Happy Birthday, Tesla

Since I haven't blogged for so long, many may not know that this gorgeous flower is named Tesla. Bob, the electrical engineer, named him after one of his favorite people: Nikola Tesla.

It's not our dog's birthday, but it is Mr. Tesla's birthday. Has anyone hit Google today? See the top with the electricity? It's a Tesla coil. That would be one very cool homeschool project! Anyway, if you run your mouse over the word Google and click, you'll find lots of links for Nikola Tesla.

Move over, Mr. Edison, make way for Mr. Telsa--the man who got so little credit for all his great work.

Happy Birthday, Nikola Tesla!

8th Grade Reading List

Our 8th grade reading list:

To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
*Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe
Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck
*Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
*The Hiding Place, Corrie ten Boom
*The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck
Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes
Animal Farm, George Orwell
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,Douglas Adams
The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien
My Life in Dog Years, Gary Paulsen * and other Gary Paulsen books
Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Ernest J. Gaines
Dracula, Bram Stoker
*A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking
The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman
Fever 1793, Laurie Anderson
The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton
That Was Then, This is Now S.E. Hinton
Goodnight, Mr. Tom, Michele Magorian
Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson
Julie of the Wolves, Jean Craighead George
*Where the Lilies Bloom, Vera and Bill Cleaver

*already own

Pepin, Wisconsin

Laura Ingalls Wilder's birthplace.

Not the original cabin, this was built in the 70s. This is the site of her home, though. No longer surrounded by Big Woods, but by corn fields. There are still a lot of woods in the area, though.

Update: Frankie

Emotionally: Lots better. I'm still not fully recovered from everything, but I am so in a better place. I still get weepy when I see old men in jeans with black tennis shoes. I cried the other night at our town parade when the WWII vets were driven by. I miss my Dad. Yet, life goes on and so have I. I trudged along like I was walking knee-deep in water, then got a little closer to the shore, and now I'm okay.

Computer: I am not on the computer every day anymore. I have kicked the habit. That was absolutely liberating. Now I'm looking for a good balance. I miss blogging and I miss my blogging friends. I still won't be on the computer every day, but I will every couple of days!

Health: Not so hot. I decided to take a chance and go to a new doctor. She and another quit the clinic that all other doctors belong to so they could start fresh. She had a great reputation and I finally got brave. Had a physical at the beginning of the month.

It was the appointment from hell--but I loved her. For once, a doctor listened to me! From the inception of this blog, I've been bitchin' about periods, pain, PMS, etc. I was always placated by my old doctor. Last time he said, "Why, I thought they were supposed to get better as you got older."

Not my new doc. She jumped on it. She asked me a series of questions and then right then and there did a cervical biopsy. That hurt like holy hell. I screamed out many times. I have cramped ever since. It was benign, thankfully. She also sent me down the hall where I had an ultrasound. I had a great tech who actually told me what she was seeing. She found three fibroids and an ovarian cyst. The cyst burst the next day and it hurt so bad. The tech said there were probably more fibroids that they couldn't see.

Back for blood work, then back to see the doctor. I was referred to an OBGYN. He visits our town every two weeks. I saw him last week. He was fantastic. He couldn't believe with my history (fibroid when I was 28) that I wasn't checked out years ago.

Anyway, he discussed the options. At that point I wanted to have a hysterectomy and be done with the whole bloody mess. He suggested an ablation instead. That's where they burn the lining of the uterus. So I'm going to do that. It's a same-day surgery with a short recovery. It's being set up right now, I need to check back.

I am scared to death of surgery, but I am so hopeful for relief. The pain has been horrible, which is typical with fibroids.

Projects: Right now I am trying to get finished with scanning the family photos. This is such a slow, tedious project. It is highly emotional. I'm getting there. I hope to be done in three weeks. I hope I'm done before surgery is set. This is my main focus right now.

School: I've got 8th grade planned out, just need to tweak. Will post our list soon, order the final books and map out our school year. Waiting on cash, as aside from our mortgage, we are debt free now. Don't know how the surgery will set us back, but we have good insurance. Hoping it's not too bad.

