DW is a middle school band director, so we did it like school. DD tried out several and one just spoke to her - french horn. Tried early Suziki violin, not the right fit. Took piano, not the right fit, although having a piano has proven essential. Unusual? Well DD has also played 5th bass drum (36") in DW's marching percussion ensemble for several years, which prob only seems normal to us.

No full summer camp here. One week of girl scout day camp, and a short week of choir camp in August, which is really just a series of big rehearsals with other activities before the season starts.

Pencil nerd? You jest. Madam, I am a pencil snob....

Ditto. Sounds rather adversarial.

Whoever said jokes!!! Yes, dumb silly jokes. DD knows I'm a total cornball and you must MUST be able to look stupid around your kids. And wrong....a lot.

I think princess paired with big snow boots would only add to the charm. Tell DD to stay in princess mode for as long as possible. Two thumbs up here.

DD just turned 13, and our relationship is super. Now for that nature/nurture question....has to be both. Communication is huge, and we talk about anything and everything. The ace up my sleeve is being married to a middle school teacher, who assures me that whatever minor things are entirely developmental for a 13 year old brain. I would not be the same HSer without that input. I suspect my own dysfunctional childhood makes me a bit more conscious of doing things differently, but that has affected my personality and just the style of how I live as an adult, so might not be so separate a thing from the way I parent. DD being the kid she is, is also aware and keenly interested in what her own brain is doing, and she's always had that sort of introspection, which we strongly encourage. Having an outside sounding board has been wonderful, the cornerstone of which has been the Child Life Specialist at my cancer center. Of course, serious illness is not a prerequisite to seeking a professional ear, but in hindsight, I'm so glad we found the resource anyway, and would recommend something like it to every family with a teen -- not necessarily therapy per se, but some safe non-parent source, be it via church/scouts/whatever.

We always do summers, with a modified and way lighter sched. Just a bit each morning, slower, maybe going into more depth on a side track. We stop for weeks of vaca, girl scout camp and whatnot.

I second the jazz idea, as it was revolutionary enough to really count as an American export. For a display thing, there are plenty of visuals, and some lesson plans that might form the base of something interactive. http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/bhistory/history_of_jazz.htm http://www.smithsonianjazz.org/ http://jazzhistoryonline.com/ http://www.jazzinamerica.org/LessonPlan https://www.pbs.org/jazz//kids/lesson/ Can you bring a laptop/tablet with video, which would be a bit more engaging than just music on an ipod? EDIT -- food and jazz works -- New Orleans food is it's own food world.

#3s are harder, but write a finer line, which I think looks way lighter. Just looking at the Dixon site, I see #2s in an economy plastic pack, and #2s in the little flip-top cardboard box. Could it be the that the sub-grade products go into those economy packs? Prob too much of a conspiracy theory, but I've never compared box to bag, so maybe???

Purple Math. And Khan. Sometimes plain old Youtube.

Thumbs up for diagramming. Warriner's has some of it, which is one more reason I like such an old-school program (and why I liked FLL). I don't think it's a cornerstone of grammar, per se, but neither is School House Rock. Writing might be an art, but grammar is engineering, and should be a get-in-there-with-a-hammer sort of thing.

The SAT in cursive thing freaks my students out, but it's essentially a CYA move for the College Board to maybe discourage people from paying others to take the test for them (which still happens anyway). I always tell kids you can write the thing with your foot for all they care. Most haven't touched script since elementary grades, if then. As for a sig, I had a sort-of tortured script sig in my teens I never used much, then developed an ad-hoc mix of print and connected letters as an adult, so I don't think it's something to terribly stress over, but could be turned into an issue of, IDK, creative ownership of sorts. Looking at other signatures helped me get over the idea that it had to be traditional script, and I adopted ideas I liked. Maybe that could work for the OP.

At least the car in shot 23 looks toasty.

The article's five bullet points are valid, and I agree that gay rights falls under the umbrella of civil rights, because to categorize it as other is exactly part of the problem. Once someone is other, he/she more easily marginalized. I also find valid comparisons when arguments are made for marriage equality based on our old fear of interracial marriage -- Loved how that one minister spoke at a town meeting (youtube?) and read a whole anti-gay thing, but revealed at the end that he just changed the word "black" to "gay" from a decades-old public statement of some sort. Wish I had that link.

I always wanted things I couldn't get at the local 7-11, like good cookies, or a bigger bottle of Tylenol, or a brand of peanut butter, etc. Ditch the liquids and send drink powder.

It only becomes hair if you don't brush for a long time.

LOL. This one is from Eats, Shoots & Leaves: “Thurber was asked by a correspondent: "Why did you have a comma in the sentence, 'After dinner, the men went into the living-room'?" And his answer was probably one of the loveliest things ever said about punctuation. "This particular comma," Thurber explained, "was Ross's way of giving the men time to push back their chairs and stand up.â€

Get an older version of Saxon (ebay, Amazon used), which was written before John Saxon died (I think edition 3 and earlier???). Most complaints I've heard involve how the new publisher messed with the lesson order and just wrecked it. We've done the original Saxon spiral throughout at are now in Alg 1, and I highly recommend it. The Saxon Teacher DVD set is a nice addition, as is a subscription to IXL.com for spot practice.

For stories on his own, just keep those floodgates open and let it roll. For corrections on other assignment-like pieces, one thing to try is have him read it aloud while you note where he takes a natural breath, then have him put the commas in there. You can even read it back both ways so his ear can hear it. Is it the perfect rule-based system? No, but it can help him see the whole point of what commas do as pauses. It takes practice, but rhythm in writing is like learning an instrument, so step by step. We've diagrammed sentences for years, and DD knows the rules cold, but the read-back is still a great tool, and I wouldn't expect most kids to keep those playing in the front of their noggins while creatively writing.

You definitely get ninja status for the day with that.

We do the ITBS through Brewer Testing -- very low key, one section a day. But I think it's as much for my self confidence as anyone's. K and 2nd seems a bit early to start, but if the $70 buys piece of mind, maybe do it for 4th or 5th.

OMG. DD's choir was just tapped to do the pre-game show Sunday with Queen Latifah. Recording engineers are in there now running rehearsal a bit late. They're still singing on the Super Bowl Boulevard thingie Friday night. This after they just recorded a world premier with Randall Stroop last weekend. Gotta love last-minute gigs! Um. Wow.

The McGraw Hill SAT guide by Christopher Black. For additional practice, get the college board Blue Book.

The ideal would be SWB's first paragraph of WTM...the one that ends "this book is for the rest of us.". That's the best definition we've seen. Edit -- found my copy! I knew I copied it down years ago, thinking it would make a good bumper sticker (with teeny words)...OK, maybe a tshirt. Wall plaque? If you’re fortunate, you live near and elementary school filled with excellent teachers who are dedicated to developing your child’s skills in reading, writing, arithmetic, history, and science. These teachers have small classes - no more than ten students - and can give each student plenty of attention. The elementary school sits next to a middle school that is safe (no drugs, guns, knives). This school also has small classes; the teachers train their students in logic, critical thinking, and advanced writing. Plenty of one-on-one instruction is offered, especially in writing. And in the distance (not too far away) is a high school that will take older students through world history, the classics of literature, the techniques of advanced writing, high-level mathematics, and science, debate, art history, and music appreciation (not to mention vocational and technical training, resume preparation, and job-hunting skills) This book is for the rest of us. Thanks, Dr. B. This says it all.