be beneficial and approach math from a different angle...would definitely be open to other suggestions!) during times that he'd like to do extra math. And during the summer I plan to lightly homeschool--both to keep up with math skills and because he really enjoys it. So... Any suggestions as for which level I should get for him? 3a, maybe? I have not seen a Singapore workbook but have the impression that it approaches math differently than Saxon(?), so it wouldn't be like starting over at the beginning of the year he is just finishing up, right? I see there is a workbook, textbook, teacher's guide.... Would getting the workbook alone be sufficient? Is there anything I'd be missing from the other books, being that the intention isn't for this to be his sole instruction of the math level...which further makes me think it'd make more sense to get 3a rather than going to 4a...? Any thoughts? Thank you in advance!!

:) I totally agree.

Another one that occurred to me is Little Princes by Conor Grennan. It's a serious subject, but a wonderful and inspiring story.

That's what I was going to say too!

I haven't seen these before either! They look really neat.

I was getting nosebleeds a few years ago--really heavy and fairly frequent (always out of nowhere). Or naturopath told me to eat a cup of blueberries a day and that they would strengthen the capillaries in my nose and help me stop getting them. (It worked!)

I completely agree. Thousand Splendid Suns was amazing...the writing was incredible.

I loved Unbroken as well. Another one I thought was fascinating and really well done was Columbine, by Dave Cullen. I just finished Mao's Last Dancer and really enjoyed it--really neat story!