Jump to content

Menu

choirfarm

Members
  • Posts

    2,463
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by choirfarm

  1. This will be our 3rd year to go to the Annie Moses Fine ARts Summer Academy. She is only in 4th grade, so I thought that would be good for now. But maybe not? There are youth orchestras she can start playing with next year in 5th grade. When she gets to high school, I think she might even be able to play with the community orchestra. I know they let some of the better players from the youth orchestra try out last year.. I love the Annie Moses camp and she gets to sing and play violin which is good. She really likes singing better than violin. I was totally unprepared for the dog eat dog world when I was a music major, so I'm trying to do a better job with her. ( I still can't believe how woefully unprepared I was when all of my teachers knew I was going. They thought I was going to do really well. I was a straight A student...but man, music ate my lunch!!)
  2. Here in Texas these competitions are part of UIL and you must be enrolled in ps. I don't even think private schools have options for those..but I'm not sure. The Christian school near us doesn't even offer band or choir. I'll have to ask about the one in the neighboring town.
  3. Yes, the question is will she play violin in the praise band ( almost good enough to do that now) or sing in the choir??? We have a pretty good music department here that she could do dual credit for piano, choir, etc.
  4. I'll be able to do all of that. I guess what I was wondering is that she won't have any competition results like All-state or Solo and Ensemble... Will not having that matter at all?
  5. Honestly, in our house it took a good 2 to 3 years before they played their instrument well enough for it to be fun. Mine must take an instrument until they graduate. They may pick which one, but participation in mandatory. It helps them in so many ways..
  6. 4th grader whose passion is music Math- 45 minutes daily 1 lesson TT a couple of math mammoth Science- 30 minutes daily History- 30 minutes daily Grammar- 15 -30 minutes daily Spelling- 15 minutes daily Reading- a lot, she reads a lot on her own... Writing- 30 minutes- might be watching IEW, might be writing a paragraph, copywork, etc Bible- review AWANA verses...I'm not sure 15 minutes maybe Art if any- NONE Music if any- Weekly piano lesson that lasts an hour, practices 30 minutes a day Weekly 30 minute violin lesson- practices around 30 minutes a day Weekly children's community choir and church choir.. she listens to her music for these in the car with me She is currently in a children's theater workshop that meets for 2 hours once a week. She practices her lines and music in her room for I don't know how long. This class just last 6 weeks and is the only one we are doing this year. So she does 2 1/2 hours of academic work and probably 2 hours a day of music! Plus, she reads several books a day for fun.
  7. I know I'm thinking ahead for my daughter who is only in 4th grade. In high school I was an officer in the choir, leader for the showchoir ( wrote the introductions/speeches we made in between songs), officer in Thespians, Region Choir, tons of I's in solo and ensemble, etc. There is a children's theater where she is already participating. There is a high school choir at the moment. However, how do you do things like region choir or solo and ensemble??? And will that matter on the college applications? I'll definitely have her do AP Music Theory. (Boy I wish that had existed when I started) I know she won't get credit, but it will definitely give her a good start for her college theory classes. We cannot participate in extra-curriculars here in Texas.. If we could, it would be easy. I'm friends with the high school choir teacher and am going to help her students prepare for solo and ensemble over the next few weeks..
  8. Hadn't even considered that... So if oldest has been to England, France, Germany, Ethiopia, Ecuador and Honduras that could count????
  9. And see this is the worry in Texas. In Texas we have NO regulations for homeschooling. To play football in Texas, you must pass your classes. I'm not sure if it is tied to the TAKS test or now the STARR/ EOC exams that start this year. So how would we demonstrate that? By just our transcript. I guarantee you that a lot of ps parents would withdraw their children so they could "homeschool" them. Tara, you say it would only be a small number. I have a feeling in Texas it would be a HUGE number and a HUGE problem. That of course would mean that homeschoolers would need the same kind of testing or accountability as ps... Which is why even though the Texas Homeschool Association tried to get the legislature to allow homeschoolers to participate in extra-curricular, the homeschoolers themselves defeated it....
  10. No, they do not. However, when I look at the Texas requirements for graduation ( which I realize we don't need to follow), it is on even the basic one. And as I said, they seem to think it so important it will be one of the new classes that you must pass the end of course exam to get credit... So I'm not sure if Texas colleges will require it for entrance. For my oldest, it won't be a problem. Baylor and TCU don't require that specific course. However, I don't have a clue where middle one will go and would like to keep all options open. Several people have e-mailed me from this group and said this lady is a fantastic American History teacher. No one has taken the Geography course, but they thought she would teach that one in an interesting way as well. They liked her on Rate the Professor. Some said her tests were hard, others said as long as you studied her notes you were fine. All said her lectures were very interesting.. I know NOTHING about geography. I've learned a ton just through TOG. I lived in deathly fear of being called up to the board in my history courses at Baylor.. The only geograpy I got in school was when some coach ( they always taught history) handed out some map and then we had to fill it in for the Thursday quiz.. We never used them. I remember thinking "Wow!" as my professors used maps as they lectured. So much history depends on geography, and I never realized that before then!!!
  11. Leave it alone. I like it. It is not a fragment. It has a subject and a verb: subject- farmers, prospectors, traders verb- did
  12. Honestly, we just filled out the maps and then talked about how it worked with the history. That is it. I'm seeing that there is a World Geography class offered by our cc and the teacher has gotten decent reviews. That may be the way to go with my 9th grader. His friend could take it with him next year...