I am thinking of joining the homeschool group in the big city. The local group is made up of lovely women, but aside from one ice skating party this past year, they only do co-op. I am not interested in co-op. The big city does all kinds of things. Thomas needs to be around more kids than his friends, and I think it would be a great opportunity. If we go to the big city every now and again, that means I get to go to Taco Bell, too. lol Or if I'm feeling rich, maybe the Olive Garden! It's all about food for me! With his new desire to read all the time, access to a bookstore more frequently would be nice, too.

Travel: Have to visit my MIL sometime this summer. Also have our fun little weekend planned. By chance, I found out the riverboat ride I booked us for will be free for me because it's my birthday. I haven't spent a birthday with my husband in years. He won't mind because he won't have to get me a present. lol

That's about it.

All caught up. I will start blogging more. I really needed a break. I'm refreshed now.

Update: Bob and the Dogs

Why not lump a husband in with the dogs? He'd appreciate my humor!

Bob: Nothing new. Same old. Still enjoying his job, although he's very, very busy at work at the moment. He's been my rock through everything. We'll be celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary this September. I cannot remember life without him. I know I wouldn't have fared as well without him.

Our precious Apollo and Tesla--they adore him. Apollo is definitely his dog. Tesla is definitely Thomas's. Bob and Thomas play fetch with them several times a day, walk them every morning, take them to the beach--sometimes they take me along, too. ;-) The dogs have done more for our family. Lots of good male bonding going on.

Apollo and Tesla took basic obedience. They're border collies, and smart as a whip. They could already do 90% of what was taught in class, and the other 10% was a piece of cake. However, because they're border collies, they wanted no part of paying attention to us: they were busy trying to herd the other doggies in the class. The entire 10 weeks of class was spent teaching them to focus on us during distraction. Let's just say, we have more work to do. They're fine in public, at the beach, in the neighborhood--put them with other dogs? ha! Instant headache for me!

Bob wants to take them through agility and fly ball. I don't, so that will be a boy thing.

The kitties are doing well, too. One is getting really old, and the other is sickly as usual--but loving and happy. They have finally learned to not hiss around the dogs, and they basically get along pretty well. I don't think the cats like the dogs, though. They didn't mind Jerry Lee at all.

Update: Thomas

Thomas has completed the seventh grade. He has grown up so fast this past year it amazes me. He is one inch shorter than I am. It is very strange standing and being able to look him in the eye. He seems so old now. Not that 13 is old, but he is maturing quickly.

At this very moment, he's away at summer camp. The first day he was gone, I missed him fiercely. Now I'm fine, knowing he's having fun. We had a long weekend before dropping him off. I have a surprise for him when I pick him up this weekend. We are going to be very close to the Mississippi, so good old Bob didn't object to me setting up a short riverboat cruise. Bob is staying home with the dogs, so it will just be Thomas and I. I have a few other surprises up my sleeve, and we'll take 1-2 days to get home. I'm taking my camera and will share pictures.

This past year, Thomas has had a fire in him with science. The kid reads and reads and reads science books. We had to drive to the big city an hour away once a week for obedience classes, and we couldn't keep him stocked with books. His dad has completely taken over on this front, thankfully. Right now he's reading something by Stephen Hawking.

School went fairly well. It was a rough year for us as we recuperated from the black cloud that followed us last year.

We took our standardized test at the end of the year. Normally we do a lot of prep with prep workbooks, but this year we just did the test. Thomas did a fantastic job, once again. Lots of post-high school scores. He's a smart kid. As usual, he scored grade level in spelling.

He still hates math. I am just beside myself when it comes to math. Tears, anger, frustration...it was on a daily basis. Maybe I'll take him to a hypnotist and have it ingrained in his brain that he loves math. That's about the only thing we haven't tried yet. (I am joking about that, btw.)

Other than that, he's happy and healthy. He's enjoying his summer break and dreading school starting up again. Go figure, he does so well, he enjoys it once we get going, but he actually prefers summer break. lol

They're Back

Said to the tune of the sweet little girl in the movie Poltergeist!

I've done a bit of tweaking to the old blog here. Like the monkeys? We're not monkeying around, though! We've been busy.

Will give a long overdue update tomorrow!

Frankie =)

March

It's March, it's spring fever time. We're in middle school, not too exciting to blog about.

I think I'm going to take a blog break for awhile.

I'll be back after awhile, when I feel inspiried to write something, anything.

