Murmer
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Posts posted by Murmer
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I majored in Elementary Education and double minored in Music and Marriage, Family, Human Development. It added 1 extra semester to my plans. I did have to get my minors done basically the first 2.5 years and then focused entirely on my major the last 2 years.
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So my son got a red rash around his mouth and red splotches on his face this morning after breakfast...basically an allergic reaction we know that it is probably cinnamon because the last time he had a similar reaction it was applesauce with lots of cinnamon. I called the dr. office because I wanted to know how much benadryl to give him because he is so little. I get that its not an emergency but it has now been 1 hour and I am still waiting to find out how much benadryl to give this kid...thank goodness it seems to be clearing up and not getting worse but I would think they would be able to quickly call back a family having an allergic reaction.
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I just finished The Friday Night Knitting Club. It really enjoyed it especially that it didn't end the way I expected. I am interested to see what the second book in the series does.
Next up is Breaking Dawn, I am a bit late to the Twilight thing and not overly impressed but I do want to find out how it ends.
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Hanover NH...has pretty good schools and Dartmouth is located there, Lebanon has a small airport that does hoppers to NYC. Lots of space to get land and a good house. Racial diversity is lower but Dartmouth helps if you are in Hanover proper and involved in the college in any way. No beaches but there is the river, lots of ponds and heaps of outdoor stuff.
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For a few reasons, I hesitated to post this on a public forum but then thought, what the heck? So, here goes.
First, I am not sure how to post a link to the old thread or I would do that. In sum, my question back then was about my child's grueling schedule (about 15 hours a week) and her desire to do more ballet than what she could do at her current studio. I got lots of great advice in that thread, and I am very grateful for that. I think I posted that thread in October.
Now, here's the update: My daughter and I decided to broach her studio about her desire to study ballet more exclusively as opposed to focusing so heavily on competition and other dance forms (hip-hop, tap, jazz, modern, etc.). Well, that conversation didn't go so well. They advised my daughter, who is in 8th grade and turned 14 this fall, that she needed to do at least a 90-minute ballet class at home on her own in addition to all she's doing at the studio if she's serious about ballet. I thought this was rather suspect. They were also seemingly bothered by the fact that we were somehow implying that they weren't a ballet school. They aren't. The most she can take there is two classes. The other conflict with the two she takes. They were concerned that all their praise of my daughter had possibly "gone to her head" if she was thinking they couldn't give her what she needed right there. They told me they had invested a lot in my child. :001_huh: Believe me, my wallet is feeling the pain so I think I have invested a lot myself. LOL. We also mentioned to them that a relative of ours knew a ballet teacher who had a well-known ballet program that had a summer intensive and that this ballet teacher had offered to speak to them about my child studying ballet more intensively. They wouldn't even listen to me on that--they said something along the lines of who is that? I saw this woman's name come up on Ballet Talk so I know that she is a reputable teacher who has trained numerous ballet dancers. They also told me how awful the ballet world is--eating disorders, that my child would have to be 15 pounds thinner than she is now--my child weighs about 115 at 5'6". I would never want her being told she had to be thinner because I think she's already on the almost too thin side. They said my child is pretty much too tall, and they talked about mean and nasty ballet teachers, etc. Then, they told me that if she was doing her ballet class at home for the rest of the year, we could talk again about more ballet at the end of the year. They said my child still has some "quirks" that they aren't sure are something she is still going to grow out of or what.
Oh, and my daughter asked about the local summer intensive at the only pre-pro school around here. They really were not flattering about it to my child. When they spoke with me, they toned down their comments about the teacher somewhat.
After all of the above was told to us, my child said to me she probably doesn't want to do ballet professionally anyway but she still loves it. All it took was them telling her to do a 90 minute class at home every day on top of everything else on her plate and that just completely dejected her. I knew there was no way she'd do that. They knew, too, I am sure. She's a hard worker and dedicated, but there was just something about that suggestion that really didn't sit right.
