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Here’s the current working reading list for 8th grade…
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885)
The Call of the Wild (1903)
The Scarlet Pimpernel (1908)
Animal Farm (1945)
The Pearl (1947)
The Great Gatsby (1925)
Fahrenheit 451 (1950 – Post WWII/Cold War)
*Death of a Salesman (1949)
All Quiet on the Western Front (WWI)
Murder on the Orient Express (1935)
The Good Master (Kate Seredy – WWI [...]

My 8th grader is going to study 20th century history this year, and after surveying a variety of texts, we decided to use Paul Johnson’s History of the American People. Sections 5-8 deal specially with 20th century history.
Here’s the 36 week schedule I created. I have some other books and resources I plan on adding [...]

I created this last summer, compiling it from various links and my home library. I thought I’d post it here for reference. DA’s reading didn’t take off quite as I’d anticipated, so some of the more difficult “Reading Together” selections became “Real-Aloud” selections.
DA (first grade)
Booklists
http://www.hillsideeducation.com/
http://www.mainlesson.com/
http://www.amblesideonline.com/
Geography
Paddle to the Sea by Holling C. Holling
Literature (Reading Together)
K12 Classics [...]

I watch The Daily Show fairly regularly, but somehow I managed to miss the fact that one of my absolute favorite undergraduate professors, Brian Fagan, made a recent appearance to talk about his book The Great Warming, which incidentally, I read within days after its release. Dr. Fagan taught the very first archaeology class I [...]

Ok, so I have a pond just outside my door, with all kinds of interesting wildlife…
But, still… Pete’s Pond is REALLY cool!! Even the sounds are neat!

Shortly before Declan was born, I began reading The Brendan Voyage: Across the Atlantic in a Leather Boat, by Tim Severin. Now I’m on a quest to read the rest of this guy’s stuff!
Tim Severin is an explorer, a writer and a film maker. He recreates legendary and historic voyages in an attempt to find [...]

Since so many people have asked where I got the resources for my mini-offices, I thought I’d share them in a separate post. My original mini-office posting can be found here.
This information was initially part of my response to an email request from someone on the Lapbooking Yahoogroup:
The prepositions listing originally came from Donna Young’s [...]

A “mini-office” is like a little study corral. I discovered them after seeing some kindergarten teachers talking about them on one of my email lists. After looking at some samples online, I decided that the idea was clever, inexpensive and easy enough to adapt to older children. Also, since my kids will likely end up [...]