February

Even this poor old snowman is sick of winter.

Heat Wave

We've had a mini heat wave in our neck of the woods. It feels lovely! We were out and about Sunday, it was the high 30s, and none of us wore coats.

Our back yard is a soupy, wet mess today. This is how I found my doggie this afternoon.

Don't Cry Over Spilt Milk

Whoever coined that term never had to clean up a brand-new gallon of milk from their refrigerator. Yesterday Bob bought two gallons of milk to last us through the week. One leaked all over the entire fridge. We noticed milk dripping on the floor late last night.

What a mess.

I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. I have a great fear I missed some somewhere and it's going to stink to high heaven.

This morning we found a little milk on the floor, so I need to re-clean the gasket and small area. I need coffee first.

Yuck!

I hope that this is not indicative of how our school week will go!

Looking on the bright side, I guess I can say: I do now have a spotless fridge!

Tagged

Summer Fae has tagged me.

RULES:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people.
5. Inform the tagees and the person who tagged you

Random Things About Me:

I love coffee and drink it all the time. I make one pot of half-caf in the morning and drink decaf the rest of the day. I use just a pinch of fat-free half and half. I must drink it in one of my latte cups.

My husband is one foot taller than I am. (He's 6'5")

I do several Sudokus every single day.

I have lived longer in my current home than anywhere else in my life. This is my least favorite home, neighborhood, town and state of anywhere I have previously lived. There is nothing to do here. It's too darned cold in the winter and too darned hot and muggy and buggy in the summer.

I love museums. I love bookstores. We have neither where I live!

My secret desire is to own a hot tub.

I tag anyone who wants to play!

Wash Day Blues

Guess what my dear, sweet son wore today?

I wish I had snapped a picture of it. He wore his very old jeans that are too short. Shin short. High-waters, as I used to call them. He didn't know what that meant. These jeans were meant to be thrown out because they have holes in them. Fortunately, they were hidden in his closet. We never did get to his room in the big clean-out.

Why?

My washer is only putting out ice-cold water. The ice-cold water is coming out in spurts, not normally. So laundry is on hold. Maybe we should go to the laundromat tomorrow with our school books. I bet that would get some looks.

My washer and dryer are about 20 years old, give or take a year. They were awesome machines, but their time has come. I could call a repairman to have the washer looked at. I fear that because of the cost. We had it repaired one or two years ago, and I think the bill was under $200. If I repair it, though, and it goes again, I'd hate to have wasted the money to repair it that I could have used on a new machine. I mean the thing is 20 years old, after all. We occasionally find rust chips in it, too.

So, this week I have been searching reviews for washers. My goodness, buying a washer is more difficult than buying a house or car. Every time I think I've figured out what I want, further searches lead me in the other direction.

The other night I went to Wal-mart, and I walked down the laundry aisle and there was no HE soap to be found. Hey, if I can't buy it at Wal-mart, it ain't gonna happen. (I hate the word ain't.)

That knocked out all the HE machines.

All the reviews and all the websites I visited just boggled my mind. What I did learn was that washers don't last 20 years anymore. Seven to ten years is the life expectancy for a machine purchased in the late 2000s.

After reading about all the mold, mildew and smell problems with front loaders, I marked them off my list. We live in a very humid place, and I battle mold and mildew in my bathrooms. I don't want to battle it in my washer. If we lived in western South Dakota or anywhere else I've ever lived, it wouldn't be a problem. Here, it is a huge problem.

Nonagitator top loaders were my next choice. They got knocked off my list because of repair records. Lots of people regret buying them. Plus, I don't like the fact that they don't spin the dirty water out, rather the dirty water drains through the clothes and out. That means dirt floating in the water can settle back in the clothes.

So, off to find an old-fashioned top loader. Oh, they don't have good records, either. They don't clean well anymore due to water limitations. I really wanted to go green, but it's not looking good for me.

So, what's my solution? A Speed Queen top loader. We'll drive to civilization this weekend and look at them. Bad in that I can't buy one locally. Bad in that if I need it serviced, they'll have to drive to our town.

They have the best warranty in the business, though. It is reported that they will last 15 years. They're well-built, solid machines. They have excellent reviews.