Anyway, I think I know that these folks really don't have my girl's best interests at heart. I think I know what we are going to do for next year--go back to a place she was at a few years ago and possibly just add in a summer intensive if we can afford it at some point. But I just wondered if any of you dance moms had any thoughts re: how they handled this, and what I should say to them, if anything. I certainly agree that ballet may be a not so good a thing to pursue. I really do. I admit I was actually relieved when she said she was not so sure about her ballet desires anymore. I also felt a bit guilty because I felt her teachers were trying to just get her to quickly let go of the ballet ideas, and I don't think she got that because she really trusted them.
Comments re: this? :bigear:
The ballet world is rough and I heard many many times that I needed to lose more weight or I would not get to be part of the show/company/whatever at that time. I was the thinnest I had ever been since puberty and basically they were asking a lot but I was adult enough to realize that it was insane so I just continued taking care of myself and eating right. That said if you do go the ballet route you need to monitor your child and make sure that they are being healthy. But a good teacher and studio would be supportive and not pushing and really push health.
As for too tall she is nowhere near too tall. 5'5 is the minimuim height they will look for dancers for most companies (I was always too short) so 5'6 is nothing now if she was 6 ft then she might have problems but not her current height.
There are mean, nasty teachers but they are not the norm. Ballet teachers expect A LOT. But I always knew that my teachers were "picking on me" because they wanted me to be better. Any class where I was not corrected a few time made me feel like I was doing awful because correction meant improvement.
If you daughter wants to do ballet give her the chance, do the summer intensive and find a studio that is primarily ballet. Many combo dance studios can't offer the ballet that is really needed for professional level dancing.
Good luck with your daughter.
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Walk the strip, go to fremont street, consider riding some of the roller coasters, spend a day watching circus acts at Circus Circus, watch the volcano, there is an aquarium on the strip, there is the M&M store, hang out by the pool, check out the excaliber dinner show. My family has been taking us to Las Vegas since I was in High School and found lots of things to do that were super fun. Basically every hotel has some gimmick to get you in, check out the gimmick.
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My son was a little younger, but he sucked his thumb until he got his braces at 8yo. They attached what they called a "habit reminder" or "thumb rake" onto the palatte expander he got, looks like the tongs on a fork. The orthodontist told us that either he'll quit or he won't and if he doesn't quit then ds would have to go through the whole ordeal again but on our dime as the insurance would refuse to pay for a second round of the same treatment.
Ds got everything removed last November and so far he hasn't gone back to sucking his thumb. I'm nervous he'll go back to it but so far he's kept his hands out of his mouth.
I agree with the pp that suggested looking into sensory issues, this was definately the case for our ds. For whatever reason, getting the braces did something for him that helped. Our ds has high-functioning autism and his orthodontist, speech therapist and pediatrician are all amazed that he stopped.
You can get The Out of Sync Child, it's all about sensory processing disorder/sensory integration disorder and very informative. It explains the different categories of spd/sid and includes checklists to help you narrow down if your child may have spd/sid and what category.
These are the spikes my sister had...but hers where just on a retainer because she didn't need braces yet. Basically they prevent the thumb from getting far enough in the mouth the suck...I figure my dd will need those in order to stop sucking her tongue.
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Oddly enough there is U of U in Utah I believe they have a strong dance program. UVU in Provo has an AMAZING ballet program they actually sponsor Utah Regional Ballet Company but they are very strict on getting into their program. BYU in my opinion does not have a strong ballet program but has extraordinary modern, ballroom and folk programs, BYU specifically has a program for teaching dance that includes student teaching and teaching certificate at the end. I do not know about any of their humanities programs. Odd thought is could she find a college she likes and then find a seperate dance studio...I join an outside company when I went to college and danced with them for all 4 years I was there, of course I was never good enough to major just wanted to enjoy.
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I would google but I know that milk has the highest rate of being outgrown like 80% and then egg and wheat. There is a small chance of peanut like 5 or 10% but most kids do not outgrow peanut, tree nut or shellfish.
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Don't mention I told by my DH sucked his thumb until we were married, my little sister sucked her thumb until she was 11 then had spikes put in. My dd who has SPD sucks her tongue and I expect the only way to discourage it will be spikes. With my sister and DH once they stopped for a good while month+ they didn't go back.
