I had no idea! Thanks

You can borrow a kindle book? How does that work? Holly

I've never posted in the "book a week" thread, but I have been reading your conversations. Thought I'd finally share. 21. I'm currently reading The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. I am thoroughly enjoying it, and I am about 2/3 of the way through. I generally do not like novels when I dislike or do not understand the characters. This book is proving to be an anomoly though. I despise most of the characters, with the exception of Roark, but do really find the book thought-provoking. I hate Dominique (isn't her name similar to Dominate?). I hate Ellsworth with a passion. Keating is pathetic. But, I am starting to kind of like Gail Wynand. We will see if that lasts. 20. I just finished Spillover by Quammen. This book was much more interesting than I thought it might be. The book is about zoonotic diseases/viruses , those that spill over from animals to human. The book covered diseases/viruses such as Lyme, HIV, Hendra, Marburg, and Ebola. The most interesting thing I learned was that many scientists now believe that the "spillover" of HIV from animals occurred around the turn of the century, and that HIV made its way to America 10 years before we discovered that it was here. The other aspect of the book that was interesting was that the author highlighted the work of veternarians and ecologists. He made the point that they have contributed in an outstanding way to infectious disease research, often on the frontlines. 19. Lilith's Brood by Butler***** Oh..my..goodness. The last time I had such a reaction to a book was when I read The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. Lilith's Brood is quite an odd book. It stretched my ability to remain detached and open. It was uncomfortable, yet compelling. I think I felt exactly like the characters in the book many times. What makes us human? What can I live without-or with-and yet still remain myself? How much loyalty do I feel to the human race? Weird and wonderful questions... A weird and highly recommended book. 18. Microbe Hunters by de Kruif 17. Cobra Event by Preston 16. The Demon in the Freezer by Preston 15. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Simonson 14. Moonseed by Baxter 13. Ark by Baxter 12. The Cassandra Project by McDevitt 11.The Passage by Cronin 10. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Skloot***** 9. The Wool Omnibus by Howey 8. The Companions by Tepper 7. Flame of Sevenwaters by Marillier 6. Zoe's Tale by Scalzi 5.One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Kesey 4. Pandora's Star by Hamilton 3. The Naked God by Hamilton 2. Grass by Tepper 1. The Neutronium Alchemist by Hamilton If I *****starred a book, I highly recommend it If I don't star it, I thought it was pretty good. If I give it a sad face, :( I don't like it at all.

Seems like everything you mentioned is detail oriented. Do you enjoy statistics?

I agree. You need geometry for the tests!

One hour, five days a week.

I would like to hear feedback from those of you who have entered grad school after an extended absence from the collegiate world. How was the transition to back to college. How was the work load. How did other students react to you in college? What was your educational background, time away from school and then what field were you entering? Here's what I am trying to figure out. About twenty years ago, I received a Bachelors of Music in music education and viola performance. I would have liked to also major in prel-law or literature, but that wasn't feasible. I was going to go to grad school to get a MM in viola performance. Instead I married my husband (at that time a pre-med student) and had a lovely baby girl. DH's aspirations took us to Nevada, then Texas and back to Nevada. In the meantime I homeschooled our kids did a great deal of co-op teaching-mostly in reading and writing. I also taught in the public schools in Nevada while he was in medical school. During this time, my viola skills have dulled and frankly I've gotten older and I know my neck/shoulders could not survive a viola masters degree. I am also graduating my baby girl to college and have one 8th grader at home. I would like to continue my education that was cut short, but I have lots of questions as to whether I should. Can I handle the work? It has been awhile! How can I transfer over to a subject like literature, when I do not have the bachelors degree in literature already? Is a masters degree worth jumping through hoops like taking a foreign language for two years? Why do I want to do this at all? I've wanted to for a long time, but what will I do after I'm done. I told my dh that maybe I'm just past my educational prime......he said that now is the time to enrich myself however I want to, though it doesn't have to be college. I don't know what to do or where to start. Any experiences you would like to share? Thanks so much! Holly

I am so sorry! I have no advice. Just praying for your family!

Nothing in the article links religious bigots with the murder of this man. Is there more to the article I missed?

All Through the Ages!!! More than any other homeschooling book, I have used this book over and over again.

Let her read your post. I think it sums things up nicely, though I would delete the part about failing her at the beginning. Then, see if you can have a decent discussion. Holly

You can order the logbooks and parts kit for the exploration education stuff separately from the EE website. HTH, Holly

From the HOD website: As we moved forward into homeschooling, we had discovered some of the same philosophies that Carrie learned about through public education and some that she hadn’t. We were especially drawn to the ideas put forth by Charlotte Mason and found ourselves agreeing with much of her philosophy of education. We mainly focused on her concepts of short lessons and readings; selection of “living books†read purposefully over time; exposure to poetry, music, art, and nature; and her approach to language arts through narration, copywork, dictation, and memorization.

homeschoolspanishacademy.com We have been happy with our experience.

No advice-just hugs!! Please try and take care of yourself,too Holly

My daugher took Mrs. Inspektor's class. I highly recommend it. Holly

Thanks for posting! I would have liked to meet your daughter. She looked like a person who had so much joy! It is pretty hard to translate to words how I feel....but I want to thank you so much for sharing. Holly

We took the expensive Kaplan course. I waited to post until I had the December data. Dh took the Kaplan MCAT many years ago and credits the score improvement with getting into medical school. Anyways here's dd's data- Took SAT as a junior in March. Took Kaplan course, then SAT in early fall of senior year. Score improvement was 70 points. Took additional Kaplan course and SAT in December. Score improvement was 210 points. So the total point improvement was 280. Breakdown Critical reading +120 Math +70 Writing +90 Dd enjoyed the Kaplan course itself. She thought the tutors kept things funny, light, and quick. There was a lot of extra help available to those who desired it. She didn't have time to do all of the extra homework, but did her best. I will definitely do this with my son, but we will be starting the process about a year earlier! HTH, Holly

Janie Grace, You read my mind! Your post is what I wanted to say! It is how threads are so quickly turned into jokes that makes me annoyed. And I agree that it is a passive aggressive disrespectful response. Holly

Just pointing out that I never referenced this thread in my OP.

Juniper, I agree with you, but I also believe that creating a "reasonably well thought out OP" is really quite difficult. I taught writing for several years. One interesting writing exercise I always enjoyed involved bringing OP's to my class. I would ask my students what they thought of the post. Then I would ask if they found anything objectionable in the post. More often than not, they found the posts reasonable. Then I would let them read some of the responses that clearly showed how offended some responders were. Then we attempted to rewrite the posts. It was challenging! They began to see the power of each individual word and how certain phrases usually provoked anger. Getting an OP to express exact thoughts without enflaming or confusing readers is a truly difficult task.

Bully maybe too strong. How about peer pressure? There can just be sooooo many bacon posts. And I am not a baconist! Love the stuff!

I hoped to express my opinion. I'm sorry that it came across bossy. Maybe my opinion is one of the minority.

I like humor too. I'm not asking for a forum only devoted to serious topics.

I generally lurk, but I have been kind of bummed at this trend lately. There have been a few threads that have been genuinely interesting, that have turned into me pawing through people's jokes so I can get to the content of the thread. If you think the thread will go hostile, can't you just go away from the thread rather than the endless bean dip comments? If you can't see the sense in the thread topic, ignore it and it will probably die. Why inhibit the rest of us from reading/replying? It is like bullying IMO. I am wondering if it is more annoying (to me) because of the new format of the forum? I can't blast through the nonsense as fast?