The good thing is that I can manually choose the water level, so I won't use too much. I can run each load through a second spin cycle so I'll have less dryer time. I'm justifying the fact that this uses a bit more water with the fact that I have finally found a dishwasher liquid that actually allows me to load the dishes without pre-washing them. That search took years.

Money, money, money. At least Bob was able to fix our broken garage-door opener today. Now, to get the power steering looked at in the van.

Hope

Tonight I am almost giddy. I am so proud our country has finally seen beyond race. I am so proud to be living through this wonderful, historical event.

Mostly, I am so full of hope.

Tomorrow our school day will be spent watching the television. I told Thomas that he can tell his grandchildren about the day, what he was wearing, what he was doing, and the hope that his mother had.

I asked my husband to please pack a lunch and not come home tomorrow. I have never in my life done that. He, the Republican, who did not vote for our new president, is still not overly happy. He has fear. I didn't want him to put a damper on our party day, though. Sorry, Bob--at least he understands.

Tonight I am just so happy, excited and hopeful.

Snow Day

Schools were closed all around us today. Our school was not.

Thomas and I spent a good portion of the morning listening to Don't Know Much About History: Everything You Need to Know About American History But Never Learned by Kenneth C. Davis. We are really enjoying this. We did not download this to the Zen, rather we're just listening through our Audible manager. What's really fun is Thomas will ask me a question, we'll stop the audio and discuss. Sometimes I Google something that we're listening to. For instance, today the audiobook was discussing the Freemasons and symbols. (Interesting, as there was just a thread about that at TWTM boards.) I Googled that so Thomas could see the symbols.

We really enjoy doing history this way. We don't test, we don't do much but listen and discuss. I often assign extra reading, but that is changing as Thomas ages. He's too big for "little kid books" and not fast enough of a reader to read a lot of extra "big kid books."

I have him reading all our Cornerstone of Freedom books as we touch each subject area, but he has proclaimed them little kid books. They are. Mom's just holding to that little kid thing. What used to take him an hour, now takes him five minutes. I can't believe he's growing up so fast.

We did our math today. We touched on fractions, yet again, and I acted as a drill sergeant. I'm trying to teach him to not lose focus and to work more quickly. We did two easy worksheets with lots of problems, and as soon as he finished writing the answer, I barked out the next problem. I explained what I was doing and why, to teach him to pace himself. It worked well. I think we'll do an easy worksheet with lots of problems to help him learn to pace every day for awhile, in addition to our regularly schedule program.

The morning was beautiful, with tons of big, white, fluffy flakes floating through the air. After lunch, the wind picked up. As we were working on Analytical Grammar, which we are still really loving, we had periods of white out. It was nice to be sheltered while looking out at the cold, gray, snowy day.

Later in the afternoon I made a big bowl of popcorn and hot chocolate. Not the best combination, but we enjoyed it.

Thomas didn't mind not taking a snow day. We usually follow what the area schools do, but we have too much to do.

Thomas made a cheesy-chicken dish which is in the oven. It's nice to have a hot, comfortable dish on a cold night. It's even better when I don't have to cook it!

It was a good day.

De-lurk Day

Apparently, according to all the blogs I read on a daily basis, it is de-lurk day today.

I don't know if I have ever asked people to de-lurk and say hello before. I will today. I'd love to say hi to some of my lurkers!

Drop me a line!

Cleaning Update

Just thought I'd give an update to our cleaning spree. (I know it bores most to tears, but I do go back and read through the blog on occasion, and it's nice to see the reminders.

This past week we started school up again, so the big cleaning came to a halt. I putzed in the kitchen, got the cupboards all organized, but the kitchen remained messy because it was the landing spot for stuff.

Saturday Bob, Thomas and I loaded up our donations for Salvation Army. They filled the van. Off we went, carrying boxes and bags and stuff to them. I asked the nice lady how the new legislation was going to effect them. She said she had just heard about it on Wednesday, and they were going to operate as always until someone told them differently. I was surprised that I had heard about it a couple weeks ago on various homeschool message boards. I was slightly afraid some of our donations would be turned down. They weren't.

We drove home, and loaded 30 grocery bags overflowing with books. We drove to the library and Bob and I each took two bags in. (They were heavy!) The nice librarian thanked us, and we informed her this was the tip of the iceberg. We filled three of their carts, plus overflowed to the floor. We gave them hundreds of books.