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I just finished My Antonia too and did not find anything overly objectionable. There is the suicide and the attempted rape of the main character that was thwarted. The introduction before the copy that I have did talk about the themes of the book and Willa Cather and her the question of she orientation was brought up in that but was not in any way a part of the book from what I could tell.
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Christopher Paul Curtis has a number of really good fiction books about a variety of historical time periods. Bud not Buddy, The Watson's Go to Birmingham, his new one is about slavery.
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This week I finished The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride. I LOVED it! It was really interesting to read about being black during the Civil Rights movement and also the pieces of his mother's life that led her to do something that very few other people were willing to do.
Next up is a bunch of fluff...The Toddler Busy Book and a Magic Tree House book that have been on my shelf for over 2 years.
I am still working on 321 Money Plan on my phone (its my out and about without a book book)
I am also trying to listen to The Adventures of Huck Finn in my car.
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I just want to say that my child who is Milk Allergic (epi pen carrying) had as her primary symptom from age 6 months until it escalated at 16 months...a constant runny nose and respiratory cold like symptoms. Sadly I don't know what to tell you about switching because we didn't discover milk was the problem until she was almost 2 and it had escalated to an anaphylatic response. I will say that our ped did not like that our son was switched to Rice milk at 1 year instead of whole milk because of the fat issue.
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Google Tres Leches Cake...it is a cake that has holes poked in it and then Evaporated milk, sweeten condensed milk, and cream mixed and poured on top. Its on my list to make for our special dessert this week.
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Pom Poms! Also check out the ideas at http://lovemylifex4.blogspot.com/search/label/Sensory%20Bin
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You could also have a special treat that they have to eat with their hands tied together. This could be like for desert or such. Then they have to work together to serve each other their treat.
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Sorry I am not going to be helpful but I totally recommend the Ergo also...quick easy, it gets used a lot. My 3 year old still wants to be in it and my 19 month old loves it to. I got mine when babysteals did their deal but it is so worth the extra bit of money.
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I know that the requirement for music majors at the college I attended was 3 hours of practice a day, so I would assume that is mostly on the primary instrument.
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Personally I believe he won't even wake up...it is too cold and too snowy to even thing about emerging from his burrow. I think that means never ending winter lol.
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For the school side of things, G is the level a 1st grader mid year (at least in the 3 different states I taught 1st grade in) is expected to read so like someone said they very well could not have tested past that. Also, many tests require certain levels of fluency or comprehension to move on to the next level so you might want to find out if one of those caused her to be a G. I think you have got something going well with the reading tutor and would suggest you continue that whether or not you homeschool.
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I finished 2 books! I finished Anges Grey by Anne Bronte...the last 10 chapters where the most interesting and I really liked the end.
I also finished the Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis...he gives a lot to think about and it was a very interesting though provoking read.
I started The Adventures of Huck Finn while in the car and am reading 321 money something on my phone when I need something to read.
Next up The Color of Water.
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What aspect of the African American experience are you looking for?
I love Martin's Big Words about Martin Luther King Jr.
There is Pink and Say by Patricia Polacco about the Civil War and African Americans in the army.
Margee King Mitchell has quite a few stories about civil rights and being black.
Underground Railroad There is a Good Night for Freedom and The Patchwork Quilt.
Tar Beach is about currentish experience of being black.
There are chapter books like Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, Bud not Buddy. Pretty much anything by Christopher Paul Curtis
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I haven't finished Caribbean yet, Though I am still enjoying it. I, too, have been falling asleep reading most nights.
I joined the Bronte challenge and began to listen to Agnes Grey on Libravox. I have to admit the tales of misbehaving children were draining to me. I'm only to the fifth part of 25, hopefully it will get easier to take.
In order to stick to my resolution to finish something each week I picked up By-Line Ernest Hemingway. I read through the first several pieces. They were terribly short, and left me wanting at least a short story.
I find myself striving to find more time to read, though to little avail. This 52 books thing reinforces my feeling that there are oh so many books and oh so little time.
The first half was hard to get through but the second half gets more interesting and the last bit is really good...I have about 5 chapters left and am really starting to enjoy it.
Gentle fantasy for dd7 - 3rd/4th grade reading level
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
Gail Carson Levine especially Ella Enchanted!