She will love both of these book suggestions, thank you!

What's TWTMA? I'm assuming it's The Well Trained Mind... something? I haven't been super active on the forums for a while, so I'm assuming I missed a new Peace Hill Press product?

I'm considering Teaching Textbooks for my 11 yr old. Please tell me about your experience with this program. What did you love about it? Any drawbacks? Any reason you wouldn't recommend it?

Two of her favourite books have been The Number Devil and Math for Smarty Pants. Suggestions for other similar titles would also be appreciated!

My daughter has spent most of the day watching math and doodling videos on YouTube from a vlogger named Vi Hart. She's completely smitten! I'm wondering if anyone has similar resources to recommend? She also enjoys videos on Khan Academy, books about math magic or math games, etc.

What online classes have your kids taken? Anything that was a huge hit, or a huge flop?

Lori D, you are such an amazing resource! I would like to keep you in my pocket so that I would always have lists of awesome books at hand. (That probably sounds odd... but you can be assured that I only wish the coolest of people could live in my pocket. ;) )

I think the table cloth, fancy cups, etc. is part of what makes it stand out as special and different, and that's what makes it a fun time that's a little different than normal read aloud time, but you're right that there's no need for the fancy cups to be the special part if that isn't your thing. I think it's equally lovely if the kids come to see it as the special baking day! Turning it into a poetry study/game time sounds like a great idea. I love that! I also think there's something wonderful about having a regular rhythm to these things. We haven't been doing it every week, but I want to start making it more regular because I see how excited my kids get when they have that sense of "on X day we do this" in other areas.

My kids are 11, 9, 5 and 2.5. They all enjoy it. I think snacks are a great draw. And maybe you could even make rules for participation... like you have to take a turn reading a poem, or say something you like about a poem that someone else is reading, if you want to enjoy the yummy snacks. ;) It also might be a good idea to find some poems about things that interest them, the goofier the better. I wouldn't worry too much about the quality of the poetry if I had a reluctant participant, and instead would focus on finding something that engaged them. My 9 yr old son's poem this week was about Minecraft, and my friend's kids wrote about Mario Cart and Donkey Kong characters. It was our guest's first poetry tea time (ages 8 and 10) and they were a bit reluctant at first, but I think everyone ultimately had fun. :)

We set the table with a pretty table cloth, our mis-matched special tea cups and saucers (picked up from a flea market a couple years ago), and a stack of poetry books. We have herbal tea and a snack while taking turns reading poems to each other, usually with classical music playing in the background. We also create some of our own poetry to share, or play word games to make up silly poems together while we chat. For example, yesterday the two oldest kids shared their diamonte poems they had written the day before. Then we spent some time with each person choosing a word for the rest of us to rhyme with, and we had to make up a silly sentence or poem using as many of the words as we could. It was super fun! Yesterday we had friends over to have tea time with us, and we're thinking we'll try to make that a regular thing. We might end up throwing some art appreciation in there as well. My kids love tea time, and would happily do it every day.

Nim's Island The Borrowers From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler The True Meaning of Smeckday Phantom Tollbooth I would also check the book lists at A Mighty Girl. We have found some real gems from the lists there.

I have been a member of Homeschool Buyers Co-op for years now, and always check there before making a purchase just in case there's a good deal to be had. But it's only today that I realized they have a whole database of free curriculum! I figure maybe I'm not the only one that missed this, so thought I'd post in case it's helpful to anyone else. I feel like I just hit the lottery. lol! Now to find the time to sift through it all...

Thanks for coming back with an update! Your kids' work looks fabulous! We haven't done anything with MK for a while, but seeing your post and samples today is just the incentive I need for us to jump back in.

Yes! That's it! Thank you so much! My library has this and the e-books available so I downloaded the sequel and should be able to start it today. Yay! And Stacia, is it possible that it was you that recommended this to me, maybe 4 or so years ago??

Thanks for the suggestions! Last year's aren't available yet for individual purchase, but I did email Julie and she said they'll be up in the next week or so. Yay! I've received several recommendations now for Chitty Chitty and Mixed Up Files, so I'll be purchasing both of those for sure. In the meantime, I got Nim's Island, Pippi Longstocking, Cricket in Times Square, Phantom Tollbooth, and How to Train Your Dragon in a great deal from HSBC. The first four were all recommended by several people on the Brave Writer facebook group. I also have James and the Giant Peach, which we're just starting on this week. :)

Yes, it seems to be a fairly common thing in my circle of homeschool friends. It isn't easy, but it is what it is... and it's why I couldn't care less what they're wearing as long as they're content with it, and would caution anyone against judging what other people's kids are wearing when out and about. You just never know what's going on there. :grouphug:

Many moons ago, someone here recommended a book to me that I quite enjoyed, but now I can't remember the title or author name and I want to go looking for the sequel. I think the author might have been Mary something, and the title had something about a song or bird in it. (Yeah, helpful, I know!) The story is about a man who is a priest, travels to another world, then gets stranded there when their ship runs out of fuel. For a while they live with a lovely, quite passive, community of people, teaching them to grow a garden. There's also another predator species that lives on the world that basically runs things. The book takes the perspective of the priest being home from his time on the other planet, and remembering his experience. I don't want to say much more in case I give it away to anyone wanting to read it! Anyone know the book I'm talking about?

A couple of my kids have serious issues with clothing due to sensitivities to fabric, tags, seams... and on it goes. I feel lucky right now when I can get my almost five year old dressed appropriately for the weather and in some footwear -- any footwear -- without hours of tears and struggle. So if you see me walking down the street with a kid in clothes that are too big for him, covered in paint stains, and with ripped knees, please feel free to cheer for me and understand that this was probably the only thing in the house that I could convince him to wear.

We're looking to pick up some back issues of The Arrow from Brave Writer and would love some feedback and recommendations. Do you have any family favourites that you really enjoyed?

Wow, great ideas! Thanks so much everyone!

We're starting that episode of Blue Planet right now!! And what a cool idea about drawing a giant squid in the driveway!

Fun! Thanks Helena!

My kids and I have been having great fun reading about various deep sea creatures. Does anyone have suggestions for activities or experiments that would tie in? Any great books or videos you'd recommend?

Other: Mark Kistler I have been amazed at how awesome my kids drawings are after a short MK video.

Evanthe, that all sounds spectacular! Well, maybe having a fishy filtration system take over your kitchen wouldn't be so spectacular :lol: ... but the passion behind it sure is! How did your daughter get started with her interest in botany? Is it something she was drawn to, and it just morphed into this? Did you start with a botany study together first? I've been meaning to get the Project Based Homeschooling book for a while, and think I'll go purchase a Kindle copy right now.