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I love my Chicago cutlery BUT, mine came with a sharpener, which I use regularly. Now I'll have to check out these Cutcos!

Paris!!!

I just saw it over Christmas, and while I want to think that it was a little over the top, I bet there were even worse things that happened to some.

She might like Toby Mac, the Afters, and the Newsboys come to mind

We loved AWANA--and you are so right, now is the stage to help your dd memorize as much as possible! Come 3rd grade and T&T, she will be much more ready to discuss and explore those verses. She'll be ready to dig deeper, because they will already be old friends! We started reading a chapter aloud each night when our youngest was in K, and while it was slooooow going in the NKJ, her reading improved at an astounding pace because of the challenge. Congrats!

We went through Mavis Beacon when they were in 3rd and 5th grade, with no defined wish for a speed, but they both ended up typing 50-60 wpm in their tests. I think they spent about a year going through the whole thing. It worked for us, and we got it cheap...a real method has the advantage of forcing them to use some of those odd keys, but I think anything would probably have worked.

Are they doing music lessons yet? That's a great age to start traditional or Suzuki on many instruments.

We are happy with everything right now!

Maxwell the corgi/aussie!

For violin dd, we listed music by category (solo, orchestra and chamber) including all major works regardless of when she did them, as well as all her master class teachers and conductors, and her honors and chair placements at All State, etc.

If it's engineering, I think that Purdue has been highly rated.

Any possibility of picking up a selected class at your local high school? We are fortunate to have that option here, and it does help to balance things out. Perspective for everyone, if nothing else. Hang in there!

My favorite 1st project is a 9 patch pillow, I have fond memories of all our little 4-H cloverbuds choosing their squares and "steering" while I ran the "gas." Still makes me smile.

You are a motivated woman!!!! WOW!!! If it were me (and it isn't!) I would feel scattered jumping around with so many different things. I am wondering what affect all of this, no matter how good, will have on your 2nd grader's progress in the areas of focus and concentration? As a music teacher, I advocate practicing on the days that you eat, for 20-30 minutes. Hope that was gentle!

I would recommend thinking about how he likes to learn, and how he learns best...if he's auditory, make up a rhythm, song, rap...if he's visual, reading through flash cards is helpful...kinesthetic, make sure he writes them out, use legos, even drawing stick bundles...do lots of different things with the same set of facts, and lots of repetition and it will come. Keeping smiling and don't give up!

It was a long time ago, but we did Abeka "by the book" and I don't remember sitting for more than 2-3 hours max. However, I do remember violin practice that should have taken 15 minutes going waaaayy long! Our violin teacher kept saying 10 minutes with joy is worth 10x 30 minutes with a frown.

You have the option of waiting to see your scores, then paying an extra fee to have them sent to the college, however, there are now some colleges who require any and all test scores taken to be sent.

My understanding is that biology will be dropping the lab references next year...dd says wait if you can, though she got through fine, even with a wonky lab situation...she did a lot of you tube viewing to prep for the lab part on the exam, which we don't recommend, but it seemed to fill in the gaps for her.

I agree with Debbie above...no telling what the college major may look like. Our dd oozed music her whole life, and last March (her sr year) decided that chemistry was her thing! She is pretty settled on a double major now, but boy were we surprised. Keep the science going!

Music theory for beginners includes, note identification, counting, symbols, intervals, key signatures, chord structures, and scales. Most music theory is included with beginning piano methods. The traditional piano methods like Alfred, Bastien, etc. include theory along with the music. The Suzuki method does not incorporate theory because it starts with ear training. Every teacher has her favorite beginner method, but I have always started students with Alfred, and then incorporate some Suzuki, Thompson and Irl Allison into the mix. There are also some good websites, and some computer activities used by universities that "quiz" you on notes, keys and chord structures. I would recommend that you visit a music store and look through the piano methods. Choose the one that makes the most sense to you, and go from there. I start kids in piano between ages 4 and 8, and the excpectations differ with the age. For a beginner, I would start with a method book, and work up to a total of 10 pages of music to practice, 1 page of technique, 3 pages of review songs, 3 pages of polishing songs (the notes and counting are good, but we are polishing up the details), 2 pages of new stuff that is being learned, and 1 page of prep for the next new thing. That is a good combination for most of my kids from 1st grade on. With the younger ones, it is less. I like to prescribe the number of repetitions instead of a number of minutes of practice. I try to provide enough work for about 10 minutes/grade. Hope that gives you something to consider or compare with! Music is a great learning device, and a life long gift!

Just the kids at our house.

While I love our corgi to death, I would not recommend one to someone who hasn't had dogs. They need a very strong willed owner, or they run the show!!! If they learn who's boss, then they do well.

The writing was indeed brutal! Thanks for sharing everyone...it does seem to support the rumor that last year's test were considered too high and out of the norm.

Congrats all around!!