  13. For kindergarten through 2nd I made sure that I did phonics every day and math every day. I also made sure I read something aloud every day. After that I sort of unschooled. She had a penpal- She wanted to write her a letter. So I wrote that down on the writing slot for the day. She needed to write something for AWANA- writing again as well as Bible.. Mom- look at the birds in the nest.. MMM what kind of birds are they?? Science. I had a template with all the subjects. I didnt allow her to watch tv or play on the computer, so she normally came up with something in one of the areas.. Life provided so much. AT 3rd grade, I became much more structured.
  14. Ah yes, but in Europe it is set up that way. In the small towns, every single place is withing walking distance of the railway. Let's see, a railway is 30 minutes from here. I live in a small town (11,000) and there is no way to walk around our town. The houses are spread out all over the place. There is no way to walk even if you wanted to. That is one thing I loved about college, though. I walked everywhere and it was wonderful.. I was the skinniest I have ever been.
  15. Well they were exactly the same at my school. 2nd grade would be a REALLY hard time to start that curriculum because it assumes they did the program in K and 1st so the first half or more is a VERY quick review. You can find teacher's guides for Saxon phonics CHEAP around here at used curriculum sales. People use the workbooks and then are left with the teacher's guide. I would go with a 1st or 2nd grade one not K. That will tell you all you need to know and you can practice on a white board with her. It is a great program, but tough. My oldest used in in ps K-2. He did it all himself and hardly had any homework as he could do it in class. My next boy did it through 1st grade and did it himself as well and I'm glad because I didn't have a clue what the coding was all about. So when were were homeschooling I used Saxon with my daughter. It went way too fast for her and it was hard. I had trouble keeping all of the rules straight...
  16. Well my daughter could play video games as well. It was different. Her eyes sort of compensated.. But for the video vision therapy games she had to wear glasses where one eye was red and the other blue and then she had to make things come together... Or for Brainware Safari, it would show a letter and she had to tell whether the letter was pointing up, right, left or down using the arrow keys. She couldn't do that at all!!!!!
  17. YES!!!! My daughter did not have the eye muscles to track properly. We did physical exercises, computer exercises, etc to help her learn to go smoothly from left to right. On her first grade standardized test, she actually scored fairly well on individual word reading. She failed miserably on the sentence reading. She tried to start words in the middle. It took her so much effort to figure out each individual word that by the time she got to the end of a sentence, she had no comprehension whatsoever. It is a physical problem that needed physical type therapy.. Now I warn you..it isn't fun. She cried and cried and cried. She said it made her head hurt. She had to retrain her brain.
  18. This course has not been on my radar. It wasn't required when I went to school. Now I see that it is required for even the most basic of Texas diplomas and it wil be one of the End Of Course exams they will be starting to administer. For my junior, it is too late. I cannot fit it in. For my freshman, what would you recommend? AP Geography through PA homeschoolers, cc, some other textbook... I'm not even sure what this course entails. My boys know SO much more geography than I do or did just through maps in TOG..
  19. Please..Please..Please have him evaluated for vision issues. Not a regular eye exam!!! My daughter passed her eye exam with flying colors. By December of her 1st grade year I was very concerned. She HATED reading and really couldn't. She could not keep her place at all. For violin, I had to point to the notes for her to read them otherwise she couldn't keep her place. One test the eye doctor before doing the more expensive tests wat to have her follow his finger without moving her head.. She couldn't do it!!!! She had vision issues and we started vision therapy in January of 1st grade and continued until the end of 2nd grade. This child LOVES to read now. She has almost made it through all of the Hardy Boy books this year as well as Boxcar Children and Mandie series.. She is in 4th grade. So ...please don't assume he won't love to read. I dispaired that she would be my only one who wouldn't like it. Please have him evaluated.
  20. I'm glad you got some of it figured out. I was about to post that my daughter had some of the EXACT symptoms as your son. We did VT for 1st -2nd grade. Now as a 4th grader she is a voracious reader. I think you will be happy with the VT. She also didn't cross the midline and couldn't track at all and had rt/left problems.. ( Which I think is weird.... she could hold up her rt hand. She knew her rt from left, but on a written page she would get all mixed up. We spent a lot of time on that skill.)
  21. I don't think so. However, last year they had a homeschool code as well as some kind of code for PA Homeschoolers if I remember. I may have to look through my files. He had some kind of number that he had to write down that he was going to use if he took more than one exam, but that may have been his personal number...
  22. I don't get the point of the poll.. Who cares what we think. What matters is what THEY thought and you should have asked a follow up question on the spot. My dad always taught me never to assume anything because it makes an a** out of u and me ( see how to spell assume!)
  23. Yes, BUT.. I worry that I am now creating a socially isolated kid. My middle child was always social when younger. Now he doesn't want to go anywhere or do anything. He wanted me to buy something for him at a local store, so he wouldn't have to talk to the clerk.:confused: He even admitted that he has gotten as bad as his older brother. So, I'm not sure that his staying home a lot is good.
  24. They won't . Lots of people go that route around here!! Their kids never take the SAT/ACT.
  25. No.. I'm glad you do it that way. It works for you, which is GREAT!!! But if I thought that I had to do that, I would never even attempt TOG. Does that make sense. I'm glad you do that... I'm sure you are a great teacher... Sorry if I made you mad. I just didn't want anyone to get discouraged. I'll go back to my hole now...
×
×
  • Create New...