We have a $60 portable Casio keyboard with nonweighted keys that I got at Target's Black Friday sale of couple of years ago. It is handy because we travel with my husband so we can take it along and also the kids can use it in our office with headphones (we are self-employed). It has actually been fine for my kids, especially earlier on. We have a real piano also -- an old one -- so they have had that to practice on as well. It was free from a family member. Anyway, all this to say that I think that a nonweighted keyboard is fine to start if you want to go with a minimum investment to test the waters. My stepdaughter (age 27) just started piano lessons and that is what she is doing. She loves the lessons and is progressing well, so we are going to look into getting a used piano for her. But in the meantime having a cheap, spacing saving instrument has been great and if for some reason lessons didn't work out for her, we could just sell the keyboard on Craigslist (which is where we found hers to begin with). My kids started playing when they were 6 1/2 years old. I have heard that some teachers wait until that age (not even 6 years old but actually 6 and 1/2 years old). The reasoning I heard was size of hands and attention span. Don't know if this might be a factor in your situation.

No, I didn't use a rubric. I have never used one actually (just looked up the definition on the internet :001_smile:) Are there any simple examples on the internet or somewhere? We have been using WWE and I haven't seen anything specifically referenced there regarding rubrics but we aren't done with WWE4 yet either. Thanks for reading his work -- I appreciate the input!

Thanks for reading it!

Love You Forever. I have only read it to them a couple of times because I can't get through it.

This assignment was for history for my ds 11 who is in 5th grade. For this assignment I asked him to write a page or so biography on a famous figure from the Civil War and he chose Ambrose Hill. This is his final draft -- I helped him with spelling and puncuation, but not style. "A.P. Hill was born November 9, 1825. He lived in Virigina and was the youngest child. He joined the army academy when he was 16. He graduated in 1847 to join General Winfield Scott in Mexico City. Hill served in Florida for the Seminole wars. While he was there he got sick with yellow fever. Hill knew a war was going to begin. He didn't agree with slavery but he had to be faithful to Virginia. So on March 1, 1861 he resigned from the Union and joined the Confederates. He always stood out because instead of wearing grey he wore a bright red shirt. He had a run in with Stonewall Jackson and was arrested but they let him out right on time. Hill was upgraded to Generals Stars Bridgadier. He fought his first battle with the brigadier at Williamsburg. After that he won and helped win the battle of Cedar Mountain and the second battle of Bull Run. In February 1865 he had some kidney problems and was confined inside. He went out to check the lines and a .58 caliber bullet hit him in the chest. He was dead before he hit the ground. When Lee heard the news he was very bummed." Any thoughts on whether this is acceptable for grade level and comments on writing style would be great. Thanks!

Here is a website that has online flashcards for both guitar and piano. I have been wanting my kids to use the piano ones and I haven't gotten around to it. http://www.musicards.net/

My uncle had a less technical definition: "once a cousin, always a cousin". Kept things simple anyway!

I agree that you should tell her that you want to do the first dentist only. Many offices are changing to EMR (electronic medical records) so I am guessing that there are trained medical transcriptionists looking for jobs and it should be relatively easy for her to hire someone else to help. Also, regarding the paycheck issue it sounds like she needs help with running her payroll and also billing and collection (sounds like she has cash flow issues). I don't know if you are in a position to suggest this, but it could be beneficial for her in the long run to pay a bookkeeper to run payroll and process billing so that invoices and checks are going out timely. A bookkeeper could probably advise on other ways to manage cash flow and possibly assist in collections.

I definitely know the words. I used to make my Barbie sing it. I never totally understood it though. What is the mansion in the sky? Who was the man?

I don't have a photo handy, but my kids made a scarecrow yesterday -- dad's old pants and shirt and a pillowcase for the head.

We have been working on Ozymandias and my kids have it mostly memorized and we have been having fun with it -- especially the lines in quotes and changing our voices with it. There is a youtube video of Ben Kingsley reciting it and that is fun. If they don't totally memorize it, it won't bother me. They seem to understand it and have some of it down. There is also a video on youtube that shows the original Egyptian statue that was found and brought to London which inspired Shelley to write the poem

My ds have a number of friends that play it but my kids have never tried it. I am wondering what people's experience here has been. I don't know much about it but my kids are curious although not particularly interested at this point. Some of their friends love it though so I am curious too.

I agree that it must be cheap fabric. One of my sons always gets L-shaped tears near the bottom of his t-shirts. That remains a mystery to me. He doesn't have any idea where they come from.

My husband makes the coffee in the morning and fixes my cup of coffee with milk and sugar and then I get up (he sends our chocolate lab in to wake me up) and we have time to chat. That motivates me to get up at 5 am. Otherwise I sleep in.

Cute as can be!

Ds11 is making a slideshow for 4-H for the fair and he needs some Dutch type music to accompany his Amsterdam photos. Anyone have any ideas? He is using the Can Can for France and Vivaldi's Springtime for Italy. We can't think of anything for the Netherlands! Thanks!

We love the Muppets performing Jabberwocky. We'll definitely watch the ones you posted.

I second "Pippi Longstocking". We are reading Nurse Matilda right now which was the basis for Nanny McPhee, but I am finding it to be mind numbing. My kids like it though.

Our co-op is doing a book club for 5th/6th grade. We aren't doing any real tear jerkers (e.g. Where the Red Fern Grows) mostly because my kids are pretty sensitive to that, so I figure we can wait a few years for that. I think that Swiss Family Robinson might be a bit difficult for the 3rd - 5th grade range. We are going to use SWB's 5th grade approach to discussing the books. We are reading Little Lord Fauntleroy and there is a movie for that -- but that is the same author as Little Princess and Secret Garden. You might look at Pinocchio and see how that looks for the reading level. My kids read that last year (4th grade). Indian in the Cupboard has a movie and my stepson loved that book -- not sure about the movie. We all liked the Caddie Woodlawn book a lot but the movie might be difficult to obtain -- Netflix has it but with date available unknown. Stuart Little is another one and of course Charlotte's Web. The Charlotte's Web cartoon was great but I couldn't stand the Stuart Little movie. Of course Harry Potter is another -- although some may object to that. You could always do Little House on the Prairie and watch a couple of the episodes. Hope this helps -- I will try and think of some others.

First, let me say what a lucky duck you are! Boys that love to color! Mine don't -- I love coloring books and most of mine stand empty and untouched. However, hope springs eternal, so I ordered the Peterson Butterfly coloring books and what I love is that they have stickers for each butterfly so that you can stick them on the page and use them as a guide for coloring the butterfly. I love that idea. I have decided that I am going to color even if my kids don't!!

My boys are 11 and they like the High School Musical CDs and the Phineas and Ferb CD.

I like CompuGeek or anything that is descriptive or immediately indicates what your business is. As a side note, I have heard when naming your business, you shouldn't name it after yourself because it can make it more difficult if you decide to sell the business (unless you have someone with the same name who is buying the business :)

My son just turned 11 and he still loves Playmobil, especially the pirates and the police. Both of ds11 love the plastic Star Wars light sabers. They have played with those for 5 years and still continue to play with them and buy new colors (they have found some at yard sales). They love all things Star Wars. Also Nerf guns.

I haven't decided if we are going to use it yet. My kids will be in 5th grade so I am wondering if it will be too young for them. Also, we do AWANAs so we wouldn't have time for a time consuming curriculum. I was toying with the idea of just letting them read the textbook for assigned reading rather than using the AG too, but if they are too old for it, maybe I will wait for the other levels. Any thoughts on this?

Cute! I am excited for you. We love our dog. I used to be a cat person only but now I am a convert!