I was glad to learn that they actually go through each book and will keep the good ones for their collection. There are some I bet they do keep! I'm sure they'll be thrilled (not!) to find many of their old books, that I had purchased at their sale, made their way back to them.

We drove to the Animal Shelter and donated one last crate we found.

Today we took down the Christmas decorations. I spent about three hours cleaning the living room, and it wasn't even that dirty. I bought myself a new vacuum cleaner, a Kenmore Progressive Upright with Inteli-clean System It is not a bagless. I will never own a bagless vacuum again! I was very tired of dumping the canister all the time, to be honest. The dust made me sneeze. I wanted something less dirty.


This is by far the best vacuum I have ever owned. (Don't laugh, vacuums are a hobby of mine.) There are green, amber and red lights on the vacuum. Green means clean, and amber and red mean dirty. Wow, I vacuumed and vacuumed and vacuumed. Took forever to go from red to green. To look at the carpet, you wouldn't think it was that dirty. Apparently it was, as we have filled the bag twice. I think it just does a really good job at getting deep-down. I moved all the furniture, and that room is clean.

I then re-arranged the furniture. I was so happy with the way I placed things. Thomas came into the room and gave me a WOW! It looked really good.

I then went to do laundry and clean the basement. When I came upstairs, what did I find? My husband had taken it upon himself to put the furniture back the way it had been previous to Christmas. I looked at him in utter disbelief. He likes it better this way. I got snappy with him, when I shouldn't have. But darn it all, it made me mad.

Oh well.

I am still not quite done. I have to go through all the tubs that are now empty and decide what to do with them. I have to re-arrange the laundry room, as we did put some more things in there for storage. (Christmas stuff, mostly, and Bob put it there which means, of course, I didn't like where he put it.)

I'd say another two days tweaking things and I'll call 'er good.

What I have learned with all of this is that this was very good for my soul. I think it was a part of my healing process, a major part. Finally, something I can control: making order out of chaos. Not that it was complete chaos, because it wasn't: I was just ready to purge, quit holding on to stuff, and get things really super clean.

I have to pay bills (wow, I'm really late!) and get the taxes started this week. School is pretty well organized, but I do need to spend an hour or two organizing for the rest of the year.

This weekend I should be ready to hunker down and finish scanning the family photos for my siblings.

November and December of last year I was pretty depressed. It was gettng bad. We did school, but for me, it was just going through the motions. I don't remember a whole lot of what went on, I just kept trying to be optomistic and pretending I was okay even though on the inside I was screaming/crying. I bought myself a light box for the seasonal depression that I get every year. I had that, plus grief-depression. Within a week of sitting under that light box, I felt like a new person. It was amazing how fast it worked. I wasn't completely up to par, but I was so much better! I think that light box, plus Bob's offer to help, was what enabled me to have the energy to do the big clean-out.

So what a great start to the new year. I feel better, even though I'm aware that February, my bad month historically, is coming up on me. My house is clean. My laundry is caught up. School is back in session. Mom's taxi-service is operating again, we're going, we're scheduling get-togethers, and we are (I am) coming back to life.

That's a good thing, because I deserve it!

Thank you, Audrey

Audrey, the super-sleuth, figured it out. How smart of her to go to the Truman Online Library (hey, she is a librarian) and search.

I'm about 98% certain it was Harry S Truman. I've studied his picture, tried to brush the cobwebs out of my brain, and really tried to re-live that day. I think I was stuck on Johnson because he was one of my Dad's favorite presidents.

I'm pretty sure it was April of 1972. Cold wind would have been normal for spring in Cheyenne, and I do remember there was no snow.

Thank you, Audrey!

That all reminded me that I had met a couple other governors in my day. I "met" Governor Herschler, of Wyoming, in the lobby of the Little America Hotel (my favorite hotel, and Thomas's too!) in Cheyenne. By met, we walked past each other and he said hello to me. I was a kid.

As a grown-up, I had the great pleasure to meet Governor George Mickelson of South Dakota. We sat and visited for about fifteen minutes, just the two of us. I really admired and respected him. He was killed in a plane crash in the spring of 1993. The day of his funeral, my husband and I were driving to Denver because my mom was going to have an angioplasty. We listened to his funeral on the radio, and I actually cried.

