imagine my surprise, after being gone for months - possibly even a year or more - to see this thread still active!! :hurray:

Bumping this back up to see if anyone has anything new to say about it? My son will be entering 6th next year and a local lady who teaches various middle school classes in her home will be offering it. If you have used this, what's your take on the creationist POV? Is it heavy? I would prefer something more secularish, but I love this teacher and I know she would make any topic fun to learn. Cathy Duffy's review implied that the creationist/biblical history in the beginning of the text doesn't last long and that it branches quickly out to other areas of ancient history. Thanks!

I think part of the biggest shocker about it all is that I don't feel all *that* old. In my head, I'm still early 30s :lol:. My dad has lost several of his friends, but when you're in your 60s and 70s, it's more common to lose friends. It doesn't seem to make sense for me at my current age to lose those close in age to me. Not yet. Maybe it's that sense of mortality that's bugging me, too. We're not guaranteed tomorrow, but I sure do act like it'll always be there.

OK, I don't know where else to post this, but I gotta get something off my chest, and I didn't really feel like I should post it to Facebook. I've just turned 44 and in the last month, lost my middle school bestie to illness (who I sadly lost contact with shortly after college, until I found her on FB), and then just found out that I lost another high school friend to cancer two days ago. For some reason, these have hit me fairly hard, even though I haven't really been in contact with them for the last 20 or more years. My friend with cancer was actually more of a friend of a friend, but I'd always liked him - he was one of those cool guys that everyone liked. I guess I've hit that age where people I know will start to move on, but it just doesn't seem right, kwim? It's also making me regret not pursuing old friendships harder, or keeping up with people who meant something to me in the past. I know that it's natural for people to come in and out of our lives, but I wonder about what would have been different had I been in touch Melanie better? I look at my DD and her middle school bestie and it makes me smile and think about what it was like in middle school for me. Then it makes me sad and wonder if they'll still maintain their friendship or will they drift apart as Melanie and I did. At least I know that both friends were surrounded by people that loved them and cared for them. I found out that Charles battled cancer for 3 years, so at least now he's at peace. He was a musician and someone had posted a pic from one of his last days with hospice surrounded by friends playing music (and he had a set of little bongos on his lap - I have no idea what they are called). I'm so thankful these people were surrounded by love and people who cared, but it still makes me sad. Sorry for being such a downer...

well, seems like my tendency to pop in for a quick visit and then be gone for a few months still exists... Haha! Thanks :) I'm still around... about every 3rd month or so :leaving:

My son is doing a project that involves recycling milk jugs. Could you please take a minute and fill out the poll? Please feel free to add any comments to the thread if there's more to your answer. Thanks!

I leave for several months and come back to find this thread still going...and going.... :willy_nilly: I love this board :hurray:

yes, I am soooooo late to this party (and maybe I missed someone else posting kilts because I skipped pages (*gasp*) ) but no thread is complete without kilts. Scroll to post #8 http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/383733-only-because-i-havent-seen-a-thread-with-kilts/#entry3925322

Pilgrim's Progress is a college book? Funny, our enrichment class had that as a read-aloud last year and then they adapted it for a movie. They were in 2nd-5th grade 😆 Thanks to whoever resurrected this thread!

After browsing a few what-are-you-doing-for-8th-grade threads, I asked dd what would she like to study independently. It really came as no shock to me that she said animation and video games. So, I thought I might approach the Hive and see if anyone had any suggestions for pursuing an interest such as this? I plan on her taking an online programming course through FundaFunda, probably spend some time researching the history/evolution of animation (she recently competed in History Day with a website based on Walt Disney and how he changed animation), and possibly work on her own production. As a cool bonus, I have a friend who works for Pixar and has done CGI for years, but they're in CA and we're in TN, so it's not like I can just take a day and visit (but I'm not above trying to finagle a vacation to CA and calling it "school"). We are limited financially, so anything that might be doable on the cheap? We did go through homeschool co-op and pay for the year-long Youth Digital Minecraft modding class, but that didn't work out so well for us. I'm a little leery about spending that kind of money again. Any other future game designers/cgi innovators out there?

Any luck finding those papers? I'd love to have some reading lists to finish out this year's history. Thanks!

We had our Regional yesterday! How did she do?

I remember my first year of college (I was an art student) we had a teacher that had us build and design a boat. This was a freshman level art and design class, but it was so cool! We started by making a 1/2 hull model and then we spent time building an actual boat, all out of wood. It was about the size of a john-boat, no more than 6 or 8 feet long, but what we learned about laminating and bending wood, tool usage, sealing and protecting the wood was amazing. It was awesome. I totally commend you for wanting to take this on with your son. By the way, used no plans for the 1/2 hull model, just lots of sketching out ideas and looking at exotic woods - that was fun, but we did need a heavy duty band saw and sanders for shaping. Man, I miss wood working.....

Totally going on a sidebar here- I know the woman who owns/is FundaFunda. She teaches at our co-op. My DD has taken classes from her and LOVES her and how she approaches history. Can't tell you how cool it was to see it referenced here on the Hive.

Wow, I so needed to see this list! Ok, (and if this takes the thread off in a different direction - sorry!) but what, if anything, do you do when they finish the books? Do you have them discuss with you? Write anything? Nothing - just have them read and enjoy? A mixed bag of all three? I sometimes struggle with this because I loved analyzing lit and getting deeper meanings out of the stories and such, but I haven't done it since college a lifetime ago. There's no way I'd have time to read with her (plus, she's a much faster reader than I). But I also remember Kern talking about how analyzing good lit just kills the book and the enjoyment of reading. So, what do you do with them when they're done reading?