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