If I could meet any political figure of today, it would be our future president.

Again, thank you, Audrey, for solving something that had been nagging at me for decades!

I Shook a President's Hand, but Whose Hand Was It?

When I was a young girl growing up in Cheyenne, Wyoming, I remember my mother making me mad. She made me get my coat on and go to the Cheyenne Airport so I could shake Former President So-and-so's hand.

I remember driving out there, parking, and being miserably cold because as usual, the Wyoming wind was whipping. If you've ever been in Cheyenne, or Wyoming for that matter, you know that the wind blows all the time.

I was tired, I was cranky, and I was not in the mood to meet "some old guy." That president stuff was pretty boring to me. My mom was excited about it, and kept trying to impress upon me what a wonderful thing this was, and that some day I would thank her.

Thank you, Mom. You're right, it was a wonderful thing. I just can't remember who it was.

I don't remember a plane landing, but there was excitement in the crowd as the former president approached. Now, I was a shy child, like my sweet son, and my mom kept telling me to get my hand out, as we weren't in the front of the crowd. I would not cooperate.

As the president approached, my normally non-pushy mother picked me up, thrust me forward and demanded I stick my hand out. And I did.

I shook the former president's hand. And I remember him smiling at me. I seem to remember him giving a slight nod to my mother as well.

That was that. Finally, we got out of the cold wind, into the warm car and headed home. I remember my mom being very frustrated with me that I wasn't more enthusiastic. I was just glad to be going home.

I'm sorry, Mom. I was a kid. I didn't know better. I didn't understand the significance of what you were doing for me. All I knew was that it was cold, he was old, and I didn't care. I was seven-ish, what can I say?

I care now.

The thing is, I could never remember who it was. I always thought in the back of my head that it was Lyndon Johnson.

If memory serves me, we moved from Laramie to Cheyenne in...let's see, I started second grade in Cheyenne. I was born in 1965, so I would have started kindergarten the fall of 1970. Laramie: Kindergarten 1970-1971. First grade 1971-1972. Cheyenne: Second grade would have been 1972-1973.

Harry S Truman died December 26, 1972.
Lyndon Baines Johnson died January 22, 1973.

So it was either Harry S Truman or Lyndon Baines Johnson.

This is one of those silly little things that has bothered me for years.

Will I ever know whose hand I shook? My one touch with someone famous, and I don't remember who it was.

Well, Richard Simmons called my house when I was in high school and skinny and loved to exercise. I loved his TV show and General Hospital and he was starting one of his exercise studios in our town, I had called inquiring about classes, and he personally returned the call. It doesn't count, though, because he talked to Mom not me.

Then, of course, there was the time I met Russell Means, who was an extremely kind man, while I worked in South Dakota. That man had a wonderful aura or energy to him.

But the question remains: Which president? Anyone out there know which president visited Cheyenne, Wyoming in the early 70s??

7th Grade Reading - Book List Revisited

Catherine Called Birdy by Karen Cushman
The Face on the Milk Carton
Animal Farm
Swiss Family Robinson: Johann Wyss
Shiloh: Phyllis Reynold’s Naylor
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry: Mildred Taylor
The Incredible Journey: Sheila Burnford
Johnny Tremain: Esther Forbes
The Fox and the Hound
Julie of the Wolves: Jean Craighead George
Heidi: Johanna Spyri
Gentle Ben Walt Morey
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
David Copperfield: Charles Dickens
The Diary of Anne Frank
Little Britches
Flowers of Algernon
Summer of my German Soldier
A Wrinkle in Time Thomas liked this book so much, he got the entire series for his birthday and read all of them, too!
Anne of Green Gables
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Dragonwings
The Hobbit
The Cay
Phantom Tollbooth
Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad
Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes
White Fang
The Outsiders
Holes
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
Day No Pigs Would Die
The Odyssey
Al Capone Does My Shirts
The Chocolate War
All Creatures Great and Small

Thomas has read so many books this year, he says he can't remember them all by name as there are so many. I make him read every day, and while I know what he's reading while he's reading it, and I usually write it down, I agree, I can't name them either. I know he read Lord of the Flies and he loved it.

I want him to plug away at this list a little bit, because there are some good books on this. I was really sad to see he had read so few on our list! Time to make up for that.